Nick Varchaver
@nickvarchaver.bsky.social
Senior Editor, ProPublica
This passage from @andykroll.bsky.social’s revelatory profile of Russell Vought, tells you everything you need to know:
October 17, 2025 at 1:11 PM
This passage from @andykroll.bsky.social’s revelatory profile of Russell Vought, tells you everything you need to know:
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
Sundog, a memecoin by crypto billionaire Justin Sun, just posted a meme depicting its mascot controlling the White House. Sun has spent (or will shortly spend) a total of $213 million on Trump-connected crypto projects.
![Tweet screenshot: SunDog @SUNDOG_TRX You never truly know who’s pulling the strings… 🤫 [AI-generated image of a corgi dog with a collar depicting the Tron logo, paws raised above the White House, with strings attached to the paws like a marionette] 2:30 AM Jul 24, 2025](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:exrxvyu6bpoym6mbnctke5tn/bafkreigsccsb3rboe3qjtuuicshmrhyho65cwntbj4syjn5y2gkil5m45a@jpeg)
July 24, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Sundog, a memecoin by crypto billionaire Justin Sun, just posted a meme depicting its mascot controlling the White House. Sun has spent (or will shortly spend) a total of $213 million on Trump-connected crypto projects.
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
1. We interrupt this programming for some LEGITIMATELY GOOD NEWS
Violent crime in Baltimore has PLUMMETED to historic lows
How did the city do it?
Baltimore adopted a comprehensive set of "woke" policies, treating violence as a public health issue
Violent crime in Baltimore has PLUMMETED to historic lows
How did the city do it?
Baltimore adopted a comprehensive set of "woke" policies, treating violence as a public health issue
The secret to Baltimore's extraordinary year
This April, Baltimore saw five homicides.
popular.info
July 16, 2025 at 1:14 PM
1. We interrupt this programming for some LEGITIMATELY GOOD NEWS
Violent crime in Baltimore has PLUMMETED to historic lows
How did the city do it?
Baltimore adopted a comprehensive set of "woke" policies, treating violence as a public health issue
Violent crime in Baltimore has PLUMMETED to historic lows
How did the city do it?
Baltimore adopted a comprehensive set of "woke" policies, treating violence as a public health issue
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
Around the time that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was indicted in the Middle District of Tennessee, the chief of the criminal division in that district posted this on LinkedIn:
“Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned…”
“Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned…”
June 6, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Around the time that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was indicted in the Middle District of Tennessee, the chief of the criminal division in that district posted this on LinkedIn:
“Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned…”
“Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned…”
The list of Trump cuts to programs that protect kids—including from sexual abuse and internet predators—is disturbing. www.propublica.org/article/how-...
The Trump Administration’s War on Children
The administration is quietly putting America’s children at risk by cutting funds and manpower for investigating child abuse, enforcing child support payments, providing child care and much more.
www.propublica.org
April 23, 2025 at 6:04 PM
The list of Trump cuts to programs that protect kids—including from sexual abuse and internet predators—is disturbing. www.propublica.org/article/how-...
HUD Considers Crypto Experiment With Blockchain, Stablecoin www.propublica.org/article/hud-...
U.S. Housing Agency Considers Launching Crypto Experiment
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees billions in aid and insures more than a trillion dollars in mortgages, is pondering using the blockchain and a stablecoin. One HUD offic...
www.propublica.org
March 7, 2025 at 6:22 PM
HUD Considers Crypto Experiment With Blockchain, Stablecoin www.propublica.org/article/hud-...
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
😳😬
Wow: City of Clarksdale, Mississippi got a court order yesterday directing a newspaper to delete an editorial criticizing city officials -- without a hearing. Here's the TRO issuing the prior restraint:
February 19, 2025 at 3:14 PM
😳😬
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
"An initiative that was promoted for years as a civil rights cause — helping poor kids in troubled schools — is threatening to become a nationwide money grab."
www.propublica.org/article/scho...
www.propublica.org/article/scho...
The Movement to Redirect Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Private Religious Schools
Private letters reveal the strategy behind the decadeslong quest — successful in 12 states and counting — by politicians, church officials and activists to make taxpayer-funded school vouchers availab...
www.propublica.org
January 13, 2025 at 2:38 PM
"An initiative that was promoted for years as a civil rights cause — helping poor kids in troubled schools — is threatening to become a nationwide money grab."
www.propublica.org/article/scho...
www.propublica.org/article/scho...
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
When electrical components fail in the substation, MTA Chief Superintendent Joseph Daidone searches eBay for replacements.
If Daidone needs to reach the outside world from 40 feet below a Harlem sidewalk, he must use a rotary phone that was installed in 1969.
If Daidone needs to reach the outside world from 40 feet below a Harlem sidewalk, he must use a rotary phone that was installed in 1969.
The NYC subways' electrical equipment is so old it frequently explodes
A Harlem substation is full of so much old equipment that MTA managers look for parts on eBay. A black rotary phone is the only line of communication to the outside world.
gothamist.com
January 13, 2025 at 2:54 PM
When electrical components fail in the substation, MTA Chief Superintendent Joseph Daidone searches eBay for replacements.
If Daidone needs to reach the outside world from 40 feet below a Harlem sidewalk, he must use a rotary phone that was installed in 1969.
If Daidone needs to reach the outside world from 40 feet below a Harlem sidewalk, he must use a rotary phone that was installed in 1969.
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
This flew under the radar in last week's shutdown fight, but Republicans have basically unwound all of Biden's investment in tax enforcement.
The CR clawed back $20 billion from the IRS after GOP in Congress revoked another $20 billion last year.
If the IRS hasn't spent the money yet, it's gone.
