1+ hour, 31+ min ago (539+ words) The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles has fired a longtime employee nearly five years after investigators found he used his position to garner steep discounts on cars he bought from a towing company, according to a termination letter obtained last week. In total, DMV investigators found that from 2015 to 2019, D&L sold 15 vehicles to an investment firm owned by Stefanski, who had worked for the agency since 1999 and was then a document examiner in the DMV's main office. In one case, Stefanski bought a Cadillac for $1,000 and sold it for $17,500. The car was eventually sold by another company for $23,250. But the DMV did not discipline Stefanski or issue fines against D&L in the years after the investigation. The agency declined to comment on the firing and declined to answer specific questions about the investigation. Stefanski was placed on paid…...

17+ hour, 26+ min ago (1736+ words) It was Friday, June 6, and the rent was due. As soon as she finished an errand, Imelda Carreto planned on joining her family as they gathered scrap metal to earn a little extra cash. Her fianc, Julio Matias, and 15-year-old nephew, Carlos, had set out early, hitching a trailer to the back of their beat-up gray truck. Carreto didn't carry any proof that she had custody of the boy. She had left it in another car in her rush. She recalls officers saying her nephew would likely be released to her in a few days once she presented the proper documents. Before they drove him away, Carlos started to tear up. Carreto told him, "Don't cry. I don't know how, but I'll get you back. Understand?" A cracked windshield, a waiting officer, a forgotten document: The new family separations often…...

17+ hour, 56+ min ago (550+ words) In recent days, five U.S. senators and two representatives requested documents from the Department of Homeland Security and a formal investigation into how a firm closely tied to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ended up receiving money from a $220 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign. The demands came in response to a ProPublica story this month that revealed that the Republican consulting firm had been secretly working on the ads, which star Noem. The company, called the Strategy Group, has long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. Its CEO is married to Noem's chief spokesperson at DHS. Under Noem, DHS bypassed the normal competitive bidding process when awarding the contracts " allocating the majority of the money to a mysterious Delaware LLC that was created days before the deal was finalized. The Strategy Group does not appear on public…...

1+ day, 1+ hour ago (1707+ words) Co-published with The Texas Tribune Just last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott joined a bipartisan chorus of governors in denouncing a Biden administration plan they said would strip states of powers guaranteed to them under federal law. The plan would have transferred Air National Guard units from six states to the U.S. Space Force, the newly created military branch, stoking concerns about federal overreach and the erosion of governors" control over their own guard forces. Texas wasn"t among the affected states, but Abbott made his opposition unmistakable in an open letter to the president. He called the plan an "intolerable threat that would set a "dangerous precedent." "I strongly oppose any attempt to sideline governors when it comes to their respective National Guards," he wrote. A year later, Abbott helped Donald Trump do just that. He said that he "fully…...

1+ day, 1+ hour ago (1187+ words) Co-published with Verite News One by one, the prisoners " all immigrants " appeared briefly over video before a special panel of the Louisiana parole board. The August hearings were unusual in a state that, under Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, has made it increasingly difficult for most prisoners to get early release. Unlike normal parole hearings, the board didn't grill the prospective parolees about their crimes " ranging from car theft to vehicular homicide " to gauge their remorse. Nor did it review their disciplinary records to determine if they posed a threat to public safety. And no one was present to represent or speak on behalf of their victims. In fact, most of the nine men, clad in black-and-white-striped jumpsuits or plain orange ones, did not say a word besides their names and inmate numbers. Only one was even eligible for parole. But…...

2+ day, 31+ min ago (344+ words) Co-published with Minnesota Star Tribune Our investigation of a little-known church community in northeastern Minnesota started with something that has become depressingly familiar: child sex abuse. ProPublica and the Minnesota Star Tribune found that some members of the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church community in Duluth enabled Clint Massie, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing young girls. Massie is currently in prison in Faribault, Minnesota. The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church " which has no affiliation with mainstream Lutheran denominations and is known as the OALC " is an insular community with many old-world traditions. There is no official count, but one academic study estimated 31,000 members worldwide as of 2016, with most in the United States. We examined hundreds of pages of criminal records, conducted more than a dozen interviews with alleged victims across the country, reviewed video and audio of police interviews with Massie,…...

3+ day, 7+ hour ago (493+ words) Two key Senate Democrats have launched an inquiry after a ProPublica investigation revealed this week that a White House official had intervened on behalf of his former legal clients " pro-Trump influencer Andrew Tate and his brother " during a federal investigation. Ingrassia's intervention on behalf of Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, caused alarm among DHS officials that they could be interfering with a federal investigation if they followed through with the instruction, according to interviews and screenshots of contemporaneous communications between officials. The incident is the latest in a string of law enforcement matters where the Trump White House has inserted itself to help friends and target foes. Andrew Tate is one of the most prominent members of the so-called manosphere, a collection of influencers, podcasters and content creators who helped deliver young male voters to Trump. It's unclear why…...

4+ day, 1+ hour ago (1247+ words) After years of struggling to find enough workers for some of the nation's toughest lockups, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is facing a new challenge: Corrections officers are jumping ship for more lucrative jobs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement." This is one of the unintended consequences of the Trump administration's focus on mass deportations. For months, ICE has been on a recruiting blitz, offering $50,000 starting bonuses and tuition reimbursement at an agency that has long offered better pay than the federal prison system. For many corrections officers, it's been an easy sell." "We're broken and we're being poached by ICE," one official with the prison workers union told ProPublica. "It's unbelievable. People are leaving in droves." And at some facilities, staff said the agency had even stopped providing basic hygiene items for officers, such as paper towels, soap and toilet…...

4+ day, 15+ hour ago (391+ words) A few doors down from the Oval Office, Turkish and his colleagues turned a corner into Blair's office. Sitting across from him was a second person, one the advocates hadn't expected to encounter: Russell Vought, the powerful White House budget director. He looked displeased. After several minutes of dialogue about the disability regulation, according to Turkish and another person present, Vought said, "I know that this is being written about." But, he added, the rule change "isn't going to be happening." Turkish's takeaway is that in the West Wing, vulnerable Americans with disabilities like Tincher don't get talked about enough. "To have his story read by senior White House staffers, to remember what this program is, to remember that Social Security disability is not partisan," was crucial, Turkish said. Afterward, they walked out together, back through the corridors, and Vought…...

5+ day, 31+ min ago (1795+ words) Co-published with Minnesota Star Tribune This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse. The girl pleaded not to go. She fought with her father on the drive over, screaming and crying in his truck until they arrived at the office building for Bruckelmyer Brothers, a home construction company on the outskirts of Duluth, Minnesota. She was just entering her first years of grade school. In front of the girl, her father and Bruckelmyer, Massie asked her for forgiveness. Looming over her, the three men wept. Then the girl's dad and preacher allowed the man who had been sexually abusing her since kindergarten to hug her. "It was one of the worst things ever," she told police some 15 years later. In accordance with one of the core tenets of their church, the matter was resolved. It was forgiven. It should now…...