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Why We Changed Our Code of Ethics to Address Prediction Markets

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Illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica What would you think of me, the ProPublica editor responsible for newsroom standards, if I placed a bet on the baseball game I’m currently listening to on the radio? Probably that I’m doing something plenty of others do, and that my wallet will be lighter in a few innings. What would you think of me if I stood to make a tidy sum based on the outcome of a news event ProPublica has been covering? You’d probably think that’s downright shady, because isn’t the job of a journalist to report the news and not make money off it? Lest you think I’m an ethically compromised editor, you can rest easy. According to a recent update to ProPublica’s code of ethics , “no employee should wager on the outcome of news events on the prediction markets — regardless of whether or not they are involved in coverage of said event.” ProPublica has always prohibited employees from profiting off inside information, so you may wonder why we amended our...
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A Popular Doctor Had Long Warned That Vitamin K Shots Are Risky for Newborns. Now He’s Changed His Tune.

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Cengiz Yar/ProPublica. Source images: Wikimedia Commons, Getty Images, documents obtained by ProPublica. For more than a decade, Dr. Joseph Mercola cautioned parents against a potentially lifesaving shot of vitamin K for their newborn babies: “Vitamin K shots are completely unnecessary for your newborn.” But now, in a break from his past warnings, Mercola is saying he no longer believes that.  ProPublica contacted Mercola recently as it was preparing an article about babies who died as a result of their parents turning down the vitamin K shot . Mercola’s new point of view is just as unequivocal as his old one: “The data is clear: vitamin K saves lives,” he wrote in an April article on his website two days after ProPublica contacted him. He added: “Based on the totality of the published evidence, I support vitamin K prophylaxis for all newborns.”  He also directed parents to speak to their children’s pediatricians.  “Vitamin K deficiency bleeding is...
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Lawmaker Pushes for Ban on Special Treatment for Convicted Drug Traffickers After ProPublica Report

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Rep. Norma Torres holds a printout of ProPublica’s reporting on the special treatment given to Juan Orlando Hernández, the former Honduran president who was pardoned of a drug conviction. Screenshot via House Appropriations Committee/YouTube A federal lawmaker is pushing for a provision that would bar the Federal Bureau of Prisons from offering taxpayer-funded VIP perks to pardoned drug lords and child traffickers.  Rep. Norma Torres, a California Democrat, introduced the measure last month as an amendment to a House appropriations bill, telling her colleagues that there “should never be preferential treatment for narco leaders.” The move comes in response to ProPublica reporting on the special treatment extended to one high-profile pardon recipient — former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández , who was released from a federal penitentiary late last year. Less than 18 months earlier, Hernández had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for taking bribes and allow...
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What You Need to Know About How Tear Gas Harms Kids

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Mindan Ocon poses for a photo with her daughter, Angelise Ocon, 3, at their family home in Portland, Oregon, on March 9. Protests at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility have turned the street outside Ocon’s affordable housing complex into a battlefield of stinging smoke and pepper spray. Ocon has relied on air purifiers and taking her daughter into the bathroom to hide from tear gas, and she’s prepared to use gas masks given to her by community members if it gets worse. Leah Nash for ProPublica In city after city, the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has been met by protests and rallies from members of the local community opposed to the White House’s deportation policies. Federal agents from the Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have repeatedly attempted to break up and drive back these crowds through the use of airborne irritants like tear gas and pepper spray, which can cause an array of immediate reactions — from ey...
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He Profits Off Raw Milk That’s Making People Sick. The Government Isn’t Stopping Him.

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Mark McAfee, CEO and founder of Raw Farm Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. A white Ford pickup truck broke through a thick curtain of fog one morning in February, winding its way down a muddy farm road in California’s Central Valley. From it emerged a 64-year-old dairyman, burly and tan, who left the engine running as he lumbered toward me with open arms.  “You must be Mark,” I said, warning him I wasn’t one for hugging.  “I’m a hugger,” he said, pulling me in anyway. “I feel like I’ve known you for a lifetime.” I had spent the past couple of weeks corresponding with Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee, who’d filled my inbox with messages and PowerPoints extolling the virtues of his most important, and controversial, product: It is delicious. It makes you feel good (the gut-brain serotonin and dopamine cycle). ...
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