Hi friends!
There’s this concept in the comic book world called Shooter’s Law. It’s former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter’s philosophy that because any comic book could be someone’s first, each issue should be an easy and accessible introduction to the reader. And because Dave tells me that this newsletter keeps on picking up lots of new subscribers (!) I should follow Shooter’s Law and reintroduce myself.
I’m Chris Vazquez. I’ve worked with Dave on and off for the last four years, and I write the Friday edition of this newsletter while Dave writes the Monday edition. Hello to my new friends, and sorry to the old ones who’ve read this introduction like three times at this point. Blame Jim Shooter. And if this week’s news is your starting point into the wacky, confusing and terrifying goings on of our country and our world, boy howdy! Do we have a lot of exposition to do!
The feds are making it harder for us to stay vaccinated against infectious diseases, continuing a long, dark pattern of pushing regime change in Latin America, paying tech companies to surveil people and also investing in those tech companies. And that’s only about half the videos Dave has made this week.
🎁 Before we begin, a reminder that our holiday sale continues! You can save now save 10% on annual memberships. That’s like getting 12 months of Local News International for less than 11 months! Head on over to the membership page and save now. Your membership supports independent journalism.
Ok, now let’s dig in!
Making America Unvaccinated Again
The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator is making it harder for the federal government to approve vaccines. Dr. Vinay Prasad sent a memo to the entire agency announcing the stricter rules. In the memo, he claimed without evidence that the covid vaccine killed 10 kids.
“Isn’t it a good thing to make extra sure that vaccines are safe?” you might ask. Well, we already do. And by requiring vaccine makers to run larger studies, the vaccine approval process will probably slow down a lot. That requirement to run larger studies could also disincentivize pharmaceutical companies from making new vaccines.
Prasad also questioned whether multiple vaccines should be administered at once, which could throw a wrench in the childhood vaccination schedule.
He contradicted himself in the penultimate paragraph of the memo, both writing that he’s “open to vigorous discussions and debate,” and that staff who disagree with him should resign. Past chapters of U.S. authoritarianism have also been marked by purging federal employees.
White House implies guy who reportedly ordered killings not really to blame for killings
So, you know how the U.S. has killed over 80 people in more than 20 strikes since September on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific?
Well, during the first of those strikes, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered a surveillance aircraft to “kill everybody” according to people with knowledge of the operation that The Washington Post spoke to. They also said that after striking the boat, Admiral Frank Bradley directed the killing of two survivors in order to comply with Hegseth’s order.
Military and legal experts have called the killings illegal while White House officials have supported Bradley’s order to kill the survivors. But they’ve also framed it as his decision. House Democrats have accused the White House of scapegoating Admiral Frank Bradley when, according to The Post’s sources, Hegseth was the one who initially gave the order to “kill everybody.”
The bigger picture here is that the Trump administration is targeting boats it suspects — without evidence — of bringing drugs from Venezuela to the U.S. The strikes are part of the administration’s broader efforts to oust Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro, contributing to a long history of U.S.-backed regime change in Latin America, which research shows has “had a large, negative effect on democracy.”
Kidnapping people off the street? There’s an app for that.
In April, ICE paid the tech company Palantir $30 million to run a surveillance platform called “ImmigrationOS” to collect a ton of data that’ll expand state surveillance of immigrants and help ICE more efficiently decide who to kidnap. Palantir has worked with ICE for years.
A few weeks ago, The Guardian published an article detailing the sweeping influence that Palantir and its CEO, Alex Karp, now have. The company’s tech helps fuel ICE deportations, controversial military and policing tactics, Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and more.
They’re also profiting off of all this ($PLTR ( ▲ 2.16% )). White House officials like AI czar David Sacks and immigration policy architect Stephen Miller, who own Palantir stock, also stand to profit from the federal government handing over business to the company.
I don’t know the level of involvement those two had in deal between Palantir and ICE. But we do know that people within the federal government stand to get richer because the federal government is paying this company to do work around the specific policy areas that those officials have a heavy hand in.
