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
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
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
New: Ken and Angela Paxton invested $600,000 in a convicted fraudster’s business
With @propublica: bit.ly/4simOwE
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Russia launched covert influence campaign to undermine US candidates supportive of Ukraine, lawmakers say politi.co/4dRIcD2 via @politico
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Whoa. The U.S. added 90% fewer jobs in 2025 than originally reported.
That’s not a rounding error. That’s a massive difference between the economy Americans were told we had and the one we actually had.
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed His Secret Negotiations—Including More Than $700 Million In Transfers vanityfair.com/story/jared-k…
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
Jesus Christ. Trump's Pentagon is putting the pain ray on the southern border.
This was a weapon yanked from Iraq ... for being too inhumane.
laserwars.net/p/military-hea…
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
SCOOP: The State Dept has started asking career diplomats up for promotion if they voted for Trump in 16, 20, 24.
Federal law prohibits politically based hiring for career staff.
State tells @washingtonsun it's screening for "fidelity" and execution of the president's vision👇
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ retweeted
In 2020, Tommy Tuberville promised to donate “every dime” of his $174,000 Senate salary to Alabama veterans and their families. A June investigation found no evidence he followed through, a pledge now worth roughly $1 million.
Tuesday night, after a reporter asked about it, Tuberville told staff to remove him. Then he called the media “socialists” and “communists.”
The MAGA senator had a reporter thrown out of a campaign dinner after being confronted with an embarrassing question.
thedailybeast.com/maga-senat…
