by Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Colleen DeGuzman, The Texas Tribune ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues. After the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary, school leaders in Uvalde, Texas, initially planned to publicly defend district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, but officials instead chose to remain silent as investigations into police actions unfolded, newly released records show. Arredondo is now facing criminal charges over law enforcements delayed confrontation with the gunman.The previously unreported details were revealed in over 25,000 pages of records the district has disclosed over the course of a week since Aug. 26 after a yearslong legal fight with news outlets, including ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, which filed over 70 public information requests for the records in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. The documents should have been published in early August when school leaders and Uvalde County originally released requested records following a settlement with the news organizations. Rob Decker, an attorney representing the school district, admitted at a board meeting Aug. 25 that his office made an error on our side by only releasing a fraction of the files. Board members, including Jesse Rizo, who lost his 9-year-old niece Jackie Cazares in the shooting, grilled Decker about the firms oversight. When we use the word error, thats putting it really lightly, Rizo said. The word negligent comes to mind. However, the districts law firm may have again failed to disclose all of the requested information, according to Laura Prather, one of the attorneys representing the newsrooms in the records litigation. Prather sent a letter Friday demanding the district publish the remaining files, which could include details about the school maintenance issues with doors that failed to lock, Arredondos severance and additional communications among officials. Decker, the districts lawyer, did not respond to requests for comment.The school districts repeated disclosure problems mirror the mistakes made by the city of Uvalde last year, when officials there did not include at least 50 body- and dashcam videos in their first records release. They scrambled to disclose all of them months later. As the districts law firm began trickling out records last week, another shooting made national headlines when two children were killed and another 21 kids and adults injured at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. The timing only further underscores the importance of releasing the Uvalde records as quickly as possible, said Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.A lot of times, governments will think that by stalling or trying to avoid the release of records, they can shirk responsibility and avoid the tough questions, said Shannon. Doing so only makes it harder to stop similar tragedies from happening and hinders families ability to heal. Getting information sooner rather than later is the way to go, she said, and thats not what weve seen surrounding the Uvalde shooting. Though news organizations had previously obtained from sources many of the records government agencies withheld, the newly released documents include undisclosed internal communications that offer deeper insight into the inner workings of the school district. Its leaders have rarely commented on the shooting publicly in the three years since it left 19 elementary students and two teachers dead. Among the new revelations, the documents show the unraveling of the districts support for Arredondo as details of the delayed law enforcement response were made public in the weeks after the shooting. School leaders have long attributed their silence and refusal to release these records to the multiple local, state and federal investigations into the law enforcement response to the massacre. That included a criminal probe by the Uvalde district attorney that eventually led to child endangerment charges being filed against Arredondo and another school officer last year. Both have maintained their innocence ahead of the trial, scheduled for later this year.Arredondo initially received the bulk of the blame for the response, though an investigation by ProPublica and the Tribune later found that officers across state and local agencies wrongly treated the shooter as a barricaded subject, rather than an active threat, and failed to take control of the response. Three days after the tragedy, Steve McCraw, then head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, announced at a press conference that Arredondo was responsible for law enforcements failure to confront the gunman until 77 minutes after hed entered the school. Hours later, district spokesperson Anne Marie Espinoza emailed then-Superintendent Hal Harrell a press release that defended Arredondo, stating, in part, that his action isolating the shooter helped students and staff escape the building. The statement cautioned that the district could only provide limited information due to the ongoing investigations but said it was appropriate timing to share these clarifying details. The school district, however, never published that version of the press release, allowing McCraws narrative to continue circulating undisputed. The internal communications released so far dont explain why. None of the districts leaders involved responded to the newsrooms questions in recent days. The district instead published a press release the following Wednesday that made no mention of Arredondo but said the school would not comment on the shooting until all state and federal agencies completed their review. Emails also show that during the week after McCraws press conference, the districts law firm drafted paperwork to place Arredondo on administrative leave. Harrell waited several more weeks before taking that action. The documents reveal Arredondo was increasingly anxious to discuss his side of the story. In an email exchange with a reporter from The New York Times shortly after McCraws press conference, Arredondo wrote that he wished he could speak publicly: Its extremely difficult not to be able to respond right now. The police chief said he could not comment due to the ongoing investigation at that point. About two weeks later, as the investigations continued, Arredondo gave the Tribune an exclusive interview sharing his experience of the shooting response and maintaining that he was not the incident commander. He told Harrell, the superintendent, the article was coming about two hours before publication.The superintendents emails indicate he met with the districts law firm the next day to discuss drafting an agreement for Arredondo that barred him from making any more public statements unless he received written permission from Harrell. The instructions emphasize that the district will remain silent about the shooting to ensure the integrity of the pending investigations, indicating public comments could be considered interference.Any failure to comply with these directives may result in adverse job action, up to and including termination of your employment, stated the agreement.On June 15, the police chief informed the superintendent that he needed time off to attend a hearing at the Texas Capitol the following Tuesday and to prep with his counsel the day before. Arredondo testified behind closed doors for five hours in front of the state House committee tasked with investigating the shooting on June 21. The same day, McCraw provided a searing condemnation of the law enforcement response in a separate state Senate hearing that was open to the public. He claimed police could have stopped the shooter within three minutes had it not been for Arredondos indecisiveness. The next day, Harrell placed Arredondo on administrative leave. In a draft of the press release announcing Arredondos leave, then-Assistant Superintendent Beth Reavis suggested saying that district leaders had not received any information about the response ahead of the hearing. Yesterday, like you, I saw the released information for the first time, she suggested to Harrell and the districts attorney, then said they should add, Something like Petes on leave, blah blah blah in an email.The district ultimately published a press release stating Harrell initially did not intend to make personnel decisions until after the investigations into the shooting were concluded, but due to the uncertainty of when they would be done, he decided to place Arredondo on leave.Arredondos attorney, Paul Looney, said he wasnt surprised when the district walked back its support for their police chief or when he found out from the news organizations that the district had drafted a letter requesting Arredondos leave weeks before giving it to him.Its obvious that their initial reaction was the truth and then they decided to shelve the truth and join DPS on cover-your-ass politics and Pete was expendable, Looney said. The truth is that Pete did a good job that day.The majority of the documents disclosed in the latest batch were pulled from Harrells email inbox. In the hours and days after the tragedy, leaders and survivors of other school shootings offered support. But many parents, educators and law enforcement across the country called for him and the police force to resign.Harrell often emailed himself to-do lists that included reminders like funerals, security we can get done and people he needed to call. The former superintendent received backlash during a June 9 press conference where he declined to answer questions about law enforcement investigations. The next day, he included retirement plan and transition plan on his emailed to-do list. Harrell, who did not respond to the newsrooms interview requests, retired later that year.The latest batch of emails also raised additional questions. The release, for example, included a chart that showed 13 threats made to schools in the district that year, including one to Robb Elementary, but did not provide details on how leaders handled them or exactly when they occurred. Once the school district completes its release of records, DPS will be the last agency sued by the newsrooms that continues to shield materials related to the shooting from disclosure. Prather, the newsrooms counsel, said the state law enforcement organizations documents are especially important because the agency led the investigation into the shooting and maintains a 2-terabyte file with the most extensive accounting of the event. The newsrooms won an initial ruling in 2023 and the judge ordered DPS to publish its records, but the agency appealed the decision. The appellate court has yet to make a ruling after oral arguments last October.The state agency did not respond to requests for comment for this story, but it has long argued that publishing documentation of the shooting could interfere with ongoing investigations and eventual prosecutions. Youre talking about a situation where people have experienced the most horrible tragedy and loss they could possibly imagine and they already distrust those who are supposed to protect their children, Prather said. Then to further fight for three years to get answers about what happened that day and to have that information trickle out, only after youve been told by a court over and over to produce it its like a death by a thousand cuts. Jessica Priest and Alex Nguyen of The Texas Tribune contributed reporting.

by Julia Rendleman for ProPublica, Molly Parker, Capitol News Illinois, and Lylee Gibbs, Saluki Local Reporting Lab This article was produced for ProPublicas Local Reporting Network in partnership with Capitol News Illinois. A portion of the reporting in Alexander County is supported by funding from the Pulitzer Center. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. On a late July morning, Blake Gerard zips across his Southern Illinois rice farm on a four-wheeler, wearing his usual USA Rice shirt and shorts that hit above the knee. Its the only rice farm in Illinois, a place where rice never grew before.He carries rubber hip boots in his truck for when he needs to wade into the water to check or change its depth. The young rice has entered a crucial stage; it has taken root but is still tender and needs a shallow, steady blanket of water, which Gerard maintains with a system of cascading fields surrounded by levees and pumps. Two to 4 inches of water is ideal. First image: Gerard races across a rice field with an electrical extension cord to run a conveyor belt that will put rice in a storage bin. Second image: Young rice requires between 2 and 4 inches of water to grow. Third image: Gerard holds soil from the thick, muddy ground that he calls gumbo. (First and second images: Julia Rendleman for ProPublica. Third image: Lylee Gibbs/Saluki Local Reporting Lab for ProPublica.) For the parts of the fields he cant reach in his truck, a drone does the seeing. This morning, it catches a patch where the water pools too deep, and he turns on a pump, moving water into a drainage ditch that flows into the nearby Mississippi River. That whole corner wouldve gone under if I hadnt seen it, Gerard says.This daily scramble across 2,500 acres of flat, muddy bottomlands is now routine for one of Americas northernmost commercial rice farmers. But it wasnt always. Gerards story is both proof that change and innovation in farming are possible and evidence of how hard they are and why so few have tried. The transition took decades. It was also expensive and largely unsupported by federal farm policy, which is heavily focused on corn and soybeans.Corn, soy and wheat were the crops Gerard, now 55, was growing in the early 1990s when he took over his family farm near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. By then, the floods were already coming more often. Gerards grandfather remembered them in 1943 and 1973, but as Gerard began farming, they came every two years in 93, 95 and 97. Gerard plants rice near the Mississippi River in spring 2024. The land is prone to flooding, which Gerard uses to his advantage to grow rice. He refers to rain as free water. (Julia Rendleman for ProPublica) According to the latest National Climate Assessment, annual precipitation in the Midwest increased in some places by as much as 15% between 1992 and 2001. Importantly for farmers, the amount of precipitation on the days with the most rain has increased by 45% over the past 50 years. The most extreme heavy precipitation is increasing at a far faster rate than overall total seasonal or annual precipitation, explained Trent Ford, the Illinois state climatologist. That increased intensity has been a faster and larger change, and that has caused more impacts due to flooding and erosion. For Gerard, a fourth-generation crop farmer, only in his 20s, working the fields of the Mississippi River bottomlands in Alexander County, Illinois, there was no sense in fighting the water anymore. I could grow something that would grow in water, he said. Or quit.Climate change is shifting where rice can grow. Long considered a southern crop, it has crept north through the Missouri Bootheel, and with Gerards expanded operation, now has a foothold in Southern Illinois. Its a crop that can thrive where others cant, like along the riverbanks of flood-prone Alexander County. But for many farmers, making the transition to a new crop is nearly impossible, as ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois reported this week. Although rice is a commodity crop and Gerard receives insurance subsidies and commodity supports, corn and soybeans dominate U.S. agriculture, especially in the Midwest, and thats what federal subsidies are set up to support. Federally backed insurance for those crops cushions the risk of climate change for growers, even in floodplains; ethanol policy props up demand; and the entire infrastructure from grain bins to rail lines to river barges helps move corn and soy from fields to market to overseas. Illinois is the second-largest corn exporter in the nation.Theres also culture: Farmers tend to grow what their parents and grandparents did. Even the local experts the folks at the nearby Farm Bureau offices and university extension programs are largely trained in whats always been done. Everythings stacked against it, said Jonathan Coppess, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture official and current farm policy expert at the University of Illinois. Nobody says no, but the system doesnt know how to say yes.And federal policy is moving deeper in that direction. President Donald Trump has scrubbed climate language from farm programs. Although the Big, Beautiful Bill signed in July provides additional funding for programs that could help with crop diversification, it largely reinforces the idea that crops should stay where theyve always been. ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois sought comment from the USDA on Aug. 20 about how it is responding to climate change and crop diversification. An agency spokesperson said the USDA was working on a response but did not provide it in time for publication or specify a day when it would respond. This stretch of the country where Gerard did the seemingly impossible is an important testing ground. But it wasnt easy. There were no mills to process what he grew, no market to sell it into, no roadmap to follow. Ultimately, it took 25 years and millions of dollars to make it work. Gerard shows what is possible, but also how improbable it is for the Corn Belt to diversify without the sustained effort of federal policy. Gerard climbs up a grain bin as he prepares to use it for the first time after harvesting in 2024. Grain bins are one of the many investments Gerard has made to his rice farm during the past 25 years. (Julia Rendleman for ProPublica) In 1943, when the Mississippi tore away from its banks and charted a fierce and muddy course across Americas central farmlands, Gerards grandfather, Harold Gerard, had already fled the waters once. He had been living on a tiny island in the middle of the river just north of Cairo, Illinois. Seeking dry land that would be amenable to the wheat, alfalfa, corn and cotton he was accustomed to growing, he moved his family about 30 miles north.But even there, the water kept rising. Blakes father took over the farm and put in a pump on his lowest field to take water away from the corn, but the water kept coming up. The water comes from under the ground here, Blake Gerard said.He was studying at Mississippi State when his father died in August 1990. Overwhelmed, he left school, came home and harvested the final crop his father had planted. But with floods coming more frequently, he worried that the government would get out of the crop insurance business, which helped keep him afloat. He briefly considered fish farming but worried about floods there too. Ultimately, Gerard realized he needed a crop that loved the thick, muddy ground he calls gumbo. First image: A young Gerard stands in a field with his dad, Harold Lynn, during a time when his family farmed corn and soybeans. The photo was taken more than 40 years ago. Second image: Gerard stands at the top of the first relift pump installed by his dad to move water off their corn fields in 1988. (Courtesy of Blake Gerard) Around that time, farm policy was changing: In 1996, the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act known as the Freedom to Farm Act gave farmers flexibility in crop choice. He looked south, to Arkansas and Missouri, for guidance, driving around, knocking on doors and asking farmers about a crop that wasnt afraid of the water.At one farm in the Missouri Bootheel, an older man listened to Gerards questions for an hour, then said, You know what? I met your dad. Youre a lot like your dad. He came down here in the 70s asking me the same questions.Gerard hadnt known about his fathers early interest. But it led them both to the same place, where he found his answer: Ive got rice ground.In 1999, Gerard planted his first 40 acres of rice. The next season, he tripled his acreage. After that, Gerard started converting his fields like crazy. There were no government programs to help pay for the transition, and it was expensive. The big effort was grading the land: flattening it and building embankments so water would cascade from one field into the next. At $1,000 per acre, Gerard would invest millions into turning his ground from soy to rice. Gerard realizes the investment was one he could only have made when he was still young and unafraid of debt. I had time to get it all paid for, but if youre my age now, mid-50s, why do I want to borrow a quarter of a million dollars to do this and make all these changes and create more work for myself? Its more work. Rice farming is way more work. Double, triple the work that corn and beans are.Gerard also had to invest heavily in farm equipment. He rattles off a list: power units, fuel tanks, turbines, pipes, the water control structures, and on and on. Gerard scratches his head when asked about his total investment its too much to remember and too hard to keep track of, he said. What he knew for certain was that he was going to commit to rice. Gerard, left, and his son Wyatt drive across their farm to collect gasoline for their combine. Wyatt, like his father, left college in his early 20s, before graduating, to return to farm the land. (Lylee Gibbs/Saluki Local Reporting Lab for ProPublica) From left: Gerard with his children, Wyatt and Dixie, and his wife, Shelly, in their kitchen after dinner (Lylee Gibbs/Saluki Local Reporting Lab for ProPublica) This year, Gerards farm finally got some help: a Climate-Smart Commodities grant that would allow him to invest in things like soil moisture meters, pump automation and water monitors. Then in April, he received more news: The funding, considered a climate program, had been canceled by the Trump administration. Then in May, he was told the funding was back under a different name. But around the state, conditions for farming this year have continued to deteriorate. In May, the National Weather Service issued a dust storm warning for the first time ever for the city of Chicago. High winds brought loose topsoil across the state and into the city, limiting visibility and shocking meteorologists who had not documented a weather event of this kind in the city since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Researchers believe that the corn and soybean rotation that dominates Midwestern farming is at least partially to blame replacing the grasses that gave the Prairie State its nickname with crop rotations that dont hold the soil in place, and a steady stream of fertilizers and pesticides doesnt help. The dominance of soy and corn, with little variation, could have possible long-term impacts on economic returns, communities, and the environment, according to the website for Diverse Corn Belt, a USDA-funded project of researchers and scientists who collaborate with government agencies, farmers and conservation groups. They want to find ways to give farmers more crop options.Thats especially pressing in places like Alexander County, a corner of the country that bridges different farming regions. Its one of the most difficult places to understand in U.S. agriculture, said Silvia Secchi, a professor at the University of Iowa, who studies farm policy and is an investigator with Diverse Corn Belt. But the system isnt built for a place like this. The system is built for: youre in Nebraska, you raise cattle; youre in Iowa, you grow corn. All these places that are kind of funky at the margin we dont make policy for them.Diversifying crop rotations would help in the Midwest, but also in places with other climate-related woes, like increasingly dry Texas and storm-wracked Louisiana. Making such changes is not impossible, said Louisiana State University researcher Herry Utomo, who developed the rice strain grown by Gerard. Climate change is coming anyway, so we have to be positive and respond to it appropriately, he said. With good planning, anticipation and understanding of the rate of change, we can respond. Louisiana State University researcher Herry Utomo, who developed the variety of rice grown by Gerard, jumps over a ditch after checking out a research field of rice in November 2024 in Louisiana. He believes farmers can respond to climate change with good planning. (Julia Rendleman for ProPublica) But Coppess, a former USDA official, said farm policy has never been great at planning for climate change.Theres nothing in farm policy that takes into account climate change. In fact, most arguments would be that its at best neutral and at worst counterproductive for climate change, Coppess said.And under Trump, research universities are losing funding and climate initiatives are being decimated. For Gerard, his willingness to risk everything paid off. He had a banner year in 2024 his most successful rice-farming year to date. He no longer wonders whether the big river or a deluge will take out his crop. While a range of factors from weather to international markets affect whether he makes money, his shift to rice has taken production volatility out of the equation and he rests easier. First image: Gerard tracks Hurricane Francine as it makes landfall in Louisiana in September 2024. A hurricane, with heavy winds and lots of water, can be problematic close to harvest. Gerards farm escaped the heavy rain expected with that storm. Second image: Rice stalks bend under the weight of the grain before they are harvested in McClure, Illinois. (Julia Rendleman for ProPublica) He remembers one of his first harvests, late in the growing season, when the mature stalks of rice had begun to bend toward the ground under the weight of their own grain.One farmer, he recalled, pulled over and laughed at the drooping stalks. To him, the field looked ruined nothing like the stiff, proud stalks of wheat growing nearby. People said you cant grow rice here, Gerard said. I had the crop growing in the field and theyre like, You cant grow rice, were in Illinois, they grow rice in Louisiana. That was a quarter-century ago. Gerard looks out over the horizon at the setting sun behind a cloud of smoke from a controlled burn of a harvested field in October 2024. Gerard burns the fields to get rid of plant debris in preparation for the next planting. (Lylee Gibbs/Saluki Local Reporting Lab for ProPublica)

by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. The Trump administration has vowed to go after anyone who got lower mortgage rates by claiming more than one primary residence on their loan papers. President Donald Trump has used it as a justification to target political foes, including a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, a Democratic U.S. senator and a state attorney general.Real estate experts say claiming primary residences on different mortgages at the same time is often legal and rarely prosecuted.But if administration officials continue the campaign, mortgage records show theres another place they could look: Trumps own Cabinet.Underscoring how common the practice is, ProPublica found that at least three of Trumps Cabinet members call multiple homes their primary residences on mortgages. We discovered the loans while examining financial disclosure forms, county real estate records and publicly available mortgage data provided by Hunterbrook Media. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona, where shes known to vacation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C., according to loan records.In a flurry of interviews and rapid-fire posts on X, Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, has led the charge in accusing Trump opponents of mortgage fraud. If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate, and we will refer it for criminal investigation, Pulte said last month.A political donor to the president and heir to a housing company fortune, Pultes posts online tease big developments and criminal referrals, drawing reposts from Trump himself and promises of swift consequences. Fraud will not be tolerated in President Trumps housing market, Pulte has warned. Real estate experts told ProPublica that, in its bid to wrest control of the historically independent Fed and go after political enemies, the Trump administration has mischaracterized mortgage rules. Its justification for launching criminal investigations, they said, could also apply to the Trump Cabinet members.All three Cabinet members denied wrongdoing. In a statement, a White House spokesperson said: This is just another hit piece from a left-wing dark money group that constantly attempts to smear President Trumps incredible Cabinet members. Unlike [Fed Gov.] Lisa Corrupt Cook who blatantly and intentionally committed mortgage fraud, Secretary DeRemer, Secretary Duffy, and Administrator Zeldin own multiple residences, and they have followed the law and they are fully compliant with all ethical obligations. If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate, and we will refer it for criminal investigation, said Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director. (Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images) Mortgages for a persons main home tend to receive more favorable terms than for a second home or an investment property. That includes better interest rates and the ability to borrow more money.The idea is that borrowers are more likely to pay back and less likely to default on a loan attached to the home they actually live in. That makes those loans less risky for lenders. Interest rates are typically a quarter- to a half-point lower for primary mortgages, according to Pulte. On the low end, that could save around $75 each month over the life of a 30-year, 5% interest, half-million-dollar loan or a total of around $25,000.Standard mortgage documents commonly include an occupancy clause that requires the borrower to use the property as their principal residence for at least a year. They also include a section where borrowers can check a box when the mortgage is for a second home. Misrepresenting occupancy status is not rare, according to a widely cited 2023 study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. In