NEW: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program.

The ex-Chicago cop who got out of dozens of traffic tickets by repeating the same bogus story — that his girlfriend stole his BMW — pleaded guilty. But there’s more: @jodiscohen.bsky.social and I have been tracking pending court cases that relied on his policing. More than 90 have been dropped.

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NEW: The Trump administration stripped funding from programs that serve deafblind students in 8 states. Programs' years-old grant applications mentioned diversity, inclusion, and in WI, transition. As in, transitioning from childhood to adulthood. w/ @jodiscohen.bsky.social

The Minnesota Star Tribune has a live feed of news updates about the school shooting in Minneapolis. www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...

Well, this is a wild ride.

1/ Early on in President Trump’s second term, I spent a few weeks observing Chicago’s immigration court to get a sense of how things were changing. One afternoon in March, the case of a 27-year-old Venezuelan asylum-seeker caught my attention. I want to tell you his story 👇

Today’s must-read.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Education Dept. can carry out mass firings it began in March. So I'm here to remind you that we're continuing to report on changes at ED, including to its civil rights division. If you have been affected, we're listening: www.propublica.org/getinvolved/...

UPDATE: The rural Ohio solar project that fossil fuel interests fought hard against (in part by using the local newspaper) was approved by the state today. Frasier Solar can move forward. Here's our previous story about the fight for reference. www.propublica.org/article/ohio...

Chicago operates 150 schools that are half-empty and another 47 at less than 33% capacity. It's extraordinarily expensive. The most extreme example: Douglass high school has 27 employees for 28 students this year and a per-student cost of $93,000. Story w/ with @chalkbeat.org's Mila Koumpilova.

NEW: Illinois legislators passed a law to explicitly prevent police from ticketing and fining students for minor misbehavior at school, ending a practice that harmed students across the state. By @jodiscohen.bsky.social & @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

1/ The day after the Antioch High shooting, Nashville police arrested a 12-year-old for posting a concerning screenshot on Instagram. His school was supposed to figure out if it was a valid threat. Instead, the school expelled him with no further investigation.

Three of our colleagues are being placed on PIPs today and @propublica.org management has refused to allow stewards in those meetings. We're not shutting up about this — our colleagues deserve better and we're extremely disappointed in management for denying us this basic union right.

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights regional office in Chicago, which was previously monitoring Xander's school for civil rights violations of its disabled students, was one of seven offices abolished by President Donald Trump’s administration in March.

The Education Department is supposed to be monitoring this school and how it treats students. This is the video that captured a teacher dragging a student with autism last month after he did not stop playing with blocks to go to P.E.

You might be wondering how the Trump administration is shutting the Education Department -- something only Congress can do. Look to ED's Office for Civil Rights for the answer: Render it "useless," then subvert the core mission. This story takes you inside OCR and how students are being harmed.

For May Day, @propublicaguild.bsky.social is sharing an important update about our contract negotiations. I signed this letter because my colleagues are the smartest, best people and we deserve basic job protections like just cause. ProPublica is too great an organization to settle for anything less

The Trump administration announced it's pulling Maine's K-12 funding over what the Ed Dept called "an extremist ideological agenda." Maine has not complied with the administration's directive to ban transgender girls from women's sports. (Note: Only two trans girls are competing in Maine this year.)

Just in time for the Final Four this weekend, here is our investigation into NIL deals at one Big Ten university: @propublica.org @chicagotribune.com www.propublica.org/article/univ...

“You don’t erase that history to save somebody a little embarrassment.” By @stevemmills.bsky.social / @propublica.org

NEW: You can now send us your tips via SecureDrop, the most secure and anonymous way to share information or files with us electronically. Used properly, it shields your identity even from us. Here’s how to use it: www.propublica.org/tips

President Trump said from the Oval Office this morning that the nation's student loan portfolio will move from the Education Department to the Small Business Administration and special education and special education and nutrition will go to the Health and Human Services Department.

The lawsuit may be the most substantive legal effort to require the Education Department to enforce civil rights since 1970, when the NAACP sued the agency for allowing segregation to continue. By @jsmithrichards.bsky.social & @jodiscohen.bsky.social

NEW: Emboldened by Trump and the courts, conservative Christian lawmakers are now being open about using legislation to bring school kids to Christ. It’s a shift from even a few years ago, when such convos were often couched in “religious liberty,” etc. It's a "wake up call," said one reverend.

NEW: The class-action lawsuit claims that decimating the agency’s Office for Civil Rights will leave it unable to address issues of discrimination at school — violating the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment. By @jsmithrichards.bsky.social and @jodiscohen.bsky.social

BREAKING: A federal lawsuit filed overnight says the Trump administration is sabotaging civil rights enforcement at the U.S. Department of Education. Brought by parents & advocates, the lawsuit says actions and mass firings at OCR violate the Constitution. w/ @jodiscohen.bsky.social

In light of ED Sec. Linda McMahon's comments about transgender people today, I'm sharing the story we published this week about what's happening in Maine. It's about how the Trump administration is using federal investigations to try to force the state to comply with its transgender sports ban.

