One of our biggest projects at the Center for Investigative Reporting in the early years started out based on reporting I’d done for Pacific News Service and Rolling Stone. It was loosely called the “export of poison” and ultimately led to a joint project with Mother Jones called the “Corporate Crime of the Century,” which won a National Magazine Award, plus our book called Circle of Poison.
Going back still further, the way I got started on this reporting track was a humble item indeed — a packet of Kool-Aid in Afghanistan. In the list of ingredients on the back of the packet was cyclamates, an artificial sweetener that had been banned by the FDA as a carcinogen.
I had purchased the Kool-Aid at a bazaar in Kabul while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1969-71, and found it odd that something banned in the U.S. had found its way to one of the poorest countries in the world.
Back in the states, while working as a freelance reporter researching “export of poison” stories, I discovered that another journalist, Stan Sesser, had solved the cyclamate mystery when he published an expose in the Wall Street Journal documenting that U.S. companies had dumped products contain the carcinogen overseas after the FDA ban.
As fate would have it, I met Stan Sesser around the time we formed CIR in 1977. He was teaching journalism classes at U-C, Berkeley and wrote us a glowing letter of recommendation just as we were getting started.
A meticulous reporter who footnoted every allegation in his stories, Stan inspired us during those early years when we shared office space with him in downtown Oakland.
When I got the sad news recently that Stan Sesser had died at the age of 81, I thought back to how that packet of Kool-Aid over fifty years ago had bound our early careers together. It is with the greatest respect that I remember Stan Sesser, a fine journalist, R.I.P.
(The painting on canvas is by Daisy.)
***
On what might otherwise have seemed a dreary afternoon, given the rain outside and the state of the nation, I felt warm and hopeful inside thanks to a space heater I recently purchased and a cup of Philz coffee courtesy of a friend who brought me a 2-lb. bag a couple weeks ago.
These are the perfect conditions for me to write — the weather, the comfort and the feeling of connectedness.
Academics who study these kinds of things contend that there are only a few basic categories of stories in the world. I don’t recall the exact number, but that doesn’t really matter because that only makes it a better subject for academic debate. We can just agree that it is a discrete number that depends on who’s doing the categorizing.
So if the experts are right, any story I attempt to tell you has already been told, possibly millions of times over. A younger writer might get discouraged by this problem but I look at it from another perspective.
The way I see it, when it comes to a good story, it’s all in the telling, and I just told you one.
(Thanks to Susanna for the coffee.)
HEADLINES:
There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing — How regime change happens in America (Atlantic)
DOGE Is Hacking America — The U.S. government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history. (Foreign Policy)
Justice, FBI ousters remove longtime experts from daily threats meeting (WP)
White House terminates top federal prosecutors amid DOJ, FBI purge (NBC)
Top prosecutor resigns after being told to drop case against NYC mayor Eric Adams (BBC)
Musk team kicks off federal layoffs as White House eyes big cuts (WP)
JD Vance throws down a high-risk gauntlet for America's judiciary (MSNBC)
Senate confirms RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary (CNN)
DOGE rips through Education Department, cutting contracts, staff and grants (WP)
Elon Musk claims to know the net worths of federal employees, raising a fundamental question about how he could have possibly obtained the information in the first place. [HuffPost]
Trump expected to announce reciprocal tariffs (Guardian)
Trump’s push for ‘efficiency’ may destroy the EPA. What does that mean for you? (Grist)
Judge removes key legal hurdle for Trump’s plan to trim federal workforce with deferred resignations (AP)
Trump Admits He Caved to Putin in Phone Call on Ukraine (TNR)
Trump says he backs Ukraine, but early concessions to Russia are sparking concerns – especially in Europe, where leaders say talks on ending the war will affect their own security. (Reuters)
Donald Trump opens the door to Vladimir Putin’s grandest ambitions (Financial Times)
Hegseth suggests Ukraine should abandon hope of winning all territory back from Russia (AP)
Israel and Hamas Agree to Resolve Cease-Fire Dispute (WSJ)
A.P. Accuses White House of Violating First Amendment (NYT)
Immigrant rights activists vow to disrupt ICE raids in California (LAT)
NYT’s Eric Lipton on How Musk Empire Benefits as He Slashes Fed. Gov’t; Trump Cryptocurrency Schemes (Democracy Now)
US Homeland Security says election security personnel placed on leave (Reuters)
House Republicans shared a broad outline of their plans for the federal budget, using cuts to social programs to help pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts. [HuffPost]
Federal judge blocks Trump’s order aiming to restrict health care for transgender youth (WP)
Evacuations issued in Southern California as heavy rain brings threat of debris flows in areas scarred by wildfires (CNN)
A far-right party is heading for its strongest result yet in Germany’s election (AP)
The Song Kris Kristofferson Wrote for Carly Simon During Their Brief Romance (American Songwriter)
Can the Human Body Endure a Voyage to Mars? (New Yorker)
Elon Musk will withdraw bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit if its board agrees to terms (TechCrunch)
Google, Amazon-backed Anthropic develops hybrid AI model with reasoning ability (Seeking Alpha)
AI is evolving so quickly that bank analysts are becoming self-aware (Financial Times)
AI Agents Are Everywhere…and Nowhere (WSJ)
OpenAI lays out plans for GPT-5 (Verge)
How Did DeepSeek Build Its A.I. With Less Money? (NYT)
Man Allows All Cookies So Website Won’t Be Mad At Him (The Onion)
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