The Trump administration is directing employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate foreign scientists who collaborate with the agency on research papers for evidence of subversive or criminal activity.The new directive, part of a broader effort to increase scrutiny of research done with foreign partners, asks workers in the agencys research arm to use Google to check the backgrounds of all foreign nationals collaborating with its scientists. The names of flagged scientists are being sent to national security experts at the agency, according to records reviewed by ProPublica.At a meeting last month, USDA supervisors pushed back against the instructions, with one calling it dystopic and others expressing shock and confusion, according to an audio recording reviewed by ProPublica.The USDA frequently collaborates with scientists based at universities in the U.S. and abroad. Some agency workers told ProPublica they were uncomfortable with the new requirement because they felt it could put those scientists in the crosshairs of the administration. Students and postdocs are particularly vulnerable as many are in the U.S. on temporary visas and green cards, the employees said.Jennifer Jones, director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the directive a throwback to McCarthyism that could encourage scientists to avoid working with the best and brightest researchers from around the world.Asking scientists to spy on and report on their fellow co-authors is a classic hallmark of authoritarianism, Jones said. The Union of Concerned Scientists is an organization that advocates for scientific integrity.Jones, who hadnt heard of the instructions until contacted by ProPublica, said she had never witnessed policies so extreme during prior administrations or in her former career as an academic scientist.The new policy applies to pending scientific publications co-authored by employees in the USDAs Agricultural Research Service, which conducts research on crop yields, invasive species, plant genetics and other agricultural issues.The USDA instructed employees to stop agency researchers from collaborating on or publishing papers with scientists from countries of concern, including China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.But the agency is also vetting scientists from nations not considered countries of concern before deciding whether USDA researchers can publish papers with them. Employees are including the names of foreign co-authors from nations such as Canada and Germany on lists shared with the departments Office of Homeland Security, according to records reviewed by ProPublica. That office leads the USDAs security initiatives and includes a division that works with federal intelligence agencies. The records dont say what the office plans to do with the lists of names.Asked about the changes, the USDA sent a statement noting that in his first term, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum designed to strengthen protections of U.S.-funded research across the federal government against foreign government interference. USDA under the Biden Administration spent four years failing to implement this directive, the statement said. The agency said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last year rolled out long-needed changes within USDAs research enterprise, including a prohibition on authoring a publication with a foreign national from a country of concern.International research has been essential to the Agricultural Research Services work, according to a page of the USDA website last updated in 2024: From learning how to mitigate diseases before they reach the United States, to testing models and crops in diverse growing conditions, to accessing resources not available in the United States, cooperation with international partners provides solutions to current and future agricultural challenges.Still, the U.S. government has long been worried about agricultural researchers acting as spies, sometimes with good reason. In 2016, the Chinese scientist Mo Hailong was sentenced to three years in prison for conspiring to steal patented corn seeds. And in 2022, Xiang Haitao, admitted to stealing a trade secret from Monsanto.National security questions have also been raised about recent increases in foreign ownership of agricultural land. In 2022, Congress allocated money for a center to educate U.S. researchers about how to safeguard their data in international collaborations.Since Trump took office last year, foreign researchers have faced increased obstacles. In March, a French researcher traveling to a conference was denied entry to the U.S. after a search of his phone at the airport turned up messages critical of Trump. The National Institutes of Health blocked researchers from China, Russia and other countries of concern from accessing various biomedical databases last spring. And in August, the Department of Homeland Security proposed shortening the length of time foreign students could remain in the country.But the latest USDA instructions represent a significant escalation, casting suspicion on all researchers from outside the U.S. and asking agency staff to vet the foreign nationals they collaborate with. Its unclear if employees at other federal agencies have been given similar directions.The new USDA policy was announced internally in November and followed a July memo from Rollins that highlighted the national security risks of working with scientists who are not U.S. citizens.Foreign competitors benefit from USDA-funded projects, receiving loans that support overseas businesses, and grants that enable foreign competitors to undermine U.S. economic and strategic interests, Rollins wrote in the memo. Preventing this is the responsibility of every USDA employee. The memo called for the department to place America First by taking a number of steps, including scrutinizing and making lists of the agencys arrangements to work with foreign researchers and prohibiting USDA employees from participating in foreign programs to recruit scientists, malign or otherwise.Rollins, a lawyer who studied agricultural development, co-founded the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute before being tapped to head the agency.There have long been restrictions on collaborating with researchers from certain countries, such as Iran and China. But these new instructions create blanket bans on working with scientists from countries of concern.In a late November email to staff members of the Agricultural Research Service at one area office, a research leader instructed managers to immediately stop all research with scientists who come from or collaborate with institutions in countries of concern.The email also instructed employees to reject papers with foreign authors if they deal with sensitive subjects such as diversity or climate change. National security concerns were listed as another cause for rejection, with USDA research service employees instructed to ask if a foreigner could use the research against American farmers.In the audio recording of the December meeting, some employees expressed alarm about the instructions to investigate their fellow scientists. The part of figuring out if they are foreign by Googling is very dystopic, said one person at the meeting, which involved leadership from the Agricultural Research Service.Faced with questions about how to ascertain the citizenship of a co-author, another person at the meeting said researchers should do their best with a Google search, then put the name on the list and let Homeland Security do their behind the scenes search.Rollins July memo specifies that, within 60 days of receiving a list of current arrangements that involve foreign people or entities, the USDAs Office of Homeland Security along with its offices of Chief Scientist and General Counsel should decide which arrangements to terminate. The USDA laid off 70 employees from countries of concern last summer as a result of the policy change laid out in the memo, NPR reported.The USDA and Department of Homeland Security declined to answer questions about what happens to the foreign researchers flagged by the staff beyond potentially having their research papers rejected.The documents also suggested new guidance would be issued on Jan. 1, but the USDA employees ProPublica interviewed said that the vetting work was continuing and that they had not received any written updates. The staff spoke on the condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to talk publicly.Scientists are often evaluated based on their output of new scientific research. Delaying or denying publication of pending papers could derail a researchers career. Over the past 40 years, the number of international collaborations among scientists has increased across the board, according to Caroline Wagner, an emeritus professor of public policy at the Ohio State University. The more elite the researcher, the more likely theyre working at the international level, said Wagner, who has spent more than 25 years researching international collaboration in science and technology.The changes in how the USDA is approaching collaboration with foreign researchers, she said, will certainly reduce the novelty, the innovative nature of science and decrease these flows of knowledge that have been extremely productive for science over the last years.The post Trump Administration Orders USDA Employees to Investigate Foreign Researchers They Work With appeared first on ProPublica.

A judge in Milwaukee brought a 13-year quest for justice by a grieving father to a close on Thursday, accepting a plea deal for two men charged criminally for their role in the killing of his teenaged son.Robert W. Beringer and Jesse R. Cole pleaded guilty to felony murder under a deferred prosecution agreement that allows them to avoid jail time yet publicly stand accountable for their actions leading to the 2012 death of Corey Stingley. The men helped restrain the 16-year-old inside a convenience store after an attempted shoplifting incident involving $12 worth of alcohol.What happened to Corey Stingley should have never happened. His death was unnecessary, brutal and devastating, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne told the judge in a letter filed with the court.Both of Stingleys parents spoke directly to the judge in an hourlong hearing in a courtroom filled with family members, community activists, spiritual leaders and some of the teens former classmates.Corey was my baby. A mother is not supposed to bury her child, Alicia Stingley told the judge. She spoke of the grace of forgiveness, and after the hearing she hugged Beringer. The Stingleys surviving son, Cameron, shook both mens hands.The agreement requires Cole and Beringer to make a one-time $500 donation each to a charitable organization of the Stingley familys choosing in honor of Corey. After six months, if the two men comply with the terms and do not commit any crimes, the prosecution will dismiss the case, according to documents filed with the court.ProPublica, in a 2023 story, reexamined the incident, the legal presumptions, the background of the men and Stingleys fathers relentless legal campaign to bring the men into court. The three men previously had defended their actions as justified and necessary to deal with an emergency as they held Stingley while waiting for police to arrive.Ozanne, who was appointed in 2022 to review the case, recommended the agreement after the two men and the Stingley family engaged in an extensive restorative justice process, in which they sat face to face, under the supervision of a retired judge, and shared their thoughts and feelings. Ozanne said in the letter that the process appears to have been healing for all involved.From the bench, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Laura Crivello said she found the agreement to be fair and just and commended the work of all the parties to come to a resolution.Maybe this is the spark that makes other people see similarities in each other and not differences, she said. Maybe this is the spark that makes them think about restorative justice and how do we come together. And maybe this is part of the spark that decreases the violence in our community and leads us to finding the paths to have those circles to sit down and have the dialogue and to have that conversation. So maybe theres some good that comes out of it.Craig Stingley, Coreys father, said during the hearing that his 13-year struggle has turned into triumph.Earlier, the Stingley family filed a statement with the court affirming its support for the agreement and the restorative justice process.We sought not vengeance, but acknowledgement of Coreys life, his humanity, and the depth of our loss, it states. We believe this agreement honors Coreys memory and offers a model of how people can come together, even after profound harm, to seek understanding and healing.The family remembered Stingley as a vibrant, loving son, brother, and friend and found that the restorative dialogues brought truth, understanding, and a measure of healing that the traditional court process could not.Jonathan LaVoy, Coles attorney, told reporters after