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Open Thread: Extra! Extra! What Operation Metro Surge Articles Stick With You?

As we do every Friday, we're turning Racket over to you, the readers.

12:58 PM CST on February 6, 2026

Greetings, Open Threaders. Jay here filling in for Keith on Open Thread prompt duty.

Considering I just spent an hour talking about press coverage of the federal government's occupation of our state with Minnesota Reformer reporters, I figured I'd ask y'all about the most memorable, revealing, enraging, or, hey, even uplifting stories to emerge from this dark and ongoing period.

Me first, you say? Fine. I can't shake this Star Tribune account on the horrors inside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which is more or less being run as a concentration camp by the Department of Homeland Security. Justine Jones of MSP Mag managed to write downright lyrically about the terror gripping the Twin Cities restaurant scene. And, on the national front, independent reporter Ken Klippenstein keeps delivering bombshells from his candid sources at DHS and the Pentagon, while our buddies at 404 Media have owned the surveillance state side of things. (For dozens of other examples, catch up on the daily ICE mega-blog that has occupied most of my time since returning from paternity leave.)

It's, um, not exactly a great time for media, with billionaire Jeff Bezos electively choosing to gut the Washington Post. So, please, shine a lot on some of the folks who've been doing their best to expose the Trump regime's campaign of immigration cruelty—the more links the better.

Alternatively, talk about whatever the hell you'd like. This is your Open Thread, after all.

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