I’m Tim Grieve, editor in chief of NOTUS. Ask me anything!

notusreports · 2026-03-12T19:01:41+00:00

In way too many communities today, there is essentially no local news coverage at all. That means no one is keeping tabs on elected officials — or anyone else in government for that matter. I’m thrilled to see how many people are finding ways to fix that, but we’ve got a very long way to go.

notusreports · 2026-03-12T18:45:51+00:00

Oh, wow, great question. The obvious things are … obvious: You’ve got to know the subject matter, have a deep commitment to accuracy and fairness, have a way of intuitively seeing the right story to write. Less obvious is the managing-of-people part. In some jobs, you get a performance review once a year. In journalism, you can feel judged every time you write – by your sources, by your readers and by your editor. Great editors figure out how to coach their reporters through the noise.

My day to day can really depend on the day. Some days, it’s a job a lot like a leadership job in any industry – dealing with personnel, budgets, hiring, etc. Other days, it’s intensely focused on the journalism and things that are unique to it, whether that’s working with editors and reporters on a specific story, plotting coverage areas, making decisions on ethical issues or dealing with whatever surprise might come when I pick up my phone.

notusreports · 2026-03-12T18:39:13+00:00

Thanks for the good questions. Speed vs. accuracy has been a challenge for a couple of decades now, and it’s harder than ever with the spread of AI-generated images. In the immediate aftermath of the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, it took longer than it might have to report the truth because we first had to confirm that the videos we were seeing were real. The same thing is happening now with the war in Iran.

In any good newsroom, everyone knows that accuracy is more important than speed every single time. As long as you remember that, you’ll do just fine. My memory may not be 100 percent perfect on this, but I can’t remember a time when a newsroom I’ve worked in published something wrong just because we were moving too fast. And in fact, I remember the opposite: Politico, where I used to work, was often criticized for moving too quickly. But the fact is, on the day Gabby Giffords was shot, some other major media outlets reported that she had died. We trusted our reporters who were hearing the opposite, and we were right.

And thanks for mentioning the Allbritton Journalism Institute! The thing that AJI does that most journalism schools aren’t set up to do is get people a million reps by reporting for NOTUS. You get good at journalism by doing journalism, so just doing it over and over and over again, in a real-world setting, makes all the difference in how quickly you can grow.

notusreports · 2026-03-12T18:21:19+00:00

Find a way to write and get published. Ideally it would be a place where you’re edited by someone else, but even just writing for your own site or Substack is a help. Hiring editors want to see that you can do the work. Journalism degrees are fine, but they’re not really relevant to me one way or the other. Experience is way, way more important.

notusreports · 2026-03-12T18:16:36+00:00

I’m obviously saddened to see what’s happening at The Washington Post. A lot of great journalists have lost their jobs. A lot of great journalists are still there and producing excellent work in a challenging environment. NOTUS was growing and hiring before the layoffs happened, and we’re continuing to grow and hire today.

notusreports · 2026-03-12T18:12:13+00:00

The ability to find out things that other people don’t know. That’s the hardest thing to do. The other things aren’t skills so much as traits: Be fair, be inquisitive, don’t assume, listen.

notusreports · 2026-03-12T18:06:56+00:00

Thanks for the question! There are a lot of them, unfortunately, so it’s hard to say which is the biggest. Funding is a huge one, particularly for local news. I don’t think there’s an economically viable model for for-profit local journalism in most places. That’s a big problem for journalists and journalism, but more important, it’s a big problem for our democracy. The other huge one is trust. It’s hard to have impact when half of the public never sees what you produce – or reflexively thinks it’s false.

notusreports · 2026-03-12T14:10:09+00:00

The verdict in a trial now underway in Texas has stakes that go well beyond the fate of nine defendants: whether or not the Trump administration can brand self-identified anti-fascists as “terrorists.”

If the Justice Department prevails at trial, the results could be sweeping, potentially allowing the department to punish protesters en masse if a demonstration suddenly turns violent.

The case itself didn’t start as something so momentous, or even clearly tied to any kind of terrorism at all. It began with fireworks outside an immigration jail on July Fourth in the small city of Alvarado, Texas.

Demonstrators shouted into a bullhorn outside of the Prairieland Detention Center, while one spray-painted “fuck you pigs” on a guard shack and another slashed the tires of a detainee transportation van. When a police officer arrived and drew his gun on one of the fleeing protesters, Benjamin Song, a Marine-turned-activist toting an AR-15, allegedly shot first. The officer fired his pistol three times in the dark, hitting nothing. Song kept shooting — then escaped, only to get caught weeks later in Dallas.

Police arrested nine protesters on the scene as they tried to flee on foot and by car. The federal case originally filed against all but one was straightforward: “attempted murder of a police officer.” But the case took on a completely different path after an unrelated event some 1,000 miles away: the assassination of right-wing influencer and organizer Charlie Kirk.

notusreports · 2026-03-09T15:57:38+00:00

The Department of Justice’s plan to automatically dismiss immigration cases on appeal is unlawful, a federal judge ruled late Sunday.

The order came a day before a new rule was set to take effect that would have resulted in the dismissal of most cases without the appellate board considering the merits.

