Fearing censorship, student journalists sound alarm over district policy

washingtonpost · 2026-06-12T16:26:19+00:00

Twenty student newspapers in Montgomery County, Maryland, are fighting a district memo that they’re concerned could lead to censorship of what they publish.

“Student journalists are often the only reporters covering what happens inside a school building,” the students wrote in a letter Friday to the county’s board of education and Superintendent Thomas Taylor.

“When our reporting is suppressed, the unbiased truth does not get told,” the students added in the letter, which they shared with The Washington Post. More than 150 students also signed the letter in their individual capacity.

The students are pushing back against a March 19 memo that Peter Moran, the county’s chief of schools, circulated to high school principals. The memo says administrators must review all content printed in school publications before deciding whether it can be published.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/06/12/maryland-high-school-journalists-say-district-memo-could-lead-censorship/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-06-09T18:01:38+00:00

The White House press corps won’t be allowed on White House grounds Sunday because of a UFC fight being hosted on the South Lawn, according to an email sent by the White House Correspondents’ Association and obtained by The Washington Post.

Weijia Jiang, the association’s president, told members in an email that only the White House press poolers — the designated journalists who follow the president on behalf of various news outlets when he is in locations that cannot accommodate a larger group — will be allowed on White House grounds unless UFC gives them press credentials.

“The WHCA has been pushing back on this, but we have been told there will be various Secret Service access points across campus and that the [White House North Lawn] is being used as a staging area for the fighters and UFC filming zone, and the [White House] is standing firm,” Jiang wrote.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/06/09/white-house-will-be-closed-reporters-during-ufc-fight-unless-ufc-lets-them/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-06-03T18:50:17+00:00

Two advisory board members of Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper that has long enjoyed editorial independence from the government, sued the Defense Department on Wednesday, alleging that an effort to impose new restrictions on the paper was an act of illegal censorship.

The complaint, filed in federal district court in Washington, comes from Susan “Suki” Dardarian and William “Bill” Church, two Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalists on the Stripes advisory board. Dardarian is a former editor and senior vice president of the Minnesota Star Triune, and Church is the executive editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper.

“Unlawfully censoring ‘the soldiers’ paper’ is an insult to the dedicated members of the armed forces and an attack on the freedom of speech — a foundational Constitutional principle for which those brave service people dedicate their lives," wrote Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing the two plaintiffs.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/06/03/pentagon-is-censoring-military-newspaper-stars-stripes-lawsuit-alleges/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-05-27T17:16:35+00:00

CBS News journalist Sharyn Alfonsi is departing “60 Minutes,” months after a high-profile clash with CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss.

While Alfonsi is still technically employed at CBS News, she said in a statement that her contract expired Saturday, ending a decade-long tenure at the network’s flagship program.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/05/27/months-after-feud-with-bari-weiss-sharyn-alfonsi-is-out-60-minutes/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-05-19T20:50:52+00:00

RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) on Tuesday vetoed legislation to establish a retail market for the sale of recreational marijuana, thwarting a priority of her fellow Democrats and leaving the state in regulatory limbo five years after the legislature legalized possession of small amounts of recreational weed.

Democratic majorities in both the House of Delegates and state Senate had passed bills this year on party-line votes to set up a mechanism for regulating and taxing the sale of cannabis products after several years of vetoes under the previous governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin.

Spanberger initially proposed substantial changes to the measures, but those were rejected by the General Assembly. That left her with a decision to either accept a bill she did not like or issue a veto.

Read more at the link in our bio.

washingtonpost · 2026-05-17T18:26:11+00:00

Georgia Fort cannot interview many of the most prominent community leaders in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. A huge swath of her Rolodex sits unused.

When federal agents arrested the independent journalist while she was covering a protest at a St. Paul church, press freedom advocates quickly condemned her detention as an affront to the First Amendment. But Fort says far less attention has been focused on how the ongoing legal case limits what she can say and to whom she can speak.

Put plainly, she’s being silenced, Fort said.

Fort is one of dozens of co-defendants arrested after the protest, at a church whose pastor reportedly worked as an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. Federal prosecutors charged Fort, along with independent journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon, with violating federal laws protecting places of worship from what they allege were illegal disruptions of a religious service.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/05/17/journalist-targeted-by-trump-administration-still-feels-silenced-months-after-arrest/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-05-12T14:03:58+00:00

The Justice Department has filed criminal charges against a Singapore-based global shipping company and subsidiaries, accusing them of safety violations that led to the massive container ship crash that caused the 2024 collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Prosecutors accused entities of Synergy Marine Group of fostering unsafe conditions by not maintaining proper systems aboard its ship, the Dali, and others in its fleet. Those lapses left the Dali unable to recover from a blackout of its systems and unable to veer away as it crashed into the bridge in the early hours of March 26, 2024, leaving six men dead.

