On an October day in 1971, I drove an old Chevy van up Fell Street to the Fillmore in San Francisco, on the final leg of a cross-county trek, and restarted my post-college journalism career after a two year hiatus in the Peace Corps.
A small group of us started a magazine called SunDance at 1913 Fillmore Street. It was a large-format magazine, with big graphics and long articles on the intersection of post-Sixties politics and culture.
Actually, it was pure-Sixties in its sensibility; we just didn’t know yet that that era was finished. SunDance had an eclectic list of writers and artists, none more famous than John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who also gave us some money. When they came to visit the office and share stimulants with us, we knew we’d been blessed by the gods.
Alas, none of us knew what a business plan was, and SunDance lasted all of three issues, though glorious issues they were.
A few years later, I landed across town at Rolling Stone, at 625 Third Street, where celebrities of every stripe poured through the office, and the stimulation never ended. Not being a music writer, I rarely hung out with musicians, but a small group of us formed an ad-hoc investigative unit on staff there, and we did some good work until the founder, Jann Wenner, decided to move the operation to New York.
That same year, 1977, Lowell Bergman, Dan Noyes and I started a non-profit, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and our first office was in the Broadway Building in downtown Oakland. Financing ourselves by a combination of foundation grants and contracts with media outlets, we produced newspaper and magazine articles at first, with books, television and radio documentaries coming later on.
In my mind, the Center would be a place where reporters who worked hard could see their journalistic dreams come true. And for quite a few of us, they did.
(This is an excerpt from a piece I first published in 2006.)
HEADLINES:
Trump Had No Plan B for Iran (Atlantic)
Seven U.S. allies back potential Strait of Hormuz coalition (Axios)
Saudi Arabia Sees a Spike to $180 Oil if Energy Shock Persists Past April (WSJ)
Trump considers “winding down” Iran war without opening Hormuz Strait (Axios)
Middle East conflict forces Asia’s grim choice: blackouts or coal (LAT)
If the US-Israeli war on Iran ended tomorrow, one verdict is already clear: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would walk away stronger, while Trump would be left to manage the shock to global markets and to Gulf allies who have borne the heaviest costs. (Reuters)
What the War Has Done to Iranians (New Yorker)
Pentagon press policy ruled unconstitutional in case brought by N.Y. Times (NYT)
Pete Hegseth’s Christian rhetoric draws renewed scrutiny after the US goes to war with Iran (AP)
As Trump Demands Voter Data, This Fiercely Independent Red State Says No (ProPublica)
Travelers face Friday rush and unpredictable airport wait times as TSA officers go unpaid (CNN)
TSA official: Airport security problem ‘going to get worse before it gets better’ (The Hill)
Rising gas prices hitting US household finances and more pain is expected, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (Yahoo)
US veteran charged with ‘conspiracy’ over ICE protest refuses to plead guilty (Guardian)
A new survey suggests around 2 million Americans have lost health insurance after Congress let federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans expire following last year’s government shutdown battle. [HuffPost]
Supreme Court sides with antiabortion activist in free speech case (WP)
Trump Administration Sues Harvard Over Accusations of Antisemitism (NYT)
Like Julius Caesar before him, Trump gets his image on a coin (WP)
What Cesar Chavez’s biographer says now (Politico)
California to Rename Chavez Holiday as ‘Farmworkers Day’ (NYT)
U.S. says Cuba is prohibited from taking Russian oil as two tankers head to island (CNBC)
CBS News will end radio service as Weiss struggles to right ship (WP)
A.I. Is Writing Fiction. Publishers Are Unprepared. (NYT)
Facebook’s Meta rebrand is looking stupider by the day (Creative Blog)
How new tech is helping seniors live better, more independent lives (WP)
Google Search is now using AI to replace headlines (Verge)
OpenAI’s Frontier puts AI agents in a fight SaaS can’t afford to lose (AI News)
Thousands have swooned over this MAGA dream girl. She’s made with AI. (WP)
Jeff Bezos in Talks to Raise $100 Billion Fund to Transform Companies With A.I. (NYT)
Dirt-Covered Trump Boys Attempt To Siphon Gas From Ground (Onion)
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