Rob Davis

Early this year, I visited Ingram, a TX town of ~1,900, to check out a tip. The area was starting to recover from its worst flood in a century. But as Latino workers drove to jobsites to help rebuild, the tipster said, a cop in a black Dodge Charger kept stopping them ... 🧵

“Why did it take a reporter asking you about it to have you file your reports?” “In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need ProPublica for this kind of thing.” But here we are. By @robwdavis.bsky.social

NEW: She oversees a state agency with a $3.4B budget. Her husband is a consultant helping housing authorities develop apartments that get a lot of subsidies from her agency. She didn't disclose his job -- until we asked. “In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need ProPublica for this kind of thing."

This week, ProPublica revealed that a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding festivities. Join our reporters on Sept. 23 for a behind-the-scenes conversation. 🗓️ RSVP: events.propublica.org/don-jr-weddi...

Impact! Prompted by our story, two Oregon lawmakers want to end the state's unusual secrecy that keeps the public from learning how 100s of millions of dollars are spent on subsidized rental apartments. "This is an issue that will have very broad interest." www.propublica.org/article/oreg...

Grateful to the many news outlets that published our latest story on Oregon's secrecy around low-income housing $$$: @opb.org, @oregonian.com, @oregoncapitalchronicle.com, Klamath Falls Herald and News, Yamhill News Register, Lookout Eugene-Springfield and Jefferson Public Radio. ICYMI:

The state has given developers an unprecedented $1.4 billion, and the cost of developing each subsidized apartment has nearly doubled. But thanks to a carve-out in its public records law, Oregon doesn’t have to provide the details of that spending.

The state has given developers an unprecedented $1.4 billion but, thanks to a carve-out in its public records law, doesn’t have to provide the details of that spending. https://mrf.lu/2sbtw

NEW: Oregon has given developers an unprecedented $1.4 billion, and the cost of developing each subsidized apartment has nearly doubled. But, thanks to a carve-out in its public records law, the state doesn’t have to provide the details of that spending.

NEW: Oregon Is Spending More Than Ever on Low-Income Housing. A State Law Keeps the Details Secret.

New: Oregon has given out $1.4 *billion* to build low-income housing. The cost of those units is up 2X. Homelessness keeps increasing. “For all the public money, we seem to be digging a deeper hole." Yet Oregon is one of the only states that won't disclose the details of how that money is spent.

Our California reporting jobs are now open for applications. * We are hiring four reporters! Salary of $100k to $160k: job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j... * We are hiring one Ancil Payne reporting fellow (two years). Salary of $75k: job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...

NEW: In February, I visited Raw Farm. You may have heard of it. RFK Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow are customers. It supplies raw dairy products to 500 stores nationwide. And regulators have linked it to over a dozen recalls and outbreaks that have made hundreds sick. 🧵👇

NEW: The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit provides up to $15 billion in subsidies a year to help developers build apartments. It’s created housing that’s often no more affordable than the market rate. w/ @opb.org

🎧 It's launch day! 🚀 Our VERY FIRST EPISODE of "Paper Trail" is now live. You can listen at the link below or subscribe in all the normal podcast places: www.propublica.org/podcast/what...

A cautionary tale for those who believe that regulation can be a check on health care consolidation: A Unique Oregon Law Allows It to Block Healthcare Deals. In Five Years, the State Hasn’t Done So Once. @robwdavis.bsky.social

New from me: In 2021, Oregon passed a first-in-the-nation bill giving the state health department power to block healthcare consolidation deals. Five years later, no deals have formally been blocked. And Oregonians have still faced disruptions from consolidation. www.propublica.org/article/oreg...

This is incredible news.

Beyond excited for the debut of ProPublica's podcast. Subscribe! propub.li/42ULaRa

These weapons are toxic, especially to children, who breathe more rapidly, pulling in more contaminated air than adults relative to their body weight. --> my latest, with @mayatmiller.bsky.social @melissa-sanchez.bsky.social @mariamelba.bsky.social

NEW: You may have noticed things look a little different on our website and social media. We’ve updated our logo and our typefaces, and we made improvements to the design and functionality of our homepage and how we present our work. Here’s why.

😍😍😍 www.propublica.org/article/why-...

🚨 ProPublica reporting job alert 🚨 Southwest Reporter (Utah, Ariz., Colo., N.M., Nev.) Salary: $95K-$140K Particular interest: issues affecting the region’s federally registered tribes and state government accountability, particularly in Arizona or Utah. job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...

We’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

Our members are on the picket line today demanding a fair contract now! We want a fair disciplinary process, layoff protections & guardrails on artificial intelligence. Support us by donating to our strike fund: www.gofundme.com/f/support-pr...

