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Mike Hixenbaugh

@mikehixenbaugh.com
28K followers 1K following 995 posts

NBC News senior reporter | Author of THEY CAME FOR THE SCHOOLS | Co-creator of SOUTHLAKE & GRAPEVINE podcasts | Retired t-ball coach www.mikehixenbaugh.com

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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 20h
Appropriate deploymment of puns here www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
nbcnews.com
GOP senator airballs perjury claim against Jack Smith over apparent Hawks/Hawkeyes mixup
The Missouri senator’s shot at a gotcha moment against the former special counsel wound up being a very public miss.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 22/09/2026
Southlake Families PAC didn’t only conquer the school board
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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The vast majority denied SNAP are denied for procedural reasons. Even 4 in 10 of those with NO INCOME in the previous year are denied, with 80% of those denied for *procedural reasons*, or, effectively, missing paperwork. And The One Big Beautiful Bill is making this so much worse.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 22/09/2026
Corner Bakery is the new golf course. It’s where business happens.
In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C.
For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising.
Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap. Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor, Navatek. A year earlier, Collins had helped their company land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine. Now, seated at a coffee shop not far from the U.S. Capitol, Reed asked them for a $500,000 donation.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
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Jesse Eisinger @jeisinger.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“This should be unthinkable for the son of the president. End of story.” A Russian oligarch close to Putin bankrolled Don Jr.’s wedding. www.propublica.org/article/dona...
propublica.org
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
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dan solomon @dansolomon.com · 09/09/2026
just today, texas democrats have: made an ad built around a "pronouns" joke, voiced their opposition to "biological males playing girls sports," and called the disabled governor "gov. hot wheels" in a press release
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Tyler Kingkade @tktk.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Last month, the Carroll ISD school board (in Southlake, Texas) unanimously passed an AI/screen time policy similar to -- if not stricter -- than the one Zohran announced last week for NYC schools It shows how bipartisan this push is, if you understand the background of the Southlake...
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 08/09/2026
After Nebraska adopted an algorithm to assess the needs of people with developmental disabilities, more than 900 had their home care slashed—leaving families terrified their loved ones could be forced into institutions. A preview of what could soon be coming nationally after Trump’s Medicaid cuts.
nbcnews.com
A secretive computer algorithm is taking caregiving money away from disabled people
After Nebraska used a new interRAI tool to slash Medicaid funding for nearly 900 people, NBC News uncovered the hidden logic behind some of the cuts.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 26/08/2026
"The cost of living in America has surged in recent years. So has the cost of dying." www.nbcnews.com/business/per...
nbcnews.com
Even death is unaffordable in America now
Funeral credit cards, rented caskets, Amazon urns: Here’s how Americans are coping with the rising cost of dying.
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I appreciate that Dolly Parton refused to participate in "dress respectability" and, by her own account, modeled her aesthetic after a town "tramp," who she thought was beautiful. She separated aesthetics from character and understood "classiness" to be about how you treat people, not how you dress.
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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 02/08/2026
New: We found 50 cops who misused Flock cameras and other license-plate readers for personal purposes, often to spy on their girlfriends or ex-wives. He "watched every single move I made. ... Who do you turn the chief of police in to?" wapo.st/3S6rTuo
wapo.st
She left her ex. He secretly tracked her through a network of policing cameras.
Flock’s array of license-plate cameras was built to fight crime. But at least 50 law enforcement officers were charged with or accused of misusing it and other systems.
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Hannah Natanson @hannahnatanson.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
It's been hard to do my job this year. Being back reporting — and in print again — means more than I can say. Please spend some time with my story about a Trump administration crackdown on faculty speech at West Point, and one professor's lonely rebellion. wapo.st/4fo0lts
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This is outstanding reporting but be warned: a really, really hard read.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 19/07/2026
A father in Idaho, speaking to police after his child died by suicide: “There is a huge amount of animosity, every single day, thrown at trans kids. The whole fucking country. The whole fucking administration, every single fucking day.” Please read this important story by @joyurcaba.bsky.social
nbcnews.com
Idaho pushed anti-trans laws for years. Then a teen died.
The life and death of May Pollard, 16, provides a window into the tragic effect that legislation and political rhetoric have had on trans people in America.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 19/07/2026
Please read this story by @joyurcaba.bsky.social.
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NBC News @nbcnews.com · 16/07/2026
Over a two-day hearing, nearly a dozen witnesses — nine women and two men — testified in graphic detail about how Joe Campbell, a longtime Pentecostal preacher, groomed and abused them when they were children in the 1970s and ’80s.
nbcnews.to
They say their pastor abused them as children. This week, they confronted him in court.
Following an NBC News investigation, nearly a dozen witnesses testified that Joe Campbell, a Pentecostal preacher, groomed and sexually abused them in the 1970s and ’80s.
