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Posts by Ken Armstrong

“When Bill Withers showed up,” Halverson says, “he comes walking in with his guitar and a straight-back chair, like a dining room chair, and asks, ‘Where do I set up?’ I showed him right in the middle of the room, and then he left and he came back in with this platform, a kind of wooden box that didn’t have a bottom. It was about four inches tall, and was maybe 3 foot by 4 foot; it was a fairly large platform, and he set it down in the middle of the room. Then he put his chair on it and got his guitar out, and he’s sitting on top of this box. So I miked him and I miked his guitar, and then I was doing other things—getting sounds together.

“But then he calls me over and he points down to the box and says, ‘You gotta mike the box.’ Well, the way I was trained, you serve the artist, whatever the artist needs. So I got a couple other mics and I miked the box, the place down near the floor, next to this platform.

“And now, when you listen to ‘Ain’t No Sunshine,’ you know that all that tapping that goes on [while Withers sings] ‘I know I know I know’ all through it, actually, that’s him tapping his feet on the box, which is actually more intricate than the guitar on that track. He had evidently rehearsed that in his living room, maybe for years.”

“When Bill Withers showed up,” Halverson says, “he comes walking in with his guitar and a straight-back chair, like a dining room chair, and asks, ‘Where do I set up?’ I showed him right in the middle of the room, and then he left and he came back in with this platform, a kind of wooden box that didn’t have a bottom. It was about four inches tall, and was maybe 3 foot by 4 foot; it was a fairly large platform, and he set it down in the middle of the room. Then he put his chair on it and got his guitar out, and he’s sitting on top of this box. So I miked him and I miked his guitar, and then I was doing other things—getting sounds together. “But then he calls me over and he points down to the box and says, ‘You gotta mike the box.’ Well, the way I was trained, you serve the artist, whatever the artist needs. So I got a couple other mics and I miked the box, the place down near the floor, next to this platform. “And now, when you listen to ‘Ain’t No Sunshine,’ you know that all that tapping that goes on [while Withers sings] ‘I know I know I know’ all through it, actually, that’s him tapping his feet on the box, which is actually more intricate than the guitar on that track. He had evidently rehearsed that in his living room, maybe for years.”

"You gotta mike the box." the engineer Bill Halverson on the making of "Ain't No Sunshine," 1971 (from a Mix interview in 2012)

3 weeks ago 946 220 3 14
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Stevie Wonder and James Brown Put This Prison Funk Band on the Map The Power of Attorney played shows with superstars, went to industry parties, and wore outside clothes — all under the watch of armed guards.

One of my Sunday pleasures is reading @themarshallproject.org's Maurice Chammah (an accomplished musician himself) writing about music made by incarcerated artists. He drops a new song each week in his newsletter, available here: www.themarshallproject.org/newsletters/...

3 weeks ago 2 0 0 0
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IRE mourns the loss of Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes March 20, 2026 ? A message from IRE Board President Josh Hinkle: Dear IRE members and the broader journalism community, I?m reaching out on behalf of IRE?s Board and staff with a heavy heart. I?m so sorry to share the news that our executive director, ...

Dear IRE members and the broader journalism community,

I’m reaching out on behalf of IRE’s Board and staff with a heavy heart.

Full statement:
www.ire.org/2026/03/21/ire-mourns-th...

1 month ago 33 21 0 10

A stunning story by @craigwelch.bsky.social with an equally striking comment thread, full of people who can relate to Craig, his daughter Edie and her teammates:

▪️"My daughter has your daughter's story verbatim"
▪️"After three of my teammates tore their ACLs in a single week"
▪️"I tore my ACL twice"

1 month ago 3 2 0 0

Every Winter Olympics I think of Surya Bonaly. I hope she is thriving.

2 months ago 2059 134 62 9
The New Yorker Daily Newsletter

Ruth Marcus on today's devastating cuts at the Washington Post:

"Today, people in war zones are getting e-mails telling them that their positions have been eliminated. And you know what? I bet they’re gonna file stories, because that’s what we do. It’s what we’ve always done."

2 months ago 62 20 0 0

A beautiful obituary for an outstanding journalist. And this passage is everything:

"Talton dreamed long ago of being a history professor. ... [But] an adviser told him that he wrote too clearly to be published academically. A journalism career quickly followed..."

2 months ago 4 0 0 0
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Trump’s Plan to Make Housing Affordable Is Faltering President Donald Trump’s bid to put home ownership in reach for more Americans is sputtering, just weeks after it launched.

