More Perfect Union

Video by Sam Black and Sydney Guthrie Watch on YouTube Insurance companies claim higher prices are justified by higher risks, but we found they are keeping more of our premium dollars than ever. And last year, they made record profits. TRANSCRIPT JASON MINOTT, HOMEOWNER: Looking at the bill. I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I was dumbfounded. And I’m just thinking, why is it so expensive? What can we do?

By Lucy Dean Stockton and Monik Slade, with research assistance from Will Carruthers Since taking office, President Donald Trump aggressively pushed for widespread AI integration to the benefit of not only his campaign and inauguration donors, but his own personal finances. Trump has invested millions of dollars in Big Tech companies, like Microsoft and Meta, that are all-in on the artificial intelligence boom.

Video by Dan Lieberman and Leslie Atkins Watch on YouTube Big Tech claims AI data centers don’t use much water. We found them indirectly consuming 10 times that amount. TRANSCRIPT DAN LIEBERMAN, MORE PERFECT UNION: There’s long been a fight over who gets priority when it comes to water in the American West. The arrival of data centers just made it a lot more complicated. NEWS CLIP: About two-thirds of new data centers under construction are being built in drought-prone areas.

Watch on YouTube There’s a web of private equity billionaires with ties to Israel and shadowy corporate armies who stand to profit off never-ending conflict. We investigated Trump’s Board of Peace. TRANSCRIPT SALWA SHAMEEM, MORE PERFECT UNION: For nearly three years, we watched a livestreamed genocide unfold in Gaza. But on the world’s stage, a very different vision was being shared. CLIP: JARED KUSHNER, EXECUTIVE BOARD OF PEACE MEMBER: Peace is a different deal than a business deal. New Gaza.

Video by Sean Morrow and Anthony Mascorro Watch on YouTube Marc Andreessen blasts regulation — yet government cash built his fortune and antitrust laws saved his company. His fairy tale promises abundance for all, but returns only flow upward.

Video by Josh Miller-Lewis, Mae Ryan, and David McCaw The biggest election in America is next Tuesday in Michigan, and the debate, as usual, is about electability. We put Abdul El-Sayed’s ideas to the test with real voters. Watch on YouTube TRANSCRIPT TOM FILAR, FORD EMPLOYEE: Abolish ICE. I have a hard time with that. ALEXIS MADSEN, SERVICE-DISABLED VETERAN: I know that Medicare for all would be very difficult. Why is now the time?

Video by Nick Valencia and Sydney Guthrie 1 in 5 regret their choice to vote for President Donald Trump — now a Democrat could win them back. We sat down with Bobby Pulido and Latino Trump voters. Some voted for him 3x, but they say prices are too high and ICE is out of control.

An infant drinks from a baby bottle (Vyacheslav Argenberg / Wikimedia Commons) By Lucy Dean Stockton, More Perfect Union The Department of Justice just dismissed a years-long criminal probe investigating potentially life-threatening contamination at an Abbott Laboratories facility, an Illinois-based health care and technology company that donated more than $500,000 to President Donald Trump’s inauguration funds and has extensive financial connections to one of Trump’s top cabinet members.

Video by Dan Lieberman and Ian McKenna We brought AOC to deep red Georgia to talk data centers. What we found: a data center rebellion, with people willing to radically shift their politics. One conservative voter said: “If there’s a chance that anything can be done, I feel like she’s gonna be the one to do it.” TRANSCRIPT: TINA SHEPHERD: When the blasting started, it went on a couple of months. My sister-in-law’s ceiling came crashing down.

Donald Trump named Springfield, Ohio, as his first target for mass deportations. He claimed Haitian immigrants there were eating pets. We went to Springfield to hear the real story from the people who live there. It turns out the city’s decline isn’t new — and that its causes aren’t what you’ve been told.