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Using crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe may jeopardize your federal disaster aid. Here's how to make sure you don’t lose out.

by Brandon Roberts and Vernal Coleman

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What Happened: A trio of lawmakers demanded transparency from the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday, saying the Trump administration continues to “stonewall” requests for details on the agency’s recent cancellation of hundreds of service contracts.

The group, which included Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Angus King, as well as Rep. Mark Takano, said that despite repeated requests, the agency has disclosed incomplete and inaccurate lists that failed to specify exactly which contracts have been canceled. Blumenthal and Takano are Democrats, and King is an independent. They made their comments at a special forum in Washington.

A review by the Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs identified 655 contracts canceled by the VA, where previous lists disclosed by the agency included dozens less and contained significant errors.

The lawmakers cited a recent ProPublica investigation into the agency’s use of a flawed artificial intelligence tool to assess VA contracts. That analysis was conducted by a staffer from the Department of Government Efficiency with no health care or government experience. The VA uses contractors for a range of services, including to support hospitals, research and other services aimed at caring for ailing veterans.

What They Said: Lists of contracts previously disclosed to the committee are “gobbledygook” and filled with errors, the lawmakers said. “This hearing shouldn’t even be necessary,” said King, who sits on the VA oversight committee. “The simplest thing is to send us a list.”

Senators highlighted the harm caused by canceling the contracts, including one that resolved glitches between VA systems preventing veterans from receiving benefits. Without this contract, said Benjamin Ambrose, whose job it was to resolve these errors, there is nobody left at VA to do this work. “In this case veterans are being locked out forever,” he said.

Scott Amey, general counsel with the bipartisan Project on Government Oversight, said: “There’s a lot of fallout. There’s a lot of dominoes that go with canceling just one contract.”

Amey expressed doubt that the necessary work was done to ensure canceled contracts were duplicative or wasteful. “From the stonewalling that we’ve heard from the VA, you can’t have any confidence that that work was done,” he said.

The lawmakers also questioned the VA’s use of AI to assess contracts for possible cancellation, referring to ProPublica’s investigation. Blumenthal said AI holds promise, but it “has to be used thoughtfully.”

Background: ProPublica reported on Friday that the VA used an error-prone AI tool to identify contracts for possible cancellation. The tool, written by former DOGE staffer Sahil Lavingia, used outdated AI models to “munch” contracts based on conflicting instructions and produced glaring mistakes, a ProPublica analysis found.

Experts in AI and government procurement agreed that the DOGE analysis of VA contracts was flawed, with one calling it “deeply problematic.” Lavingia acknowledged that there were problems. “I’m sure mistakes were made. Mistakes are always made. I would never recommend someone run my code and do what it says. It’s like that ‘Office’ episode where Steve Carell drives into the lake because Google Maps says drive into the lake. Do not drive into the lake.”

ProPublica identified at least two dozen contracts on DOGE’s list that have been canceled so far. Among them is a service agreement to maintain a gene sequencing device used to develop better cancer treatments. Another was with Columbia University for blood sample analysis to support a VA research project. Others still were related to addressing nursing issues, including one to develop social media tools to recruit nursing staff and another to help assess and improve the care they provide.

Democrats in Congress have been seeking more information from the VA on the canceled contracts in an attempt to assess whether the cuts have put veterans’ well-being in jeopardy.

Response: VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz has defended DOGE’s work on reviewing contracts, saying that the vetting sets a “commonsense precedent.” He and Lavingia have said that VA staffers reviewed everything on the DOGE “munchable” list before deciding which contracts to cut.

In a statement on Tuesday, Kasperowicz said that the agency’s contract review has been a careful process aimed at benefiting veterans and using taxpayer money efficiently. “Decisions to keep, cut or descope contracts are based on careful and methodical multilevel reviews by VA employees, including career subject-matter experts who are responsible for the contracts, as well as VA senior leaders and contracting officials,” he said.

