Only 6,500 participants have enrolled in a program that has cost taxpayers more than $86 million — a warning for other states looking to impose restrictions on Medicaid in a second Trump presidency.
Illustration by Anuj Shrestha, special to ProPublica
How Walmart’s Financial Services Became a Fraud Magnet
America’s largest retailer has long been a facilitator of fraud on a mass scale, a 2024 ProPublica investigation found. For roughly a decade, Walmart resisted tougher enforcement while breaking promises to regulators and skimping on employee training, according to more than 50 interviews, internal documents supplied by former industry executives, court filings and other public records.
Walmart has strenuously defended its anti-fraud efforts, and asserted to ProPublica it has blocked $700 million in suspicious money transfers and refunded $4 million to victims of gift card fraud. But the company also sought to dismiss a 2022 lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission, partly on the grounds that it has “no responsibility to protect against the criminal conduct of third parties.”
Craig Silverman and Peter Elkind followed the scam from unwitting phone victim to in-person scammer.
Alaska Judge Vows to Reduce Trial Delays: “We Must, and We Will, Improve”
Susan M. Carney, chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court Credit: Loren Holmes/ADN
The chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court told state lawmakers last week that the court system is taking steps to reduce the amount of time it takes criminal cases to reach trial, a problem highlighted by a recent ProPublica and Anchorage Daily News investigation.
In an annual State of the Judiciary speech to legislators at the Capitol in Juneau, Chief Justice Susan M. Carney said the court system has increased training for judges, created new policies on postponements and authorized overtime pay.
Noting “recent media accounts” of extreme delays, Carney said the state is gaining ground and that resolving the problem is “our No. 1 priority.”
