ProPublica Investigations

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“We Buy Ugly Houses” CEO Steps Down Following ProPublica Investigation

David Hicks, CEO of HomeVestors of America, said in a letter announcing his retirement that recent press coverage of the company’s homebuying practices has taken a “personal toll on me.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/we-buy-ugly-houses-homevestors-david-hicks-ceo-retirement?

HomeVestors Said It Had Kicked Out a Top Franchisee Who Broke the Law. New Evidence Suggests It Didn’t.

The company said it had cut ties with Cory Evans, the former co-owner of Patriot Holdings LLC, “a number of years” ago, but texts, emails and interviews indicate he was still engaged in the business as recently as March.

https://www.propublica.org/article/new-evidence-homevestors-did-not-cut-ties-with-franchisee-who-broke-law?

The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses”

HomeVestors of America, the self-proclaimed “largest homebuyer in the U.S.,” trains its nearly 1,150 franchisees to zero in on homeowners’ desperation.

https://www.propublica.org/article/ugly-truth-behind-we-buy-ugly-houses?

HomeVestors Praised ProPublica’s Reporting, Then Tried to “Bury It”

The “We Buy Ugly Houses” company held a virtual meeting for its franchises to outline a plan to “minimize visibility” of our investigation.

https://www.propublica.org/article/homevestors-aims-to-bury-propublica-reporting?

Five Stories of Lives Upended After Dealing With the “We Buy Ugly Houses” Company

ProPublica found that HomeVestors franchises often target the homes of people in vulnerable or desperate situations. These are the stories of five people who found themselves in unwanted deals with a cash home buyer.

https://www.propublica.org/article/five-lives-upended-after-dealing-with-we-buy-ugly-houses?

Looking to Sell Your Home for Cash? Read This First.

Cash home buyers like the “We Buy Ugly Houses” company may offer a quick and convenient sale to homeowners. Here’s what experts say you should know about interacting with these companies.

https://www.propublica.org/article/want-to-sell-home-for-cash-read-this-first?

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How One Woman Narrowly Avoided a Bad Deal With a “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise

Royanne McNair believed she had canceled her contract with a “We Buy Ugly Houses” franchise, so she pursued another offer on her house — this one for $100,000 more. Then an anonymous envelope froze the deal.

https://www.propublica.org/article/behind-the-scenes-of-we-buy-ugly-houses-deal?

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What ProPublica’s Reporters Will Be Covering During Donald Trump’s Second Presidency — and How to Contact Them

From Trump’s relationships with billionaires to immigration, here are some of the issues and topics our reporters will be keeping an eye on as his second presidency begins.

https://www.propublica.org/article/second-trump-presidency-issues-contact?

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Earthjustice President Describes a “Fundamentally Different” Era of Hostility Toward Environmentalists

Environmentalists have long faced harassment, imprisonment and other forms of retribution in some parts of the world. The U.S. has largely been an exception, a place where people and organizations can freely and safely pursue efforts to protect human health and nature — sometimes working hand in hand with the government.

https://www.propublica.org/article/earthjustice-abigail-dillen-q-a?

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Louisiana Judge Nullifies Death Row Inmate’s Murder Conviction That Was Based on Junk Science

A Louisiana judge this week set aside the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence of Jimmie Chris Duncan, whose 1998 conviction for killing his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter was based in part on bite mark evidence that experts now say is junk science.

https://www.propublica.org/article/jimmie-duncan-murder-conviction-nullified-death-row?

Nike Says Its Factory Workers Earn Nearly Double the Minimum Wage. At This Cambodian Factory, 1% Made That Much.

They are lines in the payroll ledger of a Cambodian baby clothing factory, invisible lives near the bottom of the global economy.

https://www.propublica.org/article/nike-wages-clothing-factory-cambodia?

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A 700% APR Lending Business Tied to Dr. Phil’s Son Is Dividing an Alaska Tribe

Dr. Phil, the powerhouse TV personality, has long dispensed practical advice to anyone hoping to avoid financial ruin — advice he’s shared with his millions of viewers. “No. 1 is avoid debt like the plague,” he’s said.

https://www.propublica.org/article/minto-money-dr-phil-son-payday-lending-alaska?

Desperate Loans

Online lenders affiliated with Native American tribes are often able to skirt state laws, offering short-term loans for 600% or more. That successful business model comes at a punishing cost for consumers.

https://www.propublica.org/series/desperate-loans?

Trump Asked EPA Employees to Snitch on Colleagues Working on DEI Initiatives. They Declined.

Days after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term, the acting head of the Environmental Protection Agency sent an email to the entire workforce with details about the agency’s plans to close diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and included a plea for help.

https://www.propublica.org/article/epa-diversity-initiatives-trump?

ps:Good for them!!!!!

