Ken Armstrong
@bykenarmstrong.bsky.social
Reporter/editor/narrative coach @Bloomberg.com. Co-author, Unbelievable. Law school dropout/honorary doctor. Formers: ProPublica, Marshall Project, Seattle Times. Perturbable. https://kenarmstrongwriter.com/
If you read only one story today, please make it this one. Paywall is lifted. So is the registration wall. By Olivia Carville for @bloomberg.com @businessweek.bsky.social
TikTok Withheld a Safety Feature From Millions. One Died by Suicide
A confidential document says an algorithm adjustment was kept from many users “by design,” as part of an experiment to measure engagement.
bloomberg.com
A beautifully written obituary -- and there are few tougher assignments than writing an obituary like this. @rogoway.bsky.social @jonathanmbach.bsky.social
Zane Sparling, reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive, dies of cancer at 33
“He wanted his identity to be a reporter, and that’s what it was,” his father said.
oregonlive.com
No. 2 story on Seattle Times homepage right now. In Seattle, we take Costco very, very seriously.
"You gotta mike the box." the engineer Bill Halverson on the making of "Ain't No Sunshine," 1971 (from a Mix interview in 2012)
![“When Bill Withers showed up,” Halverson says, “he comes walking in with his guitar and a straight-back chair, like a dining room chair, and asks, ‘Where do I set up?’ I showed him right in the middle of the room, and then he left and he came back in with this platform, a kind of wooden box that didn’t have a bottom. It was about four inches tall, and was maybe 3 foot by 4 foot; it was a fairly large platform, and he set it down in the middle of the room. Then he put his chair on it and got his guitar out, and he’s sitting on top of this box. So I miked him and I miked his guitar, and then I was doing other things—getting sounds together.
“But then he calls me over and he points down to the box and says, ‘You gotta mike the box.’ Well, the way I was trained, you serve the artist, whatever the artist needs. So I got a couple other mics and I miked the box, the place down near the floor, next to this platform.
“And now, when you listen to ‘Ain’t No Sunshine,’ you know that all that tapping that goes on [while Withers sings] ‘I know I know I know’ all through it, actually, that’s him tapping his feet on the box, which is actually more intricate than the guitar on that track. He had evidently rehearsed that in his living room, maybe for years.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vtqkh4q3vlh7rltd4tnaweh2/bafkreig3codqyfxdi2er2sqqri34kumkg2izjo4k7gtxp6pfipsxyx3yxe)
One of my Sunday pleasures is reading @themarshallproject.org's Maurice Chammah (an accomplished musician himself) writing about music made by incarcerated artists. He drops a new song each week in his newsletter, available here: www.themarshallproject.org/newsletters/...
Stevie Wonder and James Brown Put This Prison Funk Band on the Map
The Power of Attorney played shows with superstars, went to industry parties, and wore outside clothes — all under the watch of armed guards.
themarshallproject.org
Dear IRE members and the broader journalism community, I’m reaching out on behalf of IRE’s Board and staff with a heavy heart. Full statement: https://www.ire.org/2026/03/21/ire-mourns-the-loss-of-executive-director-diana-r-fuentes/
IRE mourns the loss of Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes
March 20, 2026 ? A message from IRE Board President Josh Hinkle: Dear IRE members and the broader journalism community, I?m reaching out on behalf of IRE?s Board and staff with a heavy heart. I?m so sorry to share the news that our executive director, ...
ire.org
A stunning story by @craigwelch.bsky.social with an equally striking comment thread, full of people who can relate to Craig, his daughter Edie and her teammates: ▪️"My daughter has your daughter's story verbatim" ▪️"After three of my teammates tore their ACLs in a single week" ▪️"I tore my ACL twice"
Craig Welch@craigwelch.bsky.social · 5mo agoIn the NYT Magazine: Over 4 years, a dozen of my daughter’s current and former teammates (including my child) ruptured a combined 19 ACLs. Knee injuries have become a global crisis for teen girls. Yet we’ve known for 25 years how to reduce ACL tears. What went wrong? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/m...
Every Winter Olympics I think of Surya Bonaly. I hope she is thriving.
Ruth Marcus on today's devastating cuts at the Washington Post: "Today, people in war zones are getting e-mails telling them that their positions have been eliminated. And you know what? I bet they’re gonna file stories, because that’s what we do. It’s what we’ve always done."
