Last Word

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Series - Arterial Motives: The Big Business of Clogged Arteries Millions of Americans suffer from clogged arteries. But doctors have dangerous incentives to perform excessive and risky procedures. Cheryl Lee Carr clutched her phone, willing it to...

Psychopathic tendencies may be present to some extent in all of us. New research is reframing this often sensationalized and maligned set of traits and finding some positive twists. Think of a psychopath and any number of Hollywood villains might come to mind, from charming killers like Hannibal Lecter to Anton Chigurh, portrayed with chilling menace by Javier Bardem in the film No Country for...

When Charles Ponzi’s investment opportunity to sell international postage stamps was exposed to be a scam in 1920, its basic premise would forever be associated with the man’s name. A Ponzi Scheme promises investors massive returns on an investment that does not really exist. Instead, unknown to everyone but the person or people running it, old investors are paid with money that comes in from...

In April 2021, Adele Fox received a single shot of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Within a few hours, the 60-year-old resident of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, started feeling shooting pains in her legs, arms, and neck. The pain didn’t abate over the next few days. Instead, it got worse and was accompanied by nausea and debilitating fatigue. Within a few weeks, neurologists affiliated...

President Joe Biden recently tapped Mandy Cohen to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, replacing Rochelle Walensky, whose resignation will go into effect at the end of the month. Like most people, until this week, I had never heard of Cohen, the former health secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. There is no denying her credentials. She holds...

Millions of Americans in the past few years have run into this experience: filing a health care insurance claim that once might have been paid immediately but instead is just as quickly denied. If the experience and the insurer’s explanation often seem arbitrary and absurd, that might be because companies appear increasingly likely to employ computer algorithms or people with little relevant...