Bryce Covert

@brycecovert

Independent journalist writing about the economy. Contributing writer at @thenation.com. Send tips to brycecovert@protonmail.com or on Signal: brycecovert.25 she/her

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Bryce Covert@brycecovert· 8d

Mark Shriver, son of Head Start creator Sargent Shriver, coming for RFK Jr., nephew of Sargent Shriver who's leading the effort to gut the program

“For more than 60 years, Head Start has opened doors of opportunity for millions of children,” said Mark Shriver, Special Advisor to the President & CEO of Save the Children U.S. and Executive Director of SCAN. “Every child deserves the chance to begin school healthy, supported and ready to learn, regardless of their family’s income or ZIP code. We welcome efforts to make Head Start work better for children and providers, but we should not weaken the foundation that has made the program so successful.”

Save the Children is particularly concerned that significantly reducing federal performance standards could create wide disparities in the quality and availability of services, depending on where children live. Families in rural America often have few alternatives for early childhood education, health care, developmental services and family support. In many communities, Head Start serves as essential infrastructure that connects children with opportunities and families with critical resources.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· 8d

Yikes. Women accounted for all of the job losses and all of the labor force decline in July, according to @nwlc.org

WASHINGTON — Women accounted for 100 percent of the decline in the labor force in July, according to a National Women’s Law Center jobs analysis of monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That brings the total net number of women who have left the labor force since January this year to 845,000. In comparison, there are 406,000 fewer men in the labor force now than in January.

A total of 165,000 women, aged 20 and over, left the labor force last month — meaning they are neither working nor looking for work — while men's labor force participation was unchanged. Overall, the economy lost 23,000 jobs in July. Women accounted for all of these losses, losing 32,000 jobs, while men gained 9,000 jobs. Women make up 50.1% of the workforce.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· 11d

About a third of farmworkers say they've foregone medical attention in light of the intense increase in immigration activity. 4% didn't report a crime. ufwfoundation.org/wp-content/u...

Graph showing survey results that found that because of current immigration policies 29% of farmworkers said they did not seek medical attention and 4% did not report a crime

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· 23d

The administration wants to cover up the huge reductions in food stamp enrollment by claiming fraud. But it's got nothing. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

In Georgia and Ohio’s SNAP inspections, the inspector general’s initial methodology appeared to sweep up allowable benefit payments and routine administrative errors and then conflated them into a broader problem that did not necessarily exist, according to former department officials.

For example, when Walk’s office scrutinized Ohio children receiving SNAP benefits despite not having an adult also receiving benefits listed on their case, state officials noted in documents that “federal rules allow for children to receive benefits even if the parent is ineligible for various reasons like not meeting citizenship requirements.”

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· 26d

Trump eliminated a Civil Rights era agency meant to proactively scrutinize any company doing work with the government to eliminate discrimination and harassment www.nytimes.com/2026/07/19/u...

Those who remained were tasked with drafting language to rescind regulations banning most forms of discrimination that the office had spent decades rooting out. They also began reversing rules that required contractors to maintain a workplace free of harassment, and that prohibited them from retaliating against applicants and employees for discussing their pay.

Audits of Amazon, Meta and Caterpillar that had begun in 2024 were killed. Google had been scheduled for a 2025 review. None of the companies responded to requests for comment.

Legal experts said that without the compliance audits, many workers may never know about discrimination in wages, hiring and promotion, which can be invisible without access to the kinds of records that companies were required to provide.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· 29d

Going to give myself a lil pat on the back and point out that I wrote this in December 2024 just before Elon Musk started DOGEing the government www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Do you enjoy eating food and taking medications that don’t make you sick? Getting rid of the government means getting rid of the Food and Drug Administration’s power to make sure drugs are safe before they go on the market. It would eliminate the Department of Agriculture’s oversight of food processing, which makes sure our produce and meat aren’t covered in feces or riddled with pieces of metal.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Jul 9

He's just blatantly running the welfare queen playbook www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/u...

Midway through his 37-minute appearance, Mr. Vance held up a large poster of Markita Barnes, a woman in Wisconsin who was convicted in March on 10 counts of health care fraud for stealing $2.3 million from a Medicaid benefit program meant to help at-risk pregnant women and women with young children. Ms. Barnes was initially indicted in 2023, during the Biden administration, but in his remarks, Mr. Vance accused Democrats of defending her.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Jul 2

Current vibe

Hat that says: Please be half as good as the US women

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Jun 24

Four years ago today, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Four years ago, Lationna Halbert found out she was pregnant just as she was about to go to cosmetology school. She tried to get an abortion only to find her local clinic had closed down. inthesetimes.com/article/what...

