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by Lisa Riordan Seville, Andy Kroll, Katie Campbell and Mauricio Rodriguez Pons ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. Days into the 2025 shutdown that brought the federal government to a halt, President Donald Trump reposted an AI-generated music video set to the tune of Blue Oyster Cult's (Don't Fear) The Reaper." Trump plays the cowbell. Vice President J.D. Vance mans the drums. Trump's budget director, Russell Vought, wields the scythe. Russ Vought is the reaper," goes one lyric.For most of Vought's nearly three decades in Washington, D.C., he operated largely behind the scenes. He spent a dozen years as a congressional staffer before going to Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, the influential conservative think tank. In 2017, he returned to government, bringing his exhaustive knowledge of the budgetary process to the first Trump administration and becoming one of the president's most loyal functionaries.Over the past decade, this unassuming budget wonk and self-proclaimed Christian nationalist has quietly injected his ideas into the bloodstream of American politics. He was one of the chief architects of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and said he spent much of 2024 drafting the executive orders, regulations and other plans to use in a second Trump presidency. Since returning as the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget in January, he has led the president's effort to dismantle large swaths of the federal government.ProPublica reporter Andy Kroll spent almost a year chronicling Vought's rise from the mailroom of the U.S. Senate to his perch as one of the two or three most influential players in the current administration behind only Trump and, arguably, Stephen Miller, the president's deputy chief of staff. In his second term as the president's budget guru, Vought has tried to make good on his desire to put federal workers in trauma." This video is based on scores of interviews, thousands of pages of emails obtained through records requests and dozens of hours of videos and recordings of private briefings given by Vought, most of which have not been previously reported.Vought declined to be interviewed for this story. His spokesperson at OMB would not comment on the record in response to a detailed list of questions.The portrait that emerges from Kroll's reporting is that of a man who is equal parts government technocrat, political operator and zealous iconoclast. Kroll reveals how the seeds of Trump's presidency in 2025 were planted early in Vought's career, while uncovering how much Vought has shaped the trajectory of the Trump-era Republican Party from behind the scenes. He also raises questions of what's to come as Vought leverages his encyclopedic knowledge of the federal government's inner workings to achieve his goal of remaking the executive branch. As Vought told his supporters in a 2024 speech, God put us here for such a time as this." Kirsten Berg contributed research.

by Nicole Foy, photography by Sarahbeth Maney ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn't be concerned.If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States," Kavanaugh wrote, they promptly let the individual go."But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They've had their necks kneeled on. They've been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones.Videos of U.S. citizens being mistreated by immigration agents have filled social media feeds, but there is little clarity on the overall picture. The government does not track how often immigration agents hold Americans.So ProPublica created its own count. We compiled and reviewed every case we could find of agents holding citizens against their will, whether during immigration raids or protests. While the tally is almost certainly incomplete, we found more than 170 such incidents during the first nine months of President Donald Trump's second administration.Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer. That includes four who were held for weeks with their undocumented mother and without access to the family's attorney until a congresswoman intervened. Immigration agents do have authority to detain Americans in limited circumstances. Agents can hold people whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino.Immigration agents also can arrest citizens who allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers. We compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, accused of assaulting or impeding officers.These cases have often wilted under scrutiny. In nearly 50 instances that we have identified so far, charges have never been filed or the cases were dismissed. Our count found a handful of citizens have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.Among the detentions in which allegations have not stuck, masked agents pointed a gun at, pepper sprayed and punched a young man who had filmed them searching for his relative. In another, agents knocked over and then tackled a 79-year-old car wash owner, pressing their knees into his neck and back. His lawyer said he was held for 12 hours and wasn't given medical attention despite having broken ribs in the incident and having recently had heart surgery. In a third case, agents grabbed and handcuffed a woman on her way to work who was caught up in a chaotic raid on street vendors. In a complaint filed against the government, she described being held for more than two days, without being allowed to contact the outside world for much of that time. (The Supreme Court has ruled that two days is generally the longest federal officials can hold Americans without charges.) George Retes, an American combat veteran, at the site of his arrest by immigration agents on California's Central Coast. Retes was detained for three days without access to a lawyer and missed his daughter's third birthday. In response to questions from ProPublica, the Department of Homeland Security said agents do not racially profile or target Americans. We don't arrest US citizens for immigration enforcement," wrote spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.A top immigration official recently acknowledged agents do consider someone's looks. How do they look compared to, say, you?" Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino said to a white reporter in Chicago.The White House told ProPublica that anyone who assaults federal immigration agents would be prosecuted. Interfering with law enforcement and assaulting law enforcement is a crime and anyone, regardless of immigration status, will be held accountable," said the Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson. Officers act heroically to enforce the law, arrest criminal illegal aliens, and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism."A spokesperson for Kavanaugh did not return an emailed request for comment. An immigration raid on 79-year-old Rafie Ollah Shouhed's car wash left him with broken ribs. (Courtesy of Rafie Ollah Shouhed. Compiled by ProPublica.) Watch video Tallying the number of Americans detained by immigration agents is inherently messy and incomplete. The government has long ignored recommendations for it to track such cases, even as the U.S. has a history of detaining and even deporting citizens, including during the Obama administration and Trump's first term.We compiled cases by sifting through both English- and Spanish-language social media, lawsuits, court records and local media reports. We did not include arrests of protesters by local police or the National Guard. Nor did we count cases in which arrests were made at a later date after a judicial process. That included cases of some people charged with serious crimes, like throwing rocks or tossing a flare to start a fire.Experts say that Americans appear to be getting picked up more now as a result of the government doing something that it hasn't for decades: large-scale immigration sweeps across the country, often in communities that do not want them. In earlier administrations, deportation agents used intelligence to target specific individuals, said Scott Shuchart, a top immigration official in the Biden, Obama and first Trump administrations. The new idea is to use those resources unintelligently" - with officers targeting communities or workplaces where undocumented immigrants may be.When federal officers roll through communities in the way the Supreme Court permitted, the constitutional rights of both citizens and noncitizens are inevitably violated, argued David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. He recently analyzed how sweeps in Los Angeles have led to racial profiling. If the government can grab someone because he's a certain demographic group that's correlated with some offense category, then they can do that in any context."Cody Wofsy, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, put it even more starkly. Any one of us could be next." The video Garcia Venegas made of an immigration raid on a construction site shows him walking away from the officer while trying to film and then stating that he's a citizen before being detained. (Courtesy of Garcia Venega) Watch video When Kavanaugh issued his opinion that immigration agents can consider race and other factors, the Supreme Court's three liberal justices strongly dissented. They warned that citizens risked being grabbed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents, and the fact they make a living by doing manual labor."Leonardo Garcia Venegas appears to have been just such a case. He was working at a construction site in coastal Alabama when he saw masked immigration agents from Homeland Security Investigations hop a fence and run by a No trespassing" sign. Garcia Venegas recalled that they moved toward the Latino workers, ignoring the white and Black workers.Garcia Venegas began filming after his undocumented brother asked agents for a warrant. In response, the footage shows, agents yanked his brother to the ground, shoving his face into wet concrete. Garcia Venegas kept filming until officers grabbed him too and knocked his phone to the ground.Other co-workers filmed what happened next, as immigration agents twisted the 25-year-old's arms. They repeatedly tried to take him to the ground while he yelled, I'm a citizen!"Officers pulled out his REAL ID, which Alabama only issues to those legally in the U.S. But the agents dismissed it as fake. Officers held Garcia Venegas handcuffed for more than an hour. His brother was later deported. Leonardo Garcia Venegas told agents he was a citizen both times he was detained. His REAL ID was dismissed as a fake. Garcia Venegas was so shaken that he took two weeks off of work. Soon after he returned, he was working alone inside a nearly built house listening to music on his headphones when he sensed someone watching him. A masked immigration agent was standing in the bedroom doorway.This time, agents didn't tackle him. But they again dismissed his REAL ID. And then they held him to check his citizenship. Garcia Venegas says agents also held two other workers who had legal status.DHS did not respond to ProPublica's questions about Garcia Venegas' detentions, or to a federal lawsuit he filed last month. The agency has previously defended the agents' conduct, saying he physically got in between agents and the subject" during the first incident. The footage does not show that, and Garcia Venegas was never charged with obstruction or any other crime. Garcia Venegas' lawyers at the nonprofit Institute for Justice hope others may join his suit. After all, the reverberations of the immigration sweeps are being felt widely. Garcia Venegas said he knows of 15 more raids on nearby construction sites, and the industry along his portion of the Gulf Coast is struggling for lack of workers.Kavanaugh's assurances hold little weight for Garcia Venegas. He's a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, who speaks little English and works in construction. Even with his REAL ID and Social Security card in his wallet, Garcia Venegas worries that immigration agents will keep harassing him.If they decide they want to detain you," he said. You're not going to get out of it." Men building a home in rural Baldwin County, Alabama. Garcia Venegas was detained by immigration agents twice while working on homes in the area. George Retes was among the citizens arrested despite immigration agents appearing to know his legal status. He also disappeared into the system for days without being able to contact anyone on the outside.The only clue Retes' family had at first was a brief call he managed to make on his Apple Watch with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He quickly told his wife that ICE" had arrested him during a massive raid and protest on the marijuana farm where he worked as a security guard.Still, Retes' family couldn't find him. They called every law enforcement agency they could think of. No one gave them any answers.Eventually, they spotted a TikTok video showing Retes driving to work and slowly trying to back up as he's caught between agents and protestors. Through the tear gas and dust, his family recognized Retes' car and the veteran decal on his window. The full video shows a man - Retes - splayed on the ground surrounded by agents. George Retes' family noticed his car in a compiled video posted to TikTok. This clip from that longer video shows his white vehicle surrounded by tear gas. Immigration agents later pinned him on the ground. (nota.sra/TikTok) Watch video Retes' family went to the farm, where local TV reporters were interviewing families who couldn't find their loved ones.They broke his window, they pepper sprayed him, they grabbed him, threw him on the floor," his sister told a reporter between sobs. We don't know what to do. We're just asking to let my brother go. He didn't do anything wrong. He's a veteran, disabled citizen. It says it on his car."Retes was held for three days without being given an opportunity to make a call. His family only learned where he had been after his release. His leg had been cut from the broken glass, Retes told ProPublica, and lingering pepper spray burned his hands. He tried to soothe them by filling sandwich bags with water.Retes recalled that agents knew he was a citizen. They didn't care." He said one DHS official laughed at him, saying he shouldn't have come to work that day. They still sent me away to jail." He added that cases like his show Kavanaugh was wrong completely."DHS did not answer our questions about Retes. It did respond on X after Retes wrote an op-ed last month in the San Francisco Chronicle. An agency post asserted he was arrested for assault after he became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement." Yet Retes had been released without any charges. Indeed, he says he was never told why he was arrested. Retes said that agents knew he was a citizen. They didn't care." The Department of Justice has encouraged agents to arrest anyone interfering with immigration operations, twice ordering law enforcement to prioritize cases of those suspected of obstructing, interfering with or assaulting immigration officials.But the government's claims in those cases have often not been borne out.Daniel Montenegro was filming a raid at a Van Nuys, California, Home Depot with other day-laborer advocates this summer when, he told ProPublica, he was tackled by several officers who injured his back.Bovino, the Border Patrol chief who oversaw the LA raids and has since taken similar operations to cities like Sacramento and Chicago, tweeted out the names and photos of Montenegro and three others, accusing them of using homemade tire spikes to disable vehicles.I had no idea where that story came from," Montenegro told ProPublica. I didn't find out until we were released. People were like, We saw you on Twitter and the news and you guys are terrorists, you were planning to slash tires.' I never saw those spike tire-popper things." Officials have not charged Montenegro or the others with any crimes. (Bovino did not respond to a request for comment, while DHS defended him in a statement to ProPublica: Chief Bovino's success in getting the worst of the worst out of the country speaks for itself.")The government's cases are sometimes so muddied that it's unclear why agents actually arrested a citizen.Andrea Velez was charged with assaulting an officer after she was accidentally dropped off for work during a raid on street vendors in downtown Los Angeles. She said in a federal complaint that officers repeatedly assumed she did not speak English. Federal officers later requested access to her phone in an attempt to prove she was colluding with another citizen arrested that day, who was charged with assault. She was one of the Americans held for more than two days.DHS did not respond to our questions about Velez, but it has previously accused her of assaulting an officer. A federal judge has dismissed the charges.Other citizens also said officers accused them of crimes and suddenly questioned their citizenship - including a man arrested after filming Border Patrol agents break a truck window, and a pregnant woman who tried to stop officers from taking her boyfriend.The prospects for any significant reckoning over agents' conduct, even against citizens, are dim. The paths for suing federal agents are even more limited than they are for local police. And that's if agents can even be identified. What's more, the administration has gutted the office that investigates allegations of abuse by agents.The often-inadequate guardrails that we have for state and local government - even those guardrails are nonexistent when you're talking about federal overreach," said Joanna Schwartz, a professor at UCLA School of Law.More than 50 members of Congress have also written to the administration, demanding details about Americans who've been detained. One is Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat. After trying to question Noem about detained citizens, federal agents grabbed Padilla, pulled him to the ground and handcuffed him. The department later defended the agents, saying they acted appropriately." How We Did ThisAmericans have reported a wide range of troubling encounters with immigration agents. To get a wider sense of agents' conduct, we cataloged all incidents we could find of citizens being held against their will by immigration officers.Critically, there is no way to know the complete scope of these stops since the government itself does not track them. But we were still able to fill in the picture a bit more.We reviewed more than 170 cases overall, which we sorted into two categories.The first is Americans who were held because agents questioned their citizenship. We found more than 50 such cases. The second category is Americans arrested by immigration agents after being accused of assaulting or impeding officers at protests or during immigration arrests of others. In that category, we tallied about 130 Americans, including more than a dozen elected officials. In many of these cases, the government never charged these individuals or the cases were dismissed.We also tracked another nine citizens who reported being concerned about racial profiling after being extensively questioned by immigration officials. This includes a Mescalero Apache tribal member who was pulled out of a store and asked for his passport, and a California man who was previously deported by mistake and got another deportation order in the mail.We did all this by sifting through both English- and Spanish-language social media, lawsuits, court records and local media reports. We compiled cases from the beginning of the current Trump administration through Oct. 5. Our accounting of arrests in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago is particularly limited, since the events there are still unfolding.We did not review cases of Americans detained in airports or at the border, where even citizens are more likely to encounter increased questioning. We also did not review cases of Americans arrested at some point after alleged encounters with immigration agents since those involved a judicial process. We similarly excluded arrests of immigration protestors by local police who, unlike many of the federal agencies, booked protesters into a local jail where they could access the legal process and their families could find them. Do you have information or videos to share about the administration's immigration crackdown? Contact Nicole Foy via email at nicole.foy@propublica.org or on Signal at nicolefoy.27.

by Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman This article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Idaho Statesman. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. At an elementary school in southwest Boise, Idaho, in the fall of 2020, children in pre-K went to their recess on the playground, laughing and climbing ladders to reach the slide. One 3-year-old boy sat on the sidelines.The loose woodchips prevented the boy, who uses a wheelchair, from joining his classmates. There were no swings he could use or textured panels or blocks he could play with. The only student in the class who used a medical stroller, he was relegated to watching his classmates play as a staff member stood with him.Another year, he often spent recess inside his classroom.It was heartbreaking," said his dad, Grant Schlink, at a neighborhood park where he pushed his son laying back on a swing made of a large circular disk that curved up on the sides. The boy, now 8, sported sunglasses and Converse shoes. The Schlinks requested that their child's name not be used to protect his privacy.The playgrounds at Silver Sage Elementary excluded children like Schlink's son, even though they had been updated by the West Ada School District in 2016 - decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act required new construction to be fully accessible to all students. The Schlinks reached out to the school asking for help. The district told them in 2022 that improvements were in the pipeline, the boy's mom, Stephanie Schlink, said. But at some point, communication stalled, she said. Another year passed.I finally was just like, OK, they're not going to do anything,'" Stephanie Schlink told the Idaho Statesman and ProPublica. F this, I'm going hard.'" In 2023, she filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education, the agency that investigates complaints over discrimination against people with disabilities in schools. The West Ada School District said in an email it is committed to safe and equitable access" and that it is making progress toward that goal.Like Silver Sage Elementary, many schools in Idaho struggle to meet the standards laid out under the law. In 2023, nearly 70 superintendents told the Statesman and ProPublica that accessibility for people with disabilities was a concern in at least one of their buildings. In many cases, school leaders said, they would need major renovations to make those schools inclusive to students with disabilities. Silver Sage Elementary updated its playgrounds in 2016, but still had elements, like wood chips, that excluded some children who use wheelchairs or walkers. (Sarah Miller/Idaho Statesman) Over a year after the state approved $2 billion to help schools repair and replace their aging buildings, around three dozen superintendents told the Statesman and ProPublica that their buildings are still not fully accessible, while others said they had workarounds that were not ideal. Many pointed to funding as a continued challenge. Lawmakers cited the Statesman and ProPublica's previous reporting last year when they approved the $2 billion investment, while acknowledging the funds still wouldn't solve all of the issues.Many of the problems the Statesman and ProPublica heard from superintendents had disproportionate impacts on students with disabilities. One of the most common was broken or outdated HVAC systems, often an expensive upgrade; freezing or overheated classrooms can be especially hard on students who can't regulate their body temperatures, such as children with Down syndrome.Unfortunately there is not nearly enough for us to do any type of major construction that would make our building more ADA compliant particularly in such a rural part of North Idaho where construction is very expensive," Megan Sindt, the superintendent of the Avery School District, a K-8 district of just about 10 students, said in an email. The North Idaho school, built in 1918, has stairs to the second floor, where most classes are held.It's far from the only district trying to navigate these challenges. Despite a historic funding push by the state, that's not likely to change. Why $2 Billion Isn't EnoughIn January 2024, in his State of the State address, Gov. Brad Little pulled up photos from deteriorating school buildings that had appeared in a Statesman and ProPublica investigation. He highlighted the reporting that showed how school districts' limited ability to fund facility upgrades left students learning in schools with leaky ceilings, failing plumbing and freezing classrooms. Months later, lawmakers approved the $2 billion and celebrated it as the largest investment in school buildings in state history.In reality, that money will do little to help schools address the needs of students with disabilities. As it is, many districts received only enough to make a few repairs; the smallest ones, which often have significant needs, got less than $1 million to upgrade schools.Before the state investment, we surveyed superintendents in all districts and heard back from 91%, more than half of whom cited ADA issues in their schools, including multifloor buildings with no elevators or elevators that often don't work, inaccessible playgrounds and restrooms, plus uneven sidewalks that were difficult to navigate with wheelchairs. We followed up with them again this year. Some superintendents said they planned to use money they received to make accessibility improvements. A handful said they have since been able to fully address such issues but many others said the money wouldn't be enough to do so.Small, rural districts didn't get enough money from the bill to retrofit older buildings without completely exhausting the funds," Superintendent Brian Lee of the Nezperce School District in North Idaho said. If we don't have a functional roof, heat, and functional classrooms, electrical, and plumbing, ADA compliance is a non-issue because we can't have school," he said in an email. Most older buildings are not architecturally capable of making small changes to meet ADA compliance."The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was updated in 2010, requires schools to provide equal access to programs for students with disabilities and to eliminate barriers to their learning. But schools have some leeway in physical alterations if their buildings were constructed before certain standards were in effect. Schools can still comply with the law without altering their buildings by providing reasonable modifications for students and ensuring equal access. For example, if a library is on the second floor, a school can bring books to a floor that students with disabilities can access.In struggling to make their schools fully accessible, Idaho is not alone. A 2020 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found most schools had some kind of physical barrier, like steep ramps or door handles that were difficult to use, and noted that schools needed more guidance in interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act. There's little enforcement by the federal government or the state to ensure districts follow the law, and little recourse for families when their children are excluded.Districts have contingency plans for when they can't make a school accessible. In larger districts, students can be bused to different schools. In other cases, districts will move classrooms to the main floor if a student enrolled in those courses can't use stairs.But in some cases, the infrastructure simply prevents students from being able to participate in school in the same way as their peers. At least 10 districts in Idaho said in 2023 that their bathrooms, gyms and cafeterias weren't all accessible. Students in those schools have been unable to get their meals at lunch, to make it to classes on different floors or even to attend their neighborhood school. Administrators in three districts, like West Ada, said they don't have playgrounds that all students are able to use. At an elementary school in Salmon in remote Central Idaho, a narrow stairway with no wheelchair ramp is the only access to the school cafeteria line. Students who are unable to navigate the stairs must rely on others to get their food for them. The district passed a bond last year after about a dozen failed attempts to build a new school. (Sarah Miller/Idaho Statesman) When you have old buildings, it's sometimes difficult to do what is required to meet all of those expectations because they just weren't built with some of those things in mind," said Anthony Butler, the superintendent of the Cambridge School District, two hours north of Boise. Butler said the district has an old gym with inaccessible restrooms, and seating can be challenging, but it has made a number of other updates to make its other buildings more inclusive for students with disabilities.State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield said the state doesn't track whether buildings are accessible. But she said the state does care about students with disabilities.It's certainly not a lack of desire or commitment to serve students," she said. We don't want the system to exclude a student from enjoying the same experience of any other students because they can't be with friends at lunch, or for no other reason than, there isn't a way for them to get to that cafeteria in the basement." Her office said she encourages districts to make a plan that prioritizes facilities needs."Jeremy Maxand, executive director of LINC Idaho, an organization that helps people with disabilities live independently, said these kinds of issues that can seem less important, like having accessible playgrounds, can affect how students with disabilities are viewed by others and how they see themselves. Students with disabilities are at a distinct disadvantage when you're supposed to be getting the playing field level so you have an equal opportunity, like everybody else, to succeed or fail," Maxand said. No Way DownIn the Pocatello-Chubbuck School District, Mariah Larkins, a sophomore at the time, approached the doors leading to the elevator on the second floor of her high school in September 2022, according to an account laid out in a 2024 lawsuit. There, she saw a sign that read: closed for lunch." The girl has a disorder that causes debilitating bone spurs throughout her body, requiring frequent operations and forcing her to use crutches or wheelchairs at times. She called the front office, but no one answered, according to the lawsuit, which is ongoing. She called her mom, who said she'd come to the school right away.Trapped upstairs and embarrassed, she tried to traverse the stairs with her crutches in hand. Larkins' mom met her daughter outside the school, alone, in pain" and crying, the lawsuit read. The family alleged that from Larkins' first day of school, she was met with an elevator that didn't yet work, excluded from classes and physically and emotionally harmed.It was one of several times the student, who has since graduated, risked injury or was separated from her peers during her years at the school, according to the complaint. The district had installed an elevator in the building before the girl started high school, but it didn't go to the basement, where the cafeteria and some classes were located. The lawsuit said the district did not move those classes to an accessible location.Larkins couldn't get to the cafeteria and on one day couldn't get lunch at all. She also fell behind in classes and struggled with her mental health, her family said in the lawsuit. Her anxiety and depression worsened as she sat in rooms alone while her classmates were educated downstairs.Aaron Bergman, Larkins' attorney, said Larkins, who is now 18, cares about improving access for other children in school now.This was a very difficult time in her life that did not need to be as difficult," he told the publications. We expect Domino's to do it for people in their restrooms. I think we can expect school districts to do it for schools, for kids in their schools."Pocatello High School was first built over a century ago, long before the ADA was enacted. In 2021, the district completed major construction at the school. Part of that, as required by law, included making the school accessible.But even at the time, officials acknowledged students still wouldn't be able to navigate the whole building. In an email earlier this month, Pocatello spokesperson Courtney Fisher said extending the elevator to the basement would have required significant structural changes," since storm water drains and sewage pipes run directly underneath the new elevator.Larkins' mom asked the district to do more, but little changed, the lawsuit said. Just before her daughter's senior year, she took it to the courts.Because M.L. is disabled, and for no other reason, she received much less than her peers," the family's attorney said in the lawsuit, which identifies Larkins only by her initials.The Pocatello school district declined to comment on pending litigation, but in court filings, denied many of the allegations in the lawsuit. On its accessibility issues in general, the district said it's addressing some of those problems but, with the lack of funding, can't make every building fully compliant with current standards. The cost of retrofitting our current buildings to full compliance is prohibitive, if not impossible, and that reality does limit our ability to provide every service in every building," Fisher said in an email. School districts across Idaho - and across the nation - are grappling with the same issue: aging facilities that were built long before ADA requirements, limited resources to modernize them, and the significant costs associated with comprehensive retrofits."Interviews with superintendents across the state revealed similar problems. In 2017, parents sued the Oneida School District, in southeast Idaho, after their children struggled for years to navigate an old building with no elevator and at times had to crawl up stairs and got injured. In 2019, a judge ruled against the district, requiring it to pay two families $1.2 million. It wasn't until 2023 that the district passed a bond to build a new school.In West Ada, the Schlinks' son spent years on the sidelines before the district agreed to address their concerns.On a warm day in September, Schlink's son crawled on the squishy, rubber surface of the large playground near their house. The playground was built to be inclusive of children with mobility challenges, according to the city of Boise, describing it as one of the most unique playgrounds" in the system.On the side sat his wheelchair with wheels featuring Lilo and Stitch decals.At his school down the road, the playground was renovated earlier this year. Before the Office for Civil Rights had completed its investigation, the district agreed to a voluntary resolution to make its playgrounds more accessible. It was the second time in as many years that the agency responded to a complaint about playgrounds at West Ada schools and forced change, according to resolutions posted on the federal government's website. West Ada said the district has met OCR standards" at Silver Sage. In addition to updating the playground, it said it brought the parking lot and sidewalks into compliance. Next summer, the district plans to update the second playground at the school. The district said it couldn't comment on why the playgrounds weren't made accessible in 2016 because it was a decision made by previous district leadership.President Donald Trump's administration has pushed to largely gut the civil rights office, creating uncertainty around whether it will remain an effective resource for families. The administration has argued that cuts to the department will give parents and states control over their children's education" and relieve taxpayers from progressive social experiments and obsolete programs."But for the Schlinks' son, it made a big difference. This is the first year he can participate in recess. A playground at Silver Sage Elementary School was recently renovated (first image). The school upgraded from woodchips on one of its playgrounds (second image) to artificial grass (third image). While the Schlinks' son can use a wheelchair on this surface, it gets too hot in the sun for him to crawl on, according to his mother. The city of Boise used a squishy, rubber surface at a playground it built to be inclusive of all kids (fourth image). (Sarah Miller/Idaho Statesman) The updates aren't perfect. The ground is now a material he can use a wheelchair on, but it gets too hot in the sun for him to crawl around, his mother, Stephanie Schlink, said. The structures don't include accessible swings or merry-go-rounds, or any kind of enrichment such as textured panels or chimes for kids with disabilities.Still, after years of watching their son be relegated to the side at recess, there's a clear indicator that he is really enjoying himself and happy at school now," she said. When she picked her son up from school last month, his classmates ran up to her to share how they played with him. He's social and loves outings and being around people, Stephanie Schlink said.Finally, she said, he's part of the class. Asia Fields contributed reporting.

by Rebecca Lopez and Jason Trahan, WFAA ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. This article is co-published with WFAA and The Texas Tribune as part of an initiative to report on how power is wielded in Texas. The year before President Donald Trump announced he was sending National Guard troops and federal agents into major cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago, declaring crime out of control, a Dallas nonprofit made a similar case for putting more police on the streets.Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people," Trump said at an Aug. 11 press conference, announcing the unprecedented federal takeover of the Washington police force and the deployment of the National Guard to the city.A year earlier, a man named Pete Marocco told Dallas City Council members that Dallas was descending into comparable anarchy.We cannot wait until Dallas looks like other degenerate cities that have made irreversible mistakes, devaluing their police force and destroying their city center," said Marocco, who would go on to briefly lead the U.S. Agency for International Development under Trump.At that time, Marocco was speaking as the executive director of a nonprofit called Dallas HERO, whose leaders wanted voters to pass propositions that would radically overhaul the city's charter. One of them, a ballot measure known as Proposition U, would force Dallas to grow its police force to 4,000 officers, and significantly raise their starting pay, in order to address the kind of lawlessness Marocco claimed the city was experiencing.Voters went on to narrowly pass the proposition in the same November election that put Trump back in the Oval Office. They also approved another citizen enforcement" measure Dallas HERO got onto the ballot, Proposition S, which gave residents the right to more easily sue the city to block policies and have them declared unlawful by stripping Dallas of its immunity from litigation. The measure makes Dallas the first city in the country to lose its governmental immunity, legal experts said. Few people in Dallas dispute that more police are needed; 911 call response times have increased in recent years, and growing the department's size has been a goal of mayors, City Council members and police chiefs for decades. But violent crime here, as elsewhere nationally, is trending downward despite the growing claims by Trump and other leaders that certain cities are incapable of governing or policing themselves.We're seeing the national government going into Washington and making noises about going into other cities - we're talking about blue cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland, maybe New York," said Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law School professor who studies outside influences on city governments. But what happened in Dallas last fall, he said, follows a different pattern from these federal or state government takeovers.It's coming up from within the city," he said. The state isn't imposing this; local voters have."Now, almost a year after voters approved these measures in Dallas, WFAA set out to understand how the Dallas HERO measures came to pass, look into the often misleading statements about violent crime that the group made to voters and explore the long-term effects of these changes.Already, the city is feeling the effects of the two Dallas HERO-backed propositions voters passed on that November ballot.In June, the Dallas City Council voted to change its police-hiring standards, eliminating its college credit requirement in an effort to hire more officers. Critics say lowering standards to boost hiring can lead to less-qualified officers patrolling the streets.In September, the City Council approved a new budget for next fiscal year. It includes cuts to popular libraries and city pools and eliminates some city jobs, but adds money for 350 new police officers - still far short of the nearly 800 needed to reach the 4,000-officer minimum mandated by Proposition U, which had no timeline for compliance.And earlier this year, a Dallas couple became the first known litigants against the city to cite Proposition S, the measure that eliminated the city's governmental immunity, in a lawsuit over construction of a church game court. The couple initiated the lawsuit before Proposition S was passed but filed motions citing the city's lack of immunity in March. The city of Dallas said in court that the proposition is unconstitutional but declined to comment about the lawsuit. The lawsuit, which is still pending, has not been previously reported.All of this has locals, including local law enforcement, concerned.One of the most vocal critics of the HERO initiative is Frederick Frazier, a Trump-endorsed former state lawmaker who spent nearly 30 years as a Dallas police officer. He asked a question many others have had in the course of WFAA's reporting: Are Dallas HERO's local efforts a precursor to similar changes in other cities?Are you trying to build a better department? Or are you trying to destroy a city?" Frazier said. I want to know: Are we the experiment?" Pete Marocco stands beside boxes of signatures used to get the Dallas HERO propositions, aimed at changing the Dallas city charter, on the November 2024 ballot. (WFAA) Dallas Violent Crime DownThis summer, Dallas-area hotelier and GOP megadonor Monty Bennett joined a conversation on X Spaces to discuss Dallas HERO's efforts.Every American city in this country of any size is a disaster," Bennett said in that recorded audio discussion, and it's terrible."Last year, Bennett confirmed to WFAA that he helped fund the group, formed in 2023. But because it is a nonprofit organization, it's not required to disclose its donor lists, so it's unclear how much of its $3 million in donations in 2023 and 2024 came from him. Bennett declined to answer WFAA's questions about how much he contributed to the group, but his office did provide a copy of the organization's 2024 990 tax form.Both before the November election and after, Bennett - who has contributed money to Trump's presidential campaign and to local conservative political action committees advocating for school vouchers - pushed HERO's message that Dallas, in particular downtown Dallas, is a dangerous place, frequently via his conservative online news site The Dallas Express.Bennett lives in Highland Park, an affluent community that's surrounded by Dallas but boasts its own city government and police force. The headquarters of his hotel company, Ashford Inc., is just outside the city limits in Farmers Branch, a suburb northwest of Dallas.His messaging fits an idea that conservatives have increasingly pushed. Trump, in announcing his 2024 campaign for president, referred to the blood-soaked streets of our once great cities," calling them cesspools of violent crimes."A group called Save Austin Now tried unsuccessfully in 2021 to convince voters in that city to pass an ordinance forcing it to hire hundreds more police officers.Bennett later met with Matt Mackowiak, a longtime Austin-based Republican strategist who co-founded Save Austin Now. Mackowiak said he spoke to Bennett about Dallas HERO's messaging and how to collect enough signatures to get its propositions on the November 2024 ballot.A spokesperson for Bennett told WFAA that Dallas HERO's efforts were not modeled after Save Austin Now and that Bennett is not affiliated with the Austin group.According to city police statistics during the 2021 Austin campaign, violent crime rates in that city were up by 5% compared with 2020, although property crime overall was down in 2021 compared with 2020.In Dallas, however, violent crime is on track to go down for a fifth year in a row. Last year, Dallas had one of its lowest homicide rates in decades, 14 per 100,000 residents, down from 2023's rate of 19 per 100,000.Jay Coons, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University, said Dallas voters in November responded strongly to perceptions about crime - regardless of whether it's actually declining or on the rise.Let's face it: Fear sells," Coons said. If you want people to do something, if you can instill fear, that's a very powerful motivator."But that fear isn't justified in Dallas, said former interim police Chief Mike Igo.To the point of crime is out of control?" Igo said. It's not."Igo and Frazier are among the unusual collection of voices who opposed the Dallas HERO propositions. The Dallas Police Association, which represents thousands of officers, spoke out against the measures, calling them contrived by a small group of people who do not live in Dallas, with no open dialogue." The association's leaders argued the propositions would affect its ability to negotiate pay raises for all of its officers and had questions about the department's ability to train so many new officers while retaining current ones. Former police chiefs, all 14 of Dallas' City Council members at the time, nearly all of the city's prominent civic and business groups, and at least four former Dallas mayors publicly opposed the measures as well.Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who switched from the Democratic to the Republican party in 2023, lauded HERO's efforts but still urged voters to reject the propositions.Their policy language is deeply flawed, and they would create more problems for the city than they would solve," Johnson and Cara Mendelsohn, one of the more conservative Dallas City Council members, wrote in an October 2024 op-ed in The Dallas Morning News.Bennett, who declined an interview request for this story but answered a few questions via email, said he was disappointed in their positions on the measures.Opponents to the propositions Dallas HERO pushed warned that shackling the city's budget to such a huge public safety commitment, while at the same time making Dallas vulnerable to lawsuits, could mean cuts to other critical services.Bennett, in his recent X Spaces conversation, said hiring hundreds of police is simple, though experts have told WFAA it is not.He also argued that building a new Dallas police academy, which has been in the planning stages for years, is not necessary. He suggested the department instead raise its pay rates in order to hire back officers it had trained but lost to other departments.Hiring back officers who've left for other departments, or recruiting from other departments in general (a practice called lateral hiring that's regularly employed among police recruiters in Fort Worth, Dallas and other cities across Texas), can indeed be an effective hiring tool, said a police official who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak for the department. But those hires account for only a fraction of the new officers brought on every year. And, after serving in smaller departments, some officers may learn they prefer the slower pace afforded by those jobs, the official said.Bennett said in an email that the city could hire more officers if it raised their salaries. The solution to hiring more police officers is to pay them better," Bennett wrote. It's no more complicated than that. Pay them what they're worth." He didn't explain how he thought the city would budget for those increases.Hiring more police officers has been a goal of the Dallas Police Department for more than two decades, Frazier said. But, he argued, the city doesn't have enough field trainers, cars or physical spaces to accommodate so many new officers joining its ranks in such a short period of time.I would say that would be very difficult," Frazier said. I've heard a lot of folks say that - We could fix you in a minute.' No one's done it."The new city budget, which took effect Oct. 1, increased the police department's minimum starting pay, raising it from about $75,000 to more than $81,000 annually. But that still falls thousands of dollars short of several smaller suburban departments in the area.According to city reports, DPD had 3,215 officers as of June. The city manager's goal is to gradually increase that number - but at the current rate, she said, the department won't reach HERO's 4,000-officer demand until around 2029.It's a balancing act," City Manager Kim Tolbert told WFAA during a recent extended sitdown when asked about the impact of the HERO amendments on the budget. We're listening, we're being responsive, but we're also being good stewards of the public dollar."In an email, Bennett wrote, Government will always blame imposed outside requirements when it has to curb its profligate spending." Frederick Frazier, a Republican former state lawmaker and Dallas police veteran, is a vocal critic of the HERO initiative. (WFAA) Who Leads Dallas HERO?WFAA has tried to better understand not just why Dallas HERO's efforts were successful in the city, but also the motivations of the people behind the initiative. The group bills itself as bipartisan, but at least some of its current and former leaders and associates, like Bennett and Marocco, have championed conservative interests.HERO's founding president, Stefani Carter, is a Republican former state representative who is now the lead director on the board of Braemar Hotels & Resorts, a real estate investment trust focused on investing in luxury hotels and resorts. Bennett is Braemar's founder and chair of its board. (Braemar is for sale, and Carter's fate on its board is unclear; she did not respond to questions about her status or about the Dallas HERO initiative.)HERO's attorney, Art Martinez de Vara, is a municipal lawyer, a historian and the mayor of a small town near San Antonio called Von Ormy, which he helped to incorporate almost 20 years ago as a so-called liberty city," operating with minimal levels of government oversight but facing myriad issues including lack of a sewer system. He declined to speak to WFAA about the propositions, citing anticipated litigation.During the fall campaign to pass the propositions, Marocco led Dallas HERO as its executive director while living in University Park, a self-governed suburban enclave nestled inside Dallas similar to where Bennett calls home. Dallas HERO told WFAA Marocco is no longer with the organization. Trump later tapped Marocco to run USAID, where he wrote the cable ordering a freeze on all U.S. foreign and humanitarian aid, resulting in furloughs and layoffs across the agency.Marocco did not respond to the news organization's efforts to reach him.The man who replaced Marocco in early February as HERO's executive director, Damien LeVeck, is a horror film director whose social media account Dallas En Fuego trolls city officials with what he refers to as spicy videos & memes." He also sells branded merchandise, including a T-shirt with a picture of a Dallas City Council member he often criticizes.Show your support for combatting Dallas municipal tyranny (and stupidity) with our great merchandise," the language on his merch site reads.All refused to speak with WFAA on camera.LeVeck provided a statement, on behalf of HERO, that read, in part: The HERO amendments ... decisively passed by voters last November, will boost public safety by expanding the police force and strengthening government accountability. Residents deserve to feel safe where they live and work, and we are committed to ensuring city leadership upholds the will of the voters."Coons, who spent nearly four decades with the Harris County sheriff's office as a patrol commander before entering academia, said even in a city like Dallas with declining violent crime, people can still be scared into making political decisions.Whether crime is rampant and people are being murdered in the streets, or whether it's an extraordinarily safe place to be, the truth probably is going to be a little bit separate than the individual Dallasite's perception of what's going on," he said.Voters in the city's more affluent northern side narrowly voted against the measure, with 49.3% voting in favor, an analysis by ProPublica and WFAA found. But in the south, where crime rates are higher and police response times are longer, 52.9% of voters cast ballots in favor.Dallas City Council member Carolyn King Arnold, who represents part of southern Dallas and was an outspoken opponent of the HERO amendments, said the organization's backers exploited her constituents' frustrations over crime in order to get their measures passed.In talking to some who actually voted in the southern sector for this, they told me basically, I just want to see one officer ride through, that's why I voted for it,' not understanding the full impact of that amendment," Arnold said. It's always about fear."It's not clear what's next for the Dallas HERO team.Since its win in November, the group has taken to social media and spoken at City Council meetings to demand more money be devoted to the police department.Crime, homelessness, and property destruction is rampant throughout Dallas," HERO posted on X on Aug. 19.Within hours of the City Council passing the coming year's budget, HERO publicly took issue with it. According to a Sept. 18 statement, the organization said the budget fails to comply with Proposition U."Asked about the city's argument that the budget meets the proposition requirements, Bennett wrote in an email, With respect, it just doesn't seem like this is true."LeVeck swore in the organization's Sept. 18 statement that Dallas HERO will hold city leaders accountable."Sue them into submission!" one X user wrote in response to that promise.The organization has already threatened to do so.In December, HERO, citing Proposition S, the immunity measure, argued that the city isn't enforcing state laws banning people from sleeping in encampments on public property. In March, the group's attorney sent a letter to the city threatening to sue it for not hiring police fast enough. The city declined to comment about both incidents.Frazier said he and other local law enforcement stakeholders remain concerned about Dallas HERO's efforts. While their actions are abundant, their ultimate goals are murky.When you ask that question around," Frazier said, no one really knows what the end game is." Tanya Eiserer of WFAA contributed reporting, and ProPublica Deputy Data Editor Ryan Little contributed data analysis. Rebecca Lopez is the senior crime and justice reporter, and Jason Trahan is managing editor of investigations at WFAA-TV in Dallas. Reach them at investigates@wfaa.com. Correction Oct. 16, 2025: This story originally misstated the location of Monty Bennett's hotel company, Ashford Inc. The company is headquartered in Farmers Branch, Texas, not Dallas.