interviews, real estate lawyers said that mortgage lenders are typically well aware of their clients other loans and sometimes even encourage the primary-residence language for second homes.They also pointed to a mundane reason that innocent mistakes are common: Homebuyers simply sign stacks of forms without reading them. Few consumers understand this issue, and if there is someone at fault here, it is likely the loan officer who likely advised them to sign up for this loan that obviously wasnt for their primary residence, said real estate lawyer Doug Miller. Loan officers who are competing for business will often quote lower rates in order to get a customers business.Mortgage fraud is rarely prosecuted, according to real estate lawyers and federal sentencing data. Pulte has pointed to a case from 2016 in which a California woman was found guilty of obtaining multiple loans for condos that she falsely stated would be her primary residence. But that case had an added layer of fraud: The woman never intended to live in the homes. She was secretly being paid because she had good credit to act as a front for the true buyer of the properties, to whom they were later transferred. She later defaulted on the loans, causing more than half a million dollars in losses for the lenders.Lawyers told ProPublica that determining ill intent would be key to prosecute. Fraud requires the borrower to be aware that the borrower was making a false representation, said Jon Goodman, an attorney focused on real estate at Frascona, Joiner, Goodman and Greenstein.But Pulte has framed the issue in black-and-white terms: Your second home is not your primary home, he warned in one recent post on X. By that standard, Trumps labor secretary, Chavez-DeRemer, could be in the wrong. In her financial disclosure form, she listed two mortgages on personal residences, both obtained in 2021. Mortgage records show her home is in Happy Valley, a city near Portland where Chavez-DeRemer served as mayor before being elected to represent the area in the U.S. House. She and her husband, Shawn DeRemer, who leads an anesthesia company in Portland, refinanced their longtime Oregon home in January 2021. Two months later, the couple bought a newly built house near a golf course in Fountain Hills, Arizona. The pair had previously enjoyed vacationing in Arizona, according to news reports and social media posts. (In one incident that made the news, Chavez-DeRemer was briefly hospitalized after a golf cart accident on her way back from watching a Sonoran Desert sunset.)The mortgage agreement for the Arizona property required them to occupy the home as their principal residence for at least a year, barring extenuating circumstances or the lender allowing them to violate the stipulation. A spokesperson for Chavez-DeRemer said that the couple bought the Arizona home with the intent to retire there, but then Chavez-DeRemer decided to run for Congress representing her Oregon district and did not move. This is nothing more than a left-wing rag inventing a story just to attack the Trump Administration. Its common for families to refinance then buy a home with future plans in mind trying to spin that as some type of scandal is pure nonsense, said spokesperson Courtney Parella.In response to questions from ProPublica, a White House official said that although DeRemer opted to stay in Oregon, her husband continued to move forward with the process of becoming an Arizona resident. Political donation records list his home in Oregon as recently as late 2023. Duffy, Trumps transportation secretary, and his wife also have two primary-residence mortgages, obtained a few years apart.In August 2021, the Duffys, who have nine children, purchased a large $2 million home in Far Hills, New Jersey, about an hours drive from Manhattan, where Rachel Campos-Duffy works as a Fox News host.They got a $1.6 million mortgage to purchase the property, and documents show it was a principal residence loan. In February, after Duffy took the job in Trumps cabinet, the couple bought another home, in Washington, D.C. Again, they got a principal-residence mortgage, this time for $1.76 million. Both Duffy and his wife are listed as borrowers on both mortgages, which came from the same bank. Its not clear where Sean Duffy lives most of the time, and a Department of Transportation spokesperson declined to answer questions about where Duffy and his wife each make their primary home. In late May, several months after they purchased the Washington home, Fox & Friends Weekend ran a segment in which Rachel Campos-Duffy cooked a Make America Healthy Again breakfast for host Steve Doocy. Sean Duffy and some of the couples children were also in the segment, and it was filmed in the New Jersey home. From left: Fox & Friends Weekend host Steve Doocy with Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sean Duffy in their home in Far Hills, New Jersey (Fox News) Duffys spokesperson said in a statement that after being confirmed, Sean purchased a home in Washington D.C. where he works full-time. The home in DC is not a rental, investment or vacation property. The same bank holds both mortgages and was fully informed of Secretary Duffys new employment location and need for a DC residence.A White House spokesperson said, The bank, not the Secretary, determined and classified both mortgages as primary residences. Like the Duffys, Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, and his wife also have two concurrent primary-residence mortgages. One, obtained in 2007, is on a home in Shirley, New York, on Long Island, which Zeldin represented in Congress for several years. Last year, Zeldin and his wife obtained a second mortgage, for $712,500, on a property in Washington, D.C., a short walk from the EPAs headquarters. Both are primary-residence mortgages.An EPA spokesperson said in a statement that Zeldins primary residence was previously on Long Island but is now in Washington. The spokesperson didnt respond to questions about where his wife lives. Administrator Zeldin followed ALL steps to complete the move in accordance with all laws, rules, and contracts, notifying his mortgage company, insurance company, and local government, the spokesperson said. EVERY I was dotted and t was crossed 1000% by the book without exception.The dual mortgages identified by ProPublica among Trumps cabinet secretaries resemble the loans obtained by U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, whom Trump accused of mortgage fraud. In May, Pulte referred Schiff to the Justice Department for taking out a primary-residence mortgage in Maryland, for a home he purchased in 2003 after being elected to the House, while also claiming his primary home was in Burbank, California, in the district he represented. Schiff and his wife refinanced the Maryland home several times as a primary residence, Pulte noted, until a 2020 refinance in which they reclassified it as a secondary home. Schiff appears to have falsified records in order to receive favorable loan terms, Pulte concluded in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Representatives for Schiff called the allegations transparently false and said his lenders had full knowledge of the senators year-round bicoastal work obligations and his use of two homes for that reason. Schiff, according to his office, navigated the two mortgages in consultation with a House lawyer.Pulte made similar allegations in a criminal referral about New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging she may have committed fraud by getting a primary-residence mortgage for a home in Virginia, even though her position required her to live in New York. Her lawyer has said James helped a family member buy the property and notified the mortgage broker at the time that it would not be her primary residence. James became one of Trumps top political enemies after she brought a fraud lawsuit against the president and his company in 2022. Representatives for James have called the fraud claims made against her politically motivated and false. (Pulte did not respond to a request for comment from ProPublica.)Pultes most consequential allegations thus far were made against Cook, a Federal Reserve governor. Trump has been going after Fed Chair Jerome Powell for months for not lowering interest rates, even raising the specter that he would take the unprecedented step of attempting to fire the chair. Pultes criminal referral against Cook presented Trump with another avenue for bending the traditionally independent Fed to his will, securing a majority of the Feds board by firing Cook, a move that Cook has sued to block. Pulte pointed to mortgage records that show that within just a couple of weeks, Cook signed primary-residence mortgages for homes in Michigan and Georgia. Legal experts said the close proximity was a red flag but that much was still unknown, including Cooks intent and what her lenders were told. Pulte also flagged a third property, in Massachusetts, that Cook represented as a second home in mortgage documents but as an investment property in subsequent financial disclosures. Investment properties can be hit with higher mortgage rates than second homes. 3 strikes and youre out, he posted on X. Cooks lawyers have denied that she committed mortgage fraud but have not provided a detailed explanation of the context for the various mortgages. They argued in court this week that her loans cannot be legally used as grounds to terminate her.The Justice Department has begun investigating all three Trump foes singled out in Pultes referrals, according to news reports. The department has issued subpoenas in Cooks case, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.ProPublicas review of mortgage agreements by Trump cabinet officials shows that some made clear to lenders they were purchasing second homes. When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for example, got a mortgage for his home near the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, the agreement included a rider making it clear he would be using it as a second home. Do you have any information that we should know? Robert Faturechi can be reached by email at robert.faturechi@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 213-271-7217. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240. Brandon Roberts and Steve Suo of ProPublica and Matthew Termine of Hunterbrook Media contributed research.

by Molly Parker, Capitol News Illinois, Julia Rendleman for ProPublica and Lylee Gibbs, Saluki Local Reporting Lab This article was produced for ProPublicas Local Reporting Network in partnership with Capitol News Illinois. A portion of the reporting in Alexander County is supported by funding from the Pulitzer Center. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. The seed tractor sank again, no surprise to Steve Williams. Everything sank out here on Dogtooth Bend in Southern Illinois since the floodwaters ran through five years earlier and dumped millions of tons of sand. The ground looked firm, but deep pockets of sticky mud lurked under the sun-cracked surface, pulling him under without warning.He hit the gas. His wheels spun in place; sand flew. A few cuss words, too.He called his daughter, Brandy Renshaw, working a nearby stretch of field in a giant green rig. She turned his way to pull him out; then she sank, too. Williams, in a faded plaid shirt, gray hair sprouting from under a John Deere hat, paced. Renshaw slammed the gearshift, rocked back and forth, and eventually clawed her way out.It was June 2024, and both father and daughter knew the land they were trying to farm wasnt going to yield much, even if they got the seeds in the ground. But this had become their routine: farming futile land just to keep from going under. For years now, theyd had one foot stuck in the mud, the other in government bureaucracy. Theyd get angry then laugh.What else could you do? said Williams, 70. We were left holding the bag. In these Mississippi River bottoms, federal farm policy became a trap. Farming is one of the most heavily subsidized industries in America. Each year, Congress allocates billions to keep crops in the ground, cushioning the blow from droughts, floods, fires and market swings a safety net that dates to the 1930s, when the Depression and Dust Bowl put the nations food supply at risk. But today, in some of the most flood- and drought-prone parts of the country, those programs can also keep people hanging on, even when it makes more sense to walk away. Thats increasingly clear along parts of the Mississippi River Valley and especially here in Alexander County, at the rural tip of Illinois. As the climate changes and as aging levees fail, the risk is becoming more predictable, the losses so frequent it is clear some land will no longer yield what it used to. But the federal programs that support those changes enacted first by President George H.W. Bush, then expanded by President Bill Clinton have been small, slow and ineffective. After the 2019 flood when the Mississippi River submerged the southernmost corner of Illinois for months, part of a widespread disaster across the Midwest Congress allocated only about $217 million spread across 11 states to pay farmers to voluntarily retire their flood-ravaged fields. Federal workers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which ran the program, specifically urged farmers at Dogtooth Bend to sign up. The floods had come here repeatedly and had worsened since they busted through the 17-mile levee that protected Williams farmland three years earlier. So Williams signed up, along with about 30 others on Dogtooth Bend, finally ready to call mercy to the river. He offered up roughly 1,200 acres; the federal government offered to pay him about $3,200 an acre to put permanent easements on his land, which he could use for recreational purposes but never farm again. Renshaw, left, and her father, Steve Williams, finish a day of planting soybeans this spring. (Julia Rendleman) An aerial image from November shows the damage to the Len Small Levee in Alexander County, Illinois. Without the levee intact, water flows onto the farms it was meant to protect. (Julia Rendleman) At the time Williams applied, the program had been offered only one other time in the past decade to farmers along the Upper Mississippi River, despite billions in lost crops. And this time around, the pot just 1% of the $19 billion disaster aid package wasnt big enough to help everyone who applied, especially along this corn- and soy-growing region. And even for those who were accepted, the agency in charge couldnt keep up with the paperwork, making the process stretch on for years. The process dragged through the rest of President Donald Trumps first term and through most of President Joe Bidens. And now these programs look even less certain as Trump and Republicans in Congress double down on the status quo: expanding crop insurance and farm income supports through the budget bill signed into law on July 4 while in an effort to trim the federal workforce gutting the staff responsible for responding to climate disasters, including those who manage permanent easements that pull troubled farmland out of production.While farmers have struggled to access funds to help them get off flood-prone land, federal programs to keep their crops in the ground have long been the safer bet. Over the past three decades, Illinois has received $35 billion in farm support more than any state but Texas and Iowa mostly through insurance subsidies and price supports for growing corn and soybeans. Some of that bounty is grown on flood-prone ground along the Mississippi and other river bottoms.At some point in time, dont you ask yourself: Is this really economically the best way to spend our taxpayer dollars, said Dave Hiatt, an easement coordinator and biologist with the USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service, or would it serve us better in the long run if we spent money to take that ground out of production? Hiatt is among the USDA employees on paid leave through September as part of the Trump administrations plan to reduce the federal workforce.ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois reached out to the USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service on Aug. 15 with a detailed list of questions about how it handled the Dogtooth Bend easements across multiple administrations as well as its priorities going forward. The agency said it was working on a response but did not provide it in time for publication or specify a day when it would respond. While Williams waited for the buyout to go through, his bills didnt stop. He still owed a mortgage to the bank, taxes to the county. That left him and Renshaw with a choice: Either do nothing and watch their farm operation go under, or do what theyd always done. Even when it didnt make sense anymore, they had planted their fields to maintain their federally backed crop insurance. Keeping that crop insurance allowed them to access other agriculture subsidies and disaster aid. So they mounted their tractors and rolled out to their nearly barren fields. You cant afford to leave it, Renshaw said. So we planted what we could and insured everything we could. It was a nightmare. Renshaw posted on Instagram when her tractor was stuck in the mud in June 2024. (Screenshots by ProPublica) It hadnt always been like this. For decades, this Delta-like sliver of bottomland jutting into the Mississippi River at Illinois southern edge was the garden spot of the county, as Williams put it. He grew up farming alongside his dad and bought his first property on the peninsula in 1987.At that point, the land on the flood-prone bend was still protected by the Len Small Levee, built in 1943 and named for an Illinois governor. The water broke through the first time in 1993, then again in 2011. But everyone recognized its days were numbered, and the state and federal government started paying people for their homes and businesses so they could move from harms way. That mitigated the risk, but it also meant that after floodwaters cut a nearly mile-wide hole in 2016, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declined to cover the $16 million repair cost: With fewer people living there, the cost-benefit formula showed it wasnt worth saving anymore. Williams and the other farmers were devastated: When the levee was in place, Dogtooth Bend stayed relatively dry even when the Mississippi climbed well past flood stage 33 feet at the nearby Thebes gauge. Since the breach, water spills into the peninsula every time the river nears that mark, and that happens often now, sometimes for weeks at a time. As hopes of a levee repair fizzled, farmers were stranded. The federal easement program receives only sporadic funding, and typically only after a presidential disaster declaration, which Illinois didnt get in 2016, despite widespread damage in Alexander County. Predictably, Dogtooth Bend flooded again in 2017 and 2018. Both years, from his office three hours away near Champaign, Hiatt and a small team of federal officials with the Natural Resources Conservation Service scrambled to come up with easement funds, even outside of a disaster declaration.We begged, we pleaded with headquarters, Hiatt said. We said, We need these funds right now. These people have been this poorly impacted. Flooding in Alexander County in 1993. The Len Small Levee breached for the first time that year, and again in 2011 and 2016. (Courtesy of The Southern) Federal records show that after floods in both years, Hiatt and his colleagues in Illinois proposed buying out up to 11,500 acres owned by 40 or so landowners on Dogtooth Bend over time, starting with the most severely damaged. The first phase would cost $20 million and was projected to prevent $60 million in near-term damages. The proposal laid out a strong case: Roads were threatened; habitat was disappearing; land was becoming more and more degraded. Thousands of acres had already become unfarmable and while the reports also weighed the option of restoring the land, they noted that the farmland would never be fully productive, and the costs to keep bailing out farmers would only grow. By this point, Trump had taken office for the first time, bringing in new USDA leadership. In both 2017 and 2018, Hiatt said, agency leadership in Washington rejected the requests by him and his colleagues in Illinois to help move farmers off the land. This wasnt unusual: According to one nonprofits report, over 25 years, 90% of landowners in the Upper Mississippi states who applied for funding were turned down. Environmental groups support paying farmers to leave flood-prone land because floodwater that spreads across farm fields washes fertilizer, pesticides and other chemicals into rivers, causing a range of down-river harms. But theres an economic argument, too: A 2019 study in the science journal Nature Sustainability found that every $1 spent restoring floodplains by clearing them of development and farms can save at least $5 in future damages. Despite this, the single largest agriculture program in the farm bill is intended to keep people on the land. That comes in the form of crop insurance premiums, an average of 60% of which are paid by the federal government. In Alexander County, that is closer to 70%. More broadly, the costs of keeping people on their land there were spiraling upward: In addition to subsidies, there were millions more to clean up flood debris, shore up the levees, and fix roads and drainage systems. And still the floods kept coming. Yet farmers were still planting. They do the math, said Silvia Secchi, a farm policy expert at the University of Iowa, about why farmers might keep investing in troubled land. You and I would do the same math. If you want to stay in business, you do what makes you stay in business.For the father-daughter team of Williams and Renshaw, it was barely enough. All the insurance did was keep people from going broke, Williams said.You arent winning, Renshaw added, by any means.By the time the historic flood hit in 2019, the need to rescue the farmers at Dogtooth Bend was undeniable. A house in Tamms that belonged to Brandy Renshaws uncle takes on floodwater in 2019. (Courtesy of Brandy Renshaw) When the river finally pulled back, Williams no longer recognized the land hed spent his life working. The levee breach had let the full force of the Mississippi pour through Dogtooth Bend for five months. It carved new channels, dumped dunes of sand and even sucked six barges off the main river and left two stranded in a field. People compared the scene to Mars. To the windswept dunes of Lawrence of Arabia. To Williams, it was just a sickening feeling.Farmers in Alexander County claimed more than $7 million in crop insurance payouts that year the highest on record. Roads were so mangled they had to be fully rebuilt. Trash and driftwood littered the peninsula. The damage made the case for a buyout harder to ignore.If that case werent strong enough, the flood also put on display the benefits of letting the levee go. Although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision not to fix it had hurt the nearby farmers, allowing the water to spread out in Dogtooth Bend may have helped relieve pressure on the levee system across the river in Missouri and downriver.Williams and Renshaw had come to terms with what that meant. Their land had been sacrificed so others could be spared. When Williams signed up for the floodplain easement program in August 2019, he figured hed never farm Dogtooth Bend again. By that point, only about 200 of their 1,200 acres could still grow a crop. But do it right, Renshaw said. Instead, they fell into a broken system that left them farming nearly useless land while they waited five years for the federal government to complete their easement paperwork. Williams takes a call from Renshaw while he plants soybeans on his farm. (Julia Rendleman) A historic flood in 2019 broke through the Len Small Levee that protected Dogtooth Bend, sending six barges floating onto the land. Two remain in a field, seen here in November 2024. (Julia Rendleman) Piles of sand several feet deep remain on former farmland at Dogtooth Bend in May. (Julia Rendleman) Williams knew the government moved slowly, but his first years wait seemed absurd. By year two, hed nearly given up. By the summer of 2024, he was just plain disgusted. He checked in regularly with federal workers, calling the local officials he knew by name on their cellphones or popping into the local office in nearby Tamms. But the federal workers on the ground couldnt tell him much other than his paperwork was still in process, under review with a federal official somewhere in another state thousands of miles from Dogtooth Bend. They were frustrated, too.Danette Cross, who worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Alexander County until her retirement late last year, said most of the farmers knew her by name and often called her directly, expecting shed have answers. But to get anything resolved, Cross had to run questions up a chain through a half-dozen people. Im not going to say the whole thing was a disaster they closed on a lot of easements, she said, but nothing was timely. Hiatt, who had failed twice before to bring in funds for these farmers, tried again in 2019, this time banking their hopes on the emergency aid Congress had earmarked for the program. Hiatt said the Illinois team requested $24 million to buy out everyone who signed up at Dogtooth Bend. The payments are not full market value but allow farmers to invest in drier fields that would be less costly to the federal government in the long run. But headquarters authorized just under $6 million, which it applied to the very worst fields. Williams land was hit hard, but it didnt make the cut. That meant crop insurance and the other safety net farm bill programs would have to sustain him while he waited. This wasnt the only holdup. In 2018, Hiatt said, the agency had created a national team to handle land deals in an effort to improve efficiency. But he said it backfired.We were acquiring easements in 500 days when the Illinois office handled the process on its own, he said. Now weve got this specialized team theyre taking 800. The math is not working there.The head of USDAs Risk Management Agency, which oversees the crop insurance program, made a personal visit to the wreckage after the floodwaters receded in 2019. Martin Barbre, who led the agency for most of Trumps first term, knew the area well. He grew up visiting his relatives nearby and himself farms just 100 miles away. In a recent interview, Barbre said he empathized with the farmers and wanted to ensure they got everything they were legally owed through crop insurance.I mean, youve farmed that ground your whole life. Your familys owned it for, you know, probably for generations, and here its just gone, Barbre said. He didnt fault the farmers who kept planting while they waited for a federal buyout. As long as theyre insured, they have the legal right to do that, he said. When I was administrator, I had a saying: I want a producer to get every dime hes got coming from the program but not a penny more.In 2020, the USDA leadership released additional funding to purchase easements on Dogtooth Bend. Williams bounced between the two programs. Each required new paperwork and more time. In 2021, at a meeting in Olive Branch, Hiatt faced frustrated farmers. I took a beating, he said. And I was glad to take it, because it was poorly administered.Three more years passed, and no check had arrived for Williams. But the bills still did. Although it could barely grow a thing, the county still taxed Williams land on Dogtooth Bend like it was prime ground nearly $40,000 a year, according to Williams, calculated in part on farm productivity from across the state. That number would rise in each subsequent year, including on fields buried under 20 feet of sand. Thats because the rate wouldnt change until the buyout went through and it was officially classified as conservation land. Deer dart across a field at Dogtooth Bend in May as a storm approaches. As farms are returned to wetlands, local wildlife may benefit. (Julia Rendleman) As one of the poorest and fastest-shrinking places in America, Alexander County population 4,600 leans on farmers like Williams to fund basic government services and keep teachers employed in a school district with just over 300 kids. Farming in Alexander County accounts for $1 in every $7 in the local economy. And as more people move out of the county, there are fewer left to shoulder the tax burden. Sean Pecord, who farmed on Dogtooth Bend not far from Williams, was one of the first to sign up for the buyout program in 2019; his land was the worst hit. There was nothing left of it to farm, he said.They work at their own pace, said Pecord, who along with his wife also runs the nearby Horseshoe Bar and Grill. If they were operating on normal business terms, theyd be bankrupt in a year. Pecord received his payment in late 2023, about four years after he signed up. Williams was finally paid last September. Its not what they did, Williams said of the federal government. Its how long they took to do it. G. Pang, who lives in nearby Missouri and owns land on Dogtooth Bend with her six siblings, said theyre still waiting to get paid and for answers. She used to call Hiatts personal cellphone when she wanted a status update. But today, the USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service has been hollowed out, with some 2,400 conservation staffers at home on paid leave through September under the terms of the federal buyout, according to a May report by Politico. Hiatt and his two federal colleagues who oversaw easement purchases in Illinois are among them, as are nearly half the staff of 30 who had been tasked with handling back-end easement paperwork as part of the agencys national land team. Just going in there, taking a chainsaw, removing people and not knowing who youre going to replace them with, youre just creating a mess, Pang said of staff cuts under Trump that have left her family in the dark. Without the experienced staff, closing on these deals will take even longer, if it happens at all, Hiatt said. Whats happening now will never be reversed, Hiatt said. Once this is broken, which I dont know if the break is complete yet, but its pretty fractured, I dont think you can reset that bone.Several who joined the buyout were in their 70s and 80s. They were devastated, Renshaw recalled. Williams health has deteriorated in the last few years. Macular degeneration has claimed much of his eyesight. Although hes nearing retirement, he didnt expect to go out like this. Williams takes a lunch break with his family at his mothers house on the farm in June. (Julia Rendleman) One of the advertised benefits of the buyout program was that he could take the money and use it to buy farmland elsewhere. But by the time he had his check in hand and was ready to close on new land this year in Alexander County, prices had soared. That means the amount of money he agreed to when he signed on can no longer buy what hed planned to use it for.Williams is locked in to the 2020 rate, which is 50% lower than the maximum the government is paying today. If Williams had entered the program today, his land would be worth roughly $2 million more than he agreed to take. We could take two acres of that money and buy us an acre up here, he said. Now, he said, it takes at least three acres of that money to buy an acre up here.Part of him regrets signing the papers. The other part knows he didnt have a choice.That monster is still down there, he said of the river. It will be back. In May, Williams looks across the land he farmed until late last year at Dogtooth Bend. (Julia Rendleman)