the hearing: This has been a long 13 years. Hes been under investigation with multiple reviews over that time. I think everyone is just so happy that this day has come, that theres been some finality to this whole situation.In a joint written statement provided to the court, Beringer and Cole said they came to recognize the profound ripple effects of the incident and their connection to Stingleys death. They expressed sorrow that Stingleys time on this earth ended far too soon.The proceeding followed years of work by Craig Stingley to force the justice system to view his son as a crime victim whose life was unlawfully cut short by Beringer, Cole and another store patron, Mario Laumann, who died in 2022.Prosecutors at the time declined to charge anyone, saying the men did not intend to kill Corey Stingley when they tackled him and pinned him to the floor of VJs Food Mart, in West Allis, Wisconsin. They were detaining him for police after the youth attempted to steal bottles of Smirnoff Ice. In surveillance video, Laumann can be seen holding Stingley in a chokehold while the other two men aided in restraining him. A witness told police Laumann was squeezing the hell out of the teenager.The Milwaukee County Medical Examiners Office found that Stingley died of a brain injury due to asphyxiation after a violent struggle with multiple individuals. It ruled the death a homicide.Under Wisconsin law, the charge of felony murder is brought in cases in which someone dies during the commission of another alleged crime in this case false imprisonment.Ozanne wrote to the court that his analysis found that there is no doubt Cole, Beringer and Laumann caused Corey Stingleys death.All three men, he wrote, restrained Stingley intentionally and without his consent and without legal authority to arrest him. Simply put, Corey, a teenager, was tackled and restrained to the ground by three grown men because they suspected him of shoplifting, Ozanne wrote. They killed him while piled on top of his body awaiting the police.But he noted that there is no evidence that Beringer or Cole knew that Stingley was in medical distress during the incident. He described their hold on him as rudimentary detention techniques.It was Laumann, Ozanne concluded, who strangled Corey Stingley to death. Ozanne wrote that surveillance video shows Laumanns arm for several minutes across Stingleys neck as he fades out of consciousness.If Laumann were still alive, Ozanne said in court, prosecutors likely would have been seeking a lengthy prison term for him.Defendant Jesse Cole sits in the courtroom on Thursday before a hearing on his case. Taylor Glascock for ProPublicaDefendant Robert Beringer walks into the Milwaukee County courtroom. Taylor Glascock for ProPublicaStingley died the same year as Trayvon Martin, a Black Florida teen shot to death by a neighborhood volunteer watchman, who was acquitted in 2013. Martins case drew national attention and led to the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement. But Stingleys death after being restrained by three white men did not garner widespread notice outside Wisconsin.Over the years, Craig Stingley unsuccessfully advocated for the men to face charges. Two prosecutors reviewed the case, but nothing came of it.He then discovered an obscure John Doe statute, dating back to Wisconsins territorial days, that allows a private citizen to ask a judge to consider whether a crime has been committed and, if so, by whom when a district attorney cant or wont do so.Stingley filed such a petition in late 2020. That led to the appointment of Ozanne as a special prosecutor to review the matter yet again. In 2024, Ozanne informed the Stingley family that his office had found evidence of a crime but that a guilty verdict was not assured for the remaining two men.That set in motion an effort to achieve healing and accountability through a restorative justice process. Restorative justice programs bring together survivors and offenders for conversations, led by trained facilitators, to work toward understanding and healing and how best to make amends. Last year, Stingley and members of his family met on separate occasions with both Cole and Beringer through the Andrew Center for Restorative Justice, part of the law school at Milwaukees Marquette University.The discussions led to the deferred prosecution agreement.In an interview, Anthony Neff, a longtime friend of Craig Stingleys, recalled seeing Corey Stingley in a hospital bed, attached to tubes and a ventilator in his final days. Corey Stingley had been a running back on his high school football team. Everyone in the program showed up for the funeral, Neff said.Coaches. The ball boys. The cheerleaders. I mean, theyre all standing in solidarity with Craig and the family, he said.In the years since, he and other golfing buddies of Craig Stingleys have provided emotional support in his quest. Neff called it a lesson in civics, a master lesson in civics.The post A Black Teen Died Over a $12 Shoplifting Attempt. 13 Years Later, Two Men Plead Guilty in His Killing. appeared first on ProPublica.

When I first learned that a critical medication for transplant patients one that keeps them alive had generic versions that might not be effective, I called a specialty pharmacist at a hospital in Virginia. Adam Cochrane had written a journal article about the problems with the generics.The drug is called tacrolimus, and it keeps a transplant patients body from rejecting a donated organ. I was surprised to hear that Cochrane had several patients he thought had died in part because their generic tacrolimus hadnt worked right.He told me about Hannah Goetz, though he didnt divulge her name initially. She would become the focus of a story I published recently thats part of a larger investigation into how the Food and Drug Administration has for years allowed risky drugs into your medicine cabinet.Hannah was 17 when she had a double lung transplant because of complications from cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that fills the organs with mucus. She died in 2023 at just 21 years old, he said. And she had been taking one of the bad generics.He agreed to see if her mom would be willing to chat with me. When I met Holly Goetz at her home in Portsmouth, Virginia, she was open and personable. She was angry, too. Hannah had died too young. She welcomed the chance to tell her daughters story. I was excited, because someone was going to research this issue, Holly told me recently. Possibly turn things around. Before wed met, shed been told she didnt have any legal recourse to sue over Hannahs death despite the issue with the generic. Lawyers told Holly it was impossible to draw a straight line from Hannahs death to a generic manufacturer.I knew that in telling Hannahs story in detail, Id also be telling the larger story about tacrolimus, and larger still about the systemic failures at the FDA. ProPublicas reporting typically focuses on exposing wrongdoing in the hopes of spurring change. I wasnt sure whether our reporting would bring Holly the accountability she yearned for, at least not in a tangible way. I hoped Hollys experience sharing an intimate, tragic part of her life wouldnt end up being a disappointment.Holly had been by Hannahs side, advocating for her since she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and through the four-year journey after the transplant. Over several hours as the sky turned dark that February day, she took me through all that happened from Hannahs sudden need for a transplant where she almost died, to her doing well enough to take college courses and enjoy having her first (and only) real boyfriend, to her unexpected decline just three and half years after the successful transplant.It was hard, because I was reliving everything over again, Holly said of our first interview at her home. Then again, I got to talk to someone else about Hannah, who she was, not just her in the hospital.As she showed me Hannahs peach bedroom that day, with its dozens of stuffed animals and the hair bows she wore every day when she was in school, Holly shared that when Hannah was a little girl she started sticking her tongue out in pictures. Holly laughed, saying she thought for sure Hannah would outgrow the habit, but it turned into her signature pose. Now, one of those pictures hangs from Hollys rearview mirror in her car, one of many touchstones. There are photos and memorabilia of Hannah all over the house. I felt privileged to step into Hollys own bedroom to see the pink urn with angel wings that holds Hannahs ashes.During our conversation, I realized that my reporting had given me access to key details about Hannahs death that Holly didnt know. I didnt relish being the messenger who informed her that Hannah had taken not just one but actually two different suspect generic versions of tacrolimus, that she had the misfortune of exclusively taking ones that doctors, pharmacists or the FDA had found problematic. Hollys eyes widened. I had to share, too, that the FDA had revoked one versions generic status just two months after Hannah had died.The two manufacturers of the generic medication Hannah was taking, companies named Accord and Dr. Reddys, both maintain that their tacrolimus is safe and effective. An Accord spokesperson said in a statement that the company cannot comment on individual cases but that it is dedicated to patient safety, product quality and regulatory compliance. Dr. Reddys said in a statement that it hasnt received any complaints that indicated any concerns in patient safety.The next day as I made the three-hour drive back to Washington, D.C., where I live, I called one of ProPublicas managing editors, Tracy Weber, whom Ive known for years. I cried as I described my conversation with Holly. One unavoidable aspect of my job is that Im often asking people about the worst things that have happened to them. In my two decades as a reporter quite a few of those years spent covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars Ive sat at many kitchen tables with grieving mothers. Talking with Holly, though, was the first time Id done so as a mother myself. Her sorrow hit me differently.Over the next nine months, Id be a constant presence in Hollys life. We texted hundreds of times. She dug up old photos and videos and gave me access to Hannahs private Instagram account. One of the hardest moments was listening to a recording Holly sent of the doctors telling Hannah shortly before she died that they couldnt give her a second transplant.The ask from an investigative reporter is never just, Tell me about your loved one. Our work requires meticulous detail and all the receipts. I had to recruit Holly to take considerable time to help with my reporting.There were four years of medical care I needed to comb through to write the story, which meant asking Holly to track down records from two hospitals and, crucially, the pharmacy where Hannah had gotten all her medications. It wasnt a simple task.Hannah was an adult when she died, so Holly wasnt automatically entitled to her records. Although Hannah had signed an advance directive giving Holly power of attorney before her death, including the ability to request records, Holly still couldnt get access.She had to recruit a lawyer friend and attend probate court to get Hannahs hospital records for me. What I had to go through to get them was ridiculous, Holly said. I first asked about the records in February. It took until May for her to get appointed as executor of Hannahs estate, and then several more months for the hospitals and pharmacy to fulfil Hollys request and send her the records. We didnt have them until July.There were upwards of 13,000 pages all of which she shared with me. Sometimes, the records meant I had to ask uncomfortable questions of Holly. Why, for example, didnt Hannah consistently take her medication for her pancreas? Did that mean she also didnt take her tacrolimus? (Answers: She didnt like how the pancreas drug made her feel, and Holly was so insistent on guaranteeing her daughter took her tacrolimus that she made her FaceTime when she took the pills away from home.) Holly was unfazed by even the most difficult questions. She and Hannah were alike that way: There was no shrinking from the world. Holly made my job a lot easier; she didnt have to.I hesitated each time I had to reach out, wondering if texting about Hannah in the middle of the day would be jarring. What was it like for Holly to check her phone on her break from teaching high schoolers and be greeted with a message that would take her back to Hannahs final days in the hospital? To my relief, Holly told me later she looked forward to my texts or calls. I like sharing everything about Hannah, she said.Holly said she had agreed to talk to ProPublica because she thought speaking to me and the resulting story might bring her a sense of closure. Did it? I asked her.Yes, because more people know now what really happened, she said. The real story.Read MoreHow the FDAs Lax Generic Drug Rules Put Her Life at RiskThe post Her Daughter Died After Taking a Generic Version of a Lifesaving Drug. This Is What She Wants You to Know. appeared first on ProPublica.