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. Following public outcry, the U.S. Department of Education has restored funding for students who have both hearing and vision loss, about a month after cutting it.But rather than sending the money directly to the four programs that are part of a national network helping students who are deaf and blind, a condition known as deafblindness, the department has instead rerouted the grants to a different organization that will provide funding for those vulnerable students.The Trump administration targeted the programs in its attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion; a department spokesperson had cited concerns about divisive concepts" and fairness" in explaining the decision to withhold the funding.ProPublica and other news organizations reported last month on the canceled grants to agencies that serve these students in Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as in five states that are part of a New England consortium.Programs then appealed to the Education Department to retain their funding, but the appeals were denied. Last week, the National Center on Deafblindness, the parent organization of the agencies that were denied, told the four programs that the Education Department had provided it with additional grant money and the center was passing it on to them.This will enable families, schools, and early intervention programs to continue to ... meet the unique needs of children who are deafblind," according to the letter from the organization to the agencies, which was provided to ProPublica. Education Department officials did not respond to questions from ProPublica; automatic email replies cited the government shutdown.When the funding was canceled, the programs were in the middle of a five-year grant that was expected to continue through September 2028. The funding from the center is only for one year.We don't know what will happen" in future years, said Lisa McConachie of the Oregon DeafBlind Project, which serves 114 students in the state. McConachie said that with uncertain funding, her agency had to cancel a retreat this fall that had been organized for parents to swap medical equipment, share resources and learn about services to help students when they get older. She hopes to reschedule it for the spring. It is still a disruption to families,'' she said. It creates this mistrust, that you are gone and back and gone and back."Oregon's grant application for its deafblind program, submitted in 2023, included a statement about its commitment to address inequities, racism, bias" and the marginalization of disability groups, language that was encouraged by the Biden administration. It also attached the strategic plan for Portland Public Schools, where the Oregon DeafBlind Project is headquartered, that mentioned the establishment of a Center for Black Student Excellence - which is unrelated to the deafblind project. The Education Department's letter said that those initiatives were in conflict with agency policy and priorities." An advocate for deafblind students said he was happy to see the funding restored but called the department's decision-making amateurish" and disruptive to students and families. It is mean-spirited to do this to families and kids and school systems at the beginning of the year when all of these things should be so smooth," said Maurice Belote, co-chair of the National DeafBlind Coalition, which advocates for legislation that supports deafblind children and young adults.Grants to the four agencies total about $1 million a year. The department started funding state-level programs to help deafblind students more than 40 years ago in response to the rubella epidemic in the late 1960s. Nationally, there are about 10,000 children and young adults, from infants to 21-year-olds, who are deafblind and more than 1,000 in the eight affected states, according to the National Center on Deafblindness.While the population is small, it is among the most complex to serve; educators rely on the deafblindness programs for support and training.

by Anna Clark ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. On the far east side of Michigan, the future of fluoride in drinking water - long an ordinary practice for preventing tooth decay - has suddenly provoked passionate debate.Public meetings in St. Clair County, about an hour northeast of Detroit, have filled with people weighing in. One man waved his Fixodent denture cream before the county commissioners, suggesting that his own experience showed what would happen if local communities stopped treatment.I am an unfluoridated child," he declared, with a set of uppers and lowers."Another man, speaking to the county's Advisory Board of Health, said that personal responsibility should be factored into the conversation. I think there are some 3 Musketeer bars, Snicker bars that should be accounted for. Some Coca-Colas."And a young man used his time in the public comments to address not just fluoridation, but the county medical director who's trying to get rid of it. He accused him of grandstanding to land a job with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health and human services secretary, by making moves that lowered the quality of life for underserved people."The raucous arguments were spurred by a three-page memo sent in June to the Advisory Health Board by Dr. Remington Nevin, the medical director of St. Clair County's Health Department. It urges the department to take steps to prohibit the addition of fluoride" to public water systems because, he wrote in bold print, the additive is a plausible developmental neurotoxicant" - a claim that runs counter to the assessment of many leading experts and health agencies, which have long celebrated fluoridation as a public health triumph. Nevin recommended fluoride restrictions that would apply to any system located in the county and serving county residents. Potentially, that could include the Great Lakes Water Authority, which provides water to nearly 40% of the state's population.Drinking water fluoridation, which was pioneered in Michigan in 1945, led to a massive drop in tooth decay. Even with the rise of fluoride in toothpaste and other products, it's credited with a 25% decrease in cavities. But skeptics increasingly hold sway in government, as ProPublica recently reported. Those opponents include Kennedy, the nation's top health official, who has called fluoride industrial waste."Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency are reviewing their approaches to fluoride in drinking water, and Utah and Florida became the first states to ban fluoridation.Local communities, though, are on the front lines of the fluoride wars in most states, typically deciding whether or not to continue fluoridating their drinking water by council vote or community referendum. The public conversation in St. Clair County offers a vivid example of how contentious the issue can become. Advocates from well beyond its borders are getting involved, saying that what happens in the county has implications for the entire state.Home to about 160,000 residents at the base of Michigan's Thumb, St. Clair County shares a watery border with Canada. Some 67% of its voters chose President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. (Kennedy got under 1% of the vote.) About 110,000 residents receive fluoridated drinking water, according to the state's environmental agency, while an additional 6,510 are served by water supplies with naturally occurring fluoride. In his memo this summer, Nevin, who is a physician epidemiologist, cited a state-of-the-science report from the National Toxicology Program last year that described an association between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQs in children. (The NTP is an interagency program within the Department of Health and Human Services that's focused on toxicology research.)Nevin also referenced a court decision in a case filed against the EPA by groups opposed to fluoridation, where a district judge relied, in part, on the NTP report in ruling that fluoride presented an unreasonable risk." Even as it appeals the decision, the EPA said its review of new science on fluoride in drinking water is being done in coordination with Secretary Kennedy and HHS." Dr. Remington Nevin, medical director of St. Clair County's Health Department, issued a three-page memo urging the county to take steps to prohibit the addition of fluoride to public water systems. (Nick Hagen for ProPublica) The NTP report, though, is contested and based on limited studies involving fluoride levels that are more than twice the amount recommended by the federal government. Its own abstract says there isn't enough information to link lower fluoride exposure with children's IQ.Nevin's memo said that the EPA may take months or years to act on fluoride, but that didn't mean local officials had to wait. Across the Michigan Thumb, several townships have expressed a desire for similar measures," he wrote, and within St. Clair County, I have received a number of resident concerns related to this issue." He recommended new regulations that would prohibit the addition of any form of fluoride" to public water systems in the county that serve residents.In Michigan, each community decides for itself if it will maintain fluoride in its drinking water system. But in an email to ProPublica, Nevin laid out a process where the St. Clair County Board of Commissioners could approve regulations that, in the name of public health, restrict the ability of suppliers to use the additive - in effect, enacting sweeping change throughout the region.Just as items manufactured in California are often subject to more stringent California environmental and health regulations, even if the majority are sold outside the state; so too could drinking water produced in St. Clair County be subject to more stringent county regulations, even if the majority is exported to other counties," he wrote.Whether or not this applies to any future fluoride regulations depends on the language that is adopted and approved, he added.The state Department of Health and Human Services says it knows of no local health departments that have attempted such restrictions. In response to ProPublica's queries, the Great Lakes Water Authority shared a May statement about fluoride, which says that the agency is required by its owner, the city of Detroit, to fluoridate its water supply. The current dosage is well below the maximum established by the Safe Drinking Water Act and the EPA, the statement said, and is in line with the recommended target for oral health benefits.The water authority, which serves southeast Michigan, didn't address the St. Clair County proposal. And it's unclear whether the push for broad county regulations will gain traction.As medical director, Nevin has an influential voice with county officials and shares guidance with Liz King, the county's health officer-director. King, however, expressed reservations about Nevin's proposal at a July meeting of the Advisory Health Board, according to the minutes.In a statement to ProPublica, King said: I do not support county-wide mandates to remove fluoride or actions that override the authority of local jurisdictions, unless there is an emergent or urgent public health need." Nevin was new to Michigan when he joined the Health Department in his part-time position about two years ago. He soon established that he would be an active force. He describes it in an email to ProPublica as counter-activism," adding: I am largely working to counter the radical agendas of many past and current state public health officials."At the January meeting of the Advisory Health Board, Nevin provided members with a 2022 book by Kennedy - A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals" - that's critical of the Democratic Party and government restrictions enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. (To the notion that he wants to work for Kennedy, Nevin told ProPublica that it's baseless conjecture" and that he's happy in St. Clair County.)Less than a year into his tenure as HHS secretary, Kennedy's approach was challenged by six former surgeons general who served under both Republicans and Democrats. In a recent op-ed, they said that Kennedy is endangering the health of the nation." His agency criticized their track records in office when contacted by ProPublica about the op-ed, saying they failed to improve public health.Nevin has moved to make vaccine exemptions easier to get, saying in an April memo that it would improve the public's trust in public health." Those efforts helped earn him a tribute signed by 10 Republican state legislators, which also highlights his fluoride recommendations. Nevin also successfully pushed for the department to wind down services at school health clinics, arguing, in part, that providing direct primary care isn't a core function of public health.Supporters point to his training in the military and at Johns Hopkins University. In addition to a medical degree, his CV lists a master's degree and doctorate in public health. On his website, Nevin also highlights his ability to serve as an expert witness and consultant in legal cases that involve adverse effects from certain antimalarial drugs.Nevin told ProPublica that past experience taught him that it can take years for neurotoxic effects of certain substances to be recognized. I have every confidence that, in due course, fluoride will also be looked upon as a neurotoxicant that has no place being ingested," he wrote in an email.He added that the response he's received to his proposal from the community has been overwhelmingly positive." Dr. Randa Jundi-Samman, a recently retired dentist who worked in Port Huron, Michigan, for 30 years, has been a vocal opponent of removing fluoride from St. Clair County's drinking water. (Nick Hagen for ProPublica) But there's been strong pushback. Dr. Randa Jundi-Samman, a recently retired dentist in St. Clair County, was one of the health professionals speaking in support of fluoridation at public meetings. She told ProPublica that dropping fluoridation would be a serious hit to community health.You'd 100% get more decay, especially in children in low-income communities that don't get the chance to go to the dentist every six months," Jundi-Samman said. We certainly will see that. We already see it in people who don't have fluoride in their water."Dr. Mert Aksu, president of the Michigan Oral Health Coalition's board and dean of the University of Detroit Mercy's dental school, said he's hustling up to the public meetings in St. Clair County because it's the duty of professionals to make sure that the decisions that are being made within our communities are being made based upon scientific merit."Speaking broadly about the influence now wielded by fluoride skeptics, Aksu said, We have opened ourselves up to opportunities from misinformed people who want to use this issue for political purposes." Dr. Mert Aksu, dean of the University of Detroit Mercy's dental school, believes people are leveraging fluoride as an issue for political benefit. (Nick Hagen for ProPublica) At an August meeting of the county commissioners, Kimberly Raleigh, interim executive director of the Michigan Oral Health Coalition, read a letter in support of fluoridation that was signed by the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, the Michigan Dental Association, the Indiana Dental Association, the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health and dozens of others.Nevin said in an email that the dental community must recognize that community water fluoridation can no longer be relied upon to mask the dental problems created by our neglect of poor dietary choices."He argues that he has science on his side. Scientific merit favors a recommendation to prohibit fluoride," he wrote to ProPublica. I have every confidence this will become much clearer in the coming months, as further federal guidance is inevitably released."Nevin's recommendation is before the Advisory Health Board, which also was provided a fact sheet on fluoridation from the Health Department, submitted with Nevin's approval. If the board endorses his proposal, King may then decide whether to propose regulations, which the Board of Commissioners would then weigh, according to the Health Department. Nevin estimated that the process could take six to 12 months.Fluoride was on the agenda for the Advisory Health Board's September meeting, which ended early because the members failed to reach a quorum. Nevin told ProPublica that he expects it to be discussed at this week's meeting, and that he will present additional information then. Meanwhile, Nevin has already influenced one of the county's townships, Kimball, which receives treated water from Port Huron, the seat of St. Clair County.At an August meeting, where Nevin spoke to the Board of Trustees, Kimball Township unanimously passed a resolution calling for Port Huron to discontinue fluoridation and direct any funds saved to support access to topical dental fluoride treatments.Port Huron's city manager declined to comment for this story, saying the township has not presented the city with any resolution or request. Nevin said in an email to ProPublica that he is attempting to address every municipality in the county" with similar testimony. After voting on the measure, one Kimball trustee made a point to show support for Nevin, saying we're blessed to have him making decisions."Nevin, he said, has had to overcome resistance from staff pushing hard to make his life rather uncomfortable."They're not used to leadership," the trustee said. They're not used to boldness. They're not used to maybe some male energy that's necessary to get things done."

by Melissa Sanchez and Mariam Elba Leer en espanol. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. She desperately wanted to get out of the country.It was mid-May and Perez, a Venezuelan mother of two, couldn't survive on her own in Chicago anymore. She'd been relying on charity for food and shelter ever since her partner had been detained by immigration authorities after a traffic stop earlier in the year.Perez, 25, thought it'd be safer to return to Venezuela with her children than to stay in the U.S. Her request for asylum was still open and she had a permit to work legally, but so did a lot of other Venezuelans getting picked up on the streets and taken into custody. Authorities were detaining immigrants regardless of whether they'd followed the rules.She had also seen how President Donald Trump singled out her countrymen, calling them gang members and terrorists, even sending hundreds to a foreign prison. She was terrified of getting detained, deported and, worst of all, separated from her young daughter and son. They were the reason the family had come to the U.S.Then she heard about Trump's offer of a safe and dignified way out. We are making it as easy as possible for illegal aliens to leave America," the president said in a video on social media in May announcing the launch of Project Homecoming.He spoke about a phone app where illegals can book a free flight to any foreign country." And he dangled other incentives: Eligible immigrants wouldn't be barred from returning legally to the U.S. someday, and they'd even get a $1,000 exit bonus." Believing the president's words, Perez downloaded the CBP Home app and registered to return to Venezuela with her children.Months passed. Her partner was deported. In July, Perez said, she got a call from someone in the CBP Home program telling her she'd be on a flight out of the country in mid-August. She began packing.But as the departure date neared and the plane tickets hadn't arrived, Perez got nervous. Again and again, she called the toll-free number she'd been given. Finally, somebody called back to say there might be a delay obtaining the documents she'd need to travel to Venezuela.Then there was silence. No further information, no plane tickets. Perez registered on the app again in August, then a third time in September, as immigration arrests ramped up in Chicago.Today, Perez feels trapped in a country that doesn't want her. She's afraid of leaving her apartment, afraid that she will be detained and that her children will be taken away from her. I feel so scared, always looking around in every direction," she said. I was trying to leave voluntarily, like the president said."The Trump administration's immigration crackdown is having the intended effect of terrifying people into trying to leave. There have been some 25,000 departures of immigrants from all countries via CBP Home, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data obtained by ProPublica.The data indicates that of those 25,000 people, a little more than half of them returned home with DHS assistance; nearly all the others who left the U.S. ended up returning on their own.And it's not just CBP Home. Applications for voluntary departures - an alternative to deportation granted to some immigrants who leave at their own expense - have skyrocketed to levels not seen since at least 2000, reaching more than 34,000 since Trump's second administration began, immigration court data shows. (The number is higher than in years past, but nowhere near the number of immigrants the administration has deported this year.)But for many recent arrivals from Venezuela - arguably the community most targeted by the Trump administration, and whose country is now bracing for the possibility of a U.S. invasion - leaving has not been as simple as the president has made it sound.ProPublica spoke with more than a dozen Venezuelans who said they wanted to take the U.S. government's offer of a safe and easy return. They signed up months ago on the CBP Home app and were given departure dates. But after those dates came and went, these immigrants said they feel betrayed by what the president told them.Part of the problem is tied to the lack of diplomatic relations between Washington and Caracas. There are no consular services for Venezuelans in the U.S. Many of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who migrated to the U.S. in recent years seeking asylum or other humanitarian relief entered without valid passports, as Perez did. But to get on a plane for Venezuela, they're being told they'll need a special travel document known as a salvoconducto," or safe passage," from their government.And relations between the two countries are getting worse. The Trump administration has pushed for regime change in Venezuela, sent warships to the Caribbean and, in recent weeks, blew up four Venezuelan boats it claimed were transporting drugs to the U.S. Bracing for an invasion, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said he's ready to declare a state of emergency to protect his country, which could make it harder for Venezuelans abroad to return home.The Venezuelans who want to leave the U.S. described how CBP Home representatives told them that their lack of passports wouldn't be a problem and that the U.S. government would help them obtain the travel documents they needed. Now they are being told that they're on their own - if they get any response at all.The Trump administration was aware of the potential challenges from the start. In his May proclamation, the president directed the State and Homeland Security departments to take all appropriate actions to enable the rapid departure of illegal aliens from the United States who currently lack a valid travel document from their countries of citizenship or nationality."In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said the agency is working with the State Department to acquire travel documents for those who lack safe passage. So far thousands of Venezuelans have already self-departed using CBP Home." The State Department referred questions to DHS.The internal DHS records obtained by ProPublica show nearly 3,700 departures of Venezuelans via CBP Home through late September. It's unclear how many Venezuelans have applied. The DHS spokesperson said the agency could not confirm the numbers and would not say whether the program is meeting projections. (A congressional committee has directed DHS to include information about CBP Home departures in monthly reports the agency previously published, but has not published in this administration.)An estimated 10,200 Venezuelans were deported between February and early October, according to deportation flight data tracked by the nonprofit Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor.Many of the Venezuelans interviewed by ProPublica are mothers of young children who say they decided to take the president's offer after their work permits expired, their temporary protected status was canceled or their spouses were deported. Few are willing to return by land because of the dangers posed by cartel violence and kidnappings in Mexico - dangers many of them experienced when they migrated here.Nearly all of them, like Perez, asked not to be identified by their full names because they're afraid of bringing unwanted attention to themselves and of the potential consequences of such attention. Interviews with Venezuelan immigrants were conducted in Spanish.Before their departure dates came and went, they had made preparations to leave - turning over the keys to their apartments, pulling their children from school, shipping their belongings to Venezuela. And they have sunk deeper into poverty as the weeks and months pass. Perez applied for her family to return to Venezuela through the CBP Home app months ago but has been stuck in limbo in Chicago without a clear path forward. (Jamie Kelter Davis for ProPublica) In Los Angeles, a family of four slept in their tiny Toyota Echo for weeks to save on rent as they waited for their departure date. They sold the car and other belongings to pay for bus tickets back the way they'd come. Nearly two months after their return to Venezuela, they said they're still waiting for the exit bonuses they'd hoped would help them start over.In Youngstown, Pennsylvania, a mother of two said she didn't enroll her 8-year-old son in school this fall because she assumed they would be gone by now. She recently moved into a friend's apartment in New York City and plans to turn herself in to immigration authorities and ask to be deported.I don't want to be here anymore," the woman said, between sobs. What am I supposed to do?"Several immigration attorneys and advocates told ProPublica that they don't trust the CBP Home app or the Trump administration's promises to help immigrants self-deport. The National Immigration Law Center recently published a guide explaining some of the potential risks of using the app, such as leaving the country without closing an immigration court case and becoming ineligible for a future visa. Some lawyers said they discourage clients from using the app at all.Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, a nonprofit in El Paso that supports migrants and refugees, said in the current climate, he understands why some people might consider the administration's offer to leave. But, he said, the offer has to be backed by action.If you're going to say you're going to do this," Garcia added, then you damn well better make sure that it's truthful and that it works." Emily, a Venezuelan immigrant in Columbus, Ohio, holds her phone showing an email from the CBP Home program. (Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica) CBP Home replaced an earlier app that the Biden administration had promoted to try to bring order to the soaring numbers of migrants attempting to enter the country. Perez and other asylum-seekers used that earlier version, CBP One, to make appointments to approach the border. Trump, who campaigned on the promise of mass deportations, ended that option on his first day back in the White House.In March, he reintroduced the app with the new name and function, allowing immigrants to alert the government of their intention to self-deport. It was part of a $200 million advertising blitz meant to encourage immigrants to Stay Out and Leave Now." Two months later, Trump unveiled Project Homecoming and the added incentives of free flights and exit payments. The administration moved State Department funds meant to aid refugees resettling in the U.S. to DHS to help pay for the flights and stipends, according to federal records and news reports.DHS officials have mentioned the app in dozens of press releases about policy changes and enforcement operations. For example, in the September announcement that DHS was ending temporary protected status for Venezuelans, officials also encouraged Venezuelans to leave via CBP Home. And immigrants who show up for their hearings at immigration court see posters taped on the walls about the benefits they could get if they self-deport using CBP Home instead of being deported by ICE."Emily and Deybis downloaded the app in June, when it seemed as if their life in the U.S. was collapsing. They said they used the earlier CBP One app to approach the border with their two children in January 2024 and were allowed into the country with protections that were supposed to last two years. They settled in Dallas, applied for asylum and got work permits; Deybis found a job in a hotel laundry and Emily at a Chick-fil-A. Then, this spring, the Trump administration ended protections for immigrants like them and canceled their work permits.They lost their jobs and could no longer afford their rent. On the app's sky-blue home screen, they saw a drawing of a smiling man and woman holding hands with a child. Let us help you easily leave the country," another screen told them in Spanish. They agreed to share their phone's geolocation, entered personal information and uploaded selfies.They received an automated email from Project Homecoming Support" explaining that they would be contacted soon by someone from a toll-free number who would help coordinate their travel. Within weeks, they got a call from an operator at that number who said she worked on behalf of DHS.Emily said she made clear the family didn't have Venezuelan passports but was told that wouldn't be a problem; the U.S. government would procure any necessary documents for them. They said the operator gave them an Aug. 1 departure date and told them to expect their plane tickets by email.Emily and Deybis sold their car and moved with their children to Columbus, Ohio, where Deybis' nephew let them stay in his unfinished basement apartment until their departure. The plane tickets never came.Then the nephew was detained in a traffic stop and deported. Panicked, Emily and Deybis said they called the toll-free number again and again, leaving messages that went unanswered. Emily submitted a new application and sent more emails.In mid-September, they got an email from the CBP Home team" telling them to contact the Venezuelan embassy in Mexico to get travel documents on their own.We are working very hard on your case," the email assured.When they called the embassy, though, the number was busy. They found travel agencies that offer to procure travel documents at a cost but said they were told the Venezuelan government requires an arrival date and proof that plane tickets have been purchased. Emily and Deybis can't afford them.Thank you so much for your patience and we understand your frustration," they heard back in another email. Wait for new instructions from DHS."As they wait, they worry about how they'll survive when winter comes. Most days, Deybis visits local food pantries and looks for discarded items in alleys and on street corners that they can resell. A few weeks ago, they sold their daughter's bed to help pay the rent.We'd rather be in Venezuela with our family than suffer here," he said. Emily and Deybis share a basement apartment in Columbus, Ohio with their two children. They're unable to work and have resorted to selling the few possessions they have to feed the family. (Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica) Perez said her daughter was the family's main motivation to come; the girl had been born with a heart defect and needed surgery they could not find in Venezuela, where hospitals operate through power outages and have limited capacity for advanced surgeries, not to mention supplies.We didn't come for the American dream, or for a house, or for some life of luxury," said Perez. What we wanted is for our daughter to live."She and her partner made the trek to the U.S. in 2023, with her daughter, then 6, and their 4-year-old son. Perez thought they did it the right away" by waiting in Mexico for weeks until they got an appointment to approach the border via CBP One. After they were processed, the family headed to Chicago, a city they had heard was a sanctuary for immigrants. At first they took shelter inside a police station, as hundreds of new immigrant families were doing at the time. Perez said medical workers who visited the station learned about her daughter's condition and connected the family to a hospital charity care program. The following spring, the frail little girl with dark brown eyes got the operation she needed.In late 2024, the family moved to South Florida, where Perez's partner found work rebuilding homes damaged by hurricanes. Then in February, he was arrested for driving without a license or registration. He spent about two months in jail before he was transferred into immigration custody.Perez didn't feel safe in Florida anymore. She returned to Chicago with her children.But as the months pass without an answer from the CBP Home program, Chicago doesn't feel safe, either. This fall, the Trump administration zeroed in on the city for immigration enforcement, sending in the U.S. Border Patrol. Perez recently downloaded another app that tells her whether there've been sightings of federal immigration agents nearby, and she watches videos of other immigrants getting arrested. One day in September, a federal agent shot and killed an immigrant in a nearby suburb. Perez wonders if she might die, too.On a sunny September afternoon, Perez peered down the street outside her children's school, scanning for suspicious vehicles. Her daughter, who is now 8, bounded down the steps first, wearing a pink bow and a broad smile. Her son, now 6, in a Spiderman shirt and a blue cast from a playground accident, appeared next.They share their mother's anxiety. On their walk home, Perez's daughter leaned over her brother and chided him for speaking Spanish in public. The girl said her teacher had warned her that federal agents might be listening.It reminded Perez that she now needs to leave the U.S. for the same reason she came: her children. She plans to register yet again on the CBP Home app. Perez plays with her two children in Chicago. Her partner was deported earlier this summer, leaving her unable to support the family alone. (Jamie Kelter Davis for ProPublica) Jeff Ernsthausen contributed data analysis.

by Anjeanette Damon, ProPublica, and Dayvid Figler, City Cast Las Vegas ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. Nevada state regulators have accused Elon Musk's Boring Co. of violating environmental regulations nearly 800 times in the last two years as it digs a sprawling tunnel network beneath Las Vegas for its Tesla-powered people mover." The company's alleged violations include starting to dig without approval, releasing untreated water onto city streets and spilling muck from its trucks, according to a new document obtained by City Cast Las Vegas and ProPublica.The Sept. 22 cease-and-desist letter from the state Bureau of Water Pollution Control alleged repeated violations of a settlement agreement that the company had entered into after being fined five years ago for discharging groundwater into storm drains without a permit. That agreement, signed by a Boring executive in 2022, was intended to compel the company to comply with state water pollution laws.Instead, state inspectors documented nearly 100 alleged new violations of the agreement. The letter also accuses the company of failing to hire an independent environmental manager to regularly inspect its construction sites. State regulators counted 689 missed inspections.The Boring Co. is disputing the violation letter, a state spokesperson said.The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection could have fined the company more than $3 million under the 2022 agreement, which allowed for daily penalties to be assessed. But regulators knocked down the total penalty to $242,800. For example, the bulk of the total possible fine was linked to the alleged missed inspections, but the agency chose to levy just a $10,000 penalty for each of the company's 11 permits. Given the extraordinary number of violations, NDEP has decided to exercise its discretion to reduce the penalty to two $5,000 violations per permit, which it believes offers a reasonable penalty that will still serve to deter future non-compliance conduct," regulators wrote in the letter.Payment of the penalty isn't required until after the dispute resolution process is complete, a state spokesperson said. In the letter, the agency reminded the company that it reserves the right to direct TBC to cease and desist construction activities" under the agreement. In the past, Musk has espoused paying penalties rather than waiting for approvals as a way of doing business.Environmental regulations are, in my view, largely terrible," he said at an event with the libertarian Cato Institute last year. You have to get permission in advance, as opposed to, say, paying a penalty if you do something wrong, which I think would be much more effective."Neither Musk nor Boring responded to requests for comment for this story.The Sept. 22 letter documents the latest in a string of alleged violations of state and local regulations by The Boring Co. since it began construction in 2019 of the Loop project, which uses driver-operated Teslas to move people through the tunnels. The project, initially a 0.8-mile underground route connecting the sections of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority campus to each other, has grown to a planned 68 miles of tunnels and 104 stations across the Las Vegas Valley. It's carried out in partnership with the LVCVA, the tourism board best known for the What Happens Here, Stays Here" slogan.Boring uses a machine known as Prufrock to dig the 12-foot-diameter tunnels, applying chemical accelerants as part of the process. For each foot the company bores, it removes about 6 cubic yards of soil along with any groundwater, according to a company document prepared for state environmental officials.Because it is privately funded and receives no federal money, the project is exempt from many exhaustive governmental vetting and environmental analysis requirements. But it is required to obtain state permits to ensure the waste does not contaminate the environment or local water sources.A January story by ProPublica and City Cast Las Vegas documented how the company worked to escape county and state oversight requirements by arguing its project didn't fit under existing regulations and promising to hold itself accountable through independent audits - all while being cited for permitting and water pollution violations in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Last year, the company successfully lobbied to be exempted from holding a county amusement and transportation system" permit, arguing instead for an oversight plan that removed multiple layers of inspection.Workers have complained of chemical burns from the waste material generated by the tunneling process, and firefighters must decontaminate their equipment after conducting rescues from the project sites. The company was fined more than $112,000 by Nevada's Occupational Safety and Health Administration in late 2023 after workers complained of ankle-deep" water in the tunnels, muck spills and burns. The Boring Co. has contested the violations. Just last month, a construction worker suffered a crush injury" after being pinned between two 4,000-foot pipes, according to police records. Firefighters used a crane to extract him from the tunnel opening.After ProPublica and City Cast Las Vegas published their January story, both the CEO and the chairman of the LVCVA board criticized the reporting, arguing the project is well-regulated. As an example, LVCVA CEO Steve Hill cited the delayed opening of a Loop station by local officials who were concerned that fire safety requirements weren't adequate. Board chair Jim Gibson, who is also a Clark County commissioner, agreed the project is appropriately regulated.We wouldn't have given approvals if we determined things weren't the way they ought to be and what it needs to be for public safety reasons," Gibson said, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. Our sense is we've done what we need to do to protect the public."Asked for a response to the new proposed fines, an LVCVA spokesperson said, We won't be participating in this story."The repeated allegations that the company is violating regulations - including the bespoke regulatory arrangement agreed to by the company - indicates that officials aren't keeping the public safe, said Ben Leffel, an assistant public policy professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.Not if they're recommitting almost the exact violation," Leffel said. Leffel questioned whether a $250,000 penalty would be significant enough to change operations at The Boring Co., which was valued at $7 billion in 2023. Studies show that fines that don't put a significant dent in a company's profit don't deter companies from future violations, Leffel said.A state spokesperson disagreed that regulators aren't keeping the public safe and said the agency believes its penalties will deter future non-compliance."NDEP is actively monitoring and inspecting the projects," the spokesperson said.

by Megan O'Matz and Jennifer Smith Richards ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. In just over eight months, the second Trump administration has made a rapid succession of political hires and policy decisions at the U.S. Department of Education that could spur profound changes in the way schools are operated and children learn.After years of advocating to expand private and religious education and homeschooling, using tax dollars, a cadre of conservative activists is in a position to push forward its agenda. Some of its policies are already undermining public schools, which it has denigrated as unsuccessful and out of step with Christian values, a ProPublica investigation found.In many communities, public schools are valued hubs for community life and services, including meals, socializing and counseling. More than 80% of students are enrolled in traditional public schools, which must serve all children, including those with disabilities. The administration, however, views public schools as a monopoly that should be broken up.Millions of young Americans are trapped in failing schools, subjected to radical anti-American ideology," Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon claimed immediately after taking office. She and others in the administration believe that progressive activists have led schools to focus too much on woke" policies rather than on rigorous academic standards.Agency officials and spokespeople declined to speak to ProPublica.Here are five ways the Education Department under McMahon is creating profound change in public schools. 1. Encouraging an exodus McMahon and President Donald Trump want to expand tax-funded school choice options, giving more families the financial means to leave public schools. Trump pushed Congress to pass, and signed into law, a new federal tax credit to finance the first national school voucher program, set to open to families on Jan. 1, 2027. The Education Department has also encouraged school districts to spend some federal money meant for disadvantaged students on services from private providers and on children from low-income families who live within district boundaries but attend private schools.Public school leaders say they've already watched students transfer out to private and charter schools in recent years - and with them, they've lost essential per-pupil funding. They worry that voucher expansion will cause further damage to their budgets and threaten their survival.Occasionally, McMahon has spoken positively of public schools - for example, praising some for literacy gains. But more often, and more emphatically, she portrays them as unsuccessful, as do her advisers.Education Department adviser Lindsey Burke came from The Heritage Foundation, where she co-authored the education chapter of Project 2025, the policy playbook for the Trump administration. It calls for tax-funded education accounts so parents can customize their children's schooling. Years ago, Burke said she hoped that one day we will marvel at the fact that we once assigned children to government-run schools consigning the poorest to schools that were often failing and sometimes unsafe." 2. Cutting federal funding In a move that affects public school students across the country, the department has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding for a variety of programs, including for mental health professionals and for training and supporting new teachers. More cuts are likely.The administration's proposed education budget for fiscal 2026 calls for combining 18 existing grant programs - including funds for rural schools and homeless students - into a single $2 billion block grant to be allocated to states. That is about $4.5 billion less than if the grants survived alone. Overall, the Trump administration has proposed reducing federal spending on education by 15% in the 2026 budget. Congress has not passed a budget yet, and the government is shut down. 3. Injecting God into the classroom Department officials have decried what they view as liberal indoctrination in public schools - what one top leader describes as a Marxist and anti-God and anti-family agenda." They now are pursuing policies that align with conservative Christian values, including opposing protections for transgender students and restricting materials about sexuality. Early this year, the department notified schools it would follow Trump's executive order stipulating that there are two sexes, male and female."McMahon has made Meg Kilgannon, who advocates for more Christian leadership in school districts, a top adviser. Kilgannon has decried the removal of spirituality as a topic from classrooms, arguing that if we're not going to discuss our identity as Christians," schools will push racial identities" and sexual identities" on students instead.In a speech on Sept. 8 at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., Trump announced that the Education Department will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools." He said that the Bible is an important part of the American story" and that he intends to protect the Judeo-Christian principles of our founding, and we will protect them with vigor." 4. Promoting curriculum choices The federal government historically has not dictated curriculum choices, and McMahon has stressed that she thinks what is taught in schools is best left to local communities. Yet the Education Department is prioritizing patriotic education, promoting civics lessons that present American history and the nation's founding principles in an inspiring" manner. History should portray an ennobling characterization" of the country's past, the department said. Critics contend that the administration's aim is to present a sanitized version of history, downplaying bitter episodes, including racial oppression and sexism.The department has directed states and districts to avoid material that could make white students feel intrinsic guilt" based on the oppressive acts of past generations. McMahon also supported the rights of parents to pull their children out of classes they find objectionable, such as those involving books with gay characters or themes. 5. Weakening civil rights protections The department is using its Office for Civil Rights to press public schools to drop programs and policies designed to help Black or Hispanic students. The office has launched investigations against school districts for teaching lessons on systemic racism, hosting empowerment gatherings for students of color and providing remedial help for Black youth, all of which the administration says discriminates against white students.In addition, the department has repeatedly targeted school districts for allowing students who were born male but identify as female to play on girls sports teams and use bathrooms and locker rooms reserved for girls. In some instances, the department has issued or threatened sanctions, including the potential loss of federal funding and referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for further action. Help ProPublica Report on Education

by Amy Yurkanin ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. When 19-year-old Jorge Ruiz walked into the Autauga County Jail in handcuffs on Oct. 28, 2018, he wasn't a typical suspect. He was out of place and in big trouble in a deeply conservative part of Alabama.That morning, he'd been driving about 70 miles per hour in a 55 zone when he crossed the center line of a two-lane rural highway. His Ford pickup collided head-on with a Honda Civic, killing the woman behind the wheel. Paramedics took Ruiz to the hospital, where a blood test found a trace amount of alcohol. At just 0.016, it was below the legal threshold for intoxication.But rather than charging him with manslaughter, which typically would be the most extreme charge brought under the circumstances, police went further. They arrested him for murder.To support such a murder charge, prosecutors are supposed to show that a defendant's conduct displays extreme indifference" - behavior so reckless that someone is likely to die, as when a person fires a gun into a crowd or steers a boat into a group of swimmers. Suspects charged with murder after car crashes often are documented to have blood alcohol levels more than twice the legal limit and 10 times the level found in Ruiz's blood, according to a review of Alabama cases from the last 20 years by ProPublica. Many others had prior DUIs or were driving 100 miles per hour or more. In this case, the suspect had a clean criminal history and wasn't even going fast enough to be ticketed for aggravated speeding.Ruiz's trial attorney said that as soon as he started talking to the district attorney's office, the case felt different. Across the three counties in Alabama's 19th Circuit Court, only a handful of people have been charged with murder for a car accident in the span of a decade - and most wound up taking a plea deal for a lesser charge.But this time around, the prosecutor's offer could hardly be considered a deal at all: The teenager would have to plead guilty to murder, and it would be blind plea, meaning he would have to hope for mercy from the court in his sentencing. In my 30 years of practicing law, I have never been offered a deal like that," Ruiz's court-appointed lawyer, Richard Lively, said.The lead prosecutor eventually budged, but only a little. He wouldn't reduce the charge, but he would recommend that the teenager spend 30 years in prison.That's longer than any other sentence handed down since at least 2004 for a car crash fatality in Alabama's 19th Circuit Court, which includes Autauga, Chilton and Elmore counties. A man who fled the scene of a fatal crash - and had a 0.09 blood alcohol level nine hours later - received a 15-year sentence in 2017. A woman who had three times the legal limit of alcohol in her system received 23 years in 2007 after she killed a University of Alabama student.For defendants who were teenagers when they caused fatal car accidents, the courts can be even more lenient. In 2012, a Madison County judge granted youthful offender status to a man who was 19 when he was charged with murder for a drunk driving crash that killed a high school sophomore in Huntsville. The driver, who had a blood alcohol level of 0.15, was sentenced to a year in jail and two on probation.Lively had a hard time squaring his client's charges with the results of his blood test and recorded speed. Alabama's murder statute does not require a driver to be legally intoxicated, and people have faced murder charges for killing someone by racing or fleeing police. But neither applied here. Lively reasoned that for murder to fit, the teenager would have had to be intentionally driving into oncoming traffic.He thought his client could beat the charge and told him not to plead guilty. Years later, attorneys involved in the case would attempt to shed light on what was so different about it - and on one fact in particular that they believed eclipsed all the others.He was a Mexican immigrant. The case against Ruiz was, as one legal expert put it, a perfect storm of horrible facts."The night before the accident, he stayed up late after drinking at a music festival in Birmingham. At the scene of the crash, police found beer cans in his truck. He was in the country on a temporary work visa and did not have a driver's license. He spoke little English, relying on his 17-year-old cousin to translate his Miranda rights and the string of questions from police.The only reason Ruiz was in Autauga County was to visit his extended family after finishing a monthslong job in Georgia and South Carolina clearing brush from power lines. He was days away from returning to Mexico.The woman he killed was named Marlena Hayes. She was a 29-year-old nurse who'd just finished the night shift at Prattville Baptist Hospital. She wasn't even supposed to be working at that time. She'd planned to see her brother perform that weekend with the marching band at the University of West Alabama. In the end, though, she took the shift as a favor to a colleague. Marlena Hayes was killed in a car crash in 2018. (Obtained by ProPublica) Newspapers and TV stations in central Alabama quickly picked up the story. Some referred to Ruiz as an illegal immigrant even though he'd been in the U.S. on a six-month H-2B visa, which are approved when employers can't find enough American workers. One of those articles appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser, the largest newspaper in the area.When Lively was assigned to the case, he felt compelled to show that his client had been in the U.S. legally. Ruiz's visa had only lapsed when he was in jail. Lively tracked down the Montgomery Advertiser reporter at the Autauga County courthouse to show him that Ruiz's visa had been valid when he was arrested. But even after that, the newspaper failed to acknowledge that he was in the country legally at the time of the crash. The Montgomery Advertiser stands behind our reporting," the newspaper said in a statement released through its parent company, Gannett.In the years leading up to Ruiz's arrest, Alabama had established itself as a particularly unwelcoming place for foreigners. In 2011, then-Gov. Robert Bentley signed a bill that criminalized everyday activities like transporting, employing and renting homes to undocumented immigrants.At the time, historians and legal experts worried the law could usher in a new era of racial injustice similar to Jim Crow that would be enforced by the police and courts. But the impact of the immigration law remains largely unknown because Alabama prisons don't collect ethnicity data and therefore don't know how many inmates are Hispanic. In 2013, the state agreed not to enforce most of the provisions as part of a lawsuit.The HB 56 legislation brought nativism and xenophobia into the political mainstream in Alabama" wrote historian Raymond Mohl. At the height of the debate over the law, a congressman from north Alabama said that to prevent illegal immigration to the state, he would do anything short of shooting them."Back then, those harsh policies made Alabama an outlier. But with the election of President Donald Trump in 2016, the state's positions started going mainstream. Alabama even supplied one of the foremost architects of Trump's first-term immigration policy: U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a fierce champion of border crackdowns, was tapped to be Trump's attorney general.Ruiz was arrested nearly two years into Trump's first term. At the time, Alabama was growing more red even as a blue wave nationally elected dozens of Democrats to Congress. In Alabama, Republicans swept statewide office that year and expanded their majority in the Legislature.Some members of Ruiz's extended family had started moving to Alabama from Mexico nearly 15 years earlier and stayed in the area even after the political winds turned against them. Sandra Ruiz, his 17-year-old cousin, moved from Texas to Autauga County at age 2 and had lived near Prattville, a suburb of Montgomery, nearly all her life. She knew that some of her neighbors could be ignorant of, or even hostile to, people from Mexico. She and her family were afraid for Jorge Ruiz when he was arrested and followed the police to the station. Investigators allowed the high school senior to translate their questions and Ruiz's responses.A judge granted Ruiz bond in March 2019, four months after he was jailed. Ruiz's family members in Alabama sold tamales and organized a raffle of an ornate belt buckle to raise funds for bail. They posted the money to free him.And they began to wait.In the weeks and months leading up to Ruiz's trial, Judge Bill Lewis made several decisions that, according to Ruiz's lawyer, put his client at a disadvantage.One of the first things Lewis did was revoke Ruiz's bond. Because of a technicality, Ruiz's family never recovered the $5,000 they'd paid to get him out of jail. The news coverage that followed the decision sparked intense, and often misinformed, debate online about the case, and Lively worried that bias would affect potential jurors. Not long after Ruiz's bond was revoked, the judge got a letter in the mail from a local resident. The writer thanked him and asked Lewis to do everything in your power to get justice for Marlena." The letter went on to describe Ruiz as in this country illegally" and operating his vehicle under the influence of alcohol."About a week later, Lewis denied Ruiz's application for youthful offender status. That meant he would not be eligible for a sentence capped at three years. Lewis did not respond to a list of questions from ProPublica, including one about not granting Ruiz youthful offender status.But as the trial neared, Lewis took several steps to attempt to keep bias out of the courtroom. He gave special instructions to the prosecution and the defense, barring any mention of Ruiz's immigration status and directing attorneys involved in the case to call him George."The judge's efforts couldn't erase the obvious difference between Ruiz and almost everyone else in the courtroom: the language barrier. Longtime courthouse observers don't recall a case in Prattville where an interpreter was used at trial," the Montgomery Advertiser reported.The district attorney had charged Ruiz under the reckless murder section of the statute, reserved for offenders who unintentionally cause a death. Courts have found that driving without a license, a misdemeanor that in Alabama carries a fine of $10 to $100, doesn't constitute underlying recklessness for charges like manslaughter or murder. Prosecutors only briefly brought up at Ruiz's trial that he did not have a license. What made the case amount to murder, the prosecutor said throughout the case, was that Ruiz was both speeding and had crossed the center line.Ruiz's use of alcohol also played a central role in the trial, even though he hadn't been charged with DUI - and even though the prosecutors conceded that the evidence didn't support that charge. A toxicologist testified that almost four hours had passed between the crash and the blood test at the hospital. He said the average elimination rate for alcohol is 0.015 percentage points an hour. That testimony suggested Ruiz's blood alcohol level would have been higher than 0.07 at the time of the accident.If the prosecutors could scientifically confirm that figure, it would have been enough to charge Ruiz with DUI because the legal intoxication threshold is lower for underage drivers. But such estimates have been described as unreliable by some scientists and legal experts, with one calling them no better than a wild guess." Some states have imposed higher bars than Alabama for the admission of such evidence, and at least one, Massachusetts, doesn't allow it at all if the blood alcohol reading was, like Ruiz's, below 0.03.Lively produced no expert to dispute the toxicologist. In fact, he called only one witness, Ruiz's date the night of the festival, who testified that Ruiz rode with her to her apartment after the festival, at around 1:30 a.m., and slept on the couch until he left at around 5 a.m.Lively said in his closing argument that the evidence failed to show that Ruiz's behavior was so brazenly dangerous that it amounted to murder.This was a person who was driving home and fell asleep behind the wheel," Lively said.Then-Chief Assistant District Attorney C.J. Robinson said there was no evidence Ruiz fell asleep. In Alabama, we recognize that you can do something so dangerous that it could kill somebody, and you should realize what you're doing is that dangerous," he said during closing arguments. I submit to you that anyone's life was in danger, and therefore it was reckless murder."Jurors were instructed that, as an alternative to murder, they also could consider the lesser charges of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. They deliberated for less than an hour.The foreman announced guilty verdicts on three counts: minor in possession of alcohol, driving without a license and murder.Three weeks later, everyone gathered again for the sentencing. Robinson invited members of Hayes' family to speak about their loss.The family, along with friends, had come to every hearing. Hayes' mother, Laura Liveoak, had spoken out on social media about her grief, describing how her daughter had texted her right before she left work that morning, asking what the weather was like. Liveoak said in a Facebook video: It's hard to be the parent of a victim, knowing that she'll never be a mother. I'll never be a grandmother to the sweet little redheaded kids that she probably would have had." She declined to comment for this story.Liveoak told the judge how much her daughter loved being a nurse: so much that she spent some of her days off visiting patients. She'd recently bought a house in a nearby town, Deatsville, and adopted two German shepherds who became the center of her world. She'd texted her mom right before she left work that morning. Her last message was about her dogs. Hayes' grave (Obtained by ProPublica) Then it was Ruiz's turn. He spoke for the first time in court.I want to say that I am sorry to the family," Ruiz said. I wouldn't have wished for this to happen. I wish that this would have only been a dream."Lewis peered down from the bench at Ruiz.This is America," Lewis said. It's the greatest country in the world and we have the right to trial in this country. I would never penalize you for exercising that right, but Mr. Lively talked about acceptance of responsibility, contrition, remorse. I haven't seen any of that from you."He sentenced Ruiz to the maximum possible punishment, longer even than the 50 years requested by prosecutors: 99 years.The court went quiet. Even the prosecutor was shocked.Years later, Robinson remembered that moment. That was not something that I had expected," he said.In 2023, four years after the sentencing, a human rights lawyer from Mexico reached out to the Southern Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit law center in Atlanta that focuses on criminal justice. He let them know that the Mexican Consulate had been following Ruiz's case from the time he was arrested through the slow-moving appeals process. His 99-year sentence had shocked them, and they wanted to find a lawyer in the U.S. who could steer the increasingly complicated appeal.Ruiz's family had cobbled together money for a private attorney, who filed motions to challenge his conviction and sentence. But they had run out of funds. Ruiz was preparing to represent himself when the attorneys from the center stepped in.I was like, We need to help this kid,'" SCHR attorney Paulina Lucio-Maymon said. Otherwise, he's just gonna end up forgotten by the system."The Mexican Consulate connected Lucio-Maymon and her colleague Michael Admirand with family from Prattville, who in turn connected the attorneys with family in Ruiz's hometown, Jose Maria Pino Suarez, in the Mexican state of Durango. Many in the small community knew Ruiz. As a young boy, he had helped his grandfather work a shared plot of farmland and manage his livestock. He dropped out after middle school to support his family and got his visa to come to the U.S. in the spring of 2018. He needed to make more money after his mother's unexpected death.He was always trying to make sure everyone was taken care of," said his cousin, Sandra Ruiz.In the U.S., he was part of an all-immigrant crew of temporary visa workers employed by a contractor for the power company. The team trudged through Georgia and South Carolina backcountry, their feet snagging on roots and vines as they cleared vegetation from power lines. They often walked for 10 to 12 hours a day while carrying heavy canisters of weed-killing chemicals, and Ruiz suffered heat stroke twice, one of Ruiz's fellow workers testified in an appeal hearing. Workers wore out their shoes every eight days, the worker said. First image: Ruiz, on the horse, grew up taking care of animals on his grandfather's farm in rural Mexico. Second image: Ruiz, age 17, with his mom before she died suddenly in 2017. (Courtesy of Jorge Ruiz) Ruiz, second from the right, with his work crew in Georgia in 2018 (Courtesy of Jorge Ruiz) Ruiz wanted to spend his last few weeks in the U.S. visiting family in Prattville before returning to Mexico. He missed his daughter, Noeli, and had begun making plans for her third birthday.None of that history had been presented at his sentencing hearing. His attorney also failed to highlight his clean criminal record in Mexico.In September 2019, less than a month after he handed down that 99-year sentence, Lewis had issued an unusual order. He removed Lively from the case despite there being no motion seeking his removal. Lewis determined Ruiz had received inadequate representation.Lewis cited an offhand comment Lively made at the sentencing hearing. In response to the judge admonishing Ruiz for not being contrite, Lively told the judge that the decision to take Ruiz's case to trial may be more of a reflection of my bad advice to him than his own acceptance of responsibility." Lewis wrote that he saw that as an admission that Lively was questioning his own representation of Ruiz. (Lively later told ProPublica he was trying to deflect some of Judge Lewis' criticism of Jorge onto me" and lamented how that one sentence has been used as a cudgel against me and a tool to scapegoat me in this case.")In the hearings and filings that followed, Lewis continued to express concerns about the information that had not been presented at trial or sentencing.The Court, when rendering a sentence in this case should have as much information as possible," Lewis wrote in a more recent order. Mr. Lively failed to provide any, despite having access to many different sources of information that could have affected the Defendant's sentence."Lively did provide some evidence at Ruiz's sentencing, calling his aunt and cousin to testify. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals later rejected a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel against him.In a statement to ProPublica, Lively wrote that he believed he competently defended Ruiz. He said that he only called one trial witness because he felt the state had not proven his client's guilt. He pointed to the state's experts, who testified that Ruiz had a very low level of alcohol in his system and drifted slowly into oncoming traffic, which, according to Lively, showed Ruiz did not intentionally jerk the car across the center line. The most powerful witness is one that is called by the opposition who proves your case," Lively wrote.He also described the case as the most traumatic" he's encountered in his 30 years as an attorney. I have made the law my life's work, and Jorge's case caused me to question almost everything I believed about the legal system," he wrote.When Lucio-Maymon and Admirand first took on Ruiz's case, they appealed both his murder conviction and his 99-year sentence. Lewis rejected their challenge of Ruiz's conviction but agreed the sentence deserved another look.To make their case for a shorter sentence, Ruiz's attorneys compiled information about other fatal car crash cases. His former attorneys had appealed his conviction to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and lost. The one notable dissent on the panel of judges was penned by Republican Judge J. William Cole, who wrote that the facts did not support a murder conviction.Ruiz had consumed alcohol before the accident, but he was not determined to be legally intoxicated, nor was he charged with driving under the influence of alcohol," Cole wrote. Although he crossed to the wrong side of the road, there was no evidence that he was racing or driving in a grossly wanton manner."Admirand and Lucio-Maymon looked at the four cases cited in the decision to uphold his conviction. The drivers in those cases had blood alcohol levels that ranged from 0.16 to 0.3 - from double to nearly quadruple the level of criminal intoxication. Their sentences ranged from 12 to 25 years in prison.The attorneys created a simple graph that compared those sentences and blood alcohol levels. Although Ruiz had the lowest amount of alcohol in his system, his sentence was by far the longest.After Lewis granted a new sentencing hearing, Admirand and Lucio-Maymon felt hopeful. That disparity - along with testimony from Ruiz's friends and family in Mexico - could help sway the judge toward mercy, they believed. They said they even started talking with the district attorney's office with the goal of making a deal, though Robinson said he remembered those conversations differently. He recalled that he agreed to listen to evidence about Ruiz's background but wouldn't consider reducing the charge and would be hard-pressed to recommend less than 50 years.They did initially express some openness to discussion in this case," Admirand said. And then something changed."Although Lewis had presided over Ruiz's trial and granted him a resentencing hearing, he was not behind the bench when Ruiz was set to be resentenced in 2024. By then, Lewis had been appointed to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals.The case was transferred to Sibley Reynolds, who had retired from the bench but still took cases as needed. When Admirand and Lucio-Maymon arrived early on Aug. 14, 2024, to prepare, they found the judge sitting in the courtroom, paging through a purple binder they had never seen before. It contained pictures of Hayes and letters from friends, family members and even a few local officials.Each of the dozens of letters urged the judge to uphold Ruiz's 99-year sentence. Prosecutors asked the judge for 50 years. Lucio-Maymon and Admirand, citing several sentences from cases across the 19th Circuit Court, were seeking 10 years.Admirand said he watched as Reynolds carried the binder with him to the bench. The hearing he oversaw was short but eventful. At one point, Ruiz addressed Hayes' family.I am profoundly sorry for having caused you this pain," he said. I want to say I'm sorry or forgive me, the way I have asked God to do every day during the almost six years."Admirand presented all the evidence he believed had been missing from Ruiz's first sentencing hearing in 2019. He told the judge about the cases they had found in the same judicial district with sentences that ranged from one to 25 years. And he presented mitigating factors - witnesses who testified about Ruiz's character and work ethic.His attorneys also played a series of videos of family members in Mexico, accompanied by dramatic music.When Robinson, who had been elected district attorney in 2022, started to make his argument against Ruiz, he invoked a patriotic anthem as a sort of rebuttal. He said the victim's family was ready to move on and that he was going to make a case for them courtesy of the red, white and blue."It was a reference to the title of the Toby Keith song Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," which includes lyrics like, We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way." Robinson would later tell ProPublica the comment was taken out of context and was meant as a critique of the music in the video, which he described as manipulative."Shortly after, Hayes' mother asked the judge to uphold the original sentence.I'm asking for the 99 years that Judge Lewis saw fit to give," she said. Marlena's life is worth that and so much more."At the end of the hearing, the judge announced his decision: He would reduce Ruiz's sentence to 50 years.He didn't offer an explanation for why he chose what's still an unusually long sentence. Admirand suspected the reason might be found in the purple binder. He objected to the judge considering it without the defense having seen it. He then asked for a copy of the material.I mean, it's literally letters from the victim's family," said Assistant District Attorney Mandy Johnson in response to the objection.When Admirand read it right after the hearing, he found much more than that, including notes from local public officials and incorrect information about the case. He said that, more alarmingly, there were letters that included language he considered biased. One letter said that if Ruiz was released early and deported, he would surely return to the U.S.He will again commit crimes," the letter said. He will again be a draw on our judicial system and society itself. He will once again be an unnecessary threat to all our lives, including yours."Fry him!" demanded another one. Excerpts of Letters Reviewed by the Judge in a Sentencing Hearing Obtained by ProPublica. Highlights added by ProPublica. The binder presented an opportunity to challenge what Admirand had come to believe was an underlying bias that permeated the case from the first moments after the crash, when a state trooper threatened to take Ruiz to jail if he did not speak English. In September 2024, he and Lucio-Maymon filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that the letters contained improper references to Ruiz's nationality, including racially derogatory claims. In February, the Mexican Consulate filed an amicus brief in support of the appeal, only the second time in five years it has done that in a criminal case in the United States.Ruiz's equal protection rights were violated from the moment this prosecution began," the appeal said. From his earliest interactions with law enforcement through the resentencing proceedings, Ruiz was treated more harshly than other similarly situated defendants because of his race. The Court should remedy this injustice."In June, Ruiz's attorneys identified another 17 car crash cases over 15 years that were heard in the 19th Circuit Court. Most defendants received sentences of less than 15 years in prison, even in cases involving multiple fatalities or high blood alcohol levels. Only one, Ruiz, had a sentence longer than 25 years. Robinson argued those cases were different, though not because of the defendant's race. Defendants in most of them had accepted plea deals. He did not acknowledge that all of those plea deals were more lenient than the one offered to Ruiz.Lewis did not respond to questions, including ones about alleged bias in the case. In response to ProPublica's questions, Robinson wrote that neither he nor the district attorney's office treated Jorge Ruiz more harshly than other similarly situated defendants because of his race."Though the district attorney's office did not charge Ruiz with DUI, Robinson wrote that alcohol was illegally consumed at a rate much higher than legally permissible for Ruiz to be operating a vehicle." He also wrote, I do not assess cases using a least common denominator approach. I do my best to evaluate them based on a totality of the circumstances approach."In August, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals asked for more information from Reynolds about his reasoning behind the 50-year sentence. Admirand and Lucio-Maymon have asked the court to take Reynolds off the case, arguing that he improperly reviewed the purple binder material. Reynolds did not respond to ProPublica's questions.Hayes' family members have been outspoken about their loss. At every hearing, they tick off the milestones Hayes has missed. Her brother's graduation. Her sister's wedding. The births of nieces and nephews.Ruiz's family members are quietly marking off their own list. His daughter's kindergarten graduation, her First Communion. The 9-year-old still doesn't quite comprehend where he has gone.Ruiz has learned a little English but still struggles with the language. He said through his attorneys that he's never been able to adequately convey how bad he feels about the accident. It's not just the language barrier, but also that his role in Hayes' death left him so distraught that he felt like my life didn't matter anymore."Still, the hearing last year that reduced his sentence kindled some optimism. He said that when he first faced the prospect of 99 years behind bars, the only thing he could think about was never seeing his daughter again. After the hearing, his outlook changed.That gave me back hope that one day I'll be able to see my family again," Ruiz said. Mollie Simon contributed research.

