Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Wendell Berry died last week, so I've been reading through his poetry. This one comes to mind with forever chemicals: "I see all that we have ruined in order to have, all that was owned for a lifetime to be destroyed forever. Where are the sleeps that escape such dreams?" 010
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I often think about this longtime 3M scientist who studied the prevalence of PFAS for the company back of the day, and watched our 2021 segment on PFAS and assumed we must have been wrong on its harms, before deciding to google it. www.propublica.org/podcast/fore... 140
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 03/08/2026The records requests were harder. In my experience, police departments have been the govt agencies least willing to comply with open records law. After I was exceedingly annoying, they eventually turned over a 30,000 page pdf of the database (which we had asked for in a csv) and ghosted me. 170
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 03/08/2026We started going through the city's business permits and filing open records requests. @mayatribbitt.bsky.social found this first one, and eventually (with @claireg1.bsky.social) we located dozens more permits with this requirement in them. 160
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Back in 2023, Reuters reported that one city in CA was beginning to *require* private businesses to hook their cameras up to the police, giving live access. This raised a lot of questions for us: How were they requiring this? How often are cops accessing the footage? www.reuters.com/article/tech... 181
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 22/12/2025Earlier this year, the FCC wrote to a local radio station in SF, unhappy with their coverage of an ICE raid. After Brendan Carr sent them a letter of inquiry, the station cut back on political reporting, and pushed reporters toward human interest stories. Very bleak. apnews.com/article/trum... 000
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 19/05/2025A few things I read while researching that were helpful to understanding the moment we're in. I thought this @jameeljaffer.bsky.social piece on media capitulations was very powerful. I'm also a sucker for a Learned Hand quote. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/o... 130
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 31/03/2025Axon (called Taser Intl back then) picked up the theory in the 2000s, blaming it after deaths involving Tasers and other law enforcement force. The company pushed it aggressively to law enforcement and medical examiners, suing MEs if they blamed Tasers and funding experts that believed in the idea 181
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 21/02/2025Almost 10 years ago, I sued the Missouri Dept of Corrections for refusing to allow me to be a press witness for executions after I had done reporting that they were not big fans of. The courts sided with us and the state agreed to settle rather than continue trying to fight. Good luck to the AP 170
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025and I *think* that this is the court case being referenced: casetext.com/case/matter-... 010
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025okay I've continued reading and came across this reference to a NY Post lawsuit: 100
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 14/01/2025when I eat too much popcorn at the alamo drafthouse 010
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 14/01/2025People in the top half of the piece: The audience should NOT be laughing at Serious Cinema Directors in the bottom half of the piece: Yeah it's a mix of comedy and drama and I think it's funny www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/s... 110
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 08/01/2025@matthewschafer.bsky.social not vital at all, but I've been reading the Power Broker, & this passage about public records had me curious about the state of open records laws back in the 1930s. I know NY's (and the Feds') laws came about in 60s/after. Know anything written about open records pre-60s? 100
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 12/12/2024*snaps suspenders and begins opening statement in a foghorn leghorn voice* now I may be a simple, freewheeling, small-town lawyer… 140
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 27/11/2024In an attempt to limit the paper trail, states often pay executioners and sometimes drug suppliers in cash. The federal judge was probing whether the state had complied with tax laws in these payments, and was dismissed shortly after. 173
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 27/11/2024. @jimmyjenkins.bsky.social reports that AZ's governor (D) has abruptly cut off an investigation by a former federal judge into the state's lethal injection practices and plans to resume executions. They did not like what the judge was looking into and what he found www.azcentral.com/story/news/p... 22511
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 26/11/2024This courtroom sketch really looks like a Scooby Doo villain pointing at the Mystery Gang, explaining that they would have gotten away it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids: www.reuters.com/world/us/i-c... 030
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 15/11/2024This is Penelope. Right now she smells like Fritos 060
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 14/11/2024It took 4 years for the Louisville PD to investigate one of their cops shooting pepper balls at journalists. The PD claimed the investigation was exhaustive... turns out they had not even interviewed the journalists. (Which the police chief claimed they did) www.courier-journal.com/story/news/c... 000
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 11/04/2024In court, DOJ & BOP assured that the facility was "properly registered as a bulk manufacturer." The company is not properly registered to make drugs for use in humans or animals since it never registered with the FDA. DOJ declined to answer if they would be correcting this record 2100
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 11/04/2024The first batch of execution drugs that the company manufactured ended up failing quality assurance testing. The Bureau of Prisons wasn't quite sure what to make of the failed test, but the company said it "spent some money on something related to filters" and made another batch. 191
Chris McDaniel @csmcdaniel.bsky.social · 11/04/2024The facility has never been inspected by the FDA. It's unclear if they adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), since they don't actually normally make drugs. Here's how they describe their normal business in a state license application we got through an open records request 191