Keri Blakinger
@keribla
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Reporter: @latimes . Priors: @marshallproj @HoustonChron @NYDailyNews . Author: Corrections in Ink. Journalist, felon. (I promise I don't bite)
Joined September 2009
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THREAD: When I got arrested, a woman I met my first day in jail told me I should take notes on everything and someday write a book. A decade later, I FINALLY have – and now you can buy it here.
I wish she had lived to see this.
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Are we still calling it Mother's Day or is it now just Domestic Infant Supplier Day?
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If Hunter Biden ever worried that his struggle with addiction would derail his dad's career, I hope he goes to bed tonight knowing that in the end it did not.
I don't mean that as a political statement, just a hope from one recovering addict to another.
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NO THE FUCK WE ARE NOT.
Perry says Texans wiling to suffer blackouts to keep feds out of power market
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Remember the Texas prisoner who sued for a cotton blanket because he was allergic to the prison's blankets and officials refused to give him a cotton one instead?
I got records showing the state spent >$20,000 fighting his case instead of giving him a blanket.
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They protected Confederate statues better than the actual Capitol.
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It's wild what prisoners ACTUALLY do w/contraband phones vs. what prisons fear they'll do. I just talked to a guy who's using his to teach other guys computer science
"We’re using Harvard’s CS50 materials," he said. "That professor
@davidjmalan
, I think he’s one of the best."
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NEW: A Scottish court has refused to extradite a man to America — entirely because he would have gone to Texas, and the judge decided Texas prison conditions violate international human rights standards.
My latest, and a THREAD:
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I just found out one of my sources got killed.
I'm sad, but I'm not gonna wax poetic about how he was a good guy. I’m not sure he was.
But he was a great example of how broken the system is. And he did a lot to help expose that even without knowing it. THREAD:
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Every time I see one of these police brutality videos I think about all the brutality behind bars that we will never know - or never prove - because there isn’t cell phone footage.
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THIS is one of the most shocking jail lawsuits I've seen: An mentally ill man with an IQ of 55 who was being held on $1000 bail literally *starved to death* in an Arkansas jail.
They put him in solitary, he decompensated - and he died. THREAD:
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At one Texas prison nearly 6% OF THE POPULATION has died of COVID-19.
Not 6% of the covid patients died, but 6% of the entire prison population.
That's according to a fabulous new report out today. Here's a thread w/some other 🤯 data:
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In February, a trans man named Emmett Brock flipped off an LA sheriff’s deputy as he drove by.
The deputy then tailed him but didn’t pull him over - for an air freshener hanging from the rearview - until he parked at 7-11.
Heres video of what happened next.
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Phrases like "I missed the Zoom call because of the coup" do not represent the kind of energy I hoped for in 2021.
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Anyways, I’m not gonna sit here & say he was a good person. I don’t feel like I can make that call.
I CAN say that he was a broken person & the system broke him even more. And now he’s dead. And his mom is listening to his prison old voicemails on repeat
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UPDATE on Alabama prisons: this was the entirety of what grown men were served yesterday at one of the prisons where they’re still on strike.
This was breakfast. And dinner. And there was no lunch.
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While I was at death row today I asked the men their thoughts on coronavirus. They're not worried for themselves, they said - they're worried for their lawyers, some of whom have been on these cases for years and are aging/in ill health.
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Nine years ago today I stopped doing heroin.
That means I have now finally been off drugs for as long as I was on them.
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I just went to the bookstore I used to steal from to buy heroin 20 yrs ago when I was homeless and THEY HAVE MY BOOK so ofc I panicked & bought a copy and then sobbed in the alley.
So if you saw a weirdo crying behind
@harvardcoop
a few minutes ago yes that was me.
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Oh, and another thing they're using those phones for: Sending complaints to the DOJ.
Yes, that's right. The prisoners themselves are sending complaints and evidence of bad conditions to the feds. They're providing the transparency when state officials won't.
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This is actually not the first state in which I've encountered this happening -- there are some prisoners in Alabama who've been reaching out to the feds directly as well.
And that, one would imagine, is the real reason prison officials don't want contraband phones.
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"A brilliant & frequent advocate before the U.S. Supr. Crt & a former Tx solicitor general, Cruz knew exactly what he was doing, what he was risking & who he was inciting as he stood on the Senate floor Weds. & passionately fed the farce of election fraud"
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Remember last year when Texas prisoner sued for soap and social distancing?
