Clear It with Sidney | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

Clear It with Sidney

February 13, 2026

Sidney's Picks: "I have never felt so much fear"

Photo credit: 

Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News
 

  • A federal judge blocks Pete Hegseth’s attempt to discipline Sen. Mark Kelly for reminding troops of their obligation to refuse illegal orders, and a grand jury refuses to induct Kelly and five other legislators for their speech. (WaPo)
     

  • The academic fallout from the Epstein Files keeps getting weirder: OSU professor physically attacks journalist for asking too many questions. (NYT)
     

  • “I have never felt so much fear”: Kids in the Dilley immigrant detention center speak out. (NYT, ProPublica)
     

  • An Irishman and 20-year resident of Boston says he fears for his life after five months in U.S. immigration detention. (RTE 100)
     

  • DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard was placed on a TSA watchlist in 2024 because she took a trip sponsored by a pro-Kremlin businessman with ties to sanctioned oligarchs. (SpyTalk)
     

  • Censorship of student journalism is a threat to free speech. (E&P)

February 6, 2026

Sidney's Picks: The Real Reason ICE Wears Masks

Photo credit: 

Tony Webster, Washington, DC, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News

  • Hillman prize-winner Adam Serwer on the real reason ICE agents wear masks. (Atlantic)
     

  • Why Pam Bondi is using the FACE Act to target Don Lemon and other journalists. (MS Now)
     

  • ICE is buying warehouses to build massive detention centers across the country. (WaPo)
     

  • Union leaders warn Gavin Newsom to regulate AI if he wants to be president. (CalMatters)
     

  • Jeffrey Epstein cultivated ties with Russians and sought to meet Vladimir Putin, files show. (WaPo)

January 30, 2026

Don Lemon Arrested for Covering MN Church Protest

Photo credit: 

Chad Davis, Minneapolis, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News
 

  • Federal agents arrest Don Lemon for covering a church protest in Minneapolis. (NYT)
     

  • Feds seize ballots from Fulton County to boost Trump’s outrageous 2020 election conspiracy theories. (Guardian, ABC) 
     

  • How a violent, warrantless ICE raid devastated a family. (MoJo)
     

  • Grok probed: Europe investigates Elon Musk’s revenge porn engine. (CNN)
     

  • Remembering the Challenger disaster, which claimed the lives of seven astronauts including beloved teacher and union leader Christa McAuliffe. (WaPo)
     

  • A MAGA billionaire bought TikTok, what does that mean for the culture?

January 23, 2026

Sidney's Picks: Anti-ICE General Strike Underway in Minneapolis

Photo credit: 

Chad Davis, Minneapolis, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News

  • ICE authorized agents to break into homes without a judicial warrant, secret memo shows. (AP)

     

  • General strike to oppose ICE is underway in Minneapolis. (TNR, MN Reformer)
     

  • Martin Luther King Jr’s son urges the Supreme Court to save the Voting Rights Act and our democracy. (NYT)
     

  • The Sistine Chapel of the New Deal may be destroyed. (WaPo)
     

  • Planned CDC-funded, Tuskegee-style vaccine study in Africa is called off.  (NYT)
     

  • Abortion bans are killing women with high-risk pregnancies. (ProPublica)

January 16, 2026

Sidney's Picks: ICE Will Hire Anyone

Photo credit: 

Chad Davis, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News

  • ICE will hire anyone. Laura Jedeed proved it. (Slate)
     

  • If an ICE agent orders you to exit your car, do you have to obey? Maybe not. (NYT)
     

  • Eric Adams returned to private life as a crypto huckster. A million investor dollars went missing on Day One. (Hellgate, NYT)
     

  • UAW defends the free speech of a member who was suspended for calling Donald Trump a pedophile protector. (Politico)
     

  • In a dramatic escalation, the FBI executed a search warrant on the home of a Washington Post reporter who covered Trump’s assault on the federal government. (WaPo)
     

  • The Pentagon moves to strip Stars and Stripes of its Congressionally-mandated journalistic independence. (AP)

January 9, 2026

The Bear Facts: Behind RFK's Bizarre Roadkill Stunt

Photo credit: 

Jim Mullhaupt, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News

  • New records show the mess Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. left when he dumped a road-killed bear cub in Central Park to stage a bike crash. (Wired)
     

  • The ICE agent who shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis is identified as Jonathan Ross. (Star Tribune)
     

  • Hillman Prize-winner Elie Mystal on why Minnesota should prosecute Good’s murderer. (Nation)

     

  • She championed Black women’s health as a midwife, but died after giving birth to her first child. (NBC)
     

  • Barrett Prize-winner Phillipe Sands on Trump, Venezuela, and the future of international law. (Legal AF, video)
     

  • J6 insurrectionist pardoned by Trump faces sexual assault charges, and he’s not alone. (Raw Story)

December 19, 2025

Sidney's Picks: How Epstein Made His Money

Photo credit: 

Victoria Pickering, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News

  • Trump administration poised to destroy one of the world’s most criticalclimate research centers. (WaPo)
     

  • General testifies that he might kill suspected drug traffickers on American soil if Pete Hegseth ordered him to. (Intercept)
     

  • Jeffrey Epstein got rich from simple fraud, not financial wizardry or international espionage. (NYT)
     

  • Trump’s cuts cripple the National Labor Relations Board. (NYT)
     

  • Few farms participate in programs that might protect farmworkers from exploitation. (ProPublica)
     

  • U.S. will pay $450,000 to compensate each wildfire fighter who develops smoke-related cancer. (NYT)

December 12, 2025

Sidney's Picks: Sen. Ron Johnson Hypes Bleach as a Health Elixir

Photo credit: 

Don’t Drink Me.  Allen, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News
 

  • How the Trump administration freed accused rapist and human trafficker and self-proclaimed misogynist pornographer Andrew Tate. (NYT)

     

  • This journalist asked about Pete Hegseth’s mentor, then the threats started. (MoJo)
     

  • NYC Subway drivers witness deaths on the job, struggle to get help. (NYT)
     

  • Texas warehouses disabled people in boarding houses where abuse and neglect run rampant. (ITT)
     

  • “It’s all lunacy”: Sen. Ron Johnson hypes bleach as a health elixir . (ProPublica)
     

  • Workers at the renowned British Library go on strike. (LRB)

December 5, 2025

Sidney's Picks: Are All Trump's Boat Strikes Murder?

Photo credit: 

A fishing boat in the Caribbean, 16:19 Clue, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News

 

November 21, 2025

Sidney's Picks: Trump's Golden Age of Grift

Photo credit: 

Greed-colored glasses, Loco Steve, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News

  • Lawmakers force House vote to nullify Trump’s anti-union executive orders. (GovExec)

     

  • On the trail of an AI journalism scammer. (The Local)
     

  • Texas abortion ban claims another life. (ProPublica)

     

  • Hillman judge Jamelle Bouie on Trump’s Grifty Gold Rush. (NYT)
     

  • The White House interceded on behalf of professional misogynist and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate. (ProPublica)
     

  • A government-backed campaign has resulted in over 600 firings, suspensions, and other disciplinary actions against people who criticized Charlie Kirk. (Reuters)

Pages

Recent Posts

February 13, 2026
Sidney's Picks: "I have never felt so much fear"
February 6, 2026
Sidney's Picks: The Real Reason ICE Wears Masks
January 30, 2026
Don Lemon Arrested for Covering MN Church Protest
January 23, 2026
Sidney's Picks: Anti-ICE General Strike Underway in Minneapolis
January 16, 2026
Sidney's Picks: ICE Will Hire Anyone

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