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The “Invasion” Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy

When top Trump adviser Stephen Miller threatened on May 9 that the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus in response to an “invasion” from undocumented immigrants, he was operating on a fringe legal theory that a right-wing faction has been working to legitimize for more than a decade.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-administration-immigration-invasion-rhetoric-courts?

More Than a Dozen U.S. Officials Sold Stocks Before Trump’s Tariffs Sent the Market Plunging

The week before President Donald Trump unveiled bruising new tariffs that sent the stock market plummeting, a key official in the agency that shapes his administration’s trade policy sold off as much as $30,000 of stock.

https://www.propublica.org/article/us-officials-stock-sales-trump-tariffs?

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Texas Lawmakers Pull Funding for Child Identification Kits Again After Newsrooms Report They Don’t Work

Texas state legislators dropped efforts to spend millions of dollars to buy what experts call ineffective child identification kits weeks after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported that lawmakers were again trying to fund the program.

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-child-id-kits-funding-pulled?

Texas Talks Tough on Immigration. But Lawmakers Won’t Force Most Private Companies to Check Employment Authorization.

In a half-empty committee room in late April, one of Texas’ most powerful Republican state senators pitched legislation that would make it harder for immigrants in the country illegally to get jobs.

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-e-verify-requirements-immigration?

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“You’re Already Approved”: How One Tennessee Company Sets a Debt Trap

Borrowers say the lending company Advance Financial encouraged them to borrow back the value of almost all of the payments they made, tearing a hole in the safety net the law tried to create.

https://www.propublica.org/article/flex-lenders-reborrow?

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Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations

In 2023, while Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota, she supplemented her income by secretly accepting a cut of the money she raised for a nonprofit that promotes her political career, tax records show.

https://www.propublica.org/article/kristi-noem-political-donations-income-dark-money-dhs-ethics?

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A Doctor Challenged the Opinion of a Powerful Child Abuse Specialist. Then He Lost His Job.

On a February afternoon in 2022, Dr. Bazak Sharon logged into a remote video meeting from his home office in Minneapolis. He propped up his cellphone next to his laptop and hit record on a video app.

https://www.propublica.org/article/child-abuse-pediatrician-minneapolis-nancy-harper-cps?

Miscarriage Is Increasingly Dangerous for Women in Texas, Our Analysis Shows. Here’s How We Did It.

Using seven years of hospital discharge data, we found that the number of blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54% since Texas banned abortion.

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-miscarriage-blood-transfusions-methodology?

States Fear Critical Funding From FEMA May Be Drying Up

Upheaval at the nation’s top disaster agency is raising anxiety among state and local emergency managers — and leaving major questions about the whereabouts of billions of federal dollars it pays out to them.

https://www.propublica.org/article/fema-grants-trump-emergencies?

ps:Don't be blaming FEMA! Put the blame where it belongs, the trump administration and doge!!!!!

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The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE

The Internal Revenue Service is building a computer program that would give deportation officers unprecedented access to confidential tax data.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-irs-share-tax-records-ice-dhs-deportations?

The Texas Flash Flood Is a Preview of the Chaos to Come

Climate change is making disasters more common, more deadly and far more costly, even as the federal government is running away from the policies that might begin to protect the nation.

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-flash-flood-camp-mystic-climate-change-trump-noaa-fema?

Why Gov. Greg Abbott Won’t Release His Emails With Elon Musk

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doesn’t want to reveal months of communications with Elon Musk or representatives from the tech mogul’s companies, arguing in part that they are of a private nature, not of public interest and potentially embarrassing.

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-governor-greg-abbott-elon-musk-emails-foia?

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RFK Jr. Wants to Change a Program That Stopped Vaccine Makers From Leaving the U.S. Market. They Could Flee Again.

Five months after taking over the federal agency responsible for the health of all Americans, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to overhaul an obscure but vital program that underpins the nation’s childhood immunization system.

https://www.propublica.org/article/rfk-childhood-vaccines-vicp?

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Middle School Cheerleaders Made a TikTok Video Portraying a School Shooting. They Were Charged With a Crime.

One afternoon in mid-September, a group of middle school girls in rural East Tennessee decided to film a TikTok video while waiting to begin cheerleading practice.

https://www.propublica.org/article/social-media-arrests-school-threats-law-tennessee?

The Drying Planet

As the planet gets hotter and its reservoirs shrink and its glaciers melt, people have increasingly drilled into a largely ungoverned, invisible cache of fresh water: the vast, hidden pools found deep underground.

https://www.propublica.org/article/water-aquifers-groundwater-rising-ocean-levels?