Lationna Halbert in her kitchen, holding baby Kingsley

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Jun 18

I can’t go to the parade but I did get this which is almost the same thing

Hand holding an “I Voted 2026” sticker that looks like a blue and orange basketball in front of some flowers

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Jun 15

Ahem www.nytimes.com/athletic/735...

Except the U.S. has won a World Cup — four, in fact, including one at home — and five Olympic gold medals and produced a Ballon d’Or winner. It has also regularly been ranked the best in the world. The U.S. has bona fide soccer superstars. However, the players who transcended the sport, changed culture and are among the world’s top 100 players are sitting at home … because their World Cup is next summer in Brazil at the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Jun 8

It’s not until halfway into this story that this key information appears: the Trump administration is doing this illegally, violating the statute of a law passed by Congress www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/c...

Edward Yim, the director of clean energy at the legal nonprofit Lawyers for Good Government, said he thought the new guidance violated the Inflation Reduction Act. In establishing the rebates, the law explicitly said that a valid reason for receiving payment was “to replace a nonelectric appliance.”

“That’s a pretty straightforward, simple violation of the statutory text,” said Mr. Kim, who previously worked on this issue at the Energy Department before leaving the government last year.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Jun 5

Job growth has started to rebound lately, but it's mostly benefitting men. So far this year more than 300,000 women have left the workforce, according to @nwlc.org

WASHINGTON -- About 120,000 people aged 20 and over joined the labor force in May, however those gains were entirely among men while women left the labor force last month, according to a National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) jobs analysis of monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That brings the total net number of women who have left the labor force so far this year to more than 300,000, NWLC found.

“The numbers reflect the Trump administration's pronatalist agenda to push women out of the workforce and return to a time of strict gender roles,” said Jasmine Tucker, vice president of research at NWLC. “The policies of this administration gave us an idea of what would happen, and now we're seeing the consequences play out in the data."

In May, according to BLS numbers, 191,000 men aged 20 and over joined the labor force and 71,000 women aged 20 and over left the labor force.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Jun 4

We're really getting deep into the Find Out part of the Fuck Around era kbhbradio.com/usda-cuts-bu... www.nbcchicago.com/news/nationa...

In March 2025, funding was cut by USDA for animal disease control and prevention, including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, New World Screwworm, and African Swine Fever from several agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). That funding supported more than 180 outbreak investigations and responses in 22 countries and helped build the capacities of over 160 laboratories in testing, biosafety, quality assurance, and workforce development. Specifically, funding was targeted to monitoring and responding to New World Screwworm, preventing the spread of the disease to the U.S.

A flesh-eating parasite that had been kept out of U.S. livestock for decades has been detected in Texas, threatening the nation’s cattle industry and food supply at a time when prices are already high.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· May 27

The party that's so concerned with fraud thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/17/k...

Paxton was indicted in the late summer of 2015 over accusations of defrauding investors, according to Chron. The charges stemmed from accusations that Paxton had encouraged other legislators to invest in McKinney-based company Servergy in 2011 without telling them he would make a commission, Chron reported. Paxton allegedly misrepresented himself as an investor in the company, which was charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016.

Two weeks after Angela Paxton announced she was filing for divorce, an Associated Press investigation revealed that the Paxtons had been claiming three different homes (one in Dallas and two in Austin) as their primary residence, saving them thousands of dollars in mortgage loan payments.

Paxton was also simultaneously collecting tax breaks on two different homes in 2018, via a homestead exemption that is only meant for a single, primary residence, according to reports from the AP.

Other properties the Paxtons own, including a million-dollar “luxury cabin” in Oklahoma and a home in College Station, have been listed on rental sites, in violation of each residence’s mortgage, according to AP’s investigation.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· May 21

This framing is correct. Elon Musk and DOGE found out that publicly slashing and burning the government wasn't popular. So now the Trump administration is doing it under the banner of "fraud."

