Annie Waldman

ICE Sent 600 Immigrant Kids to Detention in Federal Shelters This Year. It’s a New Record. Under a zero tolerance policy, the first Trump administration separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. New data suggests separations are happening all over the count...

ICE has sent more immigrant kids into the federal shelter system this year than in the previous 4 years combined.

Under Trump, the average stay in custody is ~6 months, up from a month under Biden.

Eye-opening story from @micarosenberg.bsky.social, @marioarizabaez.bsky.social + ProPublica team:

Major measles outbreaks have repeatedly cropped up in the Southwest this year. Yet at IHS hospitals in the region, agency officials deemed “measles” and “immunizations” a "medium risk" in internal agency emails.

Staffers, including doctors, now need to get approval to use them in public messaging

Young Girls Were Sexually Abused by a Church Member. They Were Told to Forgive and Forget. In Minnesota, leaders of an Old Apostolic Lutheran Church community enabled a child abuser by telling his victims that once the sins were “washed away in the blood of reconciliation,” they could never...

Reporter Andy Mannix from the @startribune.com and I have been speaking to women all over the country about allegations of child sexual abuse in the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church. This is the story of how one perpetrator in Minnesota escaped consequences for years: www.propublica.org/article/sexu...

“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas. Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.

NEW:

In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant.

She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency.

Then she died.

www.propublica.org/article/texa...

What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vacci...

After a bird flu outbreak tore through Midwestern barns, killing millions of chickens and spiking egg prices, the federal government didn’t investigate if the virus was airborne.

So ProPublica did.

Absolutely terrifying reporting from @natlash.bsky.social:

www.propublica.org/article/bird...

I should add that we're still very much reporting on what's happening with civil rights in schools: www.propublica.org/getinvolved/...

The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.

NEW: When Andrew Tate landed in the US, Customs & Border Protection seized his electronic devices. But @propublica.org found that a White House official told DHS to return the devices, emphasizing that the request came from the White House.

By @robert-faturechi.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro

Thank you, Darryl!!

He Vowed to “Protect the Unborn.” Now He’s Blocking a Bill to Expand Medicaid for Wisconsin’s New Moms. Splitting with anti-abortion members of his own party, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has refused to join 48 other states in ensuring that vulnerable women have access to potentially lifesaving ...

In 48 other states, new moms have access to Medicaid for up to one year after they give birth. Not in Wisconsin.

There, the limit remains two months. And it’s only because of one man: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. / My latest story for @propublica.org www.propublica.org/article/wisc...

Kristi Noem sits on a horse wearing a cowboy hat. In the background is Mount Rushmore.

NEW: We’ve uncovered the first known example of taxpayer money flowing from DHS to businesses controlled by Kristi Noem’s allies and friends.

It’s part of a money trail that’s been shrouded in secrecy—and involves $220 million, a mysterious Delaware LLC & a horse named Gill.

“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime Authorities said Tren de Aragua “terrorists” had taken over the building. A ProPublica investigation found little evidence to back up the government’s claims. For the first time, the Venezuelans arres...

You probably saw videos of a nighttime raid in Chicago. Agents rappelling from a helicopter, bursting down doors, questioning brown-skinned immigrants.

We investigated -- and found little evidence to support the government’s claims about Tren de Aragua.

www.propublica.org/article/chic...

“Riots Raging”: The Misleading Story Fox News Told About Portland Before Trump Sent Troops After reviewing coverage from the network and hours of social media videos that preceded Trump’s decision, ProPublica found that Fox’s portrayal of “Portland rioters” routinely instigating violence wa...

NEW: 2020 footage said to be in 2025. A neighbor who keeps reappearing in the same clip, said to be on different days & months. A broadcast from elsewhere suggested as Portland.

How Fox News misled its viewership -- which may have included the president.

www.propublica.org/article/port...

Senior Editor, Business New York City, United States

JOB ALERT! We are hiring a business editor.

You have an unerring instinct for the jugular of the wealthy & powerful? Build a team with me and we’ll get after it!

job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...

