Labor Department Official Warns That Staff Who Speak With Journalists Face “Serious Legal Consequences”

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s chief of staff issued the warning as department employees have spoken to the news media about harms they see resulting from the dismantling of their agency, which enforces laws guaranteeing workers’ rights.

Fentanyl Pipeline: How a Chinese Prison Helped Fuel a Deadly Drug Crisis in the United States

While China enforces strict laws against domestic drug trafficking, state-supported companies have openly shipped fentanyl to the U.S., investigators say. One prison-owned chemical company boasted online: “100% of our shipments will clear customs.”

Earthjustice President Describes a “Fundamentally Different” Era of Hostility Toward Environmentalists

Abigail Dillen sees the increase of lawsuits targeting green groups as just one of the growing threats to environmental advocacy organizations — and the people who staff them.

New Law Increases Oversight of Arizona Sober Living Homes

The legislation follows a ProPublica and Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting investigation on a $2 billion Medicaid fraud scheme that targeted Native Americans seeking drug and alcohol treatment.

Politically Connected Firms Benefit From Trump Tariff Exemptions Amid Secrecy, Confusion

The administration’s lack of transparency about tariff exemptions has experts concerned that some firms might be winning narrow carve-outs behind closed doors. “It could be corruption, but it could just as easily be incompetence,” one lobbyist said.

Trump Laid Off Nearly All the Federal Workers Who Investigate Firefighter Deaths

The cuts, which are part of Trump’s slashing of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, will also halt a first-of-its-kind study of the causes of thousands of firefighters’ cancer cases.

ProPublica Hires Katherine Wells as Executive Producer for Audio

A Closer Look

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More

By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades.

School Wars

Idaho Gave Families $50M to Spend on Private Education. Then It Ended a $30M Program Used by Public School Families.

A Republican lawmaker said ending an Idaho program that helped public school students buy laptops and other materials wasn’t linked to the creation of a private school tax credit. The state’s most prominent conservative group says it should be.

Inside Terrorgram

White Supremacist Terrorgram Network Allegedly Inspired Teen Accused of Killing Parents and Plotting Trump Assassination

Court documents reveal that Nikita Casap’s alleged manifesto calling for Trump’s assassination cited multiple Terrorgram publications and urged people to read the writings of a network member who murdered two people outside an LGTBQ+ bar in 2022.

Trump Team Eyes Politically Connected Startup to Overhaul $700 Billion Government Payments Program

A little-known firm with investors linked to JD Vance, Elon Musk and Trump could get a piece of the federal expense card system — and its hundreds of millions in fees. “This goes against all the normal contracting safeguards,” one expert said.

Wisconsin’s Name-Change Law Raises Safety Risks for Transgender People

A 167-year-old statute requires trans people to publish their old and new names in a newspaper. Families and advocates worry the requirement now poses a risk as President Donald Trump has attacked transgender rights.

Local Reporting Network

Abe Streep Joins ProPublica’s Southwest Unit

The New Immigration

Trump Is Spending Billions on Border Security. Some Residents Living There Lack Basic Resources.

The president has reportedly urged Congress to pass $175 billion for border security. But residents of Del Rio, Texas, and Douglas, Arizona, say their basic needs — like safe drinking water and hospital access — aren’t being met.

An Indian Drugmaker, Investigated by ProPublica Last Year, Has Recalled Two Dozen Medications Sold to U.S. Patients

FDA inspectors found serious problems at a Glenmark factory in India that manufactured the recalled drugs. Another medication made there has been tied to deaths of U.S. patients.

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