by Sharon Lerner ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. This spring, scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency completed a report on the toxicity of a forever chemical" called PFNA, which is in the drinking water systems serving some 26 million people. The assessment found that PFNA interferes with human development by causing lower birth weights and, based on animal evidence, likely causes damage to the liver and to male reproductive systems, including reductions in testosterone levels, sperm production and the size of reproductive organs.The report also calculated the amount of PFNA that people could be exposed to without being harmed - a critical measurement that can be used to set limits for cleaning up PFNA contamination in Superfund sites and for removing the chemical from drinking water.For months, however, the report has sat in limbo, raising concerns among some scientists and environmentalists that the Trump administration might change it or not release it at all.The EPA told ProPublica the report would be published when it was finalized, though the press office did not answer questions about what still needed to be done or when that would likely happen.But the report's final version was completed and ready to post" in mid-April, according to an internal document reviewed by ProPublica. And two scientists familiar with the assessment confirmed the report has been finalized and ready for publication since April.Scientifically, it was done," said one of the two scientists, who both worked in the EPA's Office of Research and Development and who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the unreleased report.All that was left to do was to brief higher-ups about the report and post it," the scientist said, adding that such a delay was unusual. In recent years, the assessments tended to be finalized within a few weeks." A draft version of the assessment was made public last year and drew objections from an industry trade group. The final version, which retained the calculations published in the draft report, was completed shortly before the EPA announced its intention in May to rescind and reconsider limits on the amount of PFNA and several other forever chemicals allowed in drinking water. The limits had been set last year by President Joe Biden's administration.Darya Minovi, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, pointed to that pending change as a possible motivation for not publishing the PFNA assessment. If you're trying to roll back drinking water standards, you probably don't want to release information that makes the case for why those standards are necessary," said Minovi.The nonprofit science advocacy group called attention to the unpublished report in a social media post last month that said, Without this assessment, federal and state agencies are denied the best available science that they rely on to protect public health."PFNA is so hazardous that the EPA struck an agreement with eight companies to phase it out nearly two decades ago. The chemical was a component of firefighting foam and a processing aid to make a kind of plastic used in circuit boards, valves and pipes. PFNA has been found in water near sites where the foam was used and in the drinking water in 28 states, according to an analysis of EPA and state data by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.Local governments around the country have been trying to get companies that used and made forever chemicals such as PFNA to foot the bill for the expensive job of cleaning up contamination. In 2019, the state of New Jersey ordered the owner of an industrial plant in West Deptford to address chemical contamination at the site, where high levels of PFNA had been found in the nearby soil and water. The state took the company, Solvay Specialty Polymers, to court, accusing it of failing to fully comply. As part of a legal settlement, Solvay agreed to pay more than $393 million and to clean up contamination. The company, which has since become Syensqo Specialty Polymers, pointed out to ProPublica other sources of PFNA contamination in the area of the plant and noted that it settled the suit without admission of liability.Solvay tried to influence the EPA over the drinking water limit the agency set for PFNA and other chemicals in the class, according to lobbying records. The company also lobbied Congress over legislation that would prevent chemical assessments conducted by the agency's Integrated Risk Information System program from being used in regulation. IRIS, as the program is known, analyzes the harm chemicals can cause and put together the PFNA report. Syensqo and Solvay did not respond to questions about lobbying and whether they asked the EPA either to change or not release the IRIS report on PFNA.Scientists in the EPA's IRIS program began work on the assessment because PFNA, short for perfluorononanoic acid, appeared particularly dangerous. Like other compounds in its class, PFNA doesn't break down in nature. Scientists had already found it in soil and water around the country. It was also measured in food, air, indoor dust and fish - as well as in breastmilk, fetal tissues and human blood. Perhaps most worrisome, studies had already suggested that the chemical caused serious harm to people and lab animals.A draft of the report, which reflected five years of collecting and reviewing studies, found that, in addition to developmental, liver and reproductive harms, PFNA may cause" immune problems, thyroid effects, harm to the developing brain and a cluster of other disorders, including Type 2 diabetes. The American Chemistry Council took issue with the report's findings on low birth weight and liver issues, arguing that the evidence wasn't as robust as the report claimed. The industry trade group did not address the reproductive threats posed by PFNA, which have been documented by other regulatory agencies and are part of a larger body of evidence linking forever chemicals" with male reproductive harms, such as smaller testes and a reduction in the number and mobility of sperm. Forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, are also associated with female reproductive problems, such as endometriosis, ovarian dysfunction and tumors and dramatic decreases in fertilityQuestions about the fate of the PFNA report extend to the fate of the IRIS program that conducted it and to the EPA's handling of toxic chemicals more broadly.IRIS was created during Ronald Reagan's presidency to provide an independent and reliable source of information about pollutants that can harm the public. Dozens of EPA scientists contribute to a typical assessment, which takes years to complete and is subject to extensive peer review. The level of scientific scrutiny and expertise means these documents are trusted by environmental experts around the world.Many hoped that, because it was separate from regulatory arms of the agency, IRIS would be insulated from political pressures. But almost from its start, industry has targeted the program, whose assessments can trigger toxic waste cleanups and expensive regulatory changes.Project 2025, the conservative blueprint that has set the direction for President Donald Trump's second administration, called for IRIS to be eliminated. Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress introduced legislation called the No IRIS Act." Their proposal would prohibit the EPA from using the program's assessments in environmental rules, regulations, enforcement actions and permits that limit the amount of pollution allowed into air and water, and from using them to map the health risks from toxic chemicals. That legislation has been referred to committee in both the House and the Senate but not yet passed in either branch.Since Trump took office, the IRIS program has been decimated. The program was housed in the Office of Research and Development, which has been dramatically reduced under Trump as part of a major reorganization of the agency. Of 55 scientists ProPublica identified as having worked on recent IRIS assessments, only eight remain in the office, according to a source familiar with the program. The rest have either been assigned to jobs elsewhere in the agency or have left the EPA.Through the movement of bodies, they have disassembled IRIS," said one scientist who worked with the program for decades and recently left the EPA. It feels like the efforts of a couple of generations of scientists who have worked extremely diligently to produce the world's most highly vetted assessments has been set aside with no path forward."Meanwhile, the IRIS program stopped issuing the reports it has regularly posted for years about its progress. The most recent, published in February, noted that the PFNA assessment was scheduled to be released in the second quarter of the financial year, which ended in June.Asked about the status of the program, an EPA spokesperson told ProPublica that it is inaccurate to say that IRIS no longer exists." The press office did not respond to follow-up questions about whether it's accurate to say that IRIS does exist, how many people still work there, whether the agency plans to allow continued access to its database of chemical assessments and how it plans to use those assessments in the future. The EPA has not made clear how it plans to continue gauging the toxicity of chemicals.In its May press release, the EPA said it was committed to addressing" forever chemicals in drinking water. At the same time, it was rolling back drinking water limits on some of the compounds. The agency is also reconsidering bans on solvents called TCE and PCE, which are linked to Parkinson's disease. It is offering exemptions from pollution restrictions for up to two years to companies that email the agency and is in the process of reversing rules designed to protect the public from toxic air pollution. The agency recently announced a plan to ease regulations on climate pollutants known as hydrofluorocarbons.Under Trump, the EPA, which was created to protect public health, has celebrated its efforts to reverse regulations and champion industry. But people concerned about the health effects of chemicals see the agency's retreat from environmental protections as a betrayal. Laurene Allen, an environmental advocate who lives in Merrimack, New Hampshire, where PFNA was one of several forever chemicals discovered in drinking water in 2016, was awaiting the report and is frustrated and enraged by its delay.This is the suppression of information," said Allen, who co-founded the National PFAS Contamination Coalition. We have the science, and it shouldn't be obstructed." Mariam Elba contributed research.

by Monica Samayoa, Oregon Public Broadcasting This article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has ordered state agencies to take any and all steps necessary" to fast-track solar and wind permits that must break ground by next year or likely miss out on a federal tax credit Congress is ending.The move follows reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica about the role that the state's lengthy permitting process plays, according to renewables advocates, in Oregon having one of the slowest growth rates in the country for green energy. At the time, Kotek's office said that she was carefully considering opportunities to streamline Oregon's energy siting processes."The Democratic governor's order does not change existing state law, and at least one leading green energy advocate voiced skepticism about its impact because it fails to address another obstacle to construction: the federal government's sluggish pace of adding transmission capacity to handle new wind and solar.Kotek's office, when announcing the order on Monday, couched it as the state's attempt to reduce the risk shovel-ready" projects lose out on federal tax benefits that make them more affordable. With the elimination of promised incentives by the Trump Administration, states must step up as the last line of defense against climate catastrophe. We have to get renewable energy infrastructure built, and quickly," Kotek said in a statement. We cannot afford to lose this critical window."Oregon needs to build more renewable energy projects like wind and solar to meet its renewable energy goals. In addition, the state has experienced rising electricity costs amid soaring demand. Yet as OPB and ProPublica have reported, Oregon lawmakers have paid little heed to the region's inadequate transmission system. In addition, they have rejected or watered down legislation designed to make it easier for developers to get their wind, solar and transmission projects through the state's approval process.Then, this year, President Donald Trump signed legislation dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It set a schedule for ending the federal investment tax credit and the production tax credit, which can fund 30% to 50% of most solar and wind projects. The credits were modified and extended during the administration of President Joe Biden as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.The legislation signed by Trump says projects can still qualify for the credits if they meet a July 4, 2026, deadline for breaking ground and are completed by 2030. But projects that don't start construction by July 4 must be up and running by Dec. 31, 2027, to qualify. That's considered a tough time frame to meet.One analysis estimated the loss of credits could cost Oregon about 4 gigawatts of planned wind and solar energy, which is roughly enough electricity to power 1 million homes. According to Atlas Public Policy, a data and policy firm based in Washington, D.C., Oregon has 11 wind and solar projects now at risk of not qualifying for the tax credit.Nicole Hughes, executive director of the advocacy group Renewable Northwest, said Oregon may not get all of those projects or even a handful of them done in time to get the tax credits, in spite of Kotek's order.Hughes said that's because even projects that already have made it through the permitting process are being held back by massive transmission queue backlogs and some of the transmission upgrades that these projects were waiting for."Separate from state permitting, energy developers have to wait for the federal Bonneville Power Administration to allow projects to connect to its transmission lines. Bonneville owns about 75% of the Northwest's transmission lines, and its lines are largely full with no capacity for new sources of electricity. It can take years before Bonneville determines whether a proposed project can plug into its grid.I don't think it's right to be just looking at this July 2026 deadline," Hughes said. Our energy issues are going to extend far beyond that date, and we need to be thinking more long-term about how we move projects quicker through both the permitting and transmission process."She nonetheless described Kotek's order as a good first step, saying it put state agencies on notice that moving renewable projects forward is a priority.Kotek's office declined to comment on concerns raised about the executive order's limitations.A spokesperson for Bonneville stated that it has modified the interconnection process to move on a first-ready, first-served" process that the agency says will improve current backlogs. The spokesperson said the federal agency expects to add about 2 gigawatts of new energy projects by the end of 2028 and complete the first phase of an interconnection study in January that could add more.The executive order directs the Oregon Department of Energy and the state Energy Facility Siting Council to identify and prioritize siting approval for projects that must begin construction by July 4. The highest priority would be given to projects with secured contracts between a developer and a utility and that can demonstrate anticipated benefits to Oregon ratepayers.The governor's order also says the Oregon Public Utility Commission should consider using an outside contractor to study how solar and wind power projects connect to the electrical grid in the future.Congress and the Trump administration have launched an all-out assault on affordable clean energy and our safe climate future," Climate Solutions Oregon Director Nora Apter said in the statement issued by the governor's office. By moving swiftly to get as many wind and solar projects across the finish line as possible before the loss of federal tax credits, Governor Kotek is defending Oregon families, family-wage jobs, and energy resilience."Oregon joins a handful of states that have already moved to more rapidly approve qualifying projects, like Colorado, Maine and California, due to the expiring federal tax credits.

by Megan O'Matz and Jennifer Smith Richards ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been clear about her desire to shut down the agency she runs. She's laid off half the staff and joked about padlocking the door.She calls it the final mission."But the department is not behaving like an agency that is simply winding down. Even as McMahon has shrunk the Department of Education, she's operated in what she calls a parallel universe" to radically shift how children will learn for years to come. The department's actions and policies reflect a disdain for public schools and a desire to dismantle that system in favor of a range of other options - private, Christian and virtual schools or homeschooling.Over just eight months, department officials have opened a $500 million tap for charter schools, a huge outlay for an option that often draws children from traditional public schools. They have repeatedly urged states to spend federal money for poor and at-risk students at private schools and businesses. And they have threatened penalties for public schools that offer programs to address historic inequities for Black or Hispanic students.McMahon has described her agency moving at lightning rocket speed," and the department's actions in just one week in September reflect that urgency. The agency publicly blasted four school districts it views as insubordinate for refusing to adopt anti-trans policies and for not eliminating special programs for Black students. It created a pot of funding dedicated to what it calls patriotic education," which has been criticized for downplaying some of the country's most troubling episodes, including slavery. And it formed a coalition with Turning Point USA, Hillsdale College, PragerU and dozens of other conservative groups to disseminate patriotic programming.Officials at the Education Department declined to comment or answer questions from ProPublica for this story.At times, McMahon has voiced support for public schools. But more often and more emphatically she has portrayed public schools as unsuccessful and unsafe - and has said she is determined to give parents other options.To carry out her vision, McMahon has brought on at least 20 political appointees from ultraconservative think tanks and advocacy groups eager to de-emphasize public schools, which have educated students for roughly 200 years.Among them is top adviser Lindsey Burke, a longtime policy director at The Heritage Foundation and the lead author of the education section in Project 2025's controversial agenda for the Trump administration.In analyzing dozens of hours of audio and video footage of public and private speaking events for McMahon's appointees, as well as their writings, ProPublica found that a recurring theme is the desire to enable more families to leave public schools. This includes expanding programs that provide payment - in the form of debit cards, which Burke has likened to an Amazon gift card" - to parents to cobble together customized educational plans for their children. Instead of relying on public schools, parents would use their allotted tax dollars on a range of costs: private school tuition, online learning, tutors, transportation and music lessons.More than 8 in 10 elementary and secondary students in the U.S. go to a traditional public school. But Burke expects that public schools will see dramatic enrollment declines fueled by both demographic and policy changes.Addressing an interviewer in an April podcast, she noted: We're going to have a lot of empty school buildings." In a 2024 podcast, Noah Pollak, now a senior adviser in the Education Department, bemoaned what he sees as progressive control of schools, which he said has led to lessons he finds unacceptable, such as teaching fourth graders about systemic racism.And so the work that I do is trying to come up with creative policy ideas to stop that, to turn back the tide, to figure out ways that conservatives can protect these institutions or build new institutions," said Pollak, who has been an adviser to conservative groups.As tax dollars are reallocated from public school districts and families abandon those schools to learn at home or in private settings, the new department officials see little need for oversight. Instead, they would let the marketplace determine what's working using tools such as Yelp-like reviews from parents. Burke has said she is against any sort of regulation."President Donald Trump himself said in July that the federal government needs only to provide a little tiny bit of supervision but very little, almost nothing," over the nation's education system except to make sure students speak English.Advocates for public schools consider them fundamental to American democracy. Providing public schools is a requirement in every state constitution.Families in small and rural communities tend to rely more heavily on public education. They are less likely than families in cities to have private and charter schools nearby. And unlike private schools, public school districts don't charge tuition. Public schools enroll local students regardless of academic or physical ability, race, gender or family income; private schools can selectively admit students.Karma Quick-Panwala, a leader at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, which advocates for disabled students, said she wants to be optimistic. But," she added, I'm very fearful that we are headed towards a less inclusive, less diverse and more segregated public school setting."Allison Rose Socol, a policy expert at EdTrust, an organization focusing on civil rights in schools, decried what she called the demo crew" in McMahon's office. Socol described McMahon's push to help grow private school enrollment through taxpayer-funded vouchers and other means as a great American heist" that will funnel money away from the public system.It's a strategic theft of the future of our country, our kids and our democracy," she said. Lead as Christians" Attention on McMahon often focuses on her former role as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. It was no different on the day of her Senate confirmation hearing, when journalists and social media delighted in noting that seated behind her was her son-in-law, the retired wrestler known as Triple H.Little attention was paid to the conservative education activists in the front row from Moms for Liberty, which has protested school curricula and orchestrated book bans nationwide; Defending Education (formerly Parents Defending Education), which has sued districts to fight what it calls liberal indoctrination; and the America First Policy Institute, co-founded by McMahon after the first Trump administration.Now two people who once served at Defending Education have been named to posts in the Education Department, and leaders from Moms for Liberty have joined McMahon for roundtables and other official events. In addition, at least nine people from the America First Policy Institute have been hired in the department.AFPI's sweeping education priorities include advocating for school vouchers and embedding biblical principles in schools. It released a policy paper in 2023, titled Biblical Foundations," that sets out the organization's objective to end the separation of church and state and plant Jesus in every space."The paper rejects the idea that society has a collective responsibility to educate all children equally and argues that the Bible makes it clear that it is parents alone who shoulder the responsibility for their children." It frames public schooling as failing, with low test scores and far-left social experiments, such as gender fluidity."The first AFPI leader pictured in that report is McMahon. Linda McMahon testifies at her Senate confirmation hearing for secretary of education. Seated behind her are, from left to right, son Shane McMahon, Defending Education's Nicole Neily, the former wrestler Paul Levesque (also known as Triple H), daughter Stephanie McMahon, Erika Donalds of the America First Policy Institute, and Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) AFPI and the other two nonprofit groups sprang up only after the 2020 election. Together they drew in tens of millions of dollars through a well-coordinated right-wing network that had spent decades advocating for school choice and injecting Christianity into schools.Ultrawealthy supporters include right-wing billionaire Richard Uihlein, who, through a super PAC, gave $336,000 to Moms for Liberty's super PAC from October 2023 through July 2024.Defending Education and AFPI received backing from some of the same prominent conservative foundations and trusts, including ones linked to libertarian-minded billionaire Charles Koch and to conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, an architect of the effort to strip liberal influence from the courts, politics and schools.Maurice T. Cunningham, a now-retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, studied the origins and connections of parents' rights groups, finding in 2023 that the funders - a small set of billionaires and Christian nationalists - had similar goals.The groups want to undermine teachers unions, protect their wealthy donors from having to contribute their fair share in taxes to strengthen public schools, and provide profit opportunities through school privatization," he concluded. The groups say they are merely trying to advocate for parents and for school choice. They didn't discuss their relationship with donors when contacted by ProPublica.These groups and their supporters now have access to the top levers of government, either through official roles in the agency or through the administration's adoption of their views.When the department created an End DEI" portal to collect tips about diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in schools, it quoted Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice in the press release. She encouraged parents to share the receipts of the betrayal that has happened in our public schools." Moms for Liberty referred to the portal as the culmination" of Justice's work. (Federal judges ruled against some of the administration's anti-DEI actions and the department took the controversial portal down in May.)Asked what percentage of children she imagines should be in public schools going forward, Justice, who is now with The Heritage Foundation's political advocacy arm, told ProPublica: I hope zero. I hope to get to zero."She and others say most public schools don't teach students to read, are dividing children over race and are secretly helping students to change genders - familiar claims that have been widely challenged by educators.When Trump signed an executive order in March to dismantle the Education Department, Justice sat in the first row, as she had at McMahon's confirmation hearing. The president praised her, along with various governors and lawmakers. She's been a hard worker," he said. Defending Education's Nicole Neily, who was also at McMahon's confirmation, stood next to McMahon when the secretary announced an investigation into the Maine Department of Education for keeping records from parents about student gender identity plans. Defending Education has filed civil rights complaints against colleges and school districts and has been successful in having its causes taken up by the Trump administration.In an email, Neily told ProPublica she is proud of the work that Defending Education has done to challenge schools that have supported DEI in their curricula and have allowed students to hide their gender identity from parents. She singled out teacher unions and radical education activists" while blaming drops in student achievement on the education-industrial complex."The sooner this stranglehold is broken, the better," she wrote.McMahon's tenure also has been marked by an embrace of religion in schools. She signaled that priority when she appointed Meg Kilgannon to a top post in her office.Kilgannon had worked in the department as director of a faith initiative during the first Trump term and once was part of the Family Research Council, an evangelical think tank that opposes abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.She has encouraged conservative Christians to become involved in what she's described as a spiritual war" over children and what they're being taught in public schools. Reached by phone, Kilgannon told ProPublica, I have no comment," and hung up. Overhauling Government Schools" Betsy DeVos, the Michigan billionaire who was education secretary in Trump's first term, cheered on July 4 this year when Congress instituted America's first federal voucher program. It came in the form of a generous tax credit program to encourage voucher expansion at the state level. Families can start accessing the aid beginning Jan. 1, 2027.DeVos once said she wanted to advance God's kingdom" through vouchers for religious schools and has funneled vast amounts of her family fortune into advocating for school choice. She called the passage of the federal measure the turning point in ending the one-size-fits-all government school monopoly."An article in The Federalist, a conservative publication, boiled down the implications into one headline: How Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill Will Help Kids Escape Failing Government Schools."But school choice isn't the only tool that Trump's education leaders are using to target public schools. McMahon has gutted the Education Department's civil rights division, where lawyers and other federal employees work to ensure all students can access public school, free from discrimination.The administration rolled back protections for LGBTQ+ students and students of color, prioritized investigating discrimination against white and Jewish students, and launched aggressive investigations of states and districts that it says refused to stop accommodating transgender students.It has rescinded official guidance that said schools had to provide language help and other services for students who are learning English, contradicting long-established federal law.And Trump officials have repeatedly cast public schools as dangerous even as the agency canceled about $1 billion in training grants for more school mental health professionals - money that had been authorized by Congress to help prevent school shootings. The administration now says it plans to resume paying out a fraction of that funding, which would be used for school psychologists.Over and over, the department has used the threat of pulling federal funding to force compliance with new directives and rapid shifts in policy. The department, for instance, threatened to withhold money from schools that did not verify they were ending diversity initiatives, which were designed to address inequitable treatment of Black, Native and Latino students.In August, the department announced it was withholding millions of dollars in grants from five northern Virginia school districts that had refused the department's demands to bar transgender students from using restrooms and locker rooms that aligned with their gender identity. The districts argued that complying would mean defying Virginia law and a 2020 federal appeals court ruling.Nevertheless, the Education Department told the districts that until they acquiesced to the agency's bathroom rules they would have to pay expenses up front and request reimbursement. McMahon wrote to districts that Lindsey Burke is available to answer any questions."The Fairfax County Public Schools sued and in a legal filing said it faced losing $167 million this school year, money that it was relying on to provide meals to students, support programs for children with disabilities, help English-language learners and enhance teacher training. The federal department has argued that it has discretion to withhold funding and admonished the district for taking the agency to court. In this atmosphere, public school advocates are particularly concerned about what will happen to funding for Title I grants, which is the federal government's largest program for schools and is aimed at helping students from low-income families. In early September, House Republicans proposed slashing more than $5 billion from the $18.4 billion earmarked for Title I, putting at risk reading and math teachers, tutors and classroom technology.At the same time, under McMahon, the Education Department is trying to redefine how states and districts can spend the money.In three guidance letters so far this year, the agency encouraged states to divert some Title I money away from public school districts. One suggested paying for outside services, such as privatized tutoring. Another urged states to use Title I money to benefit low-achieving students who live within the boundaries of a high-poverty public school but attend private schools.McMahon is prepared to loosen even more rules on the money. The federal dollars currently are distributed to districts using a formula. Project 2025 calls for Title I to be delivered to states as block grants, or chunks of money with few restrictions. McMahon has encouraged states to ask her to waive rules on spending the money.Critics of this approach fear that Title I money could eventually be used in ways that undermine public schools - on private school vouchers, for example.Public school advocates like William Phillis, a former official at the Ohio Department of Education, fear the change would devastate public schools.I just know any block grant or any funding that would be left up to state officials on Title I money would be misappropriated in terms of the intent," Phillis said. Block grants to Ohio would go to the private sector."A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce did not respond to requests for comment.Rainey Briggs, chief of operations for Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa, said he supports parental choice but worries that public schools will suffer financially and will not have the resources to stay up to date.And he fears that right-wing narratives around public schools, the distrust and lack of support for highly trained district leaders - whether from some parents or politicians - could lead accomplished educators to walk away.Public education is irreplaceable," he said, citing its commitment to serve every child regardless of their background or circumstance.Those influencing Trump's education agenda disagree.If America's public schools cease to exist tomorrow, America would be a better place," Justice told ProPublica. Help ProPublica Report on Education Illustrations by Pete Gamlen. Visual editing by Cengiz Yar. Design and development by Anna Donlan. Mollie Simon contributed research, and Brandon Roberts contributed reporting.

by Duaa Eldeib ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. When a health insurance company refuses to pay for treatment, most people begrudgingly accept the decision.Few patients appeal; some don't trust the insurer to reverse its own decision.But a little-known process that requires insurers and plans to seek an independent opinion outside their walls can force insurers to pay for what can be lifesaving treatment. External reviews are one of the industry's best-kept secrets, and only a tiny fraction of those eligible actually use them.ProPublica recently reported the story of a North Carolina couple, Teressa Sutton-Schulman and her husband, who we identified in the story by his middle initial, L, to protect his privacy. Last year, L suffered escalating mental health issues and needed intensive psychiatric care. Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield issued the couple multiple denials in their case, even after Sutton-Schulman's husband attempted suicide twice in the span of 11 days.The instructions for an external review were buried on page seven of one of the denial letters.You can now request that your case be reviewed by a health care provider who is totally independent of your health plan or insurance carrier," read the letter from the state insurance department in Texas, where the treatment occurred.Skeptical but hopeful, Sutton-Schulman submitted the request for the external review. Their case was assigned to Dr. Neal Goldenberg, an Ohio doctor who works for a third-party review company as a side job. After reading the extensive appeal, Goldenberg overturned Highmark's denial to cover treatment that had cost Sutton-Schulman and L more than $70,000.Highmark previously said in a statement that the company was passionate about providing appropriate and timely care" to its members. It acknowledged that small errors made by physicians and/or members can lead to delays and initial denials" but said that those are corrected on appeals. The lesson is simple, explained Kaye Pestaina, a vice president at the nonprofit health policy think tank KFF, who has studied external appeals.Appeal, appeal, appeal, appeal," she said. That's all you have."External appeals have been around for decades at the state level, but in 2010, the Affordable Care Act expanded access to the reviews for the majority of people who get their health insurance through work. The details around the external review process vary depending on whether an insurance plan is regulated by state or federal laws.Karen Pollitz helped draft the federal regulations around external reviews during the Obama administration, but she said an extensive lobbying effort on behalf of insurance companies and employers weakened the initial protections. Now, only a fraction of denials are eligible for an external review, and the health insurance plan gets to hire the reviewers.Transparency requirements that called for insurers to report data around denials and other metrics, she said, also were largely not implemented.There are all kinds of ways they could strengthen the laws and the regulations to hold health plans more accountable," said Pollitz, who left the administration after the rollbacks and worked at KFF before retiring.But for now, Pollitz said, filing external appeals is sometimes the only recourse patients have. An advantage of the Affordable Care Act, she added, was that it established state consumer assistance programs to help people get the coverage they were promised.Federal funding for those programs dried up a couple of years later, but about 30 states decided to find other ways to pay for the programs. (Want to find out if your state has one? Here's a list from federal officials.) If the remaining 20 or so states - including Wisconsin and Ohio - established programs, families would reap the benefits, according to Cheryl Fish-Parcham, director of private coverage at the consumer health care advocacy organization Families USA.Every state needs one of these programs," she said. Health care is so complicated, and people really need experts to turn to."Fish-Parcham meets with representatives from consumer assistance programs across the country every month. The models differ from state to state. Programs are housed in state attorney general offices, in nonprofits and even as independent agencies. Helping patients or their providers with external appeals is a key part of the programs' role. The first step often is simply letting them know that appeals - both internal and external - are options.The numbers are low because some people just give up. They're frustrated. They're tired. They're battling cancer," said Kimberly Cammarata, director of Maryland's Health Education and Advocacy Unit, the state's consumer assistance program. And sometimes the information about why the claim was denied or about how to appeal is terribly unclear. A lot of these outcome letters will say you have a right to an external appeal, but they don't exactly tell you where to go."Some states have enacted legislation to combat that confusion. For example, insurers in Maryland are no longer able to bury information on appeals deep in their denial letters. Beginning this month, a new state law requires insurers to include information at the top of all denial letters in prominent bold print" that states the member has the right to appeal or file a complaint to the insurance commissioner. That declaration advises consumers that the letter contains information on how to file an appeal and reach the Health Education and Advocacy Unit. The unit's address, phone number, fax and email must also be included in the body of the notice.Connecticut added similar information at the top of denial letters in a box on the front page in 2023. The office saw an almost immediate effect. In the two years that followed, more than 40% of referrals to the state's Office of the Healthcare Advocate came from people who received denial letters with the new language.The office isn't funded through taxpayer money. It's paid for entirely by state assessments on insurance companies.We want to help people," said Kathleen Holt, who was nominated in 2024 by Connecticut's governor to lead the office as the state health care advocate. The insurance companies know that people don't appeal, and in some ways I think they can be more aggressive with their denials. They don't expect people to come back, and when they do that very small percentage of the time, it's the cost of doing business for them."Connecticut's data shows that the health care advocate office has been able to resolve or overturn denials in the patient's favor about 80% of the time, Holt said. Some plans may charge up to $25 per external appeal, but Connecticut did away with that fee several years ago. Some states, including New York, have been tracking the outcomes of their external appeals online, which the public can review.We can help people write their appeals," Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society, said of New York residents. We write appeals for them, sometimes going through thousands of pages of medical records and writing 15- to 20-page appeals."Experts say these six things can help patients and providers after a denial. Since we are journalists and not lawyers, we are unable to provide any legal advice about this process.

by Tony Schick and Conrad Wilson, Oregon Public Broadcasting This article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. When the Portland Trail Blazers went up for sale this year for the first time in three decades, local leaders were so determined to keep the team in Portland that they penned a widely publicized letter promising the National Basketball Association they'd work with whoever the new owner was to secure an overhaul of the team's arena.Fans cheered as a group of investors led by Texan Tom Dundon went all-in with a $4 billion bid for the team, which has now been accepted. Many speculated about what Dundon's ownership of a newly successful National Hockey League team in Raleigh, North Carolina, would portend for Oregon's oldest and biggest sports franchise.There was no public discussion locally about the fact that Dundon created a company Oregon accused in 2020 of preying on residents through high-interest car loans they couldn't afford. The state's then-attorney general said that the business practices of Santander Consumer USA were predatory and harmful and will not be tolerated in Oregon" as she announced Oregon's piece of a $550 million multistate lawsuit settlement with the company.In addition, Oregon is part of an ongoing multistate investigation into another national subprime lender for which Dundon has served in a leadership role, Exeter Finance. The Oregon Department of Justice confirmed to Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica the state's role in the investigation, the existence of which Exeter has disclosed in securities filings.It's unclear how these issues might affect the commitment of Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson to a partnership, which could include tens or hundreds of millions in public money based on past arena projects in other cities. Spokespeople for both Wilson and Kotek declined to answer when asked if the elected leaders knew about Dundon's history with regulators. Mark Williams, a former Federal Reserve regulator who teaches finance at Boston University, said Dundon's record is an important consideration.The money used to buy the Portland Trail Blazers is money that was built on predatory lending," Williams said of Dundon. He had an opportunity. He seized it. He made lots of profit. And how did he make that profit? He made it on the backs of low- and poor-credit individuals."Dundon's purchase of the Blazers awaits approval from the NBA's board of governors, which often takes months, before it can close.OPB and ProPublica received no response after sending a summary of their reporting and a list of questions to Dundon, his investment firm, the public relations staff of his hockey team and the attorneys representing him in a bankruptcy dispute.Dundon later answered to a text message seeking comment: Unfortunately at this point in the process I am not available. Happy to speak with you after closing. Thx."Dundon left Santander Consumer in 2015. In biographical posts online and previous news media interviews, Dundon has described his approach to subprime lending as providing opportunities for people with bad credit to own cars and making sure borrowers receive a fair deal.Just because someone has bad credit doesn't mean they are a bad person," he told The Dallas Morning News shortly after leaving the company.Santander Consumer declined to comment on Dundon. In a statement, the company said: Operating in a highly regulated industry, we have robust processes in place that are designed to protect customers and adhere to all regulatory requirements and industry best practices."A spokesperson for Exeter Finance declined to comment. The company has said in filings that it is cooperating with the current investigation by states' attorneys general.The case that Santander Consumer settled with attorneys general in 2020 concerned more than 265,000 borrowers across the country, including 2,000 in Oregon. The settlement agreement said it did not constitute evidence of, or admission to, any of the state's allegations against the company.As for Exeter Finance, Oregon consumers have filed 23 complaints against it with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, all of which the agency listed as closed with explanation" from the company.One of those complaints was from AshLe' Penn.Penn, a single mother of three working as a staffing company account manager in 2021, needed a car. Her credit was bad. But a dealership was able to get her a loan on a 2014 Chrysler 300 through Exeter Finance.Penn would have to make $511 monthly payments over 72 months, reflecting an interest rate of 28%.The interest rate was pretty insane," she said in an interview. But I needed a car so bad."Two years later, Penn found herself three payments behind and had been evicted from her apartment, she said. According to her consumer complaint, she was living in the sedan when Exeter sent a company to repossess it in January 2023. It was late at night, and she was parked outside her ex's house. Her daughters watched from inside. She wrote that she spent the next 10-plus hours locked in her car, in a standoff with the repo agent, before enlisting a bankruptcy attorney who halted the repossession.She recorded much of it on video, which she shared with Exeter.It was horrific. I mean, I cried. I cried for God," Penn told OPB and ProPublica. I was afraid to leave my car. I couldn't get out of my car after that. I was just so afraid somebody was going to take it."Penn complained, arguing the law prohibits repossessing a car with someone inside, and demanded $150,000 in compensation. Exeter told her that it had done a thorough review, which concluded that she had failed to pay and that she was warned ahead of time her car would be taken away.Penn's version of events, Exeter wrote, could not be corroborated. AshLe' Penn at her home. Her consumer complaint said she was living in her car in 2023 when Exeter Finance tried to repossess the vehicle. (Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB) Building an Auto Loan GiantAllegations of predatory lending would hardly stand out among NBA owners.It is a billionaires' club whose past and current members or their companies have been accused of housing discrimination, knowingly underwriting improper mortgages, exploiting prison inmates, making racist comments and engaging in sexual misconduct. The Blazers' current owner, Jody Allen, settled lawsuits in which her company's security guards accused her of sexual harassment and attempting to smuggle penguin skulls and giraffe bones out of Antarctica and Africa. All the owners, including Allen, have denied the allegations against them in court filings or in statements to the news media.Dundon's path to NBA ownership began at used car dealerships, where he worked in finance. In the mid-1990s, he and other former dealership workers co-founded the company Drive Financial Services. Dundon became its president and chief operating officer.The company billed itself as setting a new standard in the sub-prime lending industry." Dealers appreciated that Drive Financial would loan money to people other companies wouldn't, according to its website at the time, because it was able to overlook negative credit histories such as charge offs, bankruptcies and repossessions."Finance experts who've studied the subprime lending industry say it offers a last resort for some people to own a car. Lenders set high interest rates in part to absorb the losses from those who can't make payments. Even when lenders follow consumer laws, defaults are common.The alternative is, Let's just not issue loans to people that are very risky, and then they'll never default,'" said University of Utah professor Mark Jansen, who has authored several papers on subprime loans. But in a lot of places without public transport, no car means no job."In 2006, the Spanish company Banco Santander acquired Drive Financial and transformed it into Santander Consumer USA. Dundon kept a 10% ownership stake and a seat on its board of directors. He stayed on as CEO of the newly formed company.Dundon emerged as a key figure in the growth of the subprime auto loan industry, said Williams, the Boston University finance professor.Williams, who made car loans as a bank officer before working in financial regulation and risk analysis, now teaches classes about subprime car loans and other lending risks. He started studying car financing companies like Santander when he was researching a 2010 book about systemic risk in the finance industry. In 2015, he was one of the experts the New York Senate tapped for help with a report on the risks of the subprime auto loans industry.Williams said Dundon was one of the individuals that really grew the industry. Many would argue that he took it to a new level."Under Dundon, the value of Santander Consumer jumped from just over $600 million at the time of the acquisition to nearly $9 billion in 2014, according to Bloomberg.That growth was built almost entirely with subprime borrowers. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Santander Consumer's early years show the average credit score on its loans was below 540. Roughly two-thirds of its loans had interest rates over 20%.A speaker bio for Dundon, posted by the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, said he was able to impact lives by increasing access to reliable transportation for individuals with limited credit history" during his time at Santander Consumer.But the company was also drawing consumer complaints.Kenneth Dost was living in Scappoose, Oregon, when the housing market crashed and the architecture firm he worked with went under in 2007.He was still struggling financially in 2010 when Santander Consumer took over the 15.85% Citi Financial loan that he'd used to buy his yellow Ford F-150 pickup. He said in his complaint with the Oregon Department of Justice that Santander Consumer agreed over the phone to lower his payments from $399 a month to $281. Dost said he then spent weeks going back and forth with the company trying to provide requested documents.In November that year, Dost said, his daughter saw the yellow truck being hauled away shortly after she stepped off her school bus. After repossessing the Ford, Santander Consumer said in a letter to Oregon officials that the loan modifications Dost thought he received were actually subject to management's approval and that Dost's loan did not meet the guidelines."In another letter, Santander Consumer told Oregon officials the documentation necessary to modify Dost's loan was not received in its entirety." The letter also said Dost was 59 days delinquent by the time he sought the modification.After selling the truck at auction, Dost said, Santander Consumer informed him he still owed more than $2,000. That included a fee for repossessing his truck.This ends up being a further windfall for Santander and more money they can bleed from us," Dost told state investigators. This is wrong."Dost became one of 24 borrowers Oregon's Department of Justice named in an April 2012 investigative demand" letter addressed to Dundon. The state ordered the Santander Consumer CEO to give testimony in person or else turn over the borrowers' documents.Santander chose the latter, and Oregon's attorney general reached an assurance of voluntary compliance" with the company in 2013 that required it to take steps to protect consumers and pay the state $25,000. The agreement said it was not an admission by the company that it violated the law.There was more to come.Leaving SantanderDundon knew pressure on his company from regulators was mounting.In financial reports between late 2014 and early 2015, Dundon disclosed that in addition to a state attorneys general investigation, Santander Consumer also had received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice and a notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission that the agency planned to investigate its lending practices.In early 2015, the company reached a $9 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over allegations the company illegally repossessed military service members' cars. The company neither admitted nor denied the allegations under the settlement. It was quoted as saying it fully cooperated with the government and had taken steps to improve its compliance with the law.Around that time, a front-page story in The New York Times detailed how Dundon and others had amassed wealth by packaging risky auto loans made to low-income people and selling those loans as securities for hundreds of millions of dollars. Regulators said it resembled the way banks sold bundles of shoddy home loans before the housing bubble burst in the mid-2000s.Dundon reassured stock analysts in April 2015 that we're too good to have a bust."But on the same earnings call, Dundon acknowledged problems, saying the company had a lot of work to do" to meet regulatory expectations.The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston was one regulatory agency looking into Santander Consumer. It found numerous deficiencies with the company. In late June 2015, Santander Consumer's board of directors voted to accept a Fed enforcement action that required the company to submit written plans to improve its risk management and company structure.Dundon was out as CEO the same day the enforcement agreement took effect, July 2, 2015. In his interview with The Dallas Morning News at the time, Dundon said that the Federal Reserve issues didn't involve him and that he and Santander Consumer's parent company had different ideas about how to run a business."He netted more than $700 million in his separation agreement, which included cashing out his stock, SEC filings show.A slew of multimillion-dollar legal settlements followed for Santander Consumer in the wake of Dundon's departure: $26 million for allegations of unfair, high-rate loans" in Massachusetts and Delaware; $12 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which found it engaged in deceptive acts" and violated consumer protection laws; and $550 million - the largest payout - with 34 attorneys general, including Oregon's. The company did not admit wrongdoing in any of these cases.After settling with state attorneys general, the company stated at the time it had strengthened our risk management across the board" and called the lending that regulators had scrutinized a legacy" issue.After Santander ConsumerDundon used the money he made through Santander Consumer to make a wide range of investments, and he soon became known less for his tenure as an auto lender and instead as a prominent figure in recreational and professional sports.Through a new firm, Dundon Capital Partners, he invested in Topgolf, an entertainment and restaurant chain built around golf driving ranges that was rapidly growing at the time. Along with forays into real estate and health care companies, he became the sole owner of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes in 2021.Yet Dundon remained a player among subprime auto lenders.Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Dundon Capital Partners invested $100 million in Carvana in 2017, and sold much of the stock a year later. Almost half of the loans that Carvana issues are subprime, according to a report from the short-selling firm Hindenburg Research.In 2023, Dundon Capital invested in subprime car lender Exeter Finance, according to the research firm Pitchbook.Exeter Finance was founded in 2006 in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, the city where Dundon and others founded the company that became Santander Consumer. Exeter's website shows that several former Santander executives took leadership roles at Exeter starting in 2015, while Santander Consumer was under state and federal scrutiny. Exeter is currently listed on Dundon Capital's website as part of its portfolio, and a 2022 news release from Exeter identified Dundon as chairman of the board.A 2024 investigation by ProPublica found that because of the way Exeter Finance handled loans, it sometimes made more money when borrowers defaulted than when they paid on time.Exeter has settled allegations of unfair lending practices, paying more than $6 million combined to Massachusetts and Delaware. (The company did not admit wrongdoing in either case.) Meanwhile, it is under investigation by the attorneys general in 42 states, it said in a corporate filing this year. These include Oregon, a spokesperson for Attorney General Dan Rayfield confirmed.Exeter has described the current multistate inquiry as an extension of demands for information that started in 2015. The company wrote that the initial investigation concerned its origination, servicing and collection practices" and that it cooperated with state requests for documents.For JT Cotter of Bend, Oregon, Exeter Finance was the only lender available when he bought a used Honda Pilot at Carmax in 2022 for $28,000.Cotter, who works privately with families of children with special needs, said he had previously defaulted on a 2018 high-interest car loan from Santander Consumer.It demolished me," he said.When Cotter needed a new car and Exeter offered him a rate of 19%, he thought, Oh, it's just another Santander.' But I didn't know there was actually a connection."Exeter let him skip payments and extend his loan, a practice that ProPublica's 2024 investigation found was fundamental to the company's business model. (The company said at the time that it communicates with customers to ensure they know the costs involved with extensions.)Cotter said what he didn't know was that the payments Exeter let him skip were moved to the end of the loan, increasing the interest and fees he had to pay. By 2024, his $731 monthly payment went entirely toward interest, according to an Exeter billing statement reviewed by OPB and ProPublica. Exeter repossessed the Pilot eight months ago.He never filed a complaint with the state Department of Justice because, he said, he didn't know it was something he could do.Cotter now drives a Subaru. He said he saved up and paid cash for it.A New Arena Portland's Moda Center arena in 2025. Memorial Coliseum, behind it, was the Blazers' home until the 1990s. (Brooke Herbert/OPB) Portland's city-owned Moda Center arena has been the home of the Trail Blazers since it opened in 1995 under the name the Rose Garden, replacing the city's aging Veterans Memorial Coliseum.The team's future in the Rose City wasn't a prominent debate in Portland until Allen, the owner, put it on the market in May. Asked to comment on the team's future in light of a potential sale, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver declared to reporters that Portland likely needs a new arena."That will be part of the challenge for any new ownership group coming in," Silver said at the time.Others echoed Silver's sentiment. Marshall Glickman, whose father founded the Trail Blazers in 1970, said during an August interview on OPB's Think Out Loud" that any new owner would have extraordinary leverage" over the city and the state to pay for a new or renovated arena. And that leverage comes from the threat, which may be spoken or it may not be spoken, but the portability of the team that it could leave."Glickman started an organization, Rip City Forever, to build public support for keeping the Blazers in Portland. He declined to comment further but said his statements during the Think Out Loud" interview were not directed specifically at Dundon, whose name had not yet surfaced.Cities rarely come out ahead when they put tax dollars into these stadium projects, a group of researchers concluded in 2022 after examining more than 130 economic studies of publicly financed stadiums. Any public benefits from increased foot traffic, new visits to nearby businesses or heightened civic stature were too small to justify the amount the public spent, the review found. Wilson and Kotek, the Portland mayor and Oregon governor, stepped up in a big way nonetheless. In their letter to Silver, they said they'd heard his concerns about the Blazers arena loud and clear" and fully support renovating the Moda Center to become a point of pride for the Blazers and for our city."We are prepared to explore the public-private partnerships needed to make it happen," they concluded.Then, on Sept. 12, the current Blazers owner announced that the franchise had accepted Dundon's purchase offer.Dundon has not commented on the Blazers acquisition since, but U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said he'd spoken with him just before the bid became public. He sounded very excited about the team's future being here in beautiful Portland," Wyden told reporters.As in Portland, there were concerns the NHL's Hurricanes would leave Raleigh for a bigger market when Dundon bought the team. In 2023, the Hurricanes signed a long-term lease in the city, announcing the development of a billion-dollar arena and surrounding entertainment district. The deal included $300 million in public money.Oregonians who borrowed money from companies linked to Dundon voiced emotions ranging from dismay to disgust when they learned their tax dollars might go toward supporting Dundon's latest investment.Great," Dost said. Making a partnership with the devil, essentially is what that is."Penn, who was homeless when Exeter sent a repo company to take her car away, said she considers herself a Blazers fan. She's never made it to a game in person, but her kids went on a school-sponsored trip to the Moda Center this year.She fended off repossession back in 2023, but the car broke down a few months later. She couldn't afford to fix it and stopped trying to make payments. She eventually found Section 8 housing, but without a vehicle, she said her kids had to stop playing soccer and basketball because she had no way to get them to practices and games.Penn said she wonders if the people who run Exeter know what's happened to borrowers like her.I've seen their executive team, and they're definitely eating and feeding their families," she said, having looked the company up online, and I think it's definitely at the expense of others not being able to." Without a car, Penn says her kids had to stop playing soccer and basketball because she had no way to get them to practices and games. (Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB) Doris Burke and Mariam Elba of ProPublica contributed research.

