In today’s newsletter: How Idaho’s coroner system lets clues vanish; another university under fire from Trump; a program that leaves sensitive government info vulnerable to hacking; and more from our newsroom.
Clayton Strong had a history of domestic unrest in two marriages. The women’s families say a more thorough investigation of Betty Strong’s death in Idaho might have saved the life of his next wife, Shirley Weatherley, in Texas.
In Idaho, elected coroners receive limited oversight, often get little training and typically work on shoestring budgets. They also order autopsies at a rate far lower than the national average. Audrey Dutton has been reporting on the state’s troubled coroner system since last year, and here’s some of that work:
“When you start seeing these hit pieces come out one after another in a matter of days, you know it’s coordinated.”
— Bethany L. Letiecq, a professor in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University
George Mason University is the latest university under fire from President Donald Trump for alleged antisemitism. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights notified the university this month it was opening an investigation based on a recent complaint. The day after the university’s president, Gregory Washington, got notice of the investigation — before it had been publicly announced — conservative news outlets published stories on OCR’s action.
Dozens of Jewish faculty members at GMU have signed on to a statement condemning “an attack on our university community and our GMU President that is quickly intensifying under a false, racially divisive, and deeply cynical claim of combating antisemitism.”
