Kim Bellware
banner
bellwak.bsky.social
Kim Bellware
@bellwak.bsky.social
Chronically tardy yet somehow…Breaking news + bummer beats for @washingtonpost

Why are you booing me? I’m right.
Reposted by Kim Bellware
As part of its 25th anniversary anthology of journalists reflecting on digital media, @talkingpointsmemo.com asked me to write about when my Guild tried to make Google and Meta pay for journalism. (We totally lost.)

Thanks @allegrak.bsky.social for the edit!

talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/we-tr...
We Tried to Get Big Tech to Pay for Wrecking Journalism. It Didn’t Work Out.
The debate over Who Destroyed Journalism borders on theology among journalists and...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 15, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
The "worst of the worst" is a big lie.

Only 2.6% on list of 614 Operation Midway Blitz arrestees had criminal histories, DOJ records show (gift link) www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/14/o...
Only 2.6% on list of 614 ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ arrestees had criminal histories, DOJ records show
Meanwhile, the other 598 people on the list had no listed criminal history at all.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 15, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
‘Death remains my intimate shadow partner. It has been with me since birth, always hovering close by. I understand one day we will finally waltz together into the ether. I hope when that time comes, I die with the satisfaction of a life well-lived, unapologetic, joyful, & full of love.’
—Alice Wong
November 15, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
Our beloved Alice Wong has joined the ancestors. It was one of the great honors of my life to call Alice my friend, co-author & co-conspirator. She was a true genius, a force of nature the likes of which the world has never seen before. I love you, Alice, and am equal parts grateful and devastated
November 15, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
November 14, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
All I have to say about the Nuzzi profile is that at the end of it she jokes about how she destroyed her life. In fact she did not do that. She has a book, a magazine job, this lovely profile. People’s lives are being destroyed by this administration, however, including by -well, you know.
November 14, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
"Please trust us now when we say that what is happening in the Chicago area is wrong *** It is not law enforcement; it is terror."
Letter from Chicago broadcast veterans: Federal immigration agents have traumatized us and eroded our rights
The fact that some federal immigration forces may be leaving soon is cold comfort given the damage they’ve done.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
My takeaway from every new Epstein revelation is that some powerful people victimized many powerless young women, many more knew, some actively enabled it--and we're still being told that MeToo and accountability for sexual violence have gone too far
November 12, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
My last big story for the year is up at @dwell.bsky.social: I spoke with ~a dozen millennials who left big cities during or after the pandemic. What I found was a lot of people trying to redefine what ‘upward mobility’ might mean: www.dwell.com/article/rura...
The Millennials Who Ditched Cities During the Pandemic Would Like a Word
As a result of Covid, many young people moved in search of more affordable lifestyles. But in today’s America, is there any place left where you can have it all?
www.dwell.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Have the absolute best Southwest gate agent going Ft Myers to Midway. She’s getting the line moving asking folks to “ show me your two-step” and greeting people as “gorgeous” and “diva.” Gotta get her name.
November 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
A few weeks ago I zoomed with a group of high school students and their adult mentor to discuss taking social action. I am thrilled to report that this group of 10 students raised $10,000 in two weeks to support their local food pantry. They sent me a photo and it has them all jumping and I tear up.
November 8, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
Nearly a million incarcerated people depend on rural hospitals for care – but now, thanks to Trump's 'big beautiful bill,' many of those hospitals are at risk of closing

This will devastate entire communities, including people behind bars

More here👇
When Rural Hospitals Close, Incarcerated People Lose Healthcare - WORT-FM 89.9
Today’s guests talk about how Medicaid cuts will reduce access to life-saving healthcare for incarcerated people in rural areas.
www.wortfm.org
November 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
Breaking: A federal judge on Thursday delivered a damning condemnation of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago: “I would find the use of force shocks the conscience.” @bellwak.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
Judge sharply condemns federal use of force in Chicago immigration operation
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said the use of force by federal immigration agents against those protesting Operation Midway Blitz “shocks the conscience.”
www.washingtonpost.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
Thanks for sharing out story, @jimmykimmel.com! For anyone interested, here's a gift link to the piece: wapo.st/49yu548
November 5, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
👀 Scoop: IRS Direct File, the free government-backed program that let you file your taxes for free, is dead.

IRS wrote to state tax agencies saying it would not be operational this coming tax season, per records I've obtained.

IRS Direct File: 2023-2025.

(Story from when the pilot launched.)
IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax-prep giants
The tax agency has quietly built its own prototype system for filing tax returns digitally and free of charge, according to current and former officials.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
What happens when you distill 2025 into a single social media post?

This.

This is what you get.
November 4, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
if there was a rich person with the will, you could build the most incredible news organization that has ever existed just from the wreckage of this year alone.
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.
November 3, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
This magazine just fired all of their politics staffers
We are honored to receive the @rooseveltinstitute.org's 2025 Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech and Expression, and to be among a stellar class of laureates including @wck.org, @cvt.org, and more. Details: tnvge.co/ZMIUg7v
November 3, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
You can't make this up.
November 1, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
ICE is trying to get bounty hunters to speed up the deportation process, including by offering cash bonuses.

I took a look at the procurement document posted by @propublica.org and, just for fun, FOIA'd all the questions received - and responses issued - by ICE's contracting office about this plan.
ICE Plans Cash Rewards for Private Bounty Hunters to Locate and Track Immigrants
Companies hired by ICE would be given bundles of information on 10,000 immigrants at a time to locate — and paid cash bonuses for performance.
theintercept.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
BREAKING: The full bench of the 9th circuit has agreed to take up the Portland National Guard case and vacated the panel decision that had blessed Trump’s deployment.
October 29, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
Reposted by Kim Bellware
An ICE agent being arrested for DUI with his kids in the car threatened to check the cop’s legal status. “Your boy, he’s Haitian, right?” His lawyer says he’s sorry. ICE says its agents adhere to the highest standards. @bellwak.bsky.social reporting
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
ICE agent threatens to check deputy’s status during DUI stop, asks if he’s Haitian
Scott Deiseroth told a Florida sheriff’s deputy that he would have his colleague deported if “not legit,” body-camera video shows.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 26, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Kim Bellware
The Survivor Connection is a new resource intended to make experts from the gun violence survivor community more readily accessible to journalists in Philadelphia. survivorconnection.org
The Survivor Connection | Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting
The Survivor Connection is a new tool that helps reporters put the survivor at the center of their coverage.
survivorconnection.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:23 PM