THREAD: Our investigation of traffic stops also found that there is, as they say, a history here. Police took over traffic enforcement a century ago, accruing money and power, despite early concerns that much of it did little to improve public safety … 2/ In Washington, DC, in 1916, less than 10 years after the first car was registered there, traffic tickets were the 3rd most common citation in city court, adding thousands of dollars to the “Police Relief Fund” …

THREAD: Our investigation of police traffic stops revealed how ingrained practices, from towns’ over-reliance on ticket revenue to escalating behavior by officers, needlessly endanger motorists. Let’s take a close-up look at one example … 2/ Debra Hamil, 67, was known in her OK community for losing two grandkids to a deadly tornado in 2011; she and her husband thanked authorities who searched for the boys. Eight years later, she would have a very different encounter with police …

1/ NEW: We've been investigating police traffic stops, why they can turn deadly and the hidden financial motivations behind many of them... nytimes.com/2021/10/31/us/… 2/ Our series reveals a spectrum of questionable conduct, from towns hooked on ticket revenue ... nytimes.com/2021/10/31/us/…

1/ I'm not the first to relate this kind of story, but it's maddening nonetheless: My elderly parents, w/no Internet or smartphones, couldn't get a Covid vaccine appt. Meanwhile, I was offered one for myself as early as today. Here's what happened ... 2/ My parents, in their 80s, started by calling their doctor, who referred them to a state vaccine hotline. Went about as well as you might expect -- automated prompts, long waits, no humans and in the end kept disconnecting ...

Bedlam at U.S.-bound airlines at CDG in Paris early this a.m., as Americans pay as much as $20,000 for last-minute flights. 2/ I know because I’m one of them. Was awakened at 2:15 am Paris time by a concerned relative in America saying “Trump just banned all travel from Europe!” Turning on TV, I saw that indeed appeared to be so.

1/ Got a personal taste of how the QAnon conspiracy works today. After I tweeted an @aliwatkins story about the bizarre case of a QAnon follower accused of killing a mafia boss, it caught the attention of none other than the mysterious Q ... tinyurl.com/vsdw79u @AliWatkins 2/ Q, the anonymous creator of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory about Deep State traitors and pedophiles working against the president, posted a list of reporters who had tweeted the story, with the cryptic comment: "Thinking timing"...

1/ NEW: We examined each of President Trump’s 11,000+ tweets (so you don’t have to) and the ways he finds things on Twitter. What we discovered was alarming. w/ @karenyourish @larrybuch nyti.ms/339gT0p @karenyourish @larrybuch 2/ The president RT’d at least 145 unverified accounts that push conspiracy or extremist content, giving a boost to white nationalists, anti-Muslim bigots and adherents of QAnon, a fringe theory involving satanic pedophiles and the “deep state”

1/ This story deserves more attention. It took a decade of reporting and litigation to force Americans for Job Security, posing as a nonpartisan tax-exempt labor promoter, to give up records showing it's actually a front for rich people to influence elections from the shadows...

https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1188772665579978752

2/ A campaign finance investigation in Alaska concluded as much in 2009, openly calling AJS a "sham" organization ...