I got back records today showing how much the state spent fighting that lawsuit, and to avoid being forced to give people things like hand sanitizer during a pandemic:
OVER $1.1 MILLION
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The last words of Brent Brewer, who was executed tonight in Texas.
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So I just got rear-ended & the other driver called the cops.
After taking my info the officer looked up & said: “Hey, and congratulations on the book.”
I almost fainted.
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A Texas prisoner was allergic to his blanket, and it made him break out into sores. He asked for a new blanket. For 10 YEARS, officials refused. So he sued. The prison system fought it for a year instead of just giving him a new blanket.
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For my first story
@latimes
, I went to Mexico and got drugs.
Specifically,
@ConnorASheets
and I went to pharmacies, got pills & tested them.
Turns out, some are selling oxy & Adderall over the counter – but the pills are actually fentanyl & meth.
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This is Emmett Brock. Last year an LA sheriff's deputy beat him on camera, claiming Emmett bit him. Emmett - a 23 yo teacher - was arrested & lost his job.
Now, a judge says there's "no evidence" Brock bit the deputy - and declared him factually innocent
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A few days ago, NPR reported that only 17 out of the 11,000 federal prisoners released on home confinement under CARES were arrested for new crimes.
Today I asked BOP what those crimes were and here's a breakdown -- and the majority were drug releted. Here's the breakdown:
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FIFTY. DOLLARS.
I just witnessed the most extraordinary moment. Judge David Carpenter in Bessemer, AL has resentenced Alvin Kennard to time served after he got life without parole for robbing a bakery of $50 in 1983. He is now 58 & was 22 when he committed the robbery.
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Today I celebrate 10 years. A decade since I stopped doing drugs.
In recovery they always say it gets easier over time - but this year challenged that. Not surprisingly, it was not easier. But I made it.
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THREAD: Wondering how things are going in Texas prisons right now?
33 units are on generator power, guards say they’re being kept “hostage” and prisoners are eating THIS.
This is current, sent to me today:
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I just got a call from a Texas prison guard who wanted to tell me she’s worried - about how hot it it for the prisoners. “It’s inhumane,” she said.
Bc of understaffing they’re not getting out for showers or fresh air regularly, she said.
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UPDATE: After this pubbed, the prison called to say my use of video from an apparently contraband inmate phone was “participation in a felony” & they would call the OIG to investigate.
The prison called the prison cops on me y’all.
NEW: As COVID-19 spreads, there are signs of unrest in jails & prisons. Incarcerated people are scared for their lives—and so are the officers.
Here’s my latest story, based in part on contraband phone footage of something officials said didn’t happen.
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Aside from having contraband phones, he said, they've also hacked the tablets so they can download movies and apps -- by using the phones as hotspots. Guys rent out hotspot time to the people who don't have phones.
(In case you're wondering, no this is not in Texas.)
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10 years ago, a local Gannett paper ran a story abt my arrest on the front page. It was a lowpoint in my life.
But I feel like things have come full circle now - today I have a byline on a story about prisoners in the flagship Gannett paper, USA Today.
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Currently, he says he's teaching about 300 people, using free online materials. He had opinions on the options available from different schools but says he prefers Harvard's.
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"We have about 300 people doing this right now," he said. "It’s self-guided, self-graded class."
But since it's comp sci, he said, self-graded is fine because you know if the code works or doesn't.
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"I created a Linux package that’ll run on the tablet," he told me. (!)
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#BREAKING
In response to a Chronicle investigation, the Texas prison system is going to start 3D printing dentures for inmates. And, remember that guy from the first story I did? Now he has teeth.
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This video - apparently showing a police officer coming up behind a woman standing there with a sign trampling her with his horse - is a stark contrast to so much of the media coverage in Houston last night that focused on protesters throwing rocks & jumping on patrol cars.
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This year for Halloween I am a PARTIALLY REDACTED RECORDS REQUEST.
V proud of my low-effort costuming accomplishment here and Happy Spooky Season to all! (Except the people who withheld records this year I hope you are miserable.)
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Earlier this year a former inmate came to me w/a USB drive of surveillance videos another inmate had picked out of the trash at Men's Central Jail & sold to him for $50 of dope
He hid it INSIDE himself for mths then smuggled it out
Here's what was on it:
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The host was wonderful and friendly on this interview I did last night - but my heart sank so fast when I saw the chyron.
So many words to describe what I was instead of who I am.
