"In 2024 the aristocracy is largely made-up anyway—whether by a guy 400 years ago who said God made him king, or by a PR adviser you met at a party." Great story by alice hines.

“For me she is everything. My sister, my mother, my wife. We have a complicity, like two souls in one,” José told me. Betty saw it another way: “My hairdresser told me, Betty, José wants to be you.” An alice hines epic… vanityfair.com/style/story/la…

The life of José Castelo Branco, 61, and Lady Betty Grafstein, 95, consisted of dinner parties, galas, and fashion shows. But soon enough, their manicured façade came crashing down amid allegations of abuse and fake noble titles. vanityfair.com/style/story/la…

This is the portuguese drama of the year.

This from Brian Merchant is an excellent rundown of the malignant mutation of California’s journalism-funding legislation, and why it matters for everybody: bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-a-bill-m…

NEW: Imagine eating a poppy seed salad from Costco the night before giving birth — only to test positive for opiates at the hospital, prompting child protective services to take your newborn away. This happened to one woman in CA. And she's not alone. themarshallproject.org/2024/09/09/dru…

LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

People are asking me how they can help Western NC right now. Donate to Mountain Xpress or Asheville Watchdog or The Assembly. But more importantly, pay for your local news wherever you live. Journalism will only survive if you support it.

I’m in print for New York Magazine! I spent the last year talking to David Dempsey from jail, as he awaited sentencing for his crimes on J6. Through Dempsey & other J6ers, I heard about the tightknit, cult-like community they’d created inside the jail unit known as “the patriot wing”

Interesting investigation into drug testing and inherent flaws in methods used by child welfare agencies

This is the order that gave Lady Betty Grafstein her "dameship"!

I’m hoping to speak to people who evacuated the fires and watched their home from security cameras / ring doorbells / remote alarm systems. I’d like to hear what happened: where you live, how you got out, what you took, and what it has been like to watch from afar. DMs open.

For the last seven months, I've worked on a project examining how Georgia's child welfare agency relied on a drug testing company embroiled in allegations of widespread testing issues to make crucial decisions related to custody. thecurrentga.org/2025/03/01/geo…

But it wasn't until news became public about Averhealth's federal investigation and whistleblower allegations, and Vice News reporter alice hines reached out to DFCS Director Candice Broce that alarm bells began going off at the agency. Again - open records

More than that, DFCS had concerns about Averhealth dating back to 2020, when the agency tried to drop it from its list of approved drug testers. A lobbyist intervened and then Averhealth was no longer excluded as a drug testing laboratory: documentcloud.org/documents/2554…

Excellent reporting about Averhealth - the embattled drug testing lab I reported on for VICE News - which is still doing business with child welfare agencies, among them Georgia DCFS