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Irena Hwang, PhD

@irenatfh.bsky.social
6.2K followers 138 following 18 posts

Data reporter currently at @nytimes.com, formerly at @propublica.org. Trained in STEM, obsessed with stories.

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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 08/04/2026
We’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...
We're on strike! Don't visit propublica.org on April 8
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica @propublica.org · 10/03/2026
NEW: TransUnion and Experian, two of the three major credit bureaus, have started dismissing a larger share of consumer complaints without help since the Trump administration began dismantling the CFPB.
propublica.org
Credit Bureaus Are Leaving More Mistakes on Frustrated Consumers’ Reports Under Trump’s CFPB
TransUnion and Experian, two of the three major credit bureaus, have started dismissing a larger share of consumer complaints without help since the Trump administration began dismantling the CFPB.
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
An important primer on vaccine-preventable diseases.
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Patricia Callahan @sheinvestigates.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
My latest story: How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues www.propublica.org/article/rfk-...
propublica.org
How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues
The health secretary is spreading doubts about vaccine safety and considering changes that could prompt manufacturers to flee the U.S. market. History has shown how plagues from the past can roar back...
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 04/02/2026
5/ Stand with us, donate if you’re able and help us remind management that WE are ProPublica. www.gofundme.com/f/support-pr...
gofundme.com
Donate to Support ProPublica Workers in Our Fight for a Fair Contract, organized by Eli Oberman
We are the unionized workers at ProPublica, and we’re ready to… Eli Oberman needs your support for Support ProPublica Workers in Our Fight for a Fair Contract
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 04/02/2026
1/ READY TO STRIKE: More than 80% of our members signed a pledge saying we are prepared to strike unless @propublica.org agrees to a fair contract. www.propublicaguild.org/updates/the-...
propublicaguild.org
The ProPublica Guild is Ready to Strike for a Fair Contract — ProPublica Guild
The ProPublica Guild is prepared to strike. We have shown up and compromised at the bargaining table for more than two years, but our newsroom’s management has slow-walked negotiations , offering w...
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 30/10/2025
1/ Last week, we delivered a letter to @propublica.org's board members, urging them to direct management to agree to a fair contract now. www.propublicaguild.org/updates/to-t...
propublicaguild.org
To the ProPublica Board: We Need a Fair Contract Now — ProPublica Guild
Last week, we reached out to ProPublica’s board of directors to raise serious concerns about ProPublica’s harmful disciplinary process as well as our collective interest in getting a fair contract now...
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
The NewsGuild-CWA @newsguild.org · 25/09/2025
🚨 ACTION: The U.S. should welcome foreign journalists—not kick them out. DHS is trying to gut the journalist I visa program and weaken press freedom at home and abroad. ▶️ Will you join over 13,000 and submit your own comment?: newsguild.org/action-newsg...
newsguild.org
ACTION: NewsGuild-CWA joins calls on DHS to withdraw journalist visa proposal | The NewsGuild - TNG-CWA
The NewsGuild-CWA calls on DHS to withdraw its proposed rule that would change the I visa program for foreign journalists working in the United States.
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 16/09/2025
We ❤️ @ire.org! @propublica.org employees wore buttons & flyered at the IRE gala to rally support for our fight for a fair contract. The future of investigative journalism depends on protecting the workers who make it possible. You can help by signing our petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...
People wearing union shirts stand outside a red carpet at the entrance of an event as people walk in.People wearing union shirts and stickers smile and hand out ProPublica Guild buttons.Five people sit at a table for an event wearing stickers and buttons supporting the ProPublica Guild.Two people walking into an event wear stickers in support of the ProPublica Guild.
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
In the episode, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis touches on: - RFKJ turning down briefings from the CDC - Vaccine policy changed without input from CDC leaders - CDC leaders denied access to data after policy changes were made - Worry that public health policy will be driven by ideology, not science
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
"Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who led the center that oversees emerging diseases and vaccine safety, said he decided to resign before he was dismissed, in part hoping that doing so would allow Dr. Monarez to continue as the director."
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Jonathan Lambert @jonlambert.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
"She had two lines in the sand ... One was anything that was deemed illegal. And the second was anything that she felt flew in the face of science. And she says she was asked to do both of those.” www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...
statnews.com
Inside the CDC director's ouster: Kennedy demanded acceptance of new vaccine policies; Susan Monarez refused
Susan Monarez’s resistance to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s moves to assert control over vaccine guidance is at the center of her dismissal as CDC director
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
CDC director Susan Monarez declined to fire agency leaders or to accept all recommendations from a vaccine advisory panel made over by Mr. Kennedy, according to people with knowledge of the events. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/h...
nytimes.com
Kennedy Sought to Fire C.D.C. Director Over Vaccine Policy
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Your Local Epidemiologist @ylepidemiologist.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
1/ Yesterday, the FDA changed the license for the #Covidvaccine. The vaccine label has been limited to everyone over 65 and for those 6 months through 64 years old with at least one condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19. This is a deep dive to bring you up to date👇
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Sharon Lerner @fastlerner.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
a heartbreaking - gutting - overview of the scientists we have lost so far under this administration by my colleagues @bxroberts.org @anniewaldman.bsky.social and @pratheekrebala.bsky.social projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...
projects.propublica.org
Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies
More than 20,500 workers have left or been pushed out of federal health agencies, a ProPublica analysis found. Staffers say the cuts will leave their agencies less equipped to conduct studies, perform...
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Annie Waldman @anniewaldman.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
NEW: In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies. We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left. They refused to give us numbers. So we conducted our own analysis... 🧵 projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...
In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies.