When Ciji Graham visited a cardiologist on Nov. 14, 2023, her heart was pounding at 192 beats per minute, a rate healthy people her age usually reach during the peak of a sprint. She was having another episode of atrial fibrillation, a rapid, irregular heartbeat. The 34-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina, police officer was at risk of a stroke or heart failure.In the past, doctors had always been able to shock Grahams heart back into rhythm with a procedure called a cardioversion. But this time, the treatment was just out of reach. After a pregnancy test came back positive, the cardiologist didnt offer to shock her. Graham texted her friend from the appointment: Said she cant cardiovert being pregnant.The doctor told Graham to consult three other specialists and her primary care provider before returning in a week, according to medical records. Then she sent Graham home as her heart kept hammering.Like hundreds of thousands of women each year who enter pregnancy with chronic conditions, Graham was left to navigate care in a country where medical options have significantly narrowed.As ProPublica has reported, doctors in states that ban abortion have repeatedly denied standard care to high-risk pregnant patients. The expert consensus is that cardioversion is safe during pregnancy, and ProPublica spoke with more than a dozen specialists who said they would have immediately admitted Graham to a hospital to get her heart rhythm under control. They found fault, too, with a second cardiologist she saw the following day, who did not perform an electrocardiogram and also sent her home. Although Grahams family gave the doctors permission to speak with ProPublica, neither replied to ProPublicas questions.Graham came to believe that the best way to protect her health was to end her unexpected pregnancy. But because of new abortion restrictions in North Carolina and nearby states, finding a doctor who could quickly perform a procedure would prove difficult. Many physicians and hospitals now hesitate to discuss abortion, even when women ask about it. And abortion clinics are not set up to treat certain medically complicated cases. As a result, sick pregnant women like Graham are often on their own.I cant feel like this for 9mo, Graham wrote her friend. I just cant.She wouldnt. In a region that had legislated its commitment to life, she would spend her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers.Carolyn Graham holds a portrait of her daughter Ciji, who was a police officer. Andrea Ellen Reed for ProPublicaGraham hated feeling out of breath; her life demanded all her energy. Widely admired for her skills behind the wheel, she was often called upon to train fellow officers at the Greensboro Police Department. At home, she needed to chase her 2-year-old son, SJ, around the apartment. She was a natural with kids shed helped her single mom raise her nine younger siblings.She thought her surprise pregnancy had caused the atrial fibrillation, also called A-fib. In addition to heart disease, she had a thyroid disorder; pregnancy could send the gland into overdrive, prompting dangerous heart rhythms.When Graham saw the first cardiologist, Dr. Sabina Custovic, the 192 heart rate recorded on an EKG should have been a clear cause for alarm. I cant think of any situation where I would feel comfortable sending anyone home with a heart rate of 192, said Dr. Jenna Skowronski, a cardiologist at the University of North Carolina. A dozen cardiologists and maternal-fetal medicine specialists who reviewed Grahams case for ProPublica agreed. The risk of death was low, but the fact that she was also reporting symptoms severe palpitations, trouble breathing meant the health dangers were significant.All the experts said they would have tried to treat Graham with IV medication in the hospital and, if that failed, an electrical shock. Cardioversion wouldnt necessarily be simple likely requiring an invasive ultrasound to check for blood clots beforehand but it was crucial to slow down her heart. A leading global organization for arrhythmia professionals, the Heart Rhythm Society, has issued clear guidance that cardioversion is safe and effective in pregnancy.Even if the procedure posed a small risk to the pregnancy, the risk of not treating Graham was far greater, said Rhode Island cardiologist Dr. Daniel Levine: No mother, no baby.Custovic did not answer ProPublicas questions about why the pregnancy made her hold off on the treatment or whether abortion restrictions affect her decision-making.The next day as her heart continued to thump Graham saw a second cardiologist, Dr. Will Camnitz, at Cone Health, one of the regions largest health care systems.According to medical records, Grahams pulse registered as normal when taken at Camnitzs office, as it had at her appointment the previous day. Camnitz noted that the EKG from the day before showed she was in A-fib and prescribed a blood thinner to prepare for a cardioversion in three weeks if by then she hadnt returned to a regular heart rhythm on her own.Some of the experts who reviewed Grahams care said that this was a reasonable plan if her pulse was, indeed, normal. But Camnitz, who specializes in the electrical activity of the heart, did not order another EKG to confirm that her heart rate had come down from 192, according to medical records. Hes an electrophysiologist and he didnt do that, which is insane, said Dr. Kayle Shapero, a cardio-obstetrics specialist at Brown University. According to experts, a pulse measurement can underestimate the true heart rate of a patient in A-fib. Every cardiologist who reviewed Grahams care for ProPublica said that a repeat EKG would be best practice. If Grahams rate was still as high as it was the previous day, her heart could eventually stop delivering enough blood to major organs. Camnitz did not answer ProPublicas questions about why he didnt administer this test.Three weeks was a long time to wait with a heart that Graham kept saying was practically leaping out of her chest.Ciji Grahams business card from the Greensboro Police Department hangs on the fridge in Shawn Scotts home above a baby picture of their son, SJ. Graham used to leave love notes on the fridge for Scott before she left for work. Andrea Ellen Reed for ProPublicaCamnitz knew about Grahams pregnancy but did not discuss whether she wanted to continue it or advise her on her options, according to medical records. That same day, though, Graham reached out to A Womans Choice, the sole abortion clinic in Greensboro.North Carolina bans abortion after 12 weeks; Graham was only about six weeks pregnant. Still, there was a long line ahead of her. Women were flooding the state from Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, where new abortion bans were even stricter. On top of that, a recent change in North Carolina law required an in-person consent visit three days before a termination. The same number of patients were now filling twice as many appointment slots.Graham would need to wait nearly two weeks for an abortion.Its unclear if she explained her symptoms to the clinic; A Womans Choice spokesperson said it routinely discards appointment forms and no longer had a copy of Grahams. But the spokesperson told ProPublica that a procedure at the clinic would not have been right for Graham; because of her high heart rate, she would have needed a hospital with more resources.Dr. Jessica Tarleton, an abortion provider who spent the past few years working in the Carolinas, said she frequently encountered pregnant women with chronic conditions who faced this kind of catch-22: Their risks were too high to be treated in a clinic, and it would be safest to get care at a hospital, but it could be very hard to find one willing to terminate a pregnancy.In states where abortions have been criminalized, many hospitals have shied away from sharing information about their policies on abortion. Cone Health, where Graham typically went for care, would not tell ProPublica whether its doctors perform abortions and under what circumstances; it said, Cone Health provides personalized and individualized care to each patient based on their medical needs while complying with state and federal laws.Graham never learned that she would need an abortion at a hospital rather than a clinic. Physicians at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, the premier academic medical centers in the state, said that she would have been able to get one at their hospitals but that would have required a doctor to connect her or for Graham to have somehow known to show up.Had Graham lived in another country, she may not have faced this maze alone.In the United Kingdom, for example, a doctor trained in caring for pregnant women with risky medical conditions would have been assigned to oversee all of Grahams care, ensuring it was appropriate, said Dr. Marian Knight, who leads the U.K.s maternal mortality review program. Hospitals in the U.K. also must abide by standardized national protocols or face regulatory consequences. Researchers point to these factors, as well as a national review system, as key to the countrys success in lowering its rate of maternal death. The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is more than double that of the U.K. and last on the list of wealthy countries.Grahams friend Shameka Jackson could tell that something was wrong. Graham didnt seem like her usual perky and silly self, Jackson said. On the phone, she sounded weak, her voice barely louder than a whisper.When Jackson offered to come over, Graham said it would be a waste of time. Theres nothing you can do but sit with me, Jackson said she replied. The doctors aint doing nothing.Graham no longer cooked or played with her son after work, said her boyfriend, Shawn Scott. She stopped hoisting SJ up to let him dunk on the hoop on the closet door. Now, she headed straight for the couch and barely spoke, except to say that no one would shock her heart.I hate feeling like this, she texted Jackson. Aint slept, chest hurts.All I can do is wait until the 28th, Graham said, the date of her scheduled abortion.Scott sits on a bed in the apartment complex where he once lived with Graham. Andrea Ellen Reed for ProPublicaOn the morning of Nov. 19, Scott awoke to a rap on the front door of the apartment he and Graham shared. Hed been asleep on the couch after a night out with friends and thought that Graham had left for work.A police officer introduced himself and explained that Graham hadnt shown up and wasnt answering her phone. He knew she hadnt been feeling well and wanted to check in.Most mornings, Graham was up around 5 a.m. to prepare for the day. With Scott, she would brush SJs teeth, braid his hair and dress him in stylish outfits, complete with Jordans or Chelsea boots.When Scott walked into their bedroom, Graham was face down in bed, her body cold when he touched her. The two men pulled her down to the floor to start CPR, but it was too late. SJ stood in his crib, silently watching as they realized.The medical examiner would list Grahams cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia due to atrial fibrillation in the setting of recent pregnancy. There was no autopsy, which could have identified the specific complication that led to her death.Scott shows a collage of photos from his relationship with Graham. Andrea Ellen Reed for ProPublicaHigh-risk pregnancy specialists and cardiologists who reviewed Grahams case were taken aback by Custovics failure to act urgently. Many said her decisions reminded them of behaviors theyve seen from other cardiologists when treating pregnant patients; they attribute this kind of hesitation to gaps in education. Although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in pregnant women, a recent survey developed with the American College of Cardiology found that less than 30% of cardiologists reported formal training in managing heart conditions in pregnancy. A large proportion of the cardiology workforce feels uncomfortable providing care to these patients, the authors concluded in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The legal threats attached to abortion bans, many doctors have told ProPublica, have made some cardiologists even more conservative.Custovic did not answer ProPublicas questions about whether she felt she had adequate training. A spokesperson for Cone Health, where Camnitz works, said, Cone Healths treatment for pregnant women with underlying cardiac disease is consistent with accepted standards of care in our region. Although Grahams family gave the hospital permission to discuss Grahams care with ProPublica, the hospital did not comment on specifics.Three doctors who have served on state maternal mortality review committees, which study the deaths of pregnant women, told ProPublica that Grahams death was preventable. There were so many points where they could have intervened, said Dr. Amelia Huntsberger, a former member of Idahos panel.Shawn SJ Scott Jr. at his aunts house in Kannapolis, North Carolina Andrea Ellen Reed for ProPublicaGrahams is the seventh case ProPublica has investigated in which a pregnant woman in a state that significantly restricted abortion died after she was unable to access standard care.The week after she died, Grahams family held a candlelight ceremony outside of her high school, which drew friends and cops in uniform, and also Greensboro residents whose lives she had touched. One woman approached Grahams sisters and explained Graham had interrupted her suicide attempt five years earlier and reassured her that her life had value; she had recently texted Graham, If it wasnt for you, I wouldnt be here today, expecting my first child.As for Grahams own son, no one explained to SJ that his mother had died. They didnt know how to describe death to a toddler. Instead, his dad and grandmother and aunts and uncles told him that his mom had left Earth and gone to the moon. SJ now calls it the Mommy moon.For the past two years, every night before bed, he asks to go outside, even on the coldest winter evenings. He points to the moon in the dark sky and tells his mother that he loves her.The post A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldnt Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion. appeared first on ProPublica.

