Benjamin Kail
@benkail.bsky.social
Senior Political Reporter, Bangor Daily News | https://www.benjaminkail.com
Your regular reminder: If the Russians stop fighting, the war ends. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, their land will be occupied, their leaders will be killed, their history and language will be erased, their children will be kidnapped to serve Russia.
Mindful that I would soon find the 25th anniversary bearing down on me, I thought maybe writing this could make it easier for young journalists and others to talk more with their friends and colleagues, with the people they love, or maybe even with a therapist about their experiences and responses.
I spent the night at Ground Zero on 9/11. I’ve lived the trauma ever since.
Therapy and professional accomplishments can help us to go on, but there is no unseeing what we have seen.
inquirer.com
Pa. election results, Shapiro’s speeches, and state laws are all prediction market bets. Could this lead to corruption?
Pa. election results, Shapiro’s speeches, and state laws are all prediction market bets. Could this lead to corruption?
Federal officials argue states can’t regulate prediction markets. 44 state attorneys general, including Pa.’s, argue otherwise.
post-gazette.com
Y'all... the Band of the Coldstream Guards performed "9 to 5" in front of Buckingham Palace in honor of Dolly Parton.
The upstart golf league is playing what could be its final tournament ever as executives scramble to find new investors. on.wsj.com/4cWJyMa
The Final Days of LIV Golf: Unpaid Bills and a Scramble for Cash
The upstart golf league is playing what could be its final tournament ever as executives scramble to find new investors.
on.wsj.com
Breaking News: Glen Hansard, the Irish musician who won an Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly” from the movie “Once,” has died at 56 in a motorcycle crash.
Glen Hansard, Frontman of Irish Band the Frames, Dies at 56
The Irish singer-songwriter, who won an Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly” from the movie “Once,” died in a motorcycle crash.
nyti.ms
I would go to Christmas Vicar St. gig every year. This performance stood out to me more than any other. youtu.be/MXdGRjn1oWo
Glen Hansard & Friends : The Auld Triangle (HD) Live Royal Albert Hall 2014 #shaymcn
YouTube video by SHAYMCN
youtu.be
Very important piece by Cerin Lindgrensavage and @davidasuper.bsky.social. This behavior by the administration is not only illegal, it is anti-constitutional. thehill.com/opinion/cong...
Congress rejected some of Trump’s proposed budget cuts. OMB is making them anyway.
President Trump and the Office of Management and Budget are accused of violating the separation of powers by attempting to unilaterally withhold funds that Congress specifically appropriated.
thehill.com
If you haven’t read this in full it’s a gutwrenching account of both the sickening serial rape allegations against them and how many friends they have in the Trump administration: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse
How the defining figure of the manosphere built a fortune—and became a political force—by systematically exploiting women.
newyorker.com
The Democrats fighting to replace Graham Platner and face Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in November will take the stage next week in a debate hosted by CNN and the Bangor Daily News. The debate is set for 8 p.m. on July 23. www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/16/p...
BDN and CNN will host Democratic US Senate debate next week
Democratic candidates will debate next week on CNN and Bangor Daily News ahead of a massive July convention to select a replacement for Graham Platner.
bangordailynews.com
New: Victim of today’s ICE-involved shooting in Biddeford was not target of warrant, per Sen. Angus King’s office www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/13/p...
Victim of Biddeford shooting was not target of ICE warrant, Angus King’s office says
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin previously told the senator that the victim was the target of an order to leave the country.
bangordailynews.com
www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/07/p...
Maine Democrats accuse Graham Platner of trying to put thumb on scale of replacing him on ballot
Frustration has intensified among Democratic leaders and multiple contenders concerned that Platner is pressing for an aligned candidate as a condition of dropping out.
bangordailynews.com
1666: Amsterdam, made by a team including 'over a dozen talented and experienced artists', used AI images all through its reveal: aftermath.site/1666-amsterdam...
Ah yes. The fact that there’s not a shred of evidence just shows how “diabolical” the conspirators are.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5mo agoRAJU: But what evidence is there to prove the California election is rigged? MIKE JOHNSON: Look, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it's impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively that something is wrong here.
