New Data shows at least 3,800 children, including infants, have been put in detention since Trump took office. Many were held for long stretches. “There is no other way to describe it; it’s a jail for children," one parent said. www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/17/c...

🧵Denver PD began testing drones as first responders in October after signing contracts w/ Skydio and Flock, saying they'll improve public safety. But these "flying cops" raise concerns for privacy advocates, council members and police oversight board, @denverpost.com's Shelly Bradbury reports

ICE has taken the stance that anyone in the country illegally is subject to mandatory detention/ineligible for bond. Though most judges have said this flouts due process, it means many immigrants are stuck in detention w/ no clear end date. www.investigatewest.org/idaho-immigr...

"Victoria Goldiee” had freelanced for The Cut and The Guardian. After Nicholas Hune-Brown, executive editor of The Local, greenlit her pitch, the red flags started popping up. www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/ever...

NEW AP INVESTIGATION: With license plate readers and local law enforcement partnerships, Border Patrol is monitoring American drivers and detaining those exhibiting ‘suspicious’ travel patterns in the U.S. interior. w/ @garanceburke.bsky.social. apnews.com/article/immi...

this is disturbing CU Boulder news... and good reporting by Olivia Doak. www.dailycamera.com/2025/11/20/c...

Several Chicago newsrooms spent two months collecting and analyzing evidence of ICE & Border Patrol's use of tear gas and pepper spray in Chicago. They found that agents deployed chemical agents nearly 50 times. Most uses occurred after a judge ordered federal agents to restrict their use.

Immigrants begging to be deported are languishing in ICE’s Aurora detention facility

HUD now requires unhoused people get treatment or enroll in other services if they want federally-funded permanent housing. Oregon providers say that conflicts with the state's funding requirements - forcing them to choose between federal or state dollars www.investigatewest.org/oregon-homel...

A report finds Native American and Black youths are the least likely to be offered a path out of the justice system, while white children are most likely to be offered a break. The racial disparities get wider when a youth has a prior offense. www.investigatewest.org/native-ameri...

The first formerly incarcerated lawmaker in WA had her convictions vacated in 2023, and she said it felt like being freed from an "invisible prison." This year, emails show, she supported cuts to legal aid groups that help others do the same. www.investigatewest.org/make-it-make...

Even before being convicted of a crime, Indigenous youth in Washington state are 6.4 times more likely to be kept in detention than white children. www.investigatewest.org/native-ameri...

"In Idaho prisons, more than two dozen women say guards prey on them with little fear of consequences — and those who speak up are often punished." The U.S. is a leader in women's incarceration, and behind bars, women are anything but safe. 🧵

Washington state requires certain alleged domestic abusers to surrender their guns, but many counties lack mechanisms to actually verify if guns are turned over, relying on the honor system instead. www.investigatewest.org/many-wa-coun...

Alex Kuhnhausen developed a bacterial infection while in solitary confinement. The repeated failures that followed offer a rare look at how decisions made by prison officials can turn treatable ailments deadly, @brandonblock.bsky.social reports. www.investigatewest.org/how-a-wa-pri...

The teacher was called to an Aug. 2011 personnel meeting over the allegations. The goal, according to school district records: "To protect Curtis and the District." bit.ly/43uI0Ev

Read the story: www.investigatewest.org/allegations-...

Extraordinary NEW story: We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social

“We have not been able to get the meats we used to get provided through Emergency Food Assistance,” a Colorado food bank operator says. “In its place, we’ve been getting fish sticks. And not a lot of them.” // Story by @lizzy-hernandez.bsky.social

Andrea Weiskircher thought her life was over after she filed complaints in June 2024. But after she shared what happened to her, other women opened up about their own stories of prison abuse. “They were like, ‘Screw IDOC. It happened to me too, dude,’” Weiskircher said.

"For the next five minutes, the woman listened as four men — a prosecutor, defense attorney, judge and police detective — debated what, exactly, Rogers meant by vagina." Hard to say what's the most shocking part of this @investigatewest.bsky.social series. But this courtroom dialogue is up there.

This series on rape and sexual abuse by Idaho prison workers has some chilling, enraging and tender writing and reporting throughout - and exposes the ways our system continually lets alleged perpetrators off the hook. Please give it a read:

The Spokane Diocese says there's “overwhelming evidence” to back five women's allegations against the priest — but parishioners question Bishop Thomas Daly’s motivations www.investigatewest.org/allegations-...

Women in Idaho prisons face this reality: The guards who control every aspect of their lives can harass and sexually assault them with confidence that it will be kept quiet. If caught, guards receive a kind of leniency that they could only dream of. www.investigatewest.org/in-idaho-wom...