Last year, when Utah lawmakers passed the nations first statewide ban on community water fluoridation, they included a provision making it easier for people to get fluoride supplements without having to visit a dental provider.This would make fluoride available through individual choice, rather than mass public dosing, as a Utah House of Representatives webpage put it part of the rising rhetoric of skepticism thats led to rollbacks of water fluoridation, a proven method to reduce tooth decay.Its what I like to refer to as the win-win, right? Speaker Mike Schultz said on a June episode of the House Rules podcast from the Utah House. Those that want fluoride can now get fluoride easier, and those that dont want fluoride in their drinking water dont have to have that.But even as critics point to fluoride supplements as an alternative along with fluoride toothpaste, rinses and varnishes many are creating barriers to these same products.Under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s oversight, the Food and Drug Administration said it issued notices to four businesses about their ingestible fluoride supplements for children and also put out new guidance for health professionals.In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched investigations into two large companies over their marketing of fluoride toothpaste to parents and children.And changes to Medicaid in President Donald Trumps so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten to make it harder than it already is for the most vulnerable people to access any oral health care at all, let alone fluoride treatments at a dentists office.More than anything, experts say, alarmist language from high-profile officials is trickling down to the public, leading more people to question whether any form of fluoride in drinking water or in other treatments is a good idea.Scott Tomar, a professor and associate dean at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry, is among those who have watched with dismay as the conversation about fluoride has been affected by arguments likely to scare people.Im certain that the net result of all of this is going to be a greater reluctance on the part of parents and providers to prescribe fluoride supplements, Tomar said.Low, consistent exposure to fluoride is widely credited for dramatic declines in decaying teeth. But long-simmering skepticism about its use gained more influence in recent years, especially with Kennedys credibility and influence as the nations chief health officer.The evidence against fluoride is overwhelming, he said as he stood alongside Utah lawmakers at a press conference in Salt Lake City last April.Even though the science to support his conclusions is limited, he claimed that fluoride causes IQ loss, profound IQ loss, and he linked water fluoridation to ADHD, hypothyroidism, osteoarthritis, and kidney and liver issues.Lee Zeldin, who leads the Environmental Protection Agency, spoke at the Utah event, too, crediting Kennedy for helping to spur the agencys review of its standard for fluoride in drinking water. An EPA spokesperson, in a statement to ProPublica, said that the agencys next analysis of new scientific information on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water was not due until 2030, but this agency is moving at Trump Speed.Meanwhile, the FDA is partnering with other federal agencies to develop what it called a fluoride research agenda. And, as part of a series of drastic cutbacks last spring, the Division of Oral Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was eliminated.In a statement emailed to ProPublica, an HHS spokesperson argued that fluorides predominant benefit to teeth comes from topical contact with the outside of the teeth, not from ingestion. There is no need, therefore, to ingest fluoride.Fluorides opponents cite a hotly debated state of the science report from the National Toxicology Program in 2024, saying that it shows an association between fluoride exposure and a lowered IQ in children.But those findings are not widely embraced because of the reviews limitations. It analyzed studies conducted outside the U.S., with different water conditions, and involving fluoride levels at more than twice the standard for drinking water here. The report itself states, in bold type, that it does not address whether the sole exposure to fluoride added to drinking water at the recommended level in the United States and Canada is associated with a measurable effect on IQ.In this atmosphere, as ProPublica has reported, theres been widespread wavering on water fluoridation, even in Michigan, where the treatment debuted more than 80 years ago.Florida joined Utah in banning fluoridation statewide. Bills to do the same were introduced in at least 19 other states last year, and that momentum is carrying forward, with statewide bans recently proposed in Arizona and South Carolina. Meanwhile, local debates over fluoridation are turning raucous.Utahs dental professionals are concerned about how to stave off an expected hit to oral health, as other communities experienced when they cut off fluoridation.We get heartburn over the situation, said James Bekker, a pediatric dentist and past president of the Utah Dental Association.Gov. Spencer Cox signed HB 81 into law in 2025, making Utah the first state to ban the addition of fluoride to public drinking water. Utah State LegislatureBekker and others are piecing together ways to provide other forms of fluoride treatment to Utahns. But hes worried, he said, about all these susceptible, vulnerable children in underserved populations that dont have a choice and dont have a voice, but they are going to suffer.Shortly after Utah banned fluoridation, the FDA took aim at the kind of supplements that lawmakers had presented as a key alternative. The agency announced that it was working to remove certain ingestible fluoride products for children from the market. Its press release described associations with changes to the gut microbiome, thyroid disorders, weight gain and possibly decreased IQ.More than 4,600 public comments poured into the FDA, including many from people worried about losing access to supplements while simultaneously losing water fluoridation.Now that fluoride has been removed from much of Utahs water, it is imperative to provide supplementation through other means, one orthodontist wrote. A dentist in South Florida criticized the scare tactics and bad science leading states like hers to ban fluoridation and said that prescribing fluoride drops and lozenges is one of the few alternatives for pediatric patients.On Oct. 31, the FDA announced efforts to restrict the sale of unapproved ingestible fluoride prescription drug products for children. The agency said it sent notices to four companies about marketing the supplements for children under 3 and older children with moderate or low risk for tooth decay. It also said it issued letters to health care professionals warning about the risks associated with these products.Even though the FDA landed short of a ban, Stuart Cooper, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network, called the agencys shift a major victory. He said he believes its just the start of federal action to limit the use of fluoride products that FAN has long campaigned against.Fluoride supplements, which emerged in the 1940s alongside water fluoridation, never went through an FDA review. A decade ago, Cooper said, FAN submitted a citizens petition that called for the agency to pull ingestible fluoride supplements from the market. What were seeing is that come to fruition, he said, because we finally have FDA employees who were willing to look at the issue.The FDAs stance on supplements is now at odds with several health organizations, including the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Several of them jointly support a graduated fluoride supplementation schedule that starts at six months for high-risk children.Johnny Johnson, a retired pediatric dentist in Florida, questions the FDAs risk parameters. If you dont have fluoride at appropriate levels in your water, by definition, you are at high risk of tooth decay, said Johnson, who heads the nonprofit American Fluoridation Society.The FDAs letter to health professionals recommends topical fluoride as an alternative, such as toothpaste. But even that method faces scrutiny. The Texas attorney generals office launched investigations into Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble, which sell Colgate and Crest fluoride toothpastes.Their marketing to parents and children is misleading, deceptive and dangerous, Paxtons office said in a press release. Referencing the NTP report on fluoridation, the release said the investigation came amid a growing body of scientific evidence demonstrating that excessive fluoride exposure is not safe for children.In September, Paxtons office announced a historic agreement with Colgate-Palmolive. When its packaging and promotional material for childrens fluoride toothpaste shows the paste on a brush, the company will display a pea-sized amount, rather than the traditional swirl. This month, Paxtons office reported a similar settlement with Procter & Gamble.A representative from Colgate-Palmolive said in a statement to ProPubica that Paxtons press release acknowledged that we already provide directions on our packaging that complies with U.S. FDA requirements for how our childrens fluoride toothpastes should be used. Procter & Gamble said in a statement that the Texas Attorney General acknowledged in the settlement that our products comply with all laws and regulations regarding directions for use.Another tool for fluoride treatment is varnish applied during a dental checkup, which may be provided at free or reduced cost through insurance programs. But even with health coverage, there are barriers that often make it difficult to see the dentists and pediatricians providing such treatment. Recent research found that insurance denials for fluoride varnish applications can add another layer of complication for patients and providers.Supplemental fluoride treatments are limited, compared with the effectiveness, reach and cost of fluoride in drinking water, said Johnson, the retired pediatric dentist, but it is the only option that we have in Florida and in Utah.Nothing replaces fluoridated water, he added. Nothing comes close.The post After Sowing Distrust in Fluoridated Water, Kennedy and Skeptics Turn to Obstructing Other Fluoride Sources appeared first on ProPublica.

