The $183 Million Shell Game Medicaid was supposed to be a massively lifesaving promise our government makes to low-income Americans: when you get sick, you won’t be left behind. It pays for doctor visits and life-saving prescriptions. We, the taxpayers,…
Imagine being a key witness in a major fraud case. You testified under oath years ago, telling federal regulators that your former boss, a man named Frank Harmon Black, had openly lied to them. You watched as he was barred…
Imagine this. You need a car. Not a fancy one because you’re a broke ass like me, just something reliable to get you to work, to shuttle the kids, to live your life. You find a used car dealership in…
The Poison We Pay For It starts with a cough. Or maybe a stomachache. For a child, the world is a landscape to be touched and tasted. A windowsill, a floorboard, a tiny hand tracing the peeling paint on a…
Imagine sitting down with a financial advisor at a big, trusted bank. You’re planning for retirement. The advisor looks at your variable annuity—a complex but common retirement product—and suggests an “upgrade.” A new one, they say, with better features. It…
A River of Excuses West Virginia has some rivers. The ones relevant to this story are the Elk, the Kanawha, the Pocatalico. Picture the water slipping over ancient stones, the glint of sunlight on the surface. These are the places…
The Digital Door They Left Unlocked For over three months, a criminal had the keys to the kingdom. From November 2021 to February 2022, an unauthorized user was inside the email account of an employee at Rialto Markets, a New…
So you log into your account, your stomach fluttering with anticipation. You put in a fuck load of money. A life-changing amount. The numbers on the screen glow back at you, a confirmation of your genius decision. Your initial investment…
Every device you own that touches the internet has a unique fingerprint. A string of numbers called an Internet Protocol, or IP, address. It’s your digital home address. In the early days of the internet, these addresses were plentiful. But…
So you’re trying to get a handle on your stress. You strap on the sleek, screen-free WHOOP band, a device that promises to unlock the secrets of your own body. You pay hundreds of dollars a year for a subscription…