Ken Schwencke
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schwanksta.com
Ken Schwencke
@schwanksta.com
19K followers 360 following 320 posts
Senior editor of @propublica.org's data journalism teams. Super gay. Sometimes printmaker.
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schwanksta.com
Ken Schwencke @schwanksta.com · May 18
Last year I picked up printmaking and linocutting as a hobby, and yesterday I ran this giant 18x24 print of the sky over Fire Island. I was trying to translate that big and calming sense you get when it’s warm and breezy out and you’re just watching the clouds go by.

#linocut #printmaking #artsky
A photo of a large print with a textured blue sky and three smallish birds flying across it A photo of the print on a drying rack, showing the scale and paper’s edges.
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
caitlinkelly.bsky.social
Since the start of this year, some 600 immigrant children have been placed in government shelters by ICE, according to government data — the highest number since recordkeeping began a decade ago. www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
Screenshot of ProPublica article about ICE detaining immigrant kids that reads "In South Carolina, a Colombian family of five went to a government office for a fingerprinting appointment, only to have the parents detained while the children — ages 5, 11 and 15 — were sent into the shelter system for four months. In South Florida, a 17-year-old from Guatemala was taken into custody because officers couldn’t make contact with his dad after a traffic stop; his dad is deaf. In Maryland, a 17-year-old from Mexico ended up in a shelter after making a wrong turn onto military property."
November 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
ericumansky.bsky.social
BREAKING: Trump is again separating kids from families

The govt isn't releasing info, but we found ICE has sent record # of kids to shelters.

One family went to govt office , only to have parents detained while the children—aged 5, 11 and 1--went to shelters

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
ICE Sent 600 Immigrant Kids to Detention in Federal Shelters This Year. It’s a New Record.
Under a zero tolerance policy, the first Trump administration separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. New data suggests separations are happening all over the count...
www.propublica.org
November 24, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
radleybalko.bsky.social
Kavanaugh stop. Smashed the kid’s car windows and arrested him. He told them he was a U.S. citizen. The officer replied “I don’t care.”

www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...
High school senior, a U.S. citizen, detained by ICE in Oregon
The 17-year-old was held more than five hours Friday in an ICE facility, his brother said.
www.oregonlive.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
jacobharr.is
I mean, maybe as an external entity but a lot of people still in agencies and some indication that the National Design Studio is just there to provide similar cover

Judge for yourself at dogetrack.info
November 23, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
cwarzel.bsky.social
exhausting. it's *exhausting*
November 22, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
ence.bsky.social
We spent a year investigating billionaires for @washingtonpost.com.

We found: the wealthiest 100 Americans gave $1.1 billion to influence the 2024 elections — 140x more than they did in 2000. And almost all of that giving boosted Republicans.

washingtonpost.com/politics/int...
November 21, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
nytimes.com
Breaking News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism. The move underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy — in this case, that vaccines save lives — and bend the health department to his will.
RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC to Change Vaccines and Autism Language on Website
In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.
nyti.ms
November 21, 2025 at 6:56 PM
schwanksta.com
We updated the @propublica.org DOGE roster with 5 more names: projects.propublica.org/elon-musk-do...
Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been unleashed on federal agencies. ProPublica is attempting to document who is working with him and what they are doing.
projects.propublica.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
mjsdc.bsky.social
Judge Ellis derides Greg Bovino as a serial fabulist who brazenly lied on the stand and seemingly considered it funny to perjure himself. cst.brightspotcdn.com/49/34/daecfb...
Turning to Bovino, the Court specifically finds his testimony not credible. Bovino appeared evasive over the three days of his deposition, either providing “cute” responses to Plaintiffs’ counsel’s questions or outright lying. When shown a video of agents hitting Rev. Black with pepper balls, Bovino denied seeing a projectile hit Rev. Black in the head. Doc. 191- 3 at 162:21–165:17; Doc. 22-44 (Ex. 44 at 0:10–12, available at https://spaces.hightail.com/space/ZzXNsei63k). In another video shown to Bovino, he obviously tackles Scott Blackburn, one of Plaintiffs’ declarants. Doc. 191-3 at 172:13–173:7; Doc. 22-45 (Ex. 45 at 0:19–30, available at https://spaces.hightail.com/space/ZzXNsei63k). But instead of admitting to using force against Blackburn, Bovino denied it and instead stated that force was used against him.
November 20, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
caseynewton.bsky.social
An important reminder that when you see the term "anti-woke" it is often a euphemism for "contains material from Stormfront"
techmeme.com Techmeme @techmeme.com · 4d
Cornell researchers: xAI's Grokipedia cites neo-Nazi website Stormfront 42 times, Infowars 34 times, and white nationalist website VDare 107 times (David Ingram/NBC News)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
November 20, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
mulchy.bsky.social
for those not keeping track: masked feds, upset about being followed during kidnappings, reportedly swerved their car into martinez's, got out and said, "do something bitch," then unloaded five shots into her before driving off.

feds then charged martinez w/ assault and offered $50k for more info.
djbyrnes1.bsky.social Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 4d
New: the govt has moved to dismiss its assault case against Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, two people accused of "box[ing] in" a Border Patrol vehicle in Chicago on Oct. 4.

