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Sandi Sonnenfeld

Award-winning content writer, ghostwriter and senior corporate communications professional who has published more than 250 articles, op/eds, blogs and other thought leadership in some of the nation's leading mainstream and …

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Michael Campbell

Michael Campbell is a communications professional with a decade of experience in the field, ranging from print journalism, broadcast & digital content production, and public relations. Based in Central Virginia, …

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Nick Erickson

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Mohar Chatterjee

I'm a journalist and an engineer. I report stories that combine innovative software skills and traditional investigative techniques.

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Audrey Hill

Student investigative journalist studying at American UniversityIntern at the Investigative Reporting Workshop

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Tel Aviv Institute

The future of combatting hate. We are a multidisciplinary laboratory focused on uplifting Jews and other minorities on and offline through innovative, social media-driven strategies.

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Latest Articles

Family raises money to exhume body of S.C. teen found near Murdaugh home

On a July morning in 2015, authorities found Stephen Smith’s body on a desolate back road in South Carolina. The 19-year-old nursing student had a gaping hole in his forehead. His yellow Chevrolet was found three miles away with its gas cap unscrewed. While a coroner said Smith had been …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Students made a racist deepfake of a principal. It left parents in fear.

The first letter from Carmel Central School District officials arrived on Feb. 13, alerting parents that three high-schoolers had “used artificial intelligence to impersonate the staff” and made them appear to make “inappropriate comments” in videos. There was no threat to school safety, the letter added. Abigail Santana didn’t think …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Why huge masses of seaweed are floating to Florida and the Gulf

The beaches of Mexico's Quintana Roo state were besieged in 2021 by sargassum, a type of seaweed that has become more pervasive since 2011. (Video: Reuters) Masses of tangled brown seaweed that typically spend most of the year floating around in the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean are once …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Okla. lawmaker says Bible endorses corporal punishment of disabled children

Yet on Tuesday, what seemed like a rare bipartisan moment quickly came crashing down as other Republican lawmakers invoked the Bible to argue against Talley’s House Bill 1028, claiming in some instances that “God’s word is higher than all the so-called experts,” as Rep. Jim Olsen posited during the proposed …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Michelle Obama says she cried for 30 minutes after Trump’s inauguration

That was in December 2018, when Obama was promoting her first book, “Becoming.” Now, four years and another book later, the former first lady is offering a more serious assessment of the emotions she felt on Jan. 20, 2017, the day Donald Trump became president. “I cried for 30 minutes …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Can American-made cheese be called Gruyère? Yes, a U.S. court rules.

For over 900 years, farmers in an Alpine region between Switzerland and France have turned barrels of raw milk into wheels of smooth, nutty cheese known as Gruyère. The tradition, combined with the location where it’s produced, have afforded the cheese name-protected designations in Europe. But a United States court …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Gary Rossington, last founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, dead at 71

Gary Rossington, the lead guitarist and the last surviving founding member of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, known for hits such as “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama,” died March 5 at 71. His death was confirmed by an agent, Ken Levitan, who said he was unable to provide …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

After rescue from Mexican prison, tattooed ‘narco cat’ is going to Texas

Over the past few months, security sweeps in a Mexican prison have yielded some surprising finds: a mechanical bull, a pair of sneakers worth over $1,000, a slew of speakers, a plethora of musical instruments and a secret tunnel to smuggle all of those banned items in. Are you on …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Michigan AG says she was among targets in plot to kill Jewish officials

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday that she was among the officials targeted by a man who allegedly threatened “to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is jewish” in the state’s government. Last week, authorities arrested Jack E. Carpenter III, 41, on one count of using …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

‘Noah’ and ‘Daren’ report good news about Venezuela. They’re deepfakes.

The clips are from a YouTube channel called House of News, which presents itself as an English-language media outlet. Researchers say the videos are part of the Venezuelan government’s attempts to spin the narrative on social media, considered one of the last bastions of free speech in a nation where …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

A school shooting survivor’s ‘American Idol’ audition moved judges to tears

The soulful vocals Trey Louis, a 21-year-old mattress salesman, delivered during his audition had already sent “American Idol” judges to their feet, eliciting a round of applause. His powerful rendition of Whiskey Myers’s “Stone” — a stirring song about a man’s heart that’s “going to break again a million times” …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

A Jeff Koons balloon dog shattered. Now collectors want to buy the shards.