by Martha Pskowski, Inside Climate News, and Mark Olalde, ProPublica ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. Hakim Dermish moved to the small South Texas town of Catarina in 2002 in search of a rural lifestyle on a budget. The property where he lived with his wife didnt have electricity or sewer lines at first, but that didnt bother him.Even if we lived in a cardboard box, no one could kick us out, Dermish said. Back then, Catarina was a sleepy place. A decade later, oil and gas drilling picked up, and he welcomed the financial opportunities it brought. Dermish launched businesses to support the industry, offering everything from guards for drill sites to housing for oil field workers.The growth also brought flares flames burning off excess natural gas that blazed day and night at wells in the surrounding countryside. Initially enamored of the industrys potential, Dermish now worried that its pollution endangered the health of the towns 75 residents. He began lodging complaints with the state in 2023, asking it to push companies to control emissions.Inspectors with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality investigated, finding only a handful of violations, some of which the companies addressed. But that did little to allay the concerns of Dermish and his neighbors, who continued to see flares light up the sky and to smell gas wafting over the community.Starting first thing in the morning, talk about the stench. Then you call the state and nothing happens, Dermish said. They do absolutely nothing.His neighbor Lupe Campos, who worked in the oil fields for more than three decades, lives three blocks from a flare. Toxic hydrogen sulfide escapes from nearby wells, giving the air the smell of burnt rotten eggs, Campos said. Its hard to bear. Lupe Campos (Christopher Lee for ProPublica) While working to expand the nations oil and gas production, President Donald Trumps administration has maintained that drilling in the U.S. is cleaner than in other countries due to tighter environmental oversight. To mark Earth Day, for example, the White House boasted in a statement that increased natural gas exports meant the U.S. would be sharing cleaner energy with allies and reducing global emissions.But Texas, the heart of Americas oil and gas industry, tells a different story.Texas regulators tout their efforts to curtail oil field emissions by requiring drillers to obtain permits to release or burn gas from their wells.Yet a first-of-its-kind analysis of permit applications to the Railroad Commission of Texas, the states main oil and gas regulator, reveals a rubber-stamp system that allows drillers to emit vast amounts of natural gas into the atmosphere. Over 40 months from May 2021 to September 2024 oil companies applied for more than 12,000 flaring and venting permits, while the Railroad Commission rejected just 53 of them, a 99.6% approval rate, according to the data.Natural gas is composed mostly of climate-warming methane but also contains other gases such as hydrogen sulfide, which is deadly at high concentrations. Gas escapes as wells are drilled and before infrastructure is in place to capture it. It also can be intentionally released if pressure in the system poses a safety risk or if capturing and transporting it to be sold is not profitable. Typically, drillers burn the gas they dont capture, converting the methane to carbon dioxide, a less potent greenhouse gas, in a process called flaring. Sometimes, they release the gas without burning it, in a process called venting. The permit applications showed oil companies requested to flare or vent more than 195 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year, enough to power more than 3 million homes and generate millions of dollars of tax revenue had the gas been captured. Those emissions would have a climate-warming impact roughly equivalent to 27 gas-fired power plants operating year-round, even if the flares burned every molecule of methane released from the wells.Its a gargantuan amount of emissions, said Jack McDonald, senior analyst of energy policy and science for the environmental group Oilfield Witness. Because so much of this gas is methane and so much of it is either incompletely combusted or not combusted at all through the venting process, we see a huge climate impact. Oilfield Witness gathered and studied the Railroad Commission data on exemptions to the states flaring rules and shared it with ProPublica and Inside Climate News. The news organizations verified the data, including by soliciting input from professors at universities in Texas.Railroad Commission spokesperson R.J. DeSilva said in a statement that Texas has made significant progress in addressing methane emissions. Companies must provide evidence that flaring is necessary, and, when approving permits, the agency follows all applicable rules, he said. If an application lacks sufficient justification, it is returned with comments for clarification.I am proud of the progress that has been made to reduce the waste of our natural resources, Jim Wright, chair of the Railroad Commission, said in a statement, adding that there is always room for further improvement. Between May 2021 and September 2024, state regulators approved 280 permits to burn or vent natural gas in Dimmit County, which is home to the small town of Catarina and its 75 residents. (Christopher Lee for ProPublica) The analysis likely overstates emissions, since the near-guarantee that regulators will approve a permit gives companies an incentive to request authorization for amounts larger than they intend to emit to ensure theyre in compliance. For example, operators in four Texas counties flared about 70% of the volume of gas that their permits allowed, according to a recent effort to compare the states flaring data to information collected via satellite. And the Railroad Commission sometimes approves flaring smaller volumes than requested, which is not captured in the data.The Texas oil and natural gas industry is committed to ongoing progress in reducing flaring and methane emissions while continuing to meet the ever-growing demand for reliable oil and natural gas across the globe, Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, a trade group, told ProPublica and Inside Climate News in a statement.Residents of communities surrounded by flares and leaking wells, like Catarina, want the state and the industry to do more to control oil field emissions. The Railroad Commission approved eight flares within 5 miles of the town during the study period and 280 across surrounding Dimmit County, according to agency data.The danger posed by the gas became impossible to ignore on March 27, as a 30-inch steel pipeline a half-mile from Catarina failed. The rupture blasted more than 23 million cubic feet of gas into the air, as much as is used in 365 homes in a year, according to data the company that owns the pipeline, Energy Transfer, reported to the Railroad Commission. On March 27, a pipeline just outside Catarina failed, spewing a large volume of natural gas into the air. As his house shook, Hakim Dermish captured the aftermath on his cellphone. (Courtesy of Hakim Dermish) Watch video Dermish recorded the chaos with his cellphone. The house is shaking, he says in the video as the escaping gas roars, its concussions jostling the camera.Fearing for their safety, he and his wife evacuated, heading to a neighboring town for the day. After they returned home that evening, he called the sheriff to ask what had happened. During the conversation, Dermish could feel the gas causing him to slur his words. The next morning, Dermish noticed new gas flares, presumably lit to release pressure in the pipeline network by burning excess gas. A cellphone video he recorded shows a towering column of flame, taller than a nearby telephone pole, billowing and rippling.Have you ever seen Lord of the Rings? Do you remember the Fire of Mordor? Dermish said in an interview. Thats what we have here.An incident report submitted to the state by Energy Transfer attributed the pipeline failure to a technicians errors. Without objection from the Railroad Commission, the pipeline was repaired and back in service three days later. The agency did not assess Energy Transfer with a violation or a fine.Energy Transfer did not respond to a request for comment.After more than two decades in Catarina, Dermish and his wife are planning to move away. Its just too dangerous, he said. Hakim Dermish has for years urged Texas oil and gas regulatory agencies to more closely monitor the flares near Catarina. (Christopher Lee for ProPublica) Is American Oil and Gas Cleaner?While the Trump administration characterizes American oil and gas as cleaner than fossil fuels from other countries, it has rolled back rules regulating methane.The Environmental Protection Agency has, under Trump, delayed implementing previously finalized rules that wouldve mandated that the industry monitor for methane leaks and address them. He and Republicans in Congress also repealed the countrys first-ever tax on methane. And in June, Trump revoked a Biden administration guidance document laying out how companies should comply with a law aimed at reducing methane leaks from pipelines.The White House did not respond to a request for comment.As the nations highest-producing oil and gas state, Texas is a key barometer of the U.S. regulatory environment and whether it has created a cleaner fossil fuel industry.The Permian Basin the countrys largest oil field, which straddles the Texas-New Mexico border was estimated by a 2024 study to emit the second-most methane of any oil field in the world.The industry disputes that finding, pointing to a June report from S&P Global Commodity Insights that found that the rate of methane emissions in the Permian Basin dropped 29% between 2023 and 2024. Methane emissions management is increasingly a part of the industrys operations, Raoul LeBlanc, a vice president at S&P, said in a statement announcing the findings. However, S&Ps report acknowledged that satellite data showed a much more modest reduction of 4%, contradicting the companys own data, which was collected by airplane.We can say confidently that there is no evidence that methane emissions from the Permian Basin are low, said Steven Hamburg, who studies methane as the Environmental Defense Funds chief scientist. Companies dispose of oil field waste in this growing dump in Catarina. (Christopher Lee for ProPublica) Texas Attempt to Rein In FlaringIn Texas, State Rule 32 prohibits flaring and venting gas at wells, except under a few specific conditions: while the well is being drilled, during the first 10 days after the well is completed and when necessary to ensure safety. Otherwise, drillers must seek an exception.The Railroad Commission changed the application process for these exemptions in 2020 and issued new guidance in 2021. Operators would have to explain why they could not suspend drilling to avoid flaring and indicate that they had investigated all options for using the gas before flaring.Oilfield Witness gathered all exemption requests since 2021, which showed the agency repeatedly approving permits that failed to comply with its guidelines. In many cases, oil companies asked to flare indefinitely or didnt justify why they needed to flare, leaving blank the section of the application asking why the exemption was needed. Capturing the gas requires an expensive system of pipelines, compressors and other infrastructure that can cost more than the gas is worth. In their permit applications, companies cite this reality, often listing financial considerations as the reason for seeking exemptions, Oilfield Witness found. These were nearly always approved, even though the agency wrote that finances were an insufficient explanation in a presentation on the permitting process.The Railroad Commission seems very interested in devolving decision-making processes to the companies themselves, McDonald said.The data also showed that nearly 90% of the approved permit applications were backdated, retroactively giving permission for flares that were already burning. Oil companies typically asked the Railroad Commission for permission to flare 10 days after they had already burned the gas.A spokesperson said that when the commission revamped its guidelines in 2020, it allowed a longer period in which companies could file for a permit after theyd already started to flare. Even so, nearly 900 of the permits were applied for after the updated filing window and still accepted by the agency.The Railroad Commission also approved more than 7,000 flares within areas where the gas reservoir being drilled was known to be high in hydrogen sulfide, increasing the likelihood that the toxic gas could escape into the air. Of those flares, 600 were within a mile of a residence, the agencys data showed.Minimizing flaring permits is not a priority in any sense for the Railroad Commission, said Gunnar Schade, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University. The priority is oil produced, and that means revenue for the state. Oil and gas is a priority, so who cares about the flaring? Overstating the ProgressThe Railroad Commission and the states oil industry trumpet their work to reduce flaring. The agency points to state data showing flaring rates dropping dramatically, specifically since 2019. And the Texas Oil and Gas Association announced in early August that drillers in the Permian Basin slashed methane emission