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Connecticut Senate Approves More Towing Reforms, Expanding on Landmark 2025 Legislation

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A Connecticut towing company sought approval to sell cars belonging to Saundra Magana, left, and her niece Eloise Bennett even though the women were supposed to have more time to reclaim the vehicles before they were sold. Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror Connecticut lawmakers on Wednesday approved more reforms aimed at reining in towing companies in the state, following reporting by The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica that exposed problems in state law . The Connecticut Senate passed a bill that would create an online portal so Connecticut drivers can track their towed cars and require towing companies to consider the age of towed vehicles before they’re sold. Last year, the legislature overhauled the state’s towing laws to end a practice in which towing companies could start the process to sell people’s cars in as little as 15 days if the firm deemed the car to be worth less than $1,500. The window was one of the shortest in the country, CT Mirror and ProPublica found, and meant man...
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Why We Are Suing the Department of Education

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Children play in front of the Department of Education headquarters in Washington, D.C., last May. Wesley Lapointe for The Washington Post via Getty Images Every Tuesday, almost like clockwork, the U.S. Department of Education would update a public list of schools and colleges it was investigating for possible violations of students’ civil rights. Every Tuesday, that is, until Jan. 14, 2025, six days before President Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term. Today, that online list remains as it was that week before inauguration: frozen in time. My colleagues Jodi Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards , both longtime education reporters, used that list regularly in their work. “You would get a call or a tip about a school district, and you would go and look up the school district to see if it was under investigation,” Cohen told me recently. The data also allowed the public to spot patterns in what types of investigations were being opened and where, Smith Richards said....
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FIFA Could Make Billions From the World Cup. Host Cities Will Get Little in Return.

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Glenn Harvey for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune When Texas dedicated $22 million to host the 2017 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons, state officials expected a return on their investment. But a state analysis after the Patriots’ thrilling comeback win said it was “impossible” to tell if Texas taxpayers broke even on their investments.  If anything, Texas came up $14 million short, according to a breakdown of tax revenues in the same analysis. Texas taxpayers likely will be on the hook again when Houston and Dallas welcome the FIFA World Cup this June and July. The cities are among 11 in the U.S. that have agreed to shoulder hundreds of millions of dollars in costs for the soccer tournament, subsidizing a World Cup expected to generate $11 billion in profits for FIFA .  Host cities and their local organizing committees will pay for security at the matches, cover the cost of retrofitting their stadiums to better accommodate soccer and o...
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Fear and Opportunity: Immigration Scams Surged as Trump’s Sweeps Lured Desperate People to Eager Defrauders

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Jasmir Urbina was scammed and then deported. Across the U.S., immigration scams have spiked amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort. Photo courtesy of Jasmir Urbina As an asylum-seeker living in the U.S., Jasmir Urbina worried as she watched violence break out amid the military-style immigration sweeps across the country. Then she read about legal residents being arrested at immigration court and wondered when federal agents would set their sights on her city. Urbina had fled Nicaragua in 2022 and legally resided with her husband, a fellow asylum-seeker, in New Orleans while reporting to immigration agents for check-ins as she awaited her day in court. Finally, the date was approaching, in late November 2025. Days later, the Trump administration would flood the region with federal officers in “Operation Swamp Sweep.” Urbina, 35, began searching for a Spanish speaker who could help her, and said she stumbled on a Facebook post advertising the services of Catholic C...
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The Trump Administration Aims to Penalize Disabled Adults Who Live With Their Families

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A planned Trump administration regulation will penalize disabled young adults like Shy’tyra Burton, pictured with her father, Rondell, if they live with their parents. Caroline Gutman for ProPublica Even a glance at Shy’tyra Burton’s life reveals her need for the sort of federal government assistance that helps disabled Americans stay in their homes. Born two months prematurely into a poor family in Philadelphia, unable to breathe or swallow without tubes and largely confined to medical facilities until age 4, Burton was diagnosed with a litany of developmental and intellectual disabilities that left her with an IQ below 70. She persevered and graduated from a high school special education program, then attempted community college. But she struggled to grasp basic tasks and information. She couldn’t get hired, including at McDonald’s. After multiple medical and psychological evaluations and a hearing before a judge, the federal government approved her for the Supplemental Security ...
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He Died in a Florida Jail. The Company in Charge Should Have Sent Him to the Hospital, Experts Say.

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Family photos of Brian Tracey kept by his sister, Lillian Scharf, who has tried for three years to get answers about how her brother died at a jail in St. Johns County, Florida, in 2023. The company that was contracted to care for inmates, Armor Health of St. Johns County LLC, has declined to release Tracey’s medical records, citing privacy laws. Greg Kahn for ProPublica For 30 minutes, Brian Tracey lay naked and unable to breathe on the floor of the medical ward at the St. Johns County Detention Center, a low-roofed building south of Jacksonville, Florida. It was Dec. 15, 2023, the day Tracey was supposed to be released from jail.  By the time deputies noticed him, it was too late. His girlfriend, who’d posted bond for Tracey after nine days, waited outside for him but was instead greeted by a deputy and chaplain, who told her Tracey was dead. Medical staff working for the jail’s health provider, Armor Health of St. Johns County LLC, an affiliate of Miami-based Armor Health, ...
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