We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left, and the admin refused to give us numbers.

So we conducted our own analysis, a thread...
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Jonathan Wosen @jonathanwosen.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
I'm a science journalist for @statnews.com looking to talk with folks who applied to biomedical Ph.D. programs and had offers rescinded earlier this year. What have you been up to since then? You can reach me at jonathan.wosen@statnews.com or via Signal (username jwosen.27). #journorequest
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
"GPT-4o had been known for its sycophantic style, flattering its users to the point that OpenAI had tried to tone it down even before GPT-5’s release... The extent to which people were attached to GPT-4o’s style seems to have taken even Mr. Altman by surprise."
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 20/08/2025
HHS staffers implore RFK Jr. to ‘stop spreading inaccurate health information’ in wake of CDC shooting. Story by @megtirrell.bsky.social www.cnn.com/2025/08/20/h...
cnn.com
HHS staffers implore RFK Jr. to ‘stop spreading inaccurate health information’ in wake of CDC shooting | CNN
More than 750 current and former staffers at the US Health and Human Services implored Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in a letter Wednesday to “stop spreading inaccurate health information” after a ...
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Sharon Lerner @fastlerner.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
My latest on the Health Sec who promised to figure out what causes autism and the autism research that's been stopped along the way www.propublica.org/article/rfk-...
propublica.org
RFK Jr. Vowed to Find the Environmental Causes of Autism. Then He Shut Down Research Trying to Do Just That.
While touting a $50 million initiative to identify the causes of autism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is helping lead an administration that is rolling back protections against pollution and toxic chemicals,...
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Your Local Epidemiologist @ylepidemiologist.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
1/ Popping back in with another #fallvaccine update. 👇 In case you missed it, Friday (or soon after) the FDA is expected to license the Covid-19 vaccine. Word is that the label will be restricted to adults 65+ and people at high risk. But a few organizations have made different recommendations.
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 07/08/2025
It looks like officers stopping a Massachusetts family as they drive home from church on Mother’s Day, shattering their window, and letting the kids in the back of the car watch as their dad is forced to kneel, then slammed chest-first to the ground. 9/
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 07/08/2025
So “Is this legal?” may be the wrong question. “Is this normal?” was the better one. We did eventually find 8 instances of ICE and Border Patrol smashing car windows in the decade before Trump’s second presidency. But we’ve found nearly 50 instances in the six+ months since. 5/
An article screenshot reads: "YOUR CAR is a constitutional gray zone. It doesn’t have the same Fourth Amendment protections as homes. You can refuse to open the door of your home if officers don’t have a judicial warrant; you can’t refuse to step out of your car.

The Constitution still limits when officers can use force and how much they can use. But there are no firm rules. Should they shatter windows just minutes or seconds after making a vehicle stop? Should they drag someone through broken glass when they could wait to make the arrest another day?

“Use of force has to be objectively reasonable,” says Bruce-Alan Barnard, a retired Fourth Amendment instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, where ICE officers train. The problem with “objectively reasonable,” Barnard says, is that “it’s an oxymoron. What’s reasonable to you might not be reasonable to me.”

