Megan O'Matz

DHS Seeks Access to Massive Employment, Salary and Family Database Legally Restricted to Use in Child Support Cases The Trump administration’s immigration enforcers are requesting unfettered access to the government’s “most powerful people-finder system,” which contains sensitive information on children and victims...

The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement arm is requesting unfettered access to the most comprehensive government database of people in the US and their most private information, including sensitive details about children. / by @propublica.org

Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees - ProPublica Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their de...

Explore Financial Disclosures from President Trump and 1,500 of his appointees with this @propublica.org database. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside of government, their assets and their debts. Spot conflicts of interest? Contact: ProPublica.org/tips

Florence ICE detainee dead after untreated tooth infection, official says An ICE detainee, who had been at a Florence detention center for four months, died Monday following an untreated tooth infection.

One thing I learned from reporting on fluoride is that, while rare, tooth decay can lead to death.

tucson.com/news/local/b...

ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools Under Secretary Linda McMahon, the work of the Office for Civil Rights, which aims to protect students from discrimination, is cloaked in secrecy.

NEW: ProPublica has sued the Department of Education in federal court, accusing it of withholding public records about how it’s enforcing civil rights protections for millions of U.S. students.

Kansas immediately revokes transgender residents’ driver’s licenses The Kansas Division of Vehicles sent a letter to affected people on Monday.

As of Thursday, transgender people in Kansas whose driver’s licenses do not reflect their sex assigned at birth are breaking the law if they drive, after the legislature stripped them of previously valid credentials. The change took effect immediately with no grace period. Lawsuit filed, ACLU said.

Med spas unmasked: Can patients trust certifications and credentials? Med spa practitioners often tout certifications earned after only a brief training. Patients often don’t understand the risk of treatments or the qualifications of the people doing them.

“Many certificates in aesthetic services obtained by med spa workers require little more than buying memberships and taking a few workshops.”
www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/02/26/m...

U.S. Forest Service Stops Issuing Firefighter Pants That Contain PFAS, Following ProPublica’s Reporting Officials at the agency knew about the use of potentially dangerous “forever chemicals” in protective gear years before publicly acknowledging the issue, according to emails obtained by ProPublica.

NEW: ProPublica recently reported that the U.S. Forest Service knowingly issued protective gear containing PFAS to wildland firefighters.

The agency says it has now stopped distributing those garments.

By @abestreep.bsky.social

South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions. That Leaves Doctors in the Dark. Physicians across South Carolina, home to the largest measles outbreak in decades, are advising patients without the benefit of real-time data on hospitalizations due to measles-related pneumonia, bra...

NEW: South Carolina, which doesn’t require hospitals to disclose measles-related admissions, has reported only 20 such hospitalizations since Oct. 2.

That leaves doctors with an incomplete picture of how the outbreak is affecting the community.

By @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social

Pam Bondi joins Tom Tiffany in investigating Ojibwe over road dispute Rep. Tom Tiffany referred to the tribe as perpetrators and said its efforts to get paid for road access into tribal land was extortion.

Pam Bondi to investigate a Wisconsin Native American tribe over a road dispute, at the request of the GOP candidate for governor. www.jsonline.com/story/news/l... via @journalsentinel

New Moms in Wisconsin to Get Extension of Vital Benefits After GOP Powerbroker Ends Holdout State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had repeatedly blocked lawmakers from voting on a bipartisan bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. The legislation now goes to Gov. Tony Evers, who is expected ...

If Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signs this bill, that leaves Arkansas as the only state that hasn't yet opted into expanded Medicaid coverage for postpartum care.

New Moms in Wisconsin to Get Extension of Vital Benefits After GOP Powerbroker Ends Holdout State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had repeatedly blocked lawmakers from voting on a bipartisan bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. The legislation now goes to Gov. Tony Evers, who is expected ...

Wisconsin Assembly speaker relents: allows postpartum Medicaid extension for new moms. “Go out and take your victory lap,” Republican Robin Vos told caucus members.

Opinion | How the Justice Department failed Flint - Bridge Michigan A federal case would have avoided procedural obstacles that undermined the state prosecutions. One conclusion is impossible to escape: the state process left meaningful criminal accountability out of ...

I often hear from folks who are bewildered by the failure of efforts to hold people accountable for the Flint water crisis.

"Why didn’t anyone go to jail?"

Here's a view from a law prof / former federal prosecutor.

New Moms in Wisconsin to Get Extension of Vital Benefits After GOP Powerbroker Ends Holdout State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had repeatedly blocked lawmakers from voting on a bipartisan bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. The legislation now goes to Gov. Tony Evers, who is expected ...

NEW: Powerful Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had repeatedly blocked lawmakers from voting on a bipartisan bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. The legislation now goes to Gov. Tony Evers, who is expected to sign it into law.

By @megomatz.bsky.social

New Moms in Wisconsin to Get Extension of Vital Benefits After GOP Powerbroker Ends Holdout State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had repeatedly blocked lawmakers from voting on a bipartisan bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. The legislation now goes to Gov. Tony Evers, who is expected ...

New Moms in Wisconsin to Get Extension of Vital Benefits After GOP Powerbroker Ends Holdout www.propublica.org/article/wisc...

Milwaukee attorney offering $100,000 reward in Nancy Guthrie search Guthrie, the mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie, was believed to have been kidnapped from her Tucson home on February 1.