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. A former Chicago police officer facing trial for perjury and forgery has admitted he lied under oath dozens of times when he used an audacious alibi to get out of numerous speeding tickets and other traffic violations. Over more than a decade, he repeatedly blamed an ex-girlfriend for stealing his car and racking up the tickets - and each time, the story was bogus.Jeffrey Kriv, one of Chicago's most prolific drunk-driving enforcers during his more than 25 years as a cop, was sentenced to 18 months' probation and ordered to pay $4,515 in restitution after pleading guilty last week to a lesser charge of felony theft. A plea agreement with prosecutors in Cook County, where Chicago is located, allowed Kriv to avoid jail time and ended the criminal case against him, but the implications of his actions go far beyond his own case.A ProPublica analysis of court and police records has found that prosecutors have dropped at least 92 traffic and criminal cases that were based on arrests Kriv made and tickets he wrote. Most of the cases that were dismissed involved drunk and dangerous driving. Defense attorneys in those cases have cited Kriv's perjury case and his credibility issue.ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune previously detailed Kriv's history of alleged misconduct as an officer, including that he'd been investigated at least 26 times over allegations of dishonesty for falsifying records, making false arrests and other matters. He was the subject of nearly 100 complaints from citizens and fellow officers in his career; most officers face far fewer.Kriv denied the allegations in many of those cases and blamed others on how often he made stops and arrests. In the end, many of the investigations could not be pursued because his accusers did not sign formal complaints, and some complaints, including those that involved allegations of dishonesty, were not sustained by police oversight officials. In other cases, oversight officials found Kriv responsible for the misconduct.He retired in 2023, just before prosecutors charged him. Kriv's plea deal was filed in Cook County court on Sept. 24, about a week before his case was scheduled to go to trial. Prosecutors for the Cook County state's attorney's office told ProPublica this week that Kriv had 56 of his own traffic tickets dismissed after providing false testimony to judges. That's more than the 44 tickets that prosecutors had previously indicated in court records. The fines for those tickets would have been $4,515, the amount he was ordered to pay in restitution.Addressing the fallout from Kriv's perjury case on other court cases built on his policing, the state's attorney's office said it dropped pending cases against individuals who Kriv had arrested or ticketed because it could not proceed without his testimony.We could not call him as a witness due to the false statements he previously made in order to have his own personal tickets dismissed," the office wrote in response to questions from ProPublica. One case was dismissed as recently as August, records show. Prosecutors said there are no pending cases in which Kriv's testimony is needed.The state's attorney's office said that, going forward, any claims from individuals who had been convicted in Kriv-involved cases will be carefully reviewed." There also are defendants who have not shown up in court and have warrants out for their arrests, so their cases could be called again.Our priority is to uphold our legal and ethical responsibilities while ensuring fairness," the office said.Under the plea agreement, Kriv admitted that he repeatedly blamed a girlfriend for stealing his BMW to get his tickets dismissed. Well, that morning, I broke up with my girlfriend and she stole my car," Kriv told one judge. He repeated similar stories again and again to get out of tickets for speeding, parking and red light camera violations involving his personal vehicles. Kriv also provided fraudulent police reports of car thefts as evidence. The judges then dismissed the tickets.Kriv had been charged with four counts of perjury and five counts of forgery, all of them felonies. Each of those offenses would have been punishable by up to five years in prison.Kriv's attorney, Tim Grace, told ProPublica that he and Kriv would not comment.The executive director of the Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago said the pension board will meet to decide if Kriv can continue to collect his pension benefits, given the felony conviction. Illinois law prohibits officers who are convicted of felonies related to their service from receiving pension benefits. Kriv's pension payment is more than $6,000 a month. In court last year, Kriv told a ProPublica reporter that he was innocent. I am going to fight it," he said at the time. I don't plan on taking any plea." He complained that people accused of carjacking and gun offenses get probation, and he criticized prosecutors for treating him like a criminal. I'm worse than a carjacker, allegedly," he said.He also said it's a shame" and it's terrible" that prosecutors have dropped cases against alleged drunken drivers and others because of concerns about his credibility. He said he wanted to testify in those cases and said prosecutors had sidelined him prematurely.You know how the system is: You are guilty until proven innocent," he said.

by Avi Asher-Schapiro, Jeff Ernsthausen and Mica Rosenberg ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. The first time a Pennsylvania consultant named Charles Sowell connected with border czar Tom Homan was when Sowell reached out on LinkedIn in 2021, looking for advice about border contracting work. Homan had finished a stint as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, capping a three-decade career in federal government. He and Sowell built a rapport, based partly on their shared criticisms of then-President Joe Biden's border policies.By 2023, the men had gone into business together. Sowell was paying Homan as a consultant to his boutique firm, SE&M Solutions, which advised companies - in some cases for a fee of $20,000 a month - seeking contracts from the agencies where Homan had once worked. In 2024, Sowell became chair of the board of Homan's foundation, Border911, which championed tougher border security.During his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made it clear that if he won reelection he would appoint Homan to oversee the sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration that he'd promised his supporters, which would likely involve billions of dollars in new contracts for private companies. At the Republican National Convention speech in which Trump accepted his party's nomination in July, he said Homan would have a role in launching the largest deportation operation in the history of our country."Put him in charge," Trump said, and just sit back and watch."After Trump won and formally announced Homan would be returning with him to the White House, Sowell kept Homan on his payroll until the end of the year. Once named as the border czar, Homan said he would recuse himself from contracting, saying he would have no involvement, discussion, input, or decision of any future government contracts."But several industry executives who spoke with ProPublica said at least half a dozen companies vying for a slice of the $45 billion Congress has allocated for immigration detention work had hired Sowell because he had led them to believe his connections to Homan would help their chances of winning government work.Homan's business relationships are under greater scrutiny after MSNBC reported an FBI sting that allegedly caught him on tape accepting $50,000 in cash from undercover agents posing as would-be government contractors before he took the border czar post. His relationship with Sowell raises fresh questions about the integrity of the billion-dollar contracting process for immigration enforcement, ethics experts say.In August, Sowell and Homan's senior adviser Mark Hall visited one of Sowell's clients seeking to cash in on an unprecedented plan by the Trump administration to build temporary immigrant detention camps on military bases, sources told ProPublica. As recently as February, Hall too had been paid by Sowell's firm, records show. At the same time, the extent of Homan's recusal has been called into question: Records of internal meetings obtained by ProPublica showed that over the summer Homan was in conversation with industry executives about the government's contracting plans.ProPublica gleaned more details than previously reported by examining federal disclosure forms, government documents and internal communications from firms in the Homeland Security industry, and from interviews with Sowell and several current and former government officials, as well as executives at companies seeking contracts in the burgeoning detention sector. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because of their ongoing work in the sector.Government officials in Homan's position are required to steer clear of any activity that could impact their former business associates for a year after entering government. Discussing immigration-related contracts with industry players would represent a clear-cut violation" of federal ethics regulations, said Don Fox, the former general counsel for the Office of Government Ethics, an independent agency in the executive branch.You shouldn't be in those briefings," Fox said. You are either recused or you are not."It's common for companies looking to land federal contracts to hire consultants and seek expertise of former government employees. Those relationships are subject to federal ethics rules designed to guard against conflicts of interest. The White House and DHS did not provide requested copies of Homan's formal recusal documents, which might outline exactly what kinds of activities government lawyers told Homan should be off limits.Homan and Hall did not respond to requests for comment. In an interview, Sowell said he and Homan no longer have a financial relationship. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Homan has no involvement in the actual awarding of a government contract."In his role as border czar, Homan occasionally meets with a variety of people to learn about new developments and capabilities to serve the needs of the American people," she said.Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert in government ethics, said, however, It's not just about tainted awards. If the industry believes the system is corrupt, then the public is harmed. And the damage has already been done."Growing WealthHoman spent more than 30 years in public service, eventually rising to become a senior figure at ICE, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, during the administration of President Barack Obama. He was acting ICE director during Trump's first term until he left government seven years ago.While out of public office, Homan was highly critical of Biden's border policies and formed the nonprofit Border911 to educate Americans on what it means to have a secure, well-managed border."Homan's private-sector work before he returned to government transformed his finances. In 2017, he declared assets totaling a maximum of just $250,000 on his ethics disclosures following a career in federal service, a figure that excludes certain government retirement accounts.By 2025, his net worth had grown to between $3 million to $9 million, the disclosure documents show. (The forms list assets in ranges, and a portion of his net worth may come from money he had saved in government retirement accounts.)In his years out of government, Homan became a household name in conservative circles as a frequent contributor on Fox News. He started a consulting firm and was paid for public speaking engagements around the country, raising alarms about the record number of border crossings during the Biden administration. The dire situation at the border, he said, could require the intervention of the U.S. military and the hiring of private companies to carry out a mass deportation campaign. We're going to contract as much work out as we can, work that doesn't require a badge and a gun," Homan told Fox News in 2024.After Trump made clear his intentions to tap Homan as border czar, Sowell reached out to government contracting experts, saying he was working with Homan's Border911 Foundation to help streamline procurement for the incoming administration's mass deportation policy, said two people who spoke with him.Sowell, sources in the industry said, made it known he was bringing together a group of companies that could be in line for lucrative contracts building detention camps for the Trump administration.In an interview with ProPublica in June, Sowell said when his clients wanted to understand DHS better, he would bring in Homan to get his perspective as a former senior ICE leader. Bloomberg recently reported about aspects of Homan's business dealings with Sowell.Hints of Homan's financial relationship with Sowell can be found in Homan's federally required financial disclosure forms, which contain limited information. The forms report that Sowell's firm paid Homan some sum of money - more than $5,000 - sometime between 2023 and early 2025. They do not say how much or exactly when he was paid, but Sowell told ProPublica their financial relationship ended last November or December.Separately, Hall disclosed he was paid $50,000 by Sowell for consulting in January and February before he entered government in February. Hall also was a part-time board member at the Border911 foundation from April 2024 to February, according to his LinkedIn page.Sowell made public his affinity for Homan at an industry conference in April, where many major players were present: He spent $20,000 at a charity auction to purchase a commemorative quilt made from Border Patrol agent vests. It was signed by Homan.Sowell did not name his clients, but ProPublica learned several are companies that build temporary shelters, staffing agencies that supply security guards and medical companies that provide health care services, though they did not have direct expertise in immigration detention. Sowell said he couldn't comment on his conversations with Homan since Homan went back into government. I don't have a lot of opportunities to chat with him anymore, even as a friend," he said.Tom is an exceptionally ethical person," Sowell said in the June interview, adding that his and Homan's work steered clear of any real or perceived conflicts of interest. I'm exceptionally proud of this administration for not doing that type of it's who you know' versus what you can do' type of contracting."Asked about additional details in this story before publication, Sowell declined to comment.Sowell appears to still be in contact - at least to some extent - with the border czar's office. In mid-August, he and Hall flew to visit the Houston offices of Industrial Tent Systems, a family-owned company that specializes in quickly building temporary structures. ProPublica learned that Industrial Tent Systems is one of Sowell's clients. Hall was there that day to hear the company's leaders pitch their plan to use their tents and services for immigration detention, even sampling some of the tacos they were hoping to serve detainees, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.Industrial Tent Systems did not respond to a request for comment.The White House said Hall has never been authorized by Homan to represent him.It is unusual," said Gil Kerlikowske, a former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection who served as drug czar for Obama, when asked about the meeting. As an adviser this would be totally inappropriate to meet with potential contractors." Generally, he said, a top decision-maker would not meet with a potential contractor, who would typically have to go through numerous hoops" to even request a meeting that may well be denied.Another one of the companies seeking expertise from Sowell and Homan was USA Up Star, an Indiana-based company that specializes in building temporary facilities.Homan and Sowell were both on the payroll of USA Up Star before Homan was named border czar, according to several industry sources with direct knowledge of the relationship and government documents.Homan's disclosures show only that USA Up Star paid him as a consultant sometime between 2023 and early 2025, but do not detail how much or when. During this time, a picture of Homan and the company's owner and founder, Klay South, standing in front of a private jet was posted on social media. South said he had no comment.Military ContractingSowell's clients have been trying to navigate a byzantine but highly lucrative contracting landscape, as the Trump administration has pledged to arrest 3,000 immigrants a day and is seeking to double the number of detention beds.Early this year, the Trump administration drew up plans to build a series of massive detention camps on military bases to hold immigrants as part of a deportation effort, the first of which was planned for Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. An ICE detention facility under construction in August at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas (Paul Ratje/Reuters) The administration came up with a novel way to fund that camp, drawing on a contracting process run by the U.S. military known as the WEXMAC (which stands for Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract). Homan spoke to companies in the industry about those plans.Records obtained by ProPublica show a contracting officer at the Department of Defense, which the administration now calls the Department of War, saying in a meeting that Homan had been talking to companies about the WEXMAC. Border czar has been briefed by industry," the official informed his colleagues. "Border czar is most likely going to say something to SECDEF," the official continued, referring to Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth. Bloomberg also reported on the June meeting.Inquiries into Homan's previous work in the private sector and his business relationships are likely to ramp up following the reports of the $50,000 undercover sting. That federal investigation into Homan was launched after the subject of another inquiry - not Sowell - claimed the border czar was soliciting payments in exchange for the promise of future contracts should Trump return to power, a person familiar with the closed investigation said.This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors," FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a joint statement. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. The Department's resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed."The White House press secretary denied that Homan received the money, and Homan has said he has done nothing illegal. He has not been charged with any offense, and neither Hall nor Sowell has been accused of wrongdoing.Democratic lawmakers are seeking audio and video evidence from the closed FBI case and have also raised questions about Homan's financial ties to The Geo Group, a private prison firm he previously consulted for that has won lucrative contracts in recent months. The Geo Group did not reply to a request for comment.Tens of billions of dollars of additional funding for immigration enforcement have yet to be spent. The detention camp contract at Fort Bliss, which could eventually hold 5,000 people, was awarded to a consortium of firms led by a company on the military contracting list for over $1 billion. It is the first of several such facilities planned in coming years.A number of Sowell's clients - including Industrial Tent Systems and USA Up Star - were among the close to 60 companies recently added to the WEXMAC. That makes them eligible to bid on those future immigration detention camp contracts. Kirsten Berg and Al Shaw contributed research. Joel Jacobs contributed data analysis. Correction Oct. 6, 2025: This story originally misstated when Mark Hall visited one of Charles Sowell's clients and when Sowell and Hall flew to visit the Houston offices of Industrial Tent Systems. It was in August, not last month.

by Gabriel Sandoval, ProPublica, with additional reporting by Nick Reynolds and Anna Wilder, The Post and Courier; Yasmeen Khan, The Maine Monitor; Lauren Dake, Oregon Public Broadcasting; Marjorie Childress, New Mexico In Depth; Louis Hansen, Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO; Mary Steurer and Jacob Orledge, North Dakota Monitor; Kate McGee, The Texas Tribune; Alyse Pfeil, The Advocate | The Times-Picayune; and Shauna Sowersby, The Seattle Times This article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. In Virginia this year, a legislative committee killed a bill that would have required lawmakers to disclose any crypto holdings. In New Mexico, the Democratic governor vetoed legislation that would have required lobbyists to be more transparent about what bills they were trying to kill or pass. And in North Dakota, where voters who were galvanized by a group called BadAss Grandmas for Democracy established a state ethics commission nearly seven years ago, lawmakers continued a pattern of limiting the panel's power.At a time when the bounds of government ethics are being stretched in Washington, D.C., hundreds of ethics-related bills were introduced this year in state legislatures, according to the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures' ethics legislation database. While legislation strengthening ethics oversight did pass in some places, a ProPublica analysis found lawmakers across multiple states targeted or thwarted reforms designed to keep the public and elected officials accountable to the people they serve.Democratic and Republican lawmakers tried to push through bills to tighten gift limits, toughen conflict-of-interest provisions or expand financial disclosure reporting requirements. Time and again, the bills were derailed.With the help of local newsrooms, many of which have been part of ProPublica's Local Reporting Network, we reviewed a range of legislation that sought to weaken or stymie ethics regulations in 2025. We also spoke to experts for an overview of trends nationwide. Their take: The threats to ethics standards and their enforcement have been growing. Donald Trump has been ushering a new cultural standard, in which ethics is no longer significant," said Craig Holman, a veteran government ethics specialist with the progressive watchdog nonprofit Public Citizen. He pointed to Trump's private dinner with top buyers of his cryptocurrency and the administration's tariff deal with Vietnam after it greenlit the Trump Organization's $1.5 billion golf resort complex; and he said in an email it was most revealing" that the White House for the first time in over 16 years has no ethics policy. Trump 2.0 simply repealed Biden's ethics Executive Order and replaced it with nothing."The Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit that pushes for ethics enforcement, documented the risks and challenges that specifically confront state ethics commissions across the country. Such commissions have a range of mandates, but they often enforce lobbying, campaign finance and conflicts of interest laws. In the center's 2024 Threat Assessment report, it warned that those who want to weaken ethics commissions are becoming more creative with how they approach their attacks, and all commissions should be battle ready."Delaney Marsco, the center's director of ethics and the report's lead author, told ProPublica, Any attempts to chip away at ethics commission authority is actually just chipping away at the public's right to know what's actually going on in their government."Louisiana passed a law significantly weakening ethics standards by making it harder for the state Board of Ethics to launch and conduct investigations. The law raised the bar on when the 15-member board could launch its own investigation from reason to believe" to probable cause." And where the board had been required to investigate any sworn complaint it received, now two-thirds of its members must agree probable cause exists before opening an inquiry.The law, which had overwhelming bipartisan support, targets the processes that resulted in ethics charges against then-Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is now the governor; the private lawyer defending him against those charges helped craft the legislation. The ethics commission dropped the charges last month as part of a settlement deal.Sponsoring Rep. Beau Beaullieu, a Republican, said that checks on the board's power were needed in response to overzealous enforcement actions.But more often, legislators stood in the way of ethics reforms.In South Carolina, a sweeping Statehouse corruption probe during the 2010s led to the convictions of several legislative leaders and to the passage of a number of ethics reforms. It's been radio silent ever since," Sen. Sean Bennett, a Summerville Republican who chairs the chamber's Ethics Committee, told The Post and Courier. There's been attempts to do things, but they just have not gotten a lot of traction."And this year, legislators there moved in the other direction, introducing a bill that would have exempted government appointees from having to file statements of economic interest. These statements, required for all elected officials, most candidates for elected office and certain high-profile public figures like commission members or school district employees, include the disclosure of everything from an individual's income sources and gifts received from special interests to any property or business interests in their name.Sponsoring Rep. Mike Burns, a conservative Republican from the college town of Tigerville, argued the bill would help protect nonpaid appointees, who he said end up with fines because they often don't know how to correctly file.But in an interview with The Post and Courier, Rep. Roger Kirby, a Democrat from Lake City, pushed back. Transparency is what the goal is, right? Why would we try to back away from that?"South Carolina has two-year sessions, and the bill remains stalled in committee.And in another example of legislation that sought to weaken reform, the leader of Oregon's Senate Republicans at the time, Daniel Bonham, made a Hail-Mary effort and introduced a measure to dissolve the state's ethics commission and allow state agencies to police themselves. The measure didn't get out of committee, which, Bonham acknowledged in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting, was what he expected. Still, Bonham said he believes the ethics commission is feckless" and its effectiveness and purpose merit robust public debate."Across the country, even when some legislators did attempt to push forward ethics reforms, their efforts were largely blocked:

by T. Christian Miller, Sebastian Rotella, Kirsten Berg and Brett Murphy Leer en espanol. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. In August 2020, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, went to the U.S. ambassador with an extraordinary request. Salvadoran authorities had intercepted a conversation between a journalist and a U.S. embassy contractor about corruption among high-level aides to the president.The contractor, a U.S. citizen, was no ordinary source. He collaborated with U.S. and Salvadoran investigators who were targeting the president's inner circle. Over the previous year, he had helped an FBI-led task force uncover a suspected alliance between the Bukele government and the MS-13 street gang, which was responsible for murders, rapes and kidnappings in the United States. He had worked to gather evidence that the president's aides had secretly met with gang bosses in prison and agreed to give them money and protection in exchange for a reduction in violence. The information posed a threat to the Bukele government.Bukele wanted the contractor out of the country - and in Ambassador Ronald D. Johnson, he had a powerful American friend. Johnson was a former CIA officer and appointee of President Donald Trump serving in his first diplomatic post. He had cultivated a strikingly close relationship with the Salvadoran president. After Bukele provided Johnson with the recordings, the ambassador immediately ordered an investigation that resulted in the contractor's dismissal.It was not the only favor Johnson did for Bukele, according to a ProPublica investigation based on a previously undisclosed report by the State Department's inspector general and interviews with U.S. and Salvadoran officials. The dismissal of the contractor was part of a pattern in which Johnson has been accused of shielding Bukele from U.S. and Salvadoran law enforcement, ProPublica found. Johnson did little to pursue the extradition to the United States of an MS-13 boss who was a potential witness to the secret gang pact and a top target of the FBI-led task force, officials said.After he stepped down as ambassador, Johnson continued his support for the Salvadoran president despite the Biden administration's efforts to curb Bukele's increasing authoritarianism. He also played a prominent role in making Bukele Trump's favorite Latin American leader, according to interviews and public records.Johnson's tight friendship with Bukele troubled top State Department officials in the Biden administration, who asked his successor, Jean Manes, to look into the firing of the contractor. She reached a blunt conclusion, according to the inspector general's report: Bukele requested Johnson remove [the contractor] and that was what happened."Manes explained that [the contractor] was working on anti-corruption cases against individuals close to El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Manes believed removing [him] was a way to ensure the investigations stopped," the report said. ProPublica has also learned that Manes' review led to an extreme measure: She forced the ouster of the CIA station chief, a longtime friend of Johnson, because she felt he was too close" to Bukele, according to the inspector general report. Senior State Department and White House officials said they suspected that Johnson's continuing relationships with the station chief and Bukele fomented resistance within the embassy to the new U.S. policy confronting the Salvadoran president over corruption and democracy issues, according to interviews.Manes would go see Bukele to convey U.S. concerns about some of his policies. Then the station chief would go see him and say the opposite," said Juan Sebastian Gonzalez, who received regular briefings about the embassy as the former senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council.ProPublica is not identifying the former station chief or the contractor to protect their safety.After battling Bukele in public and her own embassy in private, Manes announced a pause in diplomatic relations and left El Salvador in late 2021. Days later, Johnson posted a photo on LinkedIn that sent a defiant message to the Biden administration: It showed him and Bukele smiling with their families in front of a Christmas tree at the Johnson home in Miami. It was great to spend some time in our Miami home with El Salvadoran President Bukele," Ambassador Ronald D. Johnson, left, wrote in a Nov. 30, 2021, post on LinkedIn. (Ronald Johnson via LinkedIn) The bond between the two men was at the center of a fierce political conflict that spread in Washington, San Salvador and Miami. Today, Johnson and Bukele - once minor players in U.S. foreign affairs - have emerged from the fray triumphant. On April 9, the Senate confirmed Johnson as ambassador to Mexico, arguably the most important U.S. embassy in Latin America. On April 14, Trump met with Bukele in the White House to celebrate an agreement that would allow the U.S. to deport hundreds of immigrants to a Salvadoran megaprison, elevating the global stature of the leader of one of the hemisphere's smallest and poorest countries.Johnson's detractors accuse him of championing Bukele despite his increasing abuses of power.We didn't have a credible or effective U.S. representative in that country. We had a mouthpiece for the government of El Salvador," said Tim Rieser, a longtime foreign policy aide to former Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.Johnson's defenders argue that his strong ties to the Salvadoran president benefited U.S. policy objectives. Upon arriving in El Salvador, Johnson told his staff that he wanted Bukele's support in reducing U.S.-bound immigration, the Trump administration's top priority with the country.During Trump and Johnson's time, the thinking was let El Salvador be El Salvador," said Carlos Ortiz, the former attache for the Department of Homeland Security at the embassy, who describes himself as a friend and admirer of Johnson. Let them deal with their own corruption. The U.S. focus was migration."A State Department spokesperson said it was false" that Johnson had blocked or impeded any law enforcement efforts in order to protect Bukele or his allies and that the allegations made by Manes in the inspector general report were untrue.In addition, Tommy Pigott, the department's principal deputy spokesperson, praised Johnson for having always prioritized our national interests and the safety of the American people above all else."Thanks to President Trump's and President Bukele's strong leadership, we are ensuring our region is safer from the menace of vicious criminal gangs," Pigott said. Secretary Rubio looks forward to continuing to work with regional allies, including the Salvadoran government, in our joint efforts to counter illegal immigration and to advance mutual interests."The department provided a written statement from Johnson highlighting the Salvadoran president's achievements.Our cordial relationship was based on honest and frank dialogue to advance issues of mutual benefit for both of our nations," Johnson said. President Bukele has continued to maintain widespread popularity and high approval ratings in his homeland. He transformed El Salvador from the murder capital of the world to one of the safest countries worldwide."Spokespeople for the CIA and Justice Department declined to comment. The White House referred questions to the State Department. The Salvadoran government did not respond to requests for comment. Johnson arrives as the new U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in September 2019 and presents Bukele with his credentials during a visit to the Casa Presidencial. (Camilo Freedman/APHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images) The Gang PactManes had the unusual distinction of serving as the top U.S. diplomat in El Salvador twice - once before Johnson and once after.She first arrived in El Salvador in 2016, as an appointee of President Barack Obama. It was her first ambassadorship. Manes earned a degree in foreign policy from Liberty University, the evangelical Christian college founded by Jerry Falwell, the television preacher and activist, and a master's degree from American University in Washington, D.C. She joined the State Department in 1992 and served in cultural, educational and public affairs posts in several Latin American countries as well as in Afghanistan and Syria. Although more politically conservative than many of her diplomatic colleagues, she developed a reputation as a nonpartisan, hard-edged professional. Manes declined to comment for this article.When Manes arrived, Bukele, the son of a wealthy executive of Palestinian descent, was mayor of San Salvador. Manes and Bukele got along well. In 2019, the 37-year-old Bukele ran for president as a populist outsider promising to defeat crime and corruption in a nation with one of the world's worst homicide rates and a history of former presidents being charged with crimes. His political coalition defeated the traditional power blocs of left and right. The most dangerous national security threat that the new president faced was the MS-13 street gang, which the U.S. government had designated as a transnational criminal organization and the Salvadoran government as a terrorist group.Manes admired Bukele's reformist zeal, former colleagues said. During conversations after his election victory, Bukele assured her that he was devoted to rooting out lawlessness, even in his own party, and asked for the embassy's support.Go after my people first, crack down on anyone who is corrupt, and on MS-13," he said, according to a former U.S. official familiar with the conversations.Bukele, though, had already been publicly accused of cutting deals with MS-13 and another gang while he was mayor. U.S. and Salvadoran investigators soon learned that the new president's senior aides had entered into secret negotiations with the leaders of MS-13 who were imprisoned in El Salvador, according to U.S. court records, Treasury Department sanctions, interviews and news accounts.Osiris Luna, Bukele's prison director, and Carlos Marroquin, a presidential ally in charge of social welfare programs, reached an agreement with the gang's ruling council, known as the Ranfla, according to U.S. court documents and interviews with U.S. and Salvadoran law enforcement officials. It was a more expansive deal than those struck by previous Salvadoran governments, which had offered the gang jailhouse perks such as prostitutes and big-screen televisions. Marroquin and Luna have not responded to requests for comment.The council, which controlled tens of thousands of MS-13 members across the U.S., Mexico and Central America from prison, agreed to decrease killings and provide votes for Bukele's party in exchange for financial incentives and political influence. According to court documents, the gang chiefs also asked the president's men for an important guarantee: protection from extradition to the United States.Homicide rates soon plummeted. Today, El Salvador is one of the safest countries in the Americas, and Bukele is one of the region's most popular politicians. But the secret truce with the gangs made his government a target of the FBI-led multi-agency team, which was known as Joint Task Force Vulcan.Trump had vowed to defeat MS-13 during his campaign and, in August 2019, created Vulcan to dismantle the gang. Its strategy was similar to the fight against Mexican cartels and Colombian narcoguerillas. Led by a Justice Department prosecutor in New York, the team combined agents from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and other agencies based around the United States and operating in El Salvador and neighboring countries.The initial focus was to build cases against gang bosses on racketeering, terrorism and drug charges and extradite them to the United States. Soon, though, leads from informants and wiretaps spurred federal agents to expand their investigation to examine the deals between the gang and top Bukele officials, according to interviews and U.S. court records. As ProPublica has previously reported, Vulcan agents even filed a request with the Treasury Department to canvass U.S. banks for any signs that Bukele and other Salvadoran political figures close to him had laundered U.S. Agency for International Development funds as part of the deal with MS-13. The result of that request is unclear.Vulcan also cooperated with a team of Salvadoran prosecutors who were accumulating their own evidence about the gang pact and a network of suspected graft that allegedly included the president's inner circle.The potential revelation of a secret deal posed a threat to Bukele because it could undermine his reputation as a crimefighter and expose him to possible criminal charges in the U.S. and El Salvador.The FriendshipA month after the launch of the task force, Johnson succeeded Manes as ambassador.He knew El Salvador, having led combat operations there as an Army Green Beret - one of 55 U.S. military advisers to the Salvadoran armed forces in the bloody civil war against leftist rebels in the 1980s, according to former U.S. officials and an online biography of Johnson.One of my specific tasks was to teach the soldiers respect for human rights," Johnson said in his written response to ProPublica.After rising to the rank of colonel, Johnson left the Army in 1998 and joined the CIA for a second career that included assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan and at U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Special Operations Command in Florida.Johnson and Bukele came from different worlds. Johnson, now 73, grew up in Alabama. He was a devout Christian, favored suits and ties, and spoke with a Southern drawl. I was raised in a small town and I was honored to work in the military as well as the CIA," Johnson said in his statement to ProPublica.Photos from early in his career show Johnson posing with weapons and fellow commandos in Latin America and other locales. As ambassador, he once parachuted out of a plane at a Salvadoran airshow.Bukele was more than 20 years younger. He cultivated a hip image, wearing jeans, colorful socks and an assortment of sunglasses. He was adept at communicating on social media and posted frequently on X. He talked about reinventing his strife-torn nation as a mecca for bitcoin, surfing and tourism.Almost immediately, though, it became clear the two had buena onda - a good vibe. Soon after his arrival, Johnson posted an X message quoting Bukele.I believe that with the United States, we have an alliance," it read. But I believe that with Ambassador Johnson and his wife, Alina, we will have a personal friendship." Johnson shared the sentiment. In a recent interview, he recalled that he had developed a very close personal relationship" with the president.About three weeks after Johnson became ambassador, Bukele visited Trump in New York - the first Latin American leader to hold an official one-on-one meeting with the president in his first term. Trump lauded Bukele for being an enthusiastic ally in fighting MS-13 and in containing illegal immigration flows in Central America. In a post on X, Johnson declared, If this isn't a demonstration of the strength of our bilateral relationship, I don't know what is."Johnson was very successful in El Salvador, in developing a relationship with Bukele, in convincing Trump that El Salvador mattered," said Thomas Shannon Jr., a former high-ranking U.S. diplomat who has worked in Washington as a lobbyist for the Bukele government.Johnson and Bukele documented their growing friendship on social media. One post showed Johnson and his wife boating with Bukele and his family on an estuary in El Salvador. Another showed the ambassador and president eating cracked stone crab claws at a restaurant. They held joint press conferences and often dined together, according to interviews. Johnson's embrace of the president struck some of his critics in El Salvador and Washington as excessive for a diplomat.Johnson insinuated himself into Bukele's family and circle in a way that made some people in the U.S. government at the time uncomfortable," Shannon said.Others, however, believed that Johnson used his access as leverage in dealing with Bukele.He was trying to use his relationship in order to advance U.S. policy and U.S. objectives," said a former embassy employee who served during Johnson's ambassadorship. He did so in a much more personal way."Johnson's approach reflected his experience cultivating sources as a former intelligence officer, but that did not mean he was always in control, said a former Trump administration official familiar with the matter.Johnson wasn't just recruiting Bukele. What's remarkable is that Bukele was recruiting him," the official said. They were recruiting each other. It was a relationship in which Bukele had power." Bukele speaks during the opening ceremony in El Salvador for the 2021 International Surfing Association World Surfing Games. (Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images) The DismissalAs the friendship blossomed, U.S. embassy officers kept Johnson informed about the increasing evidence of the gang pact and high-level corruption, according to former U.S. officials. Officers in law enforcement and intelligence briefed the ambassador regularly, the officials said.In mid-2020, investigators had a major breakthrough.Luna, the president's national director of prisons, made contact with U.S. embassy law enforcement officials, according to former U.S. officials familiar with the case. During a meeting at a discreet site, he admitted that he was part of talks with the gang but said that he was following Bukele's orders, the officials said. He discussed the possibility of giving testimony as a protected witness in exchange for him and his family being brought to the United States.Luna's reluctance to testify against Bukele in a U.S. court caused the deal to fall through, but Vulcan investigators now had an insider account implicating the president, officials said.It was huge," said a former official familiar with the case. One of the strongest keys was when Osiris tells us, I want you to know this isn't me negotiating with gangs. This is Bukele' - and other top aides - and I don't want to be the fall guy for them.'"Bukele has publicly denied such allegations and has not been charged.That August, a reporter for El Faro, a prominent investigative news outlet, was chasing an exclusive story to expose the gang pact. The story would feature voluminous evidence, including Salvadoran intelligence reports, government documents and even prison logs recording the visits of Luna and other Bukele aides to MS-13 leaders.Bukele had been waging a harassment campaign against El Faro, which had aggressively covered corruption in his government. His security forces had installed Pegasus, the Israeli spyware, on the phones of some reporters, according to interviews and an investigation by researchers from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab.One of the intercepted conversations was between the journalist and the U.S. embassy contractor. Well respected at the embassy and among Salvadoran officials, the contractor oversaw U.S.-funded cooperation programs for the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. The American was working closely with the Vulcan investigators in the U.S. and El Salvador as well as the Salvadoran prosecutors collaborating with the task force. The intercepts indicated that he was providing information to the reporter, according to the inspector general report and interviews. ProPublica has learned that the contractor relayed information including handwritten Salvadoran documents about the gang negotiations.After Bukele asked for the contractor's removal, Johnson ordered an investigation by embassy security officials. They determined that the contractor had unauthorized contact with the El Faro reporter and that he had misled them about the contact, according to the inspector general's report.But there was something else: The U.S. security officials also worried about possible retaliation against the contractor. It was a remarkable acknowledgement that the Bukele government might resort to harming an American working for the embassy, especially given the president's friendship with Johnson, according to the report and interviews.The embassy security office's biggest concern, though, was [the contractor's] safety because" his statements to the press upset the El Salvadoran government and there was concern that [he] became a target of the El Salvadoran government," the report said.As a result of the investigation, embassy officials decided not to renew the employee's contract, effectively dismissing him. He left the country at the direction of his supervisors in Washington within weeks of Bukele's conversation with Johnson. The contractor retained a good reputation in Washington and has continued to work for the State Department on overseas assignments.News of the case ricocheted among Latin America experts working in the White House, Capitol Hill and think tanks.It is highly, highly abnormal for an ambassador to dismiss an embassy staffer at the request of a foreign president," said a former Hill staffer.Senior U.S. officials questioned Johnson's handling of the incident.Johnson's reaction should have been, why are you spying on my staff? That's the right answer for any U.S. ambassador," said a former State Department official familiar with embassy operations in El Salvador.In response to questions about the incident, the State Department said the surveillance of U.S. personnel is not tolerated."In her review of the case, Manes would later express concern about the issue of a foreign president requesting the removal of an embassy employee," according to the inspector general report. She said the employee spoke regularly with the press as part of his job, so that was not a deal-breaker," according to the report. She was not convinced [he] provided false statements" during the inquiry ordered by Johnson.Manes wondered whether the contractor had been let go appropriately, or had been unjustifiably removed at the request of Bukele." She said she was unable to answer that question with the information provided to her," according to the report.Johnson commented about the matter this year during his Senate confirmation hearing. Questioned by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he defended himself but made no mention of Bukele's role in the contractor's departure.I was a little surprised when I heard that he had had an unauthorized meeting with a member of the press," Johnson testified, and I did what I think any manager would do at that point. I called in his department heads and I called in security and I said, We need to investigate this and determine whether or not these accusations are true. And if they are true, I think we need to determine what kind of information might have been passed.' And I deferred to his boss, really, as to what the final disposition should be in that case."The contractor's removal led to a decline in U.S. embassy cooperation with Salvadoran anti-corruption prosecutors who were funded, trained and assisted by the State Department and other agencies, a former Salvadoran official told ProPublica.Nobody really replaced him," the former law enforcement official said. He was the most active of the Americans working with us."El Salvador's Battles"Other events deepened concerns about whether Johnson was shielding Bukele and his allies from U.S. and Salvadoran law enforcement.Johnson made clear to embassy staff that the Trump administration's top issue in El Salvador was cooperation on immigration. In 2018, Trump had accused the Salvadoran government of letting MS-13 killers" return to the United States after their deportation.El Salvador just takes our money," Trump had declared in a post on X.After Bukele became president, the governments signed an agreement allowing the U.S. to send refugees seeking asylum to El Salvador to await the outcome of their cases there. The Bukele government also deployed more than 1,000 officers to the border with Guatemala to prevent the smuggling of U.S.-bound migrants. And Salvadoran authorities permitted the continued arrival of U.S. deportation flights during the pandemic.As a result, Bukele's standing at the White House increased. During the early days of COVID-19, Trump told Bukele in a phone call that the U.S. would donate hundreds of ventilators to El Salvador. Trump said on X, They have worked well with us on immigration at the Southern Border!" Bukele posted this photo with Johnson speaking to President Donald Trump in April 2020 about El Salvador's request for help with ventilators during the pandemic. (Nayib Bukele via X) Johnson seemed to show less interest in the Vulcan investigation, former U.S. officials said. We are not here to fight El Salvador's battles," Johnson would tell embassy employees.His general demeanor was do not push things that upset Bukele - he is our No. 1 ally on migration," a former U.S. official said.One of Vulcan's early accomplishments was the first use of terrorism charges against an MS-13 leader. The allegations against Armando Melgar Diaz, alias Blue, included kidnapping, drug trafficking and approving the murder of U.S. citizens. Trump even had a press conference to announce the indictment. Prosecutors sent the Bukele government an extradition request for Melgar, who was jailed in El Salvador at the time, according to Salvadoran court records.In a post on X from his official embassy account, Johnson promised that Melgar was going to face justice thanks to cooperation between authorities."Despite that pledge, months passed without progress. U.S. and Salvadoran officials worried that Johnson was not applying pressure on Bukele about a request that Vulcan investigators expected to be an easy win."Ron Johnson didn't do much to extradite Blue," said a former State Department official with knowledge of the embassy. The Bukele government eventually denied the request. U.S. law enforcement officials suspected that Melgar knew inside details about the secret gang pact. He is believed to remain in a Salvadoran prison.Johnson was also not entirely forthcoming in communications back to Washington, D.C., according to the former official, who said embassy staff told him that the ambassador blocked information in diplomatic cables about the pact between Bukele and MS-13.It was pretty clear that Ronald Johnson was so close that he absolutely did protect Bukele from allegations that Bukele was negotiating with the gangs," the former official said.Ortiz, the former DHS attache, defended Johnson. Ambassador Johnson wouldn't shelter Bukele," he said. As a former CIA officer, he knew how to navigate where he was close to someone but not cover for them. His interest was the interest of the United States, and the U.S. had a great relationship with El Salvador."Critics said Johnson's hands-off approach was evident in his response to the biggest political crisis of his tenure. In February 2020, the Salvadoran legislature resisted Bukele's proposal to seek a $109 million loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration for new vehicles and equipment for the police and military. The president responded by calling a special session and flooding the assembly with armed troops. Following orders from Bukele, Salvadoran army soldiers occupy the Legislative Assembly in February 2020. (Salvador Melendez/AP Images) Many Salvadorans and human rights advocates were aghast at the sight of soldiers trying to pressure the lawmakers. It evoked Latin America's bleak history of dictatorial rule. At the time, the U.S. Embassy denied any role.Neither Ambassador Johnson nor any Embassy official had prior knowledge of what was to happen," the embassy said in a statement to El Faro after the incident.During his Senate hearing this year, though, Johnson admitted that he had talked with Bukele just before he sent in the troops. Johnson testified that he privately urged the president to refrain from the military show of force.Something that few people know is that I was in contact with him moments before he made the decision, and I was telling him not to go. Do not do this,'" he told lawmakers. He also testified that he had criticized Bukele in public.For human rights advocates, Johnson's reluctance to forcefully criticize Bukele at the time was a sign of his undue deference to the Salvadoran leader.Johnson was an ally of the president and not civil society, not the democratic forces in the country," said Noah Bullock, the executive director of Cristosal, a leading human rights organization. There was no distance between him and Bukele."Johnson's term ended after only 17 months, when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. Before Johnson left, Bukele created El Salvador's highest honor and made the ambassador the first recipient of the Grand Order of Francisco Morazan.A great friend is leaving," Bukele declared at the ambassador's farewell ceremony. Johnson receives the Grand Order of Francisco Morazan from Bukele before departing El Salvador in 2021. (Gobierno de El Salvador via YouTube) Manes ReturnsA little more than three months after Johnson's departure, Bukele unleashed an assault on the judiciary. The Salvadoran legislature, dominated by the president's ruling coalition, removed five Supreme Court justices and the attorney general. At least eight Salvadoran officials who had been investigating MS-13 and corruption, including some who had worked with Vulcan agents, fled the country after threats, harassment, and searches of their homes and offices.Critics in El Salvador declared that the president had engineered a self-coup." Bukele began calling himself the world's coolest dictator."Newly installed Biden administration officials watched the crisis with alarm. Concerned that Bukele was turning El Salvador into an autocracy, they broke with Trump's policy.Soon after the purge of the judiciary, State Department officials announced they were sending Manes back to El Salvador as the interim charge d'affaires, the term for a temporary ambassador. They directed her to stand up to Bukele, according to the inspector general's report and interviews. Her superiors saw her as a natural choice because of her constructive relationship with Bukele during her term as ambassador.She was brought back as a message that we won't have business as had been conducted," said a former high-ranking State Department official. Jean Manes, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, in her office in San Salvador on April 23, 2019. (Daniele Volpe/The New York Times) A top State Department official asked her to conduct an assessment" of the embassy, including the contractor's dismissal, according to the inspector general report and interviews. The official told her he had concerns about the dynamics" at the embassy, the report said. Gonzalez, the former National Security Council official, said senior policymakers thought that embassy staff were showing favoritism to Bukele, sending reports that minimized the growing crisis of democracy in El Salvador.Upon arriving at the embassy, Manes ran up against a group of senior staff, mostly law enforcement and intelligence officials who were not members of the Vulcan task force. She accused them of undercutting her leadership because of their loyalty to Johnson and rapport with Bukele, according to the report and interviews.Manes laid out her findings about Johnson loyalists" in a memo and other written communications, former officials said. To regain control, she issued a drastic order: Embassy personnel were not to have communications with Bukele government officials," the inspector general report said. In practice, that meant the staff stopped meeting with senior Salvadoran officials and had to get approval from Manes and her top deputies to engage with others, according to former senior embassy officials.A former senior embassy official criticized Manes' handling of the feud. It got pretty ugly," the official said in an interview. She wanted to micromanage everything."One opponent was especially nettlesome: the CIA station chief. Early in his tenure as ambassador, Johnson had helped secure his appointment to head the CIA station, former officials said. Like Johnson, he had served as a military adviser in El Salvador years earlier. Also, like Johnson, the station chief had an unusually friendly relationship with Bukele. Manes learned that he was meeting with Bukele on a regular basis, often having breakfast with him. Bukele would also visit the station chief's home, according to a former U.S. official.Former Ambassador Johnson and the section chief were close friends and were close to Bukele and members of Bukele's government," an embassy employee later told an investigator, according to the inspector general report.Rather than support the new mission to confront Bukele over backsliding on human rights and democracy, the CIA officer defended the president, former U.S. officials said.He tried very hard to undermine the notion that Bukele was consolidating and centralizing power or acting to dismantle Salvadoran institutions," said the former State Department official familiar with the embassy.The interlocking friendships among Johnson, the station chief and Bukele led Biden administration officials to believe the former ambassador was influencing opposition to the new U.S. policy - though they did not have concrete proof, former officials said.We knew that Johnson and Bukele continued to talk," Gonzalez said. The suspicion was that Johnson played a role in the dissidence at the embassy opposing Manes and favoring Bukele." After he stepped down as ambassador to El Salvador, Johnson made numerous posts praising Bukele, including this one from August 2024. (Ronald Johnson on Linkedin) Manes decided to demand that the CIA remove the station chief - an unusual move, but it was within her power to withdraw approval for anyone assigned to the embassy. A senior CIA official questioned the decision, but Manes' superiors held firm. The station chief was transferred to another country and has since retired, former officials said.The station chief filed a complaint with the State Department's Office of the Inspector General, charging that Manes had unfairly dismissed him, among other allegations.The resulting report cleared Manes of wrongdoing. The former station chief did not respond to a list of questions sent by ProPublica.As the fight escalated within the embassy, Manes engaged in an increasingly open clash with Bukele. She criticized the replacement of the Supreme Court justices and the attorney general. She warned that the government was weakening democracy and human rights. And she called for the extraditions of Melgar and other MS-13 senior leaders indicted by the Vulcan task force.Extradition is something very important for the United States," she told the press.As ProPublica has previously reported, the Bukele administration systematically interfered with extradition efforts and has not sent to the U.S. any of the 27 MS-13 gang chiefs charged by Vulcan prosecutors in indictments in 2021 and 2023.Top State Department officials traveled to El Salvador to urge Bukele to reverse course. USAID cut funding. Luna, Marroquin and other high-level Salvadoran officials were hit with State Department sanctions that blocked their travel to the U.S.Bukele did not budge. On X, he blasted Manes for interfering with his country's internal politics. He published a string of personal WhatsApp messages between them, accusing Manes of asking him to free a politician jailed on corruption charges.In November 2021, Manes declared a pause" in Washington's relations with the Bukele administration and announced that she was leaving her post.El Salvador and the U.S. had reached a diplomatic nadir. More than a year would pass before a new ambassador was named.It's impossible to think that someone has an interest in our relationship when they're using their paid media machine to attack the United States every day," Manes told the press.The RehabilitationA week after Manes' departure, Johnson posted the image of himself posing with Bukele and their families in front of a Christmas tree.It was great to spend some time in our Miami home with El Salvadoran President Bukele," Johnson wrote on a photo he posted to his LinkedIn account.On Christmas Eve, Johnson posted holiday wishes to Bukele and his family. The Salvadoran president responded with a jab at Manes and the Biden administration: Those were the times when ambassadors were sent to strengthen relations between nations."The exchange was an early salvo in a campaign not just to rehabilitate Bukele's reputation in the United States but to make him a MAGA icon. Johnson helped lead this effort, which involved legislators and lobbyists working in Washington, Florida and El Salvador.It occurred as the Biden administration stepped up its confrontation with the Salvadoran president. In December 2021, the Treasury Department issued more sanctions against Luna and Marroquin, alleging that the Bukele aides negotiated the secret agreement with the MS-13 gang. They also accused Luna and the president's chief of staff of corruption. Neither responded to requests for comment.In a criminal indictment, Vulcan prosecutors detailed alleged wrongdoing by senior Bukele officials and the gang's promise to turn out support for the president's party in exchange for financial benefits and protection.In March 2022, for reasons that still remain unclear, the truce between the Salvadoran government and MS-13 fell apart. During a three-day rampage of gang violence, some 80 people died - the deadliest days in El Salvador since its civil war. Bukele struck back with a policy of mano dura - an iron fist. He suspended constitutional protections and rounded up accused gang members without due process. The security forces arrested 70,000 people over the next several years, locking up many of them in CECOT, the maximum-security prison.The crackdown made Bukele enormously popular in El Salvador. But senior Biden administration officials saw it as a further step toward the dismantling of the nation's constitutional democracy. Even some in the GOP had misgivings. Then-Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who was influential on Latin American issues, expressed ambivalence about Bukele's actions.I'm not a big fan of everything that's been done out there," he said during a Senate hearing in 2022. I'm hoping that we can still have a relationship in El Salvador that's pragmatic. We don't have to clap or celebrate all the stuff people do that we don't necessarily think is good. But I also think we have a national interest concern there that needs to be balanced."By then, Johnson and others were already deeply engaged in promoting Bukele. Johnson praised the president's campaign advising Salvadorans on how to stay healthy during COVID-19. At Trump's Mar-a-Lago, he met with El Salvador's ambassador to the U.S., former beauty queen Milena Mayorga. He continued posting about his visits with Bukele and his family. Damian Merlo, a lobbyist for Bukele, posted this photo of himself and Johnson at Mar-a-Lago in November 2024. (Damian Merlo on X) Bukele enlisted Damian Merlo, a well-known lobbyist for Latin American countries and leaders, eventually paying his firm more than $2 million, according to lobbying records. Merlo set up meetings with Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, contacted State Department officials, and spoke to reporters at The New York Times, Fox News and other outlets, lobbying records show. Bukele appeared on Tucker Carlson Today." Time magazine featured him on its cover, calling him the world's most popular authoritarian." He spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of the country's most influential conservative politicians. Johnson attended, posting afterwards that Bukele had delivered an incredible speech."Johnson's credibility and Merlo's instincts helped Bukele connect with MAGA world," said Shannon, the former diplomat and lobbyist. Merlo did not respond to a detailed set of questions from ProPublica. First image: Johnson at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2024 with his wife and Bukele. Second image: Johnson posted that it was a wonderful surprise to spend some time with President Nayib Bukele and the 1st family of El Salvador," in August 2024. (Ronald Johnson on LinkedIn) A turning point came in March 2023, when Rubio paid an official visit to El Salvador. Whatever uncertainty he may have had about the Salvadoran leader vanished after his return. Rubio lauded Bukele and mocked the Biden administration's attempts to pressure him.All of a sudden, the crime rate has plummeted. All of sudden, the murder rate has plummeted. All of a sudden, for the first time in decades, people can go out at night," Rubio said in a video posted online. So how has the Biden administration reacted to this? By badmouthing the guy, by sanctioning people in the government, by going after them because they're being too tough and too harsh."Johnson hailed Rubio's newfound admiration.I want to thank my friend, Senator Marco Rubio, for going there to visit and for recognizing the progress made by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele," he wrote on LinkedIn.In September 2022, Bukele announced his candidacy for reelection. The Salvadoran constitution had limited presidents to a single five-year term, but the Supreme Court, packed with Bukele allies, had allowed him to run again. The decision set off a new round of protests.Johnson defended the reelection bid during a fireside chat at a conference at Florida International University, where he applauded El Salvador's progress on security.In some recent discussions that I had with people in Washington, D.C., we talked about a second term for President Bukele," Johnson said. I said, I think we're focused on the wrong things. If he runs for a second term in a free and fair election and the people of El Salvador select him for a second term, then isn't that we do here?'"Bukele won with 85% of the vote.The guest list for Bukele's inauguration on June 1, 2024, illustrated his growing popularity with Republicans. Conservative luminaries including Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Carlson showed up. So did Democratic Reps. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Lou Correa of California. Also in attendance were Johnson and the former CIA station chief. Johnson posted these photos of him with Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle at events related to Bukele's second inauguration in June 2024. (Ronald Johnson on LinkedIn) Afterward, Johnson and Merlo helped arrange a private meeting with Bukele for Sara A. Carter, a former Fox news contributor whom Trump has since nominated to serve as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In a video podcast, Carter recounted a late-night meal of sushi with the Salvadoran president.We had the opportunity to meet with Bukele privately, our group, and I want to thank Ambassador Ron Johnson for that and Damian Merlo for that, for making that happen," she said.EpilogueThis April, Trump and Bukele met to celebrate a partnership.It's an honor to be here in the Oval Office with the president and leader of the free world," the Salvadoran president said as they shook hands. We know that you have a crime problem, a terrorism problem that you need help with, and we're a small country, but if we can help, we will do it." Bukele meets with Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials at the White House in April. (American Photo Archive/Alamy) Rubio, now secretary of state, and Bukele had reached an agreement in which the Trump administration would send more than 250 Venezuelan and Salvadoran immigrants to be detained in CECOT. (The Venezuelans were returned to their country in July.)Bukele's administration asked for the return to El Salvador of some of the MS-13 gang leaders who had been arrested in Mexico and imprisoned in the United States. The federal prosecutors who had worked to bring the bosses to justice asked a judge to release two of them. Former Vulcan investigators said they believe both have information tying Bukele aides to the gang pact.A few days before Bukele's Oval Office meeting with Trump, the Senate approved Johnson on a party-line 49-46 vote as the ambassador to Mexico. He stepped into the job at a time when the Trump administration's hardline policies - notably the prospect of unleashing U.S. military might against drug cartels - have strained the always complex relationship with Mexico.I'm eager to meet Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and ready to work with her administration on issues that are mutually beneficial to both our nations," Johnson wrote on social media.Manes' career has not fared as well. In 2023, the Biden administration nominated her as ambassador to Colombia, one of the top diplomatic posts in Latin America. She seemed a strong candidate until Rubio and other Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced their opposition. Sen. James E. Risch of Idaho cited the inspector general investigation of Manes' conflict with the station chief as a reason.Staff on our side has received complaints about Ms. Manes' leadership ability, interagency management style and judgment while serving as ambassador in charge in El Salvador," Risch said at a hearing. Manes' defenders pointed out she had been cleared by the internal inquiry and was implementing a policy dictated from Washington.She was following a policy that was clearly the guidance of the administration," a former senior State Department official said in an interview. It has become very difficult for career officers when their loyal service is seen in the political arena as unacceptable. It's ironic, given her political views."Instead, Manes was named the U.S. representative to UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural organization in Paris that promotes science and the arts.This July, Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw its participation in the organization. Mica Rosenberg contributed reporting, and Doris Burke contributed research.

