Michael Squires

This County Was the “Model” for Local Police Carrying Out Immigration Raids. It Ended in Civil Rights Violations. Under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County was one of the first testing grounds for ICE’s 287(g) program, which lets local police enforce immigration laws. Many Arizonans say those abuses parallel what...

More than a decade ago Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies carried out immigration raids. Now hundreds of departments are partnering with ICE. AZ Latinos see Arpaio as the beginning of what playing out nationally. “They did the experiment, and basically now they’re implementing it at the national level.”

This County Was the “Model” for Local Police Carrying Out Immigration Raids. It Ended in Civil Rights Violations. Under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County was one of the first testing grounds for ICE’s 287(g) program, which lets local police enforce immigration laws. Many Arizonans say those abuses parallel what...

More than a decade ago Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies carried out immigration raids. Now hundreds of departments are partnering with ICE. AZ Latinos see Arpaio as the beginning of what playing out nationally. “They did the experiment, and basically now they’re implementing it at the national level.”

I have always loved @propublica.org's mission statement. It speaks to method as much as mission, and does not shrink from describling their journalism as a moral undertaking. www.propublica.org/about/

Said it a thousand times, but the fact that the general public does not understand the difference between an opinion writer and a reporter is a real fucking problem.

Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Accused of Nearly 800 Environmental Violations on Las Vegas Project Nevada could’ve fined the company more than $3 million, but regulators are seeking a reduced penalty of $242,800, citing an “extraordinary number of violations.”

Our latest on Boring Co.’s alleged flouting of environmental regulations as it builds a tunnel-transportation system beneath Las Vegas. www.propublica.org/article/elon...

There are 600,000 of you who now follow us on Bluesky 🦋

As journalists ourselves, we understand that regularly reading stories about broken systems can take a toll, and we never take the community here for granted.

Thank you to all of you who care deeply about the work we do.

The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security DOGE has ignored urgently needed reforms and upgrades at the Social Security Administration, according to dozens of insiders and 15 hours of candid interviews with the former acting chief of the agenc...

NEW: Ignoring urgently needed reforms in favor of fruitlessly trying to find evidence of fraud, DOGE descended on the Social Security Administration “thinking it should work like a McDonald’s,” the agency’s former acting chief reveals to ProPublica.

Department of Gore

Trump Says America’s Oil Industry Is Cleaner Than Other Countries’. New Data Shows Massive Emissions From Texas Wells. The oil industry touts Texas as a success story in controlling climate-warming methane emissions. The state’s regulator, however, grants nearly every request to burn or vent gas into the atmosphere.

NEW: The oil industry touts Texas as a success story in controlling climate-warming methane emissions.

The state’s regulator, however, grants nearly every request to burn or vent gas into the atmosphere.

At my local paper/website the second sentence is always: What to know.

I'm going to publish the entirety of an exchange I just had with the press office of the DOJ. I want you to see how they are talking about truth.

My tent was taken also my blankets, cooler, food, perscription medicines It made it harder for me to be comfortable in this heat and took my shelter away from me made me feel less safe

my Husbands ashes It made me feel alone scared, empty, now I wonder where he is and if he’s all still in his urn and if he’s ok and I hope he’s not in the dump

I had my kid’s baby shoes w/me since we became homeless. It was all I had left of them & they are w/family. The police/city took them w/the rest of our stuff it broke my heart

I have lost everything clear down to the clothes on my back. I now wear a purse that I wear 24-7. I have no trust and I live like an animal and have serious mental issues because of it, help it get better,

Spend some time with the handwritten notes on what people lost in sweeps. Heart-wrenching and infuriating.

Seizure medication, wheelchairs, Social Security cards, dentures, urns of ashes, work uniforms — just some of what's been thrown away during cruel, degrading, utterly counterproductive homeless sweeps.

A good time to revisit this gutting @propublica.org story:

Top Democrat on Oversight Committee Demands Trump Administration Account for Wildland Firefighter Vacancies The request follows ProPublica reporting that DOGE cuts and voluntary resignations left thousands of vacant jobs at the Forest Service, severely hampering its ability to fight wildfires.

In June, the Forest Service claimed it had reached 99% of its hiring goal for its wildland firefighting workforce. But ProPublica’s reporting indicated that the agency was selectively counting firefighters, presenting an optimistic assessment to the public.

These GOP Lawmakers Referred Constituents to the CFPB for Help. Then They Voted to Gut the Agency. Many of the same Republican lawmakers who have targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for cuts have collectively directed thousands of constituents’ complaints about banks, credit cards, lo...

NEW from me: The CFPB's consumer complaint system is more popular than ever, fielding over 2.7M complaints last year.

But Republican lawmakers still voted to slash the CFPB's budget, even after referring thousands of their own constituents' issues to the agency.

www.propublica.org/article/cfpb...

A Las Vegas Festival Promised Ways to Cheat Death. Two Attendees Left Fighting for Their Lives. Authorities are investigating why two women fell ill at the Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival. They both received peptide injections, an alternative therapy promoted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr....

The doctor doesn’t believe peptides were the cause of the patients’ severe illness after receiving injections at a Las Vegas casino. He asked AI and it responded with a report that “basically says that it is impossible it was the peptides.”