Craig Stingley had no legal training, no big-name lawyer or civil rights advocate by his side. Yet for 13 years, he refused to accept that the judicial system would hold no one responsible for the killing of his 16-year-old son, Corey.The quest for justice dominated his life.He gathered police reports, witness statements and other evidence in the Dec. 14, 2012, fatal incident inside a Milwaukee-area convenience store. The youth had tried to shoplift $12 worth of flavored malt beverages at the shop before abandoning the items and turning to leave. Thats when three men wrestled him to the ground to hold him for the police.The medical examiner determined that he died of a brain injury from asphyxiation after a violent struggle with multiple individuals. The manner of death: homicide.When prosecutors chose not to charge anyone, Stingley waged a legal campaign of his own that forced the case to be reexamined. A 2023 ProPublica investigation pieced together a detailed timeline of what happened inside the store, recounted what witnesses saw and examined the backgrounds of the three customers involved in the altercation.Finally, this week, in an extraordinary turn of events, Stingley will see a measure of accountability. On Monday, a criminal complaint filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court charged the surviving patrons Robert W. Beringer and Jesse R. Cole with felony murder. The defendants are set to appear in court on Thursday.Beringers attorney, Tony Cotton, described the broad outlines of a deferred prosecution agreement that can lead to the charges being dismissed after the two men plead guilty or no contest. The men may be required by the court to make a contribution to a charity in honor of Corey Stingley and to perform community service, avoiding prison time, according to Cotton and Craig Stingley.In Wisconsin, felony murder is a special category for incidents in which the commission of a serious crime in this case, false imprisonment causes the death of another person. The prosecutors office in Dane County, which is handling the matter, declined to comment. Coles attorney said his client had no comment. Previously, the three men have argued that their actions were justified, citing self-defense and their need to respond to an emergency.For Stingley, a key part of the accountability process already has taken place. Last year, as part of a restorative justice program and under the supervision of a retired judge, Stingley and the two men interacted face to face in separate meetings.There, inside an office on a Milwaukee college campus, they confronted the traumatic events that led to Corey Stingleys death and the still-roiling feelings of resentment, sorrow and pain.Craig Stingley said he felt that, after years of downplaying their role, the men showed regret and a deeper understanding of what had happened. For instance, Stingley said, he and Cole aired out their different perspectives on what occurred and even reviewed store surveillance video together.I have never been able to breathe as clearly and as deeply and feel as free as I have after that meeting was over, Stingley said.Restorative justice programs bring together survivors and offenders via meetings or letters or through community panels to try to deepen understanding, promote healing and discuss how best to make amends for a wide range of harms. The approach has been used by schools and juvenile and criminal justice systems, as well as nations grappling with large-scale atrocities.Situations where restorative justice and deferred prosecution are employed for such serious charges are rare, Cotton said. But, he said, the whole case is rare from the prosecution declining to issue charges initially to holding it open for multiple reviews over a decade.Our hearts go out to the Stingley family, and we believe that the restorative justice process has allowed all sides to express their feelings openly, Cotton said. We are glad that a fair and just outcome has been achieved.A medical examiner determined that Corey Stingley died of a brain injury from asphyxiation after an altercation with three men at a convenience store in 2012. Prosecutors assigned to the case declined to press charges. Taylor Glascock for ProPublicaThe Legal QuestMilwaukees district attorney at the time of Corey Stingleys death, John Chisholm, announced there would be no charges 13 months later, in January 2014. Cole, Beringer and a third man, Maurio Laumann, now deceased, were not culpable because they did not intend to injure or kill the teen and werent trained in proper restraint techniques, Chisholm determined.Craig Stingley, who is Black, and others in the community protested the decision, claiming the three men all white were not good Samaritans but had acted violently to kill a Black youth with impunity. When a person loses his life at the hands of others, it would seem that a chargeable offense has occurred, the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP said in a statement at the time.Looking for a way to reopen the case, Stingley reexamined the evidence, including security video. In a painful exercise, he watched the takedown of his son, by his estimation hundreds of times, analyzing who did what, frame by frame. What he saw only reinforced his view that his sons death was unnecessary and his right to due process denied.Corey Stingley and his father lived only blocks from VJs Food Mart, in West Allis, Wisconsin. That December day, Stingley made his way to the back of the store and stuck six bottles of Smirnoff Ice into his backpack. At the front counter, the teenager provided his debit card to pay for an energy drink, but the clerk demanded the stolen items. Stingley surrendered the backpack, reached toward the cash register to recover his debit card, then turned to exit.Cole told police he extended his hand to stop Stingley and claimed that the teen punched him in the face, though it is not evident on the video. The three men grabbed the youth. During a struggle, the men pinned Stingley to the floor.Laumann kept Stingley in a chokehold, several witnesses told investigators. ProPublica later discovered that Laumann had been a Marine. His brother told ProPublica he likely learned how to apply chokeholds as part of his military service decades ago.Beringer had Stingley by the hair and was pressing on the teens head, a witness told authorities. Cole helped to hold Stingley down. Eventually, Stingley stopped resisting. The police report states that Cole thought the teen was playing limp to trick them into loosening their grip.Get up, you punk! Laumann told the motionless teen when an officer finally arrived, according to a police report. Stingley was foaming at the mouth and had urinated through his clothes. The officer couldnt find a pulse. Stingley never regained consciousness, dying at a hospital two weeks later.Corey Stingley, far right, with his siblings in a 2010 portrait. He was 16 at the time of his death. Courtesy of Craig StingleyCraig Stingley unsuccessfully sought a meeting with Chisholm in 2015 to discuss the lack of charges. Feel free to seek legal advice in the private sector regarding your Constitutional Rights, an assistant to Chisholm replied to Stingley in an email. I extend my deepest sympathy to you and your family!Stingleys review of the video, however, did bring about another legal opportunity in 2017, after he notified West Allis police that there was footage showing Laumann with his arm around the teens throat. (Laumann had denied putting him in a headlock.) A Racine County district attorney was appointed to review the evidence again. She issued no report for three years, until pressed by the court, then concluded that no charges were warranted.Finally, Stingley discovered an obscure Wisconsin John Doe statute. It allows private citizens to petition a judge to consider whether a crime had been committed if a district attorney refuses to issue a criminal complaint.A former process engineer for an electrical transformer manufacturer, Stingley had no legal training. Still, in November 2020, he filed a 14-page petition with the then-chief judge of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Mary Triggiano. It cited legal authority and material facts, including excerpts from police reports, witness statements and stills from the surveillance video. Stingley quoted former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in the petition and the British statesman William Gladstone: Justice delayed is justice denied.That led to the appointment in July 2022 of Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to review the case. But that process was slowed by procedural hurdles. Stingley took the delays in stride, saying he trusted that Ozanne and his staff were treating the matter seriously and acting appropriately.In 2024, Stingley said, Ozannes office advised him that they had found sufficient evidence to issue charges against Cole and Beringer but could not guarantee that a jury would deliver a guilty verdict. Stingley, researching the familys options, said he inquired about the restorative justice process. The DAs office supported the idea, arranging for him and the two men to meet under the supervision of the Andrew Center for Restorative Justice, part of the law school at Milwaukees Marquette University. The program is run by Triggiano, whod retired from the court.The concept of restorative justice can be traced back to indigenous cultures, where people sat together to talk through conflict and solve problems. It emerged in the United States in criminal justice systems in the 1970s as a way to provide alternatives to prison and restitution to victims. Elsewhere, it has notably been used to address the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, where beginning in 2002 truth-telling forums led to forgiveness and reconciliation.Stingley, who has three remaining grown children and four grandchildren, desperately wanted balance restored for his family. He decided the best path forward was to meet with the men he considered responsible for his sons death.Stingley now sees the charges as a message of accountability in his sons case. Taylor Glascock for ProPublicaThe Quest for ClosureStingley brought photos of Corey to the restorative justice meeting with Berringer in April.The goal: to respectfully share their perspectives on the tragedy and how it impacted each of them personally. What was said was not recorded or transcribed. It was not for use in any court proceeding.The sessions began with the Stingley family sharing heartfelt stories about Corey as a son, brother, student and friend. They spoke of their great bond, Coreys love of sports and their struggle to cope with his absence.When discussion turned to what happened in the store, Stingley said, Berringer described having only faint memories of the fatal encounter. He recalled a brief struggle and grabbing the teen by his jacket, not his hair.Before departing the meeting, a tearful Beringer told Stingley he was looking for peace, Stingley recalled.Cotton, Beringers attorney, told ProPublica that the incident and the legal steps affected his client in profound ways. Hes had anxiety really from this from day one, Cotton said.The result, he said: Sleeplessness. Horrible anxiety. Fearful because he has to go to court.Does the resolution ease Beringers mind? I dont know, Cotton said, adding that the hope is that the Stingley family finds solace in the resolution process.Cole, in a meeting in May with Stingley and some of his family, brought a gift: a pair of angel wings on a gold chain with a small C charm and several clear reflective orbs. With it came a handwritten note, saying: I hope this sun catcher brings a gentle reflection of the love & light of Coreys memory and that you feel his presence shining on you each day.I told him I appreciate the gesture, Stingley said.Cole, according to Stingley, told him that he felt something other than the altercation perhaps some health ailment led to Coreys demise.Stingley invited Cole to watch the surveillance video together at a second session. As that day neared, in July, Stingley considered backing out. It was almost as if I had to drag myself up out of the car, he said. But he said he realized that hed been preparing for such an event for 13 years: to come to some honest reckoning with the men involved.After watching the video, he and Cole reviewed the death certificate, showing the medical examiners conclusions. Stingley said Cole stressed that he did not choke Corey but came to realize that what happened in the store caused the teen to lose his life, not any preexisting condition. The acknowledgment eased Stingleys burden.I felt like I was reaching a place where I was finally going to get the justice that Ive been pursuing, Stingley said, and this is one of the steps I had to go through to get that completed.Triggiano commended each of the participants for their courage in meeting and the Stingley family for seeking the humanity of their son as opposed to vengeance. She said Beringer and Cole keenly listened, reflected and really acknowledged their connection to the events that led to Coreys death.The conversations were emotional and difficult but deeply human, she said.After the loss of his son, Stingley wanted to see the three men imprisoned. But so many years later, justice now looks different. Now Laumann is dead. Beringer is changed by the experience. And Cole is a father eager to protect his own children.Now, in Stingleys eyes, prison is beside the point. Criminal charges will stand instead as a strong signal of accountability, of justice and of a fathers unyielding love.The post A Fathers Quest for Justice Finds Resolution After 13 Years appeared first on ProPublica.

