Pinned Post: Updated – Rubashkin Trial Coverage

Your help is still needed.

UPDATE 11-30-09 – As you know, the Sholom M. Rubashkin was convicted early this month on 86 of 91 fraud related charges in his first federal trial and the second federal trial was cancelled as a result. Even convictions on all immigration charges would not have impacted his final sentence.

But there is still the State of Iowa's child labor trail against Rubashkin and his father. That should take place early next year.

What I wrote (posted immediately below) about the federal trials is still valid for the state trial and for sentencing on the federal convictions.

In other words, your help is still needed.

I can't do it without you.

Thank you for reading and for your kind support.

In order to optimally cover the Rubashkin trials, the first of which begins Tuesday October 13 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I'll need to raise thousands dollars.

I'll need to rent a car and pay for a hotel room in Sioux Falls on the the days I'll be in the courtroom for the first trial. And then I'll need the same for the second federal trial that will follow almost immediately after the first is over.

And I'll need a laptop with wireless access.

I'll also need some help in daily blog maintenance and posting on the days I'm traveling, and some of this help will need to paid.

And then, on top of all of this and external to the above calculation, I need to raise enough money to keep the blog running.

To do this, I'll need your financial help.

Writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Nathaniel Popper noted that  FailedMessiah.com provides "some of the best" coverage of the Agriprocessors raid and its aftermath.

To continue providing this level of coverage, I need your help.

I can't do it without you.

Thank you for reading and for your kind support.