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He’s Suspected of Hiring a Venezuelan Gang for a Political Killing. Trump Officials Still Work With Him.

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The widow, son and sister of Venezuelan dissident Ronald Ojeda attend his burial service in Santiago, Chile, on March 8, 2024. The former military officer was kidnapped, killed and buried under cement in a slum. Prosecutors have alleged that members of the Tren de Aragua street gang killed him on the orders of the regime of former President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. Esteban Felix/AP When Rafael Enrique Gámez Salas crossed the Mexican border in late 2024, U.S. Border Patrol agents first thought he was like hundreds of thousands of other Venezuelan migrants fleeing their country’s devastating economic and political crises. But today the 40-year-old sits in a federal jail in Los Angeles awaiting extradition to Chile, where prosecutors accuse him of being a boss of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan street gang. Chilean authorities say Gámez organized a kidnapping that resulted in the killing of an exiled Venezuelan dissident there. Even more troubling, they believe he acted at...
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Lawmakers Call for CDC to Track Vitamin K Shot Refusals, Cite ProPublica Report

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Cengiz Yar/ProPublica. Source images: Documents obtained by ProPublica and Getty Images. Two members of Congress have called on federal officials to address what they described as “a growing and preventable public health crisis” of families refusing the long-standard vitamin K shot for their newborns, which has led to some of those babies suffering uncontrollable bleeding and even dying.  “We write to urge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to take immediate action,” two Democrats, Rep. Kim Schrier, from Washington, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, from Maryland, wrote in a letter last week to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who is acting as director of the CDC.  The letter followed a ProPublica investigation that found babies were dying after families refused the vitamin K shot, a critical and inexpensive injection given at birth to help the blood clot, and that federal and state agencies were not tracking vital data.  “Recent reporting from ProP...
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Trump Pushes Out Remaining Members of Bipartisan Election Commission Ahead of Midterms

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iStockphoto President Donald Trump has pushed out the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, leaving the bipartisan agency in limbo as he rushes to remake how elections are run before this year’s midterms. Trump fired Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, the Democrats on the commission, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ProPublica, which was the first to report the actions on its social media accounts . Christy McCormick, the Republican, was allowed to resign, the sources said. Thomas Hicks, center left, and Benjamin Hovland, center right, were fired from the Election Assistance Commission, and Christy McCormick, right, was allowed to resign, according to multiple sources. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images The commission’s unprecedented dismantling alarmed voter advocacy groups and Democratic state election officials, who called the move “reckless and irresponsible.” “The EAC plays a critical role in supporting state and local elect...
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New York Hasn’t Raised Housing Allowances for Needy Residents in Decades. That’s Unconstitutional, a Lawsuit Says.

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Minerva Pacumio, 54, said she is facing eviction from her Queens, New York, apartment because the welfare allowance the state provides for rent is so low that it can’t pay for a modest apartment anywhere in the state. She is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against New York last month that seeks an increase in the allowance. Zaydee Sanchez/ProPublica New York makes an unusual promise to its residents: Its constitution says the state must provide “aid, care and support for the needy.” But for at least the fourth time in almost 40 years, the state is being sued for failing to live up to this commitment by putting impoverished families at risk of homelessness. A new lawsuit filed last month argues New York is failing for the same reason it has in the past: The welfare allowance it provides for housing, known as a shelter allowance, doesn’t come close to the cost of the state’s rents, which are among the highest in the country. The Legal Aid Society and Empire Justice Cen...
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A Puerto Rico Government Agency Exposed 1 Million Social Security Numbers

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Illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica The government agency that collects property taxes in Puerto Rico inadvertently exposed the Social Security numbers of approximately 1 million people, Centro de Periodismo Investigativo and ProPublica learned. It was the latest cybersecurity lapse for the Puerto Rico government, which in the past three years has seen technology breaches interrupt government services, take websites offline and lead to citizens’ personal information being published on the dark web. CPI and ProPublica became aware of the vulnerability related to the Municipal Revenue Collection Center’s interactive property map, known as the Catastro Digital, and notified the agency in mid-June. The online tool provides information, such as size, boundaries, tax assessment, sale price and owner’s name, for every registered property on the island. While a simple search of the map wouldn’t reveal sensitive information, anyone who understands how websites req...
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Top Legal Adviser to Joint Chiefs Is Stepping Down Nearly a Year Before Completing Term

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Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar U.S. Army The senior legal counsel to the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — the principal military adviser to President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — is stepping down nearly a year before his term is over, the latest in an exodus of the military’s top leaders and lawyers over the last 18 months.  Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar told ProPublica he did not take his decision to retire lightly and that he did so “for personal reasons.”  “Earlier this year, my wife and I reflected on the demands of this role, which have required me to live apart from my wife for the past two years and created additional challenges for me and my family,” Widmar said in an emailed statement. “After careful consideration, I decided it was time to place my family at the center of my life and focus on our next chapter together.” Widmar’s departure follows those of Gen. Chris “C.D.” Donahue, head of Army forces in Europe and Africa, earlier this mon...
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Have a 401(k)? Help ProPublica Investigate What’s Really Happening to Your Money.

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For some employees, the 401(k) system works great: They have easy access to low-cost funds with high returns. But many participants are stuck in investments with bloated fees and pay for costly advisory services on top — and may never know it because they’ve never scrutinized their plans’ disclosures. (If you’re worried this is you, our questionnaire below explains how you can check.) As we’ve reported , the Trump administration wants employers to include less-regulated “alternative” investments like private equity and cryptocurrency in 401(k) plans. To make that happen, the administration is changing regulations and pulling back on enforcement of the law that protects participants. ProPublica is taking this opportunity to investigate these changes and the broader 401(k) system. To do this reporting, we need detailed insight into what’s happening inside plans: what products financial services companies are pushing and what fees they are charging. Many of these details ar...
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