ProPublica

NEW: Months after FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty cast a decisive vote approving Paramount’s historic $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, she and a guest accepted Kennedy Center gala tickets from the company worth more than $12,000.

FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals

Accepting tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala compromised the commissioners’ impartiality, ethics experts told ProPublica. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has been gifted at least $63,000 worth of ticket...

THREAD: The boy is called a liar. He’s told not to defend himself.

Then the private school owner encourages all of his peers to attack him, one by one. She hits him, repeatedly, with a plastic pipe-like object.

How does this school still exist — and receive state funds? 🧵

▶

NEW: James Talarico accused Ken Paxton of committing voter fraud after ProPublica and @texastribune.org found that the Texas attorney general may have broken state law by voting using an address where he no longer appears to live.

Ken Paxton Touts His Efforts to Fight Voter Fraud. His Senate Opponent Is Now Accusing Him of Committing It.

James Talarico’s comments come after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found that the Texas attorney general may have broken state law by voting using an address where he no longer appears to live.

NEW: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification

ProPublica conducted a new analysis that shows the court is deciding more consequential rulings than ever before in largely unsigned orders with little to no explanation.

A Troubling Milestone: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification

ProPublica conducted a new analysis that shows the court is deciding more consequential rulings than ever before in largely unsigned orders with little to no explanation.

NEW: It has been 118 years since the Supreme Court ruled the federal government owes tribes water, but Native American communities in northern Arizona are still fighting for their rights to the Colorado River.

With @kjzz.org

Native American Tribes Came Together to Secure Their Rights to Colorado River Water. Four States Are Stalling the Deal.

Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming are resisting the deal because it would allow the Navajo and Hopi to lease water to cities downstream, likely the growing towns around Phoenix.

Inside a women’s prison, a domestic violence victim began collecting others’ stories of abuse. 156 women answered her call.

Together, they became “survivor sisters” — and helped shape a new law offering them a path toward freedom. But would it work?

Listen to the full episode:

Convicted of Killing Their Abusers, These Women Got Another Chance at Freedom

A new law gave people sentenced for the murders of their abusive partners a rare pathway to freedom. That wasn’t the end of the story.

NEW: Citing ProPublica’s reporting, two lawmakers have called on the CDC to address a “preventable public health crisis” of parents refusing the vitamin K shot for their newborns — which has led to babies suffering uncontrollable bleeding and even dying.

Lawmakers Call for CDC to Track Vitamin K Shot Refusals, Cite ProPublica Report

Two members of Congress are urging federal officials to monitor vitamin K shot refusals by parents and the potential consequences for their newborns, including severe bleeding or death.

NEW: Oil companies are blasting millions of gallons of toxic waste underground each year — less than a half-mile from Enid, Oklahoma’s water wells.

But to protect their city, officials must appeal to the state agency that created the problem.

With @readfrontier.bsky.social

To Protect Its Drinking Water, This City Has to Appeal to the Oil Regulators That Put It at Risk

Oklahoma restricts oil field wastewater injection within a half-mile of public water wells. Regulators have let companies do it anyway. But in the city of Enid, officials are pushing back against one ...

NEW: @opb.org and ProPublica found that water from one of Oregon’s most iconic rivers, the Deschutes, is largely given away to wealthy landowners who are turning the high desert green with lush pastures and landscaping.

An Oregon Law Lets One Wealthy Region Turn the Desert Green. When Drought Hits, Farmers Pay the Price.

In the high desert of Central Oregon, the Deschutes River is a lifeline for farmers and landowners — but a century-old water law entitles just a few thousand people to more than half of its volume.

NEW: Geraldo Lunas Campos repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health before he died at Camp East Montana.

Records paint a portrait of how the Texas facility's staff failed to adequately respond.

with @texastribune.org

“He Didn’t Need to Die.” How an Immigration Detention Center Repeatedly Failed to Address a Mental Health Crisis.

Geraldo Lunas Campos repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health before he died at Camp East Montana. Records paint a portrait of how the Texas facility’s staff failed to adequately respond.

The Defense Dept. has a rule: Only U.S. citizens or permanent residents can handle sensitive data.

Then Microsoft created a workaround that seemed to violate the spirit of this rule, leaving computer systems vulnerable to Chinese government sabotage:

How Microsoft’s “Little Workaround” Created a Major Pentagon Threat

A little-known Microsoft program allowed China-based engineers to service the U.S. government’s sensitive computer systems — until reporter Renee Dudley found out about it.

NEW: As ProPublica and @startribune.com investigated child sexual abuse in the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church, reporters found a common theme: children who were victims of sexual misconduct going on to repeat the behavior.

Children in This Church Were Sexually Abused. Then They Began Abusing Other Kids. Some Continued as Adults.

As ProPublica and the Minnesota Star Tribune investigated child sexual abuse in the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church, reporters found a common theme: children who were victims of sexual misconduct going ...

NEW: After ProPublica and @texastribune.org revealed Ken Paxton repeatedly voted while registered at an address where he appears to no longer live, Democrats called for an investigation into whether the Texas attorney general committed election fraud.

