@ericumansky.bsky.social
Editor-at-Large @ProPublica. I ❤️ evidence-based journalism, and good trouble. Tips/ideas: eric.umansky@propublica.org and securely on Signal EricUmansky.04. More about me: https://www.propublica.org/people/eric-umansky
David Armstrong on Signal, DavidArmstrong.55, or via email, david.armstrong@propublica.org; Eric Umansky on Signal, Ericumansky.04, or via email, eric.umansky@propublica.org; and Vernal Coleman on Signal, vcoleman91.99, or via email, vernal.coleman@propublica.org.
If you have information about the VA we should know, please contact us,.
You can also share your experience here:
airtable.com/appQN55Zo0V5...
After six years of adding medical staff, the VA this year is down more than 600 doctors and about 1,900 nurses. The number of doctors on staff has declined each month since President Donald Trump took office. The agency also lost twice as many nurses as it hired between January and June, records viewed by ProPublica show.
Trump admin says everything is hunky-dory at the VA.
But we found that the number of doctors at VA has dropped each month since Trump took office.
Nurses are way down too
We got the records.
www.propublica.org/article/vete...
by @davidarmstrongx.bsky.social @vernalcoleman.bsky.social and me.
Always happy to hear from folks. I'm at eric.umansky@propublica.org or here on Signal
08.08.2025 22:43 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Absolutely. I'm at eric.umansky@propublica.org or here on Signal
signal.me#eu/9FeeZ1BCD...
I'd love to chat. Shoot me DM or email me at eric.umansky@propublica.org. Also on Signal at 917-687-8406. (note, i'm OOO until mid next week)
08.08.2025 22:11 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Hi, I'd love to talk to you about this. I'm at eric.umansky@propublica.org and 917-687-8406. Thanks!
08.08.2025 21:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
In Dayton, Ohio, vacant positions for purchasing agents resulted in delays in acquiring hundreds of prosthetics, according to an internal VA report from May. Kasperowicz said the hospital has recently cut processing time for such orders by more than half.
Prez Trump has said, "We love our veterans. We're going to take good care of them."
We got internal docs showing VA cuts & chaos have doctors and others to flee.
In one hospital, lack of staff has led to delays in acquiring *hundreds of prosthetics.*
www.propublica.org/article/vete...
David Armstrong on Signal, DavidArmstrong.55, or via email, david.armstrong@propublica.org; Eric Umansky on Signal, Ericumansky.04, or via email, eric.umansky@propublica.org; and Vernal Coleman on Signal, vcoleman91.99, or via email, vernal.coleman@propublica.org.
If you have information about the VA we should know, please contact us,.
You can also share your experience here:
airtable.com/appQN55Zo0V5...
After six years of adding medical staff, the VA this year is down more than 600 doctors and about 1,900 nurses. The number of doctors on staff has declined each month since President Donald Trump took office. The agency also lost twice as many nurses as it hired between January and June, records viewed by ProPublica show.
Trump admin says everything is hunky-dory at the VA.
But we found that the number of doctors at VA has dropped each month since Trump took office.
Nurses are way down too
We got the records.
www.propublica.org/article/vete...
by @davidarmstrongx.bsky.social @vernalcoleman.bsky.social and me.
NEW: While Trump admin says the VA is "headed in the right direction." we found VA hospitals are, increasingly, short doctors and nurses.
“He has no person in charge of his health care,” the wife of one disabled vet told us. “It was never like this before."
www.propublica.org/article/vete...
Population of Beit Hanoun before the war: Somewhere between 52,000 and 60,000
07.08.2025 18:48 — 👍 28 🔁 16 💬 2 📌 0
Mr. Netanyahu’s office told some Israeli reporters this week that he was discussing expanding the military campaign into the rest of Gaza. The prime minister’s office said the military was opposed to maneuvering in those areas for fear of endangering the hostages.
Bibi is considering ordering the military to take over all of Gaza--which the military itself is opposed to. B/c it would endanger the hostages.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/w...
A famine expert told @ichotiner.bsky.social that an increasing number of kids in Gaza are so malnourished "their bodies can’t digest food."
"Those kids need to be in intensive care." But there aren't enough ICU beds for them.
www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
When talking about the space where detainees are being held, Lindsey said it look like “an oversized kennel.” ...
On rainy days, she said, water pours into the tents.
NEW: Big law is abandoning potential clients who might anger Trump.