One agent shot Martinez, with evidence presented to the court that he later bragged about in text messages.
November 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
ericlipton.nytimes.com
NEW: As Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick drives billions of dollars in foreign payments to help build AI data centers in the US, his sons help run a company earning tens of millions in fees helping finance AI data centers. A NYT investigation. (Free link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...
Family Affair: Commerce Secretary’s Sons Cash In on A.I. Frenzy
www.nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
jessecoburn.bsky.social
NEW: Sean Duffy frequently calls safety his “top priority” as transportation secretary. But I spent months wading through regulatory notices and found something far different: that USDOT has been delaying, weakening and killing dozens of safety rules, many opposed by the transportation industry.🧵
November 20, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
ddiamond.bsky.social
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
Autism and Vaccines QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS PAGE 2 OF 9 | ALL PAGES J For Everyone NOV. 19, 2025 KEY POINTS • The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. • Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities. HHS Research on Plausible Biologic Mechanisms between Vaccines and Autism HHS will evaluate plausible biologic mechanisms between early childhood vaccinations and autism. Mechanisms for further investigation include the impacts of aluminum adjuvants, risks for certain children with mitochondrial disorders, harms of neuroinflammation, and more. * The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.
November 20, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
caitlinkelly.bsky.social
NEW:

In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant.

She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency.

Then she died.

www.propublica.org/article/texa...
“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.
www.propublica.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
atrupar.com
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
November 18, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
abtran.bsky.social
Tracking the spread of bird flu using genetic markers, satellite imagery, property records, and more reminds me of John Snow’s Cholera investigation/map. Howe’s Hens is the modern day Broad Street Pump. Amazing work from @natlash.bsky.social & @chrisalcantara.com. www.propublica.org/article/meth...
November 18, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
propublica.org
NEW: Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. The USDA didn’t test the theory after a disastrous Midwestern outbreak.

Here’s how we did.

By @natlash.bsky.social
How ProPublica Investigated a Bird Flu Outbreak in America’s Heartland
Early this year, bird flu ripped through 80 farms in Ohio and Indiana. Using genetic markers, wind simulations, satellite imagery, property records and more, we found that the virus could’ve been airb...
www.propublica.org
November 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
jeisinger.bsky.social
NEW: The White House intervened in a DHS investigation.

The target? Sex offender Andrew Tate.

The WH person? Paul “Nazi Streak” Ingrassia.

Who was previously also Tate’s lawyer.

A banger from @robert-faturechi.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Shapiro

www.propublica.org/article/andr...
November 18, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
whetmoser.com
to have an affair with one longshot presidential candidate twice your age that you’re profiling may be regarded as a misfortune; to have two looks like carelessness
November 18, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
alastair.is
I’m so sick of this Nuzzi stuff, wish I didn’t hear anything more about her

Oh, well, if her former partner wrote it I suppose it might be newsworthy, I’ll skim it

Apparently I simply must read to the end, a likely story, alright fine I will

Oh for fucks sake
November 18, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
gbbranstetter.bsky.social
Attorney Barbara Schwabauer explains her decision to leave the Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights rather than comply with a Trump administration order to subpoena the medical records of transgender teens
The Justice Department subpoenaed more than 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-related care to minors (including puberty suppressants, hormone therapy and surgeries) accusing them of having “mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology.” Trump had already issued a series of executive orders dismantling protections for trans people, banning them from military service and allowing open discrimination by federal workplaces. The subpoenas demanded patient information protected by privacy law. Barbara Schwabauer, Civil Rights Division: It’s one thing to say we’re no longer going to stand up for trans people in this administration, we’re not going to file briefs in support of them. But to affirmatively go after them? I could not in good conscience continue to be a part of that. These are teenagers.
November 17, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Here’s a story for every national news outlet:

In N.C., churchgoers are literally running into the woods as federal agents descend on the property.

“Inside the church, women and children sobbed as they wondered whether their loved ones had been taken.”

www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politic...
6d Listen to this article Congregants of an east Charlotte church scattered into the woods Saturday when masked federal agents arrived and detained one of their members, according to witnesses. About 15 to 20 church members were doing yard work on the property off Albemarle Road while their children played games and their spouses cooked meals. Agents parked just outside a closed gate leading to the church parking lot and ran into the yard, said the pastor, who did not want to identify himself or his church. The agents asked no questions and showed no identification before taking one man away, whose wife and child were inside at the time, the pastor said. They attempted to grab others, too. "Right now, everybody is scared. Everybody," he said. "One of these guys with immigration, he say he was going to arrest one of the other guys in the church. He pushed him." Inside the church, women and children sobbed as they wondered whether their loved ones had been taken. Some yard workers fled into the surrounding woods when officials arrived, including 15-year-old Miguel Vazquez.
November 16, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
matttomic.bsky.social
Jesus Christ.
“I get 10 messages, DMs (direct messages) a game, (saying), ‘F— you, I’m gonna f— your family up,” one player said. “I personally hate gambling. Hate everyone talking about parlays this, parlays that. I hate getting DMs in my Instagram talking about, ‘You f—– up my parlay.’ I hate people sending me threats because I messed up their parlay,” another said. Terrible. Hate them. Every game, no matter if it’s a good game or bad game, you’ve got motherf—— sending death threats, saying racist s—. Every game. I guarantee you, if I check right now, I’ll probably have something from this game. Every game. Everywhere. DMs, Twitter. People be tripping, bro,” a player said. “I hope it doesn’t happen, but it’s going to come to a point where players are going to be targeted because people have lost so much money on them. That’s what I think. But hopefully I’m wrong.”
November 15, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Ken Schwencke
propublica.org
NEW: FBI Director Kash Patel granted waivers to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and two newly hired senior FBI staff, exempting them from polygraph exams normally required to gain access to America’s most sensitive classified information, officials said.
FBI Director Kash Patel Waived Polygraph Security Screening for Dan Bongino, Two Other Senior Staff
As the FBI’s deputy director, Bongino receives some of the country’s most sensitive secrets, including the President’s Daily Brief. His ascent to that position without passing a standard bureau backgr...
www.propublica.org
November 14, 2025 at 4:35 PM