He disputed any suggestion from legislators that the contract review might diminish essential services. “Terminating or not renewing these contracts will not negatively affect veteran care, benefits or services,” he said. “In fact, these decisions will allow VA to redirect billions of dollars back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries.”

Why It Matters: Over 9 million veterans across the U.S. rely on the VA for health care through its network of 170 hospitals and 1,200 clinics. One of the nation’s largest health care providers, it is a training ground for doctors and nurses and an engine for medical research. Since returning to office in January, the Trump administration has set about a massive overhaul of the agency, seeking an increase in its overall budget while announcing layoffs that could claim the jobs of around 80,000 employees.

The VA is examining all of its estimated 76,000 contracts as part of that overhaul and in accordance with the Trump administration’s push towards tech. ProPublica’s analysis identified over 2,000 contracts flagged by AI for termination. It’s unclear how many more from that list are on track for cancellation. The Trump administration’s decisions on VA contracts have largely been a black box.

Prosecutors filed new charges against Marco Zomphier on Tuesday for the sexual assault of another minor that allegedly took place in 2013.

There’s good news for Heart’s Nancy Wilson.The Atlantic City Police Department announced on Facebook that they have recovered the rocker's custom purple sparkle baritone Telecaster, which had been stolen from the…

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There is still plenty of time to fly your rainbow-striped freak flag.

61,989.

That’s how many social media posts by President Donald Trump over the past decade that journalist Stephanie Sugars has single-handedly reviewed.

At all hours of the day, Trump posts about everything from foreign policy to personnel matters. “It’s a staggering amount of posts,” said Sugars, a senior reporter at the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project of Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). But for the past several years, Sugars has trawled through Trump’s prolific activity on X and TruthSocial in search of something specific: anti-media rhetoric.

Since Trump’s first term as president, Sugars has managed an extensive database that documents each and every anti-media post from Trump. In them, Trump sometimes attacks individual journalists. Other times, he takes aim at specific outlets or the media in general. Some posts include all three. While the content varies, Sugars said, the goal appears to be the same: to discredit the media that holds him accountable.

• Explore the dataset

“He is consolidating narrative power and asserting that he is the ultimate, if not singular, conveyor of what is actually true, which, to no one’s surprise, is what is most favorable to him,” Sugars said.

Monday, June 16, marks 10 years since Trump famously descended a golden escalator at New York City’s Trump Tower in 2015 and launched his first winning bid for the Oval Office. The first anti-media post recorded in the database came one day after “Golden Escalator Day,” on June 17, 2015. In it, Trump lambasts the New York Daily News. “Loses fortune & has zero gravitas,” he said about the paper. “Let it die!”

“He is consolidating narrative power and asserting that he is the ultimate, if not singular, conveyor of what is actually true, which, to no one’s surprise, is what is most favorable to him.”

Over the course of his ensuing campaign, Sugars said Trump primarily targeted individual journalists — high-profile ones like Megyn Kelly, Joe Scarborough, and Anderson Cooper — as well as Fox News for what Trump considered to be inadequate support.

“Once he entered office, it was a pretty stark shift,” Sugars said. Trump continued insulting individual journalists, she said, but he also began to target entire outlets, as well as the media as a whole.

For years, Trump has lambasted the mainstream media, which he accuses of bias, as “the enemy of the people.” Attacks on individual journalists and news outlets feed into those broader attacks on the media writ large, according to Sugars.

“His intention appears to be to erode our understanding of what truth is, to erode trust in the media, and to position himself as the ultimate source of truth for his supporters,” she said.

Out of all of the posts Sugars has reviewed, one from Feb. 17, 2017, sticks out to her. “The FAKE NEWS media,” Trump wrote, taking specific aim at The New York Times, CNN, and NBC, “is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people.”

That post was published at 4:32 a.m., but at some point it was deleted and replaced with a revision at 4:48 p.m. The revised post was nearly identical, except that Trump had added two more news outlets to the list of so-called enemies: ABC and CBS. “It just demonstrated this doubling down,” Sugars said.