8 Things to Know About New Research on Earth’s Rapid Drying and the Loss of Its Groundwater

The continents are rapidly drying out and the earth’s vast freshwater resources are under threat, according to a recently released study based on more than 20 years of NASA satellite data. Here are the report’s key findings and what they portend for humankind:

https://www.propublica.org/article/groundwater-fresh-water-depletion-research-science-advances-takeaways?

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A Las Vegas Festival Promised Ways to Cheat Death. Two Attendees Left Fighting for Their Lives.

They went to a Las Vegas conference this month that promised pathways to an “unlimited lifespan.” But at least two attendees left in ambulances and were hospitalized in critical condition, requiring ventilators to breathe.

https://www.propublica.org/article/peptide-injections-raadfest-rfk-jr?

The Ugly Truth

Former “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise Owner to Plead Guilty in Fraud Scheme That Cost Investors $40 Million

May 30, 2025, 3:30 p.m. EDT

 

The Ugly Truth

“Incalculable” Damage: How a “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise Left a Trail of Financial Wreckage Across Texas

May 13, 2025, 5 a.m. EDT

 

The New Immigration

Trump Is Spending Billions on Border Security. Some Residents Living There Lack Basic Resources.

April 16, 2025, 5 a.m. CDT

 

Curious How Trump’s Cost Cutting Could Affect Your National Park Visit? You Might Not Get a Straight Answer.

March 14, 2025, 6 a.m. EDT

 

These Soldiers Risked Their Lives Serving in Afghanistan. Now They Plead With Trump to Let Their Sister Into the U.S.

Feb. 19, 2025, 3:15 p.m. CST

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Now That They’re Free

Now that he’s free, Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison. He said guards stomped on his hands, poured filthy water into his ears and threatened to beat him if he didn’t kneel alongside other inmates and lick their backs.

https://www.propublica.org/article/venezuelan-men-cecot-interviews-trump?

On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Without providing evidence, Trump has called the men “some of the most violent savages on the face of the Earth.”

Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they'd been taken away. Now, the truth of all their stories — one by one — will begin to be told.

https://projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-immigrants-trump-deported-cecot/

He Was Asked About His Tattoos and a TikTok Video in Court. Five Days Later, He Was in a Salvadoran Prison.

Albert Jesús Rodríguez Parra was one of more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants the Trump administration sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. After his release, he says he wants the world to know what happened to him.

https://www.propublica.org/article/venezuelan-immigrant-cecot-release-story?

He Came to the U.S. to Support His Sick Child. He Was Detained. Then He Disappeared.

José Manuel Ramos Bastidas never set foot in the U.S. — at least not as a free man. He left Venezuela in January 2024, hoping to earn enough money to pay for his newborn son’s medical needs. Born with a respiratory condition, the family’s “milagrito,” or “little miracle,” had severe asthma and repeatedly needed to be hospitalized. The cost of treatment had become impossible to manage on the meager wages Ramos made washing cars in Venezuela’s collapsed economy, so he trekked thousands of miles through a half dozen countries to reach the U.S. border.

https://www.propublica.org/article/venezuelan-deportees-trump-immigration-asylum-el-salvador?

Trump Administration Knew Vast Majority of Venezuelans Sent to Salvadoran Prison Had Not Been Convicted of U.S. Crimes

The Trump administration knew that the vast majority of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in mid-March had not been convicted of crimes in the United States before it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data that has not been previously reported.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-el-salvador-deportees-criminal-convictions-cecot-venezuela?

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Idaho Schools Consistently Break Disability Laws. Parents Say They’re Not Doing Enough to Fix the Problem.

Kali Larsen sat at her desk at Fruitland Elementary School in Idaho earlier this year, trying to read the test questions as her classmates silently worked around her. Her anxiety climbed as she stared at the paper. She asked to use the bathroom and left the room.

https://www.propublica.org/article/idaho-special-education-disabilities-complaints?

Trump Administration Halted Lawsuits Targeting Civil Rights Abuses of Prisoners and Mentally Ill People

The Trump administration has halted litigation aimed at stopping civil rights abuses of prisoners in Louisiana and mentally ill people living in South Carolina group homes.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doj-civil-rights-lawsuits-halted-louisiana-south-carolina?

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The FDA Finally Visited an Indian Drug Factory Linked to U.S. Deaths. It Found Problems.

The Food and Drug Administration has found problems at an Indian factory that makes generic drugs for American patients, including one medication that was manufactured there and has been linked to at least eight deaths, federal records show.

https://www.propublica.org/article/glenmark-pharmaceuticals-recalls-fda-inspection?

These GOP Lawmakers Referred Constituents to the CFPB for Help. Then They Voted to Gut the Agency.