The New Yorker Daily Newsletter
link.newyorker.com
A beautiful obituary for an outstanding journalist. And this passage is everything: "Talton dreamed long ago of being a history professor. ... [But] an adviser told him that he wrote too clearly to be published academically. A journalism career quickly followed..."
Moira Macdonald@moiraverse.bsky.social · 6mo agoWriting an obituary is important work—a final record of a person lost. I wrote this one for a former colleague, business columnist Jon Talton; like me, he moved between the worlds of journalism and fiction. I was honored to write about him. Rest peacefully, Jon. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
Trump promised "some of the most aggressive housing reform plans" in US history. Six weeks later, none of the policies floated by his administration have gained traction.
Trump’s Plan to Make Housing Affordable Is Faltering
President Donald Trump’s bid to put home ownership in reach for more Americans is sputtering, just weeks after it launched.
bloom.bg
I didn't know Dan. But as a @defector.com reader, I felt like I did. More than once, he made my day, including the day he fact-checked quotes in a New Jersey rest stop. defector.com/the-garden-s...
The Garden State Parkway's Jon Bon Jovi Rest Stop Is Playing Fast And Loose With Famous Quotes | Defector
CHEESEQUAKE, N.J. — Have you ever scored a touchdown? I never played real football, so my own experiences have been pretty low-key, but man, did they feel great. I think I remember almost all of them—...
defector.com
Defector@defector.com · 6mo agoDan McQuade, 1983–2026: defector.com/dan-mcquade-...
There is nothing weirder than reading your grandpas memoir and running smack into a sentence you could have written about yourself
If you missed @davidmcswane.bsky.social's investigation two years ago, there's no better time than to read it now. Stunning reporting. Stunning writing. It's a story you won't soon forget. @propublica.org
A Hospital Helped a Beloved Doctor’s Practice Flourish Even as It Suspected He Was Hurting Patients
Hailed as a savior upon his arrival in Helena, Dr. Thomas C. Weiner became a favorite of patients and his hospital’s highest earner. As the myth surrounding the high-profile oncologist grew, so did th...
propublica.org
ProPublica@propublica.org · 7mo agoNEW: Medical License Revoked for Montana Doctor Linked to Suspicious Deaths Oncologist Thomas C. Weiner will never practice medicine in Montana again after a decision by the state medical board. A 2024 ProPublica investigation detailed how Weiner had long been suspected of hurting patients.
NEW investigative report: "Things will get really nasty." Hedge funds. Brokerages. Billionaires. Jeffrey Epstein’s financial ties on and off Wall Street were broader than previously known, a cache of emails @bloomberg.com obtained earlier this year reveals 🧵 www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
How Epstein’s Wall Street Contacts Helped Him Build Wealth and Power
The disgraced financier maintained an abundance of access across the finance industry and was willing to play hardball to secure wealth and influence.
bloomberg.com
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
I hope you’ll check this out. We turned an investigative story about the "digital arrests" sweeping the world’s most populous country and turned it into a web comic that captures the psychological horror for victims. The brilliant Anand RK (anandrk.art) did the illustrations. @bloomberg.com 🎁 link:
Arrested by Phone: A Graphic Novel
No texting. No visitors. No escape. She was caught in India’s new digital nightmare.
bloomberg.com
Was reading this, fully hooked and immersed into the sheer horror, while constantly thinking 'Wait, why is this so good?! Who did this?' Until I got to the end and saw it was Anand RK, with lettering by @adityab.net and then it just made total sense lmfao. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
Arrested by Phone: A Graphic Novel
No texting. No visitors. No escape. She was caught in India’s new digital nightmare.
bloomberg.com
11 yrs ago, @themarshallproject.org launched our brand-new website with part 1 of a @bykenarmstrong.bsky.social investigation & our first Life Inside piece, by John J. Lennon. Since then, we've published >2,600 pieces. And still, so much work to do. www.themarshallproject.org/2014/11/15/d...
Death by Deadline, Part One
How bad lawyering and an unforgiving law cost condemned men their last appeal.
themarshallproject.org
A pending story about a Philadelphia police officer stood a good chance of getting the Daily News sued, the newspaper's lawyer told Days. Days turned to the reporters. "He said, ‘I trust my reporters, I believe in my reporters, and we’re running with it.'" @wendyruderman.bsky.social
Philadelphia Inquirer@inquirer.com · 10mo agoMichael Days, a pillar of Philadelphia journalism who championed young Black journalists and was beloved among reporters who worked for him at the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer, died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 72 in Trenton.
