Our reporters are opening up their investigation into the Red Cross, its disaster relief efforts and where it failed. Join the discussion.

Theo Meyer discusses an accidentally released document that showed how a mining company’s secret donations helped pass a bill in Wisconsin.

Some of the best #MuckReads we read this week. Want to receive these by email? Sign up to get this briefing delivered to your inbox every weekend.

In Niagara County, N.Y., leaders took on 40-year debt to pay for short-term stuff, a case study in the perverse incentives tobacco bonds create.

New York counties were promised annual payments from tobacco companies as part of a national settlement to reimburse them for smoking-related health care costs. Some made deals to get up front cash instead of long term payments. Here's what they gave up.

A refinance of Niagara County’s tobacco bonds was good news — but for investors, not taxpayers.

Users can see how interest rates and declining cigarette sales affect the bottom line for counties that borrowed against income from the landmark tobacco settlement.

From dark money to a mysterious super PAC donor, here are a few of the best investigations of money in politics since the last elections.

Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson on blurring borders in an Internet age and the tension between national security and personal privacy.

Some of the best #MuckReads we read this week. Want to receive these by email? Sign up to get this briefing delivered to your inbox every weekend.

More than two years ago, a ProPublica series showed that white applicants were far more likely to receive clemency than comparable applicants who were black. Since then, the government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a study, but the pardons system remains unchanged.

Documents describe "contractual relationships" between NSA and U.S. companies, as well as undercover operatives at some U.S. companies.