Ryan Gabrielson

California insurers slash wildfire claims with hidden rules California insurers use these hidden rules to slash wildfire payouts. Lawmakers are largely unaware.

NEW INVESTIGATION: Insurance companies use hidden rules to slash disaster survivors' payouts.

The @sfchronicle.com obtained hundreds of internal records showing how insurers including State Farm cut claims payments to LA fire victims.

Read more (gift link): tinyurl.com/y4fpza2p

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A broken system is keeping California homes underinsured. Millions are at risk California's biggest insurance companies are using faulty algorithms and flawed processes to estimate rebuilding costs — leaving millions of homeowners unprotected from disaster.

This is part of Burned, the @sfchronicle.com investigative series on the insurance crisis now devastating wildfire survivors. Check out part one on the algorithms systematically underinsuring millions of homeowners across California and the nation.
www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...

California is drafting new rules for wildfire smoke cleanup. Are home insurers calling the shots? A state-led task force assembled to issue smoke damage guidelines includes technical experts who have spent years helping insurers dispute consumers’ smoke-damage claims.

Following the LA fires, a California panel is working on rules for how home insurers handle smoke damage. Insurance industry voices appear to dominate. A banger story from @saradinatale.bsky.social @meganmunce.bsky.social @susien.bsky.social
www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...

My 11-year-old sitting with her pile of Halloween candy, sorting it into a bar graph

We have progressed from data collection to data analysis.

In January while reporting on the Palisades Fire, @mgafni.bsky.social and I heard from fire survivors about a coincidence. The Palisades Fire started in the same spot as a fire that burned less than a week earlier on New Year's Day. They wondered if the two fires might be connected 🧵

This exists! It’s called Local Matters. We are sponsored by @ire.org & @knightcolumbia.org. Local Matters is a free, weekly newsletter that is curated by myself and three other working journalists. This is our 8th year!

Anyone can sign up here: visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin...

Portland Trail Blazers Buyer Tom Dundon Built His Fortune on Subprime Loans In 2020, the state sued Santander Consumer USA for allegedly preying on Oregonians through high-interest car loans they couldn’t afford in a case involving more than 265,000 borrowers nationwide.

Whoa.

Looks like Exeter Finance, the subprime auto lender I investigated with @ryangabrielson.bsky.social for @propublica.org, is under investigation by 42 state AGs. www.propublica.org/article/tom-...

Public-health focused investigations take top awards in the 19th annual Barlett and Steele Awards | The Reynolds Center Promoting the importance of business journalism among journalism students, giving journalists tools to improve their business coverage, and helping

Congrats to my former student @susien.bsky.social for investigating how a flawed estimation tool leads to victims of California wildfires being under-insured businessjournalism.org/2025/09/2025...

An FBI agent killed a man after the Boston Marathon bombing. Oakland PD had helped hide his past A trove of internal police files provides a more complete accounting of the early episode that could have jeopardized Aaron McFarlane’s career before a high-profile shooting.

In 2000, rookie Oakland cop Aaron McFarland wrote report saying he arrested man w drugs.

His probable cause for stop: the man had crossed a solid red light.

The problem: At that time of night the lights blink red.

Katey & I obtained new records:

www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

Texas private schools hire relatives and enrich insiders. Soon they can do it with taxpayer money. An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found more than 60 instances of nepotism, self-dealing and conflicts of interest among 27 private schools that likely would have violated state law...

Texas is about to give more than $1 billion in public money to private schools. We found that they routinely engage in nepotism and enrich insiders in ways that would be illegal for public and charter schools. Just out @propublica.org @texastribune.org:
www.texastribune.org/2025/08/13/t...

Shuttered Oakland school was slated for affordable housing. Then squatters moved in The former Oakland school was to be redeveloped into affordable housing, but years of delays and inaction have made the campus susceptible to illegal encampments, drug dealing and fires.

A shuttered Oakland school was slated for affordable housing. Then squatters moved in, @maggieangst.bsky.social reports: www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/arti...

A Bay Area man’s trip to Nevada explains why local skies are about to burst with illegal fireworks On a recent day, Trevor made the same drive he’s made every year for the past decade. Four and a half hours later, he pulled into Bad Jack’s Fireworks in Schurz, Nev.

"Trevor, who asked to be identified by his first name only while acknowledging illegal conduct ..." Fun read via @stjbs.bsky.social
www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

Toxic metal found in L.A. air after fires. No one knows where it’s coming from A little-known and highly dangerous earth metal used to craft spaceships has been found in wildfire-ravaged homes and in the air in Los Angeles. Experts are shocked — and alarmed.

New:

Beryllium, a metal so toxic that breathing in a minuscule amount over time can cause a chronic & fatal illness, is being found in homes after the LA wildfires.

Nobody knows where it's coming from. Few are testing for it.

w/ @meganmunce.bsky.social @sfchronicle.com

tinyurl.com/4pkefbfx

Toxic metal found in L.A. air after fires. No one knows where it’s coming from A little-known and highly dangerous earth metal used to craft spaceships has been found in wildfire-ravaged homes and in the air in Los Angeles. Experts are shocked — and alarmed.