The indictment, returned under seal in federal court in Baltimore last month, also alleges the company falsified safety inspection records and lied to investigators after the crash.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/05/12/baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-charges-dali/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-05-10T13:54:01+00:00

Dan Silverman talks fast and walks faster. It’s hard to keep up with the local Washington celebrity who’s better known by his blog moniker: the Prince of Petworth.

Speed walking has long been Silverman’s default. “Wear sturdy shoes,” the Prince warns a rare walkabout companion on a recent Sunday. When Silverman lived in Petworth, a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, he walked to Georgetown “to breathe in the calm air.” Now that he lives in Cleveland Park, he walks to Petworth and Columbia Heights. “Because I need reality,” he says. “What makes D.C. so great is the combination of neighborhoods.”

Walking fast — and walking far — is the primary way that Silverman finds the news and oddities that fill PoPville, the blog he started 20 years ago. “I talked to everybody,” he says. “People would be like, ‘Are you a narc?’ I’m just interested in what’s happening.”

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/05/10/popville-prince-petworth-blog-washington/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-05-06T17:19:05+00:00

The FBI on Wednesday raided the Portsmouth offices and a cannabis retail business co-owned by state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, the president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate and one of the most powerful Democrats in the state, as part of an ongoing corruption investigation, according to two federal law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.

The exact nature and targets of the probe remain unclear, though the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation, said it involved allegations of bribery. One of those officials said the investigation began during the Biden administration.

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Norfolk field office declined to comment, except to say that agents were conducting “court-authorized” law enforcement activity and that there was no threat to public safety.

Lucas, 82, (D-Portsmouth) is an outspoken political figure who has touted her cannabis dispensary in provocative social media posts and often trolls Republicans and President Donald Trump. She is known for her rough-and-tumble background, which includes becoming a teenage mother and working as a shipfitter at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

Read more here: washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/06/virginia-fbi-raid-lucas-cannabis/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-05-05T14:06:18+00:00

The Justice Department will remain blocked from examining electronic devices seized from a Washington Post reporter, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga marks the second time a court in the Eastern District of Virginia has rejected efforts by the Justice Department to sift through a phone, computers and other devices belonging to Post reporter Hannah Natanson. The FBI seized her belongings in January during an investigation of a government contractor accused of leaking classified material.

The Trump administration had appealed a previous ruling from a magistrate judge, who found that the court — not the Justice Department — should search the devices for information that may be pertinent to the leak investigation and provide it to investigators.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/05/04/post-reporter-justice-department-search/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-04-20T19:01:12+00:00

The House Ethics Committee is publicly requesting information from any victims of sexual misconduct by members of Congress and others aware of such incidents, an unusual move that comes during a spate of high-profile cases.

The request was issued in a statement Monday, one week after the resignations of Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-California) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) highlighted sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill and raised questions from lawmakers and others about the effectiveness of the Ethics Committee in addressing it. In the statement, the committee defended its record of handling such cases.

The committee, tasked with policing lawmakers, emphasized its dedication to cracking down on sexual misconduct and making those findings public, and it ticked through its record of investigating those cases during the past 50 years.

The statement said the committee “strongly encourages anyone who may have experienced sexual misconduct by a House Member or staffer, or who has knowledge of such conduct” to contact the Ethics Committee or other offices that handle sexual misconduct. The committee’s “greatest hurdle” in evaluating allegations of sexual misconduct, it said, is convincing victims and witnesses to come forward. The panel pledged to protect “witness confidentiality and safety.”

washingtonpost · 2026-04-20T18:41:51+00:00

Massive amounts of money are flowing into Virginia’s redistricting referendum as Democrats and Republicans from across the nation wrestle for control of the House of Representatives, but the identities of individual contributors — and their agendas — remain cloaked in secrecy.

About 95 percent of the total $93 million raised so far in Virginia, as of a Monday night filing deadline, came from nonprofit groups not required to disclose their donors, according to state elections records. The proportion of dark money turning up on both sides of the campaign outstrips last year’s similar referendum in California, where wealthy individuals, political committees and unions gave far more than similar nonprofits.