Milwaukee attorney offers $100,000 Crime Stoppers award in Nancy Guthrie case. www.wisn.com/article/milw...

Chlorine Dioxide, Raw Camel Milk: The FDA No Longer Warns Against These and Other Ineffective Autism Treatments The FDA has taken down a webpage warning about therapies and products making “false claims” of treating autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy ...

NEW: The FDA has removed a webpage warning about dangerous therapies claiming to treat autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under RFK Jr. to discredit long-established science.

By @megomatz.bsky.social

Chlorine Dioxide, Raw Camel Milk: The FDA No Longer Warns Against These and Other Ineffective Autism Treatments The FDA has taken down a webpage warning about therapies and products making “false claims” of treating autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy ...

NEW: Chlorine Dioxide, Raw Camel Milk: The FDA No Longer Warns Against These and Other Ineffective Autism Treatments, by @megomatz.bsky.social

Amid Mass ICE Arrests, Trump Pardon Recipient Juan Orlando Hernández Given Special Treatment After the former Honduran president was pardoned, ICE dropped its detainer on him, and he was whisked away to a luxury hotel in New York City.

NEW: Rather than turn former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández over to immigration officials when he was released from prison less than four years into a 45-year sentence, the Trump administration paid to transport him 350 miles to a posh NYC hotel.

By @keribla.bsky.social

Chlorine Dioxide, Raw Camel Milk: The FDA No Longer Warns Against These and Other Ineffective Autism Treatments The FDA has taken down a webpage warning about therapies and products making “false claims” of treating autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy ...

For years, the FDA website warned of products and remedies claiming to treat autism that were being marketed deceptively and can be harmful.

Just a few:
•hyperbaric oxygen therapies
•chlorine dioxide
•raw camel milk.

Now, under RFK Jr, that advisory is gone.

New, @megomatz.bsky.social

Veterans slam new VA rule for determining disability ratings The new rule states that a disability level must be based on how well a veteran functions while on medication and not on the underlying impairment.

Veterans and their advocates fear a new rule by the Department of Veterans Affairs — for determining disability compensation — will lower their payments for service-related illnesses and injuries. www.stripes.com/veterans/202...

Trump Threatens to Block Michigan-Canada Bridge He Once Championed The president’s targeting of the bridge shows just how drastically U.S.-Canada relations have fallen between his two terms.

Not so long ago, President Trump’s ambassador to Canada lifted a ceremonial shovel at the groundbreaking of the Gordie Howe bridge.

Things have changed.

My new @propublica.org story:

A line chart going from Jan 2009 to Jan 2026 showing very few cases until Trump’s second term, where the line takes off nearly vertically, showing more than 6,600 cases in Jan 2026 alone.

Habeas cases filed by immigrants claiming their detention is illegal have taken off to levels we have never seen before. Just look at that chart.

www.propublica.org/article/habe...

Catherine O’Hara Had a Rare Heart Condition Called Dextrocardia Situs Inversus — What Is It? The actress was born with her heart on the right side of her chest, not the left. It’s not known if this condition has any link to O’Hara’s death last week.

Was Catherine O’Hara’s heart in the wrong place, or is everyone else’s?

When You’re a Billionaire, Your Hobbies Can Slash Your Tax Bill Thoroughbred horses, auto racing, massive ranches, luxury hotels. The hobbies and side businesses of the ultrawealthy create huge write-offs that can let them get away with paying little or no income ...

When you hear of a billionaire losing money on a pricey hobby or side business — whether it's a race horse or a newspaper — remember that those losses can actually create huge write-offs that let the ultrarich get away with paying little or no income tax.

(Published 2021)

U.S. Seeks to Expedite Deportation of 5-Year-Old Liam Conejo Ramos

The 5-year-old boy in a bunny hat, whose image rocketed around the world, is facing an escalating effort by DHS to deport him.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/u...

Monkey Sounds, “White Power” and the N-Word: Racial Harassment Against Black Students Ignored Under Trump Since Trump returned to office, the Education Department’s civil rights office has not resolved a single racial harassment investigation. It sends a message that “people impacted by racial discriminat...

The letter highlighted this story I did with @megomatz.bsky.social and @jodiscohen.bsky.social (and referenced other good stories from folks diligently following the dismantling of OCR under this administration.) www.propublica.org/article/trum...

U.S. Department of Education Takes Actions to Protect Integrity of U.S. Elections ED Launches Two FERPA Investigations to Determine whether Student Data was Illegally Shared with Entities for the Purpose of Influencing Elections.

The US Department of Education wades into the "election integrity" space...

“You’re Not Going to Investigate a Federal Officer” It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable w...

In almost every instance, President Donald Trump’s administration blamed the injured and dead for the shooting within hours of the incident, raising questions about whether federal officials can fairly and objectively investigate their own.

Epstein declared bankrupt Detroit ‘desperate,’ worth experimenting in An email and court filing are among several newly released Department of Justice documents that name-check the city.

"Jeffrey Epstein likened bankrupt Detroit to a petri dish primed for monetary experimentation ... and separately was accused of involvement in a Ponzi scheme that allegedly defrauded the city’s general retirement system ..."

🤨

“You’re Not Going to Investigate a Federal Officer” It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable w...

Local police did not open investigations into six of the 12 shootings by on-duty federal agents that have led to the deaths or injuries of citizens and immigrants since September, an analysis by reporter Andy Mannix and team at @propublica.org found.