Dan Petty

#ICYMI: Noem denied that aide Corey Lewandowski was involved in approving DHS contracts. But DHS staffers say Lewandowski had approved numerous contracts at the agency and often needed to sign off on large contracts before any money went out the door. ➡️ More: https://propub.li/3Nh7wZd

A note from our editors:

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

I’ve been in Minneapolis the last few days reporting on the ICE raids happening across the city. This morning federal agents shot and killed a man, identified by the AP as Alex Pretti. This marks the third shooting by federal agents since Operation Metro Surge started in Minnesota last month.

NEW: In a five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” ProPublica’s @gingerthompson.bsky.social pursues the question: Why are people in Albany, Georgia, so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital? Start with Part 1 here:

NEW: Billions of pounds of food are imported to the U.S. each year. The FDA inspects foreign producers to ensure what we're eating is safe from pathogens and dangerous manufacturing practices. But now, after Trump's drastic staff cuts, these inspections have plummeted to a historic low. 🧵/

Quote from the North Carolina GOP's comms director: "I’m sure you’re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration and I’m sure they would be interested in this matter,” Mercer said in his email to @propublica.org. “I would strongly suggest dropping this story.”

“But, according to court records,…, DOGE’s efforts were guided, more than was previously known, by the OMB director. Musk bragged about “feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” but the details of the agency’s downsizing were ironed out by Vought’s office.” www.propublica.org/article/russ...

Find out which nonprofits are piquing folks' interest these days with a look at this week's most-viewed orgs on @propublica.org's Nonprofit Explorer tool: projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/

It's a journalist's job to ask questions of government officials, no matter which party is in power. That often means respectfully knocking on doors to get answers people deserve to know. Tips and evidence are essential to our nonpartisan work: www.propublica.org/tips/

The White House has targeted opponents, including a Fed governor, for having more than one primary residence on their loan papers. @propublica.org found that, in one case, a Trump cabinet secretary got two such mortgages in quick succession. propub.li/4p9uhvZ

Trump has removed Billy Long as IRS head by Trump and made him ambassador to Iceland, per @wsj.com. Long, a former representative from Missouri who once pushed to abolish the IRS, had marketed himself as a certified tax and business advisor after attending only a 3-day seminar. propub.li/4m5nhyd

ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts. propub.li/4lAzTxl

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” said Trump adviser Russell Vought. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down." (Published Oct. 2024 w/ @documented.net)

The immigration pipeline that takes those with H1B visas through to the green card process six years later is broken. @alecmac.bsky.social explores it in his latest for @propublica.org: propub.li/4ku9gtn

Records show well-timed trades by executive branch employees and congressional aides. Even if they had no insider information, ethics experts say such trading undermines faith in government and the markets. propub.li/3H4LpBD

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sold more than $1 million in Trump media stock the day Trump announced sweeping tariffs, @propublica.org reports: propub.li/3YNHnUd

Our “America’s Mental Barrier” series, which examines how insurance companies interfere with access to necessary mental health care across the United States, was also named a finalist in the explanatory reporting category: www.propublica.org/series/ameri... Via @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social

ProPublica has won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for its "Life of the Mother" series, which the judges described as "urgent reporting about pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgently needed care for fear of violating vague ‘life of the mother' exceptions." propub.li/42XIBxl

NEW: A DOGE staffer who is helping carry out the downsizing of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau owns stock in companies that could benefit from the agency’s dismantling, ProPublica has found.

Among the impacts: The cuts will halt a first-of-its-kind study of the causes of thousands of firefighters’ cancer cases. propub.li/3GeQOWv

FDA inspectors found serious problems at a Glenmark factory in India that manufactured the recalled drugs. Another medication made there has been tied to deaths of U.S. patients.

THREAD: Last year, ProPublica started receiving tips from an unusual kind of source: flight attendants. They said they'd worked on deportation flights for ICE, and they could tell us what it was really like on board. 1/

Jeremy Gulban, the 50-year-old head of an IT company in New Jersey, is discovering in ways large and small just how hard it is to revive America’s ailing local news outlets www.wsj.com/business/med...

This week, as the number of confirmed measles cases rose to 483, the CDC buried a report that would’ve stressed the importance of getting vaccinated. The move was “not normal at all,” one agency staff member said. By @sheinvestigates.bsky.social

The move is a sign that the nation’s top public health agency may be falling in line under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines.

As a U.S. military contractor, SpaceX sees allowing Chinese ownership as fraught. But the company will allow the investment if it comes through secrecy hubs like the Cayman Islands, according to previously unreported court records.

Meta decided to stop working with U.S. fact-checkers at the same time as it’s revamping a program to pay bonuses to creators with high engagement numbers — potentially pouring accelerant on the kind of false posts the company once policed.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees billions in aid and insures more than a trillion dollars in mortgages, is pondering using the blockchain and a stablecoin. One HUD official derided it as “monopoly money.” propub.li/3XwdzLa

The change would effectively transfer financial responsibility from oil drillers, auto manufacturers and others and leave Americans to face greater direct costs as warming continues.

“Cutting government personnel by one-fourth would reduce federal spending by about 1 percent.”

The gene therapy Zolgensma helped children born with spinal muscular atrophy grow up to run and play. But the cost was stunning: $2M per dose. While taxpayers and small charities funded the drug’s early development, executives, venture-capital backers and a pharma giant have reaped the profits.

Uncertainty over funding and hiring stemming from President Trump's executive orders has limited wildfire training and postponed work to reduce flammable vegetation. It has also led some firefighters to leave the force, their colleagues told us.

Americans were once addicted to relocation: In the 19th century, one in three US residents moved every year. As late as 1970, that figure was one in five. Today it’s down to one in 13.

@propublica.org has now confirmed the names and roles of more than 30 staffers affiliated with billionaire Elon Musk's DOGE effort:

Just in from @propublica.org: Elon Musk’s Team Decimates Education Department Arm That Tracks National School Performance propub.li/4hTHyV2

Exclusive: DOGE's new Treasury target is the Central Accounting Reporting System, which is a sensitive database that tracks the flow of money across the government, sources tell @propublica.org.

Who are the players in Elon Musk's DOGE group? We're attempting to document who they are and what they're doing here: propub.li/3CJvd71

On Friday, "staffers at a half dozen U.S.-funded medical facilities in Sudan who care for severely malnourished children had a choice to make: Defy President Trump’s order to immediately stop their operations or let up to 100 babies and toddlers die. They chose the children." propub.li/4jycdZT

President Trump has stopped all money flowing through the Inflation Reduction Act, an initiative that ProPublica showed has disproportionately benefited areas that make up his base. propub.li/4hB35lu (Published Jan. 17)

When Trump took office in 2017, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was projecting federal budget deficits would be 2% to 3% of our gross domestic product during Trump’s term. Instead, the deficit reached nearly 4% of gross domestic product in 2018 and 4.6% in 2019. propub.li/3Q1Harz

We published this on Nov. 26: How Donald Trump plans to take spending control from Congress once in office: www.propublica.org/article/trum...

We’re doubling down on our coverage of government agencies and federal policy. With your help, we can dig deeper. Here's how you can reach us.

We published this in 2020: They Know How to Prevent Megafires. Why Won’t Anybody Listen?

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 his family or friends. Instead, he told @propublica.org reporter @josh-kaplan.bsky.social: www.propublica.org/article/ap3-...