by Jennifer Berry Hawes, ProPublica, and Ren Larson, The Assembly ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. Slogging through a thick slop of mud and rock, Brian Hill passed the roof that Hurricane Helene's floodwaters had just ripped off someone's barn and dumped into his yard. Then he peered into the unrecognizable chaos inside what had been his family's dream home.The century-old white farmhouse, surrounded by the rugged peaks of western North Carolina, sat less than 15 yards from the normally tranquil Cattail Creek. As Helene's rainfall barrelled down the Black Mountains last September, the creek swelled into a raging river that encircled the house. Its waves pounded the walls, tore off doors, smashed windows and devoured the front and back porches.Brian and his wife, Susie, had just bought the house a year earlier. They had a 30-year mortgage - and, now, no house to live in. Because their home didn't sit in the 100-year floodplain, they had not purchased flood insurance.Across Helene's devastating path through the Southeast, people like the Hills turned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA doles out financial help after a major disaster for everything from home repairs to rental assistance. Once she could get a cell signal, Susie applied.It took months of persistence, but eventually the Hills were among the lucky ones. They received close to $40,000, just shy of the maximum amount FEMA provides for rebuilding and repairs.But farther up Cattail Creek, a man whose wife was killed in floodwaters said he checked his FEMA application one day and noticed it was marked withdrawn," a surprise since he'd received no explanation. Elsewhere in Yancey, another man said he realized FEMA had denied him aid because his birthdate was a year off on his application. A third man said his application - which he filled out just days after hiking down a mountain severely injured - seemingly vanished from the system. FEMA's application process can be onerous, particularly for people who've lost their homes. And it can be especially daunting for those with lower incomes who may have fewer resources.An analysis by ProPublica and The Assembly found that among the more rural counties hardest hit by Helene, the households that got the most housing assistance tended to have the highest incomes. The income disparity is especially stark in Yancey County, where the Hills live. In North Carolina's Hardest-Hit Rural Counties, the Highest-Income Homeowners Typically Received the Most FEMA Housing Assistance Notes: Applicant income is self-reported to FEMA. Charts depict the median amount of assistance. The hardest-hit counties are the 10 counties with the highest per-capita rates of homeowners receiving housing assistance. The more rural counties are Ashe, Avery, Haywood, Henderson, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Watauga and Yancey. The chart does not include Buncombe County, which is classified as urban, is the area's most densely populated county, and is home to many regional and local nonprofits that assisted with FEMA applications and appeals. (Chart: Ren Larson, The Assembly. Sources: Federal Emergency Management Agency Individuals and Households Program, U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Classifications.) A ProPublica investigation earlier this year found that despite dire warnings from the National Weather Service, many people in Yancey were unaware of the enormity of danger Helene posed. The storm killed 11 people there, the highest per-capita loss of life for any county in North Carolina.The Hills, who are both public school teachers, do not fall in the highest-income brackets FEMA identified. Households in the middle range tended to get about as much FEMA housing assistance money as the lower-income ones, or even a little less. But experts say the Hills did have something in common with the highest-income households: They had the luxury of time to pursue every dollar of federal aid that they were qualified to receive. That's because they received full pay for seven weeks while schools were closed. That allowed them to navigate FEMA's bureaucracy during a crucial time when, for many others, pursuing the aid felt insurmountable.Our analysis looked at counties with the highest per-capita rate of households receiving FEMA aid for housing assistance, an indicator of where Helene hit people the hardest. Housing assistance includes separate buckets of money that cover both rental assistance and home repairs and rebuilding. Apart from Buncombe County - home to Asheville and by far the most urban county in the region - lower- and middle-income households overall got lower amounts of this aid compared to the highest-income earners.In some counties, the highest-income homeowners received two to three times as much housing assistance as those with lower incomes.Yet income isn't supposed to play a role. FEMA aid for home repairs and rebuilding is intended to help begin replacing a primary home or make it safe and habitable again, not restore one to its prior state. In theory, a couple living in a million-dollar home and another in a starter house should be eligible for the same level of assistance. For instance, couples who live alone generally would qualify for aid to cover one bedroom, one bathroom and one refrigerator, even if they had three of each. FEMA did not respond to ProPublica and The Assembly's requests for comment. The agency previously told the Government Accountability Office, according to a 2020 report, that it encourages all survivors with property damage to apply, and those with minimal damage are driving down the average award amount."Disparities in who receives FEMA aid have long been known to researchers, including Sarah Labowitz, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who studies and writes about disasters and publishes the Disaster Dollar Database.Disasters pull back the curtain on inequity," Labowitz said. It's a vicious combination of things that make it so much harder for people without a lot of money to get what they need from FEMA." She pointed to FEMA inspectors who undervalue damage to more modest homes, FEMA's onerous documentation requirements and a brutal and discouraging" appeals process.The agency itself has also known about the problems. Several years ago, NPR obtained an internal FEMA analysis showing that the poorest homeowners received about half as much to rebuild their homes compared with higher-income homeowners. The 2020 GAO report noted that homeowners in communities with the most socioeconomic vulnerabilities, like being below the poverty line and not having a high school diploma, received significantly less assistance than those in less vulnerable communities. The Hills' home was destroyed outside, first image, and inside, second image. (Courtesy of the Hills) The disparity we found in Yancey was equally striking in Haywood County, where water flows down 13 peaks towering above 6,000 feet. Households there making more than $175,000 typically received $11,000 in housing assistance; households below that threshold received about $5,000.Michelle and Jeff Parker, who live about 70 miles southwest of the Hills, in Haywood, had evacuated during the storm. Like the Hills, they returned to find their house had been filled with water. They too had lost virtually everything, down to their wedding photographs. Michelle Parker has struggled to get FEMA to cover her rent after her home was flooded by Helene. (Jesse Barber for ProPublica) But the Parkers had been here before. In 2023, they finished repairing their 936-square-foot home after Tropical Storm Fred's floodwaters filled it with 4 feet of water in 2021. That time, their house had been rebuilt by a state-run program. They received $50,000 from their flood insurance and just $1,644 from FEMA for rental assistance.When Helene hit just a year after they got back into their home, they decided the risk of rebuilding was too great. Jeff, a former wastewater treatment plant operator, was on disability. Michelle was working as a medical assistant and could take only a couple of weeks off after Helene. They applied for a hazard mitigation buyout, another program offered through FEMA, instead. It would pay them the property's appraised value before the storm and turn it into green space.But that process could take years, and their home was unlivable. They figured they would at least get rental assistance from FEMA in the meantime.The couples' situations diverged in important ways, and they applied for different pots of FEMA housing assistance. But their journeys underscore how disaster survivors with varying resources are able to navigate FEMA's application process.Susie and Michelle spent hours plodding through FEMA's online system, uploading documents, deciphering bureaucratic letters and making myriad phone calls to the agency.After weeks of pestering FEMA, the Hills received just under the maximum $42,500 for home repair and rebuild assistance for damage to things like the home's walls, windows and doors, plus about $9,000 from other FEMA aid programs. The money played a critical role in helping them start rebuilding.The Parkers received $2,210 for the first two months of rental assistance to help pay for temporary housing. Michelle continued to nag FEMA for months seeking longer-term help; the agency will pay rental assistance for up to 18 months, which could translate to an additional $7,500.Then Jeff died from cardiac arrest in June at age 56. Michelle felt like she was operating in a fog. She couldn't handle another stressor.So when FEMA's call wait times soared to two to three hours after the deadly Texas floods on July 4, she gave up on pursuing additional rental assistance from FEMA.I got tired of calling," she said. First image: Michelle's husband, Jeff, with their Chihuahuas, Cloey and Sweet Pea. Second image: Inside Michelle's camper. (First image: Courtesy of Michelle Parker. Second image: Jesse Barber for ProPublica.) Michelle's memorial to her husband and their Chihuahua, Sweet Pea, includes a stuffed animal that plays a recording of Jeff's voice, a box with the Corvette emblem containing Jeff's ashes and a box with Sweet Pea's ashes. (Jesse Barber for ProPublica) The Daunting ProcessAfter disasters strike, households with lower incomes can face major challenges, beginning with the early steps of the rebuilding process, which include finding temporary housing and transportation. Some residents lack reliable internet access or cell service. They have less money to pay professionals for estimates or attorneys for advice. Throw in the added hurdles of rugged topography, and western North Carolina posed particular challenges to those faced with rebuilding after Helene.Alicia Edwards, who directs the Disaster Relief Project for Legal Aid of North Carolina, said she wasn't surprised by our analysis, which found that in six of the 10 counties most impacted by Helene, the lowest-income households got less in FEMA's housing assistance than those at the highest income level.People with lower incomes are at a huge disadvantage," Edwards said.The application process can be onerous and overwhelming, particularly for people who just survived raging floodwaters and the destruction of their homes and communities. And it can feel downright impossible to navigate for those with less money or other resources.In Buncombe County, our analysis found the opposite trend. The lowest-income families there typically received more housing assistance than those with higher incomes. It's also where residents tend to have better access to resources, as many regional nonprofits are based there. Pisgah Legal Services has had an office in Asheville for decades.Several of the counties with pronounced income disparities are among the most rural counties heavily impacted by Helene. Yancey, Mitchell and Polk all have populations under 21,000.The region also is home to both higher-income retirees, who can have more free time and more experience navigating complicated finances, and lower-income multigenerational families. In more rural areas, many of the latter tend to distrust the federal government and are reluctant to pursue assistance, said Morgan Monshaugen, disaster recovery program director with the Housing Assistance Corp., a nonprofit that serves Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties. A vacant apartment complex, first image, and a mobile home park, second image, in Haywood County, North Carolina, that were damaged by Helene. (Jesse Barber for ProPublica) The month before Helene struck, Tulane University researchers released a literature review of 25 years of research on barriers to equitable disaster recovery. They noted common themes, including the confusing aid process and challenges navigating bureaucracies. They also pointed to research that shows inspectors' biases and time pressures can play a role.Before 2020, inspectors would go through a long checklist of items that could qualify for repair or replacement money. Someone with more things could therefore get more aid.After FEMA changed that system, inspectors now record notes about standardized factors such as roof damage and the height of flood marks inside. The amount of damage puts a household into one of several levels, each of which determines how much and what type of repair and rebuild assistance it can get. Some households get additional money for things like heating, venting and air conditioning or septic systems.It shouldn't have to do with anything other than what was damaged and what was repaired," Edwards said. But she worries biases can still creep in. If they feel you are a credible person, they could give you a little more assistance, even subconsciously," she said.The agency's decisions come in the form of mailed letters, each regarding a different pot of money. Some letters might have a dollar amount granted. Others might announce denials. It isn't always obvious that survivors can appeal - an even more arduous process for many.It makes it impossibly hard for people to navigate," Edwards said. Four months after Helene hit western North Carolina, debris still remained in Yancey County. (Juan Diego Reyes for ProPublica) Hills of ChallengeSusie Hill knew her family would need every dollar they could get to rebuild. So she filled out a FEMA application online and talked to someone at the agency by phone.Slowly, aid from FEMA started arriving in their bank account - $3,514 first, a set amount for people displaced, then an initial $13,687 for home repair. In October, it reached about $22,000, roughly half of the $42,500 maximum in 2024 for home repair and replacement.Then the money stopped.As hope for more aid began to fizzle, Susie pestered FEMA. I was anxious about getting lost in the mix of so many people across the region in need," she said. The Hills' application was one of nearly 1.5 million that FEMA received across the six-state region devastated by Helene.The Hills got more estimates, uploaded more documents. They set up a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $53,000. And finally, in late November, they came close to reaching the maximum $42,500 payout from FEMA for home repairs, along with smaller amounts from the agency's other aid buckets.Unfortunately," Susie said, I think it is a bit of a socioeconomic situation where we have jobs, where we know people that know people, that maybe have money or that are able to help us, or that have the skills to help us, where other people are just trying to make it day to day." Susie Hill (Juan Diego Reyes for ProPublica) Yancey is home to the most families per capita - about 175, or roughly 1 in 36 homeowners - who got the top amount of FEMA home rebuild and repair assistance. Our analysis of more than 75,000 North Carolina homeowners who applied for the assistance in the counties hardest hit by Helene found roughly 1,300 homeowners, or just 1.7%, received the maximum payout.The Hills had decided to relocate their historic house to a spot on their property farther back from the creek. The FEMA money would cover most of that cost, a critical first step toward gutting it and rebuilding.On an icy cold day in mid-January, house movers put I-beams underneath the water-damaged structure and used hydraulic lifts to raise it. Then, they hauled it to safer ground.A family in Tennessee donated a camper for the Hills to live in. After three months of bouncing around, they parked it near the shell of their house. Standing at the front door, to the right, they could see the vast destruction along Cattail Creek. To the left, they could watch their home slowly come back to life.Susie had to wash their clothes at the elementary school where she works. For other things, they used water carried from a neighbor's well. Brian had to haul the contents of the toilet to the septic tank. But it was a home. Cattail Creek, now calm, flooded during Helene and destroyed the Hills' home. (Juan Diego Reyes for ProPublica) An hour's drive away, the Parkers had sought refuge during the storm at Michelle's mother's house. Jeff had fractured his ankle two months before the storm and used a wheelchair. They weren't taking chances after fleeing their home under darkness - Michelle carrying their two Chihuahuas, one under each arm - when Tropical Storm Fred hit three years earlier.When they returned home after Helene, their shed was gone. Instead, other people's structures lay in their yard. Inside, the contents looked like everything had been spun around. Their refrigerator lay on its side. The washing machine sat wedged on top of the dryer.It ruined everything - everything," Michelle said. I was ready to just die right there. I was like, I can't go through this again." First and second images: Michelle's home shows signs of destruction from Helene almost a year later. Third image: A vacant house near Michelle's home. (Jesse Barber for ProPublica) A friend set up a GoFundMe, which raised $1,875. The Parkers' flood insurance paid out $80,000, far below the $209,000 the home had been appraised for a year before. Michelle remembers FEMA offering a free hotel, more than 60 miles away in Tennessee, a distance made farther as Helene's waters took out parts of Interstate 40. Michelle and Jeff were grateful to receive a donated camper to live in. But their property still had no water or electricity, and they had to rent a place to park it.The rent for that gravel parking space is $900 a month. Donors paid half, but Michelle has to come up with the rest.Michelle turned to FEMA. She requested more rental assistance and uploaded an employer letter, a rental agreement, utility bills and a rent receipt. She called FEMA repeatedly. Michelle and her friend Krista Shalda outside Michelle's camper. Michelle has struggled to pay the rent for the lot where the camper is parked. (Jesse Barber for ProPublica) They Are All Gone"FEMA has faced years of criticism from people applying for assistance. Chief among their complaints: inconsistent payouts, the onerous application process, incomprehensible communication and confusing rules.Jeremiah Isom lost his home and work tools in the Yancey County floodwaters and has since been living here and there. He's struggled to find a job and has grappled with a FEMA application, complicated by deaths in his family and property ownership issues. It doesn't help that he's reluctant to ask for help, much less aggressively seek it from the federal government. Just plowing through each day is hard enough.Everyone is so eaten up with PTSD," Isom said. It's got your head so scrambled."FEMA has been working on improving its application process. From 2021 to 2024, it announced changes aimed at improving access and equity, including making home repair money available to underinsured households. Another change cut an onerous rule requiring applicants to first apply for a U.S. Small Business Administration loan, which approved less than 4% of all applicants from 2016 to 2018.Before President Donald Trump took office in January, FEMA also had spent more than a year hiring a team of engineers, designers and product managers to help modernize the online application process. They faced a key challenge: The back-end system that runs much of the process at disasterassistance.gov is 27 years old.A key problem is that when survivors check their application status, they often see simply that it's pending. They get no indication of where the application is in the process or why. The FEMA team was working to change that.Michael Coen, the agency's chief of staff when the team was formed, noted that people are used to going on Amazon and getting updates about when their order is out for delivery and when it's about to arrive. Coen said survivors wonder, Why can't FEMA do that?" Volunteers cut firewood in Swannanoa, North Carolina, four months after Helene hit the region. (Juan Diego Reyes for ProPublica) Yet since the Trump administration began slashing the agency's workforce, the team focusing on improvements to the online application process has disintegrated. In January, the team had at least 10 people. Now, it's down to two. The rest took the deferred resignation offer or were pushed from their posts, current and former FEMA employees told ProPublica and The Assembly.They all are gone," said Alexandra Ferak, who until May was chief of service delivery enhancement, part of a relatively new office at FEMA. Her team worked closely with the digital team. We had so much knowledge and expertise, it was unprecedented," she said.Without that in-house expertise, major changes are not going to be effective," said a FEMA employee who worked with the team but asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.FEMA did not respond to questions about the team. But in late August, more than 180 current and former FEMA employees signed a public letter to Congress warning that cuts to the agency's full-time staff risk kneecapping its disaster response capabilities.In response, Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, said she is working hard to streamline this bloated organization into a tool that actually benefits Americans in crisis." The agency then suspended most who had signed their names to the letter.One Year LaterThe Hills had their house moved back from Cattail Creek and temporarily propped up until they could get a new foundation laid. But the foundation work depended on the weather, which was varying degrees of terrible all winter.Heavy rain triggered flashbacks to Helene, and in February it poured. But one Sunday morning, the Hills turned on the gas fireplace in their camper as the temperatures plummeted and the gray rain turned to snowflakes. Despite the gloom outside, they were gleeful.A retired contractor from Texas volunteering his skills had become the guiding force in their rebuilding. Volunteers from other states also showed up to help. A group from a church in Georgia who work in construction had just visited. They asked what the Hills wanted in their house.The Hills mostly wanted to add a bathroom so that their daughter, Lucy, who was 9 at the time, would have her own. The men would try to add one. When they left, the Hills went out to dinner using a gift card and declared it the best day ever, or at least something that had been hard to come by since the storm: a great day.A few months later, a feeling of hope spread across western North Carolina as the dogwoods and redbuds bloomed in puffs of purple and white. Dandelions dotted patches of grass amid the persistent brown muck of mud and fallen trees. Friends and volunteers became fixtures at the Hills' house. They depended on so much kindness from people. Brian spent every spare minute working on repairs as well. With help from FEMA and their community, the Hills are rebuilding their home. Signs of normalcy have slowly returned, including a neighbor's horses coming by to graze. (Juan Diego Reyes for ProPublica) Without that initial FEMA money, the Hills' wrecked house might still be sitting in the moonscape of mud and destruction that persists along Cattail Creek. Instead, as summer waned, the house had electricity, siding, floors, insulation, drywall - and a bathroom for Lucy.On this one-year anniversary of Helene's destruction, the Hills expect to move back in any day. Thousands of others aren't even close.Michelle now lives alone in the camper. For the past year, donors have been paying half the rent for the lot where she parks the camper. In November, that assistance will come to an end. Michelle has a job working with autistic children but cannot afford the $900 a month on her own.It's just a gravel spot," she said.Like the Hills, Michelle credits friends and nonprofits for getting her through the last year. They just swarmed in and started helping - and lots of them," she said. In the spring, Mountain Projects, a local nonprofit that provided the camper, offered her a discounted modular home and a plot of land. Other nonprofits like United Way and Salvation Army have offered to help cover some of the home's expenses, but Michelle still must come up with $81,000 not yet covered by her insurance or donations.The buyout program she applied for would pay her the fair market value of her home before the storm, minus her insurance payout. But if she is approved, it could be years before she sees that money. I'm worried," she said.She and Jeff were preapproved for a mortgage loan, but without his income, she isn't sure she will still qualify. Michelle is thankful for so much help. But a year after Helene, moving into a permanent home feels more unreachable than ever. The home offered to Michelle by Mountain Projects (Jesse Barber for ProPublica) ProPublica and The Assembly know recovery in western North Carolina is far from over, and so is our reporting. If you have applied or thought about applying to the state housing recovery program, RenewNC, fill out this form. You can reach us with questions or other stories at helenetips@propublica.org. Mollie Simon contributed research, and Nadia Sussman and Cassandra Garibay contributed reporting. Correction Sept. 27, 2025: A video with this story originally misidentified the subject Brian Hill teaches. Hill teaches high school math, not history.

by Nadia Sussman ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. When Brian and Susie Hill bought a historic house on Cattail Creek in Yancey County, North Carolina, in 2023, they planned to stay forever. Their daughter, Lucy, would chase fireflies in the evenings across their wide expanse of grass.It's that feeling that you always wanted of going home," Susie said. Your little family and your little dog and your big yard and the chickens."In September 2024, Hurricane Helene upended their lives. After days of rain that saturated the mountains, Helene arrived, turning little streams into raging rivers hundreds of miles inland. The swollen Cattail Creek churned through the Hills' home, leaving logs in place of furniture and taking porches, doors, windows, appliances and parts of the floor with it.The Hills watched it all, huddled in their truck parked up a gentle slope. When the water receded, they found the house was uninhabitable.Suddenly displaced, the Hills began the arduous process of seeking disaster relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The almost $40,000 in federal aid they received allowed them to take critical first steps toward rebuilding. It wasn't nearly enough money to complete the enormous project. The rest would have to come from their own efforts and an outpouring of community support. Yet it was more than most others in their community managed to muster from the federal disaster aid system.ProPublica and The Assembly examined federal data, looking at the 10 counties in North Carolina hardest hit by Helene. We found income disparities in the way the agency had distributed housing assistance, even though that aid is supposed to be independent of income. Among the more rural counties hardest hit by Helene, households that got the most FEMA aid tended to be the highest-income ones. In some counties, including Yancey, the highest-income homeowners received two to three times as much money to repair and rebuild their homes as those with lower incomes.In rural areas, residents can face barriers to seeking assistance ranging from poor access to cellphone and internet service to rugged topography to a lack of money to pay for services. The reverse was true in urban Buncombe County, home of Asheville, where lower-income homeowners typically received higher FEMA awards for housing assistance. Buncombe is also home to many of the region's nonprofits that helped low-income residents navigate the FEMA application and appeals process.For the Hills, it's been an exhausting year. They've been camped in a trailer since January with a view of their former home, working on the house until dark after days of teaching public school. They long for simple comforts of their former life - just sitting in their living room as a family and watching a movie. As the Hills prepare to move back in, we learn in their journey why so many other families may never be able to do so.Watch the short documentary Rebuilding After Helene" here. Correction Sept. 27, 2025: A video with this story originally misidentified the subject Brian Hill teaches. Hill teaches high school math, not history.

by Till Eckert ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken one of its agents off the streets after he was caught on video throwing a distraught mother to the floor of a New York City courthouse in front of her two children on Thursday.It wasn't the first time videos have captured scenes of immigration agents using violent force to carry out the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. But the videos of this incident - one of which I filmed for ProPublica - seemed to stir something different. In a rare move, the government publicly reprimanded an officer for such conduct.The officer's conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE," an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said. Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation." A video filmed by Till Eckert shows the officer throwing Moreta-Galarza to the ground inside the courthouse. (Till Eckert/ProPublica. Edited for privacy by ProPublica.) Watch video I've only been in the U.S. as a reporter for eight weeks - so I just barely arrived. I come from Germany and am on the staff at Correctiv, a nonprofit investigative newsroom. I'd been alarmed by videos of masked ICE agents sweeping immigrants off the street, scenes I never thought I'd see in the United States, and I came with the goal of witnessing what was going on for myself. I wanted to report on how the administration's immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines.Since arriving, I've spent time reporting in immigrant neighborhoods, emergency rooms, churches, ICE field offices and, most recently, in the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. I've gone there most every morning for the past two weeks.During that time, I'd seen ICE drag several immigrants away from their families, all of them sobbing and pleading with the officers not to separate them from their loved ones.But what happened Thursday was a shocking escalation. When I emerged from the elevator on the 14th floor, I heard a woman's pleas. She sounded terrified. I walked around the corner to see what was happening. At the end of the hallway, I saw the woman, Monica Moreta-Galarza, standing in front of an agent. She was crying because her husband had been detained. She told the agent she was afraid her husband would be hurt. She wanted to go with him.I began recording and captured the agent barking back at the woman. Adios," he said, over and over, pressing toward her as if warning her to back away. When she didn't, he grabbed her. The rest - including her children's screams - has been memorialized online. The federal agent yells and waves his finger at Moreta-Galarza after throwing her to the ground. (Graham Macindoe) I followed Moreta-Galarza to the hospital. She is an immigrant from Ecuador and has been living in Coney Island since last year. Speaking in Spanish, she said the government routinely beat people in her home country. I didn't think I'd come here to the United States and the same thing would happen to me."This morning, I went back to the courthouse with the goal of speaking to the agent who'd tackled Moreta-Galarza. I'd heard the other ICE agents call him Victor, though I can't be sure that's his real name. By the time I got there, however, he was gone.ProPublica's mission is impact. I don't think any of us expected we'd help bring it about with my video. The question now is what will the government do the next time something like this happens.I asked DHS how many agents have been disciplined this year for misusing force. They did not answer that question. If you have tips about new ICE enforcement tactics in courts, we want to hear from you. Reach out via Signal (tilleckert.90) or propublica.org/tips.

by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. For months, the complaints have rolled in from parts of the country hit by natural disasters: The Federal Emergency Management Agency was moving far too slowly in sending aid to communities ravaged by floods and hurricanes, including in central Texas and North Carolina. Many officials were blaming Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, whose agency oversees FEMA.I can't get phone calls back," Ted Budd, the Republican senator from North Carolina, told a newspaper this month, describing his attempts to reach Noem's office. I can't get them to initiate the money. It's just a quagmire." The delays were caused in part by a new policy announced by DHS that requires Noem's personal sign-off on expenses over $100,000, several news outlets reported.But records obtained by ProPublica show how one locality found a way to get FEMA aid more quickly: It asked one of Noem's political donors for help.The records show that Noem quickly expedited more than $11 million of federal money to rebuild a historic pier in Naples, Florida, after she was contacted by a major financial supporter last month. The pier is a tourist attraction in the wealthy Gulf Coast enclave and was badly damaged by Hurricane Ian in 2022. Frustrated city officials had been laboring for months, without success, to get disaster assistance. But just two weeks after the donor stepped in, they were celebrating their sudden change of fortune. We are now at warp speed with FEMA," one city official wrote in an email. A FEMA representative wrote: Per leadership instruction, pushing project immediately."Along with fast-tracking the money, Noem flew to Naples on a government plane to tour the pier herself. She then stayed for the weekend and got dinner with the donor, local cardiologist Sinan Gursoy, at the French restaurant Bleu Provence, according to records and an interview with the Naples mayor. This account is based on text messages and emails ProPublica obtained through public records requests.Noem's actions in Naples suggest the injection of political favoritism into an agency tasked with saving lives and rebuilding communities wiped out by disaster. It also heightens concerns about the discretion Noem has given herself by personally handling all six-figure expenses at the agency, consolidating her power over who wins and loses in the pursuit of federal relief dollars, experts said.Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said that politics has long been a factor in federal disaster relief - one study found that swing states are more likely to get federal help, for example. But I've not heard of anything this egregious - a donor calling up and saying I need help and getting it," he said, while others may be getting denied assistance or otherwise waiting in line for help that may or may not come."In a statement, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, This has nothing to do with politics: Secretary Noem also visited Ruidoso, NM" - where floods killed three people in July - at the request of a Democrat governor and has been integral in supporting and speeding up their recovery efforts."Your criticizing the Secretary's visit to the Pier is bizarre as she works to fix this issue for more than 1 million visitors that used to visit the pier," McLaughlin added. She did not answer questions about the donor's role in expediting the funding or Noem's relationship with him. Reached by phone, Gursoy said get lost" and hung up. He did not respond to detailed follow up questions.Noem has been criticized for creating a bottleneck at FEMA. When the floods hit Texas this summer - ultimately killing over 100 people - it took days to deploy critical search-and-rescue teams because Noem hadn't signed off on them, according to CNN. Budd, the Republican senator, said this month: Pretty much everything Helene-related is over $100,000. So they're stacking up on her desk waiting for her signature."Noem has denied there were delays in the Texas flood response and has defended her expense policy, saying it has saved billions of dollars. Every day I get up and I think, the American people are paying for this, should they?" she recently said. And are these dollars doing what the law says they should be doing? I'm going to make sure that they go there."Once a sleepy fishing town, Naples is now home to CEOs and billionaires (a property listed for $295 million recently made headlines as the most expensive home in the U.S.). The city is known as an important stop for Republican politicians raising money, and Noem has held multiple fundraisers in the area. State credit card records suggest she visited Naples at least 10 times during her last four years as South Dakota governor.Noem's top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, also appears to own a home in Naples near the city's pier, according to property tax records. Lewandowski is an unpaid staffer at DHS serving as Noem's de facto chief of staff. (Media reports have alleged the two are romantically involved, which they have both denied.) Lewandowski told ProPublica that he was not involved in the pier decision and that he was not in Naples during Noem's visit.For the first seven months of the Trump administration, the pier reconstruction was in bureaucratic purgatory. The city had long been struggling to secure the regulatory approvals it needed to start building, and emails suggest Trump's wave of federal layoffs had made the process even slower. These agencies are undergoing significant reorganizations and staff reductions," a city official told a frustrated constituent in early August. That sometimes means starting over with new reviewers - something we've faced more than once."McLaughlin said both past FEMA and the City bear responsibility" for the delays. She listed several failures" since the process started in 2023, including FEMA staff changing up" and indecision by the city government.By this summer, Naples officials were getting desperate. In June, one tried to enlist Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., to press FEMA to move ahead. We were told yesterday that Secretary Noem would have to personally' approve the Pier project before FEMA funding would be obligated," the city official wrote to the senator's staff. The Naples mayor, Teresa Heitmann, also personally wrote to FEMA. Heitmann said she was perplexed" by the delays and begged the agency for guidance.Heitmann had long been paying expensive Washington consultants to help her city navigate the process. But she was feeling increasingly helpless," she later said, until she had the idea that would finally put her project on the fast track. On July 18, the mayor emailed a Google search to herself: Who is the head of Homeland security?" She was going to go straight to Noem.Heitmann determined that her best bet for getting Noem's attention was Gursoy. A Naples cardiologist, Gursoy has no obvious experience working with the federal government; much of his online footprint centers on his enthusiasm for pinball. But Gursoy gave Noem at least $25,000 to support her campaign for governor in 2022. That was enough to put him near the top of Noem's disclosed donor list. (In South Dakota, campaign contributions remain relatively small.)On planning documents for the 2024 Republican National Convention obtained by ProPublica, the Florida doctor is listed as an attendee affiliated with the delegation from South Dakota, a state he has no apparent connection to besides his support for Noem. Heitmann told ProPublica that Gursoy introduced her to Noem at a political event at a private home in Naples while Noem was governor.Hello it's Teresa," the mayor texted Gursoy in early August. I really need your help." She explained the tangle of bureaucracy she'd been contending with. FEMA is holding us up," Heitmann wrote. Kristi Noem could put some fire under the FEMA employees slacking."Gursoy responded: Okay. I will get on it."The next week, on Aug. 11, the doctor gave Heitmann an update. Kristi was off for a few days for the first time in a long time, so I left her alone," he said. I just txted her now." Within 24 hours, he had exciting news. He told the mayor to expect a call from Noem's FEMA fixer" shortly.The identity of the fixer" is not clear, but by Aug. 27, Naples officials were seeing a flurry of activity" from Noem's agency. That day, a FEMA staffer told the city that FEMA is intending to expedite the funding" for the pier. Secretary Noem took immediate action when I reached out to ask for help," the mayor soon posted on Facebook. Two days later, Noem flew to Naples. Her schedule listed a 30-minute walk-through at the pier with the mayor, followed by a nail salon appointment and dinner at Bleu Provence, which serves wagyu short ribs and seared foie gras. Noem then stayed through the weekend at the four-star Naples Bay Resort & Marina. Heitmann told ProPublica she wasn't at the French dinner but Gursoy was. I didn't ask her to come, but she showed up," the mayor told the local news. I was very impressed."Before she left town, Noem posted about the Naples pier on Instagram. She was finally getting the project back on track, she said. Americans deserve better than years of red tape and failed disaster responses," Noem wrote. Under @POTUS Trump, this incompetency ends."DHS did not answer questions about whether the government paid for Noem's weekend in Naples. Do you have any information we should know about Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski or DHS? Josh Kaplan can be reached by email at joshua.kaplan@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.