NEW: Oregon voters overwhelmingly approved limiting campaign contributions in 2020. Four years later, the Legislature finally adopted limits, but an advocate for tighter controls says recent changes render Oregon’s contribution limits “illusory.”

Some 78% of Oregon voters approved limiting campaign contributions in 2020. Four years later, the Legislature finally adopted limits, but an advocate for tighter controls says recent changes render Oregon’s contribution limits “illusory.” @robwdavis.bsky.social

New from me: In 2019, an investigation I wrote showed how unlimited campaign donations had undermined environmental protections in Oregon. Voters overwhelmingly endorsed limits. Lawmakers eventually adopted them. Then, this year, came “the bill to destroy campaign finance reform in Oregon.”

Nike says it wants factory workers who make its sneakers and apparel to earn a wage they can live on. In Indonesia, it's moving into places where workers don't. www.propublica.org/article/nike...

NEW: Over the last decade, Nike has sharply expanded production in regions of Indonesia where workers don’t earn a living wage while cutting its workforce in places where they do. With @oregonian.com

Nike and other apparel brands are shifting employment in their Indonesian supply chain away from high-wage parts of the country.

NEW: Nike says its factory workers should earn enough to pay their basic needs and have some money left over. In Indonesia, its factory workforce has shrunk where the minimum wage is considered enough to live on. And it has grown, dramatically, where the opposite is true.

NEW: Guards have taken away crayons, colored pencils & paper during recent room searches at Dilley, according to detainees and others. After one inspection, the children just “cried and cried and cried,” a mother said. The facility denies the claims. By @mckenziefunk.com @micarosenberg.bsky.social

NEW from ProPublica: Guards at Trump's family detention camp are grabbing kids' writing, artwork, and crayons. They've even taken one kid's drawing of Bratz dolls. www.propublica.org/article/dill... by @mckenziefunk.com and @micarosenberg.bsky.social

Sad to see my final story written during my time at The Oregonian running today. I had gotten to know her while reporting a project and remember nervously pitching her on the idea of writing her obituary. "It would be a blessing," she told me. RIP, Avel Gordly.

Nike says an average worker at the foreign factories that make its goods earns almost twice the local minimum wage. Workers in the company’s second-largest hub, Indonesia, say local wages remain chronically low. With @oregonian.com

For @oregonian.com and @propublica.org: The average worker at suppliers that make Nike’s goods earns 1.9 times the local minimum wage, the company says. None of the workers I spoke with in Indonesia, Nike’s second-largest production hub, said they made that much. www.oregonlive.com/business/202...

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.

A note from our editors:

1/ BREAKING: Government documents reviewed by ProPublica identify Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, as the two who fired their weapons during the deadly encounter with Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Last year, I went to Cambodia to explore Nike's claim that it pays factory workers 1.9X the minimum wage on average. It wasn't true there. My reporting partner, @matthewkish.bsky.social, went to Indonesia and asked ~100 workers whether they earn 1.9X. None did. Said one union official: "Bullshit."

Immigration agents are choking people in America's streets & using tactics against their own policy/training. Many LEO agencies have banned their use A Colombian TikToker. An ICU nurse. A father holding his child. A 16-year-old citizen DHS calls this "utmost professionalism" w/ @mckenziefunk.com

In Portland, where Border Patrol shot two people last week, "there is no body camera footage from any of the six Border Patrol officers."

As the Trump administration gutted USAID this year, officials, including Marco Rubio, said over and over that lifesaving operations would continue around the world and that nobody had died because of the cuts.

Such preventable death. Such powerful reporting. www.propublica.org/article/usai...

NEW: For more than a century, a smelter spewed lead dust over Omaha. For decades, the government cleaned it up. But a shift in guidance from the Trump administration may stop thousands more from potential cleanup, exposing families to the harmful metal. With @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social

NEW: Last year we found the acceptable level of exposure to formaldehyde set by the EPA left people at risk for cancer. Now the Trump administration has roughly doubled it www.propublica.org/article/epa-...

"Trump hung up on a ProPublica reporter after being asked whether his Florida mortgages were similar to those of others he had accused of fraud." 👀 www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Trump sent the National Guard to fight what he called "violent radical left terrorism" in Portland. At the same time, he's been withholding millions to prepare for what emergency managers say are actual terror threats. Trump's FEMA says its spending became "a slush fund for woke projects."

Trump sent the National Guard to fight what he called "violent radical left terrorism" in Portland. At the same time, he's been withholding millions to prepare for what emergency managers say are actual terror threats. Trump's FEMA says its spending became "a slush fund for woke projects."