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Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 17/07/2026
NYT nails it.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 16/07/2026
"The criminal case against Campbell began after an investigation by NBC News. ... The state began pursuing criminal charges following a May 2025 article and documentary that chronicled years of alleged sexual abuse by Campbell and repeated failures by church leaders to stop him."
nbcnews.com
They say their pastor abused them as children. This week, they confronted him in court.
Following an NBC News investigation, nearly a dozen witnesses testified that Joe Campbell, a Pentecostal preacher, groomed and sexually abused them in the 1970s and ’80s.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 14/07/2026
Happy pub day, @pamelacolloff.bsky.social! Trust me, you’ll want to order a copy of this one: bookshop.org/p/books/catc...
bookshop.org
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
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Reuters @reuters.com · 14/07/2026
Security camera footage obtained from local businesses showed individuals who are believed to be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers surrounding a car and pulling the driver onto the street, in events connected to the fatal shooting of a man in a coastal town in Maine on July 13.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 13/07/2026
Have you noticed it can cost hundreds of dollars for a family bowling outing? Thank private equity. @spettypi.bsky.social reports. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
nbcnews.com
Wall Street goes bowling for profits, driving up the price of a middle-class pastime
Fueled by private equity investments, Lucky Strike Entertainment went on a buying spree and now owns more than 1 in 10 American bowling alleys.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
The OBBBA was signed on July 4th a year ago. This is a great summary of some of the changes it will make. The SNAP changes (4 million lost coverage and counting) are already happening. Medicaid changes were timed to occur after the midterms, but may be even worse.
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Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” @ryanjreilly.com · 06/07/2026
“In Jim Comey’s misguided attempt to preserve the independence of the FBI, he set in motion a series of events that has basically undone the 50 years of reform and traditions and independence that had been carefully carved out and guarded since Watergate." — @vermontgmg.bsky.social
nbcnews.com
The Comey effect: 10 years ago, an FBI news conference changed America
“It is hard to think of another single event in the last decade that has had such far-reaching and sweeping and unintended global consequences as Jim Comey’s press conference,” said one historian.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 02/07/2026
“There was … a violent effort to rip up the sealant.”
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Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Trump is now talking about his Washington construction projects *more often* than topics like wages and health care He invoked his DC building projects on nearly 80% of days in June analysis with @ence.bsky.social and Lydia Sidhom
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Sharita Gruberg @gruberg.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
“Once all of the law’s major provisions are fully phased in, Congressional Budget Office estimates show, the poorest households will end up with roughly $1,200 less each year on average, while the wealthiest Americans will gain about $13,600.”
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 01/07/2026
One year after Trump signed his “big, beautiful bill,” it has begun reshaping the country. At least 4 million people have lost food stamps. Millions more will lose healthcare. Refugees and other legal immigrants are getting kicked off the safety net. And the wealthiest Americans have gotten richer.
nbcnews.com
How Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ changed America
President Donald Trump signed his “big, beautiful bill” a year ago. It unleashed the biggest ever rollback of federal programs serving the poor, while extending trillions of dollars in tax breaks disp...
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Alex @zerotense.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
This is well worth taking the time to read
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Tyler Kingkade @tktk.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Important reporting, careful and beautiful writing, and devastating details about what’s at stake for those losing Medicaid support and with the Trump admin abandoning the right of disabled Americans to live at home
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 30/06/2026
For a half-century, U.S. policy has pushed to keep disabled Americans out of institutions. Now Rebecca Anger and many others fear that era could be coming to an end. Here's my latest on the Trump administration's growing attacks on Medicaid-funded home-care programs.
nbcnews.com
Paralyzed at 7, she fought for the life she wanted. Medicaid cuts threaten to take it away.
For a half-century, U.S. policy has pushed to keep disabled Americans out of institutions. Now Rebecca Anger and others fear that era could end.
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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Wow, this piece by @pamelacolloff.bsky.social: Florida Is Executing Prisoners at a Record Pace, Even as Most of the U.S. Abandons the Death Penalty
propublica.org
Florida Is Executing Prisoners at a Record Pace, Even as Most of the U.S. Abandons the Death Penalty
Early last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis began signing death warrants at a faster rate than ever before. What followed was the most intense period of executions the state has carried out in more than eight ...
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 29/06/2026
A 57-year-old North Carolina mother is in knots over student loan repayment changes adopted in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and going into effect this week. She estimates her monthly student loan payments could jump from $150 to $713. www.nbcnews.com/news/educati...
nbcnews.com
Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ is bringing a big set of student loan changes
Starting Wednesday, many student borrowers may tackle higher repayment requirements, fewer program options and greater loan limits.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 26/06/2026
I just noticed that HHS Civil Rights office has deleted its webpage about the Supreme Court's 1999 landmark Olmstead decision, which guaranteed the rights of disabled people to live in their homes rather than being institutionalized. It was live on May 25. Now it's "PAGE NOT FOUND"
Images show HHS webpage on Olmstead and a second showing a the link is now dead
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 25/06/2026
“For ICE to come to me over a social media post just feels very 1984 to me,” she said. www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06...
syracuse.com
Federal agents track down Syracuse woman, demand she remove Instagram post about ICE
She believes the warning was related to a post about the ICE agent who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis.