After Elon Musk’s DOGE effort fizzled out, the Trump administration renewed its focus on what it describes as wasteful government spending, with Vice President JD Vance leading a “war on fraud.” Vance, in a separate effort, warned states they could lose Medicaid funding if they don’t aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraudsters.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· May 11

Amazon warehouse workers told me they were either forced onto unpaid leave or made to do dangerous work when they got pregnant. They suffered pain, developed health conditions, and even lost babies as a result. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Key’Asia Hollis, Marley Lewis, and Tamesha were denied requests for accommodations at Amazon warehouses during their pregnancies.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· May 4

What fresh hell is this

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Apr 30

Wow WTF Teamsters

Employees lost confidence that the Teamsters had a viable plan to win a contract, as deep disagreement emerged between store employees and union officials about how to overcome the company’s resistance, according to workers who had been leaders in the union campaign. “The union-busting of Chipotle and the shifting priorities of the Teamsters left the workers in the lurch,” former employee Atulya Dora-Laskey, who had been a prominent activist with the union, said in an interview.

“I know other Chipotle workers will eventually organize again,” she said. “It was very viable to win a contract at Chipotle if the Teamsters had followed through.”

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Apr 27

This proposed rule would eliminate protections against gender identity discrimination in housing.

Through these revisions, the rule would ensure
equal access to qualifying facilities would be provided in accordance with the sex of an
individual based on his or her immutable biological classification as either male or female rather
than the ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Apr 24

Victory is mine! x.com/apstylebook/...

Tweet from APStylebook that says: You've been asking for this one for years. We heard you.
We announced a change in AP style at the
@ACESEditors
conference today: It's now healthcare, one word, in all uses.
We also changed childcare and daycare, closing them up to one word rather than two.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Apr 13

I run here multiple times a week. Almost every time so many cars blow through this red light I can barely count them

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Mar 31

What a fun message to get from my health insurance provider as I attempt to file a claim

This form was created with the help of AI.
Please review this information and your documents carefully for accuracy before submitting. AI results may contain errors or be incomplete which may lead to a delay in the processing of your claim.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Mar 27

They couldn't be any clearer www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/u...

Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials said.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Mar 25

cc Democrats

“The feedback I’m hearing from citizens is that extra few bucks on their [return] at the end of the year, because of the taxes they didn’t have to pay, comes secondary to wanting us to take care of the things that government needs to be invested in,” said Idaho GOP Sen. Jim Guthrie. “Which is your infrastructure and your roads and bridges and schools and also your Medicaid population.”

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Mar 19

The photos are as devastating as the reporting

Yanfeng Ge sits on his brother Chaofeng Ge’s bed in the basement apartment they once shared in Flushing, Queens. Photo: Shuran Huang for Documented

The few personal items Chaofeng Ge left behind. Clockwise, from top-left: A pair of headphones, a sweatshirt, a pair of shoes, a tube of toothpaste and pack of energy drink. Photo: Shuran Huang for Documented

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Mar 18

Everything in this story is deeply horrifying, including this www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/u...

A handful of Mr. Chavez’s relatives and former U.F.W. leaders have been aware for years about various allegations of sexual misconduct, but there is no evidence that they made efforts to fully investigate the accusations, acknowledge the victims or apologize to them. Instead, many of the women say they were discouraged from speaking out in order to preserve Mr. Chavez’s public image.

Internal emails dating back over a decade show union members discussing Ms. Murguia’s claims of abuse and the impact it had on her life. One of Ms. Murguia’s relatives confronted Mr. Chavez while he was still alive, in the 1980s. According to the relative, Mr. Chavez offered no defense and responded only by clearing his throat.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Mar 18

What a coincidence that all three are female Democratic governors www.foxnews.com/politics/sen...

Now, in letters to Democratic Govs. Kathy Hochul, Gretchen Whitmer and Tina Kotek, first obtained by Fox News Digital, Cassidy charged that their respective states lead or have led the nation in improper payments in state-administered childcare assistance programs.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Mar 17

This new Democratic craze with lowering income taxes for a ton of people continues: the New York assembly is proposing to offset increases on people earning $10m or more with a cut for people making under $323K. $323K is not middle class!!! fiscalpolicy.org/wp-content/u...

By contrast, the Assembly proposes creating two new tax brackets, starting at $10 million and
$100 million, with progressively higher rates for each bracket beginning with $5 million.6 (FPI has
argued for applying the top rate to all millionaire earners, creating a broader base for progressive
taxation, rather than further fragmenting the top rates). However, the Assembly also proposes lowering
the PIT rate for all tax brackets up to $323,000 (for joint filers). These rate reductions would completely
offset the revenue raised by progressive top rates, resulting in a negligible net change to PIT revenue.

Bryce Covert@brycecovert· Mar 5

"No tax on overtime" really just means no tax on the extra pay, but not base pay, made while working overtime and only for the lucky few who qualify for overtime under federal rules, rules that Trump tightened last time around www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/b...