Trump Tower in Moscow Was Pursued While Trump Was Candidate
Washingtokn Post
While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow. The deal fell through, but its details provide evidence that Trump's business was actively pursuing significant commercial interests in Russia at the same time he was campaigning to be president — and in a position to determine U.S.-Russia relations. Spy vs. Spy as CIA Keeps Watchful Eye on Its Director
Washington Post
As CIA director, Mike Pompeo has trained a critical eye on an agency unit involved in investigating Trump-Russia collusion. Officials at the unit have, in turn, kept a watchful eye on Pompeo. Current and former officials could not recall a time in the agency's history when a director faced a comparable conflict. Podesta Group Discloses Work for Pro-Russian Think Tank
Washington Examiner
The Podesta Group belatedly filed new disclosures about its work for a pro-Russia Ukrainian think tank. The Democratic-connected group had dozens of previously unreported interactions with Hillary Clinton's State Department, the office of former Vice President Joe Biden and other offices. Ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort also failed to disclose his extensive lobbying for the think tank. Hell and High Water: How Houston Was Unprepared
Texas Tribune
In 2016, the Texas Tribune partnered with ProPublica on a multimedia project looking at the dangers for the Houston region amid worries that it was a sitting duck when the next big hurricane came. That series is looking prescient now. Revisit it here. Breakthrough in IRS Lawsuit
Washington Examiner
A U.S. District Court judge has ordered the IRS to release by October the names of employees involved in targeting conservative and Tea Party groups. The order was a turning point for True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht in her legal battle with the IRS, which began in 2013. Chats Show Charlottesville Marchers Planning Violence
Fortune
Well before a white nationalist demonstration turned deadly in Charlottesville this month, attendees were planning for violence, according to leaked online chats. In private channels, they discussed weaponry and tactics, including repeatedly floating the idea of driving vehicles through opposition crowds. After a vehicle attack killed counterprotester Heather Heyer, users of the channel celebrated the event. Only 5 in Congress Oppose Warrantless Search Measure
Free Thought Project
A bill that will allow homes to be searched without a warrant was passed with overwhelming support by Congress and signed into law by President Trump—and it happened with scant media coverage. The text gives the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission the authority to enter property near the Metro system "without limitation" and without a warrant, for the purpose of "making inspections, investigations, examinations, and testing." The law is a slippery slope, says the Free Thought Project. Waiting Over 16 Years to Prove His Innocence
Buzzfeed News
Roosevelt Myles won the right to a new hearing after he claimed he was framed by corrupt Chicago cops. But more than a decade and a half later, he is still waiting for that day in court, and still doing time for a murder he says he had nothing to do with. The case illustrates just how broken the justice system is in Chicago. Investigators Warned Navy Before Collisions
Wall Street Journal
Congressional investigators and military officials warned repeatedly about overworked sailors, shortened training schedules and budget cuts in the years leading up to two fatal collisions involving U.S. Navy ships. Three reports in the past two years by the Government Accountability Office spell out endemic problems. Schools Shielded Portland Teacher From Sex Misconduct Claims
Oregonian
Mitch Whitehurst was forced to surrender his teaching license in 2016, but what took so long? Complaints about sexual misconduct against him stretched back to the 1980's. The Oregonian interviewed Whitehurst's victims to expose how the schools protected him -- and not children. Sex, Drugs and the Return of Syphilis
New York Times
Syphilis, the deadly sexually transmitted infection that can lead to blindness, paralysis and dementia, is returning to the United States, another consequence of the heroin and methamphetamine epidemics, as users trade sex for drugs. To locate possible patients and draw their blood for testing, Oklahoma's syphilis detectives have been knocking on doors of dilapidated apartments and dingy motels and interviewing prison inmates. | 