Gov. Greg Abbott called for Houston ISD's Bellaire High School employees to be investigated for potential child "abuse or neglect" after allegedly calling an anonymous student by a different name and pronouns. www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

From a press release today, quoting ED Sec. Linda McMahon: “No teacher should attempt to persuade or coerce a student to undergo a gender transition." ED supports those who "understand firsthand the damage caused by indoctrinating kids to believe that they can ever be ‘born in the wrong body.’”

Our tips truck has hit the road. This week, the Education Dept. announced it would fire about 1,300 workers. If you were affected, we'll be near the Education Dept. building, ready to meet folks where they are. You can also reach out via Signal at 917-512-0201 or go to propublica.org/tips.

NEW: The Office for Civil Rights’ locations in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco are being shuttered, ProPublica has learned. "What you've got left is a shell that can't function." This is the latest from me and @jodiscohen.bsky.social

The Education Department announced this afternoon it is cutting about half of its workers. www.ed.gov/about/news/p...

A lawmaker in Maine posted on Facebook about a transgender athlete. Soon after, the hammer of the federal government began to swing. There's been a blitz of federal investigations, and nearly everything about them is unusual. Reported with @jodiscohen.bsky.social and @bangordailynews.bsky.social

We're hearing from multiple sources that all U.S. Dept. of Ed buildings are closing at 6 p.m. and are closed tomorrow. Email to staff cites "security reasons." "Employees will not be permitted in any ED facility on Wednesday, March 12th, for any reason." @jodiscohen.bsky.social and I are following

NEW UPDATE: The pause on investigations at the Office for Civil Rights has been lifted. Work can begin on cases again, per an email to staff today from Education Secretary Linda McMahon. @jodiscohen.bsky.social and I reported a few weeks ago that only disability cases had resumed.

Obviously the Trump administration has spoken of dismantling the department and has canceled many ED contracts, but this signals a concrete, impending step to purge employees.

All employees of the U.S. Dept. of Education have gotten two emails today offering $25k buyouts ahead of a "very significant reduction in force." The first was sent early today and then disappeared from inboxes minutes later. Another just came through. They have until 11:59 p.m. Monday to decide.

Remarkable resignation letter from the Justice Department's chief information officer in the immigration review division — a disabled veteran. Obtained by @propublica.org's Brett Murphy:

Spotted today at the US Department of Education as workers were required to come into the office: Long security lines, office furniture deliveries, colleagues greeting one another in uncertain times, faced with defending their jobs via email. (And one ProPublica reporter hanging around 🙋‍♀️ )

NEW: While the agency is allowing disability discrimination probes to resume, the Trump administration’s investigation shutdown still applies to cases of alleged civil rights violations based on race and gender, according to a memo obtained by ProPublica.

NEW: The Education Department is “lifting the pause” on investigating civil rights complaints in schools — but only for disability cases. Race and gender investigations largely are still sitting idle. (Exceptions are the few priority cases such as one re: an all-gender bathroom in Denver)

ProPublica covers ethically dubious behavior at all levels, big and small, federal and hyper-local. Here's a great example by my colleague @annaleighclark.bsky.social about one small town in Ohio and the GMO salmon farm that never was: www.propublica.org/article/aqua...

High priority ED civil rights investigations for the second Trump admin: Discrimination against white students. Trans women in sports. All-gender bathrooms. Antisemitism. Thousands of other pending OCR investigations have ground to a halt. Here's what @jodiscohen.bsky.social and I uncovered.

Thousands of civil rights investigations at schools and colleges have ground to a halt under Donald Trump. Very few new investigations have been opened. There are students who need help now, one OCR employee told us. “And now the federal government is literally doing nothing.”

DOGE came for the research and statistics arm of the U.S. Department of Education today, declared "fraud" and "waste" and abruptly terminated about $900M in contracts. A lot of what we know about America's schools comes from the data this agency collects. New reporting with @jodiscohen.bsky.social

NEW TODAY: US Department of Ed employees got an email saying programs, contracts and policies that “fail to affirm the reality of biological sex” will end. The Trump administration appears to be putting the executive orders related to trans people into action at ED.

NEW: The Department of Education told employees late Friday that they must review and terminate all programs, contracts and policies that affirm the existence of transgender people. By @jodiscohen.bsky.social and @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

Employees and associates of the world's richest man, Elon Musk, are taking power in government and taking over federal computer systems. ProPublica is documenting who's involved and what they're doing. This is the DOGE tracker.

Linda McMahon isn't technically in charge of the U.S. Department of Education yet, but ED already is being staffed with people from the America First Policy Institute, reports @lrj417.bsky.social for @the74.bsky.social