@mtredden.bsky.social has your story:
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
In terms of the starvation of Gaza being a deliberate act, that is quite common. Netanyahu ranks with the likes of Sudan’s previous dictator, Omar al-Bashir, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in terms of the way that he’s used starvation as a weapon. The way that Israel and Gaza is unique is that the system of control is extraordinarily tight and precise. So in the worst sieges in Syria, people could smuggle themselves in and out. Food could get in if you bribed the right people or knew where the tunnels were. The same is true in Sudan. In Gaza, that just isn’t possible. And the other feature that makes Gaza unique is that you have a capable international system that could respond basically at a moment’s notice. If Netanyahu wanted every child in Gaza to be fed tomorrow, he could just give that instruction and it would happen.
Famine expert ranks Bibi with Bashar in using starvation
In Gaza "you have a capable international system that could respond at a moment’s notice. If Netanyahu wanted every child in Gaza to be fed tomorrow, he could just give that instruction and it would happen."
www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
A famine expert told @ichotiner.bsky.social that an increasing number of kids in Gaza are so malnourished "their bodies can’t digest food."
"Those kids need to be in intensive care." But there aren't enough ICU beds for them.
www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
circles. Forty-seven per cent of Israelis say that there is no hunger in Gaza and that "It's just Hamas lies," according to a new poll by the mainstream newspaper Maariv. They claim that images of starving children are staged by Hamas, or manipulated by A.l., or taken out of
So half of Israel thinks starvation in Gaza is BS.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
This is Israeli government's own data on food for Gaza.
Look at the last few months.
govextra.gov.il/cogat/humani...
Agensy. Aside from the settler attacks, he said, Israel has placed severe restrictions on the number of trucks allowed to cross daily and has imposed convoluted approval processes, chaotic border inspections and newly added customs fees.
How Israel blocks food from Gaza — without a formal blockade.
wapo.st/3HmuRp4
Agensy. Aside from the settler attacks, he said, Israel has placed severe restrictions on the number of trucks allowed to cross daily and has imposed convoluted approval processes, chaotic border inspections and newly added customs fees.
How Israel blocks food from Gaza — without a formal blockade.
wapo.st/3HmuRp4
“Only in NYC can you have a pedicab driving down the street with tourists blasting Billy Joel’s music — and Billy Joel pulls up next to them.” 💕
- @wutangforchildren.bsky.social
This second term, however, has seen Mr. Trump go further to force his facts on the government and get rid of those standing in the way. After just six months of his return to office, the Union of Concerned §cientists, a nonprofit advocacy group, counted 402 of what it called "attacks on federal science," nearly double its count from the entire first term.
It’s getting worse.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/u...
The view of Gaza, from an aid flight.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/w...
Photos of an Israeli hostage, Evyatar David, from 2023 to now.
x.com/bringhomenow...
Do we know what that means for programming?
01.08.2025 17:40 — 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0
Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein now serving a 20-year prison sentence for sexually exploiting and abusing teenage girls, has been moved from a federal prison in Florida to minimum-security prison camp in Texas, her lawyer said on Friday. The move, which was reported earlier by The New York Sun, came about a week after Ms. Maxwell was interviewed over two days in prison in Tallahassee, Fla., about the Epstein case by Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department and one of President Trump's former lawyers. Ms. Maxwell's lawyer, David O. Markus, declined to comment on the reason for the move. Mr. Blanche met with Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Markus last Thursday and Friday amid a firestorm of criticism from Trump supporters who have called for the administration to release all federal files related to Mr. Epstein.
So the govt has moved Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum security prison and no one will say why.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...
Here is one of ~50 cases we documented of federal agents--usually masked and unidentified--smashing car windows to grab the person inside.
“She is pregnant!” a man screamed, as his citizen wife sat, terrified
The agents break three windows and grab the man
projects.propublica.org/trump-ice-sm...
The guy who helped kill USAID is "a 28-year-old with no government experience."
01.08.2025 12:02 — 👍 11 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Sometimes, the American security contractors at the sites have thrown tear gas grenades at people crowded into narrow, fenced-in lines with seemingly nowhere to go, footage shows. About 20 people were killed in a stampede at one of the sites in mid-July; the foundation claimed Hamas-linked instigators had started it.
Each detail is more horrific than the last
-More than 600 Gazans have been killed at the Israeli-controlled sites
-Which give less than 30 mins notice of opening--via FB--and then close 15mins after
-American guards have fired teargas at people w/ nowhere to go
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