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Today I heard from one of my sources who over the past year: caught covid in prison, was hospitalized, watched the guy next to him die, lost most of his vision and battled cancer. Normally hearing from him is sad, but tonight he ~messaged~ me to say hi BECAUSE NOW HE IS OUT🖤
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People are literally burning to death in Texas prisons. YET ANOTHER man had died from a cell fire, per sources & officials.
This is the THIRD such death in <a year — in a prison system that has routinely flouted state fire safety standards for over a decade. THREAD:
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A couple weeks ago, people realized that NY prisoners were being paid pennies to make hand sanitizer that they couldn't use; Texas prisoners are doing almost the same thing, except they're not getting paid.
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Alabama prison officials just confirmed to me that prisoners at all major facilities are striking by refusing to work.
Prisoners offered several reasons including the “humanitarian crisis” inside.
And in case you forget: DOJ is already investigating AL’s prisons.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) just put out a press release condemning Biden for the conditions in unaccompanied minor facilities.
Meanwhile, these pics are what they've been serving people in Abbott's own state prisons.
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HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED what books are banned in your state's prison system? After a YEAR of records request, today we
@MarshallProj
published a searchable database of all the banned books list we could get our hands on - more than 54,000 titles.
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Plz use your shiny new shovel to build us a functional power grid k thx
Texas ranked
#1
again.
We received the 2021 Gold Shovel Award that recognizes the best states for attracting high-value-added economic development projects that create a significant number of new jobs.
Thanks to all the job creators in Texas.
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These are images from inside in an Alabama prison cell. In case you can’t tell, the first is 2 bottles of mice caught in one of the units.
This has been circulating online over the past few days so I asked the state for comment. Thread:
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So many people in El Paso have died of covid that the morgues are overflowing and have begun using jail labor to move bodies.
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#BEEAKING
Last year, I found out toothless prisoners in Texas weren’t getting dentures and being given blended food instead. Last month I wrote about it. Now, they’re changing policy, starting denture clinic, hiring denture specialist.
#JournalismMatters
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When I got arrested, Gawker took a swimsuit pic off my FB &wrote: "Cornell senior smuggled heroin, posed in bikini, edited Cornell Daily Sun"
It was completely misogynist clickbait.
I am not glad they're back. But I hope they do better this time
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"As a Texan, I’m just embarrassed to be governed by politicians who quaver at the prospect of a single uncomfortable conversation. If Texans were tough enough to fight at the Alamo, they should be tough enough to talk about why."
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People ask me a lot about how we celebrated holiday in prison. Needless to say, it’s not very festive. But here’s a thread about jailhouse holiday cooking and small miracles behind bars.
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A few months ago, someone slipped me a copy of a grievance against a Harris County judge. I started digging, went down a data rabbit hole & ended up w/this story. One finding: 96% of the kids the cty sent to juvy prison last year were children of color.
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PERSONAL NEWS: Pleased to say that in Jan. I’ll be joining
@MarshallProj
as a Houston-based reporter covering the South. I’m so grateful for this opportunity.
But first here’s a thread on local crim justice coverage - like what
@HoustonChron
has let me do for the past 3 yrs
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The Texas prison system announced NINE employee covid deaths in the past 16 days. Five just since last Friday.
How many prisoners died in that time? NO CLUE. They haven't updated prison deaths since JANUARY.
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As the state is about to execute Billy Wardlow, I keep re-reading his last letter to me.
"Thank you... for showing me that I have worth, too - no matter what others might say or think," he wrote. "You gave me back my humanity."
He'll never actually get to read the story.
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When I was in prison, I heard horror stories abt Lakeview. Inmates said they’d been punched, raped, made to shovel snow w/spoons, forced to go off meds. 6 yrs later I decided to investigate; it was more disturbing than I remembered. My latest w/
@theappeal
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Today, she asked me why there aren't more reentry programs for people getting out. She thought if he’d had more help adjusting to the world that altercation never would’ve happened.
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The last words of Ivan Cantu, executed tonight in Texas:
"I don’t think that this situation here will bring you closure, if it does. If this is what it takes or have any reservations off in your mind, then so be it."
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This is how hot it is in Texas: I left gummy vitamins in the car and now they are molten.
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I thought time and again that this is someone who would not have joined an Aryan gang had he not been sent to prison as a child and spent more than a decade in solitary in units where the gangs take better care of you than the guards.
