SC woman was aiding children of 85,000 jailed Salvadorans. Then US support vanished. trib.al/uL8jXH8

El Salvador Pres. Nayib Bukele won't return a Maryland man wrongly deported there. Under Bukele, the country has jailed over 85,000 people to curb gang violence. Mitchell Black now tells the story of a nonprofit trying to help the children left behind. tinyurl.com/ymbwnyns

For the past decade, an organization led by the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, woman has helped El Salvador provide services to its children. Then the Trump administration terminated its funding. Grantee Mitchell Black reports for The Post and Courier. pulitzercenter.org/stories/south-…

Monkey Island wasn't supposed to be Monkey Island. When SCDNR bought it in 2002 with more than $22 million in federal funds, a state board agreed to remove the monkeys. Over 20 years later, monkeys on the island with their future uncertain. trib.al/pvgSYL4

All eyes on El Salvador. "We have received trusted information that... the Attorney General's Office is preparing arrest warrants against some El Faro journalists", says Carlos Dada. El Faro just released new evidence of Bukele's negotiations with gangs.

I spoke to 8 current and native South Carolinians who worked with USAID. Many devoted their careers to addressing humanitarian crises overseas. Now, some are refreshing their resumes for the first time in years. Read in The Post and Courier postandcourier.com/news/usaid-sou…

An influx of SC law enforcement agencies are joining ICE's 287(g) program, including the previously defunct task force model with a history of civil rights abuses. Mitchell Black and Komlavi Adissem broke down its troubled history and murky future in the state. postandcourier.com/news/sc-sled-p…

S.C. Superintendent Ellen Weaver is moving to take control of the Jasper County School District, citing failures in leadership and financial disarray. The Post and Courier has been following this story for months. Read more here. postandcourier.com/uncovered/jasp…

STUPID good subscription deal going on right now... one month free, and then an additional year for ONE-THIRD of the regular price. For context, that is -27 cents a day -Less than $2 per week -About $8 a month. But you have to use this link... postandcourier.com/columbia/subsc…

Last month, the state inspector general's office raised questions about a former Jasper County schools superintendent's work with Cognia, the school accreditor. Mitchell Black and I dug into those questions and their (potentially wider) implications. postandcourier.com/education-lab/…

From Friday: Beaufort school board restricts students’ access to books after challenge Officials in the Lowcountry district had to begin reviewing the challenges again after the State Board of Education stopped taking them up directly. With Mitchell Black: postandcourier.com/education-lab/…

"Why don’t I see my friends anymore? Why can’t I go to school?" A really important story from Valerie Nava and Mitchell Black postandcourier.com/education-lab/…

Daufuskie Island sits on SC's barrier. It was the setting for Pat Conroy's "The Water is Wide," and has a strong Gullah connection. Discontent with county oversight have some wanting more agency. I spent a day on the island to learn what that means: postandcourier.com/beaufort-count…

Having a great beat writer following my terrible team is a true silver lining

Last month, a Beaufort County sheriff’s deputy brandished his weapon on a group of kids on Hilton Head. By the end of the week he was fired. Today, state police arrested him. postandcourier.com/beaufort-count…

Nydia Velázquez, a New York Trailblazer in Congress, to Retire Next Year nytimes.com/2025/11/20/nyr…

For years, South Carolina has been plagued with a backlog of thousands of rape kits. It's not a secret, either. The issue highlights deep frustrations over a system long riddled with inefficiency, finger pointing & very few actions on a fix. postandcourier.com/politics/sc-ra…

Actually a very interesting and kind of sobering read... When the president of the United States has a history of posting AI-generated images, how do you verify whether visual proof of a breaking news event is -- in fact -- real? nytimes.com/2026/01/04/ins…