Ken Schwencke
LightNews LightNews
banner
schwanksta.com
Ken Schwencke
@schwanksta.com
19K followers 370 following 340 posts
Senior editor of @propublica.org's data journalism teams. Super gay. Sometimes printmaker.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
schwanksta.com
Ken Schwencke @schwanksta.com · May 18
Last year I picked up printmaking and linocutting as a hobby, and yesterday I ran this giant 18x24 print of the sky over Fire Island. I was trying to translate that big and calming sense you get when it’s warm and breezy out and you’re just watching the clouds go by.

#linocut #printmaking #artsky
A photo of a large print with a textured blue sky and three smallish birds flying across it A photo of the print on a drying rack, showing the scale and paper’s edges.
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
emptywheel.bsky.social
This is what it took to shame Kristi Noem into letting an Irish green card holder who bouncing $80 in 2 checks 10 years ago free after 5 months in detention:

A veteran, Trump-voting spouse
9 US descendants
Letter signed by 18 Senators
30 character witnesses

www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-...
ICE Releases Grandma With Green Card After 5 Months in Time for Christmas
Donna Hughes Brown's case was highlighted during a hearing with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
www.star-telegram.com
December 25, 2025 at 5:02 PM
schwanksta.com
At the beginning of Gremlins, his mom is chopping onions with a small steak knife. Really makes the rest of the movie less believable.
December 24, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
scottjshapiro.bsky.social
Justice Kavanaugh does not want to be known as Justice Kavanaugh Stop
mjsdc.bsky.social Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 3d
NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
The Government asked this Court to stay the District Court's order. After the response and reply were filed, JUSTICE BARRETT referred the application to the Court. We directed the parties to file supplemental letter briefs on an issue that the District Court had addressed but the parties' initial briefs had not: the meaning of the term "regular forces" in §12406(3). In its supplemental brief, the Government argues that the term refers to civilian law enforcement officers, such as those employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Federal Protective Service. Respondents, echoing the District Court, maintain that the term refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-tary. We conclude that the term "regular forces" in §12406(3) likely refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-tary. This interpretation means that to call the Guard into active federal service under §12406(3), the President must be "unable" with the regular military "to execute the laws of the United States." Because the statute requires an assessment of the military's ability to execute the laws, it likely applies only where the military could legally execute the laws. Such circumstances are exceptional: Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the military is prohibited from "execut[ing] the laws" "except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress." 18 U. S. C. §1385. So before the President can federalize the Guard under §12406(3), he likely must have statutory or constitutional authority to execute the laws with the regular military and must be "unable" with those forces to perform that function.
December 23, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
ericumansky.bsky.social
Those roving patrols and racial targeting that Kavanaugh allowed?

This is what they led to.

www.propublica.org/article/immi... (from Oct)
December 23, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
dicktofel.bsky.social
Trump flew at least eight times on Epstein’s plane (even though he had his own). On one flight, the only passengers were Trump, Epstein and a 20 year old woman

wapo.st/4b3ycG6
Second big batch of Epstein files includes many mentions of Trump
After a first batch of Epstein document had few mentions of President Donald Trump, the Justice Department disclosed thousands more with many references to the president.
wapo.st
December 23, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
tracyjan.bsky.social
Before Bari Weiss pulled the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, @propublica.org @texastribune.org & a team of Venezuelan journalists compiled a first-of-its-kind, case-by-case accounting of 238 Venezuelan men who were held in El Salvador.

Read their stories here:

projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-i...
December 23, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
parkermolloy.com
Worth noting that the student admits that she just threw the thing together in 30 minutes without reading the paper she was supposed to be responding to.
December 23, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
andycraig.bsky.social
Landry rushed to clarify he isn't resigning as governor of Louisiana and this will be, like, his side gig I guess. The state constitution explicitly bans state officeholders from simultaneously holding any federal office.
paleofuture.bsky.social Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 4d
Trump says he’s appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as “special envoy” to Greenland.

Landry has previously expressed support for Trump’s plan to invade Greenland.
Trump: I am pleased to announce that I am appointing the GREAT Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, as the United States Special Envoy to Greenland. Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country's Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World. Congratulations Jeff! 4 ReTruths 18 Likes 12/21/25, 6:21 PM
December 22, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
jamellebouie.net
really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense
alexshephard.bsky.social Alex Shephard @alexshephard.bsky.social · 4d
One explanation for Bari killing the story is that she did so as a public act of fealty to the administration. But another is that, as an inexperienced journalist, she doesn’t understand that a refusal to go on the record is a kind of comment in and of itself
December 22, 2025 at 2:19 PM
schwanksta.com
Bari Weiss, looking up briefly from her group chat with JD Vance and Stephen Miller: “Sorry, you need to get someone from the administration on the record. Wish I could help.”
December 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
davidmcswane.bsky.social
Big news out of Montana: Dr. Thomas Weiner has lost his license and will never practice medicine there again as the medical board finally responds to reports that he hurt and mistreated people. They noted Scott Warwick, who got 10 years of chemo etc, died from it, but never had cancer. Context 👇
davidmcswane.bsky.social J. David McSwane @davidmcswane.bsky.social · Dec 7
Let me tell you a story – one of the more haunting I’ve seen in 20 years of journalism. It’s about greed, death and denial. It took two years to unravel one doctor’s myth, a hospital’s complicity in creating it, and a documented trail of suspicious deaths…🧵
December 20, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
stephaniemlee.bsky.social
The UNC system just released its final policy on mandatory syllabi disclosure, stating that syllabi are university (not faculty) IP and certain course info must be posted on new, publicly searchable databases before every semester.

