LUNCH BREAK READS

A semitruck driver killed a motorcyclist in Kern County, and California's DMV let him keep his license until he killed again.
Martin Kao told the FBI that Lindsey Graham steered a $10 million Navy contract his way for a donation pledge, then the investigation went dark in Trump's FBI purge.
One of Europe's most wanted men turned Sierra Leone into a cocaine hub and fathered a child with the president's daughter.
Anne Applebaum asks who actually profits from Venezuela's oil now that Washington controls the revenue.

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01 • 10 Minute Read

CalMatters

Lauren Hepler and Robert Lewis

They killed people with their big rigs, and California let them keep driving

Illustration for the CalMatters investigation into licensed commercial truckers involved in fatal crashes

In June 2022, a semitruck slammed into an SUV outside Fresno, killing Jenny Chow as her family drove home from a college visit. Eleven months earlier, the same driver, Baljit Singh, drifted across a median in Kern County and killed a motorcyclist in a crash investigators blamed on fatigue. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles knew about that crash and could have suspended his license, but it waited until his manslaughter convictions in 2024. Of more than 130 commercial drivers charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019, nearly half still held valid licenses in May, including a dozen ticketed again for unsafe commercial driving. The DMV says it depends on courts and police to report cases promptly, but it acted against a dozen drivers only after reporters asked. One was Marco Rodriguez, who killed a tow truck driver in 2018 and had his license renewed this year. His one-year ban ends next summer.

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02 • 30 Minute Read

ProPublica

Molly Redden, Avi Asher-Schapiro, William Turton and Kirsten Berg

How Trump’s FBI Purge Saved Lindsey Graham and James Clyburn From a Bribery Investigation

Illustration for the ProPublica investigation into Navatek and South Carolina lawmakers

On March 3, 2020, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina met executives from Navatek, a Hawaiian naval defense contractor, for a 45-minute steakhouse dinner his campaign had priced at $40,000 in contributions. Navatek’s CEO, Martin Kao, later told the FBI that Graham agreed to steer a $10 million Navy contract to the company in exchange for a $100,000 donation pledge, and that South Carolina Reps. James Clyburn and Joe Wilson struck similar deals. Kao, now imprisoned for fraud and illegal campaign donations, was seeking a lighter sentence, but agents found much of his account matched company records. They named two former Navatek executives as subjects and flagged the lawmakers as possible future subjects. Then the Trump administration purged the FBI and Justice Department anti-corruption teams, and the investigation went dark. All three offices deny wrongdoing. Graham died this year, and the two executives’ new company now holds the contract.

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03 • 30 Minute Read

The Economist

Alexander Clapp

He was one of the world’s most wanted men. So he bought a west African country

Image for The Economist's 1843 story on cocaine trafficking in Sierra Leone

In late 2022, a self-described Turkish investor named Omar Sheriff began handing out cash to fishermen and hosting government ministers at a beach resort in Sierra Leone. A 2025 church video showing him behind President Julius Maada Bio let Dutch reporters identify him as Jos Leijdekkers, a former Antwerp hitman turned cocaine trafficker and one of Europe’s most wanted men. He has made Sierra Leone a transit hub for Colombian cocaine bound for Europe, moving shipments worth roughly a quarter of the country’s GDP each year. Sources describe soldiers escorting containers past port scanners and the disappearance of a man accused of stealing his cocaine. Leijdekkers has fathered a child with Bio’s daughter, and the president has never publicly acknowledged him. With no extradition treaty and a Dutch capture attempt called off at the last minute, he remains free, saluted by local police.

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04 • 25 Minute Read

The Atlantic

Anne Applebaum

After the Apocalypse

Image for The Atlantic's story on Venezuela's oil after Maduro

On Lake Maracaibo, where Venezuela’s oil boom began a century ago, fishermen haul nets stained brown by leaking pipelines and answer to pirates, not the coast guard. After U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, President Trump promised the oil would enrich Venezuelans, then backed Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, over opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose movement had documented its 2024 election win. Washington now controls the oil revenue through an account whose audit has not been released, and its biggest deal runs through Alejandro Betancourt, a businessman investigated for money laundering who denies wrongdoing. Analysts say the opacity scares off investors, who want an elected, legitimate government before committing billions. Trump says Venezuelans aren’t ready for elections, and Machado has been blocked from returning home. When earthquakes killed at least 6,500 people in June, the state barely appeared, leaving neighbors to dig through the rubble themselves.

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A trucker killed a motorcyclist. Eleven months later, he killed again.

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