Must read: A dangerous, little-known substance has been found in dozens of homes in the Eaton and Palisades fire zones, test results obtained by the Chronicle show. www.sfchronicle.com/california-w...

How the Fed decides its highly influential "dot plot" rate projection (basically).
www.wsj.com/economy/cent...

Polite request to please credit the photographers whose L.A. photos you’re sharing. They’re out there risking getting their shins exploded by police munitions to get those shots.

Exclusive: DHS secretary seeks military arrests in Los Angeles in leaked letter The military is generally barred from domestic law enforcement. Kristi Noem’s request may be a step toward the Trump administration sidestepping those laws by invoking the Insurrection Act.

“One day before the Trump administration deployed U.S. Marines to confront protesters in Los Angeles, [DHS Sec] Kristi Noem asked Defense [Sec] Pete Hegseth to direct the military to detain or arrest “lawbreakers,” a move one expert called “a grave escalation.’” www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/art...

Exclusive: DHS secretary seeks military arrests in Los Angeles in leaked letter The military is generally barred from domestic law enforcement. Kristi Noem’s request may be a step toward the Trump administration sidestepping those laws by invoking the Insurrection Act.

One day before the Trump admin deployed U.S. Marines to confront protesters in LA, DHS Sec. Kristi Noem asked Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to direct the military to detain or arrest “lawbreakers.”
by @mgafni.bsky.social, Cynthia Dizikes, @sophiabollag.bsky.social

www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/art...

‘Wildly underprepared’: National Guard troops seen sleeping on floors in exclusive photos State troops sent to Los Angeles by the Trump administration, without the approval of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, were expected to sleep on floors or outdoors, a source told the Chronicle.

EXCLUSIVE:

CA National Guard troops sent by Trump to LA amid immigration protests are sleeping on concrete floors. No fed funding for food, water, fuel, equipment or lodging.

Source: “Currently, there is no plan for where everyone is sleeping tonight”

www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...

It turns out that overall, the academic disparities between the lottery and merit students were relatively small.

While the lottery had little impact on academic markers, it did have an impact on student demographics, ... significantly increasing the number of Black and Latino students.

3 big California insurers accused of underinsuring L.A. fire survivors These allegations come after the Chronicle published an investigation into how flaws in software and the way insurance companies use it have left California homeowners underinsured after wildfires.

New from me and @meganmunce.bsky.social: Three major insurance companies have been accused of systematically under-insuring LA wildfire victims via flawed software, following our @sfchronicle.com investigation into the issue.

Gift link: tinyurl.com/4dmpcb25

I can't recommend this #ire25 class highly enough, taught by two of the best investigative storytellers in the biz!

Remember: underinsurance isn’t unique to CA—most major insurance companies operating in the U.S. use the same flawed software. Time for other states to follow suit and investigate to make sure their policyholders are protected 🔎

After every major wildfire in California, vast numbers of survivors have found themselves underinsured & unable to rebuild their homes. I'm here at a California Board of Equalization hearing discussing the issue and exploring solutions. Watch the meeting here: boe.ca.gov/meetings/

I've always wondered where "bought the farm" came from. Turns out we don't know, beyond this:
www.snopes.com/fact-check/b...

Exclusive footage: Deadly Palisades Fire may have grown from this Jan. 1 blaze YouTube video by San Francisco Chronicle

UC San Diego maintains 1,000+ fire-monitoring cameras across CA. The footage is typically publicly available. That was until the Palisades Fire, when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives intervened.

@sfchronicle.com fought for months for this footage. See it for the first time ⬇️

Exclusive footage: Deadly Palisades Fire may have grown from this Jan. 1 blaze Footage obtained by the Chronicle shows the deadly Palisades Fire in the Los Angeles area may have grown from earlier blaze.

See for yourself: Side-by-side footage shows the start of the Palisades fire in Los Angeles and small fire that broke out in the same area six days earlier. Did it rekindle?

An exclusive, with @mgafni.bsky.social

www.sfchronicle.com/california-w...

State Farm asks for another double-digit California home insurance rate hike Under State Farm’s new request, its condo rates in California would soar, and homeowners rates would jump an additional 11%.

Another entry in the breaking State Farm saga:

A new filing submitted this afternoon reveals State Farm is pursuing its original 30% rate hike request at the full rate hearing slated for this fall. That would cumulatively be an 11% increase on top of the emergency 17% they were granted last week.

This is what happened when Thomas Keller asked me to leave the French Laundry Thomas Keller is a legendary chef. Chronicle critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan hadn’t met him, until she went to the French Laundry and he asked her to leave.

Imagine being Thomas Keller and thinking this was a normal way to behave!!!!!! www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaur...

This is what happened when Thomas Keller asked me to leave the French Laundry Thomas Keller is a legendary chef. Chronicle critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan hadn’t met him, until she went to the French Laundry and he asked her to leave.

A superstar chef, a diligent restaurant critic and an unnerving encounter at the French Laundry. Just a phenomenal profile of Thomas Keller through the lens of reviews and his reactions to them, by MacKenzie Chung Fegan
www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaur...