City hall reporter @sfchronicle. Boston born, Philly trained, TX forged. RPCV: Paraguay. Call me ‘Sinjin.' Signal: stjbs.82
San Francisco, CA
Joined May 2009
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St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
To be a journalist is to spend your entire career simultaneously aspiring to work at the New York Times and deeply resenting it for stealing so many local stories without giving credit.
NEW: The Times’s Credit Crisis
A recent New York Times front-page feature on chemical plants in the Trump era had deep reporting, stark data visuals, and an uncanny resemblance to a smaller outlet’s earlier investigation. Was this a case of unacknowledged inspiration, a steroidal dose of Times exceptionalism, or sheer coincidence?
puck.news/media/2026/10/did-…
“ As everyone here knows, the Times stands at the vanguard of journalism in many respects; alas, in matters of credit and citation, it is a notorious laggard.”
NEW: The Times’s Credit Crisis
A recent New York Times front-page feature on chemical plants in the Trump era had deep reporting, stark data visuals, and an uncanny resemblance to a smaller outlet’s earlier investigation. Was this a case of unacknowledged inspiration, a steroidal dose of Times exceptionalism, or sheer coincidence?
puck.news/media/2026/10/did-…
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
MAGA's man in Latin America hired a hitman to kill his girlfriend. He also said he would "take down" the Mexican president. He's since been arrested, but now the attorney prosecuting him has been arrested by the US DEA.
Trump doesn't want this story to come out. elciudadano.com/en/claudia-s… via @el_ciudadano
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
🚨 BREAKING from @politico >>>
Senior @GregAbbott_TX staff held secret closed door meeting with Big Tech to "remove roadblocks" for bringing more data centers to Texas.
Two days later, ERCOT announced plan to get them connected to state grid even faster.
politico.com/news/2026/10/27…
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
If you're a journalist named Dan Sullivan, we need you reporting on the Alaska Senate race. This is your time to shine.
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Is it normal for an anonymous Wyoming LLC that sent mass mailers impersonating a transgender advocacy group to hire the lawyer who defended TX Attorney General Ken Paxton from impeachment in response to a court filing seeking to depose people who could unmask the LLC's owners
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Elon Musk has spent more money on American elections in the last two years than George Soros has in his entire life.
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Typically, Rs don’t need to send the big guns to Lubbock and Weatherford
Wow
🚨 #BREAKING: Lula has won re-election as Brazil's president, in a stunning upset against conservative Flávio Bolsonaro, son of disgraced former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving 27 years in prison for a coup attempt. Liberals stacking wins in the US has bled abroad.
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
We gave the Times the chance to do the right thing yesterday.
Instead, they’re going with an argument that basically boils down to:
*We randomly produced our first ever plume model about the exact same incident that Hunterbrook exposed with a plume model
*We randomly took a lead photo of the exact same home on the exact same street
*We randomly interviewed the same expert
Etc.
They wrote a great story. Obviously, we care about the subject deeply. It’s just a huge bummer for our team and the reporters who worked relentlessly on these stories.
Breaking: Several sections of @NYTimes front page story today mirror two earlier Hunterbrook investigations — without attribution.
Images. Methods. Sources.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Immigration Agents Have Detained Hundreds of U.S. Citizens. Meet the ProPublica Team with the Data to Prove It
I'm talking with the team on Tuesday, October 27 at 1 pm ET.
austinkocher.substack.com/p/…
@propublica
ALT Banner. Immigration Agents Have Detained Hundreds of U.S. Citizens. Meet the ProPublica Team with the Data to Prove It. A live conversation on Zoom, Tuesday, October 27 at 1:00 p.m. ET, with Nicole Foy, Ruth Talbot and Cengiz Yar of ProPublica, hosted by Austin Kocher. A woman sits on the grass beside a road with federal agents around her, next to the quote, I am a U.S. citizen, please help me.
This story is incredible
So as I headed to Ingram for the first time in March, I wanted to know who the local faces of the national immigration crackdown were.
Who was driving the black Dodge Charger?
propublica.org/article/depor…
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Startling stat — a police officer in a small Texas town handed arrested and handed over immigrants to ICE at such volume that the total number is the equivalent of 10% of his town's population.
nytimes.com/2026/10/25/magaz…
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
They Were Accused of Illegal Fishing. They Ended Up in ICE Detention.
In states like Florida, officers who hand out fishing citations and inspect produce have been deputized by ICE, expanding the reach of Trump’s deportation campaign.
nytimes.com/2026/10/24/us/po…
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
BOOMER DAD: “You never discuss your salary with coworkers.”
ME: “I compared pay with someone on my team.”
BOOMER DAD: “That’s unprofessional.”
ME: “He was making $16,000 more than me. Same title. Same workload.”
BOOMER DAD: “That’s between the company and the employee.”
ME: “I used that info to renegotiate.”
BOOMER DAD: “You just got fortunate.”
ME: “No. I got informed.”
A month later, I was making $12,000 more a year.
Keeping salaries secret doesn’t protect workers. It protects companies from uncomfortable conversations.
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Houston: Hundreds of Texans leaving their "I voted" stickers at the site where Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot by ICE
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
A wild story: the CEO of a US energy company whose plans were discussed during the Witkoff-Kushner-Putin negotiations resigns. Why? He learned that his company's main investor is a sanctioned Russian company, not the UAE
nytimes.com/2026/10/23/us/po…
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
MAJOR SCOOP: Ken Paxton Says He’s Tough on Crime. His Trust Invested $600,000 in a Convicted Fraudster’s Company. propublica.org/article/ken-p… w/ @TexasTribune
