ProPublica
Investigative journalism in the public interest. Headlines and (sometimes literal) receipts.
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- Rep. Gerald Connolly wrote the GSA on Friday, asking about the agency’s dealings with “Ramp, a company with zero federal contracting experience that is backed by prominent Trump supporters, Trump family connections, and allies of Elon Musk.”
- 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.
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View full thread9/ After our story, Congress members said the admin has been stonewalling on the impact of cuts. “We want the country to understand that this administration is hiding what they are doing," said Congressman Chris Deluzio. www.propublica.org/article/vete...
- 10/ We are also committed to following what’s happening at the VA. To reporting fairly and *fully* on how cuts are affecting veterans. If you are a veteran who gets care from the VA, we want to hear from you:
- 6/ Collins calls our story “misleading” based on “outdated” emails — since, he said, VA has corrected the problems. Actually, our story does note that some problems have been corrected. Take a look:
- 7/ But what we also found is that the chaos and the cuts have had *real consequences.* -Some cancer trials for vets have still not started. -Homeless vets were left in the lurch when assigned social workers were suddenly laid off. -An opioid treatment trial was hobbled.
- 3/ We found lots of facts & evidence of VA officials saying vets are not being put first. We got dozens of internal VA emails in which doctors and staff warn higher-ups about cuts that are threatening care. Here’s one about having to freeze impending “life-saving cancer trials.”
- 4/ And here is a message about contracts for cancer registries, which doctors use to track cancer treatments. The email notes that DOGE flagged a registry contract for “immediate termination.”
