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An obscure Texas firm secretly connected to Donald Trump Jr. said it received at least $100 million from Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. At the same time, the Ambani family secured major policy wins from the Trump administration. (Published June)

An Indian Billionaire Was Targeted by Trump. Then He Poured Money Into a Startup Secretly Backed by Donald Trump Jr.

An obscure Texas firm secretly connected to the president’s son said it received at least $100 million from Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. At the same time, the Ambani family secured major polic...

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Black women in America are more than twice as likely as white women to have a stillbirth. Getting physicians to take their concerns seriously is one reason for this disparity, they say: “If you’re a Black woman, you get dismissed.” From the archives:

She Says Doctors Ignored Her Concerns About Her Pregnancy. For Many Black Women, It’s a Familiar Story.

Black women in America are more than twice as likely as white women to have a stillbirth. Getting physicians to take their concerns seriously is one reason for this disparity, they say: “If you’re a B...

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Insurers sometimes deny coverage citing lack of progress, labeling patients’ conditions as chronic. Yet if they do make progress, insurers have also used that to argue patients no longer need treatment. Doctors are left to walk a tightrope. (Published Dec. 2024)

Her Mental Health Treatment Was Helping. That’s Why Insurance Cut Off Her Coverage.

Providers, patients and even some federal judges say progress-based insurance denials harm patients at key moments of mental health treatment.

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NEW: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he's willing to "micromanage" Corpus Christi's water crisis. But he's gone quiet on the financial troubles of an agency that could help expand the region's water supply — despite Abbott having appointed its entire board. With KRIS 6 News and @texastribune.org

Greg Abbott Blasted Corpus Christi for Its Water Crisis. A River Authority He Has Power Over Is Falling Apart.

The Nueces River Authority is working on a project that could expand the Corpus Christi region’s water supply. But the Texas governor has done little to address the agency’s financial problems, despit...

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After a college student finally found a treatment that worked for his ulcerative colitis, UnitedHealthcare decided it wouldn’t pay for the costly drugs. His fight to get coverage exposed the insurer’s hidden procedures for rejecting claims. (Published Feb. 2023)

UnitedHealthcare Tried to Deny Coverage to a Chronically Ill Patient. He Fought Back, Exposing the Insurer’s Inner Workings.

After a college student finally found a treatment that worked, the insurance giant decided it wouldn’t pay for the costly drugs. His fight to get coverage exposed the insurer’s hidden procedures for r...

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An $11,000 golf cart. More than $7,000 on TV subscriptions. $1.5 million in office renovations. Those were among the expenses that one sheriff’s office billed to a settlement aimed at rooting out racial profiling in the department. (Published May)

This Sheriff’s Office Says Racial Profiling Reforms Are Too Costly. Auditors Found It Misused $163 Million.

Since 2013, Maricopa County officials have approved $226 million in sheriff’s office spending related to a settlement aimed at rooting out racial profiling. Auditors found that more than 70% of it was...

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“If you take the deal, you’re going to be exploited. If you don’t take it, you’re going to die,” said attorney Frank Ssekamwa about the U.S. demand to access the health data of millions of Ugandans. “It’s the essence of digital colonialism.”

“Digital Colonialism”: U.S. Demands to Access Africans’ Data Raise Privacy, Sovereignty Concerns

The United States is requiring access to health data as part of lifesaving aid deals with African countries. The U.S. says the data will be aggregated and anonymized, but privacy experts fear the info...

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My latest story has some intrigue. FCC finally released Chairman Brendan Carr’s financial report for 2025 late Friday. The report states Paramount gave him tickets to the gala worth $12,390. But he and his wife sat in skybox seats that sold for $125,000 a piece. www.propublica.org/article/fcc-...

FCC Commissioners Face Ethics Complaints for Taking Luxury Gifts From Paramount

Citing a ProPublica report on Paramount providing luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets to FCC officials, the complaints note that commissioners accepted the gifts while the FCC was reviewing or about to...

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Roger Shoffstall spent three years in prison for evading income taxes. It hasn’t stopped the FCC from sending him $1 million a year to sell obsolete internet service in Alaska. The money comes from a special government subsidy program. You help pay for it. (Published May w/ @adn.com)

This Convicted Felon Gets $1 Million a Year to Sell Obsolete Internet Service. You Pay for It.

Roger Shoffstall spent three years in prison for tax evasion. Still, each year the federal government pays his Alaska company, Summit Telephone, for internet service that’s slower than in most of the ...

