The Hound | Feb. 27

Hi there,

It’s Friday. Mayor Zohran Mamdani secured the release of a Columbia student kidnapped by ICE after a surprise meeting with Donald Trump. Kansas targeted trans people’s driver’s licenses, pushing through a radical new law that invalidated them overnight. The Border Patrol killed another individual, this time in Buffalo, New York — Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a blind Rohingya refugee, was left on a street corner in the cold without notifying his family, who had moved away from the area. And a new article looks into how even newspapers were impacted in the Epstein files.

Newspapers do not “kill themselves.” They are weakened, reshaped, or hollowed out by ownership decisions that determine whether investigative reporting thrives or disappears. When billionaires and corporate owners cut staff, sideline aggressive journalism, or steer coverage away from powerful interests, they are making a choice about whether their outlets will hold the powerful to account—or protect them. Owners who claim to value press freedom cannot simultaneously undermine the newsroom capacity required to practice it.

🖊️ Add your name to call on media owners to recommit to robust accountability journalism—fund investigative teams, protect editorial independence, and resist pressure from political or corporate allies. A free press depends not only on courageous reporters, but on owners willing to back them when powerful figures push back.

Read about this, and more, with today’s stories:

Newspapers Did Not Kill Themselves (The American Prospect)

Kansas Makes Trans People’s Driver’s Licenses Invalid Overnight (The New Republic)

Columbia student detained by ICE is abruptly released after Mamdani meets with Trump (NPR)

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, Blind Rohingya Refugee Dumped by Border Patrol, Dies in Cold (Mother Jones)

Seized Art, Eavesdropping Guards: Parents Describe a Clampdown at Dilley Detention Center as Kids Shared Their Stories (ProPublica)

Boss of World Economic Forum quits after links to Epstein revealed (The Guardian)

Kilmar Abrego Garcia asks US judge in Tennessee to dismiss his criminal case, saying it’s vindictive (AP News)

Tariffs cost American shoppers. They're unlikely to get that money back (NPR)

The people standing between students and ICE? Teachers. (The 19th News)

Mississippi’s Black Voters Brace for Elections Ruling That Could Gut Supreme Court Clout (The Marshall Project)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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