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NPR •

Drugs in jars, bags of cash: Tennessee ignored warnings from Arizona's botched executions

Pike's attempted execution was not the only one badly mishandled under the leadership of Frank Strada, Tennessee's top prison commissioner, whose resignation was announced on Oct. 3. A similar review had already been conducted in Arizona, where three lethal injection executions were bungled while Strada was the deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry.
NPR •

Bedbugs, bad Wi-Fi: Federal workers say forced summer relocations have been chaos

The relocations, agency leaders say, will reduce the government's real estate footprint, cut costs and decentralize operations away from the Washington, D.C. core and other cities.

But moving is costing the government money, an NPR review of public records shows, and federal workers say the relocations have been poorly coordinated and are causing work disruptions. The moves have also violated laws that require Congress to authorize relocations, according to two legal complaints filed in July against federal agencies and against senior leaders in the Trump administration.
NPR •

A few people have played a big role in 'jamming through' Trump's arch, critics say

A small group of classical design proponents close to Trump, many without formal architecture training, have played an oversized role in the arch's quick approvals, NPR has found. But designs for new memorials near Washington's National Mall are not meant to be dictated by only a few people, and the quick review process the arch has undergone has defied centuries of planning precedent and broken laws, some historians say.
NPR •

New burn bans and Trump's battle with immigration and DEI are impacting forest fires

I covered how a new federal policy requiring partners to adhere to a host of requirements that have little to do with wildfires, including restrictions related to immigration, diversity hiring and other "America First" initiatives of the Trump administration, is limiting preventative burns from taking place across the country. Other federal policies announced in 2026 further limit burning on public lands, I reported.
Apple Podcasts •

Investigation Sheds New Light On What May Have Sparked Eaton Fire

KQED talked with me about my findings from our recent investigation: Almost nine months have passed since the Eaton Fire ripped through Los Angeles County. It destroyed more than 9,000 buildings and left billions of dollars in damages. At first, attention focused on Southern California Edison's transmission lines as the likely cause. But a new NPR investigation shows there may have been other failures, too.
NPR •

Hours before the Eaton fire, distribution lines failed and fire started in Altadena

Distribution lines that power individual homes malfunctioned in Altadena as early as 11 a.m., NPR found, and at least one fire linked to a problem with a distribution line started in Altadena hours before the sparks near Eaton Canyon. Throughout that morning and afternoon, firefighters were dispatched to different parts of Altadena to respond to problems with power lines. And although SoCal Edison can prevent the damage electrical fires can cause by shutting off the power that flows through power lines, the utility did not turn the power off to most of the circuits in Altadena on Jan. 7, NPR found.
NPR •

Hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan children can stay in the U.S. for now, judge says

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expelling hundreds of Guatemalan children who crossed the U.S. border alone. Although the government had not obtained legal permission to remove the children, some of their lawyers said, Guatemalan children were already loaded on planes on a tarmac while the judge conducted a hearing about the situation on Sunday, a U.S. attorney confirmed.
NPR •

Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin summit

Papers with U.S. State Department markings, found Friday morning in the business center of an Alaskan hotel, revealed previously undisclosed and potentially sensitive details about the Aug. 15 meetings between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Anchorage. Eight pages, that appear to have been produced by U.S. staff and left behind accidentally, shared precise locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S. government employees. At around 9 a...
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