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NEW: Renewable energy developer Avangrid has pulled a long-standing and controversial solar project on Washington’s Badger Mountain, a site sacred to Indigenous nations, following years of delays and tribal objections. With @highcountrynews.org

Solar Developer Cancels Washington State Project on Sacred Indigenous Land

The company, Avangrid, pulled its long-standing and controversial project following years of delays, as well as tribal objections spurred in part by High Country News and ProPublica reporting.

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NEW: Two government watchdog groups have demanded an investigation into whether FCC officials violated ethics requirements by accepting luxury gala tickets from Paramount as it sought federal approval for its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.

FCC Commissioners Face Ethics Complaints for Taking Luxury Gifts From Paramount

Citing a ProPublica report on Paramount providing luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets to FCC officials, the complaints note that commissioners accepted the gifts while the FCC was reviewing or about to...

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There is little evidence that MAGA influencer Nick Adams’ nonprofit has provided the civics education it claims. A review of the organization's finances show that it has paid Adams and his mother more than half its recent annual revenue.

This MAGA Influencer Runs a Charity to Teach Kids Civics. Much of the Money Goes to Him Instead.

Nick Adams’ Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness has brought in millions in donations and helped him land a State Department appointment, but records show there is almost no indication FLAG w...

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Nearly 500,000 public comments have flooded in since the Trump administration proposed a rule that gives political appointees control over research funding. “The United States will not just fall behind. It will step aside,” one physicist wrote.

How Trump’s “America First” Administration Could Shut U.S. Scientists Out of the Next Nobel-Worthy Discovery

A proposed White House rule would give political appointees unprecedented control over scientific funding. One physicist, who helped discover the Higgs boson, explains how the rule would’ve stifled th...

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A last-ditch legislative attempt to help California school districts keep problematic teachers out of the classroom has collapsed following opposition from unions and the state teacher licensing agency that a proposed database would violate privacy and subject educators to unfair treatment.

For the Second Time, Lawmakers Failed to Fix California’s Warning System for Teacher Misconduct

California is set to launch a database for school support staff, such as bus drivers and janitors, with substantiated claims of egregious misconduct. Setting up a similar system for public school…

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Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at the hospital when a tablet was brought to her bedside. On the screen was a Zoom call with a judge and several lawyers and doctors. She was in court, a nurse told her. The reason? For failing to agree to a C-section. (Published March)

She Was in Labor at a Florida Hospital. Then She Was in Zoom Court for Refusing a C-Section.

A virtual court hearing from a pregnant mother’s hospital bed shows what forced medical treatment can look like.

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Senate leaders on Wednesday sent a strongly worded letter to the nation’s regulator of buses that oversees transportation safety. The move comes after a @wbur.org and ProPublica report found dozens of fatal crashes missing from the federal safety record:

Senators Push Federal Regulator to Prove School Bus Safety Data Is Accurate

The request from two Democratic lawmakers comes after WBUR and ProPublica found that the federal safety record was missing dozens of fatal crashes involving one of the nation’s largest public transit ...

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Three years ago, our reporter received an envelope with no return address. Inside was a flash drive containing tens of thousands of files: years of secretly recorded conversations, private militia chat logs and videos sent by a man named John Williams. (Published Jan. 2025)

A Mole Infiltrated the Highest Ranks of American Militias. This Is What He Found.

Outraged by the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell family or friends....

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“Judges simply don’t believe the representations that are being made by United States attorneys, assistant United States attorneys and the like,” a former federal judge said. “I don’t think ... in the history of jurisprudence in the United States, we’ve ever seen anything close to this.”

Federal Judges Chastise Trump’s Justice Department for “Unlawful,” “Unethical” and “Unseemly” Conduct

ProPublica reviewed hundreds of cases in which judges criticized the actions of federal prosecutors. In many, judges expressed frustration that they can no longer take the government at its word.

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Over 20 years, Peter Thiel quietly turned his Roth IRA into a gargantuan tax-exempt piggy bank. Using stock deals unavailable to most people, the billionaire took a retirement account worth less than $2,000 in 1999 and spun it into a $5 billion windfall. From the archives:

Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank

Roth IRAs were intended to help average working Americans save, but IRS records show Thiel and other ultrawealthy investors have used them to amass vast untaxed fortunes.

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As U.S.-Canada relations worsen, Michigan’s Sault area has lost an estimated $62.7M due to decreased crossings. It’s bewildering, a state senator says. He recalls Canadians helping locals fix the grid after a storm: “This is our best friend in the entire world.”

As Trump’s Tariff War With Canada Drags On, This Border Community Suffers Without a Voice

Under an intensifying trade war, parts of northern Michigan are feeling the financial pain. But with a president intent on conflict and a congressman silent on the issue, these Michiganders see no sig...

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