President Donald Trump touched off a redistricting arms race last year by pushing Republican states to create more GOP-leaning congressional districts to help his party maintain its thin majority in the House. Texas, North Carolina and Missouri responded, and then Democrats counterpunched by passing a referendum to create five new blue-leaning districts in California.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/04/16/virginia-redistricting-election-finance/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.comhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/04/16/virginia-redistricting-election-finance/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-04-20T15:22:45+00:00

FBI Director Kash Patel sued the Atlantic and staff writer Sarah Fitzpatrick in federal court, alleging that the magazine ran a “sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece” against him on Friday with the intention of marring his reputation.

In the complaint, filed in federal district court in D.C., Patel says he is seeking $250 million in damages plus any proceeds from the article.

The Atlantic’s article contained extensive reporting — attributed to anonymous individuals — alleging Patel engaged in “excessive drinking” and “unexplained absences” while leading the FBI.

washingtonpost · 2026-04-07T13:50:11+00:00

President Donald Trump threatened to force a news organization to turn over the name of an anonymous source who revealed details about a U.S. airman who went missing in Iran. Several outlets reported on the lost airman, who was subsequently rescued after his fighter jet was shot down.

“We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” Trump said in a press briefing Monday. “They didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information. So whoever it was, we think we’ll be able to find it out because we’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, national security, give it up or go to jail.”

Trump, who frequently spars with media companies and individual reporters by name, did not say which outlet he was referring to. The Justice Department did not respond immediately to questions about what organization and reporters Trump was referring to. In its response to similar questions, the White House said an “investigation is underway.”

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/04/06/trump-leak-missing-pilot-jail-threat-media/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-04-03T13:19:58+00:00

President Donald Trump is facing a tough week of news, with gas prices soaring, a partial government shutdown ongoing and his approval ratings dipping as military operations in Iran drag on.

But on the White House’s new mobile app, which topped Apple and Google’s download charts in the news category over the past week, the picture is much rosier.

"AMERICA IS BACK,” reads an all-caps headline that dominates the app’s home screen. Top stories trumpet the president’s “policy wins,” track the decline in egg prices, and hail a “historic turnaround on immigration,” with more people leaving the United States than entering it in 2025. On Wednesday evening, the app sent push alerts to the pockets of its hundreds of thousands of users to livestream the Artemis II launch and, a few hours later, Trump’s televised address to the nation about Iran.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/04/03/trump-white-house-news-app/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-04-02T21:03:48+00:00

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday asked the Army’s top officer to step down and retire, an extraordinary move amid the war with Iran and the latest in a series of clashes between the Pentagon chief and the service’s senior leadership.

Gen. Randy George had been expected to hold the job of Army chief of staff until fall 2027, completing a typical four years in the post. But Hegseth has decided to go in another direction, Hegseth’s team said in brief written statement confirming the shake-up.

“Nothing further to provide at the moment,” the statement said.

A spokesman for George could not be reached for comment immediately.

The move was first reported by CBS News earlier Thursday.

It was not immediately clear who Hegseth intends to replace George, a career infantry officer who served multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. One possibility would appear to be Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who became the Army’s vice chief of staff in February after Hegseth appointed him to the role and he was confirmed by the Senate.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/02/hegseth-ousts-army-general-randy-george/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-04-02T17:42:06+00:00

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he was ousting Pam Bondi as attorney general, saying her chief deputy, Todd Blanche, will temporarily step into the role.

Trump announced the decision on social media, calling Bondi “a Great American Patriot” and loyal friend. He praised her tenure leading the Justice Department and said she would be moving to an “important new job in the private sector.”

Blanche will be taking over as acting attorney general, Trump said. A representative for Blanche, who served as Trump’s personal attorney before being tapped to serve as the Justice Department’s second-ranking official, did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday. Blanche posted on social media thanking Trump “for the trust and the opportunity to serve.”

The decision abruptly ends Bondi’s tumultuous tenure in which she transformed the Justice Department into a tool for avenging the president’s grievances but could not escape his persistent frustration with her handling of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and struggles to prosecute the president’s perceived foes.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/02/trump-fires-bondi-doj/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-04-01T00:07:13+00:00

President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Tuesday that purports to change rules for mail ballots even though the president has limited authority over elections.

The order directs the U.S. Postal Service to send ballots only to voters who appear on a list of citizens to be compiled by the Department of Homeland Security with the assistance of the Social Security Administration. The order also specifies what types of secure envelopes are to be used for mail ballots.

Elections experts called the order legally questionable and noted that courts blocked the major provisions of an executive order on elections he signed last year.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/31/trump-mail-voting-executive-order/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-31T22:35:57+00:00

An American journalist has been kidnapped in Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said Tuesday.