Immigration agents have put civilians lives at risk using more than their guns.An agent in Houston put a teenage citizen into a chokehold, wrapping his arm around the boys neck, choking him so hard that his neck had red welts hours later. A black-masked agent in Los Angeles pressed his knee into a womans neck while she was handcuffed; she then appeared to pass out. An agent in Massachusetts jabbed his finger and thumb into the neck and arteries of a young father who refused to be separated from his wife and 1-year-old daughter. The mans eyes rolled back in his head and he started convulsing.After George Floyds murder by a police officer six years ago in Minneapolis less than a mile from where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good last week police departments and federal agencies banned chokeholds and other moves that can restrict breathing or blood flow.But those tactics are back, now at the hands of agents conducting President Donald Trumps mass deportation campaign.Examples are scattered across social media. ProPublica found more than 40 cases over the past year of immigration agents using these life-threatening maneuvers on immigrants, citizens and protesters. The agents are usually masked, their identities secret. The government wont say if any of them have been punished.In nearly 20 cases, agents appeared to use chokeholds and other neck restraints that the Department of Homeland Security prohibits unless deadly force is authorized.About two dozen videos show officers kneeling on peoples necks or backs or keeping them face down on the ground while already handcuffed. Such tactics are not prohibited outright but are often discouraged, including by federal trainers, in part because using them for a prolonged time risks asphyxiation.We reviewed footage with a panel of eight former police officers and law enforcement experts. They were appalled.This is what bad policing looks like, they said. And it puts everyone at risk.I arrested dozens upon dozens of drug traffickers, human smugglers, child molesters some of them will resist, said Eric Balliet, who spent more than two decades working at Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, including in the first Trump administration. I dont remember putting anybody in a chokehold. Period.If this was one of my officers, he or she would be facing discipline, said Gil Kerlikowske, a longtime police chief in Seattle who also served as Customs and Border Protection commissioner under President Barack Obama. You have these guys running around in fatigues, with masks, with Police on their uniform, but they arent acting like professional police.Over the past week, the conduct of agents has come under intense scrutiny after an ICE officer in Minneapolis killed Good, a mother of three. The next day, a Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon, shot a man and woman in a hospital parking lot.Top administration officials rushed to defend the officers. Speaking about the agent who shot Good, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, This is an experienced officer who followed his training.Officials said the same thing to us after we showed them footage of officers using prohibited chokeholds. Federal agents have followed their training to use the least amount of force necessary, department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.Officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.Both DHS and the White House lauded the utmost professionalism of their agents.Our compilation of incidents is far from complete. Just as the government does not count how often it detains citizens or smashes through vehicle windows during immigration arrests, it does not publicly track how many times agents have choked civilians or otherwise inhibited their breathing or blood flow. We gathered cases by searching legal filings, social media posts and local press reports in English and Spanish.Given the lack of any count over time, its impossible to know for certain how agents current use of the banned and dangerous tactics compares with earlier periods.But former immigration officials told us they rarely heard of such incidents during their long tenures. They also recalled little pushback when DHS formally banned chokeholds and other tactics in 2023; it was merely codifying the norm.That norm has now been broken.One of the citizens whom agents put in a chokehold was 16 years old.American citizen Arnoldo Bazan was hospitalized after being choked and pinned to the ground at a restaurant supply store in Houston during the arrest of his father nearby. Courtesy of the Bazan familyTenth grader Arnoldo Bazan and his father were getting McDonalds before school when their car was pulled over by unmarked vehicles. Masked immigration agents started banging on their windows. As Arnoldos undocumented father, Arnulfo Bazan Carrillo, drove off, the terrified teenager began filming on his phone. The video shows the agents repeatedly ramming the Bazans car during a slow chase through the city.Bazan Carrillo eventually parked and ran into a restaurant supply store. When Arnoldo saw agents taking his father violently to the ground, Arnoldo went inside too, yelling at the agents to stop.One agent put Arnoldo in a chokehold while another pressed a knee into his fathers neck. I was going to school! the boy pleaded. He said later that when he told the agent he was a citizen and a minor, the agent didnt stop.I started screaming with everything I had, because I couldnt even breathe, Arnoldo told ProPublica, showing where the agents hands had closed around his throat. I felt like I was going to pass out and die.DHS McLaughlin accused Arnoldos dad of ramming his car into a federal law enforcement vehicle, but he was never charged for that, and the videos we reviewed do not support this claim. Our examination of his criminal history separate from any immigration violations found only that Bazan Carrillo pleaded guilty a decade ago to misdemeanor driving while intoxicated.McLaughlin also said the younger Bazan elbowed an officer in the face as he was detained, which the teen denies. She said that Arnoldo was taken into custody to confirm his identity and make sure he didnt have any weapons. McLaughlin did not answer whether the agents conduct was justified.Experts who reviewed video of the Bazans arrests could make no sense of the agents actions.Why are you in the middle of a store trying to grab somebody? said Marc Brown, a former police officer turned instructor who taught ICE and Border Patrol officers at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. Your arm underneath the neck, like a choking motion? No! The knee on the neck? Absolutely not.DHS revamped its training curriculum after George Floyds murder to underscore those tactics were out of bounds, Brown said. DHS specifically was very big on no choking, he said. We dont teach that. They were, like, hardcore against it. They didnt want to see anything with the word choke.After agents used another banned neck restraint a carotid hold a man started convulsing and passed out.Officers used a carotid hold on Carlos Sebastian Zapata Rivera while arresting his wife in Massachusetts. NewsflareIn early November, ICE agents in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, stopped a young father, Carlos Sebastian Zapata Rivera, as he drove with his family. They had come for his undocumented wife, whom they targeted after she was charged with assault for allegedly stabbing a co-worker in the hand with scissors.Body camera footage from the local police, obtained by ProPublica, captured much of what happened. The couples 1-year-old daughter began crying. Agents surrounded the car, looking in through open doors.According to the footage, an agent told Zapata Rivera that if his wife wouldnt come out, they would have to arrest him, too and their daughter would be sent into the foster system. The agent recounted the conversation to a local cop: Technically, I can arrest both of you, he said. If you no longer have a child, because the child is now in state custody, youre both gonna be arrested. Do you want to give your child to the state?Zapata Rivera, who has a pending asylum claim, clung to his family. His wife kept saying she wouldnt go anywhere without her daughter, whom she said was still breastfeeding. Zapata Rivera wouldnt let go of either of them.Federal agents seemed conflicted on how to proceed. I refuse to have us videotaped throwing someone to the ground while they have a child in their hands, one ICE agent told a police officer at the scene.But after more than an hour, agents held down Zapata Riveras arms. One, who Zapata Riveras lawyer says wore a baseball cap reading Ne Quis Effugiat Latin for So That None Will Escape pressed his thumbs into the arteries on Zapata Riveras neck. The young man then appeared to pass out as bystanders screamed.The technique is known as a carotid restraint. The two carotid arteries carry 70% of the brains blood flow; block them, and a person can quickly lose consciousness. The tactic can cause strokes, seizures, brain damage and death.Even milliseconds or seconds of interrupted blood flow to the brain can have serious consequences, Dr. Altaf Saadi, a neurologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, told us. Saadi said she couldnt comment on specific cases, but there is no amount of training or method of applying pressure on the neck that is foolproof in terms of avoiding neurologic damage.In a bystander video of Zapata Riveras arrest, his eyes roll back in his head and he suffers an apparent seizure, convulsing so violently that his daughter, seated in his lap, shakes with him.Video of Zapata Riveras arrest shows him shaking violently while suffering an apparent seizure in the front seat of his car, with officers continuing to attempt the arrest. NewsflareCarotid restraints are prohibited unless deadly force is authorized, DHS use-of-force policy states. Deadly force is authorized only when an officer believes theres an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury and there is no alternative.In a social media post after the incident and in its statement to ProPublica, DHS did not cite a deadly threat. Instead, it referenced the charges against Zapata Riveras wife and suggested he had only pretended to have a medical crisis while refusing help from paramedics. Imagine FAKING a seizure to help a criminal escape justice, the post said.These statements were lies, Zapata Rivera alleges in an ongoing civil rights lawsuit he filed against the ICE agent who used the carotid restraint. His lawyer told ProPublica that Zapata Rivera was disoriented after regaining consciousness; the lawsuit says he was denied medical attention. (Representatives for Zapata Rivera declined our requests for an interview with him. His wife has been released on bond, and her assault case awaits trial.)A police report and bodycam footage from Fitchburg officers at the scene, obtained via a public records request, back up Zapata Riveras account of being denied assistance. Hes fine, an agent told paramedics, according to footage. The police report says Zapata Rivera wanted medical attention but agents continued without stopping.Saadi, the Harvard neurologist, said that as a general matter, determining whether someone had a seizure is not something even neurologists can do accurately just by looking at it.DHS policy bars using chokeholds and carotid restraints just because someone is resisting arrest. Agents are doing it anyway.Federal officers arrested American citizen Luis Hipolito with a chokehold, pinning him to the ground in Los Angeles on June 24. @the_moxie_reportWhen DHS issued restrictions on chokeholds and carotid restraints, it stated that the moves must not be used as a means to control non-compliant subjects or persons resisting arrest. Deadly force shall not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject.But videos reviewed by ProPublica show that agents have been using these restraints to do just that.In Los Angeles in June, masked officers from ICE, Border Patrol and other federal agencies pepper-sprayed and then tackled another citizen, Luis Hipolito. As Hipolito struggled to get away, one of the agents put him in a chokehold. Another pointed a Taser at bystanders filming.Then Hipolitos body began to convulse a possible seizure. An onlooker warned the agents, You gonna let him die.In the video of Hipolitos arrest, four agents can be seen pulling at his body, choking him and pinning him to the pavement. @the_moxie_reportWhen officers make a mistake in the heat of the moment, said Danny Murphy, a former deputy commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, they need to correct it as quickly as possible.That didnt happen in Hipolitos case. The footage shows the immigration agent not only wrapping his arm around Hipolitos neck as he takes him down but also sticking with the chokehold after Hipolito is pinned on the ground.The agents actions are dangerous and unreasonable, Murphy said.Asked about the case, McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said that Hipolito was arrested for assaulting an ICE officer. Hipolitos lawyers did not respond to ProPublicas requests for comment.According to the Los Angeles Times, Hipolito limped into court days after the incident. Another citizen who was with him the day of the incident was also charged, but her case was dropped. Hipolito pleaded not guilty and goes to trial in February.Some of the conduct in the footage isnt banned but its discouraged and dangerous.An officer kneels on the neck of nurse and activist Amanda Trebach, a U.S. citizen, during an arrest in Los Angeles. Courtesy of Union del BarrioA video from Los Angeles shows a Colombian-born TikTokker who often filmed ICE apparently passed out after officers pulled her from her Tesla and knelt on her back or neck. Another video shows a DoorDash driver in Portland, Oregon, screaming for air as four officers pin him face down in the street. Aire, aire, aire, he says. No puedo respirar I cant breathe. Then: Estoy muriendo Im dying. A third video, from Chicago, shows an agent straddling a citizen and repeatedly pressing his face into the asphalt. Onlookers yell that the man cant breathe.Placing a knee on a prone subjects neck or weight on their back isnt banned under DHS use-of-force policy, but it can be dangerous and the longer it goes on, the higher the risk that the person wont be able to breathe.You really dont want to spend that amount of time just trying to get somebody handcuffed, said Kerlikowske, the former CPB commissioner, of the video of the arrest in Portland.Brown, the former federal instructor and now a lead police trainer at the University of South Carolina, echoed that. Once you get them handcuffed, you get them up, get them out of there, he said. If theyre saying they cant breathe, hurry up.DoorDash driver Victor Jos Brito Vallejo was pinned to the ground by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 11. The OregonianTaking a person down to the ground and restraining them there can be an appropriate way to get them in handcuffs, said Seth Stoughton, a former police officer turned law professor who also works at the University of South Carolina. But officers have long known to make it quick. By the mid-1990s, the federal government was advising officers against keeping people prolongedly in a prone position.When a federal agent kneeled on the neck of an intensive care nurse in August, she said she understood the danger she was in and tried to scream.I knew that the amount of pressure being placed on the back of my neck could definitely hurt me, said Amanda Trebach, a citizen and activist who was arrested in Los Angeles while monitoring immigration agents. I was having a hard time breathing because my chest was on the ground.McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said Trebach impeded agents vehicles and struck them with her signs and fists.Trebach denies this. She was released without any charges.Protesters have also been choked and