From ICE to the PSC
The shockwaves of Mario Guevara's arrest are weighing on the Atlanta journalism community and affecting how all of us do journalism.
Dear Reader,
Late last month, I shared with you the arrest of Atlanta-area independent journalist Mario Guevara. ICE is currently openly defying a judge’s order to grant him bail, and is still planning to deport him to El Salvador.
While The Xylom has not worked directly with Mario before, it is obvious that his detention sends a chilling effect to immigrant journalists across the country, like myself. What not enough people talk about is the downstream effects of attacks on the free press at large have on local newsrooms and American-born journalists.
Take our colleague Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon, who covers the democracy beat for the Atlanta Civic Circle and witnessed the arrest of Guevara during the “No Kings” protest, for example. He was originally assigned to cover the ongoing Public Service Commission elections and the upcoming municipal elections, but Mario’s situation has forced him (and ACC intern Katie Guenthner!) to prioritize interviews with legal experts, monitor Spanish-language sources, and cover court hearings. It is overwhelming for any reporter to cover three issues, especially when all three materially affect hundreds of thousands of Georgians!
Having benefited from Alessandro’s past coverage, I reached out to ACC asking if we could collaborate. This way, I could make good use of our climate reporting expertise, remove work off Alessandro’s plate, while delivering information to a larger audience with considerable overlap. We struck an agreement where I would report on Georgia Power’s rate case (the hearing took over seven hours), ACC would do the editing, and both newsrooms would co-publish the story.
As of today, “Georgia Power Poised To Freeze Base Rates Until 2028 — With a Catch“ is our second-most-read story of 2025. Spoiler alert: not only should Georgians expect their rates to continue going up next year, but The Peach State’s coal plants are staying open longer, per WABE. Our colleagues at Atlanta Community Press Collective also syndicated the article, helping bring clarity to thousands of readers.
Thank you for all of your generosity during the “Save The Xylom” fundraiser, which enabled us to be in a space where we could offer support to our colleagues, for once. We fully intend to continue maintaining partnerships like these, especially when the nonprofit news sector has been lurching through crisis after crisis (in biology, we call this obligate mutualism!) Please help us keep making an impact by becoming a monthly sustainer.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Ip
Publisher and Editor
Election Day for the Georgia Public Service Commission District Democratic Runoff is Tuesday, July 15th!
If you are a registered Georgia voter AND didn’t vote in the Republican primary in June, there is still time to make your voice heard! Follow The Xylom and Atlanta Civic Circle’s ongoing coverage and read #VOTEATL’s PSC Guide.
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🍑 A SOUTHERN FLAIR
DOUGLAS, Georgia — How Georgia Residents Hope to Protect Their River From an Industrial Poultry Farm (Gabriella Sotelo, Sentient)
“I went, not to rant and rave, because I know better than that,” Pridemore says of the meeting. “But I went, asked a lot of questions trying to learn about this. And the more I learned about it, the more aggravated I got.”
COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — Flash Flood: A Drowning in the Bottoms (Hannah Palmer, Atlanta Studies)
What I didn’t say is that I was troubled by my own desire to ignore this story. It was sad and inconvenient to think about it. It didn’t fit into my pitch about river restoration. The news hardly covered it, the courts wouldn’t hear the case, and the city and landlord were too busy pointing fingers to acknowledge a family’s pain.
Ingleside, Texas — Texas coastal town in “David and Goliath” fight against planned ammonia plant (Clare Carlile and Sara Sneath, DeSmog)
“All around, my community’s going to suffer from the air pollution,” Shafer says. “I’ve lived here my whole life, it’s my home, and watching it turn to a wasteland is so sad.”
🗺️ WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
HONG KONG — Endangered humphead wrasse gets a lifeline from facial recognition tech (Spoorthy Raman, Mongabay)
Each wrasse’s markings are asymmetrical, with patterns that differ on each side of their face and remain unchanged for years, which makes it easy to identify individuals. That’s why the app is a great tool for identification, said wildlife trade researcher and lead author Loby Hau. The markings function “just like people’s fingerprints … very complex and also unique[.]”
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV approves new Mass centered on care for the environment (Claire Giangravé, Religion News Service)
Saying “this Mass is a reason for joy,” Czerny said, it “calls us to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us – not only in daily choices and public policies, but also in our prayer, our worship and our way of living in the world.”
CHICO MENDES EXTRACTIVE RESERVE, Brazil — Can a Sneaker Brand’s Ambitious Plan Help Counter Amazon Deforestation? (Jason P. Dinh, Atmos Magazine)
With the forest more at risk now than ever, the struggle for the dignity of the Amazon’s people has ramped to fever pitch, said Maria Araújo de Aquino, a leader of Black and women’s social movements in the Chico Mendes community. “Forest preservation goes beyond planting trees,” she said. “It’s about the cultural rescue of this population.”
(SOME OF) THE XYLOM’S RECENT STORIES
👩🏻⚕️ “They Won’t Stop Sucking Workers’ Blood”: New York Home Care Workers Demand End to 24-Hour Shifts
The labor and wage theft dispute between New York home care workers and the Chinese-American Planning Council is boiling over at a critical time, as New York City elects a new mayor and federal Medicaid funding is on the chopping block.
🌳 It’s Not Just ‘Cop City’: Young Indians Revolt Over Forest Clearing, Police Crackdown
Students at the University of Hyderabad are just one example of a growing global wave of resistance against the perceived twin threats of militarized deforestation and democratic backsliding.
💸 Crowdfunding is Nigeria’s Newest ‘Health Insurance’ Scheme
Fueled by social media, crowdfunding is now the unofficial health insurance scheme for Nigerians.