Chloe Johnson

Have you or your family sought free hospital care in Minnesota? We want to hear from you. Have you or someone you know had trouble with medical bills? Tell us your story.

We need your help with a project looking into hospitals that make it challenging to apply for charity care or take exceptional actions to collect medical debts. Have you or someone you know had trouble with medical bills? Share your story here:

I was investigating PFAS. Then a doctor told me to put it in my eyes. Facing a painful and distracting case of dry eye, a reporter went looking for treatments. What she found was surprising.

Our reporter was investigating Minnesota’s ban on PFAS chemicals when she faced a painful and distracting case of dry eye. So @chloeajohnson.bsky.social went looking for treatments. She was prescribed an eye drop that's a type of PFAS.

Colorado man declared dead by Social Security still fighting to restart payments: “I’m at my wit’s end” Alex Vukovich’s Social Security check disappeared from his bank account in late January after the federal agency mistakenly placed him on its list of deceased recipients.

The Social Security Administration snatched Alex Vukovich’s January payment right out of his bank account and hasn’t made February or March payments — because the government insists he's dead. (He's not)

We tested household products for PFAS using Minnesota’s new regulations. Here’s what we found. The Star Tribune used a screening test similar to what the MPCA would. Some results were above the level that could trigger a state inquiry.

Today's must-read from @chloeajohnson.bsky.social & @readbrooks.bsky.social... They bought items from local stores & tested them for PFAS chemicals to see how Minnesota's new law is working. www.startribune.com/we-tested-ho...

We tested household products for PFAS using Minnesota’s new regulations. Here’s what we found. The Star Tribune used a screening test similar to what the MPCA would. Some results were above the level that could trigger a state inquiry.

Great story up today on PFAs in household products by @chloeajohnson.bsky.social & Brooks Johnson
www.startribune.com/we-tested-ho...

DHS official defends Mahmoud Khalil arrest, but offers few details on why it happened Homeland Security deputy secretary Troy Edgar offered few details on the Trump administration's legal reasoning to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.

this interview is incredible www.npr.org/2025/03/13/n...

BREAKING: Trump team has removed the top IRS attorney as career staff resist demands to give DOGE access to sensitive taxpayer records, multiple sources say

DHS has sought home addresses of undocumented immigrants who pay taxes

W/ @jacobbogage.bsky.social & co

Musk claims Social Security is a "gigantic magnet to attract illegal immigrants."

In fact, immigrants here illegally do not collect Social Security. But they pay $25.7 billion a year into it, a recent study found, so these undocumented workers are actually subsidizing Americans.

Feeding Our Future trial rocked by witness tampering allegations New security measures were implemented in the federal trial after a defendant tried to “corrupt” the proceedings.

Feeding Our Future trial rocked by witness tampering allegations

www.startribune.com/feeding-our-...

If you are a federal employee in Minnesota and recently lost your job, we'd like to talk to you. Please contact reporter Janet Moore at JMooreStrib.60 on the encrypted messaging app Signal. You can also email us at whistleblower@startribune.com. We strongly encourage you to use a personal device.

Elon: Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”. That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam. Just wow.

The "large scale social deception" contract Musk is conspiracizing about was:

* first awarded under Trump
* paid to Reuters' data division, not the newsroom
* for researching *defenses* against deception
* not revealed by "DOGE investigations" and was a public record, visible online for many years

is it the ironman one?

NIH cuts could affect hundreds of medical studies at the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota • Minnesota Reformer Minnesota and 21 other states have sued the National Institutes of Health over the Trump administration’s steep cuts to grants that fund medical research in the United States. If those cuts are implem...

What the NIH cuts are jeopardizing: new treatments for cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and virtually every other ailment you can think of. Minnesota institutions alone are poised to lose $100 million in research funding, according to a preliminary estimate. minnesotareformer.com/2025/02/10/n...

Vittoria Elliott Leah Feiger Feb 7, 2025 2:47 PM A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis Designates DOGE Staff as ‘Insider Threat’ An internal email reviewed by WIRED calls DOGE staff's access to federal payments systems “the single biggest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

NEW: An internal email obtained by WIRED from a threat intelligence team monitoring US Treasury systems advised labeling DOGE operatives an "insider threat," adding that it recommended suspending their access "immediately."
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www.wired.com/story/treasu...

Swing an ax and make a new friend at Minneapolis ‘stump party’ A Minneapolis man wanted to find a reason to gather on cold, gray winter days. Enter stump party, a do-it-yourself holiday that just celebrated its fourth year.

Thanks @zoemjack.bsky.social for stopping by Stump Party and sharing our silly little tradition with the world! www.startribune.com/swing-an-axe...

Please please please do not start using FOIA systems as a form of protest. No one outside of a handful of FOIA officers at most will ever see it, and it'll just clog things up for anyone actually trying squeeze valuable information out of the government.

it's like the winter blowing kisses into your house, soooo romantic

Cookware association sues Minnesota over PFAS ban, calling it unconstitutional A federal suit says Minnesota’s sweeping “forever chemical” prohibitions violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

New: manufacturers of frying pans under brands like All Clad, Circulon, T-Fal and Farberware are suing Minnesota, saying the state can't ban PFAS from their products. www.startribune.com/cookware-ass...

How does 2024’s weather compare with your childhood? See if 2024 was anything like what you remember from growing up.

How much warmer is Minnesota than it was in your childhood? www.startribune.com/how-does-202...

I haven’t finished it yet but the game that may actually make use of 100 hours is Baldur’s Gate 3. And I think there are a lot of replay possibilities

oh my god

Animal Humane Society prepared to rescue 300 animals. When agents returned, only 64 were alive. A couple from Hines, Minn., is accused of burning many of the animals at what they claimed to be a rescue facility.

Sad story from my colleague Kim Hyatt: animal investigators first found 300 animals in distress at a rural MN rescue. When they returned to seize them, only 64 were left. www.startribune.com/animal-human...

Another very funny thing about this show is both Jeff and Nels Cline switched guitars for every song. Nels brought out a double necked guitar for exactly one song. He only used one neck.

A sinister sense at the Wilco show that Jeff Tweedy could be lurking anywhere in the waiting audience, because most of this crowd, frankly, are Tweedy lookalikes

“Mr. Kennedy has privately expressed interest in having Mr. Siri serve in the Health and Human Services Department’s top legal job, general counsel.”

Mr. Siri “has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine”.

Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/h...

Karl Ove Knausgaard shows us the books he loves (and hates) Karl Ove Knausgaard guides us through his personal book collection at home in London.

This is so delightful. Knausgaard on his favorite and least favorite books: "I think it's so dreadful. But I will read it, because I have to, because of what I'm writing." wapo.st/49t8yaV

Luigi Mangione's sprawling family found success after patriarch's rise Nick Mangione Sr. had a ready retort when people questioned how he had purchased a high-profile local country club in the 1970s: “They asked me what family I belonged to. I told them, ‘I belong to...

Luigi Mangione’s sprawling family found success after patriarch’s rise

Why UnitedHealthcare is a four-letter word to critics Some mourn the shooting of chief executive but still have scorn for the insurance company he ran.

Health care reporter Jeremy Olson delves into the company's reputation re: claims denials.