His Former Company Got Caught Employing Undocumented Workers. Now He’s Profiting Off an Immigrant Detention Camp. Disaster Management Group is one contractor behind the nation’s largest detention camp, to be built at Fort Bliss. It’s run by Nathan Albers, who previously co-owned a company that pleaded guilty to a...

This CEO co-owned a company that pleaded guilty in 2019 to a scheme to hire and conceal undocumented workers.

Now he’s profiting off the construction of an immigrant detention camp.

Such critical reporting from Avi Asher-Schapiro + @jeffernsthausen.bsky.social:
www.propublica.org/article/nath...

“Under the Microscope”: Activists Opposing a Nevada Lithium Mine Were Surveilled for Years, Records Show Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have collaborated with private security to surveil largely peaceful protesters opposed to the Thacker Pass mine, according to a ProPublica review of thousa...

“I’ve been warned my entire life, ‘The FBI’s watching us.’”

The Forest Service Claims It’s Fully Staffed for a Worsening Fire Season. Data Shows Thousands of Unfilled Jobs. DOGE cuts and voluntary resignations have severely hampered the agency as the nation enters the peak of fire season, with more than 1 million acres burning across 10 Western states.

The Forest Service claims it’s fully staffed for fire season, saying it has reached 99% of its hiring goal. But internal data, which has not been previously reported, shows more than 4,500 Forest Service firefighting jobs — as many as 27% — remained vacant as of July 17. via @abestreep.bsky.social

OPINION: Nevada tries to remove the joker from the deck with FAIR BET bill - The Nevada Independent The reaction to Sen. Mike Crapo’s (R-ID) gambling tax provision has been swift. Trump’s signature had barely dried on his behemoth bill when Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) pounced on it, calling out the gamin...

“On the way to fudging the math necessary to defend the border against marauding produce pickers and securing a multitrillion-dollar tax break for the wealthiest Americans, the…OBBB managed to botch the commonsense tax deduction for personal gambling losses.” Nevada lawmakers are pushing for a fix.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee Says Selling Off Public Lands Will Solve the West’s Housing Crisis. Past Sales Show Otherwise. Last month, Lee introduced a now-removed amendment to Trump’s policy megabill that mandated the sale of up to 3 million acres. It did little to address the challenges of building affordable housing on...

Utah Sen. Mike Lee says he’ll continue pursuing a sell-off of public land to address the affordable-housing crisis — an idea that has some support across the political spectrum. But as @abestreep.bsky.social reports, similar efforts have created little attainable housing.

Have we diagnosed the origin of the bro-who-backs-into-parking-spaces trend?

Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations A dark money group paid $80,000 to Noem’s personal company when she was governor of South Dakota. She did not include this income on her federal disclosure forms, a likely violation of ethics requirem...

Wowser, this story: Kristi Noem Secretly Took Personal Cut of Political Donations @justinelliott.bsky.social @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social

New York Bans Anonymous Child Welfare Reports New legislation will require callers to the state child abuse hotline to identify themselves. ProPublica’s reporting in 2023 found that many anonymous callers made false allegations that led to intrus...

NY bans anonymous child welfare reports thanks, in part, to Eli Hager’s reporting on a Brooklyn mother whose apartment was searched dozens of times — by police and caseworkers who never had a warrant — because an angry former acquaintance kept anonymously calling the hotline about her.

Maricopa County’s Handling of Death Penalty Cases Puts Its Secretive Review Process in Question In nearly 350 death penalty cases Maricopa County prosecutors pursued over 20 years, just 13% ended in a death sentence. The numbers indicate the need for a more deliberate and transparent process to ...

Prosecutors in Arizona's largest county pursue the death penalty frequently, at a cost of many millions of dollars, but are unusually ineffective. @nicolesantacruz.bsky.social @davebiscobing15.bsky.social found a secretive panel won't explain how it decides what cases warrant the death penalty.

I still think this is one of the most gutting notes I’ve ever read.

Trump Wants to Cut Tribal College Funding by Nearly 90%, Putting Them at Risk of Closing ProPublica found that Congress was underfunding tribal colleges by a quarter-billion dollars per year. Rather than fixing the problem, proposed federal funding cuts unveiled this week would devastate ...

“The numbers that are being proposed would close the tribal colleges. They would not be able to sustain.”

Trump Pledged to “Make America Healthy Again,” Then Cut a Program Many Tribes Rely on for Healthy Food The USDA has ended a program that dozens of tribal food banks say has helped them provide fresh, locally produced food that is important to their traditions and cultures.

RFK Jr said “One of my big priorities will be getting good food — high-quality food, traditional foods — onto the reservation because processed foods for American Indians is poison.” Then the administration ended a program that provided fresh, locally produced food to dozens of tribal food banks.

1/ The day after the Antioch High shooting, Nashville police arrested a 12-year-old for posting a concerning screenshot on Instagram.

His school was supposed to figure out if it was a valid threat. Instead, the school expelled him with no further investigation.

A DOJ investigation of Phoenix and its PD was the first to find a pattern of violations against homeless people, including throwing away their possessions. “You guys are trash and this is trash," one officer said, per the DOJ. This week, AG Bondi said the DOJ has abandoned efforts to reform the PD.