Texas Democrats Ask for Investigation Into Ken Paxton After Our Reporting Found He May Have Violated Election Law

The complaint asks the Texas secretary of state to examine whether Paxton committed election fraud by voting in the May primary runoff while registered at an address where he no longer appears to live...

We found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban.

Here’s how we did our analysis.

(Published Feb. 2025)

Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did

Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...

Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche, who is facing his Senate confirmation hearing, previously shut down DOJ crypto investigations while holding more than $150,000 in crypto investments.

From our Dec. 2025 investigation:

Top DOJ Official Todd Blanche Shut Down Crypto Enforcement While Holding Crypto Assets

The second-highest official at the DOJ, Todd Blanche rose to prominence as Trump’s personal defense attorney. His actions violated the federal conflicts of interest law and his ethics agreement, exper...

NEW: As most states move away from the death penalty, Florida is executing more prisoners than ever before.

Last year, 19 people were put to death — shattering the state’s previous annual record of 11, first set in 1936.

with @nytimes.com

Florida Is Executing Prisoners at a Record Pace, Even as Most of the U.S. Abandons the Death Penalty

Early last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis began signing death warrants at a faster rate than ever before. What followed was the most intense period of executions the state has carried out in more than eight ...

NEW: Former Louisiana death row inmate Jimmie “Chris” Duncan, convicted based in part on forensic evidence now widely regarded as junk science, is officially a free man.

“I am flooded with relief,” one of his lawyers said.

Louisiana Supreme Court Frees Death Row Prisoner, Calling Evidence Against Him “Scientifically Indefensible”

The decision affirms a lower court’s ruling nullifying Jimmie “Chris” Duncan’s 1998 first-degree murder conviction. Duncan was convicted based in part on forensic evidence that is now widely regarded ...

NEW: Ten members of Congress have warned the secretary of defense that the Trump administration’s gutting of a program focused on shielding noncombatants puts service members in peril, erodes the military’s moral standing and may violate federal law.

Amid Mounting War Casualties, Pete Hegseth “Defunded and Impeded” Efforts to Protect Civilians, Lawmakers Say

Ten members of Congress have warned the secretary of defense that the Trump administration’s gutting of a program focused on shielding noncombatants puts service members in peril, erodes the military’...

NEW: In the case of OB-GYN Mark Mulholland, who was repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct, Washington’s medical board waited six weeks to announce it had filed charges.

He kept seeing patients during that time, and one alleges he abused her in the interim.

with @kuow.org

Washington Law Says to Alert the Public When Doctors Are Accused of Misconduct. It Can Take Months.

In the case of Mark Mulholland, who was repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct, the board waited six weeks to announce that it had filed charges. He was allowed to keep seeing patients during that ti...

Regulators have linked Mark McAfee’s raw dairy farm to more than a dozen recalls and outbreaks that left hundreds of people ill.

“I’ve put a couple kids in the hospital,” McAfee said. “But here’s the thing: I’m a pioneer.”

He Profits Off Raw Milk That’s Making People Sick. The Government Isn’t Stopping Him.

With Raw Farm, the largest raw-milk dairy in the country, Mark McAfee has capitalized on a once-fringe product that’s been thrust into the mainstream in recent years and backed by Health Secretary Rob...

NEW: @maxblau.bsky.social spent a year reporting on abuses of farmworkers.

It left him wondering: Is there any way to find out whether the produce he buys at the grocery store comes from farms with a record of mistreating workers?

Do My Grocery Store Blueberries Come From Farms Where Workers Were Harmed?

Max Blau spent a year reporting on abuses of farmworkers. It left him wondering: Is the produce he buys at the grocery store part of the problem?

NEW: On Alaska’s Adak Island, it costs more than $340,000 per year to provide hundreds of buildings — all but a few of them empty — with internet access no one uses.

The money being wasted is yours.

With @adn.com

On This Nearly Deserted Alaska Island, You Pay to Keep Hundreds of Empty Buildings Wired for Internet

U.S. phone customers pay more than $340,000 a year for an Anchorage company to keep homes and buildings on Alaska’s Adak Island wired for obsolete internet service. All but a few of them sit empty.

NEW: Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar, senior legal adviser to the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he is retiring “for personal reasons.”

His is the latest high-profile departure among the military’s top leaders and lawyers in the Trump administration.

Senior Military Adviser to Joint Chiefs Is Retiring Earlier Than Expected

Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar, senior legal adviser to the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he is retiring “for personal reasons.” He is the latest high-profile departure among the military’s top lea...

Texas AG Ken Paxton vowed to “stop at nothing to uncover and stop any illegal voting activity.”

But experts say he may have violated state law by using an address where he no longer appears to live to vote in six elections in two years.

w/ @texastribune.org

Ken Paxton Vowed to Crack Down on “Illegal Voting.” He May Have Violated Texas Election Law.

The Texas attorney general appears to have used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years — despite his warning voters that “it is illegal to misrepresent yo...