by Jessica Schreifels, The Salt Lake Tribune This article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. The patients kept coming to the Utah oral surgeon's office - one after another, year after year - with dental work that the surgeon said had gone wrong. He later recounted in a letter to state licensors that he had seen dental implants that had been the wrong size, patients with chronic sinus infections and one person whose implant had become lost inside their sinus cavity. These patients, he said, had all been worked on by the same dentist: Dr. Nicholas LaFeber.The surgeon, a 30-year veteran, wrote the letter in November 2022 after Utah's licensing division asked for his opinion of work done by LaFeber, whose license was on probation after the agency determined he had provided substandard care to more than a dozen patients. His warning was blunt: He believed LaFeber wouldn't improve as a dentist and should not be performing dental implant procedures. He had seen LaFeber make the same mistakes in patients for years, he wrote, causing severe" and sometimes life-changing complications.I believe that he is not competent to place implants," the oral surgeon, Dr. Creed Haymond, concluded. I give this opinion with soberness and sadness, but I feel I have a duty to aid the board in protecting the public from what appears to be an incompetent practitioner."His assessment of LaFeber's skills in restorative dentistry was also mentioned in a February 2023 order regarding agency action on LaFeber's license. Haymond did not respond to interview requests.This was the second letter that Utah's Division of Professional Licensing had received recommending that LaFeber be stopped or limited from practicing after more than a decade of dentistry in Utah, according to records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica. The agency licenses Utah dentists and other professionals and investigates allegations of misconduct.Two years prior, another dentist who had considered buying one of LaFeber's practices recommended LaFeber's license be revoked after looking through patient files: As I started going through charts, as well as seeing the previous work, I began to realize how poor he treated these individuals," wrote Dr. Brandon McKee. Patients with failed implants are put on antibiotics and told to wait while the implant is continuing to heal. Some of these are for nine months."This letter was discussed in a September 2020 public dentistry board meeting. McKee did not respond to interview requests.The licensing division's dentistry board - whose members are mostly dentists and hygienists - recommended to Utah licensing director Mark Steinagel in December 2022 that LaFeber's license be revoked after reviewing additional evidence suggesting his skills had not improved.But despite this recommendation and the letters of warning from his colleagues, Steinagel reinstated LaFeber's license in May 2023 after the dentist completed three years of probation, which included taking remedial classes. Mark Steinagel, director of the state agency that licenses Utah professionals, reinstated Nicholas LaFeber's license even though the agency's dentistry board recommended that it be revoked. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune) Since LaFeber's license was reinstated, new patients say they've been hurt. The Tribune and ProPublica spoke with two patients who say they saw the dentist within the last year for what they believed would be routine cavity fillings. Instead, they say they left in pain that became prolonged and ultimately required the procedures to be redone by other dentists. Neither knew when they sought dental care that LaFeber had nearly lost his license after regulators determined his work fell below the standard of care.I had never had this done before, so I didn't know what's normal," said one patient, Michelle Lipsey. I was just like, He's an adult, male dentist. He probably knows what he's doing.'"Lipsey filed a complaint against LaFeber with licensors in July detailing her experience, but the agency closed the case a month later and took no disciplinary action.LaFeber said he would not discuss individual patients because they did not grant him permission to do so. He told The Tribune and ProPublica that he has always tried to keep his patients' best interests in mind. I had a few outcomes from dental work that had complications and needed further treatment," he wrote in an email in response to questions.I assume every dentist encounters some percentage of negative patient outcomes and I have no reason to believe that my practice had a higher percentage than others."Melanie Hall, a spokesperson for Steinagel and the Division of Professional Licensing, said in response to questions that the division only revokes someone's license when their conduct has been especially egregious" because doing so ends a career."The agency's top priority, she said, is keeping Utahns safe - but she added that it also wants to ensure that licensees have a chance at professional rehabilitation" and, when appropriate, can continue to work and earn money.The state has revoked two dental licenses since June 2015, according to a Tribune and ProPublica examination of a decade's worth of publicly available licensing division records.Hall said that LaFeber's license was reinstated despite the dental board's recommendation because the dentist had finished the remedial courses that the board required him to take and his probationary period was ending. She noted that no other patients filed a complaint during that three-year period and that the dental board's role was to only make recommendations to Steinagel and his staff.That decision bothered some of those who served on the dental board during that time. Two former board members told The Tribune and ProPublica that they were frustrated state licensing division leaders did not listen to them and that they felt LaFeber should not practice dentistry given his record. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because of potential professional repercussions.You hate to take somebody's livelihood away from them when they've gone through years of dental school and had a practice," one of the former board members said. But the board's job is to protect the public."In LaFeber's case, the former board member said, the public was not well-served."LaFeber, without knowing the identities of the board members, suggested that some might have been biased against him. Every One of These Cases Was Alarming"LaFeber said in public dentistry board meetings that he came to the attention of the licensing division in late 2019 after one of his former employees filed a complaint. He said the employee, who he said he had previously fired, directed licensors to more than a dozen cases in which he admitted during a board meeting that he had provided poor patient care."State licensing officials could have suspended or revoked LaFeber's license, but instead, in early 2020, they struck an agreement with LaFeber - a common outcome in license discipline cases. According to the agreement, investigators found that some of the patients in those cases had had root canals that resulted in infections or needed to be redone. Licensors also determined that LaFeber had improperly placed permanent replacement teeth in other patients, including one whose implant extended into the sinus cavity, the document said.LaFeber agreed to spend three years on professional probation, during which he would be under the supervision of another dentist whose time he was required to pay for. He was still allowed to perform dental work during that period, according to the stipulation, but agreed not to do implant procedures or root canals.He was not required to tell his current or future patients about this discipline. Like most other states, Utah has no law requiring patient disclosure when a licensed professional is disciplined, and a review of more than 3,200 filings from the licensing division's website shows the state has rarely required disclosure of unprofessional conduct to patients.The Utah regulators who discipline licensed professionals act only when someone files a complaint, like what happened in LaFeber's case. We don't have manpower or staffing for proactive investigations," Larry Marx, the state's health care licensing bureau manager, explained to the dental board in a 2020 public meeting.Once LaFeber was on probation, oversight of his progress moved to the dental board, an advisory group whose role it is to interview probationers in quarterly public meetings and make recommendations to Steinagel about whether the professionals completed their probation and if they should have their licenses reinstated.In these interviews with the dental board, LaFeber admitted his mistakes. He blamed bad outcomes on being burned out from owning four dental clinics, and he said he had done procedures on friends and acquaintances who actually needed more specialized care but didn't have the money.Some of it I will just admit was a poor, poor choice on my part," he told the board, according to a recording of the meeting. And I can also say for some of them, they are very dear friends of mine, that I have either coached their kids or helped them in Scouts or something else, single moms, and trying to help them out." Dr. Nicholas LaFeber's profile on the website of his practice, Sandy Center Dental (Screenshot by ProPublica) In addition to the problems that the former employee initially reported to the state licensing division, one dental board member, Dr. Ruedi Tillmann, looked at more than a dozen other files of LaFeber's during the first few months of his probation and found other cases in which Tillmann saw indications that patients had poor outcomes, according to a December 2020 board meeting.Tillmann, a dentist, said during the online meeting that he saw a number of cases" where LaFeber did four or five implants on a single patient and none of them properly integrated into the patient's jawbone. Poor margins, open margins, implant crowns not sitting on implants correctly," he said about patient files he reviewed. I'm sorry to be harsh. It's just that every one of these cases was alarming to me."Dr. Daniel Poulson, another dentist on the board, questioned why LaFeber would do substandard work on his patients, including people he said he knew and cared about.With 30 cases, what that communicates to me is you didn't learn. You just kept doing it," Poulson said during the same meeting. And to blame that on being stressed or overworked - we're all stressed. Dentistry is an incredibly stressful profession. But that shouldn't, in my mind, make an excuse for ill-treating a patient. Using a lot of antibiotics to cover infections that last years is just out of bounds."LaFeber told the board during this meeting that he was confident he could improve his dentistry by taking continuing education courses and by being more selective about patients and referring them more often to specialists instead of trying to do the work himself.He also downsized to just one clinic, Sandy Center Dental, a wood-trimmed office suite in a large, tan stucco building located in a Salt Lake City suburb at the base of the Wasatch Mountains.They Were So Disgusted With All the Problems"LaFeber met with the dental board 11 times during his probation in public meetings that were often conducted on video calls because of the coronavirus pandemic. He was cheerful and agreeable during meetings, even at times when board members asked him pointed, critical questions about his work.His polite nature was noted several times in records reviewed by The Tribune and ProPublica. For example, McKee, the dentist who had considered buying LaFeber's practice, wrote in his letter to the board that LaFeber came across as a humble," very nice guy" who patients trusted. A dentist who leads a dental examination agency wrote in his summary of an exam that LaFeber took that he was overly pleasant to the extreme."Members of the dental board remarked during public meetings about how unique" LaFeber's case was, and they questioned what the right metric would be to determine whether his dentistry had improved and he was safe to work with patients.Utah licensors rarely discipline dentists over whether they are competent to do their jobs, an analysis by The Tribune and ProPublica found. A review of disciplinary records from the last decade shows dentists most often getting in trouble for drug or alcohol use or for overprescribing or diverting prescriptions.Hall, the licensing division spokesperson, said the agency does not track how many standard-of-care complaints it receives, but acknowledged that proving those types of cases tends to be difficult.As a result, they are less likely to lead to disciplinary actions compared to cases involving drug use, unlawful behavior, or practicing outside one's scope of practice," she said.But tension was growing between LaFeber and the dental board: While LaFeber had taken a few online, self-paced courses, board members felt he needed more intensive, hands-on classes to improve.A breaking point between LaFeber and the board occurred near the end of LaFeber's probation. At the December 2022 dental board meeting, LaFeber peppered members with questions about the board's role governing probationers and implied that a board member had acted improperly by soliciting complaints about him.The board seemed equally frustrated; LaFeber still hadn't enrolled in the hands-on courses they had required him to take, programs that could have cost up to $50,000. LaFeber had instead taken a licensure exam and failed several sections, according to a copy of the exam results obtained by The Tribune and ProPublica, which was also referenced in the 2023 agency order.LaFeber did not respond on the record to questions about these test results.Given the test results, Poulson, who had become board chair, said in the public meeting that he worried whether LaFeber would be able to practice dentistry safely by the following February, when his probation period would end.I have two doctors that once tried to buy your practice. They gave it back because they were so disgusted with all the problems they were having with patients," Tillmann, one of the board members, said in that same meeting, recalling previous conversations he had. LaFeber's practice, Sandy Center Dental. LeFeber was not required to tell his current or future patients about his probation. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune) Poulson suggested that the group make a motion recommending that the state licensing division either revoke or suspend LaFeber's license, saying that the action would be protecting the public from inferior care." The board unanimously voted to recommend revocation.A few months later, Marx issued the agency order stating that LaFeber's license should be suspended until he could demonstrate he could practice dentistry with reasonable skill and safety."LaFeber, though, had one more chance to respond before the suspension would take effect. Soon after the agency order, LaFeber enrolled in and completed his remedial training. He also hired an attorney who signaled his intent to fight the agency's action, according to public records.In response, Marx requested that the agency's move to suspend LaFeber's license be dismissed, noting that LaFeber said he had delayed complying with the dental board's requirement that he complete further training because of financial limitations." Then, Steinagel reinstated LaFeber's license.By this point, Steinagel's agency knew not only about the reports of patients with improper tooth implants and the failed root canals that led to LaFeber's probation, it also knew the state dental board had recommended that LaFeber's license be revoked.In addition, the agency was aware LaFeber had been sued three times for medical malpractice - including by a patient who alleged he had implants placed in his sinuses, which caused sepsis, and another patient who said in her lawsuit that, after months of painful infections, she went to another dentist who found a broken dental instrument lodged in her gums. (LaFeber told The Tribune and ProPublica these lawsuits were settled by his medical malpractice insurance carrier and there was never any determination made that his treatment fell below the standard of care.)LaFeber said in response to questions that he was not aware of any recommendation from the board to revoke his license -though according to recordings and minutes of the public dentistry board meetings, he was present when the dentistry board took its vote. The board's revocation recommendation is also referenced in the agency order he received, which The Tribune and ProPublica obtained through a public records request.The dentist said he felt he was treated fairly by licensors and most members of the dentistry board, but added that he felt one board member did not disclose a conflict of interest and had a personal vendetta" against him. LaFeber did not respond on the record to follow-up questions asking for further details. He said he complied with every request by licensors and its dentistry board and even went above and beyond" by taking additional continuing education. He noted that he passed the remediation courses and related tests that the board had requested.I also worked with a supervising dentist, at significant expense, who reviewed my work and provided mentoring for 3 years between 2020 and 2023," LaFeber wrote.After taking these courses, he said, he has been able to incorporate new technology in his practices that has improved patient outcomes. Dentistry is an area that is constantly evolving with so much new technology," he said, and I welcome all information sources that can help me improve my practice."The Tribune and ProPublica asked the two former board members who spoke to the news organizations whether their vote to recommend LaFeber's license be revoked would have changed if they had the opportunity to weigh in again after he had completed his remedial training.One former board member said they didn't think the training completed to satisfy the state was enough to overcome years of poor dentistry. Another said that nothing seems to have changed given new patient complaints. Three board members who were involved in LaFeber's case declined to comment for this story, and four others could not be reached.New Patients Say They Were HarmedWith his license restored, LaFeber started to once again grow his business. Public records show he still owns Sandy Center Dental, and in July 2024 he got a business license for a second clinic about 10 miles to the west. (An online ad this summer indicated LaFeber was trying to sell his second practice.)LaFeber is referenced as the sole dentist on websites for both of these businesses. In his response to The Tribune and ProPublica, he said he owns and operates a single office, Sandy Center Dental, where he works four days a week. A Sept. 23 search of public business records show he is still listed as the registered agent and principal for both practices. LaFeber said he helped start the second office, Parkway Smile Center, but said it is now entirely owned and managed by another dentist." The new owner could not be reached for comment.In the nearly two years since LaFeber's full return to practice, at least two more patients have publicly complained they were harmed under his care, both of whom The Tribune and ProPublica contacted after they left negative online reviews.Michelle Lipsey had been a patient at Sandy Center Dental for nearly eight years, but she said in an interview that she hadn't been to the dentist for a couple years after her second child was born. She said LaFeber told her during an October 2024 appointment that she needed five cavities filled. She returned a week later for the procedures.For weeks after, Lipsey was in pain, and she returned to Sandy Center Dental later that month, complaining that she couldn't sleep and was only able to eat soft food, according to her medical records. LaFeber redid some of the fillings, medical records show, but Lipsey said the pain persisted. She said a second dentist told her that LaFeber hadn't properly sealed the fillings and had drilled far deeper than he needed to.LaFeber noted in her medical records that he tried to call and text Lipsey after she left a negative review online. Remember patient was very nervous," her patient file reads. We tried our best to help calm but at no point had the appointment gone as she described in the post."Haley Stafford described a similar experience earlier this year. She said that, based on what LeFeber told her, she was expecting to have two cavities filled during a March appointment; instead, he put fillings in seven teeth. She recalled in an interview that his hands shook when he gave her numbing shots. (The testing exam results reviewed by The Tribune and ProPublica also noted LaFeber's unsteady hands.)That was the first time he actually did work on me," she said. And it was completely botched."She's been in near-daily pain since, she said, and has needed more dental work on her affected teeth, including two root canals. Stafford found a new dentist, but the repair work has cost her thousands of dollars.Both Stafford and Lipsey said LaFeber contacted them about refunding their money.LaFeber said he doesn't recall refunding money to any patients after a complaint. He said he could not comment on specific cases to protect patient privacy, but said that sensitivity and pain can happen after a treatment.We try to do all we can to minimize it," he said. The presence of pain does not demonstrate treatment that fell below the standard of care."Lipsey filed a complaint with licensors in late July and said she was interviewed by an investigator and shared X-rays from before and after LaFeber filled her cavities.Licensors sent Lipsey an email in late August saying that they were closing the case and that appropriate action was taken," according to a screenshot of the email Lipsey shared with The Tribune and ProPublica. They would not tell her what that action was, saying the investigative record was considered private under Utah law. Licensing officials declined to comment on the outcome of Lipsey's complaint. If licensors had disciplined LaFeber, it would be considered a public record. The agency has the option to address a complaint informally by giving a verbal warning to a licensed professional or writing a letter of concern. Those measures typically are not disclosed to the public.LaFeber told The Tribune and ProPublica that Lipsey's complaint was dismissed and he did not receive any warnings or a letter of concern. Licensors investigated it thoroughly and found it to be meritless," he said.LaFeber's license remains in good standing, according to the state's licensing database in September.Stafford hasn't filed a complaint with the state and said she had no idea LaFeber had nearly lost his license until a reporter reached out to her.How does a dentist nearly lose their license and get it back," she asked, and patients are not aware of that?"

by Duaa Eldeib ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. The National Institutes of Health has launched a five-year, $37 million stillbirth consortium in a pivotal effort to reduce what it has called the country's unacceptably high" stillbirth rate.The announcement last week thrilled doctors, researchers and families and represented a commitment by the agency to prioritize stillbirth, the death of an expected child at 20 weeks or more.What we're really excited about is not only the investment in trying to prevent stillbirth, but also continuing that work with the community to guide the research," Alison Cernich, acting director of the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in an interview. Four clinical sites and one data coordinating center spanning the country - California, Oregon, Utah, New York and North Carolina - will come together to form the consortium, each bringing its own expertise. Most will focus on ways to predict and prevent stillbirths, though they also plan to address bereavement and mental health after a loss. Research shows that of the more than 20,000 stillbirths in the U.S. each year, as many as 25% may be prevented. For deliveries at 37 weeks or more, that figure jumps to nearly half.The teams plan to meet for the first time on Friday to discuss possible research targets. Those include: understanding why some placentas fail and fetuses don't grow properly; assessing decreased fetal movement; considering the best times for delivery and using advanced technology to explore how blood tests, biomarkers and ultrasounds may help predict a stillbirth. They also may evaluate how electronic medical records and artificial intelligence could help doctors and nurses identify early signs of stillbirth risk. While the announcement did not mention racial disparities, a representative said the consortium hopes to identify factors that determine who is at a higher risk of having a stillbirth.For many families, the devastation of a stillbirth is followed by a lack of answers, including how and why the loss occurred. The teams will collaborate with the stillbirth community through advisory groups. The North Carolina team will oversee data collection and standardization. Incomplete, delayed and sometimes inaccurate stillbirth data has been an impediment to prevention efforts.If we could see the signs and deliver the baby earlier, so that the mom has a live baby, that's I think what we're all hoping for," said Dr. Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, the chair and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California San Diego, who will co-lead the effort there.The consortium follows a national shift in the conversation around stillbirth, which has long been a neglected public health concern. ProPublica began reporting on stillbirths in 2022 and, in 2025, the news organization released a documentary following the lives of three women trying to make pregnancy safer in America following their stillbirths. Debbie Haine Vijayvergiya, who was featured in the documentary, has spent years asking Congress to support stillbirth legislation and urging lawmakers to pass the Stillbirth Health Improvement and Education (SHINE) for Autumn Act, named after her stillborn daughter Autumn Joy. Two days after that the NIH announced the consortium, Republican and Democratic members of Congress reintroduced the bill.I feel like our moment has finally arrived, and we are being included in all this tremendously important lifesaving work that's being done," she said.Congress had previously mandated a stillbirth working group, which the NICHD formed in 2022, and heard directly from stillbirth families. The working group released a federal report calling the country's stillbirth rate unacceptably high." The U.S. lags far behind other wealthy countries in reducing its stillbirth rate.Dr. Bob Silver, a leading stillbirth expert at the University of Utah Health, has spent decades working on stillbirth prevention. He is the co-director of the University of Utah Stillbirth Center of Excellence, which focuses on both prevention and compassionate care after a loss, and will lead the consortium's efforts in the state.There's no question that the ProPublica reporting was intimately tied to this," Silver said. You can't always draw a straight line between those things. But in this case, you can draw a very straight line."While some studies, including the NIH's Human Placenta Project, have indirectly contributed to stillbirth research, the consortium is the first stillbirth-specific initiative of this scale since the Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network more than a decade ago. Both Silver and Dr. Uma Reddy, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University, worked together on the research network and will again on the consortium.We need to be able to get our rates down to similar high-income countries," Reddy said. This initiative to really look at reducing the stillbirth rate and to look at preventing them is so important, and it's really about time."Dr. Karen Gibbins, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University, had just finished her morning clinic when she received the email a few days before the official announcement informing her that both she and OHSU had been selected as part of the consortium.Gibbins, whom ProPublica wrote about for advocating for more autopsies following the stillbirth of her son Sebastian, almost couldn't believe it. She logged on to a federal grant website to confirm, then she stepped outside her office and gave her division director a hug.Stillbirth is such a huge public health issue, and one that historically has not had as much attention," Gibbins said. The fact that we have this investment of centers that are going to be taking these different approaches to fight stillbirth and to prevent stillbirth, and also to provide better care to families who do experience stillbirth, it's a piece of hope that I think we all needed." Gibbins and her team specialize in studying the role of chronic stress, nutrition and heart health.The NIH has distributed the first year of funding, about $7.3 million, which includes $750,000 provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. Despite the cuts at NIH, officials said they are optimistic that they will be able to fund the project for the remaining four years.The reason that we are doing this is because stillbirth affects 1 in 160 deliveries in the United States a year, and it is really traumatic for families, and it is not talked about," Cernich said. We are in a great place to really try to tackle this preventable tragedy."

by Corey G. Johnson ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. Two major law firms accused the National Shooting Sports Foundation this week of violating the privacy rights of millions of gun owners by running a decades-long program that sent their information to political operatives without consent.The allegations in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court by Keller Rohrback of Seattle and Motley Rice of Connecticut closely mirror the findings of a ProPublica investigation that detailed the secret program operated by the gun industry's largest trade group.The 24-page complaint asks the court for approval of class-action status and requests financial damages against the NSSF, claiming the gun industry lobbyist enriched itself by exploiting valuable gun buyer information for political gain. It features the accounts of two gun owners, Daniel Cocanour and Dale Rimkus, both of whom assert they purchased rifles, pistols and handguns from the 1990s through the mid-2010s. ProPublica identified at least 10 gun industry businesses, including Glock, Smith & Wesson and Remington, that handed over hundreds of thousands of names and addresses, along with other private data, to the NSSF. The lobbying group then entered the details into what would become a massive database, which was used to rally gun owners' electoral support for the industry's preferred candidates running for the White House and Congress.The data initially came from decades of warranty cards filled out by customers and returned to gun manufacturers for rebates and repair or replacement programs. A ProPublica review of dozens of warranty cards from the 1970s through today found that some promised customers their information would be kept strictly confidential. Others said some information could be shared with third parties for marketing and sales. None of the cards informed buyers their details would be used by lobbyists and consultants to help win elections.Cocanour and Rimkus claimed to have regularly shared personal information when filling out warranty cards for Glock, Remington, Smith & Wesson and other manufacturers thinking it was in their best interest. They say they weren't told of the companies' participation in the NSSF program, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Connecticut.Through the complaint, two brave plaintiffs have stepped forward to vindicate the rights of millions of their fellow firearms purchasers," lead attorney Benjamin Gould of Keller Rohrback wrote in a statement to ProPublica. We look forward to gathering evidence to prove the truth of our allegations and holding NSSF accountable for its actions."Keller Rohrback has a specialty in cybersecurity and data breach cases. The firm recently won a landmark $725 million class-action settlement from Facebook after accusing the company of allowing political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to obtain user information without consent. Motley Rice is one of the nation's largest consumer protection law firms; its founder, Ron Motley, garnered fame for leading lawsuits against big tobacco companies during the 1990s.Representatives from gun violence prevention groups called the lawsuit a major development in trying to hold the gun industry responsible for the data sharing.This is a hideous breach of privacy by the gun industry," said Justin Wagner, senior director of investigations at Everytown for Gun Safety. The NSSF must come clean and face accountability."Founded in 1961 and currently based in Shelton, Connecticut, the NSSF represents thousands of firearms and ammunition manufacturers, distributors, retailers, publishers and shooting ranges. The trade group didn't respond to ProPublica's request for comment. The organization previously defended its data collection, saying its activities are, and always have been, entirely legal and within the terms and conditions of any individual manufacturer, company, data broker, or other entity."The NSSF has faced criticism in the aftermath of ProPublica's reporting. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, slammed the data sharing. And a prominent gun owner rights organization, Gun Owners for Safety, asked the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the NSSF. Gun Owners for Safety is operated by Giffords, which was co-founded by Gabby Giffords, the Arizona lawmaker who survived an attempted assassination in 2011, and it advocates for improved background checks and other measures aimed at reducing gun-related deaths. Chris Harris, a spokesperson for Giffords, said the FBI and ATF have not responded to the request for an inquiry into the NSSF.Privacy experts previously told ProPublica that companies that shared information with the NSSF may have violated federal and state prohibitions against deceptive and unfair business practices. Under federal law, companies must comply with their own privacy policies and be clear about how they will use consumers' information, privacy experts said.Shani Henry, a member of Gun Owners for Safety, said ProPublica's reporting showed the industry's hypocrisy on the issue of privacy.They don't care about our families' safety or the rights of everyday gun owners, they're more than happy to betray their own customers for political power and money," Henry said. Gun owners' privacy was violated and we deserve a full accounting of what happened and who profited from it."The gun industry launched the data-sharing project approximately 17 months before the 2000 election as it grappled with a cascade of financial, legal and political threats. Within three years, the NSSF's database - filled with warranty card information and supplemented with names from voter rolls and hunting licenses - contained at least 5.5 million people.Most of the companies named in the NSSF documents, including Glock and Smith & Wesson, previously declined to comment or did not respond to ProPublica. Remington has since been split into two companies and sold. RemArms, which owns the old firearms division, previously said it was unaware of the company's workings at the time. The other portion of the company is now owned by Remington Ammunition, which said it had not provided personal information to the NSSF or any of its vendors."In 2016, as part of a push to get Donald Trump elected president for the first time and to help Republicans keep control of the Senate, the NSSF worked with Cambridge Analytica to turbocharge the information it had on potential voters. Cambridge matched up the people in the database with 5,000 additional facts about them that it drew from other sources. Along with the potential voters' income, debts and religious affiliation, analysts collected information like whether they enjoyed the work of the painter Thomas Kinkade and whether the underwear women had purchased was plus size or petite.

by Margaret Coker, The Current This article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Current. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. Update, Sept. 24, 2025: This story has been updated to reflect that on Sept. 23, 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services extended the Georgia Pathways program through 2026. Most of the tax dollars used to launch and implement the nation's only Medicaid work requirement program have gone toward paying administrative costs rather than covering health care for Georgians, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan agency that monitors federal programs and spending.The government report examined administrative expenses for Georgia Pathways to Coverage, the state's experiment with work requirements. It follows previous reporting by The Current and ProPublica showing that the program has cost federal and state taxpayers more than $86.9 million while enrolling a tiny fraction of those eligible for free health care.The GAO analysis, which does not include all the Pathways administrative expenses detailed by the news outlets, shows that as of April the Georgia program had spent $54.2 million on administrative costs since 2021, compared to $26.1 million spent on health care costs. Nearly 90% of administrative expenditures came from the federal budget, the report concluded, meaning that Georgia's experiment is being funded by taxpayers around the country. Federal spending will likely increase given that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved $6 million more in administrative costs not reflected in this report because it was published before the state submitted invoices.The spending watchdog agency echoed its 2019 criticism of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a lack of oversight of administrative costs associated with state initiatives approved in the name of Medicaid reform.The September GAO report said the Medicaid agency never required Georgia to detail the costs of building and implementing the program. The federal approval process for states that want to experiment with their Medicaid systems does not take into account the extent to which demonstrations will increase administrative costs," the report said.Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, promoted Pathways as an example of how fellow conservatives around the country could overhaul federal safety net benefits and end reliance on what critics deride as handouts to low-income Americans. Congressional Republicans cited Pathways as a model for the federal Medicaid work requirement law passed in July that will take effect in 2027. The Georgia Pathways program was slated to expire Oct. 1, but the Trump administration on Tuesday approved an extension of the experiment through Dec. 31, 2026. The Georgia program was supposed to expand free health care to a group the state had previously deemed ineligible for Medicaid: adults under 65 years old who earn less than the federal poverty line of $15,650 a year. To qualify, Georgians had to prove that they work, study or volunteer at least 80 hours a month.But enrollment in Georgia Pathways has remained low. The most recent state data shows that 9,175 of the nearly quarter-million low-income Georgians eligible for the program were enrolled as of Aug. 31. Previous reporting by The Current and ProPublica revealed that was due to glitches in the digital platform people must use to enroll, chronic understaffing in the state agency charged with enrollment help and a maze of bureaucratic red tape.Georgia officials previously told The Current and ProPublica that Pathways was never designed to maximize enrollment. Carter Chapman, Kemp's spokesperson, said Monday that the Kemp administration remains committed to Pathways and making refinements to meet the health care needs of Georgians.In December Democratic senators critical of Medicaid work requirements, including Georgia's Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, had asked the GAO to report on the administrative costs of implementing Pathways and verifying that recipients are working, studying or volunteering.Administrative spending has outpaced spending for medical assistance (e.g., health care services)" for Georgia Pathways, the report said. This was likely driven by the up-front administrative changes needed to implement the demonstration, the delayed start date for enrollment, and any duplication in administrative spending due to the delay."Georgia officials told the GAO that the administrative costs associated with Pathways increased by 20% to 30% because of a two-year delay caused by legal battles with the Biden administration, which tried to end all Medicaid work requirement programs that had been approved before the Democratic president took office in 2021. State officials said the delay resulted in having to duplicate some spending, including IT system changes, staff training and other implementation costs, the report said. The report did not provide evidence to support the state's assertion.This report was requested by the same individuals who have no new or good ideas for addressing healthcare needs in Georgia," Chapman said in a statement. Now, as other states prepare to adopt our model and reject one-size-fits-none big government healthcare, Democrats like Senators Ossoff and Warnock are trying to rewrite history after four years of inaction and blame the State for costs associated with their own stonewalling."Warnock said the GAO's findings reinforce his opposition to the Trump administration's push to nationalize work requirements because of the amount of tax dollars going to expenses other than health care.Now the entire country can see what we in Georgia already know: Georgia's Medicaid work reporting requirement program is the real waste, fraud, and abuse," Warnock said in a statement. This report shows that Pathways is incredibly effective at barring working people from health coverage and making corporate consultants richer."Ossoff called Georgia Pathways a boondoggle that's wasted tens of millions on pricey consultants while Georgia hospitals struggle and Georgians get sick without health insurance."The GAO report does not include the $27 million that Deloitte Consulting earned to market Pathways or the approximately $10 million that went toward additional consulting, including by other firms, and legal fees related to the state's two-year court battle with the Biden administration.Deloitte did not respond to a request for comment. The firm previously declined to answer questions about its Georgia Pathways work, referring requests for information to the state's Department of Community Health. The agency did not respond to requests for comment but previously described Deloitte's marketing and outreach work as robust" and comprehensive."

by Jeremy Kohler ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. After a fight with a Black student in a St. Louis suburb left a white student badly injured in March 2024, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey blamed their school district for unsafe conditions, even though the incident occurred after classes and more than a half-mile from campus.Bailey seized on the fight as evidence of what he called the Hazelwood School District's misplaced priorities. He sent a letter to the superintendent demanding documents on the district's diversity policies and accused leaders of prioritizing race-based policies over basic student safety." Bailey argued that the district's dispute with local police departments over its requirement that officers participate in diversity training - an impasse that resulted in some departments leaving schools without resource officers - had left students vulnerable.In response, the school board's attorney said Bailey had misrepresented basic facts: The district employed dozens of security guards at schools where it could not assign resource officers, and even if it did have police officers stationed at the school, those officers would not have handled an after-hours, off-campus fight. Finally, police found no evidence that race played a role in the fight.The attorney general's office took no further action.He was just trying to get attention," said school board President Sylvester Taylor II.The legal skirmish was the kind of publicity-getting move that defined Bailey's two years and eight months as Missouri's attorney general before his surprise selection last month by President Donald Trump as a co-deputy director of the FBI, according to experts who study the work of attorneys general.As Missouri's top law enforcement officer, Bailey repeatedly waded into fights over diversity, gender, abortion and other hot-button issues, while casting conservatives and Christians as under siege by the woke" left.Bailey had pledged at the start of his tenure in early 2023 not to use the state's open public records law as an offensive tool" to demand bulk records from school districts in broad investigations - a tactic used by his predecessor, Eric Schmitt, now a U.S. senator. Still, he made frequent use of cease-and-desist letters, warning school districts that their diversity initiatives or handling of gender and sex-education issues violated the law. Some efforts, like his letter to the Hazelwood School District, amounted to little more than a press release. Others ended in defeat, with judges calling his arguments unpersuasive or absurd" or, in one case, dismissing them without comment. One lawsuit, against China, ended in a judgment against the country that experts said will likely never be enforced.Bailey, who was sworn in to the FBI position on Sept. 15, did not respond to messages left with the FBI's press office and with James Lawson, a longtime friend who managed his attorney general campaign and served in various roles on his staff.Bailey's actions as attorney general, according to legal observers, stood apart from the office's core, nonpolitical duties: defending the state against lawsuits and handling felony criminal appeals. That work, by most accounts, continued as usual.His Republican predecessors, Schmitt and, before him, Josh Hawley, also used the position to advance conservative causes, wage fights against progressive ones and raise their national profiles.During his stint as attorney general, Hawley - like Schmitt now in the U.S. Senate - delivered a speech in which he claimed the elimination of social stigmas to premarital sex and contraception during the 1960s had degraded the treatment of women and promoted sex trafficking. And he fought to uphold state restrictions that threatened to shut down Planned Parenthood clinics four years before Missouri's near-total abortion ban took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (Galen Bacharier/Springfield News-Leader/Imagn) Schmitt was named to succeed Hawley in November 2018. During his four years in office, he defended Christian prayer in public schools and sued several local school districts that had enforced mask requirements during the pandemic.In 2022, he joined a small group of conservative attorneys general in withdrawing from the National Association of Attorneys General, a bipartisan group that had long coordinated multistate investigations in cases against industries ranging from tobacco to opioids. In a letter posted to the social media platform now known as X, Schmitt joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen in arguing that NAAG had taken a sharp leftward shift" and that continued membership was intolerable. Neither Hawley nor Schmitt, through their spokespeople, responded to requests for comment.Chris Toth, the executive director of NAAG who retired from the organization weeks after the letter became public, said in an interview that the claims in the letter were completely unsupported by facts." Republicans, he added, were involved in every facet of the organization."The move reflected a broader shift in how many attorneys general now use their offices - not only to defend their states in court, but to score political points on the national stage. Few have embodied that strategy more than Paxton, who has often been described as focusing on culture war issues as attorney general.ProPublica and The Texas Tribune have reported how Paxton has transformed the attorney general's office into an agency that seems less focused on traditional duties like representing other state offices in court to one preoccupied with fighting culture wars. His office has increasingly used the state's powerful consumer protection laws to investigate organizations whose work conflicts with his political views. At the same, he's started increasingly outsourcing major cases to private law firms.Paxton's office has said most of the instances when it declined to represent a state agency were due to practical or legal limits - some agencies chose their own attorneys; others were barred by statute. He's also argued that certain cases would have required reversing earlier positions or advancing claims he viewed as unconstitutional. He's defended hiring outside law firms, saying his office lacks the resources to take on powerful industries like tech and pharmaceuticals. Paxton did not respond to a request for comment.Bailey, though far less prominent nationally, fit squarely within this mold. Before leaving for the FBI, he spoke openly about protecting Missourians from what he called woke" ideology and lawlessness from the left.A former U.S. Army officer, he has often framed his mission in combat terms. In a podcast interview this year, he said that while conservative states generally try to limit the power of their attorneys general to maximize freedom," blue states have weaponized their offices.I mean, Letitia James in New York has every weapon in her arsenal that her general assembly can give her," he said in the podcast interview. He said she uses them to mess with people's lives, to prosecute President Trump, take him to court in civil law to try to seize his assets and undervalue those assets."Missouri is uniquely positioned because we were so recently a blue state," he said, so it's like a retreating army has left the battlefield and dropped their weapons and we're picking them up and learning how to use them against them."A spokesperson for James' office said that any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American" and that it stood behind its litigation against Trump's business and would continue to stand up for New Yorkers' rights.Bailey said in the podcast interview that he supported all efforts to investigate President Joe Biden, his family and his administration, and to uncover what Bailey called the truth behind the COVID-19 vaccine, which he said seems to not be a vaccine at all."Bailey used his office to investigate the nonprofit media watchdog Media Matters for America after it reported that corporate ads were appearing next to extremist content on the social media platform X.Stephen Miller, a top aide to Trump in his first administration, posted that conservative state attorneys general should investigate; Bailey quickly responded that his team was looking into the matter." Weeks later, he issued a notice of pending investigation" to Media Matters and ordered it to preserve records. He later accused the group of using fraud to solicit donations from Missourians to bully advertisers out of pulling out of X, and demanded internal records and donor information under Missouri's consumer protection law. In a June 2024 interview with Donald Trump Jr., Bailey described the probe as a new front in the war against the First Amendment" and tied it directly to the 2024 election, accusing Media Matters of trying to silence conservative voices.Media Matters sued and a federal judge blocked the investigation as likely retaliatory. In early 2025, Bailey dropped the case in a settlement and said he had not found evidence of financial or other misconduct by Media Matters. The organization did not respond to a request for comment.When Trump was awaiting sentencing after being convicted in a New York court of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star, Bailey asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a gag order on the former president and delay his sentencing until after the 2024 election, arguing the restrictions kept Missouri voters from hearing Trump's message. The Supreme Court rejected his request in an unsigned one-page order without explanation. A New York judge later postponed the sentencing until after the election, writing that he wanted to avoid the appearance, however unwarranted, of political influence.Trump could have faced up to four years in prison, but a judge issued an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction in place but sparing him any penalty or fine. Trump said the conviction was a very terrible experience" and an embarrassment to New York. He is appealing.Bailey also fought to keep a woman in prison even after a state court judge declared her innocent. Even after the state Supreme Court ordered her release, Bailey's office told the prison warden to ignore the court's order. A state court overseeing the case scolded Bailey's office in a hearing, saying, I would suggest you never do that."Legal experts and other observers of the office said state attorneys general traditionally didn't act primarily as partisan warriors. Most were focused on defending the state in court and protecting consumers.Scott Holste, who served as a spokesperson for Jay Nixon, a moderate Democrat who served as the Missouri attorney general from 1993 to 2009, recalls a starkly different approach from Bailey's. For example, in late September 2008, the top headlines on Nixon's website focused on robocall rules, lawsuits over mortgage fraud and consumer tips for students.We were stridently apolitical in our news releases and in the way we operated," Holste said. Our job was to serve all Missourians, not to make political points."In the days before the August 2024 Republican primary, two of the three stories featured on Bailey's homepage targeted the Biden administration over immigration and protections for LGBTQ+ students. The third highlighted a consumer-fraud prosecution.To his supporters, Bailey is fulfilling campaign promises - a conservative acting like a conservative, said state Rep. Brian Seitz, a Republican from Branson.Voters see a leader defending their freedoms by fighting policies such as diversity and equity, which they often equate with racism, and mask mandates, which they view as government overreach, Seitz said. And," he added, we have a populist president who appreciates that."Toth, the retired head of the national AGs association, traced the shift in how state attorneys general act to the 1998 multistate settlement with the tobacco industry, when nearly every state joined a landmark deal that required cigarette makers to pay more than $200 billion, curb advertising aimed at children and fund anti-smoking campaigns. It also showed attorneys general how much power they could wield.Over time, the newfound power has raised the profile of attorney general offices across the country, turning them into a springboard for higher office. That higher profile has fueled politicization.Democratic attorneys general are no strangers to using their offices to fight political battles. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, for example, has filed numerous lawsuits challenging policies of the Trump administration on immigration, environmental regulations and federal funding. While Bonta maintained these suits were based on the law, critics characterized the coordinated legal action as politically motivated resistance.Dan Ponder, a political science professor at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, said that as the state has shifted to the right, the GOP primary, rather than the general election, is now the real contest for statewide office.He pointed to actions such as Schmitt opposing critical race theory and reviewing public school textbooks. That would have been unheard of 20 years ago," Ponder said, but now you can't lose because you're fighting the quote-unquote good fight."Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri, said that from the time of Bailey's appointment to the position in January 2023, he probably had only two audiences. The first were voters he needed to defeat Will Scharf, a candidate already in Trump's orbit, in the 2024 Republican primary for attorney general.And then once he secured his election, then I think his audience was really Trump," Squire said. Former Missouri Republican Party Chair John Hancock said voters seemed to reward Bailey's approach. Bailey got nearly as many votes as Trump and Gov. Mike Kehoe in the 2024 general election - and more than Hawley or any of the Republicans who won the offices of lieutenant governor, treasurer or secretary of state.So obviously the work he was doing in that office was supported," Hancock said. I don't take terrible shock when politicians do political things."Kehoe has appointed Catherine Hanaway, a former Missouri House speaker and U.S. attorney, to succeed Bailey as attorney general. Hanaway has said she intends to run the office in a different style. She told the Missouri Independent she had more interest in Medicaid fraud, consumer protection and violent crimes.Her office said she was not available for an interview with ProPublica.