Immigration officers are given little guidance on whether or how they should breach car windows, former federal law enforcement..."
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 07/08/2025
THREAD: All over the country, immigration officers are smashing car windows to get at the people inside. As we began tracking incidents, my @propublica.org colleague @nicolefoy.bsky.social and I had two questions: First, is this legal? Second, is it, well, normal? Was this happening before? 1/
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
HealthBegins @healthbegins.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
We can't address health disparities if we can't study them. These actions will harm so many communities. With Deep N.I.H. Cuts, Research Into Health Disparities Falters www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/h... via @nytimes.com CC: @irenatfh.bsky.social @sarahpeitzmeier.bsky.social @sungheelee.bsky.social
nytimes.com
With Deep N.I.H. Cuts, Research Into Health Disparities Falters
In its campaign against “woke” science, the Trump administration has closed down studies and programs focused on the gaps between racial and socioeconomic groups.
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
American Historical Association @historians.org · 13/08/2025
AHA executive director Sarah Weicksel appeared on @wbur.org's Here & Now today to speak about the sweeping review of the Smithsonian ordered by President Trump. 🗃️
wbur.org
What one historian says White House vetting of Smithsonian means for U.S. cultural institutions
The White House said it wants to ensure the museums show the "unity, progress and enduring values that define the American story."
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
"New York City’s hospitals... depend heavily on international residents... At Brookdale, the rate of visa-holding residents is even higher, in part because the hospital has challenges attracting American medical graduates." by @annaoakes.bsky.social www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/14/b...
thecity.nyc
Visa Whiplash Threatens Foreign Doctors Who Keep This Brooklyn Hospital Running
Residents at Brookdale Hospital mostly come from overseas, working in jobs American medical students overlook.
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
#IHAT #IHATnotMAHA www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
‘Distracting the public’: group of health professionals call for RFK Jr to be removed
Ahead of the second Maha report, grassroots Defend Public Health warns that everything HHS is doing is ‘horrifying’
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John M. Drake @jdrakephd.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
I spoke with Kari Jordan and Erin Becker of The Carpentries about why they declined a $1.5M NSF grant intended to expand data science training. Their decision highlights the growing intersection of #science, #DEI, and federal policy. Read the full story on Forbes: www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...
forbes.com
Nonprofit Refuses $1.5M Science Grant Due To New Federal DEI Rules
A coding nonprofit turned down a $1.5M NSF grant after new DEI restrictions, highlighting the clash between federal policy and scientific community values.
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 12/08/2025
Our New York members took their lunch outside today to demand that @propublica.org management agree to a fair discipline and performance evaluation system ✊
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica @propublica.org · 12/08/2025
NEW: In June, ProPublica reported that the FDA has given more than 20 foreign factories a special pass to send drugs to the U.S. even though they were made at plants the agency had banned. Today, we’re publishing a list of those exempted drugs.
propublica.org
The FDA Let Substandard Factories Ship These Medications to the U.S.
ProPublica identified more than 150 products that were exempted from import bans since 2013. Our list provides the names of the drugs or ingredients and their manufacturers, many of which are no longe...
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
“We all show up every day in pursuit of a healthier country and world, and the person at the top of the HHS ladder is one of our biggest haters"
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
ProPublica @propublica.org · 12/08/2025
📽️ WATCH: Andry Omar Blanco Bonilla, one of the men Trump sent to CECOT, told our reporters he was beaten the moment the plane landed. He says when he regained consciousness and saw the polished concrete floor, the bright lights, the men in uniform, he just asked God: What am I doing here? Why?
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Joel Jacobs @joeljacobs.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
NEW from me: The CFPB's consumer complaint system is more popular than ever, fielding over 2.7M complaints last year. But Republican lawmakers still voted to slash the CFPB's budget, even after referring thousands of their own constituents' issues to the agency. www.propublica.org/article/cfpb...
propublica.org
These GOP Lawmakers Referred Constituents to the CFPB for Help. Then They Voted to Gut the Agency.
Many of the same Republican lawmakers who have targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for cuts have collectively directed thousands of constituents’ complaints about banks, credit cards, lo...
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Lisa Song @lisalsong.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
At a United Nations meeting on pollution, the U.S. delegate said the U.S. has a "national position" on gender. The position leaves no room for the existence of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people, who face discrimination around the world. My latest: www.propublica.org/article/trum...
propublica.org
The Trump Administration Is Promoting Its Anti-Trans Agenda Globally at the United Nations
U.S. delegates have objected to use of the word “gender” in U.N. documents during forums on topics as varied as women’s rights, science and technology, global health, toxic pollution and chemical wast...
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Laurel Wamsley @laurelwams.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Been wondering how to support the public media outlets that are hurting most right now? The great Alex Curley built a tool to find a station that needs your help. Adopt A Station: adoptastation.org
adoptastation.org
Adopt A Station - Rescue Public Media
Help preserve independent journalism and community programming across America by adopting a public media station. Congress has voted to rescind public media's funding.
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Melissa Sanchez @melissa-sanchez.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
5/ Today, we are publishing a database with the stories of 238 of the men. They are fathers and sons. They had easily plugged into the American economy – delivering groceries and trimming hair. projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-i...
projects.propublica.org
The Men Trump Deported to a Salvadoran Prison
On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they’d been t...