A New York business frozen out of its checking account. A Georgia chemotherapy patient denied a credit card refund after a product dispute. A New Jersey service member defrauded out of their savings.

https://www.propublica.org/article/cfpb-budget-cuts-gop-darrell-issa-john-cornyn?

“You Feel Like You’re Being Cheated”: Oil Companies Unfairly Take Millions, North Dakota Mineral Owners Say

For more than half a century, Diana Skarphol’s family received a check every month from the company that drilled the first successful oil well in North Dakota on their land in 1951.

https://www.propublica.org/article/north-dakota-mineral-owner-royalty-deductions?

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“An American Nightmare”: Three Men Deported to CECOT and Their Families Reflect on Their Monthslong Ordeal

For months, Carmen, Lina and Doris awaited news about their loved ones, who were sent to a maximum-security Salvadoran prison by the Trump administration. Now that the families have been reunited, they open up about the harm they experienced.

https://www.propublica.org/article/venezuelans-cecot-el-salvador-trump-families-video?

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They Can’t Get Answers From the Oil Industry. North Dakota’s Oversight Program Hasn’t Helped.

One morning in February 2023, a small group of mineral owners arrived at the North Dakota Capitol on a mission. They had traveled from across the state and other parts of the country to explain to lawmakers how the powerful oil and gas companies had been chipping away at their income.

https://www.propublica.org/article/north-dakota-oil-gas-oversight-mineral-rights?

A year after Oregon endures its most destructive fire season on record in 2020, state lawmakers order a map estimating the wildfire risk for every property in the state. It’s the kind of rating now available on real estate sites like Zillow. The state wants to use the results to decide where it will apply forthcoming codes for fire-resistant construction and protections around homes.

https://www.propublica.org/article/oregon-wildfire-risk-map-rural-homeowners?

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How We Tracked Workforce Reductions at Federal Health Agencies

The Trump administration has refused to reveal how many workers have left federal health agencies amid a massive purge. Without official figures, ProPublica turned to a federal employee directory to quantify the impact.

https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-health-agencies-workers-methodology?

A Texas County Cuts Over 100 Polling Sites as Trump Attacks Mail-In Voting Nationally

Officials in a large North Texas county decided this week to cut more than 100 Election Day polling sites and reduce the number of early voting locations, amid growing concern about GOP efforts to limit voting access ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

https://www.propublica.org/article/tarrant-county-texas-polling-sites-early-voting-cuts?

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DOGE Targeted Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Family.

Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi, who fled the Taliban in 2021, had worked to help U.S. diplomats understand his homeland. Then DOGE put his family’s lives at risk by exposing his sensitive work for a U.S.-funded nonprofit.

https://www.propublica.org/article/doge-musk-mohammad-halimi-institute-peace-taliban?

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The Militia and the Mole

John Williams kept a backpack filled with everything he’d need to go on the run: three pairs of socks; a few hundred dollars cash; makeshift disguises and lock-picking gear; medical supplies, vitamins and high-calorie energy gels; and thumb drives that each held more than 100 gigabytes of encrypted documents, which he would quickly distribute if he were about to be arrested or killed.

https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3-oath-keepers-militia-mole?

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The Floods Kept Coming. He Needed to Grow a Crop That Would Thrive in Water — or to Quit.

On a late July morning, Blake Gerard zips across his Southern Illinois rice farm on a four-wheeler, wearing his usual USA Rice shirt and shorts that hit above the knee. It’s the only rice farm in Illinois, a place where rice never grew before.

https://www.propublica.org/article/illinois-farming-rice-soy-corn-flooding-mississippi-river?

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“Material Support” and an Ohio Chaplain: How 9/11-Era Terror Rules Could Empower Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

In the weeks leading up to July 9, Ayman Soliman told friends he was terrified of losing the sanctuary he’d found after fleeing Egypt in 2014 and building a new life as a Muslim chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

https://www.propublica.org/article/ayman-soliman-dhs-deportation-trump-immigration-ohio?

The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security

On Feb. 10, on the third floor of the Social Security Administration’s Baltimore-area headquarters, Leland Dudek unfurled a 4-foot-wide roll of paper that extended to 20 feet in length. It was a visual guide that the agency had kept for years to explain Social Security’s many technological systems and processes. The paper was covered in flow charts, arrows and text so minuscule you almost needed a magnifying glass to read it. Dudek called it Social Security’s “Dead Sea Scroll.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-doge-social-security-takeover-leland-dudek?

Swept Away

As homelessness has surged to record levels in the U.S., cities are increasingly removing or “sweeping” tents or entire encampments of people living outdoors.

https://projects.propublica.org/homeless-encampment-sweeps-taken-belongings/