Susie Neilson
@susien.bsky.social
Investigative reporter @sfchronicle.com
Huge wildfires fueled by extreme heat and strong winds have forced some 200,000 people to flee or remain indoors this past week in France and Spain as firefighters struggle to bring the blazes under control. Here’s what you need to know. trib.al/00i1Y6l
I'm heartbroken to share that Marvin (known to readers of There Is No Place for Us as Maurice) died earlier today in a workplace accident. He was 43. Natasha (Natalia in the book) asked me to share this news because she is too devastated to do so herself. We are all in shock.
Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, who died in ICE custody in March, died of COVID pneumonia, an autopsy I obtained shows. ICE's official report shows no indication he was tested or treated for COVID in detention. See more details in our database. @stjbs.bsky.social www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...
Deaths in ICE custody have surged. The Chronicle is tracking them
Detainee deaths in ICE custody have surged since 2025. The Chronicle is tracking them all here.
sfchronicle.com
A first-of-its-kind ProPublica analysis found that children who entered the U.S. by themselves are being detained and removed at about three times the rate they were during the final years of the first Trump presidency. @micarosenberg.bsky.social @jeffernsthausen.bsky.social
These Immigrant Kids Were Once Protected. Under Trump, Their Deportations Have Tripled.
A first-of-its-kind ProPublica analysis found that children who entered the U.S. by themselves are being detained and removed at about three times the rate they were during the final years of the firs...
propublica.org
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “At this point, many in the world have heard of the brutality of El Salvador’s prisons. A year ago, my wife, Ruth López, vanished into one,” Louis Benavides writes about the cost of Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on crime.
Opinion | My Wife Fought Corruption in El Salvador. Then She Vanished Into Its Prisons.
The cost of Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on crime is too high.
nyti.ms
A pleasure and privilege to have @susien.bsky.social visit our @ucscscicomm.bsky.social class yesterday to discuss the reporting behind the Pulitzer-winning SF Chronicle "Burned" series on California wildfire insurance and to provide students with feedback on their own work. Thanks Susie!
1/ Tear gas was created to incapacitate grown men. So when I started seeing reports of kids hurt by tear gas deployed by federal immigration agents, I wondered how often it was happening. My colleagues and I started to count:
“There was zero plan, except causing pain,” said one U.N. official about the Trump administration’s decision to stop funding the group with no notice or communication. “And that is not forgivable.” Revisit this story from our series “The End of Aid,” a 2026 Pulitzer finalist.
After Trump Officials Cut Food Aid to Kenya, Children Starved to Death
“Brutal and traumatizing”: Interviews and a trove of internal documents show government officials and aid workers desperately tried to warn Trump advisers about impending disaster and death.
propublica.org
More awards for @sfchronicle.com reporters @susien.bsky.social @meganmunce.bsky.social and @saradinatale.bsky.social!
Investigative Reporters & Editors@ire.org · 3mo agoCongratulations to the winners and finalists of the 2025 IRE Awards! Awards will be presented at the 2026 IRE Conference in National Harbor, MD on Friday, June 19, during the Awards Luncheon. Full list of winners and finalists: https://bit.ly/4cS2qfN
Congratulations to the winners and finalists of the 2025 IRE Awards! Awards will be presented at the 2026 IRE Conference in National Harbor, MD on Friday, June 19, during the Awards Luncheon. Full list of winners and finalists: https://bit.ly/4cS2qfN
Huge congrats to former student @susien.bsky.social and SF Chronicle colleagues for their Pulitzer win today! We're very fortunate to have Susie visiting @ucscscicomm.bsky.social later this month! www.pulitzer.org/news/2026-pu...
The 2026 Pulitzer Prize Announcement
The Pulitzer Prize Board has announced the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes and Nominated Finalists. Watch the livestream and read the shortlist of winners and nominees here.
pulitzer.org
Happy to have contributed a tiny part to this entry. Congratulations @susien.bsky.social, @meganmunce.bsky.social, @saradinatale.bsky.social, @brontewittpenn.bsky.social and @stephenlamphoto.bsky.social 🎉 @sfchronicle.com
San Francisco Chronicle@sfchronicle.com · 3mo agoThe Chronicle was honored for revealing how companies drastically underpay wildfire survivors. Gabrielle Lurie and an investigation of for-profit psychiatric hospitals were named finalists.
Again: for any big liberal donor who wants to funnel millions into fixing this country's politics, the ROI on buying any struggling paper and simply tasking it with doing real reporting on local news is vastly higher than the same $$ given to some group that does mass ad buys every election year.
Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 4mo agoThe nonprofit that runs the successful, Pulitzer-winning Baltimore Banner is going to take over the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Of all the possible outcomes here, this is likely the best we could have hoped for. apnews.com/article/pitt...
New: Anthropic is opposing the OpenAI-backed Illinois bill that would shield AI labs from liability for mass deaths or financial disasters caused by AI models. Governor Pritzker is signaling he doesn't like the bill, but it's exposing new battlelines in the AI policy debate.
"Vile AI-doctored photos — including one depicting a cop in a KKK hood and another showing a man with a rifle standing over a gorilla — were among images allegedly passed around a specialized NYPD unit’s chat group, The Post has learned." nypost.com/2026/04/11/u...
