Brandon Roberts
@bxroberts
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Investigative journalist. News Apps Developer @ProPublica Occasional AI/ML researcher. Using data+code to hold power to account. Signal: brandonrobertz.01
WA, USA
Joined December 2013
Why does it matter? 1) The US is dependent on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fruit. 2) Foreign products have been increasingly linked to outbreaks of foodborne illness. https://t.co/6pTEDjitiL
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The Trump administration said food safety inspectors would be spared amid staffing cuts, but it began to cut critical investigative support staff in March — a move that would eventually incapacitate foreign inspections.
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LATEST: American inspections of foreign food facilities — which produce everything from crawfish to cookies for the U.S. market — have plummeted to historic lows this year, a ProPublica analysis of federal data shows. 🧵/
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We ❤️ @IRE_NICAR! @ProPublica employees flyered at the IRE gala to rally support for our fight for a fair contract. The future of investigative journalism depends on protecting the workers who make it possible. You can help by signing our petition: https://t.co/tN24poWOVA
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We can’t produce fearless investigative journalism without job security and a fair contract. After almost two years of bargaining, we need your help. Show your support for @ProPublica’s workers by adding your name to our petition:
actionnetwork.org
We, the workers of ProPublica, provide our readers with deeply researched, unbiased news that holds power to account. This work is more important now than ever, but our staff can’t properly contrib...
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Grok just following instructions here -- be skeptical of mainstream news sources. This is the result 😅
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In case you needed more evidence you can't just blindly copy and run code written by AI: I just asked a llama3.2 model how to sort by create date and it gave me a command which would have deleted every file from the directory (after sorting) 😅
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New piece from @gijn detailing how we covered DOGE using AI at the Dept of Veterans Affairs to try and cut contracts. Includes some tips for reporters working to investigate other uses of AI. By @windelspechtd
https://t.co/Z3XQmcLBUl
gijn.org
The team used leaked documents and an interview with the AI tool's developer to reveal numerous mistakes behind the Trump administration's cost-cutting measures of veterans' care.
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@hannaduggal @ReutersGraphics @vijdankawoosa @AfUncensored @pulitzercenter DOGE cuts and “brain drain”: A @propublica investigation reveals the Trump admin’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed ~20,000 health agency jobs — nearly 18% of staff, including FDA experts — leaving the system dangerously exposed. https://t.co/dEtxng4UWR
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There's an opening on the News Apps team at ProPublica! If you're a journalist who knows how to code and build things, apply below 👇👇 https://t.co/bqn2VYs6LJ
job-boards.greenhouse.io
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. With a team of more than 100 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of...
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New: When the Trump administration refused to reveal how many workers had left federal health agencies, ProPublica turned to a federal employee directory to quantify the impact. Here’s how we did it.
propublica.org
When the Trump administration refused to reveal how many workers had left federal health agencies, ProPublica turned to a federal employee directory to quantify the impact. Here’s how we did it.
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Our latest -- The gutting of the Department of Health & Human Services. We provide a first look at the raw numbers of who has departed, where they worked and what it means for the country. https://t.co/sHHSU8IxHG
projects.propublica.org
More than 20,500 workers have left or been pushed out of federal health agencies, a ProPublica analysis found. Staffers say the cuts will leave their agencies less equipped to conduct studies,...
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Editor catches someone submitting an AI-written article to them and finds they published highly sus stories in a bunch of other publications, including Wired and Business Insider. Postmortem:
pressgazette.co.uk
Wired and Business Insider have removed freelance articles over concerns they were written by AI under a fake name.
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An investigation by @propublica and @TexasTribune found 60+ instances of nepotism, self-dealing and conflicts of interest among 27 Texas private schools. Such practices likely would have violated state laws had the schools been public. https://t.co/8RXyCetRia
propublica.org
An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found more than 60 instances of nepotism, self-dealing and conflicts of interest among 27 private schools that likely would have violated state...
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A show you don’t want to miss at 4p ET / 1p PT. I’ll be having a one of a kind interview with Joaquin Oliver. He died in the Parkland school shooting in 2018. But his parents have created an AI version of their son to deliver a powerful message on gun violence. Plus Texas State
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New: On March 15, President Donald Trump's administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they'd been taken away. These are their stories.
projects.propublica.org
On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they’d been...
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DOGE's VA Ai Disaster; L.A. Vs ICE w/ Brandon Roberts, Memo Torres | @bxroberts • @el_tragon_de_LA • @LATACO | Majority Report https://t.co/74SXk4Z5Bg
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NEW story: @KristiNoem secretly took a cut of political donations and then failed to disclose it
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