Lincare is paid to rent oxygen equipment to patients, with HHS covering most of the monthly bills. But those rental fees often add up to many times what it would cost simply to buy the equipment.
(Published Nov. 2024)
https://propub.li/3UNDUms
law
“BadAss Grandmas” Pushed for an #Ethics Commission. Then the North Dakota Legislature Limited Its Power.
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Led by a bipartisan group of women, North Dakotans voted to create an ethics oversight body six years ago. Since then, the group has received 81 complaints and has not substantiated a single one.
An examination of more than 1,200 federal judges and state supreme court justices turned up dozens of judges who chose not to recuse when facing potential appearances of impropriety involving familial financial connections.
(Published July 2024)
https://propub.li/40kGxzo
A “Horrendous” Alaska Sexual Assault Case, Delayed for a Decade
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Four different judges have agreed to delay the trial more than 70 times in total. We pieced together a timeline of the delays using audio recordings and logs from every hearing.
North Carolina Supreme Court Blocked Certification of a Justice’s Win. Activists Fear It’s “Dangerous for Democracy.”
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The move gives the court time to consider a challenge by Republican Jefferson Griffin, who has cited debunked legal theories in his previous failed attempts to block Justice Allison Riggs’ reelection.
Join the Texas Observer in conversation with author Jessica Pishko on February 5th for this FREE event at Alienated Majesty Books.
We'll discuss Pishko's provocative and important book about the dangers posed by extremist sheriffs in the United States.
RSVP: https://buff.ly/4gzkA5r
#events #books #bookstodon @bookstodon #Austin #Texas #police #extremism #CriminalJustice #law
From our magazine: Over 72 hours, Austin police reported more than 70 overdose calls. Records from Travis County, which includes most of Austin, and neighboring Williamson County indicate that as many as 12 may have died. The culprit: a bad batch of crack cocaine. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-war-on-drug-users-austin-overdose-disaster/
#WarOnDrugs #drugs #politics #USpol #news #Texas #law #CriminalJustice #health #addiction
New York Attorney General Launches Investigation of Guardianship Providers
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Investigators for the state’s top law enforcement official have begun probing the practices of several organizations that serve as guardians to hundreds of New York’s most vulnerable residents. The inquiry follows a ProPublica investigation.
Two Families Sue After 11-Year-Old and 13-Year-Old Students Were Arrested Under Tennessee’s School Threat Law
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The lawsuits, filed in federal court this month, argue East Tennessee school officials violated students’ rights by calling the police on them under Tennessee’s threats of mass violence law.
State Supreme Court Candidate Wants Military Absentee Votes Tossed. Years Earlier, That’s How He Voted.
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Republican Jefferson Griffin is trying to overturn his election loss by asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to toss 5,500 military and overseas absentee ballots. He used the same method to vote in 2019 and 2020.
Lawmakers in at least seven states are filing more than a dozen bills to expand abortion access.
Some were introduced in direct response to ProPublica’s reporting on the fatal consequences of abortion bans.
Insurers Failed to Comply With Mental Health Coverage Law, Department of Labor Report Finds
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The probe found widespread noncompliance and violations of federal law in how health plans and insurers cover mental health care, echoing the findings of a recent ProPublica investigation.
Is a New Mississippi Law Decreasing Jailings of People Awaiting Mental Health Treatment? The State Doesn’t Know.
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Community mental health centers, counties and a state agency have reported vastly different numbers of people who spent time in jail while waiting to be treated for serious mental illness.
More than two years after ProPublica sued the Navy, the Department of Defense is mandating public notice of military preliminary hearings.
Legal experts say the new guidance still falls far short of what is required under federal law.
#DrunkRapist #PeteHegseth readies *actions* against #Trump “foe” Retired General & former chairman of the #JointChiefsOfStaff #MarkMilley
The retired general, a frequent target of #Trump, will lose his #security detail & face an #InspectorGeneral [apparently there’s one left] investigation, said a senior #defense official.
#military #jcs #honor #integrity #IG #RevengePolitics #law #USpol
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/01/28/mark-milley-hegseth-trump/
Three Months After Missouri Voted to Make Abortion Legal, Access Is Still Being Blocked
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Reproductive rights are now enshrined in the state constitution, but Missouri’s main abortion provider is fighting legal hurdles to resume offering the procedure. Meanwhile, anti-abortion lawmakers strategize to prevent a return of abortion services.
This one’s just plain #weird
The day after #SeanDuffy was confirmed as #Trump’s transportation secretary, he signed a memo dictating how federal #transportation funds should be allocated.
The list of new criteria included one directive that stood out: All of the department’s grant & loan programs should prioritize projects in “communities with marriage & birthrates higher than the national average,” to the extent allowed by #law.
[a buses for pregnant women policy?]
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/us/politics/trump-transportation-birth-rates.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Unbelievable
#ElonMusk’s US #DOGE Service are feeding sensitive data into #AI software via #Microsoft’s #cloud
#Musk’s US #DOGE Service have fed sensitive data from across the #Education Dept into #ArtificialIntelligence software to probe the agency’s programs & spending…. The AI probe includes data w/personally identifiable info for people who manage grants, & sensitive internal financial data…
#law #security #InfoSec #CyberSecurity #NationalSecurity #Trump #TrumpCoup
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/02/06/elon-musk-doge-ai-department-education/
ProPublica has identified three lawyers with elite establishment credentials who’ve joined the DOGE effort. Two of their names haven’t been previously reported as working for the Elon Musk-led initiative.
Here’s what we know about them: https://www.propublica.org/article/elon-musk-doge-lawyers-supreme-court?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Law #SupremeCourt #SCOTUS #DOGE #ElonMusk #Musk #USPolitics
By giving Elon Musk’s engineers access to USAID’s entire digital network, including personal information for thousands of employees, the Trump administration may have violated the Privacy Act of 1974, three experts told ProPublica.
The Courts Blocked Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze. Agencies Are Withholding Money Anyway.
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Agencies continue to suspend funding, despite multiple court orders blocking the federal freeze. Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority — and the limits of the presidency.
#News #Law #Trump #Congress #Government #USPolitics #Funding
A federal judge on Monday said the #Trump White House has defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal #grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the White House was disobeying a judicial mandate.
The ruling by Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island federal court ordered Trump admin ofcls to comply with what he called “the plain text” of an edict he issued last month.
#law #Constitution #SeparationOfPowers
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/trump-unfreezing-federal-grants-judge-ruling.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Our Supreme Connections database tracks who’s paid the Supreme Court justices, reimbursed their travel expenses or given them gifts.
We just added Justice Samuel Alito’s 2023 filing and newly uncovered Justice Clarence Thomas filings from the 1990s.
Alaska Judge Vows to Reduce Trial Delays: “We Must, and We Will, Improve”
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Chief Justice Susan M. Carney’s comments follow ProPublica and Anchorage Daily News reporting that found the median time to resolve the most serious felonies in Alaska was three years in 2023 — triple the time it took a decade before.
Amid Increasing Domestic Violence, Illinois Struggles to Review Fatalities
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Four years after the state called for a network of domestic violence review panels, only seven counties have joined committees. Glaringly absent from the program: Cook County, home to Chicago and about 40% of the state’s population.
https://www.propublica.org/article/deaths-are-rising-but-illinois-domestic-violence-review-boards-have-yet-to-offer-solutions?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post