{ "chains": [ { "slug": "mcconnell", "name": "McConnell Watch", "status": "active", "blurb": "An 84-year-old senator was hospitalized, his office would not say why, and each week the vacuum was filled by someone other than the office. The chain is the finding: a health-disclosure vacuum, logged in order.", "reopen_note": "Three developments would move it, and the desk is watching for those and nothing else: the senator's actual return to the floor, a worsening on the record, or the one that has never yet arrived, a diagnosis stated by the office in a sentence.", "page": "/mcconnell-watch/", "members": [ "mcconnell-health-disclosure", "mcconnell-hospitalized-cardiac-arrest-audio", "mcconnell-spoke-by-phone-amid-rumors", "mcconnell-proof-of-life-photo", "ron-johnson-recants-mcconnell-photo", "mcconnell-second-proof-of-life-photo", "mcconnell-beshear-agency-death-calls" ], "member_deltas": { "mcconnell-health-disclosure": "The office confirms the hospitalization and names no reason; the vacuum opens on one relayed sentence, 'receiving excellent care.'", "mcconnell-hospitalized-cardiac-arrest-audio": "First filler: a leaked EMS dispatch citing cardiac arrest at his address, which never says his name.", "mcconnell-spoke-by-phone-amid-rumors": "New filler arrives secondhand: senators report phone calls; the only verifiable line is a colleague saying he knows nothing.", "mcconnell-proof-of-life-photo": "The first image: a hospital photo holding Sunday's Post, promptly doubted as 'an older photo.'", "ron-johnson-recants-mcconnell-photo": "The doubt is withdrawn: Johnson says 'Just discount all that' after his source moved three times in a day.", "mcconnell-second-proof-of-life-photo": "A second photo, but with no dated newspaper, an unnamed visitor, and a single anonymous account behind it.", "mcconnell-beshear-agency-death-calls": "Kentucky's governor says two agencies told him the senator had died before the office's statement." } }, { "slug": "cyclospora", "name": "The Cyclospora Traceback", "status": "dormant", "blurb": "A summer cyclospora outbreak the outlets counted differently, then a supplier the press named while the agencies would not. The headline-versus-finding seam moved one rung up the supply chain, from outbreak to source.", "reopen_note": "The FDA or CDC officially confirming, or walking back, the named supplier; a formal recall actually filed and its scope stated; or the traced sub-outbreak count reconciling with the national figure.", "page": "/story/cyclospora/", "members": [ "cyclosporiasis-outbreak", "cyclospora-source-taylor-farms" ], "member_deltas": { "cyclosporiasis-outbreak": "The story opens: a record outbreak across 34 states, Taco Bell named in headlines officials call unconfirmed.", "cyclospora-source-taylor-farms": "A supplier is named \u2014 Taylor Farms lettuce \u2014 though the FDA that traced it did not name the company." } }, { "slug": "iran-hormuz", "name": "Hormuz Toll Watch", "status": "dormant", "blurb": "A twenty-percent Strait of Hormuz transit fee declared, then withdrawn inside a day 'citing requests from allies' after the IMO said there was no legal basis. An escalation the desk tracked as it whipsawed.", "reopen_note": "The fee's reinstatement, a move from nightly strikes toward open war, or Iran acting on its total-energy threat in the strait would each move the chain and land here.", "page": "/story/iran-hormuz/", "members": [ "us-iran-hormuz-blockade-toll", "us-iran-hormuz-toll-dropped" ], "member_deltas": { "us-iran-hormuz-blockade-toll": "The fee is declared: a 20% Hormuz charge announced by post, four outlets naming the money four ways.", "us-iran-hormuz-toll-dropped": "The fee is dropped inside a day after the IMO cites no legal basis; strikes harden to a fourth night." } }, { "slug": "election-documents", "name": "The Election-Documents File", "status": "dormant", "blurb": "Files released to indict China, read closely, name Russia as the power that favored the President. A special report and the follow-up that ran once readers surfaced the buried line.", "reopen_note": "An official response or ruling on the released documents, a further tranche declassified, or an on-record account that squarely conflicts with the files as published.", "page": "/story/election-documents/", "members": [ "trump-election-documents-special-report", "released-documents-russia-boosted-trump" ], "member_deltas": { "trump-election-documents-special-report": "The files are released to indict China; read closely, the FBI in them calls the interference claim 'without evidence.'", "released-documents-russia-boosted-trump": "Readers surface the buried line: the same assessment says Kremlin-linked actors sought to boost Trump's candidacy." } }, { "slug": "ice-vehicle-stop-shootings", "name": "The ICE Vehicle-Stop Shootings", "status": "active", "blurb": "Two fatal ICE shootings in a week, neither man the target of the operation, no body cameras running either time. The chain moved from the shootings themselves to the body-camera promise to the shooter's own vetting file.", "reopen_note": "An official finding on either shooting (DHS-OIG, FBI, the Maine AG), the body-camera rollout actually completing or quietly lapsing, or ICE confirming or disputing Brouillette's identity or record on the record would each move the chain and land here.", "page": "/story/ice-vehicle-stop-shootings/", "members": [ "ice-houston-shooting-salgado-araujo", "ice-maine-shooting-body-cameras", "ice-maine-officer-brouillette-vetting" ] }, { "slug": "save-act-reconciliation", "name": "SAVE Act Watch", "status": "active", "blurb": "A voter-ID bill that can't clear the Senate on its own keeps finding new vehicles to ride: a floor blockade, a senator's principled no, a congressman calling the whole fight fake, and now a budget-reconciliation bill headed to a floor vote whose own backers can't agree on the vote math.", "reopen_note": "A floor vote (pass or fail), a Senate parliamentarian ruling on the SAVE Act provisions inside the reconciliation bill, or a resolved account of which vote-margin number was correct would each move the chain and land here.", "page": "/story/save-act-reconciliation/", "members": [ "house-gop-save-act-reconciliation", "murkowski-save-act-no", "massie-save-act-fake-fight", "save-act-reconciliation-floor-vote", "save-act-full-text-revival" ], "member_deltas": { "house-gop-save-act-reconciliation": "Republicans end a floor blockade and launch \"Reconciliation 3.0\" \u2014 a voter-ID bill that is a win at one outlet and a move to tighten voting rules at another, in identical text.", "murkowski-save-act-no": "Sen. Lisa Murkowski votes no while saying she agrees with the bill's core tenets \u2014 the same \"no\" filed as principle, betrayal, and proof the bill is dead and about to be rescued at once.", "massie-save-act-fake-fight": "Rep. Thomas Massie calls the fight \"fake\" with \"no plan to pass it,\" the same week Senate conservatives float attaching it to a funding bill.", "save-act-reconciliation-floor-vote": "The bill Massie called fake clears committee, gets a presidential endorsement, and heads to a floor vote \u2014 and two outlets print different numbers for how many votes it can survive losing.", "save-act-full-text-revival": "Leadership sources tell one outlet they're \"actively\" reviving the full mandatory Act to beat the Byrd Rule \u2014 a week after leadership itself told another outlet that \"won't be possible,\" and the same story that reports the revival also reports the standing refusal that blocks it." } } ] }