Hormuz opens: What it really means for Iran, oil & US blockade YouTube video by CNN

youtu.be/RV5Yv3vnXPc

interesting venue choice as well.

Opinion | Don’t Use A.I. to Do This

This is also a gift article but now you can read the actual headline. The piece is from Colson Whitehead, and as great as you’d expect.
Don’t Use A.I. to Do This www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

Pauls Valley High School Principal Kirk Moore tackled a gunman inside the school's lobby. Moore was injured during the shooting, according to the Garvin County Sheriff's Office.

Historians suing Trump administration say National Archives won’t commit to preserving presidential records during lawsuit | CNN Politics The historians who are suing over the Trump administration’s eschewal of a Watergate-era records retention law for presidential documents said Tuesday that the National Archives won’t agree not to des...

The historians who are suing over the Trump administration’s eschewal of a Watergate-era records retention law for presidential documents said the National Archives won’t agree not to destroy those records while their case is litigated.

The rumored merger talks between United and American Airlines could create an unprecedented concentration of power in the commercial aviation industry. https://cnn.it/4vB19RO

President Trump says he will fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell if he stays in his role after his term expires.
https://cnn.it/4tiEwQo

Journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin detained in Kuwait after posting Iran war video, advocates say | CNN Business The Kuwaiti-American journalist, known for his work at VICE, HuffPost and Al Jazeera, has been detained in Kuwait, according to press freedom advocates, after sharing videos related to the Iran war.

As Clarissa Ward said on CNN today, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin's lengthy detention in Kuwait reflects the "draconian security restrictions that we have seen here in the Gulf since this war began." Full story here: www.cnn.com/2026/04/14/m...

Scary stuff. Been there. Glad you're okay and he was prosecuted.

Caught in the Crackdown: As Arrests at Anti-ICE Protests Piled Up, Prosecutions Crumbled ProPublica and FRONTLINE found more than 300 protesters and bystanders who were arrested on charges like assaulting an immigration agent or interfering with law enforcement. Over and over, the accusat...

ProPublica and @frontlinepbs.bsky.social found more than 300 protesters and bystanders who were arrested on charges like assaulting an immigration agent or interfering with law enforcement. Over and over, the accusations fell apart under scrutiny.

New Jersey’s NJ Transit is currently planning to charge more than $100 for return rail tickets from New York’s Pennsylvania Station to MetLife Stadium for FIFA World Cup games.

The 18-mile rail journey ordinarily costs $12.90 for a return ticket.

📝 @adamcrafton.bsky.social

🔗 nyti.ms/3QaZJwX

Reps. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales have officially resigned from Congress, just before their colleagues were to start expulsion procedures against them. https://cnn.it/4tS9VJw

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin has apparently been detained in Kuwait after posting a video of a US Air Force fighter jet crash. His friends and allies went public about his case today, hoping publicity will help win his release. www.cnn.com/2026/04/14/w...

he is such a fantastic writer. As funny as Charles Portis but much more prolific.

if it's horses it must be the Gallop Poll.

“There were huge white cows right at the hotel!” she reported. My wife, who is from the East, just smiled and nodded at that one, since she had heard enough Kansas City cow tales from me by then to be on her guard. Even now, there remains a quiet debate in our house about whether the gigantic statue of a bull on a ninety-foot pylon next to the American Hereford Association Building in Kansas City really does have a heart and liver that light up at night.

(which always makes me think of this passage, the rhythms of which have stuck with me for decades since I first read it:
www.newyorker.com/magazine/198... )

Fred doesn't raise Polled Herefords--he doesn't really have the acreage for that sort of operation where he lives now, in Brooklyn--but, as I said, the American Polled Hereford Association T-shirt is awfully nice. It has an abstract cow on the front. You wouldn't think the Polled Hereford people would go for an abstract cow, but the Polled Hereford people can fool you. The writing above and below the abstract cow says POLLED HEREFORDS--AN AMERICAN IDEA SINCE 1901. That happens to be my favorite Polled Hereford motto. Polled Hereford people have more than one. For instance, it says "The Trend Is To Polled Herefords" on the mechanical pencil, which has a tiny cow floating in liquid where most pencils have erasers. The sweatshirt says POLLED HEREFORDS--THE BIG, BOLD BREED, and so does the baseball cap. For a while, I thought about giving Fred both a Polled Hereford T-shirt and a Polled Hereford baseball cap--it's what I think the fashion people call an ensemble--but finally I announced to my wife: "I've decided that the T-shirt ought to do it. The American Polled Hereford Association T-shirts are awfully nice." "What happened to the idea of giving him both the T-shirt and the baseball cap?" she asked. "It wouldn't be right to give him an ensemble with clashing mottoes," I said. "Fred's an old friend, and I'd hate to see him embarrass himself."

I always wanted the great Calvin Trillin to write a Shouts & Murmurs piece about polling animals after having read this piece from The Nation:
go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=G...

More than 80 years after the end of World War II, an incredible trove of documents from a prestigious art school has been unearthed, containing photographs, detailed letters and samples of artworks from nearly 100 applicants who hoped to escape Nazism. https://cnn.it/3PZJtiq

Fast-rising oil prices sent US businesses’ costs higher in March, lifting wholesale inflation to 4%, the highest annual rate in three years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released. https://cnn.it/4vsFIlF

What's Jenni Ringley up to these days?

Gregg Phillips, the high-ranking FEMA official who said he teleported to a Waffle House has a history of making supernatural claims we found in his podcasts: a dead girlfriend who lifted his car off the road to avoid a crash, Satan encountering him on a hike, etc.

www.cnn.com/2026/04/14/p...

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office says it is investigating an allegation of sexual assault against Rep. Eric Swalwell. Swalwell has denied the allegations. https://cnn.it/4moBesh

thx!

NASA's Artemis II mission in 20 minutes YouTube video by CNN

Check out this recap of the Artemis II mission I put together for @cnn.com YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uOq...

I wrote about Old Space Polls and they let me keep in the phrase "Unlike the space programs they’re asking about, survey questions don’t exist in a vacuum."

www.cnn.com/2026/04/09/s...

Live: Artemis II landing day: Reentry & splashdown YouTube video by CNN

CNN is livestreaming NASA coverage of the Artemis II reentry and splashdown: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6No6...

Splashdown expected at 8:07pm ET.

Judge Rejects Hegseth’s Second Attempt to Restrict Reporters at Pentagon

Judge Rejects Hegseth’s Second Attempt to Restrict Reporters at Pentagon www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/b...

Artemis II Iceland Geology Training Reel YouTube video by NASA Johnson

Artemis II astronauts did it too!
youtu.be/lNQqZs1tB9w

science.nasa.gov/missions/art...

thankya!

Thanks! I've shared in a bunch of awards with teams of good people who work hard and do great things. It's fun to be recognized for it but we all just want to tell good, true, impactful stories we can be proud of.