Ashley Balcerzak
Ashley Balcerzak joined the federal politics team in 2017, her second stint at the Center for Public Integrity after covering state and local politics as an American University Fellow in 2015-2016. She previously wrote about federal money in politics and conflicts of interests for OpenSecrets Blog. Her favorite stories covered foreign lobbying, opaque LLC contributions and how special interests spend their money. She also worked with The Washington Post investigative team on its police shootings database, a project that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in national reporting. She earned her undergraduate degree in journalism at Northwestern University and her master's at American University. Ashley's work can be found in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, TIME, The Daily Beast and Huffington Post.
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The $5.6 billion opening salvo: inside the staggering cost of Trump’s war on Iran
New reporting reveals that the United States burned through billions in munitions within days of launching its assault on Iran, highlighting the scale of the military campaign and its mounting financial and humanitarian toll.
Senate Democrats demand investigation into Iran school bombing as Fetterman stands apart
Nearly the entire Democratic caucus calls for a probe into a deadly strike on a girls’ school in Minab while one senator backs the military operation.
How 300 billionaires poured $3 billion into the 2024 elections
A tiny fraction of donors supplied nearly one-fifth of all federal campaign spending as billionaire influence surged to unprecedented levels.
Americans skipping meals and delaying life decisions as healthcare costs strain households nationwide
New Gallup surveys show tens of millions of Americans cutting back on food, utilities, and daily necessities to pay medical bills while healthcare affordability worsens.
The war on Iran—and Washington’s missing exit strategy
That means inflicting real costs: U.S. casualties, political backlash at home, strained relations with allies, global economic disruption and a further erosion of Washington’s standing in the world.