September 29, 2017

Tom Price Resigns as Health and Human Services Secretary

“I’m not happy, I can tell you that. I’m not happy,” Trump said earlier.

Tom Williams/ZUMA

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Tom Price has resigned as Health and Human Services Secretary amid revelations he took more than two dozen private charter flights domestically since May, reportedly costing taxpayers at least $400,000, and, with White House approval, took military aircraft overseas at a cost of more than $500,000. 

The White House released a statement announcing Price’s decision on Friday.

https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/913866130271473664

Price followed up by tweeting his resignation letter.

After initially defending his use of private jets as being essential to his work, Price on Thursday issued a statement apologizing for the practice and pledged to pay back the government for the flights. The $51,887 reimbursement, however, would only cover the costs of his seats—not the entire flights.

As both sides of the aisle fumed over the reports this week, the expensive travel of other Trump administration officials, including Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, also came under scrutiny. It’s unclear whether Price’s resignation will lead to other high-level dismissals.

“I certainly don’t like the optics,” Trump told reporters when asked about Price’s fate earlier Friday. “I’m not happy, I can tell you that. I’m not happy.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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