Post Reports

What Russia hacked this time. Why America’s biggest companies are laying people off during a pandemic – while boasting record profits. And new coronavirus tests you can take at home.
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The U.S. government spent billions on a system for detecting hacks. The Russians outsmarted it, as national security reporter Ellen Nakashima explains. 
Some of America’s biggest companies have made a killing off the pandemic. But their record profits haven’t stopped them from laying off thousands of people, says corporate accountability reporter Doug MacMillan. 
How do home tests for coronavirus work? Health and science reporter William Wan explains.
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How members of Congress vote to enrich themselves. Why Biden is pursuing an unconventional pick for defense secretary. And what happened when The Post’s food critic got covid-19.
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Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue of Georgia aren’t alone in drawing scrutiny over their stock portfolios. Chris Ingraham dives into new research showing that lawmakers with stock holdings vote in ways that juice their portfolios.
Dan Lamothe explains the controversy surrounding President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Defense Department – and why recently-retired military leaders are typically frowned upon for the job.
When food critic Tim Carman first fell ill with covid-19 earlier this year, he feared a loss of taste and smell. But, as Carman writes, it turned out to be much worse.
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Meet Sandra Lindsay, the first person to get a coronavirus vaccine in the United States. And a closer look at President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken. 
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The vaccine is now being administered in the United States as hospitals struggle to keep up with coronavirus patients. Science reporter Ben Guarino on why this New York critical care nurse got the country’s first coronavirus shot: “We were scared.”
Biden has picked Antony Blinken to be secretary of state. The nomination emphasizes experience and the foreign policy establishment, according to national security reporter John Hudson.
Late last week, the first coronavirus vaccine was approved for emergency use. But as we reported on Post Reports, the country will now embark on a finely orchestrated, high-stakes process to distribute and administer doses. Meet the people inside a supply chain that could end the pandemic.
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Looking back at four years of Trump’s immigration policies. Plus, setting egg-spectations for Britain’s pubs under covid.
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In 2015, Donald Trump ran on the promise to overhaul immigration — a vow he made good on as soon as he was sworn in. Immigration reporter Maria Sacchetti takes us through all the steps President Trump took to change the U.S. immigration system, from banning travel from some Muslim-majority countries to separating families, and the potentially lasting change in tone and rhetoric around immigration.
Adam Taylor explains the debate over coronavirus rules that is entangling Britain’s politics: Is a scotch egg a substantial meal?
Black country music star Charley Pride died Saturday at the age of 86. Listen to a past episode of Post Reports about the Black roots of country music.
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What can go wrong when police are the ones responding to mental health crises. And grieving virtually during the pandemic.
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The final moments of Stacy Kenny’s life are captured on a recorded 911 call. 
Kenny, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, begs an emergency operator to explain why she’s been pulled over. 
The officers – Springfield Sgt. Rick A. Lewis and Officer Kraig Akins – smash the windows on her car. They Taser her twice, punch her in the face more than a dozen times and try to pull her out by her hair. She is unarmed and restrained by her locked seatbelt.
Her life ends – as does the call – when she tries to flee by driving away with one of the officers still inside the car. He shoots her in the head.
In 2019, her death in Springfield, Ore., was one of 1,324 fatal shootings by police over the past six years that involved someone police said was in the throes of a mental health crisis. 
Investigative reporter Kimberly Kindy breaks down why such fatal shootings of people in mental health crises are on the rise in small and mid-sized cities – and what those left to live with loss, like Stacy’s parents, Barbara and Chris Kenny, hope police departments will change about how they respond to mental-health-related calls.

The pandemic has changed the way we process grief. Animator Kolin Pope and audio editor Ted Muldoon bring us a meditation on Zoom funerals. 
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When the first coronavirus vaccine is approved for emergency use, officials across the country will embark on a finely orchestrated, high-stakes process to distribute and administer doses. Meet the people inside the supply chain that could end the pandemic.
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Once you have a vaccine, you have to get it to the masses. That’s the hard part. A vaccine manufacturer. A shipper. A state health official. A dry-ice guy. Host Martine Powers and producer Linah Mohammad take us inside the supply chain and speak to the people responsible for making the life-saving vaccine program work. In this episode, we explore how each part of the chain is preparing — from approval and manufacturing, to climate-controlled delivery reliant on dry ice, to how stores are readying themselves for the first shipment. 
Learn about the potential kinks that may show up in the chain and what it takes to overcome those hurdles. 
What you need to know about the coronavirus vaccine, and what to watch this week. 
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Can companies require employees to be vaccinated? What community leaders and health officials are doing to sell Black Americans on the coronavirus vaccine. And a second life for Halloween skeletons. 
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Can your employer require you to get vaccinated? Reporter Jena McGregor breaks it down.
Many Black Americans are not sold on the coronavirus vaccine, citing a long history of medical mistreatment and continuing inequities in modern-day health care as reasons not to trust the medical establishment. Lola Fadulu reports on the efforts to bring people around to the vaccine.
Don’t take down your Halloween decorations just yet. Arts and culture reporter Maura Judkis explains how giant skeletons are being repurposed for Christmas. 
What you need to know about the vaccines in development.
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President-elect Joe Biden’s names his administration’s top health officials. The toll the pandemic has taken on nursing home employees. And an inauguration unlike any other. 
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Health reporter Amy Goldstein examines the president-elect’s picks for top health officials, including the unorthodox choice of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. 
The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on nursing home workers. “The problem is that there have been a number of nursing home employees who have either quit or fallen ill or died,” says business reporter Will Englund. “And in a business that has a traditional or a chronic problem with short staffing, that's gotten even much worse.”National political reporter Matt Viser on what you need to know about Joe Biden’s inauguration. 
Today is the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. Listen to a previous episode, where arts reporters Geoff Edgers revisits his last album.
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Why the Justice Department is pushing executions before the inauguration. The secret centrist revolt that could mean a second stimulus. And, how a top official tasked with helping Americans through the pandemic could benefit from hundreds of evictions.
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Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department is pursuing several federal executions during a lame-duck period ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration. Reporter Matt Zapotosky explains. 
Last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers released a $908 billion relief proposal. But, as reporter Jeff Stein explains, not everyone is on board.
Hundreds of families living on property owned in part by senior White House adviser Jared Kushner are facing eviction during a pandemic. Jonathon O’Connell reports on how the management company associated with Kushner is filing to remove tenants who are behind on rent by Dec. 31. 
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Reporter Hannah Knowles reveals a portrait of a fragmented and indifferent criminal justice system that for decades allowed the country’s deadliest serial killer to target those on the margins of society.
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America’s deadliest serial killer went undetected for decades. Between 1970 and 2005, he claims to have killed at least 93 people — nearly all women, many who remain unidentified.
For months, a team of reporters at The Post has been investigating Samuel Little’s killings —of people who lived on the margins of society, whose murders police failed to connect and solve. 
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