There are days when we log off The Daily Whatever Show feeling fired up—and then there are days like this one, when we feel both furious and profoundly hopeful. That’s what happens when you spend an hour with , one of the most fearless investigative journalists we know. Melissa is based in Norfolk, Virginia, and she’s been doing deep, meticulous work on two stories that should have every one of us sitting up straight: the Letitia James case and the spread of Flock camera surveillance across American cities.
Melissa isn’t just covering politics—she’s exposing power. She’s the kind of reporter who reads every filing, follows every lead, and connects the dots between government, corporations, and the quiet ways our privacy and justice systems are being stripped away. As she put it on the show, “They are bringing a federal case against a sitting Attorney General over twelve hundred American dollars.” That’s not just absurd—it’s a message. It’s intimidation wrapped in bureaucracy.
But Melissa doesn’t stop at outrage; she translates fury into facts. Her reporting on the Flock Safety camera network is jaw-dropping. Most people have no idea that this “license plate reader” company—funded and backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel—has quietly built a nationwide surveillance grid. She explained how it’s now linking up with Ring doorbell cameras, FedEx trucks, and even law enforcement databases, creating a panopticon worthy of Orwell. Worse yet, these cameras have already been used to track women seeking abortions and undocumented immigrants targeted by ICE.
And through all of it, Melissa radiates clarity, courage, and compassion. She shared how her path—from pre-law studies and single motherhood to becoming a Substack investigative journalist—wasn’t the one she planned, but it’s the one she was meant for. As she said, “I have to know what’s going on so I can cope with it.” That drive—the need to know and to share—is what democracy depends on.
If you aren’t following or supporting
, you need to. Subscribe, share her work, and donate if you can. She’s doing the kind of journalism that legacy media abandoned—and she’s doing it on her own terms, powered by community.Melissa, you give us hope. You remind us that truth-telling isn’t just resistance—it’s salvation.
Thank you
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