strangled.In the fall, a protester in Chicago refused to stand back after a federal agent told him to do so. Suddenly, the agent grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him to the ground.No, no! one bystander exclaims. Hes not doing anything!DHS McLaughlin did not respond to questions about the incident.Along with two similar choking incidents at protests outside of ICE facilities, this is one of the few videos in which the run-up to the violence is clear. And the experts were aghast.Without anything I could see as even remotely a deadly force threat, he immediately goes for the throat, said Ashley Heiberger, a retired police captain from Pennsylvania who frequently testifies in use-of-force cases. Balliet, the former immigration official, said the agent turned the scene into a pissing contest that was explicitly out of control.Its so clearly excessive and ridiculous, Murphy said. Thats the kind of action which should get you fired.How big a threat did you think he was? Brown said, noting that the officer slung his rifle around his back before grabbing and body-slamming the protester. You cant go grab someone just because they say, F the police.Roving patrols + unplanned arrests = unsafe tactics.Two federal officers arrest a construction worker in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Nov. 19. Ryan Murphy/Getty ImagesIn November, Border Patrol agents rushed into the construction site of a future Panda Express in Charlotte, North Carolina, to check workers papers. When one man tried to run, an officer put him in a chokehold and later marched him out, bloodied, to a waiting SUV.The Charlotte operation was one of Border Patrols many forays into American cities, as agents led by commander-at-large Gregory Bovino claimed to target criminal illegal aliens but frequently chased down landscapers, construction workers and U.S. citizens in roving patrols through predominantly immigrant or Latino communities.Freelance photographer Ryan Murphy, who had been following Border Patrols convoys around Charlotte, documented the Panda Express arrest.Their tactics are less sophisticated than you would think, he told ProPublica. They sort of drive along the streets, and if they see somebody who looks to them like they could potentially be undocumented, they pull over.Experts told ProPublica that if officers are targeting a specific individual, they can minimize risks by deciding when, where and how to take them into custody. But when they dont know their target in advance, chaos and abuse can follow.They are encountering people they dont know anything about, said Scott Shuchart, a former assistant director at ICE.The stuff that Ive been seeing in the videos, Kerlikowske said, has been just ragtag, random.There may be other factors, too, our experts said, including quotas and a lack of consequences amid gutted oversight. With officers wearing masks, Shuchart said, even if they punch grandma in the face, they wont be identified.As they sweep into American cities, immigration officers are unconstrained and, the experts said, unprepared. Even well-trained officers may not be trained for the environments where they now operate. Patrolling a little-populated border region takes one set of skills. Working in urban areas, where citizens and protesters abound, takes another.DHS and Bovino did not respond to questions about their agents preparation or about the chokehold in Charlotte.Experts may think theres abuse. But holding officers to account? Thats another matter.Arnoldo, 16, and his sister, Maria Bazan, 27, at their home in Houston. Maria brought her brother to the hospital after his detention by federal officers. Danielle Villasana for ProPublicaBack in Houston, immigration officers dropped 16-year-old Arnoldo off at the doorstep of his family home a few hours after the arrest. His neck was bruised, and his new shirt was shredded. Videos taken by his older sisters show the soccer star struggling to speak through sobs.Uncertain what exactly had happened to him, his sister Maria Bazan took him to Texas Childrens Hospital, where staff identified signs of the chokehold and moved him to the trauma unit. Hospital records show he was given morphine for pain and that doctors ordered a dozen CT scans and X-rays, including of his neck, spine and head.From the hospital, Maria called the Houston Police Department and tried to file a report, the family said. After several unsuccessful attempts, she took Arnoldo to the department in person, where she says officers were skeptical of the account and their own ability to investigate federal agents.Arnoldo had filmed much of the incident, but agents had taken his phone. He used Find My to locate the phone at a vending machine for used electronics miles away, close to an ICE detention center. The footage, which ProPublica has reviewed, backed the familys account of the chase.After Arnoldo was choked by a federal officer, his sister took him to the hospital, where doctors quickly moved him to the trauma unit. Courtesy of the Bazan familyThe family says Houston police still havent interviewed them. A department spokesperson told ProPublica it was not investigating the case, referring questions to DHS. But the police have also not released bodycam footage and case files aside from a top sheet, citing an open investigation.We cant do anything, Maria said one officer told her. What can HPD do to federal agents?Elsewhere in the country, some officials are trying to hold federal immigration officers to account.In California, the state Legislature passed bills prohibiting immigration officers from wearing masks and requiring them to display identification during operations.In Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law that allows residents to sue any officer who violates state or federal constitutional rights. (The Trump administration quickly filed legal challenges against California and Illinois, claiming their new laws are unconstitutional.)In Colorado, Durangos police chief saw a recent video of an immigration officer using a chokehold on a protester and reported it to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which announced it was looking into the incident.In Minnesota, state and local leaders are collecting evidence in Renee Goods killing even as the federal government cut the state out of its investigation.Arnoldo is still waiting for Houston authorities to help him, still terrified that a masked agent will come first. Amid soccer practice and making up schoolwork he missed while recovering, he watches and rewatches the videos from that day. The car chase, the chokehold, his own screams at the officers to leave his dad alone. His father in the drivers seat, calmly handing Arnoldo his wallet and phone while stopping mid-chase for red lights.The Bazan family said agents threatened to charge Arnoldo if his dad didnt agree to be deported. DHS spokesperson McLaughlin did not respond when asked about the alleged threat. Arnoldos dad is now in Mexico.Asked why an officer choked Arnoldo, McLaughlin pointed to the boys alleged assault with his elbow, adding, The federal law enforcement officer graciously chose not to press charges.How We Did ItProPublica journalists Nicole Foy, McKenzie Funk, Joanna Shan, Haley Clark and Cengiz Yar gathered videos via Spanish and English social media posts, local press reports and court records. We then sent a selection of these videos to eight police experts and former immigration officials, along with as much information as we could gather about the lead-up to and context of each incident. The experts analyzed the videos with us, explaining when and how officers used dangerous tactics that appeared to go against their training or that have been banned under the Department of Homeland Securitys use-of-force policy.We also tried to contact every person we could identify being choked or kneeled on. In some cases, we also reached out to bystanders.Research reporter Mariam Elba conducted criminal record searches of every person we featured in this story. She also attempted to fact-check the allegations that DHS made about the civilians and their arrests. Our findings are not comprehensive because there is no universal criminal record database.We also sent every video cited in this story to the White House, DHS, CBP, ICE, border czar Tom Homan and Border Patrols Gregory Bovino. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin provided a statement responding to some of the incidents we found but she did not explain why agents used banned tactics or whether any of the agents have been disciplined for doing so.The post We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing appeared first on ProPublica.

The federal government allows livestock grazing across an area of publicly owned land more than twice the size of California, making ranching the largest land use in the West. Billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies support the system, which often harms the environment.As President Donald Trumps administration pushes a pro-ranching agenda, ProPublica and High Country News investigated how public lands ranching has evolved. We filed more than 100 public record requests and sued the Bureau of Land Management to pry free documents and data; we interviewed everyone from ranchers to conservationists; and we toured ranching operations in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Nevada.The resulting three-part investigation digs into the subsidies baked into ranching, the environmental impacts from livestock and the political clout that protects this status quo. Here are the takeaways from that work.The system has evolved into a subsidy program for ranchers.The public lands grazing system was modernized in the 1930s in response to the rampant use of natural resources that led to the Dust Bowl the massive dust storms triggered by poor agricultural practices, including overgrazing. Today, the system focuses on subsidizing the continued grazing of these lands.The BLM and Forest Service, the two largest federal land management agencies, oversee most of the system. Combined, the agencies charged ranchers $21 million in grazing fees in 2024. Our analysis found that to be about a 93% discount, on average, compared with the market rate for forage on private land. We also found that, in 2024 alone, the federal government poured at least $2.5 billion into subsidy programs that public lands ranchers can access. Such subsidies include disaster assistance after droughts and floods as well as compensation for livestock lost to predators.Ranching is consolidated in the hands of some of the wealthiest Americans.A small number of wealthy individuals and corporations manage most livestock on public lands. Roughly two-thirds of the grazing on BLM acreage is controlled by just 10% of ranchers, our analysis found. And on Forest Service land, the top 10% of permittees control more than 50% of grazing. Among the largest ranchers are billionaires like Stan Kroenke and Rupert Murdoch, as well as mining companies and public utilities. The financial benefits of holding permits to graze herds on public lands extend beyond cattle sales. Even hobby ranches can qualify for property tax breaks in many areas; ranching business expenses can be deducted from federal taxes; and private property associated with grazing permits is a stable long-term investment. (Representatives of Kroenke did not respond to requests for comment, and Murdochs representative declined to comment.)The Trump administration is supercharging the system, including by further increasing subsidies.The administration released a plan to fortify the American Beef Industry in October that instructed the BLM and Forest Service to amend grazing regulations for the first time since the 1990s. The plan suggested that taxpayers further support ranching by increasing subsidies for drought and wildfire relief, livestock killed by predators and government-backed insurance. The White House referred questions to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which said in a statement, Livestock grazing is not only a federally and statutorily recognized appropriate land use, but a proven land management tool, one that reduces invasive species and wildfire risk, enhances ecosystem health, and supports rural stewardship. Roughly 18,000 permittees graze livestock on BLM or Forest Service land, most of them small operations. These ranchers say they need government support and cheaper grazing fees to avoid insolvency.The administration is loosening already lax oversight.Ranchers must renew their permits to use public lands every 10 years, including undergoing an environmental review. But Congress passed a law in 2014 that allows permits to be automatically renewed if federal agencies are unable to complete such reviews. In 2013, the BLM approved grazing on 47% of its land open to livestock without an environmental review, our analysis of agency data showed. (The status of about an additional 10% of BLM land was unclear that year.) A decade later, the BLM authorized grazing on roughly 75% of its acreage without review.This is in large part because the BLMs rangeland management staff is shrinking. The number of these employees dropped 39% between 2020 and 2024, according to Office of Personnel Management data, and roughly 1 in 10 rangeland staff left the agency between Trumps election win and last June, according to BLM records.The system allows widespread environmental harm in the West.The BLM oversees 155 million acres of public lands open to grazing, and assessments it conducts on the health of the environment found that grazing had degraded at least 38 million acres, an area about half the size of New Mexico. The agency has no record of land health assessments for an additional 35 million acres. ProPublica and High Country News observed overgrazing in multiple states, including streambeds trampled by cattle, grasslands denuded by grazing and creeks fouled by cow corpses.Ranchers contend that public lands grazing has ecological benefits, such as preventing nearby private lands from being sold off and paved over. Bill Fales and his family, for example, run cattle in western Colorado and have done so for more than a century. The wildlife here is dependent on these ranches staying as open ranch land, he said. While development destroyed habitat nearby, Fales said, the areas his cattle graze are increasingly shared by animals such as elk, bears and mountain lions.Regulators say that its difficult to significantly change the system because of the industrys political influence.We interviewed 10 current and former BLM employees, from upper management to rank-and-file rangeland managers, and they all spoke of political pressure to go easy on ranchers. If we do anything anti-grazing, theres at least a decent chance of politicians being involved, one BLM employee told us. We want to avoid that, so we dont do anything that would bring that about. A BLM spokesperson said in a statement that any policy decisions are made in accordance with federal law and are designed to balance economic opportunity with conservation responsibilities across the nations public lands.The industry has friends in high places. The Trump administration appointed to a high-level post at the U.S. Department of the Interior a lawyer who has represented ranchers in cases against the government and owns a stake in a Wyoming cattle operation. The administration also named a tech entrepreneur who owns a ranch in Idaho to a post overseeing the Forest Service.Moreover, politicians from both parties are quick to act if they believe ranchers face onerous oversight. Since 2020, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have written to the BLM and Forest Service about grazing issues more than 20 times, according to logs of agency communications we obtained via public records requests.Read our full investigation of the federal public lands grazing system.The post The Biggest Takeaways From Our Investigation Into Grazing on Public Lands appeared first on ProPublica.