The CR clawed back $20 billion from the IRS after GOP in Congress revoked another $20 billion last year.
If the IRS hasn't spent the money yet, it's gone.
December 26, 2024 at 4:22 PM
This flew under the radar in last week's shutdown fight, but Republicans have basically unwound all of Biden's investment in tax enforcement.
The CR clawed back $20 billion from the IRS after GOP in Congress revoked another $20 billion last year.
If the IRS hasn't spent the money yet, it's gone.
The CR clawed back $20 billion from the IRS after GOP in Congress revoked another $20 billion last year.
If the IRS hasn't spent the money yet, it's gone.
A bipartisan Senate investigation excoriated private equity firms like Leonard Green for extracting massive dividends at the cost of hospital patients…just as ProPublica reported in 2020: www.propublica.org/article/inve...
Investors Extracted $400 Million From a Hospital Chain That Sometimes Couldn’t Pay for Medical Supplies or Gas for Ambulances
Prospect Medical, which mostly serves low-income patients, has suffered a litany of problems: broken elevators, dirty surgical gear, bedbugs and more. Its owners, including Leonard Green & Partners an...
www.propublica.org
January 8, 2025 at 5:19 PM
A bipartisan Senate investigation excoriated private equity firms like Leonard Green for extracting massive dividends at the cost of hospital patients…just as ProPublica reported in 2020: www.propublica.org/article/inve...
These two numbers tell you everything you need to know about our legal system: $40 million (amount paid to victims of an opioid company); $119 million (amount paid to Skadden, the corporate law firm that made sure the victims got no more). An outrageous saga: www.propublica.org/article/endo...
Endo’s End Around: How One of the Nation’s Largest Opioid Makers Escaped a $7 Billion Federal Penalty
For a decade, the Justice Department delayed a winning criminal case against Philadelphia-based Endo Health Solutions. That allowed the company to vastly expand its narcotics empire and execute a corp...
www.propublica.org
December 17, 2024 at 3:21 PM
These two numbers tell you everything you need to know about our legal system: $40 million (amount paid to victims of an opioid company); $119 million (amount paid to Skadden, the corporate law firm that made sure the victims got no more). An outrageous saga: www.propublica.org/article/endo...
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
New: Advocates for oxygen patients — in an improbable alliance with the companies that have victimized them — are lobbying for legislation that would pay the scandal-scarred industry hundreds of millions of dollars more than it currently receives.
A Strange Alliance: Oxygen Companies and Their Medicare Patients Want Congress to Pay the Companies More
Some patients who have suffered at the hands of Lincare and Philips Respironics have joined forces with these corporations to lobby for an end to Medicare’s competitive bidding process for oxygen and ...
www.propublica.org
December 16, 2024 at 11:04 AM
New: Advocates for oxygen patients — in an improbable alliance with the companies that have victimized them — are lobbying for legislation that would pay the scandal-scarred industry hundreds of millions of dollars more than it currently receives.
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
July 18: Knowing nothing about the house’s landlord, Angelica signs a lease and moves with her kids.
“This place looked like a dream come true,” she’ll write later.
In the kitchen, one light flickers...
This story from @raquelrutledge.bsky.social & @bykenarmstrong.bsky.social still haunts me.
“This place looked like a dream come true,” she’ll write later.
In the kitchen, one light flickers...
This story from @raquelrutledge.bsky.social & @bykenarmstrong.bsky.social still haunts me.
The Landlord, the Tenant and a House Fire in Milwaukee
A young mother rents a house near Milwaukee. The previous tenant tells her, “Baby, they shouldn’t have let you move in.”
www.propublica.org
November 30, 2024 at 6:30 PM
July 18: Knowing nothing about the house’s landlord, Angelica signs a lease and moves with her kids.
“This place looked like a dream come true,” she’ll write later.
In the kitchen, one light flickers...
This story from @raquelrutledge.bsky.social & @bykenarmstrong.bsky.social still haunts me.
“This place looked like a dream come true,” she’ll write later.
In the kitchen, one light flickers...
This story from @raquelrutledge.bsky.social & @bykenarmstrong.bsky.social still haunts me.
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
MORE! Here's Paul Dans. He's the guys who compiled a huge database of people who wanted to serve in a Trump Administration. The appointments are coming fast. So take a look... by Alec MacGillis @propublica.org
www.propublica.org/article/proj...
www.propublica.org/article/proj...
The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans
As Donald Trump tried to disavow the politically toxic project, its director, Paul Dans, stepped down. But the plans and massive staffing database that he prepared — to replace thousands of members of...
www.propublica.org
November 13, 2024 at 3:09 AM
MORE! Here's Paul Dans. He's the guys who compiled a huge database of people who wanted to serve in a Trump Administration. The appointments are coming fast. So take a look... by Alec MacGillis @propublica.org
www.propublica.org/article/proj...
www.propublica.org/article/proj...
Reposted by Nick Varchaver
UPDATE: Hours after this @propublica.org story published, Lincare announced internally that “effective immediately, Greg McCarthy is no longer Chief Operating Officer. Greg is leaving Lincare to pursue other opportunities.”
How Lincare Cashed In on the Disastrous Recall of Philips Breathing Machines — at the Expense of Patients
Amid reports of thousands of injuries and hundreds of deaths, Lincare was supposed to supply the most ailing patients with new CPAP machines, but instead diverted the devices to new customers who woul...
www.propublica.org
November 25, 2024 at 4:58 PM
UPDATE: Hours after this @propublica.org story published, Lincare announced internally that “effective immediately, Greg McCarthy is no longer Chief Operating Officer. Greg is leaving Lincare to pursue other opportunities.”