Heather Vogell
ProPublica
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Heather:
Pressure Grows on Real Estate Tech Company Accused of Colluding With Landlords to Jack Up Apartment Rents
RealPage has come under increasing fire from lawmakers and lawyers after ProPublica reported on its software’s potentially anti-competitive effects. Student housing is implicated. → Read More
Rent Going Up? One Company’s Algorithm Could Be Why.
Texas-based RealPage’s YieldStar software helps landlords set prices for apartments across the U.S. With rents soaring, critics are concerned that the company’s proprietary algorithm is hurting competition. → Read More
When Private Equity Becomes Your Landlord
Amid a national housing crisis, giant private equity firms have been buying up apartment buildings en masse to squeeze them for profit, with the help of government-backed Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, tenants say they’re the ones paying the price. → Read More
Two School Districts Had Different Mask Policies. Only One Had a Teacher on a Ventilator. —
Eleven states let school districts decide whether students and staff must wear masks. One Georgia middle school where masks were optional became the center of an outbreak. → Read More
Whistleblower: Wall Street Has Engaged in Widespread Manipulation of Mortgage Funds —
Securities that contain loans for properties like hotels and office buildings have inflated profits, the whistleblower claims. As the pandemic hammers the economy, that could increase the chances of another mortgage collapse. → Read More
Trump’s Company Paid Bribes to Reduce Property Taxes, Assessors Say —
Five former city employees and a former Trump Organization employee say the company used middlemen to pay New York City tax assessors to lower building assessments and pay less taxes in the 1980s and 1990s. → Read More
Never-Before-Seen Trump Tax Documents Show Major Inconsistencies
Stay up to date with email updates about WNYC and ProPublica’s investigations into the president’s business practices. Documents obtained by ProPublica show stark differences in how Donald Trump’s businesses reported some expenses, profits and occupancy figures for two Manhattan buildings, giving a lender different figures than they provided to New York City tax authorities. The discrepancies… → Read More
“Trump, Inc.” and Former FBI Deputy Chief Andrew McCabe Compare Notes —
McCabe talks about going after Russian organized crime in Brighton Beach as a young agent — and how some of those characters showed up in the Mueller report. → Read More
Mueller Went Looking for a Conspiracy, What He Found Was Conflict and a Cover-Up — “Trump, Inc.” Podcast —
Trump’s business deal was bigger, lasted longer and fueled more secrecy than we knew before. → Read More
Why Aren’t Hedge Funds Required to Fight Money Laundering?
A long-standing effort to make big investment funds abide by the same rules that banks and brokerages follow has bogged down. The fund industry says it supports the rules — it just has a few quibbles. → Read More
Here Are the Trump Projects Where Ivanka and Her Dad Misled Buyers —
Read the Trumps’ false statements — and what the actual facts were. → Read More
Pump and Trump
Donald Trump claims he only licensed his name for real estate projects developed by others. But an investigation of a dozen Trump deals shows deep family involvement in projects that often involved deceptive practices. → Read More
For-Profit Schools Reward Students for Referrals and Facebook Endorsements —
Schools for potential dropouts market aggressively to boost enrollment — especially during weeks when heads are counted to determine funding. Some of their tactics may violate federal consumer protections. → Read More
For-Profit Schools Get State Dollars For Dropouts Who Rarely Drop In —
Schools touted by Betsy DeVos aggressively recruit at-risk students, offer barebones courses, and boost revenue by inflating enrollment. → Read More
Bellwether Behavioral Health Is Controversial Group Home Operator AdvoServ — With a New Name
After two deaths of teenage residents in less than four years, AdvoServ has quietly taken a new name that makes it harder to follow the trail of media coverage, including ours. → Read More
Florida to Examine Whether Alternative Charter Schools Underreport Dropouts
State officials are following up on a ProPublica report last month that Orlando uses alternative charter schools to boost ratings and hide dropouts. → Read More
‘Alternative’ Education: Using Charter Schools to Hide Dropouts and Game the System
School officials nationwide dodge accountability ratings by steering low achievers to alternative programs. In Orlando, Florida, the nation’s tenth-largest district, thousands of students who leave alternative charters run by a for-profit company aren’t counted as dropouts. → Read More
Help ProPublica and USA Today Investigate Alternative Schools
If you are familiar with alternative schools for students with academic or behavioral issues, we need your help. → Read More
What Happened to Adam
It took one mother seven years to learn that the for-profit school she trusted with her son had strapped him down again and again, one time after not picking up his Legos. → Read More
What Happened to Adam
It took one mother seven years to learn that the for-profit school she trusted with her son had strapped him down again and again, one time after not picking up his Legos. → Read More