A thread about what's changed from the draft I reported on earlier:
stephaniemlee.bsky.social Stephanie M. Lee @stephaniemlee.bsky.social · 8d
NEW: Public universities in red states, from Texas to Florida, are increasingly required to make their syllabi public. The University of North Carolina may be next. Does "syllabi transparency" help combat distrust in higher ed, or feed ill-informed suspicions of it? www.chronicle.com/article/when...
When Everyone Can See Your Syllabus
More states are requiring public colleges to make class syllabi available to the masses. Proponents say these measures boost higher ed’s credibility, while faculty fear being targeted.
www.chronicle.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
jeisinger.bsky.social
Excellent piece that explains why Denmark’s childhood vaccine schedule isn’t right for the United States.

Every major publication should run a piece like this.

@jakescottmd.bsky.social:

www.statnews.com/2025/12/19/d...
Why Denmark's vaccine schedule works for Denmark — but not for the United States
With its vaccine schedule, “Denmark has made a values choice to accept preventable hospitalizations and illnesses that other countries have chosen to prevent.”
www.statnews.com
December 20, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
timdickinson.bsky.social
Some of these redactions are almost like modern art
December 19, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
bencollins.bsky.social
Gonna stop looking at the Epstein Files in a second because I'm frankly way too skeeved out to keep going but I will say this: the CSAM isn't blacked out nearly enough while the faces of guys in ties are obscured by vanta black rectangles the size of the sun.
December 19, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
kenwhite.bsky.social
Making a production in discovery that is almost entirely redacted is a popular way to say “fuck you”
December 19, 2025 at 9:33 PM
schwanksta.com
Not the Epstein files Ticketmaster queue
December 19, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
foiaball.com
Well now I have a lot more questions
December 19, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
robinsonmeyer.bsky.social
This is a fantastic Keith Bradsher piece on China’s most cutting edge products, including flying taxis and car-sized lunch delivery robots. It crystallizes for me how much the *key* underlying hard-tech innovation is battery production. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
China's Clean Energy Push is Powering Flying Taxis, Food Delivery Drones and Bullet Trains
China’s experiments in clean energy can feel like living in the future. Even when things don’t quite work.
www.nytimes.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:11 PM
schwanksta.com
@nymag.com @alexshultz.bsky.social reporting that while Eleanor Holmes Norton has been showing steep signs of mental decline, she is suddenly loaning a large amount of money to her campaign — which only pays her campaign manager / treasurer / confidant and one adviser. nymag.com/intelligence...
Screenshot: “Over the same period that Norton's decline became readily apparent, she started loaning significant amounts of money to her campaign for the first time in her political career. Between October 2023 and June 2025, according to a review of documents filed with the Federal Election Commission, shes given her campaign $110,000. The campaign is essentially out of donors and cash on hand and is regularly paying only two people: Pelt and a man named Jeremiah Pope, an adviser for the campaign since 2015. (He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) Pelt has apparently assumed some degree of oversight regarding Norton's private affairs. When Norton was scammed at her home in October, the ensuing police report described a "caretaker/power of attorney" — Pelt, according to NBC4 Washington — as the person who headed to the residence and alerted police after discovering the scammers by remotely accessing a security camera.”
December 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
charlesornstein.bsky.social
STUNNING: Nearly a year since President Donald Trump took office, his education department’s Office for Civil Rights has not entered into a single new resolution agreement involving racial harassment of students, we found. 
@jsmithrichards.bsky.social @megomatz.bsky.social @jodiscohen.bsky.social
Monkey Sounds, “White Power” and the N-Word: Racial Harassment Against Black Students Ignored Under Trump
Since Trump returned to office, the Education Department’s civil rights office has not resolved a single racial harassment investigation. It sends a message that “people impacted by racial discriminat...
www.propublica.org
December 19, 2025 at 12:42 PM
schwanksta.com
i could do this
pbump.com Philip Bump @pbump.com · 8d
Basically the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are the same as dropping a golf ball from a helicopter and having it hit a specific square foot of Manhattan south of 52nd Street.
December 18, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
kenwhite.bsky.social
I took my friend with only a high school degree to a fancy party and saw his face freeze up at the terminology being used by the elite. “Hebephile?” “Ephebophile?” I quickly asked him if he wanted to go somewhere else and he anxiously nodded yes and so we went to a Trump rally.

By David Brooks
December 18, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
donmoyn.bsky.social
These are the people who are willing to go on the record.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...
Tina Davis, who modeled for Ford in the mid-1990s, said in an interview that her Ford booker instructed her to get dressed up and attend a Mar-a-Lago party in late 1994. Just 14 and new to Miami, she was told to “dress sexy,” according to her mother, Sandra Coleman, who had accompanied her to Florida. Eight or nine other models came along on the bus. “All the girls were really young,” Ms. Coleman recalled in an interview. “Some of them could have been in training bras.” When they arrived at Mar-a-Lago, Ms. Coleman said, her daughter was promptly handed a glass of champagne. She took it away, but waiters kept offering more. Each time one of the middle-aged men at the party approached her daughter, Ms. Coleman would walk over and introduce herself as Ms. Davis’s mother. During a trip to the bathroom, they ran into Mr. Trump’s new wife, whom they had met earlier. Ms. Maples clasped her hands, Ms. Coleman recalled, and looked her in the eye. “Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband,” she told Ms. Coleman. “Protect her.”
December 18, 2025 at 5:26 PM