Data for sale
A new policy at Meta will use people’s interactions with AI to tailor what ads and content they see. Though some tech companies offer ways to opt out of AI features, Meta doesn’t — though you can set your posts to private, since Meta says they “use public posts and comments on Facebook and Instagram to train generative AI.”
In fact, the U.S. doesn’t have any big federal laws telling tech companies what they can and can’t do with your data. (More on this in a video from the first iteration of Local News International.) But you can tell some companies to not sell your data.
Like, if you’re flying for the holidays and don’t want an airline-owned data broker to give the government your name, credit card info and destination, you can do what one 404 Media reporter did: email [email protected], say you want to delete the personal info they have on you and follow the next steps they give you when they reply. They told this reporter they wouldn’t delete the data but did agree not to sell it to third parties, including the government.
OK we’re done with tech news. Here’s a Medicare explainer.
Although Medicare is a federal insurance program, private companies play a big role in administering it.
This started in 1982, and Congress formalized it in 1997 by creating Medicare Part C, or Medicare Advantage. Enrolling in one of these plans gets you vision, dental and hearing coverage.
Then in 2003, Medicare Part D was signed into law. That adds coverage for prescription drugs through a private plan. 80% of Medicare enrollees receive some benefits through a private insurance plan.
This video is part of Dave’s partnership with Free the Facts, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that empowers young Americans to learn and lead.
Each week, after running through the news Dave has covered, I turn things over to him for some analysis. Newly clean-shaven Dave, analyze!
In our quarterly town hall Zoom Wednesday night, I was stumped by a question. Typically, we talk about current and future plans for LNI, ongoing news stories or just my opinions on any given topic. In the moment, I didn’t have a good answer to this question:
What is something you've learned recently that changed your perspective?
I do now! And it’s all thanks to this Poynter Institute article.
The article dives into the “weapons of mass destruction” or WMD debacle of the early 2000s. A quick recap for the youths, or less youthful millennials like me who were more interested in their PlayStation 2s at the time:
President George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 based on shaky evidence from CIA sources that the country possessed WMDs. Congress authorized the invasion. Then, in May, Bush stood in front of a “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” sign and declared a successful operation. But there were no WMDs. There never were (there certainly was some oil!). And the war continued for many years.
We did it, Joe.
I’ve heard the story dozens of times, read about it, watched Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert poke fun at Mission Accomplished for years after the fact. But this Poynter article had an angle I had never considered: the role of the press in this lie.
As Poynter puts it, “for months, major U.S. newsrooms had repeatedly reported that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein possessed such weapons. It was a systemic breakdown of journalistic skepticism, sourcing and courage. “
Until now, I had always believed the blame fell fully on Bush, Cheney and Congress. But nothing is ever that simple. Naturally, this has changed my perspective on that entire debacle. Finally, an answer to the town hall question!
And as I am wont do, I can’t help but compare this to America in 2025.
To be clear, I think legacy and new media are both doing everything they can to inform the public. Although I left the Washington Post, I continue to have endless admiration for my former colleagues and their constant scoops. I used two Post articles in sourcing just this week!
To me, the failure this time isn’t the curiosity of the press, but how news is being reported. This doesn’t mean that every story needs a BREAKING NEWS chyron flashing on screen, or that every report should be filled with misery and pessimism. I think we just need more honesty:
The President lied today.
The government is corrupt.
We are slipping into fascism.
These are phrases I’m not reading in our most respected media institutions. In my view, that’s a disservice to the American people. Journalism is about the truth and we should be honest about what’s happening. Only then will we be able to throw up “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” signs in our newsrooms.
Thanks, Dave!
If you made it to the end of the newsletter, you get two rewards. The first is a pet picture from one of our loyal readers. This is Tude!
I love her coat
Your second reward is learning where I hid a non-news related link in the body of this email for this week’s link scavenger hunt. Peep the Medicare explainer blurb for a link to read more about “Heroes Reborn,” a Marvel Comics storyline I’m now reading that stretched into 1997 — the same year Medicare Part C was officially created!
And one bonus this week: Dave encouraged me to shamelessly plug the video series about rising health care costs that I’m doing with Mother Jones. I was too shy to do it until the very end of this newsletter. Oops!
Until next week!
Chris
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