Fellow journalists: Please spread the word about the True Story Award, which is so much more than a journalism contest. It honors journalism’s indispensable role in the world and works to strengthen reporters everywhere. 1/3
True Story Award
The Global Reporter Prize in Bern, Switzerland
truestoryaward.org
In 2023, @newyorker.com published Joe Garcia's "Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison," which went viral. This is the sequel. Find out what happened with Garcia's parole and how he managed to get to the last stop in the Eras tour. www.newyorker.com/culture/pers...
From Life in Prison to the Eras Tour
While serving time for murder, Joe Garcia heard Taylor Swift’s music and thought of the woman he loved. Last year, they were reunited.
newyorker.com
A lawsuit alleges a Black postal worker died after officers ignored clear signs he was suffering from a massive stroke, believing his medical emergency was drugs The suit says guards left him helpless on a jail cell floor in his own urine for hours
KARE 11 Investigates: Postal worker died after police mistook stroke for drug impairment
Kingsley Bimpong was jailed instead of hospitalized; video shows guards ignored his suffering for hours.
kare11.com
When you assume that 1 a.m. call from an international number is spam, then, when the phone rings again, put it on "do not disturb" and go back to sleep.
She didn’t believe she won the Nobel — until a photographer showed up at her Seattle door
That random number ringing your phone is probably junk — but not always.
seattletimes.com
This remembrance of Susy Carroll, a great investigative journalist, by Lise Olsen, another great investigative journalist, says so much about the people who do this work. I miss Susy, and I'm grateful to Lise for finding such a fitting way to honor her work & memory. @liseolsen.bsky.social @ire.org
Honoring longtime IRE member and mentor Susan Carroll - Investigative Reporters & Editors
Lise Olsen writes about her friend and late IRE member Susan Carroll — and how a new fellowship program aims to honor her legacy.
ire.org
EXCLUSIVE/BOMBSHELL: @bloomberg.com has obtained **18K** previously unreported emails from Jeffery Epstein's personal Yahoo account. The emails are disturbing & revelatory & reveal new details about Ghilaine Maxwell's role FREE to read www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
![“Question,” Epstein wrote to Maxwell on May 23, 2008. “Which one do you prefer,,, lewd and lscivious conduct ,, or procuring minors for prostituion.”
At the time, he and his star-studded team of defense lawyers were closing in on a generous plea deal with federal and state officials in Florida, and Epstein was trying to negotiate the state charges to which he’d plead guilty. Maxwell’s response was matter-of-fact:
From: gmax <gmax[REDACTED]>
To: J. Epstein <jeeproject@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, May 23 2008 3:22 PM
Subject: Re:
I suppose Lewd and lecivious conduct..I would prefer lewd and lescivious conduct w/a prositute if possible](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eeitvtxcbjt3vmljqfmwzahz/bafkreidw4qmdfvf3j7jmvtgppacjdnk4ffdvzipnd4sgxqx7kpkwirqmaq)
Philip Gourevitch looks back on a 9/11 photo taken by Gilles Peress: "We see them standing in that ashen pall, like the last survivors of a lost time..." "There it is: ashes to ashes, dust to dust, no metaphors." @pgourevitch.bsky.social @newyorker.com
Philip Gourevitch on Gilles Peress’s Photo from September 11th
Peress reached the World Trade Center just as the second tower collapsed.
newyorker.com
EXCLUSIVE: @bloomberg.com has obtained more than 100 previously undisclosed emails between UK Ambassador Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein from 2005 through 2010 that reveal Mandelson's steadfast support for Epstein after Epstein was charged with sex crimes 🎁 www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
UK Ambassador Told Epstein ‘I Think the World of You,’ Emails Reveal
Peter Mandelson, the prominent Labour politician who was named British ambassador to the US this year, expressed steadfast support and offered to discuss Epstein’s now-infamous 2008 case with his cont...
bloomberg.com
Such a breathtaking confluence of societal failures in this Hannah Dreier story. You've got crippling healthcare costs, lack of worker protections, worsening climate-fueled wildfires, poverty, lack of opportunity for young men... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...
‘If I Live to 25, I’ve Lived a Good Life’
nytimes.com
