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Mr. Dan Zak

@mrdanzak.com

6.6K followers 110 following 140 posts

Senior editor at The Atlantic. Bio & work: www.mrdanzak.com Author of ALMIGHTY, a book on the bomb: http://amzn.to/35PAusZ

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · Mar 16

I wrote about the life of Rich Fierro, who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan for 10 years, returned home and worked hard to put his life back together — only to have his family caught in a mass shooting, which turned them all into combat veterans. wapo.st/3vjxIsU

The hero

Rich Fierro fought in America’s war on terror. Then terror found him at home.

wapo.st

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 14h

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Laura Rodríguez Presa @lauranrodriguez.bsky.social · 17h

ICE killed their father. Now they’re in foster care.

Silverio Villegas, a single father, was fatally shot by fed agents after he allegedly tried to flee a traffic stop in Franklin Park.

His family spoke to the Tribune of their grieve and their fight.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/12/s...

Family of Chicago-area man killed by ICE seeks to reunite with his children who are now in foster care in Idaho

The state of Idaho took custody of the children a few weeks after Silverio Villegas Gonzalez was killed by ICE agents in Franklin Park on Sept. 12.

www.chicagotribune.com

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 1d

Watched it tonight, for the first time ever. The confidence and poise of her short scene in front of the Overman Committee.

Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 1d

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 2d

Military families on day 9 of the shutdown lining up at the food bank

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 2d

FULL STORY HERE: Emails began flooding CDC inboxes late Friday night announcing dozens of layoffs. HR people brought back from furlough to oversee the RIFs. Disease detectives, entire Washington office, global health, injury prevention, MMWR staff among those hit.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 2d

Finally, a big Glenn profile. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/t...

Glenn Close Has Nothing Left to Prove

www.nytimes.com

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Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 4d

A woman who was shot multiple times by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did not ram them with her car and had her weapon stored in her purse at the time of the incident, according to her lawyer, contradicting accounts by the Department of Homeland Security.

www.reuters.com/world/us/bod...

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 5d

The Atlantic’s November issue is a real keepsake. Subscribers receive tomorrow. On newsstands Oct. 14. Stories are now rolling out online at this landing page: www.theatlantic.com/category/unf...

The Unfinished Revolution - The Atlantic

"The Unfinished Revolution" examines the founding of the United States and brings the nation's history to bear on its present—and its future. New chapters will be published over the following week, an...

www.theatlantic.com

Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 5d

"October is the month of painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting." Thoreau in The Atlantic in 1862: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Autumnal Tints

“A great many, who have spent their lives in cities, and have never chanced to come into the country at this season, have never seen this, the flower, or rather the ripe fruit, of the year.”

www.theatlantic.com

Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 5d

“…soon, top U.S.-military commanders may have to decide whether they will refuse such orders from the commander in chief. The greatest crisis of American civil-military relations in modern history is now under way.” www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

The Civil-Military Crisis Is Here

The leaders of the U.S. military may soon face a terrible decision.

www.theatlantic.com

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 5d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 7d

Monica Hesse is back. wapo.st/47c9rFe

Column | I finally figured out why we stream so much true crime

The mysterious death of Ellen Greenberg, chronicled in Hulu’s “Death in Apartment 603,” helps columnist Monica Hesse understand the true-crime documentary boom.

wapo.st

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 7d

“You have a son who is going into media, a father who is close to Trump and acquiring the most addictive social platform we’ve ever seen. These are very smart people, and none of this is accidental.” www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

This billionaire Trump ally and his son are building an unprecedented media empire

Larry and David Ellison’s holdings span movies, TV networks, CBS and soon a stake in TikTok, in a paradigm-shifting portfolio with huge influence.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 8d

Judge IMMERGUT, a Trump appointee to the bench, ruled that Trump's call-up was based on false claims about unrest in Portland and that Trump's own statements were "simply untethered to the facts." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 8d

I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 8d

Second viewing of “One Battle after Another,” hoping PTA would get the ending right this time.

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Kristina Cooke @kristinacooke.bsky.social · 9d

I spoke to a Venezuelan woman who was arrested in this raid and later released with her 4yo son. She said agents broke down their door, pointed guns at them and made sexualized remarks about Venezuelan women. When she returned to her apartment it was boarded up and all her possessions were gone.

Ted Hesson @tedhesson.bsky.social · 9d

US Border Patrol raid sweeps in citizens, families as Chicago crackdown intensifies, w/ @reneehickman.bsky.social @kristinacooke.bsky.social www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

US Border Patrol raid sweeps in citizens, families as Chicago crackdown intensifies

U.S. Border Patrol agents deployed to Chicago led a late-night raid on an apartment building this week, rappelling from helicopters onto rooftops and breaking down doors in an operation authorities said targeted gang members but which swept up U.S. citizens and families.

www.reuters.com

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Mississippi Free Press @mississippifreepress.org · 9d

Meta is constructing its largest data center yet: a $10 billion facility in Louisiana, as big as 70 football fields, requiring more than twice as much electricity as the City of New Orleans.

Louisiana has had to greenlight $3 billion in new energy infrastructure to service Meta's facility.

New Meta Data Center Needs Twice as Much Energy as New Orleans

Meta is constructing its largest data center yet: a $10 billion facility in Louisiana requiring more than twice as much electricity as New Orleans.

buff.ly

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 9d

“If this was a beef Swift wanted to win, why is she whining over such a dumpy Weezer riff?” www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Review | Taylor Swift returns with an album of mixed emotions — and mixed results

“The Life of a Showgirl” wants to feel good, but other feelings keep getting in the way.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 11d

“.. no modern American president has positioned his family to make so much money while in the White House. Already, since the early days of his reelection campaign, he’s more than doubled his net worth to about $5.4 billion.”

@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 11d

Your occasional reminder that Russ Vought, who is claiming the right to fire civil servants for whatever reason he sees it, once refused to quit a political appointment position even after Trump had lost.

russ vought saying "no, its a three year term" when Biden asks for his resignation on the naval academy visitors board

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 11d

CHICAGO — “We’re being invaded by our own military.” abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 11d

Agents dragged out residents without clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers.

“It was heartbreaking to watch. Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.” chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com