Today we're excited to share a new series, Guarded by Predators, that we've been working on on for nearly a year investigating how sexual abuse by staff at Idaho's women's prisons has gone largely unchecked - www.investigatewest.org/guarded-by-p...

Police accountability advocates say his candidacy underscores a larger issue in Washington: The state’s only requirement for sheriff candidates is to complete basic law enforcement training within a year of taking office. www.investigatewest.org/sheriff-cand...

Oregon Health Authority announced this week that it will no longer pursue the program, pinning their decision on federal changes to Medicaid. www.investigatewest.org/oregon-aband...

It’s difficult to find the words to express how our unit is feeling right now, but we’ll take a stab at it: shocked, disappointed, angry, gutted. @cascadepbs.bsky.social’s choice to eliminate long-form written reporting is a massive loss for our community in a critical moment. tinyurl.com/LayoffFund

“I don’t know where I am, where I’m going, or what my end is. I don’t know what I’m waiting for.” Ten months after a judge granted Kamel Maklad deportation relief for protection against torture in his home country of Syria, Maklad remains detained in Arizona, Stephanie Casanova reports.

Steep cuts to federal Medicaid spending could push more Oregon hospitals - already operating on thin margins - to cut back on costly maternity care. @daniellemdawson.bsky.social looks at what happened after one rural town lost its maternity ward in 2023 www.investigatewest.org/rural-oregon...

The hospital in Dayton is a lifeline for the elderly and poor in Columbia County, WA. Most of last year, it had less than 10 days cash on hand. “You put that in the context of these cuts, and it’s just going to make a desperate situation worse,” McGuire said. www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...

"No one spoke against the land annexation ... Councilor Jackie Linton was the sole vote against it. She brought up a number of concerns about the potential for new data centers, including how they might affect the local water supply." by @antoniosierra.bsky.social www.opb.org/article/2025...

At least 2 students shot at Evergreen High School, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says | The Colorado Sun coloradosun.com/2025/09/10/e... Sun App

The state levied the seven-figure penalty days after we reported on how regulators failed to take steps to immediately stop the company from releasing more polluted stormwater into the South Yamhill River. www.investigatewest.org/oregon-fine-...

Chair of House Oversight committee demands health care and Medicaid data from Colorado www.cpr.org/2025/09/04/r... via @allisonsherry.bsky.social #copolitics

Colorado finds a work-around on COVID vaccines, allowing pharmacies to give them to anyone — without requiring prescriptions, or meeting the FDA's new list of conditions — even though RFK Jr's reformulated vaccine advisory committee has not recommended them

"Fire areas are officially closed, very secure and there are roadblocks,” she said. “Somebody would have had to tell these agents how to get there.” stateline.org/2025/08/31/f... @stateline.org

Street Roots, a Portland-based nonprofit news outlet, needs more than $250,000 by the end of the month or it may have to cut jobs and reduce services.

rare to see the slow-moving insanity of our immigration system summarized in one case-- but lawyers for one detained firefighter said he got a U-visa certification in 2017 (for victims of serious crimes) and has been waiting for the results of his application since 2 0 1 8 apnews.com/article/immi...

Among kindergarteners, nonmedical exemptions have increased each year since 2020, from 1.9% in the first year of the pandemic to 3.4% in the 2024-25 school year, the latest CDC data show. Exemptions increased in 36 states and Washington, D.C. Seventeen states reported exemption rates over 5%.

From @investigatewest.bsky.social: The Flannery decision, which ruled Washington's firearm-surrender law was unconstitutional, has been cited by judges as preventing them from ordering alleged abusers to give up their weapons. But now the barriers created by Flannery could be knocked down.

After 157 years, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will stop publishing a print newspaper at the end of the year and divert all of its resources into the digital news operation. “I love print, but I love journalism more,” the newspaper's publisher says

NEW: Colorado governor will cut spending on Medicaid, higher education and grants to plug $750M hole in state budget coloradosun.com/2025/08/28/c... #copolitics #coleg

While Stella-Jones has pleaded guilty to some of the alleged pollution flagged by Oregon regulators over four years, regulators could also share some of the blame for contamination at a Sheridan facility, which is already a Superfund site because of historic contamination.

Context that didn't make it into the story, a quick 🧵 About 60,000 people are currently in custody across the country, said Matt Adams, legal director for the nonprofit Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. 1/9

UPDATE: Local officials aren’t concerned about accusations of racism against an Idaho sheriff, despite calls for accountability

Have you ever wondered if government leaders are writing things with ChatGPT? Through records requests, I obtained thousands of pages of chat histories from city officials in Washington. The logs show widespread use of AI — with little transparency: www.cascadepbs.org/news/2025/08...