from ProPublica
We have analyzed federal procurement data as the government doles out $13 billion to fight the coronavirus. We found that $1.8 billion went to companies that had zero experience with federal contracts. Some had even become companies just days before winning millions in federal money.
Usually, the government asks multiple companies to bid against one another for these contracts, and it thoroughly vets companies before giving them contracts. That’s barely happening now. Millions have gone to former government officials who didn’t have to compete or to companies run by people with histories of fraud.
We put all these contracts into an easily searchable database so you can see for yourself how the government is spending money. Find anything interesting? Let me know!
Who Needs More Help From the Government?
It is flood season. Hurricane season is coming. Fire season is around the corner. As ProPublica reporter Abrahm Lustgarten wrote earlier, climate change does not stop for a pandemic.
But the federal coronavirus relief money is only open to towns with more than 500,000 people, leaving small towns to budget doom even though for so many Americans they are the first and primary line of support when storms hit.
Money, Money, Money, Must Be Funny, in a Rich Man’s World
ProPublica reporter Ken Ward Jr. and contributor Alex Mierjeski compiled an immense list of former vendors, employees, lawyers and others who had sued West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice over unpaid bills and won settlements. Total, the judgments and settlements are worth more than $128 million. The governor — West Virginia’s richest son — argues his extensive business experience helps make him qualified to be the state’s leader.
The day after our story ran, a judge ordered one of Justice’s companies, Bluestone Resources Inc., to pay an additional $2.8 million to a financing company after Bluestone stopped making payments on a lease for a bulldozer used in coal mining.
Bonus Money Mystery: ProPublica reporter Heather Vogell found that Trump Tower’s reported profits magically grew at the same time it was being refinanced. Curious!
This week, the U.S. lost its 100,000th life to the coronavirus. (It is likely that the official number is an undercount.) ProPublica’s health reporter Caroline Chen shared her thoughts about the horrible milestone here.
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Bill Barr Promised to Release Prisoners Threatened by Coronavirus — Even as the Feds Secretly Made It Harder for Them to Get Out
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