ProPublica
Investigative journalism in the public interest. Headlines and (sometimes literal) receipts.
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- NEW: A “We Buy Ugly Houses” former franchise owner is accused of orchestrating a yearslong Ponzi scheme, bilking tens of millions of dollars from investors. “It’s incalculable the amount of damage this guy did. He’s ruined some lives,” said one investor.
- Zolgensma’s $2M/dose price quickly became the standard for gene therapies. Nine of them cost more than $2M. A tenth, approved in November, is predicted to run about $3.8M, just shy of the most expensive, which costs $4.25M/dose.
- Arizona does not vet new voucher schools. Not even if the school or the online school “provider” has already failed, or was founded yesterday, or is operating out of a strip mall, or offers just a half hour of instruction per morning. (Published Dec. 2024)
- The DEA once touted body cameras for their “enhanced transparency.” Now the agency is abandoning them, citing a Trump executive order. Read the full story by @marioarizabaez.bsky.social: propub.li/4mcoUL5
- Brooklyn Leonard was 14 weeks pregnant when her water broke, but her doctor wrote she could only intervene when there was “concern for maternal mortality.” It was only after visits to 3 Houston hospitals over 5 days that Leonard was able to get the care she needed. Read more: propub.li/3Zd4Vlu
- THREAD: We’ve reported that Veterans Affairs officials have warned that Trump’s cuts are hurting veterans. VA Secretary Doug Collins called our story a “false narrative,” but did not say anything was inaccurate. Here’s what our story revealed and how we engaged with the VA.
- Texas legislators slipped millions for child ID kits into a 1,000-page budget proposal. The move comes two years after they quietly cut funding for such kits following a ProPublica and @texastribune.org report that showed there’s no evidence they work.
- NEW: Oregon and Washington ranked near or at the bottom of the country for adding renewable energy during the past decade, despite pledges to eliminate fossil fuels from power generation. With @opb.org
- #ICYMI: Records show that the 25-year-old DOGE engineer owned as much as $715K in stock in companies — including Tesla, Apple, Alphabet and Alibaba — on the CFPB’s “Prohibited Holdings” list for staffers to prevent conflicts of interest.
- The ranking member of the House Oversight Committee is investigating whether the GSA has given preferential treatment to a tech startup linked to some of President Donald Trump’s most influential Silicon Valley allies, including Peter Thiel. By @chrisbing.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro
