They're now talking about wildfires and climate change at the #PresidentialDebate2020, issue we've done quite a bit of work on, like this recent piece on how the environment will ultimately force Americans to move: propublica.org/article/climat…
1/ Formaldehyde is a chemical that causes an inescapable cancer risk for everyone in America.
It’s in the air we breathe. And it’s in our homes: our couches, our clothes, even babies’ cribs.
So what can you do to reduce your exposure? THREAD 🧵
2/ First, furniture.
Composite wood is a material that essentially contains a mix of wood fibers glued together. The glues are the issue: They can contain formaldehyde that then gets released into the air over time.
3/ One thing you can do is look at an item’s packaging for a label showing it is compliant with the standards set under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Caveat: Compliance does not mean it’s formaldehyde free; it just means emissions are low enough to meet requirements.
This year, you’ve helped us hold power accountable and produce stories that made an impact, like these: 👇 (1/5)
Texas lawmakers proposed new exceptions to the state’s strict abortion bans after the deaths of two women. (2/5) propub.li/4eBEI53
In response to a ProPublica investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal demanded answers from the gun industry about its “covert program” to collect information on gun owners for political purposes. (3/5) propub.li/3Z4WIQK
1/ Business lobbyist Virginia Lamp once said anti-immigration attitudes are “based on a type of selfish nationalism.”
Today she's better known as Ginni Thomas: wife of Clarence Thomas, and an "America-first" election denier.
What’s changed — for her and the US? 🧵
2/ For decades, the business community’s role in politics was to fend off threats to immigrant labor.
Sure, it probably wasn’t more complicated than economic self-interest. But business orgs were always *involved.*
In doing so, they moderated the nation’s immigration debate.
3/ Business groups helped negotiate Reagan’s legalization of the status of undocumented immigrants in 1986. They fought for the creation of several new and expanded visa categories, as well as the Temporary Protected Status program in 1990.
1/ THREAD: After a large solar farm was proposed, it seemed to many in Knox Co., Ohio that an anti-solar machine took over news & politics overnight.
They were right.
Here’s how fossil fuel interests shaped the conversation, and how a hometown paper’s new owners amplified it 👇
2/ @MountVernonNews had been owned by the same family since 1939, but by 2020, it was barely holding on.
The paper was sold to Metric Media, a news network described by media researchers as “pink slime” — named for filler in processed meat.
3/ Metric has received $1.4M from DonorsTrust, a dark-money group linked to the Koch brothers.
The company is run by Brian Timpone, who has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to conservative causes. His ventures have been accused of plagiarism and using fabricated quotes.
Microsoft has long downplayed its role in the 2020 "SolarWinds" attack -- one of the largest cyberattacks in US history -- but a new ProPublica investigation reveals that the tech giant ignored warnings that could have stemmed the damage... 🧵
2/ In 2016, while researching an attack on a major tech company, Microsoft engineer Andrew Harris said he discovered a flaw that left millions of users — including federal employees — exposed to hackers. propublica.org/article/micros…
3/ The weakness Harris discovered was in MS' Active Directory Federation Services, which allowed users to sign on a single time for nearly everything they needed. The problem was with how the app used a computer language known as SAML to authenticate users as they logged in.
"Friends of the Court," ProPublica's investigation into Supreme Court justices' beneficial relationships with billionaire donors, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service!
Here are the highlights from the reporting 🧵👇
2/ The series began with this story by @JustinElliott @js_kaplan & @Amierjeski that revealed how SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas had, for 20+ years, been treated to undisclosed luxury vacations by real estate titan and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. propublica.org/article/claren…
3/ Then they revealed that Crow had purchased multiple parcels of real estate from Thomas, including the house where the justice's mother still resides.
Like the free travel, this deal had not been disclosed by Thomas.