The Sunday Paper
Hey everyone,
It’s been a few weeks since our last edition and I owe you an explanation. Not because we went quiet, we’ve actually been busier than ever. We’ve had so many active projects running at once that something had to give, and unfortunately it was this newsletter. So let’s catch up.
What we’ve been working on
The biggest story we’ve been chasing is the ongoing situation with Taylor Sharp. A few weeks back he reached out to us directly, and we sat down and talked with him. That turned into this piece:
Not long after that, we heard from his soon to be father in law, who had a very different story to tell. We published what he told us here:
Exclusive: The Father Of Taylor Sharp’s...
We’re going to keep following this one wherever it goes. That’s the job.
We also had a genuinely great piece from Peter Giunta breaking down James Fishback’s loss in Florida and what it actually means. If you haven’t read it yet, you should:
James Fishback’s Moment, And Why It...
And then we lost Dolly Parton.
Her passing hit different than most celebrity news does, and it reminded us of something we needed reminding of. Not everything has to be political. Some things are just human. We wrote about that here:
Politics Isn’t Everything, And It’s...
The Top 5 Headlines This Week
Dolly Parton has died at 80. Tributes are pouring in from every corner of the country and honestly, they should. Few people earned that kind of universal love.
The Postal Service is appealing the court ruling that blocked Trump’s mail in voting order, setting up what looks like a real Supreme Court fight ahead of the midterms.
Wildfires in Spokane have torched more than 900 structures, and families are still sifting through what’s left.
Far right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was arrested by federal immigration authorities, a story that’s still developing.
Flock surveillance cameras are getting torn down, blocked, and vandalized in at least 36 states, as more communities push back on automated license plate tracking. More on that below, because we have thoughts.
Our take: the backlash against Flock cameras is justified
Speaking of Flock, I want to talk about it for a second because the anger is real and it’s growing, and honestly, we think it’s earned.
Here’s our stance. America should not become a mass surveillance state. Full stop. We understand the pitch. These cameras can help find a stolen car or a missing person, and there are real cases where they have. Nobody’s arguing that never happens. But that’s not the whole story, and it’s not close to it.
We’ve now seen multiple documented cases of police officers using this exact technology to stalk their exes. We’ve seen a sheriff’s office track a woman who may have had an abortion. We’ve seen departments quietly sharing data with federal immigration agencies. This isn’t a hypothetical slippery slope. It’s already happening, in real departments, to real people who did nothing wrong.
And that’s the trade we’re being asked to make. Give up your privacy, let a network of cameras track everywhere you drive, every doctor’s appointment, every trip to church, every time you pick your kid up from school, on the slim chance it might someday help solve a crime. Meanwhile the same tool is sitting there ready for any officer with a grudge and a login.
That math doesn’t work for us. A tool that can be this easily weaponized against ordinary Americans isn’t worth what it occasionally gets right. People vandalizing cameras and cities canceling contracts isn’t some fringe overreaction. It’s a pretty reasonable response to being watched without ever agreeing to it.
We’ll keep an eye on this one too.
Thanks for sticking with us. More soon.
- Kameron Rudat, Editor in Chief