Spending Watch: Week of May 12, 2026 — $2.3 Billion Submarine Award Tops a Week of Undefinitized Defense Obligations
TIJ's weekly federal spending review: a $2.3B Virginia-class submarine modification, $833M for ESSM Block II missiles, $407M for Aegis Guam, and GAO's $186B improper-payments tally.
State Watch: May — North Carolina A&T Aid Scandal Triggers Criminal Referral as Chicago Hit With Second Downgrade
TIJ's monthly State Watch surveys May 2026 accountability findings — including a $5M North Carolina aid referral, Chicago's two-notch GO downgrade, $4.6M in California cellphone waste, Maryland's deepening fiscal gap,…
Corporate Disclosure Watch: Week of May 12, 2026 — SailPoint Breach, Six Flags Shakeup, and a $280M CEO Pay Year
TIJ's weekly review of SEC filings: SailPoint's GitHub breach disclosure, Six Flags' triple C-suite exit, the Equilar 100 showing two CEOs above $200M, tariff risk factors, Form 4 insider sales,…
Cherfilus-McCormick: How a $50,578 Invoice Became a $5 Million Bank Deposit, a House Seat, and a 15-Count Federal Indictment
A decimal-point error in a 2021 FEMA-reimbursed COVID invoice became a million deposit, then a 2022 House seat. Records suggest the cascade now spans a 15-count federal indictment, 25 House…
Week in Review: The Accountability Capacity Gap
Five federal documents this week describe a single problem: a record-level enforcement output drawn from a shrinking oversight workforce. An Investigative Journal analysis of patterns across this week's TIJ coverage.
EPA Watch: Week of May 12 — DOJ Sues DC Water Over 200-Million-Gallon Potomac Sewage Discharge
Federal enforcement this week was led by a Justice Department Clean Water Act complaint against DC Water over the January Potomac Interceptor collapse that released more than 200 million gallons…
Think Tank Roundup: Week of May 11, 2026 — Brookings Releases First Comprehensive Assessment of One Big Beautiful Bill
Our weekly survey of new research from policy institutes across the ideological spectrum, with attention to who funds the work, what the methodology shows, and how findings intersect with TIJ…
Investigative Monitor: Week of May 12 — AP Wins Pulitzer for China Surveillance Expose
Weekly roundup of major investigations from ProPublica, OCCRP, AP, The Intercept, Reuters, Washington Post and others — with TIJ follow-up angles for each.
Regulatory Roundup: Week of May 4 — OCC Doubles Down on State Preemption
OCC interchange-fee preemption, SEC semiannual reporting proposal, CFPB Section 1071 final rule, HHS Section 504 deadline extension, EPA TCE postponement and more — the week of May 4–11, 2026 in…
Fact-Check: Consumer Confidence, Oil Production, Workforce, Big Beautiful Bill
TIJ's weekly fact-check examines five high-profile public claims — Trump on consumer confidence and oil, Kaptur on the $1B ballroom, Sanders on healthcare losses, and the White House on federal…