In the white-walled halls of a Florida art fair, a thunderous bam! on Thursday night brought art aficionados, collectors and artists to a halt as shards of chrome-blue porcelain sprayed up into the air like confetti. A woman had accidentally knocked over one of the sculptures on display. What had …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Analysis | Three kinds of health measures blue states are pursuing this year

The 2023 legislative session is moving full steam ahead. We recently wrote about legislation red states are pursuing. In today’s edition, we take a look at blue states, where lawmakers are moving to ban flavored tobacco products, curb prescription drug prices and expand health coverage for residents.
By McKenzie B. Beard
• Washington Post

Michigan State shooting live updates: Gunman lied about having firearm inside home, father says

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The father of the gunman who killed three Michigan State University students and critically injured five more before turning the gun on himself said he had confronted his son about owning a firearm and told him to get rid of it. Michael McRae told The Washington …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

They named roaches after their exes for Valentine’s — and have no regrets

The San Antonio Zoo is one of several zoos allowing people to name a cockroach after their ex. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: San Antonio Zoo/The Washington Post) “Roaches are like chocolate for meerkats. They destroy the roach, like they chew off the head and they suck it all up,” …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

2nd N.J. politician shot dead in a week in ‘dreadful and random’ coincidence

On Wednesday morning, police in New Jersey responded to a shooting in the parking lot of PSE&G, an energy company. When they arrived, they found a Republican councilman shot dead outside his car — the second elected official in the state to be slain in just a week. For over …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Dallas Zoo suspect rode train with monkeys, kept other animals, police say

Throughout January, the Dallas Zoo made headlines for its spate of peculiar occurrences, including the monkey disappearances, a leopard on the loose and even a dead bird. And while the oddities seemed to come to an end last week, court documents obtained by The Washington Post shed light onto a …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Analysis | Three kinds of health measures red states are pursuing this year

There’s a lot of gridlock in the nation’s capital right now. But there’s plenty of action happening in states. The 2023 state legislative season is in full swing, and lawmakers in red and blue states have started to push their health priorities. They’ve put forward a flurry of bills that, …
By McKenzie B. Beard
• Washington Post

Flamingo, a pink pigeon, was an NYC mystery. Now the beloved bird is dead.

So Rodríguez took it to the Wild Bird Fund, a nonprofit that rehabilitates sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. Since then, staff members had gone through “a whole arsenal” of tools to aid the ailing pigeon, including placing it inside an oxygenated enclosure and employing a plethora of dye-removal methods. The …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Toxic chemicals burn over Ohio derailment site during controlled release

Toxic fumes began billowing over northeastern Ohio on Monday afternoon as authorities aimed to mitigate a potential explosion from derailed tanker cars that were carrying hazardous materials. The “controlled release” of vinyl chloride, a colorless compound that is a human carcinogen and can be deadly if inhaled, “involves the burning …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

School worker stole $1.5 million worth of chicken wings, prosecutors say

The first sign of trouble at an Illinois school district was when a routine audit found it was $300,000 over its annual food budget midway through the year, prosecutors said. Then a review found invoices for thousands of chicken wings — an item the school never served to students, according …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Willy Chirino music exhibit showcases Cuban American ‘dream of freedom’

Vintage photos, yellowing letters and luxe concert attire illustrate Willy Chirino’s decades-long music career. But amid the plethora of shiny trophies and platinum albums now on display in a Florida museum, the Cuban singer’s favorite is perhaps the most unassuming: his father’s old wallet. Fast, informative and written just for …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Officers brought homeless man to remote spot and beat him, prosecutors say

On Thursday, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced that two former Hialeah Police Department officers, 27-year-old Rafael Otano and Lorenzo Orfila, 22, had been charged with armed kidnapping and battery. Orfila, who was also charged with official misconduct, and Otano were relieved of duty on Thursday and booked into …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Why chocolate is so delicious, according to science

Chocolate is delicious — that’s a fact backed up by research. The question, really, is why a bite into its scrumptious goodness is enough to send a person into an utter state of bliss. After conducting a study that included four types of dark chocolate and a 3D-printed tongue, a …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

They quoted Taylor Swift in a Senate hearing — but who’s the top Swiftie?

The senator is a “Swiftie by proxy,” he admitted. For years, Swift’s music has been a constant presence in Lee’s life. It often blared as he drove his daughter, Eliza, to school. He almost made it to one of the singer’s concerts but ultimately gave away the ticket at the …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Did Alex Murdaugh kill his family? Here’s what jurors heard on Day 1.

The trial of Alex Murdaugh, the onetime patriarch of a multigenerational legal dynasty in South Carolina who is now accused of killing his wife and son, began Wednesday. Murdaugh faces charges in the killings of his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul. Both were fatally shot in June 2021 …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Adult Swim drops ‘Rick and Morty’ co-creator after abuse charges

Entertainment companies are severing ties with Justin Roiland, who co-created the popular animated series “Rick and Morty,” following recent media reports that he is awaiting trial for 2020 domestic abuse charges. Adult Swim said Tuesday that it had “ended its association” with Roiland. “We can confirm the show will continue …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post

Half Moon Bay attack was ‘workplace violence,’ officials say

An earlier version of this article said the person who was being treated at Stanford Medical Center was out of surgery and had been released. San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said that the person was out of surgery, but not that the person had left the hospital. The article …
By María Luisa Paúl
• Washington Post