by Eli Cahan for ProPublica ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. As the share of U.S. adults receiving mental health care treatment steadily grows, for-profit companies are playing an increasingly important role.More than 40% of inpatient mental health beds were operated by for-profit entities as of 2021, according to unpublished data from Morgan Shields, an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis who studies quality in behavioral health care. That's up from about 13% in 2010. (The number of mental health beds held relatively constant during that time.)Experts tie this growth to provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which made mental health care an essential health benefit that all insurance plans are required to cover.Before the law, millions of Americans lacked meaningful mental health care coverage by their insurers - if they had any coverage at all. That changed with the law's passage in 2010. Three years later, the Obama administration went further, issuing rules that require plans to pay more for mental health care, and to pay for it as long as patients need it. (Some plans had previously imposed hard caps on the number of days they would cover.)Wider access to and increased reimbursement of mental health services piqued the interest of for-profit corporations, said Eileen O'Grady, who until recently served as program director at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit organization that researches the industry.Investors in for-profit entities see that as an opportunity to make money," she said, in a space that had not historically been seen as super profitable."Shields and other researchers have repeatedly flagged concerns about lower quality of care at mental health facilities owned by for-profit corporations, in part due to efforts to cut staff and reduce costs. Companies have defended the quality of care they provide. ProPublica reported Monday that over 90 psychiatric hospitals across the country have violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act in the past 15 years. The vast majority of them - around 80% - are owned by for-profit corporations.Yet only a handful have faced any consequences from either the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, both of which are responsible for regulating the law. In the rare cases when hospitals have faced fines, the penalties have been trivial compared to the earnings of each for-profit hospital chain, the investigation found.According to ProPublica's analysis of CMS data, about half of all the hospitals cited were owned by just two corporations - Universal Health Services and Acadia Healthcare - which together operate hundreds of inpatient and outpatient behavioral health facilities, in addition to psychiatric hospitals. (UHS made nearly $16 billion in revenue last year, and Acadia collected more than $3 billion.)From 2010 through the second quarter of this year, 34 of UHS' psychiatric hospitals had been cited with EMTALA violations. Two, Brentwood Behavioral Healthcare of Mississippi and Three Rivers Behavioral Health in South Carolina, settled with the HHS inspector general for a total of $375,000.In its May 9 enforcement action against Brentwood, the inspector general of HHS found that, in June 2021, the hospital's interim CEO directed staff to refuse to accept seven patients from other facilities under the pretense that the facility did not have the capacity" to treat them. In each instance, however, Brentwood had the capacity," an inspector general press release accompanying the enforcement action said, but refused the transfer because the individual needing treatment was uninsured."UHS spokesperson Jane Crawford said the company has 134 facilities that are subject to EMTALA. While there have been isolated citations associated with technical EMTALA compliance over the 15-year time period in question at some of our facilities, over 75% of UHS Behavioral Health (BH) facilities did not have any EMTALA citations during this time period," Crawford said. As such, the narrative or belief that UHS' facilities as a whole do not comply with EMTALA or attempts to circumvent its requirements is inaccurate and incorrect."In a separate statement, she said the company's psychiatric hospitals do not select patients based upon insurance status or ability to pay. All UHS facilities are committed to complying with their EMTALA obligations as applicable and provide the requisite care and treatment to all patients who present to the facility regardless of ability to pay."As for what happened at Brentwood, Crawford said that the hospital inadvertently violated rules and regulations" due to poor internal communication and process failure in a one-month period of time." Brentwood promptly revised its practices to address any such future concerns and has not had any EMTALA related issues since that time," she added.On the events at Three Rivers, Crawford said that of the 11 patients that CMS said it denied to accept for transfer, citations related to 10 of them were ultimately rescinded as it was determined that EMTALA did not apply to those patients." She added that at no time did Three Rivers fail to respond or accept a fax request based upon any prospective patient's insurance status or ability to pay." CMS did not respond to requests to clarify whether the citations were rescinded, but they remain on its website.Inspectors have cited 12 Acadia hospitals for EMTALA violations since 2010. However, only one - Park Royal Hospital in Florida - has been fined by the inspector general; in 2019, the agency fined the hospital just over $52,000.Our goal is always to provide the best quality care to anyone seeking treatment at one of our facilities, and we take our compliance obligations very seriously," Acadia spokesperson Tim Blair said in an email. He did not respond to subsequent questions about quality of care at Park Royal.Dr. Jane Zhu, an associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, said decisions made by for-profit psychiatric hospitals may be driven by financial interests. Denying care to patients without insurance or with lower-paying forms of insurance can help increase profits, Zhu said.Those same financial incentives may drive for-profit hospitals to turn away more complicated patients - such as those who are aggressive or violent while in the throes of a mental health crisis, Zhu added. In these situations, hospitals can save on staffing and other costs if they admit healthier patients and avoid patients with the most severe psychiatric needs - a tactic she called cream-skimming."Both CMS and the HHS inspector general declined to comment on why psychiatric hospitals owned by for-profit corporations have so infrequently faced consequences for EMTALA violations.Federal law caps the amount that the HHS inspector general can fine for EMTALA violations, an agency spokesperson said. In 2024, that amount was about $66,000 per violation for hospitals with fewer than 100 beds, and $133,000 per violation for hospitals with more than 100 beds. (The figure increases annually for inflation.)Since 2010, in four of the five cases in which the agency settled with psychiatric hospitals for EMTALA violations, the amounts were well below the maximum allowable. The inspector general's office declined to comment why.Former staffers from both CMS and the inspector general's office said that the lack of consequences for EMTALA violations may be emboldening hospitals to turn away patients that could hurt their bottom line.There are a lot of CEOs who will take that risk - they say, Yeah, we know we dumped that patient,' or, They're not going to fine us anyhow,'" said a former CMS official focused on EMTALA who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing work in the industry.And even in the cases when facilities do face fines, the sums have been minimal compared to chains' bottom lines.Hospitals may see those small-dollar figures as just the cost of doing business," said a former senior official in the HHS inspector general's office who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of affecting future job opportunities. They weren't seen as a particular deterrent."U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said ProPublica's findings are cause for concern.In the face of a large mental health crisis, we should be doing more, not less, to ensure people have access to the care and treatment they need," he said in a statement.Medicate Him and Ship Him Out"Perimeter Healthcare is one such company whose growth came years after passage of the ACA. In September 2016, Perimeter - backed by $8 billion private equity firm Ridgemont Equity Partners - acquired another company and, with it, five residential treatment facilities and three psychiatric hospitals.By May 2019, Perimeter acquired its six and seventh hospitals. The hospitals' former parent company, SAS Healthcare, was indicted months earlier for violating the Texas mental health code. It later pleaded guilty to one count and paid a $200,000 fine; the county dropped the other charges.The hospitals in Dallas and Arlington aimed to serve as the gold standard for inpatient psychiatric care," Rod Laughlin, Perimeter's founder, said in a press release announcing the acquisition.But within years of Perimeter taking over, the Dallas hospital again was in the spotlight.In August 2023, CMS found that Perimeter Behavioral Hospital of Dallas violated EMTALA in four ways when staff refused to examine a patient who had tried to kill himself. (If that is the patient I am thinking of, he can't be here," a hospital staff member told a police officer at the time, according to CMS records. All we can do is medicate him and ship him out.") Under the law, hospitals are required to screen and stabilize all emergency patients before discharging them.And less than a year later, at the same hospital, staff pushed for another patient to be transferred elsewhere after he started flipping chairs.That led to a standoff between staff and police as the patient slammed against the walls, trying to escape.Legally we can't touch him because he is not our patient," a hospital staff member told an officer during the exchange, according to CMS records.With that, the officer called another officer, who asked hospital staff if there was a particular reason" they were refusing to admit the patient.This individual here is beyond our ability to treat" due to his extreme aggression," a staff member responded. We can't manage him."Under EMTALA since he is on your grounds EMTALA says you guys are responsible - so we are having a disagreement here," the second officer responded. I guess," the officer added, my next call is to CMS."It is not even necessary to call CMS," the hospital staff member said, but feel free to do that."Eventually, CMS was called. And some two weeks after the incident, the agency found that the hospital had violated EMTALA in three ways, including failing to provide even the most basic care through a medical examination of the patient - beyond just eyeballing him.When hospitals breach the law, they are required to send plans to CMS detailing how they will avoid violating EMTALA in the future. Plans of correction filed by Perimeter Behavioral Hospital of Dallas said the hospital would revise some of its materials, including training slides, a test, a self-attestation form used in staff training and a medical screening form for patients. Officials also said they would monitor compliance with the law by reviewing patient logs daily. But the hospital also noted multiple instances in which officials believed no changes were needed" to its policies.Beyond responding to CMS with these plans, the hospital did not face consequences from the agency, or from the HHS inspector general for either set of findings. The agencies have not responded to questions about the lack of follow-up in the Perimeter Dallas cases.Perimeter Healthcare and Ridgemont Equity Partners did not respond to requests for comment. Lately, lawmakers and regulators have expressed particular alarm about health facilities owned by private-equity companies - like Ridgemont Equity Partners - which typically take control of a business for a relatively short time, restructure it, and resell it at a profit.Data on for-profit health facilities, in general, shows worse results for both hospitals and nursing homes after they are acquired by private equity firms. A January report by HHS, before the end of the Biden administration, attributed quality differences in part to private-equity firms' tendency to dramatically reduce the operational costs" of health care facilities.Recent research demonstrates that private equity is playing an increasing role in psychiatric hospitals, and that has some federal officials worried. In January, the Senate Budget Committee released a bipartisan congressional staff report investigating private equity's growing presence in health care.Officials from the Healthcare Private Equity Association, the trade group that represents medical facilities owned by over 100 investment firms, did not respond to requests for comment.Instead of helping families, billionaire corporations are denying sick patients legally protected emergency care to turn healthy profits," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement to ProPublica.This unchecked corporate greed is leading to worse outcomes for patients," Merkley added, particularly those who struggle with mental health crises." This reporting was supported by the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at CUNY's Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation.

by Eli Cahan for ProPublica This article describes attempted suicide. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. Late one Saturday night in May 2023, Melissa Keele's phone rang. Her son had been found alone in the desert of Colorado's Grand Valley. He was naked; his clothes, phone, keys and car were nowhere to be found.Keele rushed out to her own vehicle and floored it, her headlights piercing through the pitch black. For years, her son had been dealing with severe mental illness. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he hit a breaking point and attempted suicide by driving off a cliff on the highway. God told him he needed to die," Keele recalled him telling her.Eventually, she picked him up - and he didn't look good. Fearing for his safety, Keele immediately took her then-21-year-old son to West Springs Hospital in Grand Junction. If you or someone you know needs help, here are a few resources:

by Hannah Allam ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. An Egyptian chaplain whose detention sparked a community uproar and became a test of counterterrorism powers in immigration court was released from an Ohio jail on Friday as the Department of Homeland Security abruptly withdrew its case against him.The outcome is a victory for 51-year-old Ayman Soliman, a popular Muslim cleric whose hundreds of supporters include families he counseled at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The DHS move to restore his asylum status and drop deportation efforts comes after court filings documented errors and inconsistencies in the government's evidence portraying him as a terrorist.Just before 1 p.m., Soliman walked out of Butler County Jail with a broad smile and a plastic bag containing his belongings, a moment filmed by his friends and advocates. He had been scheduled for an immigration trial next week and faced deportation to Egypt, which he fled in 2014 because of political persecution.This is beyond my dreams," Soliman told ProPublica in a call minutes after he was freed. I'm still overwhelmed by the surprise."Soliman's asylum status was reinstated and his application for a green card has been revived, said Robert Ratliff, one of his attorneys. Early Friday, Ratliff had filed documents showing wording discrepancies in what should have been identical asylum termination notices to Soliman. One version called him a member" of a terrorist group and the other accused him of providing illegal aid to a terrorist group. Soliman has denied both contentions.The filing on Friday documented the latest in a series of inconsistencies in the government's evidence, which ProPublica reported this month.From the beginning, everything was flawed," Ratliff said. This is certainly a victory for him, and it's huge. Unfortunately, he had to spend approximately 70 days in jail to get to this point." A DHS official said immigration authorities cannot discuss the details of individual immigration cases and adjudication decisions." But the official added, An alien - even with a pending application or lawful status - is not shielded from immigration enforcement action." The agency is responsible for administering America's lawful immigration system, ensuring the integrity of the immigration process."After leaving the jail, Soliman joined Friday communal prayers at a local mosque, where an imam welcomed his release as a godsend and celebrated his friend as a free man, as he always should be."Flanked by supporters at a news conference Friday evening, Soliman said he was still in disbelief that his day had begun in custody. He'd just come from a restaurant where he enjoyed salad and fruit and meat" after weeks of jail food. He said he was out of words" for the support system that sprang to his defense. He said he received 760 letters while in jail from people he'd never met.I'm free today because of this advocacy," Soliman said. Don't underestimate your voice." Ayman Soliman Is Free Soliman is greeted as he exits Butler County Jail in Ohio. (Courtesy of Ahmed Elkady) Watch video Soliman's ordeal, which spanned two administrations, is more complex than most targets of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.After fleeing persecution over his journalistic and protest activities in Egypt, Soliman had been granted asylum in 2018 under the first Trump administration. Then, in the last month of the presidency of Joe Biden, immigration authorities moved to revoke the status based on sharply disputed claims of fraud and aid to a terrorist group. Once Trump returned to office weeks later, court records show, immigration officials bumped up the terrorism claims and formalized the asylum termination on June 3.DHS had built the case on allegations that Soliman's involvement with an Islamic charity provided illegal aid, or material support," to the Muslim Brotherhood. But neither the charity nor the Brotherhood is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and an Egyptian court found no official ties between the groups.Material support laws ban almost any type of aid to U.S.-designated foreign terrorist groups. Prosecutors describe the laws as an invaluable tool against would-be attackers, but civil liberties groups have long complained of overreach.The Biden-era DHS, which first flagged the charity issue, said it would revoke Soliman's asylum if a preponderance of the evidence supports termination" after a hearing, according to the December 2024 notice. At the time, court records show, the material support allegation was listed as a secondary concern after more common asylum questions about the veracity of official documents and Soliman's claims of persecution in Egypt.Once Trump came to power weeks later, Soliman's attorneys said, the material support claims metastasized, with U.S. authorities declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a Tier III, or undesignated, terrorist group and adding new arguments about ties to Hamas. The Brotherhood, a nearly century-old Islamist political movement, renounced violence in the 1970s, though Hamas and other spinoffs are on the U.S. blacklist.Court filings show DHS attorneys introducing, then withdrawing or amending, materials to build a case linking Soliman to the Brotherhood through the charity. Almost immediately, the evidence began unraveling.Among the supporting documents filed by the government were three academic reports by scholars with deep knowledge of Islamic charities in Egypt. Soliman's legal team filed statements from all three balking at how DHS had cherry-picked their research. The scholars described important mistakes of fact and interpretation," a mischaracterization" and a dishonest manipulation of my text."Separate from U.S. attempts to tie Soliman to the Brotherhood was a puzzling footnote in which DHS attorneys alluded to warrants for murder and terrorism" in Iraq, a country Soliman has never visited. DHS acknowledged in court that the line had been an error - after it had been included in the government's successful argument for keeping him in custody.Legal scholars specializing in national security were monitoring the case as a gauge of how much power the Trump administration could wield at the intersection of counterterrorism and immigration.Ratliff said that the win was important but that he didn't think the outcome would deter DHS from invoking similar arguments in other immigration cases, especially involving cartels, which the Trump administration designated as terrorist organizations, unlocking material support powers.The connections in this case were always going to be too tenuous to withstand scrutiny," Ratliff said. I think, though, that this format is still the format we're going to see DHS take."Soliman's supporters - from religious leaders to university students to parents he met at the hospital - welcomed his release.I know tomorrow he'll get right back to the work he does, of caring for his community," said Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, one of the advocacy groups that pushed for his release.

by Renee Dudley ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. What HappenedThe Defense Department has tightened cybersecurity requirements for tech companies that sell cloud computing services to the Pentagon.The updates, issued this month, ban IT vendors from using China-based personnel to work on department computer systems and require companies to maintain a digital paper trail of maintenance performed by their foreign engineers. BackgroundThe changes follow a ProPublica investigation that exposed how Microsoft used China-based engineers to maintain government computer systems for nearly a decade - a practice that left some of the country's most sensitive data vulnerable to hacking from its leading cyber adversary.U.S.-based supervisors, known as digital escorts," were supposed to serve as a check on these foreign employees, but we found they often lacked the expertise needed to effectively supervise engineers with far more advanced technical skills. What They SaidThe Defense Department now says in its Security Requirements Guide" that only personnel from non-adversarial countries" may work on its cloud systems and that the escorts supervising those foreign workers must be technically qualified in the code/system or technology they are providing access to."In addition, cloud providers must maintain detailed audit logs, a digital trail of actions in computer systems. The logs must include identification of the escort and escorted," including country of origin, as well as details of commands executed and settings changed.Why It MattersUntil our reporting, top Pentagon officials said they had been unaware of Microsoft's digital escort system, which the company developed as a work-around to a Defense Department requirement that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.Cybersecurity and intelligence experts have told ProPublica that the arrangement poses major risks to national security, given that laws in China grant the country's officials broad authority to collect data. Leading members of Congress, in turn, have called on the Defense Department to strengthen its security requirements while blasting Microsoft for what some Republicans called a national betrayal."The Pentagon is now conducting an investigation into the digital escort program, with a focus on Microsoft's China-based engineers. ResponseFollowing ProPublica's reporting, Microsoft announced in July that it would stop using China-based engineers to service Defense Department cloud systems. In a statement for this article, a spokesperson said the company was committed to implementing the department's new requirements.Our commitment to national security is foundational, and we remain focused on providing the most secure services possible to the US government," the spokesperson said. We recently implemented changes to our Department support model, and will continue to work with our national security partners to evaluate and adjust our security protocols in light of the new directives." Doris Burke contributed research.

by Anna Clark ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. Just 15 months after receiving an award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for excellence in community water fluoridation, the city of Grayling, Michigan, changed course.With little notice or fanfare, council members voted unanimously in May to end Grayling's decadeslong treatment program. The city shut down the equipment used to deliver the drinking water additive less than two weeks later.Although it already paid for them, the town returned six unopened barrels of the fluoride treatment to the supplier.Personal choice was the issue, said City Manager Erich Podjaske. Why are we forcing something on residents and business owners, some of which don't want fluoride in their water?" he said. He saw arguments for and against treatment in his research, he said, and figured that those who want fluoride can still get it at the dentist or in their toothpaste.Drinking water fluoridation is widely heralded as a public health triumph, but it's had critics since it was pioneered 80 years ago in Grand Rapids, about 150 miles southwest of Grayling. While once largely on the fringes, fluoridation skeptics now hold sway in federal, state and local government, and their arguments have seeped into the mainstream.Even in the state where the treatment began, communities are backpedaling. And because customer notice requirements are patchy, people may not even know about it when their fluoridation stops.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has called fluoride industrial waste" and supports an end to community water fluoridation. The head of the Food and Drug Administration said on a newscast that the CDC's online description of water fluoridation as one of the greatest public health achievements is misinformation."The CDC, which is in the midst of a leadership exodus and staff revolt, and the Environmental Protection Agency are reviewing their respective approaches to fluoride in drinking water. At the same time, President Donald Trump's administration dismantled the CDC's Division of Oral Health, which, among other initiatives, provided research and technical assistance on fluoridation. That's the office that helped present awards for well-run programs like the one in Grayling. Since Kennedy was elevated to the nation's top health post, Utah and Florida became the first states to ban communities from adding fluoride to public drinking water. The Utah ban included measures to make prescription fluoride supplements more accessible - but now, the FDA is moving to remove certain types of those supplements for children from the market.Altogether, legislation was introduced this year in at least 21 states to prohibit or roll back provisions related to adding fluoride to public water systems, according to Abby Francl, policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. In addition, citing Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again" initiative, Oklahoma's governor issued an executive order instructing state agencies to cease promotion of fluoridation in the public water supply while it reviews the practice.Some local communities across the country opted to stop treatment this year, including at least four in Alabama, the state with the second-lowest number of dentists per resident. Others are debating it. On Michigan's east side, the medical director of St. Clair County's health department urged the agency to take steps to prohibit the addition of fluoride" to public water systems. Two Upper Peninsula cities with a shared water system had special council meetings this summer on fluoridation. In Hillsdale, the acting mayor has said that ending fluoridation is a top priority.I want to reform the water system now that we have RFK in Health and Human Services," Joshua Paladino told a local paper in November. Paladino added in an email to ProPublica that he sees public water fluoridation as an imprecise tool because it gives a standard dose across the population.According to Michigan's environmental agency, some communities had temporarily stopped fluoridation and were hesitant to restart because of uncertainty." That prompted it to issue a five-page statement with the state health department in March, stressing that the levels recommended for water suppliers - 0.7 milligrams per liter of water - have no adverse health effects and that fluoridation benefits everyone.Local anti-fluoride movements can be vocal and persistent, but do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the greater community," the statement said.Communities that end fluoridation will see more decaying teeth, according to Margherita Fontana, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. Young children, older adults, people with disabilities and people who are poor are especially at risk, she said, but everyone will be vulnerable. Excessive tooth decay in children can require treatment in hospitals, under anesthesia. In rare but extreme cases, it can lead to death.It's unfortunate, because we know how to prevent the disease," Fontana said. So it just seems like we're going backwards in time rather than forward."A handful of states require customer notification when fluoridation ends. New York mandates such notice, yet fluoridation in Buffalo lapsed for years before it was widely known. Outside Detroit, the city of Wyandotte suspended treatment about a decade ago, despite saying on its website until early this summer that it used fluoride. The claim was removed only after a local reporter raised the issue.Michigan doesn't have a statewide protocol for notifying residents when fluoridation stops. The environmental agency's spokesperson said in an email that while it strongly recommends that communities inform customers, it doesn't have the authority to compel them.Grayling's water operator, Josh Carlson, said a district engineer at the agency told him he just needed to tell the state if the town decided to stop fluoridating the water.It was almost like she was caught off guard that we actually did it," Carlson said. From Fringe to MainstreamWater fluoridation began in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan's second-largest city, as part of a planned trial intended to last 15 years. Muskegon, on the Lake Michigan shore, served as the control, meaning its water was not treated with a fluoride additive. An Illinois city with naturally occurring fluoride in its water was another point of comparison.Six years in, Muskegon officials withdrew from the trial after determining that the health benefits were so significant, they couldn't deny treatment any longer to Muskegon's children. Similar studies elsewhere continued for years, showing positive outcomes.It was very usual to have dentures at a very young age" at the time, Fontana said. Fluoride treatment was such a fantastic discovery, something so easy that nature already provided. It was already there. It was the greatest discovery, really, for oral health."Grand Rapids celebrates its role in public health history with plaques and a totemic sculpture. But the treatment has been criticized since the early days as, variously, a Communist plot, forced mass medication and an industrial byproduct that causes more harm than good. (Fluoride additives are commonly derived from the processing of phosphate fertilizer.)Even as fluoridation became widespread, opposition persisted. Today's critics note that fluoride is now available in toothpaste, as well as in ingestible drops and tablets like the ones for children that the FDA is working to remove from the marketplace. Dental care is also more accessible than it was in the 1940s. The need that fluoridated water was meant to address, critics say, isn't as urgent.While progress has made fluoridation's effects less dramatic, they're still significant. It was initially credited with a 65% reduction in tooth decay; now, it's about 25%. No other fluoride source compares to the cost-effectiveness of drinking water, proponents say, especially for those least able to access dental care, either because of cost or because they live in areas with a shortage of dental providers. Steel Water," a sculpture by artist Cyril Lixenberg, was erected in 2007 in Grand Rapids to celebrate the community's role in advancing water fluoridation. (Joel Seewald, HMdb.org) Community water fluoridation is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association and the American Medical Association. The CDC, at least for the moment, still recommends it.Advocates say that its benefits are so pervasive, they've become invisible to many.Known benefits that are not visible, they take it for granted, whereas unknown risks are what they are always worried about," said Jayanth Kumar, lead researcher on a systematic review of community water fluoridation and IQ. Florida didn't ban alcohol. Florida didn't ban cigarettes. But they banned fluoride."Critics say the National Toxicology Program's state of the science" report from last year shows an association between fluoridated drinking water and a lowered IQ in children. But that assessment - which is both contested and much-cited - involves fluoride levels that are more than twice what the federal government recommends for drinking water, and it's based on limited studies conducted outside the U.S., with different water conditions. A post made on Gov. Ron DeSantis' X account, celebrating Florida's ban on local governments adding fluoride to public drinking water, was sent to ProPublica in response to a query to the governor's office about the state's policy. (Obtained by ProPublica) Even the report's abstract says that more studies are needed to fully understand the potential for lower fluoride exposure to affect children's IQ."In a lawsuit brought against the EPA by groups opposed to water fluoridation, a district judge relied in part on the NTP analysis in ruling that fluoridation presents such an unreasonable risk" that the agency must take action. Even as it appeals the decision, the EPA said its review of new science on fluoride in drinking water is being done in coordination with Secretary Kennedy and HHS."The court ruling, the NTP report and the wavering stance of federal agencies have empowered a backlash to fluoridation in state and local governments.Stuart Cooper, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network, said he's seen momentum shift over the last two decades as his group sought to eliminate fluoride treatment, not least as a plaintiff in the EPA lawsuit. Kennedy has given a jolt to the movement, he said. Now, we have allies at every level."Legislators and city councilors are calling us instead of me having to do vice versa," he said.Tooth Decay and RegretsIn Grayling, questions about fluoridation were brewing for at least a year before the town changed course. Podjaske, the city manager, said he discussed it off and on with Carlson, the city's water operator. When it came time to reorder the fluoride additive, Podjaske wondered: Is this really necessary?Carlson asked the state's environmental agency about the protocol for discontinuing treatment and was told to keep the state posted. In April, Podjaske suggested adding the fluoridation question to the City Council's agenda. At the May meeting, the council voted 4-0 to end treatment.I figured the best option was don't push it on people,'' council member Jack Pettyjohn said about his vote. Don't force them to have it in their water."There wasn't any outreach to the public or health experts ahead of the vote. Meeting minutes say that Podjaske and Carlson discussed the removal of the fluoride additive after the water operator received additional education and training."But both men say that isn't right. Fluoridation was already on the agenda when Carlson attended a training that wasn't about the treatment, but where he had an informal conversation with an instructor that made him worry about fluoride's safety.The vote would've occurred even without Kennedy's activism, Podjaske and Pettyjohn said. Carlson, though, noted how Grayling's pivot played out in context of some of the new narratives coming out of Washington."There's a lot of mixed feelings about RFK Jr., but he seems to be anti-fluoride," Carlson said. I don't know if that's driving people's complaints about fluoride." With the proliferation of social media, he said, I could see that being a factor, in the fact there's more people with an opinion now."At the same time, he said, locals are more tuned in to water issues following the Flint water crisis and the contamination of waterways with PFAS chemicals linked to a nearby military base. PFAS are a group of forever chemicals" that can carry a cancer risk.Carlson said that in the occasional feedback he's gotten on fluoridation over the last couple of decades, the negatives were more than the positives in recent years."Following input from the state environmental agency, Grayling posted a notice about the change online in August, 10 weeks after treatment stopped. Some people didn't see it. Mary Bobenmoyer, owner and general manager of Our Town Coffee & Treats, didn't know until a reporter asked her about it in late August. They did it?" she said.Bobenmoyer spent seven years as a dental assistant. She encourages children especially to get fluoride treatment at the dentist. But, she said, I personally don't think it should be filtered in our water. We should have free and clear water."Over in Grand Rapids, there's sporadic pushback on fluoridation, said water system manager Wayne Jernberg. But he hasn't noticed any recent escalation. And he doesn't see why there would be.We rely on the science of us," Jernberg said. We've been adding it for 80 years, OK? And we don't see any issues in our community."Meanwhile, reports on dental health have caused some communities that dropped fluoridation to reconsider.In Canada, just across the river from Detroit, the City Council of Windsor, Ontario, voted to stop fluoridation in 2013 after lengthy public debate. Less than six years later, the county health agency reported troubling outcomes from oral health screenings at area schools. It found that the percentage of children with decay or requiring urgent care increased 51% in five years, while the percentage of children that didn't require any care decreased by 43%. The Windsor council soon decided to reintroduce water fluoridation, citing it as a key prevention strategy."In the province of Alberta, Calgary's council voted in 2011 to stop fluoridation in part because of community skepticism and because expensive repairs to the equipment were needed, according to Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra. But in time, researchers found that local children developed significantly more cavities than their peers in Edmonton, where water is fluoridated.We saved ourselves some money," said Carra. Fast-forward 10 years, and the results are clear that dental outcomes for Calgarians are worse after 10 years of not having fluoride in the water."When fluoridation was put on the ballot in 2021, 62% of voters supported its reintroduction. It took more than 28 million Canadian dollars and several years to start treatment again.But, Carra said, those costs - and the money to run the system - seem worthwhile. I'm just much more interested in doing as much good as I possibly can," Carra said.In Grayling, speaking more than two months after voting to end the treatment, Pettyjohn said he has an open mind about the future of fluoridation. I would totally look at readdressing it, especially if the people of Grayling really wanted us to," he said.For now, though, he said he's heard nothing negative from residents.

by Lauren McGaughy, The Texas Newsroom ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.*This article is co-published with The Texas Newsroom and The Texas Tribune. A group of state and national media organizations, including The Texas Newsroom, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, are arguing in court that records in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's divorce case should be made available to the public.The organizations filed their plea to intervene with the Collin County district court handling the Paxtons' case on Tuesday. The filing requests that the court reverse a July decision to seal the case records, arguing that both the attorney general and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, are elected officials subject to public scrutiny. The documents should be available for review and inspection" with limited exceptions, the media organizations said.The grounds alleged for divorce and the disposition of property are of substantial public interest because they bear on integrity in public office, potential use of public resources, and transparency in judicial proceedings," the media organizations argued.The organizations noted that family law cases across the country, including divorce proceedings, are presumed public and that the couple's political positions in Texas and Paxton's decision in April to run for U.S. Senate add to the public interest.Paxton served more than a decade in the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate before his election as state attorney general in 2014. Angela Paxton was first elected to the state Senate in 2018.Where, as here, the parties are not private citizens but elected constitutional officers, the need for transparency is heightened, not diminished," the filing read. Allegations that might suggest abuse of marital assets, concealment of financial information, or personal conduct inconsistent with public responsibility are not merely private - they are of public consequence."The eight organizations that signed on to the filing are Dow Jones & Co. (publisher of The Wall Street Journal), The Washington Post, Hearst Newspapers (which owns the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News), ProPublica, The Texas Lawbook, the Texas Observer, The Texas Tribune and The Texas Newsroom. Angela Paxton filed for divorce in July, accusing her husband of adultery. Soon after, she requested all records in the case be placed under seal, arguing that doing so would not have an adverse affect on the public health or safety."Judge Ray Wheless granted her request in mid-July. He then recused himself. It's not clear why, but Wheless and his wife, also a district court judge in Collin County, have donated to the Paxtons' campaigns in the past.The current judge listed online as presiding over the case is Lindsey Wynne.After news of the divorce went public, Ken Paxton posted on the social media site X that he and his wife decided to start a new chapter in our lives." He attributed the divorce to the work of political enemies. In court, his attorney filed a brief general denial of Angela Paxton's divorce petition.In their filing calling for the records to be unsealed, the media organizations note that Paxton has been accused of impropriety at least six times while in elected office, including fraud, abuse of office and self-dealing.In one of the most serious cases, he was charged with multiple felonies in 2015 for allegedly encouraging investors to buy into a McKinney, Texas, tech firm without telling them that he had a financial interest in the company and also failing to register with the state before soliciting clients for a friend's investment firm. After years in court, Paxton cut a deal to do community service in lieu of facing trial. He did not admit guilt in this case and has not been convicted of a crime.Then in 2023, the Texas House impeached him for alleged official misconduct, some of it related to accusations that he swapped political favors with a campaign donor in exchange for a job for the woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair. Paxton called it a political witch hunt and denied that he broke the law.After a trial, the Texas Senate acquitted him and he was reinstated to office.These sustained, serious, and high-profile matters raise questions about AG Paxton's conduct in public office and his fidelity to the law," the organizations argued.The couple's assets, which were scrutinized during the impeachment process, will be a subject of the divorce case.The Paxtons have purchased multiple homes and parcels of land in several states but failed for years to disclose them on state ethics filings.This summer, after The Texas Newsroom revealed the lack of disclosure, the couple listed more information about the property acquisitions on their annual financial statements. In a note on the documents, Paxton said he believes the disclosure rules are murky and contradictory and that he was only disclosing properties that continue to have bank notes serviced by the filer and/or the filer's spouse."Angela Paxton has asked for a disproportionate share" of the couple's assets in her initial divorce filing, which The Texas Newsroom obtained prior to the records being sealed. She wanted sole use of their McKinney home while the case is pending as well exclusive access to her business account.She also wants Ken Paxton to admit fault in the breakup of the marriage.A lawyer for Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the media organizations' request. A spokesperson for Angela Paxton declined to comment. Update, Sept. 17, 2025: This story has been updated to add a response from Angela Paxton's spokesperson. Lauren McGaughy is a journalist with The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration among NPR and the public radio stations in Texas. She is based at KUT in Austin. Reach her at lmcgaughy@kut.org.

by Taylor Kate Brown for ProPublica ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. Before and after the 2024 election, Elon Musk made it clear he disliked environmental regulations and considered them a barrier to innovation, especially given the quick timelines his companies prefer to operate on.The billionaire spent more than $250 million to help elect President Donald Trump and, in the first months of Trump's second term, Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency, making cuts to the federal bureaucracy and regulatory staff, including environmental agencies, before a dramatic falling out with the president.Musk-controlled companies have also developed influence in Texas, a state already known for a lighter touch on environmental regulation. In addition to his lobbyists' successful track record in the Texas Legislature, Gov. Greg Abbott cited Musk as inspiration for the state creating its own DOGE-style office.A new investigation from ProPublica, the Texas Newsroom, the Houston Chronicle and the Texas Tribune has found Musk and a Houston-area member of Congress have pushed Texas and local officials to hire Musk's Boring Co. for a $760 million flood control project in the city. Reporters Lauren McGaughy and Yilun Cheng found that Rep. Wesley Hunt helped pitch Boring's involvement even though the company builds tunnels narrower than the ones extensively studied by flood control experts for the project. An engineering expert warned that the volume of the tunnels the company is proposing may not be sufficient during a flood emergency. Another said that the proposed tunnels, which would be built at shallow depths, could interfere with existing utility lines and bridge foundations.Boring has described its project in pitches to lawmakers as an innovative and cost-effective solution." But experts and some local officials question whether Boring should be awarded the contract. One Democratic county commissioner told the newsrooms that Musk shouldn't be involved in the Houston project, arguing he has shown blatant disregard for democratic institutions and environmental protections."Hunt, Musk and representatives from Boring did not respond to the newsrooms' request for comment before publication of the Aug. 28 story. After publication, Hunt and Musk defended the project on X, the social media platform that Musk owns. Musk claimed that the tunnels would cost less than alternatives and that additional tunnels could increase flow, but he provided no further details.Officials in Houston haven't decided on a contractor for the tunneling project yet, and it remains to be seen which environmental regulations will come into play.In the past, Boring has found ways to navigate around environmental rules. A Boring tunnel project in Las Vegas has skirted environmental, building and labor regulations, a previous ProPublica and City Cast Las Vegas investigation found.Other Musk-owned companies have faced similar criticism. Over the past year, environmental groups have also raised concerns about an xAI supercomputing facility in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment.Adam Kron, a senior attorney at the environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, said any company ignoring or avoiding regulations entirely reminds him of the fracking boom in the early 2010s, when companies moved quickly to drill, poisoning some local communities' groundwater in the process. There is a gold rush mentality of getting out there [first] and paying the fine later, once you can prove it," Kron said. When you have that kind of culture, you do see more of the notorious attempts to not seek the correct permits or not comply with the standards."Here's what to know about Boring and other Musk-affiliated companies' history of bumping up against environmental regulations. Boring Co.'s Las Vegas Convention Center Loop Station, where visitors can ride electric vehicles through a 1.7-mile tunnel system connecting the convention center to nearby areas of the city. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images) Boring Co.In Las Vegas, a previous ProPublica investigation found Boring was able to skirt building, environmental and labor regulations by structuring a transportation project as a completely private venture and leaning on its local connections.Boring is constructing a planned 68-mile tunnel system beneath Las Vegas where Teslas ferry passengers underneath the city's urban core. The project avoided lengthy reviews by building its first section near the convention center under the auspices of the tourism authority. Since then, Boring has received county approval for dozens of more miles of tunnels under obscure holding company names.Since Boring's Las Vegas project began, it has been cited or fined for wastewater violations. It also paid retroactive fees for permits after being caught tunneling without them, reporters Daniel Rothberg and Dayvid Figler found. Workers for the company have filed complaints with the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration about ankle-deep" water in the tunnels, muck spills and severe chemical burns. Nevada OSHA fined the company more than $112,000, after an investigation in 2023, but Boring has disputed the regulator's allegations and contested the violations.Boring had already been hit with multiple violations over its management of industrial wastewater at its headquarters in Bastrop, Texas, by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The company, while generally denying the allegations, was eventually fined more than $9,000 and required to make changes at the site, according to a TCEQ spokesperson. In 2023, the company applied for a permit to dump more than 100,000 gallons per day of industrial wastewater from Boring and SpaceX into a nearby river, but it was met with local resistance. A year later, Boring agreed to transfer wastewater to a new city treatment plant, expected to open in early 2026.Boring did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment.xAIIn June 2024, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce announced xAI, Musk's artificial intelligence company, was setting up a data center at a former manufacturing site in the southern part of the city. That came as a surprise to some members of the City Council, one of whom told NPR she first heard about it on the local evening news.Within a few months, Musk said the data center, dubbed Colossus, was online. The facility primarily powers the company's chatbot and generative image maker, Grok, which is integrated into X.The electricity needed for the computing power was double what the local utility could immediately provide, so xAI used methane gas generators to bring the data center online, burning fossil fuels without a permit or pollution control technologies for nearly a year.It's an actual gas plant in the middle of a neighborhood, and you don't need any permitting?" Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson, who lives 3 miles from the data center, told CNN in May. Something has failed drastically and significantly with our system of checks and balances."In January, amid wider community push back, xAI applied for a permit for 15 generators on site. Opponents have aerial imagery they say shows more than 30 generators appearing to be operational on site as late as April. Company officials have said they wouldn't install pollution controls on any of the turbines until the permit was approved, which happened in early July.The company maintained permits weren't necessary to start because of an exemption for generators on site for less than a year, a rationale Shelby County's Health Department agreed with. Wendi C. Thomas recently reported for ProPublica and MLK50: Justice Through Journalism on how the city's Chamber of Commerce went to unusual lengths to promote xAI. Memphis' mayor has backed and defended the project, saying the city will address pollution concerns with independent environmental consultants" and community benefit policies." Tennessee's governor has touted the opportunities the facility will bring to the city. The EPA was beginning to look into whether the exemption applied to xAI in October of last year; new EPA head Lee Zeldin recently met with the company.Community members packed an April hearing on the permits, and state representatives for the area have questioned the mayor's trust in xAI, especially as the company plans to set up a second data center in Memphis.Environmental advocates have said that xAI needed permits because of the size of the generators and the scope of the pollution. In early April, the Southern Environmental Law Center estimated the turbines could produce, in a year, between 1,200 and 2,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, a smog-forming pollution associated with poor respiratory health in nearby areas, as well as the carcinogen formaldehyde.The company's generators are only a few miles from a historically Black neighborhood already considered a toxic air pollution hot spot because of more than a dozen polluting facilities nearby, including a steel plant, a refinery and power plant. The county has seen consistently low air quality and the highest rate of ER admission for asthma attacks in Tennessee. ProPublica's air toxics map showed a cancer risk hot spot four times the national average nearby before xAI moved in.Regulations and permitting are in place because unchecked pollution can have wide-ranging impacts on a nearby community, regardless of industry, said Jennifer Duggan, executive director at the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog nonprofit. The environmental laws on the books are designed to protect public health and our natural resources. If there is no enforcement, when there are violations of those laws, then there is no protection from industrial pollution for those communities."While the impact to a community depends on the industry in question, as well as length and seriousness of the pollution, Duggan said, it can mean increased risk of premature mortality, higher health care costs, lost school days, lost productivity for workers, birth defects and even psychological trauma.Permits generally require facilities to operate safely and install pollution controls, Duggan said. If those controls are not installed - or turned off - then you've got more pollution in the air than the law allows," which puts people at risk.The company did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment. A SpaceX Starship is being prepared for a flight test on March 3, 2025. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) SpaceXWhile SpaceX regularly launches its Falcon rockets to deliver satellites and astronauts into orbit, Musk's ultimate goal for the company is much further afield. Starship, SpaceX's giant combined reusable rocket and launch vehicle, is supposed to eventually help deliver humans and cargo to Mars, and it's currently part of NASA's effort to return astronauts to the moon.But the program has already run into issues here on Earth, including violations of clean water regulations during launch tests and a cross-border investigation into falling debris.Starship's launch pad is along the Texas coastline, less than 5 miles from the Mexico border, surrounded by a state park and a national wildlife refuge established to protect the biodiversity of the lower Rio Grande River. Among the animals in this refuge are fragile shorebird populations. When asked about Starship tests in 2018, Musk said at the Texas site we've got a lot of land with nobody around, and so if it blows up, it's cool," a comment that angered the residents of a nearby village.The first Starship launch vaporized part of the launch site and threw debris as far as 6 miles. Then the EPA and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said Starship launches in 2023 and 2024 violated the Clean Water Act for discharging untreated industrial wastewater. SpaceX applied for a wastewater permit in July 2024 and later said it fundamentally" disagreed with the allegations from regulators but settled for about $150,000 to focus our energy on completing the missions." In February of this year, state regulators granted SpaceX a permit.Starship's fast-moving schedule has suffered setbacks this year, with explosions during three launches or tests so far. Mexico has threatened to sue over debris and potential environmental contamination crossing over the border. SpaceX said in response there were no hazards to the surrounding area."But the Federal Aviation Administration recently approved SpaceX for up to 25 Starship launches a year, and the Trump administration has signed an executive order announcing attempts to eliminate or expedite" environmental review of rocket launches by the FAA, ProPublica's Heather Vogell and Topher Sanders reported.SpaceX did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment.TeslaWhile the popularity of electric vehicles like Tesla in California has led to a notable decline in carbon pollution from cars there, the company's factory in the state has been repeatedly admonished for releasing toxic air pollution and other toxic chemicals into the surrounding community. Tesla's Bay Area facility has received more air quality warnings in the past five years than all other companies in California, save one: a Chevron refinery, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.By 2022, the company had been fined by both the local air quality district over health concerns and the EPA for breaking federal air quality laws. In June 2024, the district ordered Tesla to correct ongoing violations of toxic air pollution coming from the factory's paint shops, allegations the company denied. The company is currently in the process of implementing an abatement plan, according to a spokesperson for the Bay Area Air District.Separately, dozens of California counties sued Tesla in 2024 over claims of illegally dumping hazardous waste produced at its facility and local service centers. The company settled the lawsuit for $1.5 million, not admitting to wrongdoing but agreeing to five years of mandatory training and independent waste audits.Musk had already moved Tesla's headquarters to Texas in 2021, in part over complaints about California regulatory culture. But, as the Journal reported in November 2024, Texas regulators have also cited the company for actions at Tesla's giant Gigafactory just outside of Austin, including for dumping untreated wastewater, releasing pollution in excess of its permit and then not reporting it.A former Texas employee sent a whistleblower memo to the EPA in 2024 accusing the company of asking staff to lie to government regulators, the Journal reported, including creating an elaborate ruse" during an inspection to make sure a troubled furnace passed an emissions test. Both the EPA and Texas environmental regulators opened a preliminary inquiry" related to the memo in November 2024, according to the Journal. The EPA did not respond to ProPublica's question about the status of the inquiry and pointed us to the TCEQ. A TCEQ spokesperson said it could not comment to support the integrity of all criminal investigations conducted by TCEQ."Tesla did not respond to the Journal's request for comment. But a day after the story was published, Musk reposted an X user who mentioned the Journal story, adding the message: Legacy media is a sewage pipe of lies."Tesla did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment.The people affected by environmental violations are not just the nearby community, Duggan said, but the workers at polluting facilities as well. They are really on the front line in certain industries," she said.

by Max Blau ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. The H-2A visa program has long been touted as a way to ensure that farmers can access enough workers without hiring people who are undocumented. But for some migrant farmworkers seeking better-paying jobs in America, their seasonal gigs have morphed into a nightmare.As a recent ProPublica story revealed, the promises of the H-2A visa program can be undermined by extreme abuses the workers suffer, mostly by labor contractors. Some workers have had their wages stolen and been threatened with deportation if they complain about unsafe work conditions, a federal investigation found. In the worst instances, others have been assaulted or raped or have even died. It's gotten so bad that, in one of the largest H-2A criminal cases ever, a federal judge described the abuse of these workers as a form of modern-day slavery. And without further changes to the H-2A program, experts told ProPublica, foreign farmworkers may continue to be harmed.With the U.S. facing a drastic shortage of domestic farmworkers and as the Trump administration deports more undocumented immigrants, experts told ProPublica that H-2A visas are certain to remain in high demand. One agricultural economist forecasts that, by 2030, there could be a need for up to 500,000 H-2A workers - roughly triple the number requested in 2016, the year that President Donald Trump was first elected.Experts, lawyers and advocates told ProPublica that, unless more is done to protect workers, the instances of abuse and exploitation are likely to increase as well. They suggested a variety of ways to make the H-2A program safer and more humane. 1. Enforce the current rules better The H-2A program is supposed to provide fair wages, safe working conditions and free housing and transportation to workers. But experts said insufficient oversight has undermined the protections promised to visa holders.The expectations are very clear," said Cesar Escalante, a University of Georgia professor of agricultural and applied economics. Even if we're very clear on the regulations, the government has failed on the enforcement."The U.S. Department of Labor each year investigates only a tiny fraction of farm employers. The number of investigations is scarce not because of a lack of potential violations. A report from the Government Accountability Office showed that 84% of the investigations conducted by federal regulators found at least one violation of rules designed to protect H-2A workers. Advocates see that high violation rate as an indication that regulators are missing even more abuses in the fields.Labor experts believe that the limited enforcement is largely due to limited resources. One of the main enforcers of H-2A rules, the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division, last year had one of the lowest levels of investigators since the H-2A program was launched in the 1980s, Rutgers University researchers found. Daniel Costa, an attorney and director of immigration with the think tank the Economic Policy Institute, has called on Congress to boost the division's funding to allow its regulators to conduct more proactive investigations. Short of that, Costa warned, the H-2A program will continue to be a breeding ground for abuses."If the Trump administration's proposed budget gets approved, it will make even further cuts to the Wage and Hour Division. That could mean fewer H-2A investigations moving forward.A Labor Department spokesperson did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment about its enforcement practices and the implications of the budget proposal. 2. Raise the stakes for farmers There have been calls not just to hold farmers more accountable for H-2A violations, but also to reward the ones who comply with labor laws.Advocacy groups like Centro de los Derechos del Migrante and United Farm Workers have called on farmers to be held liable for the illegal practices of the third-party recruiters they hire. Right now, there's a bill proposed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers that would require farmers to stop working with recruiters who charged laborers an illegal fee to obtain an H-2A visa. And it would give regulators the ability to fine farmers for failing to do so.Since only a tiny fraction of employers who hire H-2A workers face severe consequences, human rights organizations also have urged regulators to suspend or ban more employers from the H-2A program. They say that's particularly important for employers with a track record of violating workers' rights.Philip Martin, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis, believes that farmers should be rewarded for following the rules. He said the largest employers of H-2A workers generally are not the ones responsible for the worst violations. He thinks that regulators should create a TSA PreCheck-style program that would let law-abiding employers move through the process of getting approved for H-2A workers more quickly with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. And it could allow overworked regulators to focus on the most pressing problems. 3. Get corporations on board with stopping abuse There's a growing movement centered on the idea that the power of consumers can be leveraged to end agricultural abuses.After years of demanding better pay and protections from individual farmers and buyers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers - the anti-trafficking organization that uncovered the first examples of abuse in the massive federal case - launched the Fair Food Program in 2010. Under the program, corporate buyers such as supermarkets and fast-food chains sign legally binding agreements to buy ethically sourced crops.Participating buyers agree to purchase produce from farms that adhere to the program's stringent set of protections for workers, let workers be informed about their rights by the CIW and allow independent auditors to investigate complaints from their fields. The buyers also agree to pay those growers a small premium that is passed down to their workers. If extreme abuses like forced labor are found on those farms, the buyers commit to suspending produce orders until the issues are addressed.Some of America's largest supermarkets (Walmart, Whole Foods) and fast-food chains (McDonald's, Burger King) participate in the Fair Food Program. The corporations' participation was originally limited to a select set of crops, such as tomatoes. Some of their commitments since have grown to include more crops. Other big buyers, like Kroger, Publix and Wendy's, have not participated in the program. Spokespeople for the companies did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment. Buyers who have not participated in the program have stated that it is the responsibility of their suppliers to ensure that workers are treated fairly.The Fair Food Program has protected the rights of thousands of H-2A workers each year, according to the independent auditors, but that's still less than a tenth of the more than 300,000 H-2A workers in the U.S. According to the CIW, the more buyers and growers embrace the program, the more likely it is that abuses of H-2A workers can be prevented.Susan Marquis, a professor with Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs, said the other ideas proposed by experts can help reduce the harms faced in the fields. But they don't go as far as the Fair Food Program in stopping the kinds of violations that routinely happen in the H-2A program.It's very clear, supported by the data, that nothing works to end forced labor except the Fair Food Program or some other variation of worker-driven social responsibility," Marquis said.

