Morgan McFall-Johnsen

RALLY FOR NEWS, NOT SLOP: Join us at 1PM ET Thursday outside @BusinessInsider HQ. We will be rallying to let management know what we think of their plan to roll out AI-generated news stories. Details here … #NewsNotSlop (1/3)

RELEASE: NewsGuild journalists are sounding the alarm – media companies are undermining public trust with unethical AI in the newsroom. Today, we launch #NewsNotSlop, a national campaign kicking off a Week of Action on AI, December 1–5. newsguild.org/release-standi…

The Insider Union is proud be a part of @newsguild and @CWAUnion. This week, we’re standing in solidarity with workers across the country in demanding News, not Slop! Stand with us and sign the petition

Now on @sciam: NASA’s presumptive next leader wants to outsource more of the space agency’s interplanetary science. The newly launched ESCAPADE mission to Mars offers a sanity check for those plans. By @MorganMJohnsen. scientificamerican.com/article/new-gl…

Blackouts and power outages could be 100 times more common in the U.S. in just five years, according to a Department of Energy report released this week. The report found that rising demand and an aging power generation infrastructure threaten U.S. capacity. The news comes as energy prices are now rising faster than inflation, and as the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects record power demand in 2025 and 2026, thanks in part to the rapid rise of AI data centers. Yet, U.S. policy just took a big turn away from the fastest growing energy production technologies: renewables like wind and solar, which are also faster to bring online than legacy power sources. To dive into how Trump's "big bill" might reshape U.S. energy supply, @timmcphillips3 spoke with Alexa St. John, a climate reporter with The Associated Press.

There's a new interstellar comet in the neighborhood! Known as 3I/ATLAS, this comet poses no threat to Earth – but it does provide a rare opportunity to study an object that originated outside of our solar system: science.nasa.gov/blogs/planetar…

256 Flash Flood Warnings have been issued across the United States since July 4th, spanning 33 states.

I don’t know what’s next for me, but I know science journalism is crucial. The climate crisis, space exploration, and public health challenges aren’t going anywhere. Across beats, so many stories call for the expertise of a trained science reporter. If you need one, let me know!

BI wouldn't be what it is without @InsiderUnion. As a union, we have truly been committed to making this workplace "better every day," as we used to say. I'm so grateful for all my union colleagues who have stood up for each other and for our work.

Belated personal news: I learned at the end of May that I'm being laid off from Business Insider with dozens of my colleagues. I've been covering science there for six years. A huge thanks to all the scientists & others here who've shared research and stories with me. Onward!

We’re standing in solidarity with the @penguild ✊ Newsrooms should only publish content that is held to the same very high standards that journalists are. Sad to see our sibling company @politico not holding AI to that standard.

Here’s our guide to sharing information securely: businessinsider.com/insider-guide-…

I'm a science reporter at Business Insider. If you're a scientist who's lost your job or funding due to layoffs and freezes at federal agencies, I want to hear from you and learn about the work you were doing. Contact me at mmcfalljohnsen@insider.com or on Signal at morgan.57

A reminder that the plan to return Williams and Wilmore on Crew-9 was announced by NASA in August 2024, before Trump returned to the White House.

@car0linehaskins @WIRED Woohoo congrats Caroline!!

Job news from me!! 🎉🎉 I’m beyond thrilled to share that I’m starting at @WIRED as a business reporter starting next Monday, March 10!! Freelancing with them has been amazing, and I’m honored to be joining the killer reporters on staff right now. So excited to get to work!!

BTW, if you work in the weather/climate/disaster/emergency management space and are/were a federal employee who has been fired in recent hours/days, there are multiple journalists interested in speaking to you (and will be watching replies on this thread).

@AlexCKaufman @HuffPost Looking forward to reading that two-part series and everything you publish after HuffPost. I’m glad you’ve had the protection and power of a union during these layoffs — organizing is a worthwhile investment!

After 11 years, my time at @HuffPost is coming to an end. Last week, I learned HuffPost would be ending its dedicated coverage of energy and climate change. This comes right after the world hit 1.5 degrees Celsius, the temperature average above pre-industrial norms that most nations on Earth wanted to keep warming from exceeding. In the United States, the country most responsible for the cumulative carbon added to the atmosphere, we are at the dawn of a massive upswing in electricity demand from data centers, air conditioning and electrification. The new Trump administration is set to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accords and embark on a radical new era of drilling, deregulation, and power plant construction. All of this requires diligent, balanced journalism. You can count on me to keep providing that. But it won’t be at HuffPost. Last Friday, I requested a buyout. Thanks to our union contract, I’m walking away with an enviable runaway by even the standards of some of my friends in professions with far better pay than journalism. When I arrived at HuffPost on March 3, 2014, I was a nervous 22-year-old, shaken by brutal experiences with past bosses and the misfortune of entering the job market at the tail end of the Great Recession. Within a year I was on staff, running the business vertical on my own on weekends, living in my first apartment in Brooklyn, and helping organize the union that ultimately delivered for me the security I’m benefiting from today. That would have been enough. But there was so much more to come. Chasing scoops, covering the first Trump administration and a world-historic pandemic, authoring features I never thought I had it in me to write, winning awards, going on international TV and radio, speaking on stages to audiences of hundreds, reporting from the Arctic, the Amazon, Asia, Europe and so much more. Over and over again, I would do that thing silly people sometimes do, trying to assess my career through the eyes of my teenage self. It felt awesome. I’m immensely grateful to my editors and colleagues at HuffPost for making all that possible. But, even before this latest upheaval, I was feeling restless. My wife is due with our daughter – our first child – in April, so I was content to stay put. Over the past six days, I’ve reflected a lot on how fortunate I feel to be pushed out of my comfort zone before the bleary-eyed early days of fatherhood rendered me that much more complacent. When HuffPost first announced the layoffs weeks ago, I was racked with anxiety. But as I started having conversations with editors all over the place, my confidence and optimism – not my usual mode of seeing the world – surged. There have been many moments I have been reminded of the concept in my faith of bitachon, or trust, in my higher power. That feels more real to me than it ever has. If you have followed my work here, then you know I’m not very good at sitting still for long. I have some exciting opportunities already lined up, including one starting Monday, and I’ll have more to say about that in the days and weeks to come. But I am open for business. If you want my byline or my expertise in energy and climate, now is the time to reach out and get on my schedule before one of my other suitors makes me an offer I can’t refuse. While I strongly disagree with the decision to deprioritize what I consider the most urgent story of this lifetime, HuffPost is filled with many talented reporters and editors, people I consider true friends who will remain there and continue to do excellent work. I will be reading them regularly, and encourage you to do the same. My final two stories, a two-part series that’s been in the works for months now, are due out this weekend. I’ll post an update on those once they publish. Stay tuned.

A number of homes and businesses are in the path of this new fire in the Hollywood Hills. In the bottom right of the photo is the famous Hollywood Blvd. Fire is advancing in this direction. This is iconic and very populated area. Evacuations are in place.

Dangerous fire weather conditions are ongoing in southern California with the most extreme conditions expected this morning. Winds should gradually weaken somewhat through the day, but critical fire weather conditions are expected to persist into Thursday.