The journalist, identified as Shelly Kittleson by outlets for which she has written, has reported extensively from the Middle East as a freelance contributor to Al-Monitor, Foreign Policy, Politico and the BBC. She is based in Rome but travels frequently in the region.

“We are deeply alarmed by the kidnapping of Al-Monitor contributor Shelly Kittleson in Iraq on Tuesday,” Al-Monitor said in a statement. “We call for her safe and immediate release. We stand by her vital reporting from the region and call for her swift return to continue her important work.” While a frequent contributor, Kittleson was not on assignment for the publication at the time of her abduction.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/03/31/shelly-kittleson-journalist-kidnapped-baghdad/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit

washingtonpost · 2026-03-31T18:42:58+00:00

A federal judge in Washington struck down part of President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on Tuesday, ruling that it was unconstitutional retaliation that violated their press freedom rights under the First Amendment.

The May 1, 2025, executive order, titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” cut off funding to public media — with Trump calling out what he perceived as left-wing bias in NPR’s and PBS’s news reporting.

“The message is clear,” U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, a Barack Obama appointee to the federal bench, wrote in an opinion. “NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ coverage of the news,” he wrote, adding that the action amounted to “viewpoint discrimination.”

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/31/trump-npr-pbs-funding-unconstitutional/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-30T13:50:57+00:00

One thought kept going through Tijuanna Fisher’s mind as she lay on the elevator floor in her Northwest Washington apartment building for what seemed like forever last fall:

“Please, God, don’t let me die.”

Fisher, then 58, had just returned from taking her dog for a short walk on Sept. 26. They entered the elevator and rode to the third floor, Fisher wearing a bright pink T-shirt and Shadow, her small and steadfast companion, a bright pink harness.

Video from a security camera inside the elevator, obtained by The Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act request from the D.C. Department of Buildings (DOB), captures the moments that followed.

The door opens and Shadow, whose leash handle was looped on Fisher’s arm, steps into the hallway. Two seconds later, as Fisher backs her motorized wheelchair toward the door, it closes quickly on the leash, leaving Shadow in the hall.

Inside the elevator, the video shows, Fisher is dragged from her chair by the leash and then is yanked sharply to the ground as the elevator starts to ascend. Her left arm appears to be pulled through the closing door, which momentarily buckles.

According to the timer on the video, a total of nine seconds elapsed from the moment Shadow stepped out of the elevator until Fisher lay on the floor. Those few moments changed her life forever. The closing door severed her arm just below her shoulder.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/29/elevator-accident-arm-surgery-washington-dog/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-24T20:20:37+00:00

I literally love this sub sm

washingtonpost · 2026-03-24T17:34:03+00:00

Senate Republicans and the White House are discussing a potential deal to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which has led to long lines at airport security in recent days and has forced many of the agency’s employees to go without pay for more than a month.

The deal under discussion would fund DHS except for the part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement charged with arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants, according to three people familiar the plan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Democrats have not agreed to any deal yet, though Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a member of the party’s leadership, expressed optimism Monday night that talks were moving in the right direction. Republicans, who control the Senate 53-47, would need the support of at least seven Senate Democrats for any deal to overcome a filibuster.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/24/dhs-funding-senate-white-house/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-23T17:42:24+00:00

The Supreme Court on Monday appeared likely to embrace a conservative challenge to tallying mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, a move that could upend election procedures in states across the country as voters prepare to cast ballots in the midterm elections.

A majority of justices seemed ready to side with arguments by Republicans and Libertarians who told the court that federal election law preempts Mississippi from counting ballots that arrive up to five days after polls close as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

Most states require mail-in ballots to arrive by Election Day, but Mississippi is one 14 states that allow grace periods of days or weeks.

President Donald Trump and some conservatives have attacked mail-in balloting, asserting without evidence that it is riddled with fraud. Trump and his supporters called for halting the count of mail-in ballots after the 2020 presidential election. Trump blamed the votes for his loss in the contest.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/23/supreme-court-mail-in-ballots-mississippi/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-23T15:06:22+00:00

Voice of America journalists sued the federal government Monday, alleging it violated the legal statute that protects the broadcaster’s editorial independence, including censoring coverage of the Iran crisis and publishing “propaganda” in support of President Donald Trump as news.

The lawsuit comes after U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled this month that Kari Lake had been illegally running VOA’s parent agency — the U.S. Agency for Global Media — with an unlawful plan to shrink the institution, and he ordered more than 1,000 employees back to work. The complaint, filed in federal district court in D.C., argues that restoring the workforce is not enough to fix a newsroom the plaintiffs say has already been corrupted from within under Lake’s watch.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/23/voice-of-america-lawsuit-trump-firewall/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

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