Linda McMahon, the nations secretary of education, says public schools are failing.In November, she promised a hard reset of the system in which more than 80% of U.S. children learn. But rather than invest in public education, she has been working to dismantle the Department of Education and enact wholesale changes to how public schools operate.Our final mission as a department is to fully empower states to carry the torch of our educational renaissance, she said at a November press conference.To help her carry out these and other goals, McMahon has brought at least 20 advisers from ultraconservative think tanks and advocacy groups who share her skepticism of the value of public education and seek deep changes, including instilling Christian values into public schools.ProPublica reporters Jennifer Smith Richards and Megan OMatz spent months reporting and reviewing dozens of hours of video to understand the ideals and ambitions of those pulling the levers of power in federal education policy. They found a concerted push to shrink public school systems by steering taxpayer dollars to private, religious and charter schools, as well as options like homeschooling. The Education Department did not respond to a detailed list of questions from ProPublica.They also found top officials expressing a vision for the remaining public schools that rejects the separation of church and state and promotes a pro-America vision of history, an uplifting portrayal of the nations founding ideals. Critics argue the patriotic curricula downplay the legacy of slavery and paper over episodes of discrimination.Since its establishment in 1979, the Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights has served as an enforcer of anti-discrimination laws in schools and colleges around the country. Its the place parents turn to when they believe their schools failed to protect children from discrimination or to provide access to an equal education under the law.The Trump administration laid off much of the offices staff in its first months and prioritized investigations into schools that allegedly discriminated against white and Jewish students and accommodated transgender students. McMahon and the department have framed this as a course correction in line with efforts to be more efficient and curb diversity, equity and inclusion policies from prior administrations. It has left little recourse for those seeking to defend the rights of students with disabilities, students of color and those facing sex discrimination.In this video, Smith Richards and OMatz explain how McMahon and her advisers are reenvisioning the nations educational system and what that could mean for the future.Watch the video here.The post Vouchers, Patriotism and Prayer: The Trump Administrations Plan to Remake Public Education appeared first on ProPublica.

In late 2024, Nimrod Shimrony, an emergency medical technician for the New York City Fire Department, tried to end his life. After completing an intensive outpatient treatment program, he and his wife searched for a therapist for months.Valeria Caldern, a special education teacher with New York Citys public school system, suffered a miscarriage that same year. Before she tried to have a baby again, she sought help with the depression and anxiety she had been struggling with. She called more than a dozen therapists.The therapists Shimrony and Caldern contacted were listed in their insurance plans provider directory, meaning they were supposedly in-network and the fees associated with visiting them would be lower. Given the number of names listed, there should have been lots of options. But Shimrony and Caldern couldnt find any in-network provider who would see them.It blows my mind that I couldnt find a therapist through the directory, Shimrony said. It was impossible.I was hanging on by a thread, said Caldern, who eventually paid more for an out-of-network provider. Theres only so much you can vent to your family about and only so much support that they can do.Shimrony and Caldern are among the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last week against EmblemHealth, which offers the most popular health plan for New York City employees.The city employees allege that extensive errors in EmblemHealths directory left them with a deceptive and misleading impression about the size of the insurers provider network. The employees were forced to delay care, forgo treatment or seek help from costlier out-of-network providers, said the lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status.Valeria Caldern, a special education teacher in New York Citys school system, struggled to find an in-network mental health provider. Sarah Blesener for ProPublicaHealth insurers rarely face consequences for errors in their provider directories that make it difficult for many consumers to find in-network mental health care. ProPublicas 2024 series, Americas Mental Barrier, examined the harms that patients face from so-called ghost networks. The series, which is cited in the lawsuit, also detailed the many ways that insurers have prompted mental health providers to quit accepting insurance.Many insurers overseeing ghost networks have faced only small and sporadic fines from regulators, and patients often have limited legal recourse against them because of restrictions on the damages that typically can be recouped under federal law.But there are health plans, such as ones local governments offer to employees or that some individuals buy through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, that arent covered by the federal law that restricts damages. Damages levied against those plans in lawsuits can be more substantial. Thats the basis for the current suit.We hope this case can use state consumer protection laws to better advocate for plan members, said Sara Haviva Mark, an attorney representing the city employees.ProPublica sent EmblemHealth a list of questions about the lawsuit. Shimrony and Caldern also signed documents waiving their rights to privacy so the insurer could answer questions. We dont comment on pending litigation, a spokesperson for EmblemHealth wrote in an email.Attorneys have filed lawsuits similar to the New York one in at least two other states against insurers such as Kaiser Permanente and Molina. Last spring, the mother of an Arizona man who died after being unable to find mental health treatment sued his plan, which was overseen by Centene, saying it broke the law by publishing false information that misled its customers. (ProPublica had chronicled the mans struggles to find mental health care.) Those lawsuits are still ongoing and the insurers in those cases have disputed the allegations.This past fall, health insurers overseen by Centene agreed to a $40 million settlement over a similar lawsuit that had been filed by San Diegos city attorney. A spokesperson for Centene did not respond to ProPublicas request for comment.The New York lawsuit was also filed on behalf of the American Psychiatric Association, which alleged that some of its 39,000 members had been listed in EmblemHealths directory without their consent. It also claimed that those listings artificially inflate[d] its provider network at psychiatrists expense. The lawsuit claims that the directory contained many duplicate listings, with one psychiatrist listed 29 times.The directory errors increased the chances that its psychiatrists reputations could be damaged, the lawsuit said. Thats because customers reaching out for appointments couldnt actually get care and could post negative reviews.What we do is based on trust, said Dr. Robert Trestman, a leading ghost networks expert for the association. So when our name appears in a listing that says you can get care, and then they call us, and we say, Sorry, not taking new patients, it has a really negative impact.Caldern at her apartment in Queens. After suffering a miscarriage in early 2024, I was hanging on by a thread, she said. Sarah Blesener for ProPublicaThe insurance industrys top trade group, AHIP, has told lawmakers that its members take steps to keep their directories accurate. AHIP claims errors could be fixed faster if providers better updated listings after they move or retire. Mental health experts have disputed that point: They say that insurers dont always remove listings even after providers formally drop out of a network.EmblemHealth covers more than 3 million people in New York and in neighboring states. New York city employees have been offered numerous options for health plans as part of their employment. But in recent years, roughly 3 out of every 5 city employees chose an EmblemHealth plan in which the premium was fully covered by the city. That plan was replaced by another one from EmblemHealth and UnitedHealthcare at the beginning of 2026.The employees had expected to pay $15 or less to see an in-network mental health provider under the old plan, according to the lawsuit. All they had to do was find one in the companys directory.But, according to the lawsuit, some employees using the directory were unable to find an in-network provider willing to take their insurance. Some providers in the directory had long waitlists and many had incorrect contact information, which the insurer is supposed to check. Others no longer accepted EmblemHealth, and a few never had accepted it.The plaintiffs claims follow a series of practices by EmblemHealth and the companies that merged over the years to form it that have come under scrutiny from state officials.In 2010, the New York state attorney generals office found that Group Health Inc., one of the insurers that merged into EmblemHealth, had failed to maintain an accurate directory. As part of a settlement, Group Health Inc. was supposed to confirm each year that the listed providers were still in the network and to correct inaccurate listings.In 2014, the attorney generals office reached a separate settlement with EmblemHealth after it found that the insurer improperly denied coverage of treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. EmblemHealth agreed to change some of its practices to reduce barriers to getting those treatments. At the time of the settlement, an EmblemHealth spokesperson said in a statement that the insurer was working to improve the management of behavioral services.And in 2023, the attorney generals office published a report that found that EmblemHealth and another dozen insurers had failed to keep their listings of mental health providers free of extensive errors. The offices staff had contacted a sample of doctors nearly 400 providers listed in the 13 insurers directories and the vast majority of them were unreachable, not in-network, or not accepting new patients, the report said. In EmblemHealths directory, the report found, 82% of the providers that were called were not available for an appointment.The report called on health plans to conduct routine checks of its directories to ensure the listings were accurate. It also recommended that the states insurance regulator vigorously enforce the law and fine insurers over violations.When ProPublica previously reached out to New Yorks insurance regulator, a spokesperson couldnt point to a single fine related to a ghost network. Last year, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a new regulation to eliminate so-called ghost networks. But the states insurance regulator, which publishes enforcement actions on its website, hasnt posted any notice of fines against EmblemHealth or other health insurers for inaccurate provider directories since then.ProPublica asked the states insurance regulator if there had been any fines against health insurers for inaccurate provider directories since the 2024 story. The regulator did not answer our questions.The post They Couldnt Access Mental Health Care When They Needed It. Now Theyre Suing Their Insurer. appeared first on ProPublica.