PROPUBLICA

AUGUST 19. 2026

The $1 Trillion Black Box

The U. S. military budget is vast and opaque. Projects touted as engineering marvels end up facing years of delays and ballooning costs. ProPublica has launched a series to report on the Pentagon’s spending.

Do You Know About U. S. Military Spending? Help ProPublica Understand Where the Money Goes.

Many Pentagon projects face delays, budget increases and performance issues. The causes of these problems are often opaque to the taxpayers who foot the bill. Help point us to the most important stories.

AUGUST 18. 2026

Measles Used to Be in Our Rearview Mirror. Now Cases Are Reaching Record Highs.

In other parts of the world that have let their guard down to vaccine-preventable diseases, long-forgotten scourges have roared back and killed and disabled children.

AUGUST 17. 2026

At “Quasi-Public” Private Schools, 100% of Students Get Tuition Vouchers. There’s Almost No Accountability.

Private schools — even those that are heavily dependent on taxpayer funding — often operate without the scrutiny public schools are subject to. Following the money at one Milwaukee private school reveals an opaque world with little oversight.

AUGUST 14. 2026

How Trump’s Unprecedented Effort to Prosecute Noncitizen Voters Fell Apart

To prove the president’s claims of illegal voting, the government has harnessed the power of Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of DHS established to combat the worst cross-border crime. So far, the effort has produced meager results.

Wall Street’s Nonprofits Use Selective, Opaque Logic to Defund Charities

A quarter of all individual giving in the U. S. is made through donor-advised funds. A ProPublica investigation reveals how these high-stakes decisions to cut off funding often leave charities, donors and the public in the dark.

AUGUST 13. 2026

This National Youth Sports Organization Is Failing to Protect Kids From Sexual Abuse

More than a decade after the Amateur Athletic Union promised to implement “historic child protection measures, ” it still hasn’t done so, leaving hundreds of thousands of kids at risk. Some AAU athletes have had devastating experiences.

AUGUST 12. 2026

Fiasco in the Factory: Taxpayers Funded a $533 Million Artillery Plant That Made Nothing

General Dynamics opened a Texas factory to churn out artillery shells for Ukraine, but the machines kept breaking. Robot arms smashed into things. Hunks of metal crashed to the floor. There was even a real-life dumpster fire.

“They’re Putting Kids’ Lives at Risk”: How Abuse in a Tennessee Businessman’s Juvenile Prisons Remained Under Wraps

Tennessee’s highest-security youth prisons are operated by a single private company. Former staff say they felt pressure to hide abuse and other serious incidents from the state and to handle medical emergencies without calling 911.

AUGUST 11. 2026

Is There Anyone Who Can Respond to My FOIA Requests? Anyone?

Asking the federal government for public records didn’t always feel like a shell game. But bounced emails and broken portals seem like the new normal.

AUGUST 10. 2026

More Than Half the Homes in East Omaha Have Unsafe Lead Levels. That Doesn’t Mean the EPA Will Clean Them Up.

The EPA hasn’t reevaluated its cleanup guidelines for homes in a residential Superfund site in Omaha, Nebraska, in 17 years, despite research showing that even small amounts of lead can cause IQ loss in children and heart attacks in adults.

AUGUST 7. 2026

House Democrats Demand Answers From Trump’s VA on Vets Struggling to Access Mental Healthcare

A letter from Democratic lawmakers to VA Secretary Doug Collins cites a recent ProPublica investigation that found hundreds of therapists have left the agency and vets often aren’t getting the help they need.

What Is the Trump Administration Doing With Foreign Aid Money?

The billions of dollars Congress has allocated for foreign aid programs must be spent. One proposal from the Trump administration suggested funding research on crime against Afrikaners in South Africa.

AUGUST 6. 2026

He’s Eligible for Up to $480,000 After Being Wrongly Imprisoned for 42 Years. The State Says No.

Elvis Brooks’ case was an egregious example of a wrongful conviction, civil rights attorneys said. But Louisiana’s attorney general maintains that Brooks and other exonerees are guilty — and therefore don’t qualify for any money from the state.