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Ronan Farrow @ronanfarrow.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
The government has a formula that decides whether safety rules are worth passing. And that formula was rewritten to put a new price on your life: zero dollars. #PublicHealth #EPA #News #Trump #climatechange
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 24/06/2026
Trump, per a GOP source, wanted to talk at a recent meeting about his own D.C. building projects rather than legislation to bring down home prices nationwide. “I don’t care about housing,” he said. Now he’s refusing to sign the bipartisan bill.
nbcnews.com
Trump cancels plan to sign major housing bill as he fights with Congress over the SAVE Act
Just hours before heading to Capitol Hill, Trump called the big, bipartisan housing bill Republicans hope to run on in the fall “of minor importance.”
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 21/06/2026
After days and days of news coverage and footage showing workers pouring harsh and highly corrosive chemicals into the algae-filled Reflecting Pool, the president would like you to believe that vandals were the ones who did it.
Many additional people have been arrested having to do with the disgraceful Vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool. It hasn't looked or worked like this since 1922, when it was originally built, but even then, it leaked badly, and didn't work. Ours worked perfectly, including the mirror like finish, perfectly reflecting the two Great Monuments, which it never had before! What these terrible Vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and should be dealt with accordingly. We met with contractors today, will probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to do the necessary repairs, but will have them done as quickly as possible.
What they have damaged does not even include the earlier killing of a large amount of grass which was, by far, the least of it. They took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete. They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool. The Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened. We are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of Beauty. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
President DONALD J. TRUMP
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 20/06/2026
America 250: Former Olympian David Hearn Arrested for Touching the Reflecting Pool
people.com
Former Olympian David Hearn Arrested for Touching the Reflecting Pool amid Trump’s Claims of Vandalism
David Hearn was arrested for destruction of government property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 19, but claims he only touched a piece of pool liner that was already detached. Presiden...
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Donie O’Sullivan @donie.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Other professional sport organizations might fine an athlete for smearing Michelle Obama like Josh Hokit did -- but the UFC has an "anti-woke" reputation to protect that allows its stars to praise Hitler and spout homophobic hate.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 13/06/2026
“I’m his fan. I believe Trump is a good president,” said the woman, whose asylum seeker husband was arrested by ICE during their honeymoon visit to a Trump hotel property and held for three months in an immigration detention center. However, she said, “What happened to my family wasn’t fair.”
nbcnews.com
He took his wife, a Trump fan, to the president’s hotel in Doral. Instead he was detained by ICE.
A honeymoon plan ended in an arrest, months of detention and over $80,000 in debt for Venezuelan immigrant Bryan Rojas, who’s married to a U.S. citizen.
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Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I've reported on Musk for around 8 years. I've co-authored a book on him. I don't think folks understand the rate of his wealth accumulation. Shortly after he helped elect Donald Trump in Nov 2024, his net worth was around $350 billion. That net worth has nearly tripled in less than two years.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 12/06/2026
After @deldeib.bsky.social documented devastating stories of babies who died as a result of parents’ misplaced skepticism of newborn vitamin K shots, one of the doctors who helped stoke those fears now says he was wrong.
propublica.org
A Popular Doctor Had Long Warned That Vitamin K Shots Are Risky for Newborns. Now He’s Changed His Tune.
After ProPublica contacted Dr. Joseph Mercola for an article on babies dying after parents turned down vitamin K shots, he publicly reversed his long-held stance that the shots weren't needed. “The da...
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 11/06/2026
Meanwhile, in Cleveland
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Ryan Nanni @celebrityhottub.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I think this is what NYC must have felt like during the events seen in the documentary Ghostbusters
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 11/06/2026
Basketball
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 11/06/2026
My god. Feeling a lot better about that 22-point collapse by the Cavs.
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Alice Miranda Ollstein @alicemiranda.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
New Medicaid rules may force doctors to do something they were never trained to do: determine which patients with HIV, cancer and other conditions are too sick to work. Doctors told me this will be especially hard bc the energy/mobility of the chronically ill fluctuates day-to-day.
politico.com
How sick is sick enough? New Medicaid work rule worries patient advocates, states.
Trump administration wants ill recipients to prove they can’t work every six months. Doctors, advocates and state officials wonder how.
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paris martineau @paris.nyc · 02/06/2026
the current director of national intelligence is a guy who two years ago received a trophy declaring he “Fucks Only The Young” at an (oddly dildo focused) event he organized dedicated to the conspiracy that Bed Bath and Beyond never actually went bankrupt
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