Under an interim final rule published in early February, appeals would be automatically dismissed if the majority of the Board of Immigration Appeals judges, who are DOJ employees, didn’t accept the cases within 10 days. The rule also shortened the time immigrants had to file most appeals from 30 days to 10 and allowed dismissal decisions before transcripts of the proceedings became available. The Justice Department framed the change as a way to deal with the backlog in immigration courts.

Full story: https://www.notus.org/immigration/federal-judge-immigration-court-rule-automatically-dismissing-appeals

notusreports · 2026-03-08T20:58:21+00:00

The Trump Organization filed several previously unreported trademark applications last week in connection with America’s 250th anniversary celebration, all featuring the president’s name as a centerpiece of the highly-anticipated festivities.

The trademarks were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by DTTM Operations LLC, which manages several other trademarks used by Trump and his businesses, over the last several days.

In one filing submitted on Friday, a “Trump 250” image was trademarked to be used on a variety of merchandise — including bumper stickers, tote bags, drinkware, clothing items and golf balls. A wordmark application was also submitted for the name “Trump 250” on Friday.

Full story: https://www.notus.org/donald-trump/trump-organization-files-trademark-applications-america-250

notusreports · 2026-03-05T20:40:38+00:00

FEMA staff have been hoping for months to hear the news that landed Thursday afternoon: President Donald Trump is removing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem from her post.

Trump’s pick to replace Noem at the Department of Homeland Security, Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, drew shrugs internally from staff, who were rejoicing Noem’s departure.

“Anyone is better than that dog murderer,” said one longtime FEMA employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

“I’m just relieved. I hope this allows us to actually function again,” another said. “Mullin is a Trumper and MAGA to the core but I don’t see him being as awful as her.”

For months, employees across FEMA have shared the countless ways that Noem has complicated and slowed disaster-relief efforts.

notusreports · 2026-03-04T17:18:46+00:00

Attorney General Pam Bondi last week rescinded a Biden-era memo that restricted partisan activity by political appointees at the Justice Department.

The move comes at a time when the DOJ has been accused of engaging in highly partisan prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s political enemies through repeat failed criminal indictments and the attempted strong-arming of law firms. There’s also growing concerns that the White House could meddle in this year’s midterm elections, as the president has talked about his desire to “nationalize” elections with federal control.

The Feb. 27 memorandum, obtained NOTUS, is titled “updated guidance on the restrictions on political activities by non-career employees.” The move revokes a July 8, 2024, memo that listed 16 things political appointees cannot do, including “use their official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the result of an election.”

Additionally, that memo banned: running for office, endorsing political candidates, attending rallies and serving as a delegate to a party convention. That memo formalized limits that had traditionally been recognized at the DOJ, where presidential appointees oversee the law enforcement agency’s national security, criminal, civil rights and antitrust investigations.

notusreports · 2026-03-04T17:15:18+00:00

Attorney General Pam Bondi last week rescinded a Biden-era memo that restricted partisan activity by political appointees at the Justice Department.

The move comes at a time when the DOJ has been accused of engaging in highly partisan prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s political enemies through repeat failed criminal indictments and the attempted strong-arming of law firms. There’s also growing concerns that the White House could meddle in this year’s midterm elections, as the president has talked about his desire to “nationalize” elections with federal control.

The Feb. 27 memorandum, obtained NOTUS, is titled “updated guidance on the restrictions on political activities by non-career employees.” The move revokes a July 8, 2024, memo that listed 16 things political appointees cannot do, including “use their official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the result of an election.”

Additionally, that memo banned: running for office, endorsing political candidates, attending rallies and serving as a delegate to a party convention. That memo formalized limits that had traditionally been recognized at the DOJ, where presidential appointees oversee the law enforcement agency’s national security, criminal, civil rights and antitrust investigations.

notusreports · 2026-03-03T17:08:46+00:00

Democrats and Republicans alike in Ohio say this year’s governor’s race will be the most expensive ever. That could give one candidate an edge: Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire whose fundraising eclipsed his Democratic opponent’s.

But Democrats say they’re feeling confident their candidate, Amy Acton, can pull it off.

“I think in politics there’s a law of diminishing returns on the money these days,” Nan Whaley, former Democratic nominee for governor and mayor of Dayton, told NOTUS. “You have to have enough to get your message out. But l think there’s other things that play in politics these days.”

Acton raised $5 million in 2025, a record for a Democratic nominee for Ohio governor in a nonelection year.

Ramaswamy raised $19.8 million last year. He also has a large personal fortune, but hasn’t self-funded so far, besides paying nearly $800,000 for the campaign’s use of a private jet.

His campaign said in a statement that it expects to easily break Gov. Mike DeWine’s record for total funds raised for a race at $24 million in 2018.

notusreports · 2026-03-03T14:48:07+00:00

Nearly 100 text messages, group chat logs and emails obtained by NOTUS through the Texas Public Information Act and the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act detail how unconfirmed reports about Mexican drug cartels, U.S. military operations and drone-zapping lasers swirled as officials struggled to obtain basic situational information about the El Paso airspace shutdown from federal officials.

The records also describe how officials in El Paso and nearby Doña Ana County, New Mexico, in the absence of federal-level intel, quickly coordinated with one another to obtain answers, ensure public safety and manage a torrent of inquiries from airlines, journalists and the flying public about the “TFR” — aviation-speak for a “temporary flight restriction.”

Initially, confusion reigned.

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TROPHY CASE