You can email me or on Signal at 718-496-5233

How We Calculated Foreign Food Inspections To understand how inspections of foreign food facilities have changed, we used a publicly available dashboard where the FDA publishes the results of those inspections. This database also includes inspections for manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, tobacco, biologics and veterinary products. Beginning in May, we downloaded the entire database weekly and tracked the number of newly added foreign food facility inspections. The dashboard is continually updated, with data added after inspections are finalized. That typically occurs 45 to 90 days after the close of an inspection, though some reports may not be posted until the agency takes a final enforcement action. Through an analysis, we determined that few reports are added more than 90 days after an inspection date. Our story therefore only includes inspections through July. In an accompanying chart, we show the more provisional data through September. We asked HHS for recent figures, but the department refused to share them. We considered the possibility that the downtrend in foreign food inspections was solely due to a lag in inspections being added to the dashboard. To check this, we performed the same analysis on domestic inspections. This analysis showed that while the rate of foreign inspections had significantly decreased, domestic inspections have continued almost uninterrupted.

And kudos to my co-reporter @bxroberts.org who is masterful at understanding the complexity of federal data sets! 📊

We are still reporting and need your help.

Do you know anything about how the current administration is approaching food safety? We want to talk to:

*Current/former federal workers (from FDA, USDA and CDC)
*Food safety experts
*Industry professionals

Find me on Signal (347-549-0332) or email me 📩

While the administration’s cuts were ostensibly ordered to maximize efficiency and productivity, they have had an opposite effect, several former and current FDA employees said, reversing years of progress. “The goal is to accomplish as much and more with less resources,” said a former high-level FDA investigations official. “Less inspections translate to less regulatory oversight, and that, from a public health perspective, never benefits the public.” Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the nonprofit advocacy organization Environmental Working Group, said the fallout is simple: “When you take a wrecking ball to the federal government, you are going to wind up undermining important government functions that keep all of us safe, especially our food,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before people die.”

But current and former FDA employees, as well as food safety experts said, these cuts and actions are undermining public health.

"It's only a matter of time before people die," said one expert.

The Department of Health and Human Services refused to respond to any of ProPublica’s questions about the decrease in foreign food inspections, citing the government shutdown. “Responding to ProPublica is not considered a mission-critical activity,” said Emily Hilliard, the department’s press secretary. The FDA and the White House also did not respond to requests for comment.

HHS, FDA and the White House refused to respond to any of ProPublica’s questions about the decrease in foreign food inspections or other recent actions.

"Responding to ProPublica is not considered a mission-critical activity," said HHS press secretary, citing the government shutdown.

The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses As of July 1, a critical surveillance program is monitoring for only two pathogens instead of the usual eight.

Then the administration quietly scaled back the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, also known as FoodNet, shrinking its surveillance to just two pathogens: Salmonella and a common type of E. coli.

The program was previously responsible for monitoring eight foodborne illnesses.

The next month, a quality control program that ensured consistency and accuracy across its 170 pathogen and contaminant labs was suspended as a result of staffing cuts.

www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

Constituent Update The FDA is announcing its intention to extend the compliance date for the Food Traceability Rule by 30 months.

The gutting of the workforce coincides with other actions the administration has taken that are poking holes in the nation's food safety net.

In March, the FDA announced it was delaying compliance with a rule to speed up the identification and removal of harmful products in the food system:

Investigators suddenly had to book their own flights and hotels, obtain diplomatic passports and visas, and coordinate with foreign authorities, former and current FDA staffers told ProPublica. After workers tasked with processing expenses were laid off, investigators waited as a backlog of unfulfilled reimbursements climbed to more than $1 million, a former staffer said. (Investigators are responsible for paying off their own credit cards.) Senior investigators close to retirement also took the opportunity to get out.

These support staff cuts have incapacitated foreign inspections, as new burdens have shifted to investigators, current and former FDA staffers said.

As morale has collapsed across the FDA, many senior investigative officials with decades of experience also chose to resign or retire.

Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies More than 20,500 workers have left or been pushed out of federal health agencies, a ProPublica analysis found. Staffers say the cuts will leave their agencies less equipped to conduct studies, perform...

About two dozen current and former FDA officials blamed the pullback on deep staffing cuts under the Trump administration.

Inspections declined early on, after 65% of the staff in divisions responsible for coordinating travel and budgets were fired or left.

projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...

