Katya Schwenk is a journalist based in Phoenix, Arizona.
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.
A deciding vote to repeal Arizona’s draconian abortion ban could fall to a lawmaker who is heavily influenced by a deep-pocketed anti-choice group — one instance of many conflicts of interest in state supreme courts.
Last year, New York State legislators passed the Climate Change Superfund Act, which would require major emitters to help the state pay for the impacts of climate change. Governor Kathy Hochul has so far kept the legislation from the final state budget.
In 2017, before he was a lawmaker, John Duarte was fined $1.1 million by federal regulators for disturbing wetlands on land owned by his business. Now, as a US representative, he is pushing legislation that would roll back the law he broke.
The Supreme Court will soon decide on a case that could invalidate a host of state laws that protect consumers from abusive banking practices — which were originally put in place to prevent the kind of predatory lending that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
Big Oil and shipping interests have lobbied for years to keep a law on the books that caps their liability following deadly disasters. The company linked to the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse aims to use it to avoid paying damages and compensation.
Corporate donors are funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into police foundations without public oversight, allowing for the police to buy specialized surveillance technology and high-tech weapons that they might otherwise struggle to justify.
The company responsible for the Baltimore bridge collapse blocked its employees from reporting safety concerns to the US Coast Guard. It is now being sanctioned by federal regulators for violating a whistleblower protection law.
The US Supreme Court will soon hear a case that could make it legal for corporations to enrich politicians in exchange for lucrative favors — establishing a far-reaching precedent that further limits the scope of anti-corruption law.
Federal regulators have introduced a ban on one of banks’ most blatant profit grabs: nonsufficient funds fees. Even though most don’t charge those fees now, financial institutions are fighting the rule to preserve their future right to.
A new rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is banning excessive credit card late fees. In retaliation, the greedy banking industry is threatening to punish debtors by increasing already exorbitant interest rates.
Saddled with legal burdens, Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, is relocating to Texas to seek refuge in the state’s new business court system — which is controlled by his longtime ally, Republican governor Greg Abbott.