@ronanfarrow.bsky.social and Andrew Marantz asked Sam Altman whether running an A.I. company was a job that came with “an elevated requirement of integrity.” This was supposed to be an easy question.
The “Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw has made Oscar history as the first woman, and first woman of color, to win best cinematography. “I really want all the women in the room to stand up,” she said in her acceptance speech. nyti.ms/4s6532K
In his last piece for the @post-gazette.com, @benkail.bsky.social covers Pennsylvania’s role in the battle over voting reforms and the Trump administration’s efforts to “nationalize” elections ahead of the midterms. www.post-gazette.com/news/politic...
Pennsylvania on front lines of election power battle ahead of midterms
When he was mayor of Hazelton a few years before heading to Capitol Hill, former Rep. Lou Barletta left an international conference of mayors in Barcelona...
post-gazette.com
Shapiro, Garrity divided over spending in spotlight amid renewed Pa. budget battle www.post-gazette.com/news/politic... by @benkail.bsky.social
Shapiro, Garrity divided over spending in spotlight amid renewed Pa. budget battle
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed $53 billion spending plan for 2026-27 shows that neither he nor Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity is shying away...
post-gazette.com
Jason Richey, Allegheny County GOP chair, running for lieutenant governor www.post-gazette.com/news/politic... by @benkail.bsky.social
Jason Richey, Allegheny County GOP chair, running for lieutenant governor
Jason Richey, a Pittsburgh-native attorney who ran for governor in 2022 and has chaired the Allegheny County GOP for about a year, is running for lieutenant...
post-gazette.com
It always amuses me how boilerplate Trump's endorsements are, as witness his backing last night of gubernatorial candidates Stacy Garrity of PA and Tom Tiffany of WI. Some biographical details and phrasing change, but oddly much of the idiosyncratic capitalization remains the same.
Jason Richey, a Pittsburgh attorney who ran for governor in 2022 & has chaired the Allegheny County GOP for about a year, is running for Lt. governor. Stacy Garrity, the Republican state treasurer running to oust Gov. Josh Shapiro, will endorse Richey today. www.post-gazette.com/news/politic...
Jason Richey, Allegheny County GOP chair, running for lieutenant governor
Jason Richey, a Pittsburgh-native attorney who ran for governor in 2022 and has chaired the Allegheny County GOP for about a year, is running for lieutenant...
post-gazette.com
“Had I been a double agent for Israel?” Gov. Shapiro found Harris team’s focus on Israel during 2024 vetting ‘offensive’ www.post-gazette.com/news/politic... by @benkail.bsky.social
Gov. Shapiro found Harris team’s focus on Israel during 2024 vetting ‘offensive’
Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team asked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro whether he ever served as an Israeli agent as part of a running...
post-gazette.com
Instead of a link to the announcement of our paper's demise, here's a feature I wrote in 2024 ... about my old man's favorite roller coaster, the century-old Thunderbolt, at Kennywood Park. Like my 12 years in the news business, it's still a hell of a ride. www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...
‘That extra whip’: Kennywood’s Thunderbolt roller coaster celebrates a century of thrills | Benjamin Kail
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is shutting down after May 3. In between calls for unrelated stories, I thought I'd say thank you to our readers and subscribers. Thank you to my insightful sources and t...
linkedin.com
“.. What happened to Rob and Michele is an obscenity, an abyss in lived reality. .. I have to be allowed to imagine .. that one day, I’ll be at a dinner or a party and find myself seated next to Rob .. and feel lucky all over again to have him as a friend.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/o...
Many reporters went to Albany, Georgia, when it became one of America's first COVID hotspots. But @propublica.org's Ginger Thompson kept returning, kept reporting. What she uncovered reveals some ugly truths about American healthcare. Read her new 5-part series, Sick in a Hospital Town:
As Phoebe Memorial Grew, the Health of Albany, Georgia, Declined
The five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” pursues one question: Why are people in Albany so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?
projects.propublica.org
