iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The state’s Corrections Department and attorney general’s office declined to comment on this story. Here’s what they had to say in the past.

Screenshot of text excerpt that reads: Even after releasing the records, the Georgia Department of Corrections declined to answer my questions about the rising costs and the secrecy around lethal injections. The state attorney general’s office, which has represented the department in the lawsuit I filed for the records, also declined to comment for this story. State officials previously said that the Lethal Injection Secrecy Act allows the Corrections Department to protect contractors who would otherwise “find themselves at the center of a firestorm of hate mail and midnight callers.” They have repeatedly argued that, without the secrecy law in place, Georgia wouldn’t be able to carry out lethal injections.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Among the discoveries: Georgia has made payments of more than $1.1 million since the COVID-19 pandemic for at least one contractor to work with the Corrections Department on its lethal injection process. During that period, the state carried out just a single execution.

A check from the Georgia Department of Corrections dated Aug. 19, 2026, for $170,000. The recipient, account number and signature are redacted with black boxes.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I reached out to more than 75 blueberry brands, grocery stores, fast-food chains, farmers, trade groups and labor contractors while reporting this series. Only one brand responded.

Article excerpt summarizing responses ProPublica received. Dole wrote in a statement that it requires contract farmers to comply with labor laws to protect “worker welfare.” Dole added it can trace berries back to the farms where they came from but that it has not made that information available to consumers.

ProPublica did not receive responses from over 30 of America’s largest grocery and fast-food chains about why they haven’t joined the Fair Food Program or expanded their limited participation; over two dozen trade groups also declined to talk about why so few farmers participate in the program.

Some have opposed efforts by regulators to enact protections like the ones that the program requires. They said the changes would “burden the whole industry for a few bad apples” who disregarded the rights of workers.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Fruits and vegetables from those farms are labeled with a green sticker of a woman holding a basket of tomatoes. When I’ve found produce with these stickers in my grocery stores, they don’t cost measurably more than others without the label.

Tomatoes with “Fair Food” stickers in a wooden bowl.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Supermarkets commit to paying a little more for produce — a cost so negligible, only a few pennies per pound, that one expert said it shouldn’t drive up prices. For those few pennies, grocers get crops from farms that offer their workers stronger protections.

A man wearing a green neck gaiter and hat holds a large bucket of green tomatoes on his right shoulder in front of tall tomato plants. Behind him, another worker tosses a bucket up to a person standing in a truck bed.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

You might find the location where the berries are grown/distributed. But not the farm. To keep up with demand, and to help keep prices low, a brand will buy berries from a whole bunch of farms and sell them under one label. Here’s an illustration of where you’d find that info.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Federal regulators don’t require blueberry brands to disclose on their packaging any information about the individual farms they buy from. I began by looking at labels, snapping photos, researching brands and going through government records.

Close-up of a blueberry carton with the label North Bay Produce.

Close-up of a blueberry carton with the label Simple Truth Organic.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I eat a lot of blueberries, which happen to be the fruit grown most where I live: Georgia. Every time I reached for berries in my fridge, I struggled with the disconnect between the problems on America’s farms and the limited awareness of those problems in most households.

A group of four images. Top left: Two hands washing a strainer of blueberries under the sink. Top right - A small bowl of blueberries next to a mug filled with coffee and a plaid towel with a spoon on top of it. Bottom left - A salad in the process of mixed together, with blueberries and other produce on the side. Bottom right - A hand pouring milk into a smoothie container, with a small bowl of blueberries on the side.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I’ve reported at length about abuses of foreign farmworkers who come to the U.S. on H-2A visas: stolen wages, guns pointed in their faces. One woman I met was kidnapped, raped and nearly killed. I wanted to know: How do I tell if the produce I buy is part of the problem? 👇

Blueberries beginning to ripen in a field in Georgia. Credit: Zaydee Sanchez for ProPublica.

A trove of passports that federal prosecutors say had been confiscated illegally from farmworkers by labor contractors. Obtained by ProPublica.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

This past June, the Trump administration went one step further, suspending any enforcement of the new program’s rules until that litigation is resolved. The number of H-2A visas issued has increased every year since Sofi arrived.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

But though this case revealed how easy it is to exploit and abuse visaholders, little has changed. The Biden administration increased protections for H-2A workers, but several lawsuits filed by states including Georgia have prevented them from fully going into effect.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Mendoza declined multiple requests for an interview and did not provide comments in response to ProPublica’s letters detailing the case. His lawyer has maintained that his relationship with Sofi was consensual. Here’s more details on how we were able to report this story.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Mendoza became one of the first people indicted in Operation Blooming Onion, which exposed widespread abuses of H-2A workers in Georgia. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in forced labor. Operation Blooming Onion is one of the largest H-2A trafficking investigations ever.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

After he was released from jail, Mendoza tracked Sofi down, kidnapped her and drove her to a cemetery. According to evidence detailed in a police report, on the way there Mendoza sought advice from a colleague in Mexico on what to do. The colleague said he should kill her.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

A labor contractor named Javier Sanchez Mendoza Jr. helped Sofi secure an H-2A visa for a job at a blueberry farm in Georgia. But he ignored the terms of her contract. She was not sent out to work in the fields like the others. She would not be paid at all.

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Max Blau @maxblau.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

In each of those states, insurance regulators can’t point to a single penalty for ghost networks.

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