Exclusive | Vile AI photos of KKK-hooded cops and cuffed gorillas passed around by elite NYPD unit — sparking discrimination suit
The chat group used by the Major Case Squad was titled “Major case – team building,” with the offensive images showing up in 2025 and 2026, according to a lawsuit.
nypost.com
Important investigation into failures with ICE medial care that have likely caused multiple deaths. I'll note that these failures are common in the criminal justice system, and are just as deadly there, which is one reason why a solution is to heavily restrict the use of immigration detention.
St. John Barned-Smith@stjbs.bsky.social · 4mo agoNEW: ICE facilities’ medical staff repeatedly failed to diagnose critical illnesses and misdiagnosed patients, @kolyncheang.bsky.social and I found, during a six month investigation that we have just published. www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...
My colleague @stjbs.bsky.social and I spent months working on this new @sfchronicle.com investigation into each of the 48 deaths in ICE custody since the start of 2025. Powerful work as well by our data viz colleague Nami Sumida and @santiagomejia.bsky.social www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...
Client Challenge
sfchronicle.com
The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association spent $30K to promote the lie that a “deputy sheriff saved Ward 86 from a rapid mass casualty stabbing.” That was a total fabrication. It was public health workers who stopped the assailant while the sheriff watched. missionlocal.org/2026/03/sher...
S.F. sheriffs’ union spent $30K to push debunked story of hospital worker’s stabbing
The sheriffs’ union spent thousands to cast the deputy at Ward 86 as a hero, even after clinic staff said they'd stopped the attack.
missionlocal.org
My colleague @jeffernsthausen.bsky.social analyzed data shared with @mckenziefunk.com to find Trump is detaining more parents of US citizens with minor criminal histories or none at all. We also found that compared to Biden, moms of U.S. citizens are being deported 4x more often under Trump 2/
Dilley Update: The number of detained parents and children has plummeted following widespread publication of children's letters. @propublica.org www.propublica.org/article/fami...
The Number of Families Being Held at Dilley Detention Center Has Plummeted
This week, the average daily population at Dilley dropped to 100 people, compared with over 900 in January. The shift follows weeks of mounting public pressure generated in part by the widespread publ...
propublica.org
Last fall, Eric McCain died in his room at Jazzie Collins, a supportive housing complex operated by San Francisco nonprofit HomeRise. The org requires "wellness checks" every 72 hours. But by the time Eric's sister Aisha called, nobody had seen him for 12 days. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...
At a ‘model’ S.F. complex for the formerly homeless, a man lay dead for days unnoticed
Eric McCain’s death was emblematic of continuing struggles by San Francisco housing provider HomeRise, which Nancy Pelosi has called a “beacon of hope” and “model for the nation.”
sfchronicle.com
1/ Today, we overwhelmingly voted to authorize a STRIKE as we fight for a fair contract with @propublica.org.
It's going to be a very hard summer for so many people and so many species. We can already feel here in BC, with the weak snowpack currently washing down mountains because of an unseasonable atmospheric river. The only ones doing well are the oil companies, with their record war profits.
Anthony Edwards@edwardsanthonyb.bsky.social · 5mo agoI've interviewed more than a dozen hydrologists and climatologists across the West the past 10 days. A sense of panic is starting to set in. Wildfires and water shortages will start mounting this summer. Adverse impacts are expected from not only this heat wave, but the historically warm winter.
I've interviewed more than a dozen hydrologists and climatologists across the West the past 10 days. A sense of panic is starting to set in. Wildfires and water shortages will start mounting this summer. Adverse impacts are expected from not only this heat wave, but the historically warm winter.
Israeli cops break a CNN producer’s wrist while beating up journalists who were filming them beat up people praying, per the Foreign Press Association.
Foreign press group slams Israeli police for breaking journalist's wrist
An international media association on Wednesday criticised an "unprovoked assault" by Israeli police on journalists in Jerusalem, which it said left a CNN producer with a fractured wrist.
france24.com
I did an investigation on the flood of white South Africans on H-2A visas into the Mississippi Delta while at @mississippitoday.org in 2022. First, a link to my investigation: mississippitoday.org/2022/06/29/d...
Delta farm owners underpay, push out Black workers - Mississippi Today
A Mississippi Today investigation found at least five Delta farms paid Black local workers less than white workers from other countries.
mississippitoday.org
The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 5mo agoSouth Africa has been an obsession of President Trump, who has seized upon the claim by right-wing groups that white South Africans, particularly farmers, are victims of an ongoing genocide. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/1RLZg-
"After being held in isolation for about five days. Rodríguez was forced to strip naked in a shower while an officer "poured some kind of chemical liquid on her head, which seemed to be something used to clean floors and burned her eyes,” the filing read."
Nashville journalist arrested by ICE granted bond, remains detained while feds considers appeal • Tennessee Lookout
Estefany Rodríguez, the Nashville reporter arrested by ICE, was granted a $10,000 bond Monday but remains detained in Louisiana.
tennesseelookout.com
“The memo also bars reporters from requesting public records through the Freedom of Information Act…”
Steve Herman@newsguy.bsky.social · 5mo agoPentagon orders Stars & Stripes to limit the use of wire services, eliminate comic strips and other syndicated material. www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2...
South African immigrants to the US are returning to South Africa because the US does not feel safe, citing school shooters and ICE raids. apple.news/A9pQEUbPrT_W...
Trump says white South Africans are persecuted; some are returning to a better life — Reuters
Andrew Veitch left South Africa after being held up at gunpoint in his car. But now he feels there are greater threats in the United States, he said, citing mass shootings in public places as well as...
apple.news
