The Lever - When News Broke In 2025, We Were There

When the biggest news broke in 2024, we were there. While corporate media repeated the same talking points, we went a step further: We followed the money and asked the hard questions everyone else ignored. 

As a result, when crises emerged, we exposed the corporate interests and corrupt politicians responsible for putting people in danger.

From chemical disasters to plane pieces falling out of the sky, here are a few examples of how we broke the real stories behind the day’s news:

• Within days of a Boeing plane suffering a midflight fuselage breach on Jan. 5, we exposed how the aircraft’s manufacturer was facing a lawsuit from former employees alleging the company was ignoring quality-control concerns and telling workers to falsify records. Our reporting on the issue, which went on to detail dark money lobbying, shareholder enrichment, and numerous other safety concerns, led one of the country’s foremost investigative journalists to declare our work was “worthy of the top honor in American journalism.”
• When a giant cargo ship hit Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, destroying the bridge and killing six people, we quickly reported that federal regulators had recently sanctioned the ship’s operator for blocking employees from reporting safety concerns to the Coast Guard. We also found that Maryland’s governor had been pressing the port to welcome mega-ships, despite warnings from an insurance giant and transportation experts. 
• On June 5, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stunned the public with her eleventh-hour decision to pause a landmark, long-developed plan to implement congestion pricing on New York City streets. That same day, we broke that Hochul had received thousands from auto dealer lobbyists who opposed the reform — and was planning to attend a fundraising event hosted by car dealerships less than a week later. Following the report, Hochul backed out of the fundraiser.
• Within hours of Donald Trump announcing that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) would be his vice presidential running mate on July 15, we unearthed documents showing that Vance had been pressuring regulators to let police track people who cross state lines for abortions, triggering widespread outrage. 
• As Elon Musk spent millions boosting Trump’s campaign, we discovered that Musk was poised to reap one of the largest personalized tax breaks in American history if Trump fulfilled his pledge to appoint the tech billionaire to a top government post — a move that the president-elect is now following through on.
• When a Georgia chemical plant explosion engulfed an Atlanta suburb in toxic gas in late September, we found that chemical industry lobbyists had been fighting to ensure disaster-prevention rules didn’t cover facilities like the one that caught on fire.
• While the record-breaking Hurricane Milton battered the Florida coast in October, we revealed that Florida Republicans bankrolled by the fossil fuel industry were trying to bar the president from declaring a climate emergency and taking bold action to address the crisis.
• As everyone else was busy pointing fingers in the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Nov. 5 election loss, David Sirota did what he does best: Hold both parties accountable for their ties to corporate interests and chart a new path forward for those who believe in a better system.
• When the Dec. 9 assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO triggered widespread outcry over the state of the country’s health care system, we immediately built on our years of incisive health care reporting. We broke the story that a major insurer was about to set time limits on anesthesia coverage, then exposed how insurance executives were juicing profits and paying off shareholders while denying claims and deploying murder by spreadsheet.

This is the sort of work we do day in and day out. Our team stands ready to tackle the news of the day, exposing the stories everyone else misses. This work will become even more important in the year ahead — so keep your eyes peeled on your inbox. We will be breaking big stuff.