For example, in 2023, an FDA investigator inspected a Chinese manufacturer of soy protein powder, a common additive in shakes and other beverages. While the company had previously imported its products into the United States without scrutiny, the investigator’s thorough visit found numerous violations, according to an agency report obtained through a federal records request. Live insects crawled through the facility’s production workshop, while dead ones lay on the floor. Condensation from rust-covered pipes dripped into a water tank waiting to be mixed with raw ingredients. Just outside the plant, the investigator found processing waste and stagnant water coated with a green biofilm, attracting a swarm of bugs too numerous to count. When the investigator reviewed the firm’s bacteria testing records, which purportedly verified the products were free of salmonella and E. coli, he discovered the company was providing fake data to “satisfy the customer specifications,” according to his inspection report. Company officials also tried to obstruct his inspection, blocking him from entering a packaging room when he tried to photograph the pest infestation. After the three-day review, the federal agent censured the company, Pingdingshan Tianjing Plant Albumen Co. Ltd., which promised to take corrective actions. The company did not respond to ProPublica’s emailed questions.

And in recent years, FDA investigators have uncovered numerous safety violations at foreign food facilities:
*Crawling insects.
*Pipes dripping into water tanks.
*Workers hauling dough in soiled buckets.
*Cracked conveyor belts.
*Fake testing data purporting to show food products were pathogen free.

What You Need to Know about Foodborne Illnesses A table of foodborne disease-causing organisms and common illness names with the associated signs and symptoms.

Why does this matter?

*Nearly all seafood, ~60% of fresh fruit and ~40% of veggies are imported.

*Research shows imported food has been increasingly linked to outbreaks.

*Foodborne illnesses (i.e.🦠 listeria, e. coli, salmonella🦠) can cause severe illness and death.

www.fda.gov/food/consume...

We crunched the federal data and found the US is on track to have the *fewest inspections since 2011* (excluding pandemic years). In recent years, the FDA has typically been able to conduct ~110 foreign food inspections each month, but in March, the number of inspections dropped almost in half.

We crunched the federal data and found the US is on track to have the *fewest inspections since 2011* (excluding pandemic years).

In recent years, the FDA has typically been able to conduct ~110 foreign food inspections each month, but in March, the number of inspections dropped almost in half.

Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fru...

NEW: Billions of pounds of food are imported to the U.S. each year.

The FDA inspects foreign producers to ensure what we're eating is safe from pathogens and dangerous manufacturing practices.

But now, after Trump's drastic staff cuts, these inspections have plummeted to a historic low.
🧵/

What Really Happened in Portland Before Trump Deployed the National Guard In the two months before Trump’s decision, criminal charges were announced against only three people. On nights when physical conflict did erupt, it often came from police firing on, shoving, pepper-s...

NEW: We reviewed 700+ videos, hours of footage from ICE protesters and counterprotesters in Portland.

In 2 months before Trump said he was sending the National Guard, federal officers fire on, grab, pepper-spray or tear gas people 20 times -- without charging anyone. "Gratuitous," one expert said.

Since childhood, @zysaidso.bsky.social has advocated for racial equity in Charlottesville schools.

Yesterday, she was elected to the city's school board.

From seven years ago, our profile of her and the gaping achievement gap in the city's education system:
www.propublica.org/article/char...

Tech Billionaire Marc Andreessen Bet Big on Trump. It’s Paying Off for Silicon Valley. The Trump administration’s gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been good for venture capitalists like Andreessen, who previously accused the agency of “terrorizing” fintech startups and crypto companies.

NEW: Amid concerns over the Biden administration's regulation of the crypto industry, billionaire tech investor Marc Andreessen, a longtime Democrat, donated more than $5 million to groups supporting Trump ahead of the 2024 election.

Since then, he's gotten what he called for: a hollowed-out CFPB.

“I Don’t Feel Safe”: Black Memphis Residents Report Harassment by Trump’s Police Task Force A pastor was pulled over for looking lost. A 72-year-old was marched out in his bathrobe due to mistaken identity. Memphis’ mayor welcomed the federal law enforcement surge, but some residents say the...

72-year-old cancer patient Phillip Lewis said he was woken up and marched outside his home in his robe and underwear before federal officers even checked his ID.

Surprise surprise (not surprised), it turns out, he wasn't the guy they were looking for.

If only his story were unique.