curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Jessica Washington @ Intercept:
Corporations, Not Immigrants, Are Responsible for Vast Majority of Healthcare Fraud, [Trump’s] OIG Report Shows
Trump officials are focused on immigrants, but the Department of Health and Human Services report on fraud doesn’t even mention them.
For more than a year, the Trump administration has sought to blame immigrants for widespread health care fraud. Immigrant communities, the Trump administration’s bunk theory goes, are draining resources and raising costs by defrauding the federal government.
The spurious allegations played a key role in Donald Trump’s massive — and deadly — immigration crackdown in Minnesota over the winter.
A semiannual report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General to Congress, however, highlights a different narrative.
The report, which covers enforcement actions over a six-month period, highlights the obvious: Corporations — not small immigrant-oriented healthcare providers, or undocumented immigrants illegally taking benefits — are responsible for the vast majority of alleged fraud in the American health care system.
Released earlier this month, the report highlights billions of dollars’ worth of healthcare fraud from corporate executives.
(Jessica Washington @ Intercept more…)
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Pete Buttigieg:
My Visit to Vernon AME, the Church That Survived the Tulsa Race MassacreWatch my visit to the last Black-owned building stand in Greenwood after the 1921 Tulsa Race massacre – and the message I didn’t expect to receive there.
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One thing was very clear about these extraordinary people and the tradition they keep: they don’t want Vernon known only as a place that survived a massacre. They want it known as a place that’s thriving, one that welcomes everyone, no matter their race, politics, or who they love.
(Pete Buttigieg more…)
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Sydney Lake @ Fortune:
Most billionaires are stuck in ‘slow philanthropy.’ MacKenzie Scott gave away $26 billion and won’t stop until ‘the safe is empty’MacKenzie Scott has wowed just about everyone with her approach to philanthropy. (Except for Elon Musk, who implied the billionaire philanthropist makes the world a worse place).
The fascination with Scott doesn’t just have to do with the amount the novelist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has given away—more than $26 billion—but also the pace at which she’s doled it out. She’s given away that sum of money in just a matter of a few years, which steers heavily away from how billionaires usually give away their fortunes.
Indeed, families with more than $500 million in assets gave away about 1.2% of those assets in 2017, according to research from the Bridgespan Group, a global consulting firm for nonprofits and philanthropy. When Bridgespan ran the numbers again for 2023, the figure was essentially unchanged, even though those fortunes had been compounding at rates at or above the S&P 500’s long-run average of roughly 9%.
(Sydney Lake @ Fortune more…)
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Kenrick Cai @ Reuters:
Capital One says it closed Trump Organization’s accounts after anti-money laundering probe
Mitch Jackson: Trump Is Selling Wall Street a Head Start on His Own Posts — and He Keeps Half the Check
“He cannot sell that information and receive a profit for tipping off other people who will trade on that information before it becomes publicly available and is absorbed into the market prices.” —Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer under Republican George W. Bush
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Colin Kalmbacher @ Law & Crime:
‘Not how a just system works’: Transparency group asks 11th Circuit to be ‘exceptional’ and overrule Cannon on buried Mar-a-Lago report even if ‘propriety’ argument failsA public advocacy group is urging a federal court of appeals to use any means available and necessary to unseal the second volume of former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his criminal investigations into President Donald Trump.
(Colin Kalmbacher @ Law & Crime more…)Matthew Rozsa @ AlterNet: Backlash surges over Trump judge’s order to hide secret DOJ files
David Edwards @ RawStory: Trump DOJ’s bid to smear Biden could backfire with the release of secret Jack Smith report
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Jack Hopkins: Somebody Just Tested America’s Water System
No poison. No panic. Just a quiet demonstration that should change how you think about the next emergency.
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Riley Hoffman @ Independent: Over 600 buildings destroyed as thousands are ordered to quickly evacuate Washington fires
No fatalities have been reported in the Spokane area, officials said
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Jack Buckby @ National Security Journal: Putin Has a Problem He Can No Longer Hide: Moscow Region Is Publishing Where Civilians Should Go When the Sirens Sound
District administrations around Moscow have begun publishing interactive maps of civilian shelters, after officials had earlier refused, saying the locations would only be released during wartime or mobilization. Most listed sites are basements and underground car parks rather than purpose-built bunkers, and residents had complained about a lack of warning.
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Hans Christensen: AI Code of Conduct Now Enforced by the EU
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Xylom: What It Takes to Report on America’s Elderly Prison Healthcare Crisis
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Adam Clermont:
It’s All LARP Until It Isn’t…
The rest of the world looks at Twin Falls and sees the disease. The American gun community looks at Twin Falls and sees the antibody. Both are correct. Both are insufficient. The disease is killing people. The antibody is a man who should not have needed to exist.
(Adam Clermont more…)Chris Bradford @ NY Post: Idaho In-N-Out mass shooting victim waited to eat at recently opened restaurant because of hype: sister
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – August 2, 2026
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At 7:32 Saturday morning, Trump posted: “If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard to get the Anti-Weaponization Bill, which takes care of those who have been so badly treated by the Crooked Joe Biden (and Obuma!) Administration (I get nothing, although I was treated horribly!), PASSED. Todd Blanche was a voice of reason! It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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National Couch Cleaning Day
Closer to the Edge:
USHA VANCE VS. THE UPHOLSTERY
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: Dr. Ruth Report, 8/2/26
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Heather Cox Richardson: Week Ten in 250 to 250
This was the tenth week of videos from the 250 to 250 Project that we’re producing to honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Every week, I am humbled and honored by the people who have agreed to be part of this project. Many of them are old friends, some of them new. But that’s the point, I suppose: we wanted to create a project that emphasized that the United States of America is a community, and that together, any of us—all of us—can change the direction of the country.
https://www.youtube.com/@twofiftytotwofifty
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Thom Hartmann: Chapter 9: The Numbers Don’t Lie
Your weekly excerpt from one of my books. This week: “Who Killed the American Dream: The Greatest Political Crime Ever Told”
(Thom Hartmann more…)
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
Mike Ludwig @ truthout: ICE Says 51 People Died in Custody Under Trump. Experts Say That’s an Undercount.
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- July 14: Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran
- July 13: Joan Sebastian Guerrero
- July 7: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
- June 4: Mamuka Artmeladze
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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