by Jacob Orledge, North Dakota Monitor This article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network in partnership with the North Dakota Monitor. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. For years, North Dakota's mineral owners have said state officials have ignored their pleas for help as companies deduct money from their share of income from oil and gas production.Now, some state lawmakers agree they need to take action. Responding to a recent North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica investigation, more than a half-dozen said a committee should study the issue and propose solutions before the next legislative session in 2027. Others suggested changes to state law, including one proposal to prohibit deductions unless a lease specifically allows them and another that would require companies and royalty owners to renegotiate their contracts every few decades.The Legislature meets every other year. North Dakota lawmakers rejected proposals to protect private mineral owners in 2021 and 2023, and did not address the issue during this year's session.It will definitely come up in 2027," said Sen. Chuck Walen, a Republican from New Town. I don't know what the outcome will be, but it will definitely be coming up."North Dakota officials have taken steps to safeguard state-owned royalties. Since 1979, all state leases with oil and gas companies prohibit deductions. But that protection does not extend to leases that are negotiated by North Dakota's estimated 300,000 private mineral owners.I definitely think something has to be done, especially since the state has protected itself," said Rep. Patrick Hatlestad, a Republican from Williston. I think it needs to do something similar for its citizens."Some lawmakers also have suggested they may need to make changes to the state's postproduction royalty oversight program, created in 2023 to address minerals owners' mounting frustration about postproduction deductions - the money companies withhold to cover the costs of processing and transporting minerals after they are extracted and before they are sold. That program has not alleviated concerns over postproduction deductions and, as of August, had not resolved any cases about that issue, the news organizations found.Why It MattersMineral owners have the rights to oil and gas found underground. They can lease those rights to companies in exchange for a cut of the revenue when oil is produced, called a royalty.But while the leases have remained the same for decades, the industry has changed. Oil and gas are now sold farther from the well, and companies incur more transportation and other costs to get the products to the point of sale. The companies pass on a portion of those costs to mineral owners, which North Dakota courts have determined is usually legal unless a lease says otherwise.Most leases signed decades ago don't explicitly mention postproduction deductions, and leases don't expire unless oil production lapses.Deductions began surging in North Dakota about a decade ago. About 20% of royalties are deducted, on average, according to two estimates as well as interviews with royalty owners. That would have amounted to about $1 billion in 2023.Estimates provided by the North Dakota Petroleum Council suggest companies withhold at least hundreds of millions of dollars in North Dakota every year.Why Some Lawmakers Are Pushing for ChangeSeveral lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Don Longmuir, said that because the state's legislative season is a relatively short 80 days, it's important to have an interim legislative committee conduct a study and propose a solution ahead of the 2027 session.We can't wait until the session starts," said Longmuir, of Stanley, in the oil-producing region of the state. That's something that you know really needs to happen before session starts, so that maybe they can come up with something."Assigning a new study to an interim committee would require a directive from Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, chair of the Legislative Management Committee. Hogue, a Republican from Minot, said he would consider it" and will likely make a decision in the next month or two. I really need to do more self-education right now," Hogue said. The recent series has raised awareness that there is an issue out there," he said.Sen. Dale Patten, who has served as chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and would likely have influence over any legislation, said he is open to a formal legislative study but said it should be initiated only with input from the full Legislature.I would be comfortable with taking a look at it and see if there's a way to resolve it," said Patten, a Republican from Watford City.Some lawmakers are already thinking about ways to address the issue in the next session.One lawmaker said he may introduce legislation that would limit the length of leases to 30 years. Republican Sen. Jeff Magrum, who represents Hazelton and has supported landowners on other issues, said he hopes limiting leases will give future generations of mineral owners the opportunity to renegotiate contracts and incentivize companies to be more mindful of how they treat North Dakotans.I don't think that's right for someone that's not even born yet to have to honor a contract that I signed today. It's just not fair to them," Magrum said. Look at how times have changed. Everything's changed and they're stuck in the contract that was written in the 1950s."Magrum has introduced 13 bills related to property rights issues in the past two legislative sessions. All but one failed.Rep. David Richter, a Republican from Williston, said he thinks it would be difficult for the Legislature to modify existing leases in that way, but it could limit the length of future leases.Going forward, I think that might be an option worth taking a really hard look at," Richter said. But that doesn't do anything to alleviate the situation of the leases that are already in place."For those existing leases, Richter said it is often unclear" whether deductions are permitted, and some lawmakers said they should pass a state law to address the issue.Richter said he prefers that companies and mineral owners renegotiate the contracts to specify whether deductions are permitted. But if that doesn't happen, he said he is open to legislation that would clarify" how leases that don't mention deductions should be interpreted by the courts.Senate Minority Leader Kathy Hogan, a Democrat from Fargo, said lawmakers should pass a law stating that companies can't take postproduction deductions unless leases explicitly allow them to do so. Sen. Brad Bekkedahl, a Republican from Williston who supports oil development but who also has tried to help mineral owners, proposed such a measure in 2021.We could write legislation clarifying this easily," Hogan said. But we've never been able to get it done."Industry, State Officials RespondRon Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, an organization that lobbies on behalf of more than 550 oil and gas companies, said many of the proposals would be a substantial infringement" on mineral owners' property rights.We believe direct state involvement/interference in the contractual agreements of hundreds of thousands of private mineral leases is the wrong approach," Ness wrote in an email. Suggested actions like this would have a detrimental impact on mineral development in North Dakota."Gov. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican who worked for his family's privately owned oil company earlier in his career, did not respond to a request for comment for this article.But during an Aug. 18 appearance on a KFGO radio program, the governor said he was open to making tweaks to the royalty oversight program. The program was created by legislators in 2023 and was envisioned as a way to mediate disputes about deductions between mineral owners and companies, but that hasn't happened.If this one isn't working, we should find out why not and figure out if we can tweak it and make it better," Armstrong said.Some lawmakers said they don't see a need to take any action.Sen. Kent Weston, a Republican from Sarles, said he's discussed the issue with colleagues in the Legislature and North Dakota Petroleum Council staff in recent weeks. He said the status quo is fair" and necessary to ensure the oil and gas industry continues to invest in the state.House Majority Leader Mike Lefor and Rep. Todd Porter, the longtime chair of the committee overseeing the energy industry in the House, could not be reached for comment.

by Mario Ariza ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. Last October, Peter and Linda Kilfoil returned from an overnight trip and found water pooling in the kitchen of their Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home. The pair couldn't pinpoint the source of the leak and had a hard time getting a plumber. So Linda Kilfoil called their insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp.The call was the beginning of the Kilfoils' journey through an alternate legal universe set up by Citizens, a quasi-governmental insurer in Florida, to reduce its staggering legal costs. In this state-sanctioned world, the judges' salaries are funded by Citizens, the rules followed in Florida's circuit courts don't all apply and the insurance company almost always triumphs.It's a legal landscape so fraught that a Tampa judge recently paused all its proceedings - twice. But that didn't come soon enough to help the Kilfoils. Citizens sent an adjuster to their home the day after they called. He couldn't pinpoint the source of the leak either but suspected it was coming from a pipe that drained wastewater from the kitchen, he said later in a deposition. He snapped photos of the warped, soggy cabinets. A short while later, Citizens denied their claim, saying that the damage to their cabinets was consistent with a long-term leak, and that their insurance contract excluded coverage of such leaks - unless they were hidden.Eleven days after the denial, the Kilfoils' plumber found the leaking pipe in the home's exterior wall. It had been spilling water into a recess between their kitchen cabinets and slab foundation, records show. The total cost of repair has come close to $40,000, according to Linda Kilfoil and construction estimates provided by her attorney.The Kilfoils had permanently relocated to Florida from Long Island to enjoy retirement. But with Peter Kilfoil ill with prostate and skin cancer, his wife faced the prospect of handling repairs while tending to his health.I am a former physician," Peter Kilfoil said in an interview from the hospital. I'm not like some carjacker. They accuse me of letting that leak persist until it destroyed my kitchen." Just before Thanksgiving, the Kilfoils sued Citizens. Instead of going to circuit court, as most lawsuits against insurers would, Citizens routed their case to arbitration before the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings.On the surface, the change of venue - made possible by a provision lawmakers empowered Citizens to insert at the end of most of its policies - didn't seem like a big deal. Legislators and Citizens executives touted DOAH as advantageous for both consumers and the insurer. Cases in the forum tend to move faster, cost less and are decided by expert administrative law judges rather than juries.But in practice, homeowners forced by Citizens into DOAH have trouble exercising key rights.Judge Britney Horton kept the Kilfoils' lawyer from deposing a Citizens adjuster, siding with the company after it argued it had already made another employee available and produced all non-privileged facts." The ruling deprived them of a fair opportunity to investigate the denial, according to their attorney. On at least 20 other occasions, DOAH judges have issued similar rulings during a dispute's fact-finding phase. Judge Britney Horton (State of Florida Division of Administrative Hearings) In addition, some DOAH judges have denied motions requesting that they disclose any potential conflicts they might have as arbitrators. Some plaintiff's attorneys say that has made it difficult to trust in the impartiality of their decisions.And the forum's rules make it impossible for homeowners to drop their lawsuit without Citizens' approval, unless they withdraw their claim, a move that can lead to court costs and attorney's fees if not filed early in the process. Some have felt forced to go to final hearings where they lost and ended up owing thousands to Citizens.You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out something's wrong," said Chip Merlin, president of Merlin Law Group, a firm that represents insurance policyholders.In a written response to questions about the homeowners' experiences, Citizens spokesperson Michael Peltier defended the current process.We believe the statute authoring the resolution of claims by DOAH provides a well-established, impartial, and efficient process for policyholders, who no longer must wait nearly two years, on average, for a resolution of their claim," he wrote.When it comes to depositions, the forum is not materially different" from Florida's circuit courts, he added. And he explained that while homeowners are barred from dismissing their cases at DOAH - a move that might allow them to pursue the claim in circuit court - they aren't blocked from withdrawing their claim, a more terminal maneuver. (Withdrawing, though, grants Citizens an automatic win and exposes homeowners to the risk of fees if it is not done soon after a case is sent to DOAH.) The company declined to comment on individual cases in litigation. As of July 21, judges sided with Citizens in more than 90% of cases that made it to a final DOAH hearing where both sides presented their case, according to a ProPublica analysis of court records. (The steep odds were first highlighted by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.) In circuit court trials, Citizens has won about 55% of the time over the past five years, according to records released by the company.Citing a procedural error in the request by the Kilfoils' lawyers, Horton declined to push back the date of the final hearing after Peter Kilfoil had been hospitalized. She did not respond to a request for comment. Faced with long odds and failing health, the Kilfoils settled their case for the nominal sum of $500 that Citizens was offering, according to their attorney. I was being a nurse to my husband daily," Linda Kilfoil said, leaving little time to manage home repairs and fight the insurer. I couldn't leave him."Peter Kilfoil died at 77 on Aug. 22, 2025.Of the Citizens cases resolved at DOAH between March 2024 and July 7, 2025, 78% ended in a settlement, according to data released by the insurer. Half of all cases settled for $500 or less to the policyholder, according to that data. An additional 28%, according to Peltier, were settled by Citizens for an average of $30,000.Citizens' customers cannot opt out of DOAH. Eventually, the insurer intends to send more than 3,800 cases a year there, according to a funding proposal approved by its governing board last year. Since February 2024, it's sent over 1,500.A multitude of public agencies in Florida contract with DOAH, relying on the administrative law judges to resolve disputes. As part of that process, they pay the agency for the salaries of judges who decide their cases, though they don't play a role in the hiring of them.But the program will have to survive stiff legal challenges. The most successful so far comes from Tampa, where a circuit court judge in August reaffirmed a statewide injunction pausing DOAH hearings after a Hurricane Milton victim argued the company was violating his rights.Specifically, enforcement of the arbitration clause at issue compels insureds into a forum that lacks neutrality, discovery, motion practice, and meaningful judicial review," Judge Melissa Polo wrote in her order. Citizens moved to disqualify Polo, arguing that she violated her impartiality as a judge by ruling the DOAH process unconstitutional before arguments could be heard in the case. Polo denied the motion.We look forward to making our case on appeal," Peltier wrote of Polo's decision to pause DOAH proceedings.Everybody in This Room, Everybody in the State of Florida Backstops Citizens"As Florida's insurer of last resort, Citizens must take all comers who can't get affordable insurance through another carrier. It gained the ability to take disputes to DOAH in the spring of 2023, at a moment of great peril for the insurer. Successive hurricanes had gouged a hole in the Sunshine State, leaving several private carriers insolvent - and leaving hundreds of thousands of their customers with no choice but Citizens. By the end of that year, the not-for-profit insurer was serving more than 1.2 million homeowners as another hurricane season loomed. It also had more than 18,000 outstanding lawsuits filed against it.The company successfully lobbied the Legislature to let it take cases to DOAH in order to buffer it against the crises. The verbiage granting Citizens this power was tucked into HB 799 - a broader Citizens bill that, among other things, allowed it to raise rates faster on some policies - just after its third reading in the Florida House of Representatives Commerce Committee in April 2023.State Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Republican and one of the bill's sponsors, said Citizens officials proposed the DOAH provision to him in a meeting in his Tallahassee offices. Former Florida State Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston, who had just begun what would be a brief stint as the insurer's general counsel, was present at the meeting, Martin said.He and Citizens expressed the risk that they were facing, just like all the other insurance companies out there," Martin said.Polston would leave Citizens that June to go into private practice. He now charges Citizens at least $500 an hour to defend it from legal and constitutional challenges, including ones to the DOAH proceedings, records show, and his firm has billed the insurer almost $430,000 this year. Polston did not respond to a request for comment from ProPublica.That amount, according to Peltier, is minuscule compared with the $450 million the organization has spent on legal services under contracts signed in 2021 and 2022. The figure you mention of $430,000 reflects less than one-tenth of 1%," he wrote. Former Florida State Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston (Florida Supreme Court) There was little discussion of the DOAH provision in committee or in the well of the house, where the legislation initially passed 115-0. It wasn't until HB 799 reached the floor of the Florida Senate on May 1, 2023, that two senators started asking questions.This very broad language is bad for the Citizens policyholders," said Republican Sen. Erin Grall as she rose to offer an amendment that would strike the language from the bill. Foremost among her concerns was that Citizens policyholders would be giving up valuable rights, like access to the courts, without getting anything in return (private policyholders get a premium reduction when they agree to arbitration in Florida).After raising her concerns, she withdrew her amendment, curtailing discussion. A few minutes later, Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky asked Martin, the bill's sponsor, to address Grall's concerns.In my opinion, Citizens is specially situated," Martin said. Everybody in this room, everybody in the state of Florida backstops Citizens," Martin said, referring to a provision in Florida law that allows Citizens to levy a fee on every insurance policyholder in the state, including those of competitors, should the company ever find itself short of funds.The company's finances have stabilized in the intervening two years. It's aggressively shed more than half a million insurance policies, offloading them to private insurers, and is down to about 12,600 outstanding lawsuits as of this June. And its DOAH program is expanding.Judicial EconomyFort Lauderdale homeowners Yvonne Miller and Chaney Darric Keith wanted to stop pursuing their claim against Citizens this year.Miller and Keith had intitially claimed that their shower pan failed, a leak they said damaged walls, baseboards and floors. Citizens had denied the claim. The pair had sued, but during the course of the litigation, it became clear that at least some of the damage had come from a long-term leak from their showerhead, which would not be eligible for insurance coverage. The pair's lawyer tried to get the case dismissed. But at DOAH, that can't happen unless both parties agree. I do not want to move forward with this," said attorney Lourdes Bloomfield at a Feb. 17 DOAH hearing. Bloomfield had already tried two times to withdraw Miller and Keith's plumbing claim against Citizens, filing motions to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit and notifying the court of the withdrawal of her clients claim. Judge Terry Slusher had denied both of them, the second for being filed only one business day before the hearing.So just so that I can make it clear for myself, Citizens is not willing to permit Ms. Miller and Mr. Keith to withdraw their claim at this time?" the judge asked Citizens' defense attorney, Holly Miller, a short time later.Those are my instructions, yes sir," Miller replied, according to a transcript of the court proceedings.Because the pair stated they wanted to withdraw the case and presented no evidence at their final hearing, the judge sided with Citizens and ended up ordering that the homeowners pay $10,677 in court costs.Mary Ceron is another homeowner who attempted to quit but ended up at a final hearing against her will. As her hearing approached, her attorney said she requested a settlement where each side bore its own costs, but said Citizens did not agree. So Ceron withdrew her claim at her final hearing, and afterward she received a judgment against her for almost $45,000 in costs and fees. Citizens agreed to settle the case without collecting the money after the homeowner appealed, according to Ceron's attorney.The company, Peltier said, is looking for finality. Miller and Keith, he wrote, had initially attempted to quit their case in a way where it might be refiled, and we don't want that, we want finality." Anyone who wants to stop their DOAH proceedings can do so, he said, by withdrawing their claim.Citizens routinely pursues fees and costs against individuals who do not withdraw their claim early in the DOAH process. DOAH judges have granted more than 15 such requests, according to a ProPublica analysis of the agency's docket. After being presented with a list of these cases, which included that of Ceron, Peltier wrote that the company pursues fees against some individuals who withdraw to discourage lawyers from pursuing claims that lack merit." Some 11% of DOAH claims through July 7 had ended in withdrawals or voluntary dismissals, according to data provided by the company.Experts point out that Florida's circuit courts allow for voluntary dismissals. I'm not saying that what they're doing is technically not in conformity with the rules, but it's the only time I've heard it in a regular general civil case, such as an insurance dispute," said Jack Tuter, former chief judge of Florida's 17th Judicial Circuit, who independently reviewed DOAH cases for ProPublica and spoke generally of the forum's practice of barring voluntary dismissals that aren't agreed upon by parties. A ProPublica review of the DOAH docket revealed at least 32 other cases in which homeowner attempts to drop their lawsuits were met with resistance from Citizens, forcing both parties to rack up legal costs.I think that's one of the most vindictive things, in the 14 years I've been doing this, I've seen an insurance company do," said Andres Correa, a plaintiff's attorney who felt forced to go to a final hearing after Citizens refused to agree to a settlement in which each side bore its own costs.Settling for LessJeffrey McShane is a former Navy pilot and nuclear engineer. This March, as a lunar lander carrying a payload he helped design was using X-rays to observe the dance between Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind, he was troubled by another concern: Was there any way to win against Citizens?According to an architect's report, in the course of two weeks in the spring of 2024, a pipe burst under the living room of McShane's four-bedroom home, and then his roof - which had been replaced four and six years earlier - sprung a leak after a storm. The water shorted his air conditioning unit. Mold bloomed. An insurance adjuster he hired put the bill at just over $200,000.Citizens said its policy didn't cover some of the property damaged by the leak and said other damage was due to wear and tear and improper installation. It refused to cover the costs. We found no evidence to support the homeowner's claim of water intrusion through the roof's surface on April 3, 2024," an engineer hired by the company wrote after visiting the property. Jeffrey McShane (Courtesy of Jeffrey McShane) I did not expect that the technical difficulty of navigating Citizens' claims process would be far more difficult than getting a spacecraft to the Moon," McShane wrote in an email to ProPublica.As his final hearing approached, McShane's learned that his chances of victory were almost nonexistent. No homeowner, up to that point, had won a DOAH case against Citizens. The insurance company was offering him $5,000 to settle. At the last moment, he decided a final hearing was too risky and took the money.ProPublica heard from more than two dozen plaintiff's attorneys who said their DOAH cases settled for less than what a homeowner would have gotten in state court.Peltier, the Citizens spokesperson, offered a different perspective on settlements at DOAH. On average, cases there settle for about $18,000, compared with about $25,000 in state court. But some of that difference, according to Peltier, is due to older, pre-tort reform cases that carry more liability for the insurer. Stainton Williams has been similarly befuddled by his interactions with Citizens.According to his attorney, Michael Citron, a plastic tarp has covered the roof of Williams' North Miami home for most of the past year. Williams, 92, is a Jamaican immigrant with end-stage kidney disease whose roof, parts of which are nine and 19 years old, began to leak after a period of heavy weather in late September that coincided with the passage of Hurricane Helene. On Oct. 11, 2024, Citizens denied Williams' claim, writing that we determined the damage sustained to your client's property was caused by storm surge resulting from a hurricane." (Citizens' policies do not cover storm surge or floods.) Williams' home is about 3 miles from the ocean, on the opposite side of the state from Hurricane Helene's main impacts and where no storm surge or coastal flooding were reported by the National Weather Service.Inconsistently, an engineer hired by Citizens to inspect the property disputed that the roof was damaged by Helene, writing there was no damage to the roof covering system or exterior envelope from Hurricane Helene." The insurer's spokesperson declined an opportunity to clarify this seeming contradiction. Stainton Williams (Courtesy of Stainton Williams' daughter) So Williams and his daughter, who has power of attorney, hired Citron and sued. When Williams' case was sent to DOAH, Citron filed a motion requesting, among other things, that DOAH Judge Todd Resavage disclose any potential conflicts. The motion cites a state law that requires such disclosure from appointed arbitrators.The disclosures were requested in our case as they would be in any arbitration case," Citron said. Why that becomes important in this proceeding is because we didn't choose the arbitrator. We didn't even choose arbitration. It was all done by Citizens. So because of that, we at least want to know who these people are, who's overseeing our case," he added.Resavage denied the motion for two reasons. First, he ruled the state law Citron cited did not apply because he had not been appointed but rather given his position by law. And even if that state law did apply, Resavage wrote, it wouldn't require his disclosure unless there were known facts that a reasonable person would consider likely to affect the arbitrator's impartiality." He did not respond to a request for comment from ProPublica. At least two other judges have denied similar motions for disclosure, according to a ProPublica review of the docket.Asked about his thinking and intentions in regards to conflict of interest disclosures by administrative law judges, Martin, the bill sponsor, responded via text with a question. Do those judges have to file a Form 6? Like all other judges?" After being informed that DOAH judges file Form 1, a less detailed disclosure, Martin ceased responding to texts and did not answer phone calls. Agnel Philip contributed data reporting.

by Yilun Cheng, Houston Chronicle ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. This article is co-published with the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Newsroom as part of an initiative to report on how power is wielded in Texas. Billionaire Elon Musk is taking issue with a recent investigation by the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Newsroom that raised questions about a flood tunnel project he's pitching to address Houston's chronic flooding woes. But experts said his response,which he did not explain to the newsrooms, isn't supported by facts or data.Last month, the newsrooms reported that Musk's tunneling company, The Boring Co., has been lobbying elected officials for months to allow it to build tunnels under Houston for flood mitigation. Boring has proposed digging two 12-foot-wide tunnels beneath Buffalo Bayou - the main waterway running through central Houston - to carry stormwater out of neighborhoods and toward the Gulf of Mexico during major storms. Experts say, however, that larger tunnels, closer to 30 to 40 feet in diameter, could carry far more water and be more effective.Musk and representatives with Boring did not respond to interview requests or answer questions the newsrooms sent in advance of last month's story about whether Boring's smaller tunnels would be able to handle the scale of floodwater Houston is likely to encounter in the future.Instead, Musk waited until hours after the story published to post a response on X, the social media company he's owned since 2022.Boring Company tunnels will work and cost <10% of alternatives," his Aug. 28 post read. If more flow is needed, additional tunnels can be built and furthermore they can be route water from many parts of the city, not just one."The post was written in response to a post on X from U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Houston Republican who helped arrange private meetings with government officials in Harris County and across the state to sell them on Boring's flood tunnel plan. Hunt also did not respond to questions from the newsrooms ahead of publication of the original story, but he weighed in on X after the story was published.A lifelong Houstonian and Texas Congressman spoke to the smartest man on planet earth about solving a generational flooding issue in our city that no one else will fix," Hunt wrote. Musk's post offered no data or engineering explanation to back up his assertions. So the newsrooms examined his statements, comparing them against flood studies, and interviewed engineering experts, some of whom pointed out key technical and logistical challenges with the Boring plan.One of Musk's claims is likely false, and the others are not yet possible to verify with certainty, according to the newsrooms' examination.Again, when the newsrooms pressed Musk and Boring representatives to explain the tech billionaire's claims, they did not respond. Nor did Hunt. Houston's Buffalo Bayou Park is visible from the roof of The Allen, a nearby condominium, in 2023. The bayou is the main waterway running through central Houston. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle) Would Boring's tunnels cost less than 10% of alternatives? Musk's proposal carries a lower price tag than the estimated cost of the larger system the flood control district has spent years and millions of dollars studying.But that's partly because the two are strikingly different proposals.Hunt's team has said Boring's Buffalo Bayou project would cost $760 million, according to internal communications obtained by the newsrooms through public records requests.The county's flood control district, on the other hand, proposed in 2022 tunnels of 30 to 40 feet in diameter for that segment of the system at a price of about $4.6 billion.Since the project is still in the research phase, the county numbers are preliminary. But based on the figures available, Boring's proposal would cost closer to one-sixth of the county's estimate - not less than 10%, as Musk's post suggested. So Musk seems to be exaggerating how much cheaper his system would be.Flood control experts also maintained that the reduced price is somewhat proportional to the reduced capacity of Boring's narrower tunnels. Two 12-foot tunnels would provide less than one-fifth of the volume that a single 40-foot tunnel offers.That means they would divert less water from vulnerable areas than one large tunnel.Jim Blackburn, a Houston environmental lawyer and flood policy expert, said while Musk's company deserves a fair hearing, cheaper does not automatically mean better.If it's a smaller tunnel, then I would expect it to cost less," Blackburn said. You've got to look at how much flood mitigation you get for the dollars you spend."Emily Woodell, a spokesperson for the Harris County Flood Control District, said the agency needs more information before it can weigh in on any of Musk's claims.We'd have to do a lot of study before anything could even potentially move forward, so I wouldn't want to speculate," she said. Until we have a project or another study, we'd point people to our website for the reports and data we've compiled to date." Can additional tunnels be built for more water flow? Musk's post said if more floodwater needs to be moved, more tunnels can be added. Engineers said it is not that simple.Larry Dunbar, a veteran water resources engineer who has advised Houston-area governmental agencies on drainage issues, said based on size alone, it would take about 11 of Boring's tunnels to carry the same amount of water as one large tunnel. Lined up side by side, with enough room between them to keep the ground stable, the full system could span hundreds of feet. That would require securing rights to more land and building more access points for maintenance, he said.And each new phase of construction might bring another round of reviews and mobilization costs, Dunbar said, undercutting the speed and affordability that Boring has touted as key advantages of its proposal.The issues start to just get more and more complicated," Dunbar said. Not that it can't be done, but just to kind of throw out there - Oh, if we need more, we'll just do more' - well, there's a lot more to it than that."Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, who has an engineering background, agreed. More tunnels would also mean more equipment to maintain, which could drive up long-term costs, Ramsey said.He added that the county would need to decide on the full plan at the outset so all system elements like pumps, drains and outfalls can be designed properly.It would not be simple to just add additional tunnels later," Ramsey said.John Blount, a former Harris County engineer who retired after more than three decades with the county, similarly dismissed Musk's suggestion that Boring could just build more tunnels if the initial plan falls short.While working on other infrastructure projects, Blount said, he has come across a number of contractors capable of building tunnels large enough to handle the job properly the first time.You don't start small and figure it out later," he said. This whole concept of putting in 20% of what you need to see if it's enough makes zero sense." Buffalo Bayou, which runs through the heart of Houston, floods after Hurricane Beryl made landfall on July 8, 2024. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle) Can Boring's tunnels move water from other parts of the city, and will the tunnels work? Musk argued that Boring's tunnels could be used in different parts of the city, not just along Buffalo Bayou.Some local officials agreed that Musk's tunnels might actually work better for smaller watersheds that do not take on as much water as Buffalo Bayou.Ramsey said he supports exploring smaller tunnels for areas like Hunting and Halls bayous, which run through other parts of the city and also need resources to strengthen their flood protection. The county commissioner publicly called for a closer look at narrower tunnels during a commissioners court meeting in April, after Hunt had pitched him on Boring's proposal in February.It's another tool in our toolbox to help mitigate flooding. And certainly with what's happening in the Hill Country," Ramsey said, referring to recent deadly floods in Central Texas, and what continues to happen in Harris County, we need as many tools as we can possibly get."Woodell, with the flood control district, told the newsrooms in August that the agency initially focused on large-diameter tunnels because engineering studies identified them as the most effective option for a countywide system.However, she said smaller tunnels could be a viable solution in certain areas. Since that idea had not been a focus of research, she added, more study would be needed before any such project could move forward.Colleen Gilbert, executive director of the Greens Bayou Coalition - a nonprofit that works to protect neighborhoods near Greens Bayou, in northeast Houston - said communities in her watershed are desperate for relief as well. They would welcome the massive storm tunnel once proposed by Harris County, she said, but even smaller tunnels would be better than nothing.We would be thrilled to have any and all possibilities looked at," Gilbert said. If Congressman Hunt and The Boring Co. are looking at this, we are delighted to hear it."Experts and officials the newsrooms interviewed, however, still took issue with Musk's sweeping statement that Boring Company tunnels will work" because it doesn't take into account complexities of the project or that success largely depends on what kind of system the county ultimately wants.In a two-page memo Boring sent to Hunt's team in February and that was circulated among local officials in the county, the company framed the pitch as an innovative, cost-effective solution" to Houston's chronic flooding.We are confident in our ability to execute this project successfully," wrote Jim Fitzgerald, Boring's global head of business development.But Dunbar said the only way to evaluate Musk's claim is to focus on the purpose of the stormwater tunnels.If the goal is to build as large a project as possible for the lowest price, Dunbar said, Boring's proposal might fit the bill. But if the goal is to shield lives and property from another Hurricane Harvey-level flooding event, he believes the smaller-scale project simply does not measure up. You have to have some underlying reason why you build this tunnel, what you're trying to accomplish," Dunbar said. And I have not heard that Elon has given that answer."Rock Owens, retired Harris County attorney for environmental affairs who represented agencies including the flood control district, said he has seen local officials repeatedly greenlighting massive projects that were not well thought out and led to costly legal battles.He pointed, for instance, to flood control issues along White Oak Bayou in northwest Houston. In a lengthy legal battle that began in 1999, about 400 homeowners in the area blamed the county for approving upstream development without adequate flood control, which they said caused repeated flooding of their homes.The Texas Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the county in 2016. But Owens said even unsuccessful lawsuits are costly and the kind of challenge that could have exposed the county to a substantial damages award.Musk's ethos of moving fast and worrying about consequences later, Owens said, only heightens the risk.That works fine in the private sector, but not the public sector," he said. We're not looking at Mr. Musk's personal fortune; we're looking at the livelihood and lifelong investments of people who live here." Yilun Cheng is an investigative reporter with the Houston Chronicle. Reach her at yilun.cheng@houstonchronicle.com. Lauren McGaughy of The Texas Newsroom contributed reporting.

by Willoughby Mariano, WBUR, with additional reporting by Todd Wallack, WBUR This article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network in partnership with WBUR. Sign up for Dispatches to get ProPublica's stories in your inbox every week. To keep up with the latest Boston news, sign up for WBUR's morning newsletter. Seventeen years had passed by the time Boston police knocked on Louise's door to say they had identified the man who allegedly raped and stabbed her in October 2005.The suspect was now a father of two, a possible serial rapist and likely beyond the reach of the law, investigators told her. Police had taken so long to identify him that they missed the state's deadline to prosecute her case.In Massachusetts, the law says prosecutors have only 15 years to file charges after an alleged rape. Past that statute of limitations, it's nearly impossible to bring charges. Still, prosecutors thought they might be able to move this particular case forward on a technicality.Louise was afraid. She had spent years reliving the terror of that night and battling drug use that spun out of control after the attack. At times she failed out of rehab programs or stayed in homeless shelters. (WBUR does not identify victims of sexual assault without their permission and agreed to identify Louise only by her middle name.)By 2022, she was 42, sober, living in her own apartment and raising two school-age sons. She could not slip back into her old ways.But, as the daughter of a Marine veteran, Louise believed she needed to fight: She felt her community would not be safe until her rapist was in prison.You've got to stand for something," Louise said.Past the 15-year deadline in Massachusetts, no DNA match, eyewitness testimony or even confession can give a rape victim a chance at facing an attacker in court.This statute of limitations places Massachusetts behind almost every other state in the country.A review of criminal codes by WBUR and ProPublica found that as many as 47 states allow more time to charge rapes or similar assaults of adults than Massachusetts. For example, Vermont and Maryland are among a number of states that have no deadline to file charges for rape. Other states like Montana and Texas extend their deadlines when there's DNA evidence.In many states, Louise's case could be decided in court on the strength of its evidence. But here, evidence would not matter. The case would be almost impossible to win. Lost Chances (Isabel Seliger for ProPublica) Law enforcement and rape crisis workers across Massachusetts said in interviews that they routinely encounter cases where no charges were filed before the state's strict deadline. How often rape suspects avoid prosecution as a result is unclear.Massachusetts is unusual in that state victim privacy laws bar police from releasing incident reports of rape to the public. Unless a suspect is charged in court, it's often difficult to find any official records about a rape. And even when someone is charged, police can still withhold information about what they did - or did not do - to identify and capture a suspected rapist.This makes it all but impossible for anyone outside law enforcement to scrutinize rapes that are past the deadline to prosecute.In order to understand the extent of cases lost to the statute of limitations, WBUR and ProPublica spoke to researchers, prosecutors and lawmakers.Rape crisis center leaders say survivors of sexual assaults that happened many years ago regularly ask whether the criminal legal system can help them. The Suffolk County district attorney's office, one of the most populous jurisdictions in the state, is based in Boston and prosecuted Louise's case. A longtime sex crimes prosecutor there said his office reviews several cases each year that it cannot pursue because of the statute of limitations.About two years ago, the Bristol County district attorney's office identified 21 rapes that it could have prosecuted were it not for the statute of limitations. They came to light when the agency used a federal grant to analyze DNA evidence in rape cases that had not been fully tested when it was first collected.Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn is one of the state's few prosecutors who has spoken in favor of allowing charges after the deadline in cases with DNA evidence.This is to rectify a wrong, if you will, or a process that didn't work," Quinn told WBUR. These are serious charges. Women are being raped."Details of Louise's case only became public because Suffolk County prosecutors took the unusual step of filing charges even though they had missed the state's charging deadline. This led to the release of some records about the rape that would otherwise have been shielded by the state's privacy laws.Those records show that years before the deadline passed in Louise's alleged rape, police had already gathered many of the clues they would later use to identify a suspect, but did not solve the case.Louise: His Name Is Ivan (Isabel Seliger for ProPublica) When she was 25, Louise's life was starting to fall apart. She worked as a waitress and switchboard operator, and she was experimenting with drugs.In the overnight hours of Oct. 22, 2005, a man she had been friends with demanded payment for drugs he had given her, according to a court record, then coerced her into having sex with a stranger at a hotel to pay off the debt.After 2 a.m., the friend dropped her off in downtown Boston. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, you can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 or rainn.org. It was raining hard, the trains had stopped running and she wanted a ride to a friend's house. That's when she thought she saw a friendly face.The man who drove up to her in a Lexus SUV introduced himself as Ivan and said he knew her from UMass Boston, where she had taken classes, she recalled. He said he was on a study break, and he looked the part. He had a young face and wore a baseball cap with a college name on it.She said the man offered to pay for sex and she refused, court records show. He drove her to a secluded area in Everett, just north of the city, and raped and stabbed her, she told police. When Louise escaped his car, he chased her down with a knife and she fell.He kept stabbing me," she said in an interview. I remember my head jerking back because the knife was in my head."The man fled to his car after the struggle. Louise sought help at a nearby house.At the hospital, it took more than 100 stitches to close the stab wounds that covered her body. Doctors told her the knife barely missed her major organs.Louise let a specialist swab her body for the man's DNA. While she said she did not disclose at the time that she had been coerced into sex work earlier that night, she told investigators everything else she knew: Police records said she gave the name her attacker used, his race, which she said was either white or Asian, and a description of his car. At the time, she told police that he said he had attended UMass Boston and was now at Tufts. She hoped this information would lead to an arrest.Had police checked with UMass Boston, they would have discovered that 18 men named Ivan attended the school in the years surrounding the attack, according to student records reviewed by WBUR. The man who police ultimately connected to DNA evidence in Louise's case was among them.Everett police interviewed Louise several times and reviewed surveillance camera footage, she said, but the calls and visits from police waned over the coming months.Louise stopped calling the police to check on her case as the years went by. She said she had moved on from using painkillers to relying on heroin, cocaine and other drugs to make it through the day. She feared that her rapist would return to kill her, and the drugs were her way of coping with severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.In 2008, Boston police received new evidence suggesting that whoever attacked Louise could be a serial rapist, a detective later said in court records. The department's crime lab found that DNA from her case matched an unsolved 2006 attack. That victim was picked up in Boston's North End, then stabbed and raped in suburban Wellesley.It's unclear how police responded to this new information. With the help of WBUR and ProPublica, Louise used an exception for survivors in the state's privacy law to obtain her Everett police report. But the two-page record details nothing of the investigation beyond the first 24 hours after the attack.Everett police declined to comment on the case. The Middlesex County district attorney's office, which had jurisdiction at the time of the attack, did not comment. The Suffolk County district attorney's office, which took over the case after Boston detectives in its jurisdiction identified a suspect, said it did not have details about how prior agencies handled the case. Boston police did not provide a response to multiple requests for an interview.Louise said she does not recall whether police or prosecutors told her that DNA tests showed her unknown assailant may have attacked another woman.Years later, when police finally identified a suspect, it would be too late to hold anyone accountable. The deadline to charge a suspect with attempted murder in Louise's case had passed after 10 years and the deadline for rape had passed at 15 years. Extending the Statute of LimitationsCurrently, the only states that have shorter deadlines than Massachusetts and don't make exceptions for DNA evidence are North Dakota and New Hampshire, a WBUR and ProPublica review of state laws found. The most restrictive is New Hampshire's six-year deadline.Decades of research into how rape is reported and investigated has driven lawmakers outside of Massachusetts to extend their statutes of limitations.During the 2000s, several states passed exceptions for cases with DNA as it became clear that this kind of forensic evidence could help solve even very old cases.Other states followed as police departments began to disclose in the 2010s that they systemically failed to test DNA evidence in rape cases. Meanwhile, a growing body of research found that police regularly performed inadequate rape investigations, deciding reports were unfounded before interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence or testing DNA. Across the country, most reports of rape do not result in prosecution, research shows."They judge the victim," said Michigan State University professor Rebecca Campbell, who has authored multiple studies on how police conduct rape investigations. That's what I found in my research, and it's been replicated by other research teams and other jurisdictions throughout the United States."The widespread problems prompted national reforms. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice launched its National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative to devote hundreds of millions of dollars to testing previously ignored DNA. This effort produced enough evidence to finally bring charges in some of these cases, and lawmakers in other states revised their deadlines so prosecutions could move forward.The move to extend the deadline has been a bipartisan cause in many states. Just last year in Oklahoma, former state Sen. Jessica Garvin, a Republican, led a successful effort to eliminate the state's statute of limitations in cases where there is a confession or DNA evidence. The bill passed unanimously.We were able to accomplish that last session with really very little, if any, pushback," Garvin said. It's not a Republican issue. It's not a Democratic issue."In Massachusetts, legislation that would extend the deadline has been introduced during every session since at least 2011. But every time, it has failed to gain steam.Defense attorneys have opposed any changes, saying that making the deadline longer risks violating the rights of the accused.Witnesses, surveillance footage and other evidence that may clear a suspect becomes more difficult to find as time passes, said Shira Diner, a board member of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.The further and further you get away from the alleged commission of the crime, the harder it is for someone to ever mount a defense," she said.The last time state lawmakers changed the statute was in 1996 after victims came forward to say they had delayed reporting their rapes because of community backlash or poor treatment by police. Legislators lengthened the state's deadline to prosecute rapes of adults from 10 to 15 years.Connecting the Dots (Isabel Seliger for ProPublica) In late 2021, the Department of Justice initiative awarded Boston $2.5 million to reexamine up to 100 of the city's most serious unsolved rapes. The funds paid a small group of investigators to comb through old case files to search for clues.The new team revisited Louise's rape within months. This time they determined that her case and the North End rape were similar to earlier attacks, court records show.Most were unsolved, but a man named Ivan Cheung was arrested in one of them. Boston University police took him into custody in 2003 after they found him in possession of a knife and the belongings of a woman who was allegedly raped at knifepoint. The Boston Police Department, which took over the case, said in court records that they suspected the victim was covering up her ties to the sex work industry. Prosecutors dropped the charges several weeks later.When the new team of investigators revisited this case in 2022, they noticed that Cheung resembled the assailant Louise described in her attack: a man named Ivan who had attended UMass Boston. At the time of the rape, he owned a Lexus SUV.This focus on Cheung led to a breakthrough. That June, undercover officers tailed him to a mall parking lot in Dorchester, where they watched him smoke and toss away a cigarette.DNA from that cigarette matched two assaults: Louise's rape and the North End attack.By September, police had arrested Cheung for Louise's attack, the North End rape and two other open cases involving teenage girls. He was living in the Boston area and working as a financial services executive.The arrest was possible because investigators received the time and resources to take a fresh look at old cases, said Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum, who prosecuted the case.A detective showed Cheung a photo of Louise and asked if he had raped her and others.Cheung told police that he did not recognize the women and that there was no way his DNA could have been found on any of them, court records show.I'm telling you no fucking way. I don't even know her name. I don't even know her face," he said during the recorded interview with police. Cheung and his attorney declined an interview with WBUR.The only way Suffolk County prosecutors could move forward with Louise's case and the North End attack was on a technicality: A state law suspends the deadline if a suspect lives out of state. Prosecutors said Cheung traveled frequently, but they couldn't prove he had relocated. In October 2023, charges against Cheung for the attacks on Louise and the North End victim were dropped.With her case over, Louise said she pinned her hopes on the two remaining cases connected to the suspect. Police said in court records the alleged victims were 13 and 14 and being trafficked for sex at the time of their attacks. Because they were so young, the state's statute of limitations did not block their cases from moving forward, and there was a chance a judge would allow Louise to testify if they went to trial.But those two cases had other problems: They had no DNA evidence, and prosecutors acknowledged that the evidence tying those cases to Cheung was not as strong. In one of the cases, Boston police had not interviewed the alleged victim until nearly two decades after her attack, and she was unwilling to testify, court filings show. In the other, a judge noted in a ruling that police conducted no forensic medical exam of the victim and appeared to make no attempt at locating a crime scene.The police response was severely deficient," Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christopher Belezos wrote in the December 2024 ruling.The district attorney told the judge they needed Louise's testimony to show the rapes were so similar that Cheung was the only possible assailant. But Belezos barred Louise from testifying, saying her case was too different: The attacks had happened in different locations and their descriptions of their assailants' race and cars did not match.Prosecutors dropped Cheung's remaining charges in January.It was frustrating, but at that point, legally we had no choice," said Polumbaum. In court records, Cheung also denied any involvement in these alleged attacks.Now that the court battle is over, Louise is fighting to keep her peace of mind. She crowds her spare hours with therapy and support groups, and she fills her apartment walls with symbols of renewal, change and faith. A pink foil decal with the word Believe" hangs among prints of butterflies, dragonflies and birds. When WBUR interviewed Louise, it was the first time she had discussed her rape publicly. She said those interviews, and the failure to convict Cheung, helped her realize she wanted to do more.In June she testified before the state Legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary to urge them to pass House Bill 1987, which is pending. It would allow prosecutors to charge suspects after the deadline in some rape cases with DNA evidence.It really needs to be changed for the safety of all, for the public at large," she testified. That's why I'm speaking." Patrick Madden of WBUR contributed reporting, and Jesus Marrero Suarez of WBUR contributed research.