intensity by more than half in just two years.But such claims are misleading, according to experts such as David DiCarlo, an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austins petroleum engineering school. Using 2019 as a starting point leaves a false impression that theres been a sharp decline, he said, as methane emissions that year were staggeringly high due to booming production and inadequate pipeline capacity to gather the gas.DeSilva, the Railroad Commissions spokesperson, defended using 2019 as the baseline because about five years ago we began taking proactive steps to reduce flaring in Texas.Taking a longer view shows that a median of 2.2% of gas at Texas oil wells was flared or vented over the past decade, according to a ProPublica and Inside Climate News review of state data. (Flaring at gas wells is rare because those sites have the necessary pipeline infrastructure in place to collect the gas.) That figure hovered just north of 2% in the most recently available data, representing a much smaller drop than the state and industry claim. The industry still hasnt built sufficient pipeline networks to capture gas at oil wells, so, as production rises, so does flaring and venting. Not Much Recent Progress on Oil Well Flaring The Texas oil industry and its regulators have celebrated a reduction in the burning of climate-warming gases at oil wells, a practice known as flaring. However, state data shows that, while the flaring rate is below its 2019 peak, it has stayed relatively constant for the past several years. They cant get it below 2% because they keep drilling, DiCarlo said. Since emissions are highest when a well is being drilled, overall emissions will remain high as long as the industry is drilling new wells. Thats just the nature of the beast.Among the largest beneficiaries of the states lax permitting system was an oil company called Endeavor Energy Resources. More than half the approved permanent flaring exemptions went to Endeavor, which merged with the $40 billion Diamondback Energy in September 2024. Endeavor also applied for the longest flaring permit 6,300 days, or more than 17 years. The Railroad Commission approved the permit without shortening its duration.Diamondback Energy did not respond to a request for comment.The industry has simultaneously claimed that it is addressing methane while bristling at oversight. Natural gas, as seen through a specialized camera that captures infrared energy, streams out of a Diamondback Energy facility near Midland, Texas, in 2023. (Courtesy of Oilfield Witness) Watch video Steven Pruett is the president and CEO of Elevation Resources, a Permian Basin oil company, and the immediate past chair of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, one of the industrys main trade groups. His company saw a 2,408% increase in flaring immediately following new wells being drilled and a 692% increase in flaring overall in 2023, according to emails unearthed by environmental watchdog organization Fieldnotes and shared with ProPublica and Inside Climate News. In the email exchange with University of Texas faculty who were preparing a grant application for a federal methane-reduction program, Pruett blamed the increases on inadequate infrastructure to capture the gas.Just weeks later, Pruett participated in a tour of the oil field alongside EPA staff, where he echoed the claim that the American oil and gas industry is cleaner than others and that drilling companies were complying with efforts to reduce emissions.During his term at the helm of the national trade group, it spearheaded multiple lawsuits against the EPA over the governments methane rules.Pruett did not respond to a request for comment. A Constant RoarThose opposed to flaring face long odds in halting the practice, even in rare instances when the Railroad Commission hears objections.Consider the experience of Tom Pohlman, then sheriff of Fisher County, who had a flare burning next to his home in the Texas Panhandle starting in October 2023. The driller responsible for it, Patton Exploration, solicited companies to extend a pipeline to the oil well to capture the gas and evaluated whether the gas could be used to mine bitcoin. But by July 2024, it still had no deal, so the company sought another permit to continue flaring up to 1 million cubic feet of gas per day for 18 months. Patton is diligently pursuing every avenue possible to find a solution, but still needs more time, the company wrote in its application.When Pohlman learned that Patton Exploration had applied for a new permit, he and his neighbors urged the Railroad Commission to deny it.The sound that comes from the flame is a constant roar that we can hear throughout our property both day and night, the neighbors wrote in their objection. There is no peace and quiet since the day of its ignition.In September 2024, Pohlman became one of the few people to officially challenge a flaring permit in Texas, as he and Patton Exploration representatives went head-to-head in a hearing before a Railroad Commission administrative law judge.For approximately 20 of my residents in this area, it completely lights up their yard and everything else, Pohlman said, telling the judge that the flare was 45 feet high. I just need liveability for this neighborhood. Weve had nothing but issues here.Patton Explorations lawyer, David Gross, acknowledged the neighbors frustrations but emphasized the importance of keeping the well pumping.You cant produce the oil without producing the gas, he told the judge. Its the public policy of Texas that the recoverable oil and gas in the states reservoirs be recovered because it is in the public interest.In January, the three elected members of the Railroad Commission voted unanimously to approve the permit and allow flaring for another 12 months. A flare lights up the night sky in Catarina. (Christopher Lee for ProPublica)

by Vianna Davila, Liz Sharp and Myron Avant ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. ProPublica is committed to increasing the diversity of our workplace as well as the journalism community more broadly, while ensuring equal opportunities for all. Each year we publish a report on those efforts. This is the report for 2025; here are our past reports. Our Commitment We believe that it is imperative to staff our newsroom and business operations with people from a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives. We are committed to removing barriers that have traditionally excluded qualified applicants, including people with disabilities, those from low-income backgrounds, veterans, people of color and women.For 10 years ProPublica has reported on its efforts to grow and diversify its staff. That important work continues, ProPublica President Robin Sparkman said. We are committed to covering a range of issues in our journalism. To do that effectively we need employees with varied perspectives and backgrounds.ProPublica has continued to expand, growing from 186 full-time employees at the start of 2024 to 193 in 2025.Weve added resources to the staff supporting this work, including hiring a talent acquisition manager who has worked to refine our hiring process to make the candidate experience more fair and consistent. Weve created organizational partnerships to provide access to investigative journalism training and build community with journalists from a variety of backgrounds. Weve fostered mentorships so that any employee can benefit from a colleagues experiences and we spearheaded the creation of a shared holiday calendar to promote greater awareness of diverse religious celebrations and avoid scheduling conflicts.Our Diversity Committee comprises more than 50 ProPublicans who volunteer their time to work on initiatives that are pitched and run by the staff. The current co-chairs are Vianna Davila and Liz Sharp.Our work in this area can also be seen in our journalism. Throughout 2024, we reported on the adverse effects of abortion restrictions on women, including those who died after their states banned the procedure. Our reporting resulted in new federal rules that went into effect last year that are aimed at speeding repatriations of Native American remains. Last February, the U.S. Department of Justice started working with a sheriffs office in Wisconsin on a written policy on how to respond to incidents involving people with limited English proficiency; this followed our reporting on how a grammatical mistake in Spanish led sheriffs deputies to wrongly blame a Nicaraguan dairy worker for his sons death. Our reporting on systemic failings by the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat people with mental illnesses, including in cases in which veterans went on to kill themselves or others, resulted in commitments to increase staffing by the VA secretary.We also partner with news organizations across the country. Last year, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill into law that curtailed the controversial contract-for-deed real estate deals and included greater protections for buyers; his action followed a 2022 investigation by ProPublica and the Sahan Journal that revealed questionable real estate transactions that left members of Minnesotas Somali and Hispanic immigrant communities at risk of losing their homes. Meanwhile in Virginia, the states legislature last year approved a statewide commission to investigate the role of public colleges and universities in displacing Black communities, following our reporting on the issue with the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO. Breakdown of Our Staff As with last year, we collected aggregate data about our application and interview process. Out of 27 positions filled in 2024, 52% of the finalists identified as women and half identified as being part of a racial/ethnic group other than solely non-Hispanic white. Fifty-six percent of the people we hired identified as women and 37% identified as being part of a racial/ethnic group other than solely non-Hispanic white.At the start of 2025, the percentage of all ProPublica staff members who identified as solely non-Hispanic white was 63%.For the seventh year in a row, more women than men work at ProPublica. In editorial positions, women represented 52% of the staff.About 2% of our staff identify as nonbinary or transgender.Since 2022, we have collected demographic information about our board of directors. Of the 15 people on the board, 47% identified as women. About 67% of the directors identified as non-Hispanic white, compared to 64% last year.As weve said since 2015, part of our commitment to diversity means being transparent about our own numbers. Heres how our staff breaks down.(Please note that the data is based on employees self-reported information. Recognizing that some people may identify as more than one race but not identify as a person of color, in 2022 we began stating numbers in terms of people who solely identify as non-Hispanic white. The employee information is as of Jan. 1 of each year. Managers are defined as staff members who supervise other people, and that group does not include all editors. Percentages may not add up to 100 because of rounding. Fellows, time-limited employees and part-time employees are not included in this analysis.) Race and Ethnicity: All of ProPublica Race and Ethnicity: Editorial Race and Ethnicity: Managers Gender: All of ProPublica Gender: Editorial Gender: Managers New Initiatives Added new staff: Part of our goal in 2024 was to build capacity on the team that is responsible for hiring and supporting ProPublicans. We brought on a seasoned talent acquisition manager with over a decade of recruiting experience, including recent years at top news organizations. Their addition ensures our team has the capacity to fully support hiring managers while creating a thoughtful, well-structured recruiting experience for every candidate.Strengthening fair and inclusive hiring: Weve taken significant steps to make our hiring process even more fair, transparent and inclusive. By implementing structured interviews across the organization, were ensuring every candidate is evaluated consistently. Weve also increased collaboration with hiring teams through more frequent consultations, ensuring we adhere to fair and nondiscriminatory hiring practices. On the candidate side, weve added more touchpoints and improved communication, so candidates are kept more up to date on the process of their applications. Our Ongoing Efforts ProPublica thinks about its efforts in the following ways: building the pipeline (for us and for all of investigative journalism); recruiting talent and improving our hiring process; and inclusion and retention. Building the Pipeline Conference stipends: ProPublica partnered with Investigative Reporters & Editors to sponsor journalists to attend the annual IRE convention. We also sponsored a journalists of color mixer, open to everyone at the conference, which was attended by close to 100 people. Emerging Reporters Program: The program provides financial assistance and mentorship to five students for whom investigative journalism might otherwise be inaccessible due to cost, so they can pursue early career opportunities in the field. The program is open to all and includes a $9,000 stipend, virtual programming and an all-expenses paid trip to an IRE conference on computer assisted reporting. This is the programs ninth year, and it is coordinated by Talia Buford.Data Institute: In 2016, ProPublica journalists founded The Data Institute, a workshop for journalists on how to use data, design and code. ProPublica eventually started working with Open News, which coordinates student and instructor participation and provides support for project management and event planning. The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting and the Center for Journalism & Democracy now organize this in-person event. Last year a half dozen current and former ProPublicans served as trainers at the institute, which is focused on empowering people with data skills they can bring back to their own newsrooms.Investigative Editor Training Program: ProPublica started an Investigative Editor Training Program in 2023 for journalists who want to learn how to manage, edit and elevate investigative projects that expose harm and create impact. The curriculum for the yearlong program was designed by ProPublica Managing Editor Ginger Thompson and Deputy Managing Editor Alexandra Zayas. The program is open to all and tries to address the industrys critical need to broaden the ranks of investigative editors. We selected 10 people to attend a weeklong training at our New York office. Also included in the program were an additional four ProPublica staffers who aspire to become story editors. Participants heard from ProPublica editors on different aspects of the craft, from story selection and memos to managing the reporting and digging into the first draft. They were also paired with ProPublica senior staff as mentors and received additional virtual training for the remainder of the year. We offered this training again in 2025. Recruiting and Hiring Affinity conferences: Last summer, ProPublica recruiters and newsroom staff attended the countrys three largest affinity journalism conferences, sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Asian American Journalists Association. The newsroom sponsored the NABJ Investigative Task Force mixer and the Visual Task Force Moneta Sleet Photo Competition at the organizations annual convention in Chicago.Salary transparency and fairness: ProPublica is committed to paying its employees fairly and transparently and works to ensure that there is no improper discrimination in compensation. Since the fall of 2022, ProPublica has published salary ranges for all posted job openings, regardless of geography. Our staff recently formed a union, and future salary increases will be part of a collective bargaining agreement.Interview pools: We strive for an interview pool that includes at least one qualified candidate from an underrepresented background. Interview pools are not capped and seek to include all equally qualified candidates.Freelancer guide: ProPublica publishes a guide for freelancers interested in pitching an investigation to ProPublica. We designed the guide to formalize the pitch process and level the playing field for how freelance projects are presented and considered. Submissions will be reviewed by editors on a rotating basis. ProPublica will respond to anyone who completes the form, even if their proposal is not accepted.LRN candidate outreach: Editors with ProPublicas Local Reporting Network continue to do personalized recruiting and offer office hours so local journalists can discuss their accountability work with a member of the team. LRN editors were also present at journalism conferences, including affinity group gatherings where they met with interested applicants in an effort to help them with the project-development and application process. The program also regularly taps the talent team for leads of promising candidates. In addition, the team of editors regularly discusses the diversity of voices in the program and how to adapt our work to meet a range of needs. Inclusion and Retention Welcoming new hires and focusing on internal culture: Our inclusion subcommittee consists of about 30 ProPublicans who meet monthly to consider ways to make the newsroom more inclusive and fair, while building support for one another as colleagues. Mariam Elba and Megan OMatz chair this subcommittee. The group created a tool to help staff identify training and development opportunities; fostered mentorships for new hires; and spearheaded the creation of a shared holiday calendar to promote greater awareness of various religious celebrations and avoid scheduling conflicts. An internal story club meets regularly to discuss particularly enjoyable stories, podcasts or books. The committee spearheaded the institution of voluntary breakout rooms after all-staff meetings, where staff are randomly assigned to groups who discuss a prompt created by the committee to spark conversation and build community. The committee works to improve communication, share knowledge and address challenges faced by a far-flung workforce.Sensitivity subcommittee: Led by Colleen Barry, this group serves as a resource for editors and reporters to tap the collective brain trust of our newsroom when working on particularly sensitive stories about suicide, sexual abuse, child abuse, racial trauma and more. The committee maintains a Slack channel where anyone can share resources and where editors and reporters can solicit feedback on drafts or ask questions on how best to report on sensitive subjects. When a sensitivity read or the discussions during the editing and production of a story are particularly instructive, the subcommittee has shared those experiences at diversity committee meetings so any lessons can be more broadly applied. ProPublica Peer Partnership Program: This is an internal program, organized by Jodi Cohen and Lisa Song, that is open to all and matches ProPublicans with a mentor or peer partner to develop new skills and have someone to turn to for help navigating workplace or career questions. Last year, more than 50 ProPublicans participated in this program, which was started in 2018.Unconscious bias training: Since 2021, ProPublica has used Paradigm Reach to provide ongoing training for staff to create a workplace culture that is intentional, inclusive and high performing. The training is provided to all new staff.Diversity Committee office hours: We have continued to offer a casual virtual hangout twice a month where ProPublicans can chat with the Diversity Committee co-chairs to brainstorm or chat in a more intimate setting outside of the monthly committee meetings. Interested in Working Here? Here is our jobs page, where we post new positions, including fellowships, full-time and temporary roles.

by Richard A. Webster, Verite News ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. When a source first told me about the case of Lloyd Gray in late 2024, I jotted down these notes: two Black jurors, a swastika and Gov. Jeff Landry. That was an oversimplification of a deeply troubling issue, but it also got to the heart of a story published this week by ProPublica and Verite News that haunts Louisiana and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.Gray was just 19 in 1980 when he was tried in a New Orleans courtroom on a charge of aggravated rape. After one day of testimony, the jury returned with a 10-2 split verdict. The 10 white jurors voted guilty and the only two Black jurors not guilty. If youre a regular consumer of courtroom dramas, you might think a split verdict would mean a mistrial, and today it would. But back then in Louisiana, where nonunanimous juries were legal, it resulted in a life sentence for Gray.Covering the criminal justice system in Louisiana often means familiarizing myself with things people in other parts of the country might find shocking. For instance, many might be surprised to learn that here, for more than 120 years, the state allowed people like Gray to be sent to prison for life even though two jurors voted not guilty. The only other state to do the same was Oregon.In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the practice was unconstitutional and based on an inherently racist law meant to uphold white supremacy, but the decision only applied in cases going forward; the court left the decision about what to do with those convicted long ago to the states. Louisiana refused to reconsider the convictions of more than 1,000 mostly Black men sent to prison for lengthy sentences by those split-jury verdicts.Reporting here can often be a surreal experience. Even when you think youve reached a level of cynicism that cant be breached, something new comes along that shocks your system. For me, that was the swastika. While Grays former attorney was explaining the ins and outs of his case to me, he mentioned that at some point, someone had drawn the Nazi hate symbol on the cover of Grays case file. And sure enough, when Grays attorneys sent me the cover page of his file, there it was, in the upper right corner: a small doodle of a swastika.It was hard to contemplate how, even as recently as the 1980s, someone would feel comfortable enough to draw such a disgraceful thing on a government document without fear of repercussion. The district attorneys office does not dispute its existence or that a staff member might have drawn it, but it doesnt know who or when. A doodle of a swastika on the upper right corner of the cover of Grays file (Obtained by ProPublica and Verite News. Highlight added by ProPublica.) The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections denied our request to interview Gray, either by phone or in person, so the only way to communicate with him for the story was via his attorneys. I provided them with questions, and they relayed his responses.I wanted to know what his life was like before that fateful night in 1980 when he was accused of rape. He described a happy childhood, saying: The beauty of it is we were loved. Me and my sister, my brother, we were loved. But he also recalled witnessing his mothers mistreatment at a gas station at a young age. It opened my eyes to racism at its finest, Gray said.Grays attorneys contend that the swastika, along with the two Black jurors voting to acquit, among other issues, proves that his prosecution was tainted by racial bias and should be enough to, at the very least, reconsider Grays sentence.At one point, the New Orleans District Attorneys Office appeared to agree and proposed a plea deal that would allow for Grays release. In Oregon, after the Supreme Courts 2020 ruling, the state vacated the sentences of everyone convicted by a nonunanimous jury, after which prosecutors offered plea deals with reduced sentences that allowed many to walk free.But again, this is Louisiana. Unlike Oregon, the state Supreme Court decided not to vacate old split-jury convictions and left it to the Legislature to deal with the issue. In turn, lawmakers, backed by Landry, shut off all paths to freedom for people like Gray. They not only shot down legislation allowing for older split-jury verdicts to be reexamined, they passed a bill gutting the ability of prosecutors to offer plea deals. (The Landry administration did not respond to requests for comment.)The impact of this law played out in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in late August when the district attorneys office told Judge Robin Pittman that the new law prevented it from waiving a missed filing deadline by Gray and, as a result, it couldnt broker a deal. Pittman set a new hearing for Oct. 30 at which she will decide if Grays case, in which he asked for his sentence to be reconsidered, can move forward.When youre sent to prison with a life sentence, they send you here to die, Gray told me through his attorneys. After 45 years, Im no closer to freedom than the day I walked into this place.

by Renee Dudley ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. The Pentagon issued a letter of concern to Microsoft documenting a breach of trust over the companys use of China-based engineers to maintain sensitive government computer systems, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this week. At the same time, the Defense Department is opening an investigation into whether any of those employees have compromised national security.The actions came in response to a recent ProPublica investigation that exposed Microsofts digital escort system, in which U.S. personnel with security clearances supervise foreign engineers, including those in China. ProPublica found that the escorts often lack the expertise needed to effectively supervise engineers with far more advanced technical skills.The tech giant developed the arrangement as a work-around to a Defense Department requirement that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.The program was designed to comply with contracting rules, but it exposed the department to unacceptable risk, Hegseth said in a video announcement posted on X. If youre thinking America first and common sense, this doesnt pass either of those tests. The letter serves as a warning to Microsoft, which has said in earnings reports that it receives substantial revenue from government contracts. It is less serious than a cure notice, which could lead to termination of Microsoft contracts if problems are not fixed. The department did not release the letter publicly, and it did not reply to ProPublicas request for a copy of it.Experts have said allowing China-based personnel to perform technical support and maintenance on U.S. government computer systems poses major security risks. Laws in China grant the countrys officials broad authority to collect data, and experts say it is difficult for any Chinese citizen or company to meaningfully resist a direct request from security forces or law enforcement.Hegseth said the newly opened Pentagon investigation into the digital escort program would focus on Microsofts China-based employees. The probe will help us determine the impact of this digital escort workaround, he said, including whether they put anything in the code that we didnt know about.Hegseth said in his video announcement that the department is also requiring a new third-party audit of Microsofts digital escort program. It is unclear who will conduct that audit.Microsoft started using digital escorts about a decade ago, ProPublica found, and went on to win federal cloud computing business worth billions of dollars. Through the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, the system escaped the notice of Pentagon officials. ProPublica reported last week that Microsoft failed to disclose key details of the arrangement in the security plans it submitted to the Defense Department. The company has declined to comment on those omissions.We expect vendors doing business with the Department of Defense to put U.S. national security ahead of profit maximization, Hegseth said in the video.In the wake of ProPublicas reporting, Microsoft announced last month that it had stopped using China-based engineers to support Defense Department cloud computing systems. In a statement provided for this story, the company said that it will continue to collaborate with the US Government to ensure we are meeting their expectations.We remain committed to providing the most secure services possible to the US government, including working with our national security partners to evaluate and adjust our security protocols as needed, the company said in the statement.In addition to China, Microsoft has operations in India, the European Union and elsewhere across the globe, and engineers in those places also work on Defense Department cloud maintenance.Last month, Hegseth said on X that foreign engineers from any country, including of course China should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DoD systems. But last week, in response to ProPublicas questions, the Defense Department left the door open to the continued use of foreign-based engineers with digital escorts, saying that it may be deemed an acceptable risk, depending on factors that include the country of origin of the foreign national being escorted.In his announcement, Hegseth did not mention whether the escort program would continue or say whether Microsofts reliance on other foreign nationals to maintain the Defense Departments computer systems would also be reviewed. The department did not respond to questions from ProPublica seeking additional information about the new investigations.ProPublica reported last month that Microsoft has also relied on its China-based employees to maintain federal cloud computing systems beyond the Defense Department, including those of the departments of Justice, Treasury and Commerce. In response to the reporting, Microsoft has suggested that it would also discontinue the use of China-based engineers for those departments.In this weeks announcement, Hegseth said the Defense Department was working with our partners in the rest of the federal government to ensure that all U.S. networks are protected.