Trump promised "some of the most aggressive housing reform plans" in US history. Six weeks later, none of the policies floated by his administration have gained traction.

2 months ago 84 32 36 7
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I didn't know Dan. But as a @defector.com reader, I felt like I did. More than once, he made my day, including the day he fact-checked quotes in a New Jersey rest stop.
defector.com/the-garden-s...

2 months ago 4 0 0 0
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There is nothing weirder than reading your grandpas memoir and running smack into a sentence you could have written about yourself

3 months ago 923 63 25 1

Oof. Are you SURE it's only been a year?

3 months ago 1 0 0 0

If you missed @davidmcswane.bsky.social's investigation two years ago, there's no better time than to read it now. Stunning reporting. Stunning writing. It's a story you won't soon forget.
@propublica.org

3 months ago 27 11 3 0
King County warns of toilet rats after record flooding

King County warns of toilet rats after record flooding

After the flood warnings comes...this

4 months ago 4 0 2 0
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How Epstein’s Wall Street Contacts Helped Him Build Wealth and Power The disgraced financier maintained an abundance of access across the finance industry and was willing to play hardball to secure wealth and influence.

NEW investigative report: "Things will get really nasty." Hedge funds. Brokerages. Billionaires. Jeffrey Epstein’s financial ties on and off Wall Street were broader than previously known, a cache of emails @bloomberg.com obtained earlier this year reveals
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www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

4 months ago 494 272 17 26
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As Phoebe Memorial Grew, the Health of Albany, Georgia, Declined The five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” pursues one question: Why are people in Albany so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?

Many reporters went to Albany, Georgia, when it became one of America's first COVID hotspots.

But @propublica.org's Ginger Thompson kept returning, kept reporting.

What she uncovered reveals some ugly truths about American healthcare.

Read her new 5-part series, Sick in a Hospital Town:

4 months ago 297 104 4 3
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A $9.99 Scam Put a Billion People At Risk in India’s Hyper-Digital Economy India’s push for digital IDs has sparked a bonanza for criminals.

We followed that up with a deep-dive narrative that takes you to the people behind this—the people on the other side of the phone—showing how India’s digital revolution has exposed millions to a criminal dystopia.

Reporters: Natalie Obiko Pearson and Suparna Sharma
@bloomberg.com
Gift link:

4 months ago 4 0 1 0
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Arrested by Phone: A Graphic Novel No texting. No visitors. No escape. She was caught in India’s new digital nightmare.

I hope you’ll check this out. We turned an investigative story about the "digital arrests" sweeping the world’s most populous country and turned it into a web comic that captures the psychological horror for victims.

The brilliant Anand RK (anandrk.art) did the illustrations.
@bloomberg.com
🎁 link:

4 months ago 4 3 2 0
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Arrested by Phone: A Graphic Novel No texting. No visitors. No escape. She was caught in India’s new digital nightmare.

Was reading this, fully hooked and immersed into the sheer horror, while constantly thinking 'Wait, why is this so good?! Who did this?'

Until I got to the end and saw it was Anand RK, with lettering by @adityab.net and then it just made total sense lmfao.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

4 months ago 40 25 3 7
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Death by Deadline, Part One How bad lawyering and an unforgiving law cost condemned men their last appeal.

11 yrs ago, @themarshallproject.org launched our brand-new website with part 1 of a @bykenarmstrong.bsky.social investigation & our first Life Inside piece, by John J. Lennon. Since then, we've published >2,600 pieces. And still, so much work to do. www.themarshallproject.org/2014/11/15/d...

5 months ago 12 4 1 1

A pending story about a Philadelphia police officer stood a good chance of getting the Daily News sued, the newspaper's lawyer told Days.

Days turned to the reporters.

"He said, ‘I trust my reporters, I believe in my reporters, and we’re running with it.'"
@wendyruderman.bsky.social

6 months ago 6 0 0 0
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Apply - True Story Award The Global Reporter Prize in Bern, Switzerland

Apply, no matter your country, no matter what language you write in. The True Story Award is for everyone, with 45 jurors from around the world. "Its aim is to make reporters’ voices known beyond the borders of their home countries and ... increase the diversity of perspectives."

Deadline: Oct. 31.

6 months ago 12 4 0 0
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Winners 2025 - True Story Award The Global Reporter Prize in Bern, Switzerland

Last year there were 1,049 entries, from 102 countries, written in 25 different languages. The top 36 nominees convene in Bern, Switzerland, for a journalism festival that will run from June 4-8, 2026.

Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov spoke at last year’s.
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6 months ago 5 0 1 0
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True Story Award The Global Reporter Prize in Bern, Switzerland

Fellow journalists: Please spread the word about the True Story Award, which is so much more than a journalism contest.

It honors journalism’s indispensable role in the world and works to strengthen reporters everywhere.
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6 months ago 26 15 1 0
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From Life in Prison to the Eras Tour While serving time for murder, Joe Garcia heard Taylor Swift’s music and thought of the woman he loved. Last year, they were reunited.

In 2023, @newyorker.com published Joe Garcia's "Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison," which went viral. This is the sequel. Find out what happened with Garcia's parole and how he managed to get to the last stop in the Eras tour. www.newyorker.com/culture/pers...

6 months ago 10 4 0 0
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KARE 11 Investigates: Postal worker died after police mistook stroke for drug impairment Kingsley Bimpong was jailed instead of hospitalized; video shows guards ignored his suffering for hours.

A lawsuit alleges a Black postal worker died after officers ignored clear signs he was suffering from a massive stroke, believing his medical emergency was drugs

The suit says guards left him helpless on a jail cell floor in his own urine for hours

6 months ago 3995 1800 306 284
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She didn’t believe she won the Nobel — until a photographer showed up at her Seattle door That random number ringing your phone is probably junk — but not always.

When you assume that 1 a.m. call from an international number is spam, then, when the phone rings again, put it on "do not disturb" and go back to sleep.

6 months ago 8 0 0 0
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Honoring longtime IRE member and mentor Susan Carroll - Investigative Reporters & Editors Lise Olsen writes about her friend and late IRE member Susan Carroll — and how a new fellowship program aims to honor her legacy.

This remembrance of Susy Carroll, a great investigative journalist, by Lise Olsen, another great investigative journalist, says so much about the people who do this work.

I miss Susy, and I'm grateful to Lise for finding such a fitting way to honor her work & memory.
@liseolsen.bsky.social @ire.org

6 months ago 9 2 1 0
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“Question,” Epstein wrote to Maxwell on May 23, 2008. “Which one do you prefer,,, lewd and lscivious conduct ,, or procuring minors for prostituion.”

At the time, he and his star-studded team of defense lawyers were closing in on a generous plea deal with federal and state officials in Florida, and Epstein was trying to negotiate the state charges to which he’d plead guilty. Maxwell’s response was matter-of-fact:

From: gmax <gmax[REDACTED]>
To: J. Epstein <jeeproject@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, May 23 2008 3:22 PM
Subject: Re:
I suppose Lewd and lecivious conduct..I would prefer lewd and lescivious conduct w/a prositute if possible

“Question,” Epstein wrote to Maxwell on May 23, 2008. “Which one do you prefer,,, lewd and lscivious conduct ,, or procuring minors for prostituion.” At the time, he and his star-studded team of defense lawyers were closing in on a generous plea deal with federal and state officials in Florida, and Epstein was trying to negotiate the state charges to which he’d plead guilty. Maxwell’s response was matter-of-fact: From: gmax <gmax[REDACTED]> To: J. Epstein <jeeproject@yahoo.com> Date: Fri, May 23 2008 3:22 PM Subject: Re: I suppose Lewd and lecivious conduct..I would prefer lewd and lescivious conduct w/a prositute if possible

EXCLUSIVE/BOMBSHELL: @bloomberg.com has obtained **18K** previously unreported emails from Jeffery Epstein's personal Yahoo account. The emails are disturbing & revelatory & reveal new details about Ghilaine Maxwell's role

FREE to read

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

7 months ago 6041 2766 149 261
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Philip Gourevitch on Gilles Peress’s Photo from September 11th Peress reached the World Trade Center just as the second tower collapsed.

Philip Gourevitch looks back on a 9/11 photo taken by Gilles Peress:

"We see them standing in that ashen pall, like the last survivors of a lost time..."

"There it is: ashes to ashes, dust to dust, no metaphors."
@pgourevitch.bsky.social @newyorker.com

7 months ago 4 0 0 0
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UK Ambassador Told Epstein ‘I Think the World of You,’ Emails Reveal Peter Mandelson, the prominent Labour politician who was named British ambassador to the US this year, expressed steadfast support and offered to discuss Epstein’s now-infamous 2008 case with his cont...

EXCLUSIVE: @bloomberg.com has obtained more than 100 previously undisclosed emails between UK Ambassador Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein from 2005 through 2010 that reveal Mandelson's steadfast support for Epstein after Epstein was charged with sex crimes

🎁 www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

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