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WOW this is huge: The first texas execution in 10 months and the prison system says they accidentally made an “error” and forgot to let the media in.
No. Media. Witnesses.
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“Shame on all of those involved and all of those who have looked the other way.”
Statement from
#DustinHiggs
attorney following his execution:
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Absolutely wrecked and sobbing at this beautiful heartbreaking essay
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A dude just called me from prison to tell me my tiktoks made him laugh so hard he almost got caught with his contraband phone.
This is ABSOLUTELY the best feedback I've ever gotten about my use of that app.
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NEW: Last year, I wrote abt how Texas prisons weren’t giving ppl teeth, making them drink pureed food instead. Afterward, the prison said they’d start 3D printing teeth. IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING. And yesterday I got to watch them do it.
#JournalismMatters
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I just got off the phone with a prisoner who told me about the 18 days he spent in quarantine for COVID. He was in solitary confinement and got one shower the whole time - and he listened to two other men die before help arrived.
This is such a dark timeline.
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I don't know who all needs to hear this but jail and prison are not the same thing and if you are a reporter you should ~absolutely learn the difference~ before you use either in a headline!!!
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If your had brain-eating amoebas in the water supply on your 2020 bingo card you win! But also you lose because there are brain-eating amoebas. And you double lose because it's still 2020.
The Brazosport Water Authority is issuing a Do Not Use Advisory for all water in the following cities: Lake Jackson, Freeport, Angleton, Brazoria, Richwood, Oyster Creek, Clute, Rosenburg, Dow Chemical, TDCJ Clemens and TDCJ Wayne Scott.
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In Texas prisons, people throw feces at each other or at staff so often that they have a phrase for it: getting "shitted down."
Going to go out on a limb here and say this does not sound like a rehabilitative environment.
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Since we are all thinking about carceral conditions in Georgia today, here’s breakfast, lunch and dinner from a state prison there. In case you were wondering what incarceration is like for other people.
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Remember the guy with a wool allergy who had to sue the Texas prison system to get a blanket he wasn't allergic to?
He wrote me to say that the court tossed out his case.
"I got exactly what I figured... about $1000 in debt and a kick in the teeth."
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#BREAKING
The Texas parole board just recommended posthumous clemency for
#GeorgeFloyd
.
This is for the 2004 drug charge he got in Houston, when he was arrested by a cop now accused of fabricating informants.
Now, the decision moves to
@GovAbbott
.
#BREAKING
An attorney with the Harris County Public Defender's Office has just applied for a posthumous pardon for
#GeorgeFloyd
- for the 2004 drug charge he got in Houston, when he was arrested by a cop now accused of fabricating informants.
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UPDATE: The man featured in this story is now scheduled for oral reconstructive surgery... to get dentures.
I am so proud to be in a job where I can write stories that have impact, and I'm so grateful that the
@HoustonChron
has been so supportive of my work.
#JournalismMatters
In Texas prisons, if you don't have teeth they don't give you dentures. Instead, they blend up your food.
I spent the past year talking to inmates and looking into TX denture & dental policies. Some of it's kind of shocking. Give it a read.
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Last night a worried mom forwarded me a letter from her son in prison, who said he traded his lunch for a stamp so he could write home and tell her how bad the conditions have gotten.
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#BREAKING
An attorney with the Harris County Public Defender's Office has just applied for a posthumous pardon for
#GeorgeFloyd
- for the 2004 drug charge he got in Houston, when he was arrested by a cop now accused of fabricating informants.
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THREAD: I spent the long weekend in a house full of formerly incarcerated TikTokers
Between us, we did ~70 years & have >5 million followers. A few years ago none of us would have thought this possible
Here’s a 🧵w/some of the cool things my friends are doing with their freedom
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He needed help, but instead he spent years alone, untreated, suicidal, getting high, staying involved in the gang life (yes, in solitary! that’s all there is to do there in some prisons).
Predictably, he did not become more mentally stable.
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But I did not have high hopes for him upon his release, to be honest. I don’t know how anyone could expect a good outcome from putting a mentally ill person in solitary for a decade, and then releasing them.
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And I think the litigation costs were actually well over $30,000 but the cost breakdown came in two separate pdfs and it's unclear if there might be some overlap between the line items in both. So that $23k is conservative.
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Why is this happening? Fossil fuel plants failed us in the cold. Here's why: "Texas electricity generators did not want to spend the money to build resilient equipment because it would cut into their profits."
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