by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News This article was produced for ProPublicas Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. Leaders in Alaska and elsewhere have repeatedly promised action in recent years to address the nations chronic failure to solve the murder or disappearance of Indigenous people.Federal legislation backed by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski called for improving data collection and information sharing among law enforcement and tribes. Gov. Mike Dunleavy said again and again and as recently as May 5 that the state government would work with Alaska Natives to address the crisis.My administration will continue to support law enforcement, victim advocacy groups, Alaska Native Tribes and other entities working together to solve these cases and bring closure to victims families, Dunleavy said in a news release last year.Yet when an Alaska Native group asked state law enforcement officials in June for one of the most fundamental pieces of data needed to understand the issue a list of murders investigated by state police the state said no. Charlene Aqpik Apok launched Data for Indigenous Justice in 2020 after trying to collect the names of missing and murdered Indigenous people to read at a rally, only to discover no government agency had been keeping track. Over time, the nonprofit built its own homegrown database with the help of villagers, friends and family across the state.In 2023, the state started publishing a list quarterly with names of Indigenous people reported missing. But the state still does not issue a list for the other key piece of the groups efforts: Indigenous people who have been killed.So on June 4, the nonprofit filed two public records requests with the Alaska Department of Public Safety concerning homicide cases the agency had investigated since 2022. The group asked first for victims of all races and then for those identified as Alaska Native.Apok said she didnt think the request was controversial or complicated.But the state rejected the requests a week later. The agency said fulfilling the request would take several hours and cited a state regulation allowing a denial if providing information to a requester would require employees to compile or summarize existing public records.We do not keep lists of victims of any type of crime, including homicide victims, and to fulfil this request DPS would have to manually review incident reports from multiple years to create a record that matched what you are looking for, Austin McDaniel, communications director for the department, wrote to the nonprofit.McDaniel offered no direct response when the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica asked why the agency could not retrieve homicide records with a simple database query or why, even if the work required manual review and wasnt required under state law, the agency didnt simply create a list of homicide victims.(Alaskas public records law says any records that take state employees fewer than five hours to produce shall be provided for free, and the state can choose to waive research fees if providing records would serve the public interest. Even if an agency needs to create a new record, as McDaniel asserted in his denial, its allowed to if the public agency can do so without impairing its functioning.)Data for Indigenous Justice appealed the denial to the head of the department, Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell, who decided in favor of the agency.The nonprofits records request and the states denial revealed that Alaska, four years after creating a council on murdered and missing Indigenous people, cannot readily identify murder cases involving Indigenous victims. The state now employs four investigators who focus on such cases.How do they know which cases are Alaska Native or Indigenous people for their MMIP investigators if they cannot do a simple pull of the demographics that we are talking about? Apok said.Apok said tracking complete and accurate data on Indigenous people who have disappeared or been killed matters because otherwise, law enforcement can shrug off individual cases and deny the scale of the problem.Thats the power of data. Thats the power of collective information, she said. Grace Norton holds a photo of her niece, Ashley Johnson-Barr, who was murdered in Kotzebue, Alaska, in 2018. Kotzebue residents walked along Shore Avenue and scattered rose petals in remembrance of missing and murdered Indigenous people in 2023. (Marc Lester/ADN) In lieu of answering detailed questions for this story, McDaniel provided a one-page response saying that the department receives thousands of records requests each year. He said the agency is a leader in data transparency for missing and murdered Indigenous people, adding that to imply that we are not invested in this work due to the denial of one records request from an advocacy group is absurd.He cited as examples of transparency the departments publication of information about missing Indigenous people and its provision of law enforcement data to tribal governments in support of their requests for federal grants.Anchorage, which runs the states largest municipal police department, recently reversed a policy that withheld the identities of certain homicide victims. The police chief released the records after Daily News reporting revealed the policy had no basis in law and was opposed by some victims rights advocates.State troopers, meanwhile, handle about 38% of all murders in Alaska, according to statistics that law enforcement reports each year. From 2019 to 2023, the most recent data available, troopers investigated an average of 22 murders each year. That means the agency would likely need to review just a few dozen reports to provide the requested names.Watershed reports published in Canada in 2017 and by the Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute in 2018 revealed the scope of the crisis of missing and murdered people from Indigenous communities.Those reports, Apok said, named exactly what a lot of us were seeing and feeling, where we didnt know our experiences were part of a larger collective.In 2021, Data for Indigenous Justice published the first report on the crisis in Alaska, highlighting the failure of media and local governments to gather data on cases of missing and murdered people to analyze patterns. A council appointed by Dunleavy even relied on Apoks findings including her conclusion that little data is available when trying to describe the scope of the problem.Dunleavy and Murkowski have been vocal on the issue in the years since.A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to emailed and hand-delivered questions about the states failure to provide names of homicide victims to Apoks group. Told of the decision not to release the names, Murkowskis office said the senator was unavailable for an interview and offered no comment on the states actions.Apok said her group will continue making public records requests to the state while building its own database through community connections.Were going to keep doing what we do, she said. People will keep telling us names.

by Tim Golden ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. More than two decades after victims of the 9/11 attacks began trying to hold the government of Saudi Arabia responsible for helping the Qaida terrorists who carried out the plot, a federal judge has ruled that a civil lawsuit against the kingdom can go to trial.The decision on Thursday, by Judge George B. Daniels of the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, represents a crucial victory for survivors of the attacks and relatives of the 2,977 people who were killed.This is a historic win for the families, said a spokesperson for the families, Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed in the World Trade Center. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is going to be held accountable.A spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, Fahad Nazer, did not respond to requests for comment on the judges ruling.The Saudi kingdom, which has long rejected the plaintiffs claims, could still appeal Daniels decision under special protections that are afforded to foreign governments in federal law, legal experts said. However, they added that the Saudi government might be willing to consider a settlement with the plaintiffs to avoid the scrutiny of a major trial and the expansive discovery of information that it would bring.Already, information uncovered by plaintiffs has rewritten the history of the Sept. 11 plot as it was presented in the years after the attacks by the George W. Bush administration and the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. Most significantly, the plaintiffs evidence has undermined the FBIs conclusion that two Saudi officials in Southern California one a part-time spy, the other a religious official with diplomatic status acted unwittingly when they helped the first Qaida hijackers who arrived in the United States. In an email, the FBI also declined to comment on the judges ruling.It has long been established that in the years before 9/11, some members of the Saudi royal family and some powerful Saudi officials had supported militant Islamist movements and gave money to Islamic charities that in turn helped finance al-Qaida and other extremist groups.However, both the FBI and the CIA emphasized in the aftermath of the attacks that the Saudi royal family was an enemy of al-Qaida and its banished leader, Osama bin Laden, and that senior officials of the government had not assisted the group.The litigation in New York focused on the roles of two lower-level Saudi officials living in the United States. One, Omar al-Bayoumi, was a middle-aged graduate student in San Diego who had long worked for the Saudi civil aviation agency. The other, Fahad al-Thumairy, was a religious official serving in Los Angeles as an imam at a new Saudi-funded mosque and as a diplomat at the Saudi Consulate.The FBI quickly determined that Bayoumi met the first two hijackers near the mosque soon after they flew into Los Angeles in January 2000 and that he helped them rent an apartment in San Diego, open a bank account and buy a car.Bayoumi also introduced the two jihadists who knew no one in the United States, spoke virtually no English and had no experience of living in the West to a group of Muslim men who provided them with crucial support over the months that they lived in the city.Bayoumi moved his family to Birmingham, England, in the summer of 2001. Within days of the attacks, he was detained and questioned by the British police at the FBIs request before being allowed to return to Saudi Arabia.In a search of Bayoumis home, the British authorities turned up documents, notebooks, videotapes and computer files that they shared with the FBI, officials said. But only in the last two years did lawyers for the 9/11 families obtain much of that cache and then only from the British government.From the start, U.S. investigators were skeptical of Bayoumis account. In the end, though, the FBI largely accepted his claims that he met the two Qaida operatives by chance, helped them as he would any compatriots and had no idea of their terrorist plans. Both Bayoumi and the Saudi government insisted repeatedly that he had no ties to Saudi intelligence.Despite the efforts of a small group of FBI agents to pursue the case, it was eventually closed by the bureau. The civil lawsuit nearly died in 2016, when President Barack Obama vetoed legislation to carve out an exception to the sovereign immunity of foreign governments and permit the families to sue the Saudi kingdom. Congress overrode that veto, however, allowing the suit to go forward.President Donald Trump later blocked the families from obtaining classified government documents on the 9/11 investigations, claiming they were state secrets. President Joe Biden later reversed that stance and declassified documents that included reporting confirming that Bayoumi was a part-time agent of the Saudi intelligence service.The evidence that plaintiffs lawyers obtained from the British government has proved even more powerful.It included videotapes in which Bayoumi was filmed touring Washington before the 9/11 attacks with two visiting Saudi religious officials who had extensive ties to militants. In one of the tapes, he filmed the U.S. Capitol, describing its layout and security to an unidentified audience. Lawyers for the plaintiffs suggested that Bayoumi and his companions were casing the target for Qaida plotters; the Saudi government insisted in court that it was a tourist video.In his ruling, Daniels noted that the two sides had different interpretations of almost every piece of evidence. But he endorsed the plaintiffs views of several key exhibits, including a diagram of an airplane found in one of Bayoumis notebooks. Citing aviation experts, the plaintiffs lawyers said the drawing and the calculations beside it showed how a plane might hit an object on the ground. The Saudis lawyers suggested that Bayoumi had drawn it while helping his son with homework. Daniels said the plaintiffs evidence created a high probability as to Bayoumi and Thumairys roles in the hijackers plans, and the related role of their employer, the Saudi government. In many instances, he added, it even appeared that Bayoumi actively injected himself into the hijackers illicit activities.Eagleson, the families spokesperson, noted that during the long pretrial litigation, the plaintiffs had been allowed to pursue only limited discovery about Bayoumi, Thumairy and a handful of other Saudis.We did all of this with our hands tied behind our backs, he said, and even with the FBI pushing back and President Trump invoking state secrets, we created an overwhelming picture of Saudi Arabias role in supporting the 9/11 hijackers.