Trump’s account on then-Twitter was, at the time, permanently suspended on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol. At that point, the database had documented more than 2,500 anti-media posts from Trump’s campaign and first term.

“His intention appears to be to erode our understanding of what truth is, to erode trust in the media, and to position himself as the ultimate source of truth for his supporters.”

During the Biden administration, Sugars said she would have similarly monitored anti-media posts from President Joe Biden, but he didn’t make such statements. Meanwhile, Trump’s anti-media posts have continued at a similar rate since he returned to the White House in January, according to Sugars. “He picked up just where he left off,” Sugars said.

But one primary difference between Trump’s first and second term, Sugars added, is that this time around, Trump is increasingly framing “the media” as an opposition party of sorts or as partners of the Democratic Party. Sugars said she has also noticed an uptick in posts that demonize leakers and pledge that the administration will crack down on whistleblowers.

In the Tracker: Trump and the media

• “On social media, Trump targets the press on average once a day — for 10 years and counting”
• “All the president’s invective”
• “Trump, allies pursue multipronged campaign against the press”
• Explore the social media posts

Trump’s hostile rhetoric against the media is the backdrop for more concrete attacks on media freedom, according to Sugars, including lawsuits, investigations by the Federal Communications Commission, the co-optation of the White House press pool, and the revocation of Biden-era policies that protected journalists in leak investigations.

Given those more concrete attacks on media freedom and just how frequently Trump posts on social media, Sugars said it can be easy to dismiss the anti-press posts. But doing so would be a mistake, said Sugars, who thinks it’s important to take what Trump writes seriously because his supporters take it seriously.

“What these posts end up doing is shifting the entire window of how we are understanding the world,” she said.

Watch the full interview:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today hosted members of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce in his Washington office to discuss economic development and infrastructure investment in Central Illinois. During the meeting, Durbin and the local leaders spoke about the Springfield Rail Improvements Project , which Durbin has helped secure more than $247 million in federal funding to complete. Durbin also responded to the organization’s concerns that the Trump Administration will continue to delay or slash federal grants that have helped support the state’s education programs, airport renovations, and infrastructure upgrades for waterlines, emergency services, and the electric grid. “Rightfully, local leaders with the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce are concerned about the future of federal funding for local projects and priorities in Central Illinois,” said Durbin. “While the Trump Administration is a force

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC)—criticized Donald Trump’s deployment of 700 Marines into Los Angeles while questioning Commandant of the Marine Corps General Eric M. Smith during today’s hearing. Duckworth’s remarks can be found on the Senator’s YouTube . “I don’t condone violence or property destruction, but using active-duty Marines this way sets a dangerous precedent that risks damaging public trust in our military and politicizing a military force that must remain mission-focused,” said Duckworth. “President Trump is asking Marines to be away from their families for a situation that the President himself said yesterday was ‘simmering, but not very much.’ Sending troops to turn on their own communities puts our troops at risk, and it degrades our rights and the democracy every member of our military swor

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A St. Louis man tracked obituaries of multiple St. Louis County residents who recently died, then broke into their homes to steal jewelry, weapons and other high-priced items, police say.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke by phone with leadership of BJC Health System, which has hospitals in both Illinois and Missouri, as well as UnityPoint Health, which has hospitals in both Illinois and Iowa, to discuss the impact that President Trump’s and congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act will have on Medicaid, their hospitals, and the patients they serve. In short, the Republican bill will slash Medicaid coverage in order to pay for significant tax breaks for billionaires. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts $800 billion from Medicaid and $300 billion from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), resulting in 16 million Americans losing health insurance coverage. Under the Republican bill, 498,674 people in Illinois, 106,781 people in Iowa, and 250,397 people in Missouri are projected to lose their health insurance coverage . “President Trump and congressional Republicans are coming for your health

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Ask the experts from the Missouri Department of Transportation, St. Louis and St. Charles counties and St. Louis City your questions about highways and roads. The live chat starts at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.