Maureen Tkacik, The American Prospect Journalist Profile

Articles

The Humanitarian Aid Shooting Galleries in Gaza

3 weeks ago | prospect.org | Maureen Tkacik

Late in the evening of April 1, 2024, the anonymous poster behind popular Hebrew-language Telegram channel “Dead Terrorists” shared with its 124,000 followers a chaotic video of a fresh batch of corpses lying on the floor in an anonymous dark room.
Usury in the Water

4 weeks ago | prospect.org | Maureen Tkacik

This article appears in the June 2025 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here. Mike Lindell has been neck-deep in debt more times than you have probably been to a doctor. The beleaguered founder of Minnesota bedding manufacturer MyPillow still has a Hardee’s bag that a Mafia-connected loan shark left on his car windshield back in 1981, after he wagered $25,000 on bad sports bets. “MIKE: CAME TO GET OUR MONEY—Book was with me—Physical Force May Be Needed.
Runaway Tren

2 months ago | prospect.org | Maureen Tkacik

Earlier this month, a middle-aged woman with shaggy, silvery hair and a pleasant smoker’s contralto flew from Denver to Washington to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. “My name is Cindy Romero,” she began. “I am a wife, a mother of five, a grandmother of three, a part-time worker and student, and a former resident of Aurora, Colorado.
Trump Scrambles to Pardon Corporate Criminals He Once Prosecuted

Mar 28, 2025 | flipboard.com | Maureen Tkacik

8 hours ago Aussie spy planes worked overtime during nearby Chinese naval drills MELBOURNE, Australia — Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft took center stage in Australia’s and New Zealand’s joint response during a … 1 hour ago Buyout, aerospace firms among remaining bidders for Boeing navigation unit, sources say Several private equity firms and at least one aerospace supplier are among the remaining bidders competing to buy Boeing’s Jeppesen navigation unit for more than...
Trump Scrambles to Pardon Corporate Criminals He Once Prosecuted

Mar 28, 2025 | prospect.org | Maureen Tkacik

As the Trump administration tells the story, Barry Sturner is an ordinary small-business owner who had his life’s work and reputation destroyed by Rohit Chopra’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in a “seven-year harassment saga,” after some power-mad lawyers got ahold of some “innocuous” comments he’d made about crime on an AM radio show and decided to “spen[d] years persecuting and extorting” his “small Midwest firm.” What really happened is this: Sturner and his longtime partner...
A Hospital Empire Is Closing Its Doors-but the Stock Is on a Tear

Mar 18, 2025 | prospect.org | Maureen Tkacik |Teri Buhl

Last week, the few hundred remaining employees of two hospitals in Warren, Ohio, got an email informing them they were suspending hospital admissions following a sudden rise in costs precipitated by a Houston bankruptcy court ruling.
DOGE’s Private-Equity Playbook

Mar 11, 2025 | thenation.com | Maureen Tkacik

Comment / March 11, 2025 DOGE’s Private-Equity PlaybookElon Musk’s rampage through the government is a classic PE takeover, replete with bogus numbers and sociopathic executives. Ad Policy This article appears in the April 2025 issue, with the headline “Raiding the Swamp.” The nation’s capital is teeming with people who serve the interests of sadists who have converted seemingly every crevice of our economy into a Sopranos plotline.
Did Luigi Save the UnitedHealth Case?

Mar 7, 2025 | prospect.org | Maureen Tkacik

Valerie O’Meara had been working as a nurse for the Polyclinic in Seattle for over a month before it dawned on her that she actually worked for the risk adjustment department of the health insurance juggernaut UnitedHealth. A physician had interviewed her for the job. Her employment contract named a gastroenterologist she had never met as the owner and medical director of the practice.
The DOGE Czar’s Plan To Loot Medicare

Feb 17, 2025 | portside.org | Maureen Tkacik

The DOGE Czar’s Plan To Loot Medicare Published February 17, 2025 Four and a half years ago, Department of Government Efficiency co-czar Brad Smith stumbled on a counterintuitive revelation: The most effective way to slash federal health care spending involved drastically raising Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates for hospital care.
The DOGE Czar’s Plan to Loot Medicare

Feb 14, 2025 | prospect.org | Maureen Tkacik

Four and a half years ago, Department of Government Efficiency co-czar Brad Smith stumbled on a counterintuitive revelation: The most effective way to slash federal health care spending involved drastically raising Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates for hospital care.