Katya Schwenk is a reporter with the Lever based in Phoenix, Arizona.
A cadre of lawyers tied to conservative activist Leonard Leo is spearheading a series of legal attacks on voting rights in critical swing states. The operation aims to suppress voters, with the potential to tip the scales during the election this fall.
J. D. Vance has cosponsored 24 GOP attempts to gut Biden administration consumer protections, from air quality standards to cracking down on junk fees. His voting record offers a glimpse of what’s to come under a potential second Trump administration.
The airline industry’s top lobbying group, Airlines for America, is pushing back against the Biden administration’s rule requiring that consumers get automatically refunded for flights that are delayed or canceled.
A major Democratic donor and Microsoft board member is pressuring Kamala Harris to dismiss the government’s top antitrust regulator, who has launched an aggressive crackdown on corporate power since taking office.
On Friday, an update to a cybersecurity program took down Microsoft systems across the globe. Microsoft has resisted efforts to regulate a root cause of this chaos: the concentration of digital infrastructure in the hands of a few tech giants.
The Tax Foundation’s TaxEDU curriculum teaches students that corporate tax cuts help workers. With backing from the Koch network and big oil, the right-wing nonprofit is implanting this agenda in public schools.
Finance giants like Fidelity and Schwab are pushing “donor-advised funds” that enable the ultrawealthy to funnel cash to far-right extremist groups anonymously under the guise of charitable giving. Project 2025 has benefited enormously.
Despite the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, guns are allowed just outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. That’s thanks to the gun lobby, which fought for a state law that prohibits cities from restricting guns on public property.
The Supreme Court just gutted a key federal bribery statute this week, handing down a ruling that allows powerful interests to give gifts to politicians as rewards for favors.
Private prisons across the US are lobbying lawmakers for stricter sentencing laws. Benefiting from increased occupancy rates, these corporations are filling their pockets and enriching their shareholders.
Boeing is facing scrutiny from the Justice Department that could lead to criminal charges. But a department official involved in the case formerly consulted on behalf of the company — just one among many such officials with close corporate connections.
Since the 2023 East Palestine derailment disaster, the railroad industry has continued to lobby against federal safety regulations, even as new data suggests that recent increases in train length have made derailments more likely.
On the rise in the banking sector, “banking-as-a-service” companies operate outside purview of banking regulators. With lax oversight and heavy industry lobbying, these firms are misleading consumers about the safety of their savings.
A historic congestion pricing plan for New York City was slated to go into effect this month. NY governor Kathy Hochul suddenly blocked it this week — and has taken tens of thousand of dollars in campaign funding from auto groups opposed to the plan.
In 2017, Georgia-Pacific invented a legal scheme to skirt liability for serious consumer harms. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court allowed the move to stay in place, giving the company more time to avoid paying up for its asbestos poisoning.
At the end of the Trump administration, Boeing cut a sweetheart deal to avoid prosecution for deceiving regulators about a faulty flight system that caused crashes. New allegations of greed and negligence may finally bring the company to justice.
Policymakers in states across the country are finally pushing back on Wall Street firms buying up swathes of single-family homes to rent out at high prices. But they’re facing the might of a powerful new single-family rental lobby.
Airlines have made considerable money holding on to consumer refunds for canceled or delayed flights. New language including a refund guarantee in a must-pass Federal Aviation Administration funding bill could change that.
Taking cues from airline industry lobbyists, US lawmakers are keeping an aviation bill free from clauses that would require free water for flight passengers and set minimum dimensions for seats. Why do our representatives want airline travel to be torture?
Days after the Biden administration announced a rule mandating flight cancelation automatic refunds, four lawmakers overseeing aviation policy in Congress began pushing legislation to reverse it. All of them take substantial airline industry donations.