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
"The attacks target the Government Accountability Office, a roughly century-old agency formed to help Congress keep track of federal spending. The legislative office primarily produces detailed reports on ways that Washington can save money..."
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Logan Jaffe @loganjaffe.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Those recordings are also important because when local and state officials say things like “we couldn’t have seen this coming,” oral histories can show a sort of testimony from the past.
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Mira Rojanasakul @rjnskl.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Vacancies in National Weather Service leadership roles are more than double what they were last year. The Houston office is missing its entire top tier of managers. www.nytimes.com/interactive/... w/ Hiroko Tabuchi
nytimes.com
In Flash Flood Hotspots Like Texas, Many Federal Meteorologist Positions Remain Unfilled
An analysis of National Weather Service job vacancies found that in more than a third of offices overseeing flash flood hotspots, one or more of three senior leadership roles are open.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 17/06/2025
My latest: Why some potentially contaminated drugs are still allowed into the U.S., despite FDA knowledge of issues like filthy labs and falsified records. We dug into the data and identified 70 hospitalizations and nine deaths related to these drugs.
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
"The McClintock project was organized by science policy clubs at universities across the United States, including the Advancing Science and Policy Club at Cornell, with help from Science Homecoming, a similar project for scientists and faculty members." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/s...
nytimes.com
To Protest Budget Cuts, Young Scientists Try Letters to the Editor
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Annie Waldman @anniewaldman.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
NEW: The Trump administration said their research did not "enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness." Thousands of scientists disagreed. We heard from +150 researchers impacted by the NIH grant terminations on what is being lost in the cuts. 🧵👇 projects.propublica.org/nih-cuts-res...
projects.propublica.org
Shattered Science: The Research Lost as Trump Targets NIH Funding
The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission. More than 150 researchers shared with ProPu...
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Irena Hwang, PhD @irenatfh.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
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Reposted by Irena Hwang, PhD
Meghan Hoyer @meghanhoyer.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
🚨We're hiring! 🚨 The @wpdatateam.bsky.social is looking for a computational journalist -- someone who can help tell big national stories but also work across our team in developing best devops and big data practices. We value camaraderie, learning and collaboration. Feel free to reach out w/ Qs:
washpost.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com
Computational Journalist, Data Reporting
Application Instructions Please list all professional experience and explain any gaps in employment history. All of your application materials, which may include PDF files of work samples and/or links...
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Ken Schwencke @schwanksta.com · 02/05/2025
We have a new fellowship meant for an early-career data reporter to work at @propublica.org for two years on issues related to the federal government: job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...
job-boards.greenhouse.io
David Burnham-TRAC Data Reporting Fellowship
Remote, United States
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ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 01/05/2025
Today, we issued a letter — signed by 70% of our unit — to @sengelberg.bsky.social and @robinsparkman.bsky.social asking them to uphold ProPublica’s values of fairness, transparency and accountability at the bargaining table.
Dear Steve and Robin,
Since we unionized in 2023, we have worked hard to reach a contract that honors ProPublica's
mission. In order to fulfill that vision, our values of fairness, transparency and accountability
must apply not only to our reporting but also to our workplace.
Our proposals have sought basic contractual rights that align with those values and exist at
many other unionized newsrooms.
Instead of working with us to codify those rights, you have struck through many of our
proposals, called for broad carve outs and delayed discussion of key provisions such as
protections against layoffs and overwork. Those tactics are not in line with the ProPublica you
say you want to build.
In recent months:
● You have refused to allow stewards in performance meetings that could lead to
discipline.
● You have resisted attempts to reform our disciplinary system, rejecting a standard
approach to just cause and measures to improve transparency and clarity.
● You rejected our proposal that would ensure our jobs will not be replaced by artificial
intelligence.
What we are seeking is simple: ProPublica management must uphold its values in its own
workplace. We expect that your proposals going forward will reflect these shared values.
Sincerely,
ProPublica Guild
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hannahallam.bsky.social @hannahallam.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
In federal court in Vermont today, lawyers will challenge the ICE detention of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish grad student & former Fulbright scholar charged with no crime, targeted b/c of an op-ed in a campus paper. You've probably seen the jarring video of her arrest. Here's more:
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 11/04/2025
NEW: While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak, experts warn that whooping cough and other preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and Trump’s slashing of public health infrastructure. @deldeib.bsky.social & @sheinvestigates.bsky.social
propub.li
“Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline
While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak, experts warn that whooping cough and other preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and Trump’s…
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 01/04/2025
NEW: GlobalX flight attendants were told they would fly rock bands, sports teams and sun-seekers. Then the company started expanding into deportation flights. “They didn’t tell us these people were going to be shackled, wrists to fucking ankles.”
propub.li
Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is “Only a Matter of Time”
Current and former flight attendants for GlobalX, the private charter airline at the center of Trump’s immigration crackdown, expressed concern about their inability to treat passengers humanely and…
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