The bird flu helped this egg company's profits soar, and now its pricing practices are under investigation

Egg prices remain high as one producer sees its profits
and stock prices surge. (Adobe Stock photo)

U.S. top egg supplier Cal-Maine attributes its soaring profits and doubled stock price to hen shortages caused by bird flu, combined with savvy business practices. Lawmakers and regulators aren't buying that response as the full story. Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal reports, "The Justice Department kicked off an investigation into the nationwide increase in the cost of eggs and is probing Cal-Maine’s and other companies’ pricing practices."

Cal-Maine explains its surging profits -- $508 million just in the first quarter of 2025 -- as the natural outcome of national egg shortages brought about by the severe avian flu outbreak, combined with its savvy production and investment strategy. The company's first-quarter profit was more than three times higher than the profit in its first quarter of 2024 -- $148 million. The company's chief executive, Sherman Miller, says, "He can’t ignore the rising animosity, and he’s ready to set the record straight," Thomas writes.

Miller told Thomas, “Someone has to get blamed for everything. They’re looking for a villain. . . . We’ve done absolutely everything we could do to supply every egg we could under circumstances we can’t control."

But what Cal-Maine can control matters because eggs aren't like other commodities. "The egg industry relies on contracts between a customer, like Walmart or Kroger, that wants to buy a certain amount of eggs from a supplier like Cal-Maine," Thomas explains. "Instead of producing all the eggs it sells in a year, Cal-Maine has historically handled spikes in demand by purchasing 10% to 25% from other suppliers on private exchanges such as the online Egg Clearinghouse."

Skeptics question Cal-Maine's private online exchange purchases. "Critics like Farm Action say that by buying eggs from rival producers on the Egg Clearinghouse, Cal-Maine contributes to limiting supply," Thomas reports. "This also can inflate prices because those purchases factor into the calculation for the industry benchmark prices, critics say."

Others wonder why Cal-Maine didn’t just "produce more eggs or decide to lower its prices during the avian-flu outbreak," Thomas writes. But company planners see the spike as temporary. "Historically, eggs tend to retail for $1 to $2 a dozen, and Cal-Maine executives say the sky-high prices probably won’t last."

Questioning Cal-Maine's pricing practices isn't new. "In 2023, a federal jury in Chicago decided that Cal-Maine and other big egg producers restricted supply in the early 2000s to raise prices, which inflated costs for companies that buy lots of eggs to make food products," Thomas adds. Several food companies were awarded $53 million in damages. Cal-Maine contested any claims of wrongdoing.

Free webinar on Friday about demystifying LexisNexis for research-based reporting; registration takes 2 minutes

The National Press Club Journalism Institute is hosting a learning webinar on accessing and customizing the LexisNexis database on Friday, May 17 at 11:30 a.m., E.T. 

Register here.

LexisNexis provides a library of legal, business, government, high-tech and news articles, which are starting points for researching story ideas. Its database also provides access to articles that are paywall-protected.

Because LexisNexis houses so much information, the database can be confusing. To teach reporters how to navigate this resource, award-winning investigative reporter and editor Brad Hamilton will walk participants through how to customize LexisNexis to source stories, find unexpected story angles, and identify and reach potential sources through LexisNexis’ "Contact References" database.

LexisNexis is a fee-based database service that some newsrooms provide staff access to. Most public libraries offer access to their communities, and National Press Club members have free access to the LexisNexis database as part of their annual membership. Hamilton will also provide journalists an avenue to access LexisNexis at a discount.

Grist offers webinar for journalists who want to report on "land-grab" data involving universities in 14 states

Fourteen public universities were founded with land taken from
Indigenous nations. (Illustration by Marty Two Bulls Jr., Grist)

Grist is offering a free webinar on Feb. 21 for reporters who are interested in reporting on state trust land data involving public universities in 14 states. 

The webinar will be held from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern time. Webinar participants will learn how to use Grist's "land grab" data set from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming to see how institutions got their land and money.

Using state data on land grant universities, Grist's data report examined how these entities established their provenance and how much revenue those lands produce for their associated colleges. The data shows how states use these lands in to generate income, such as timber harvesting, oil and gas extraction, and agriculture.

Grist's investigation explains how about 8.1 million acres of land, which produces income for 14 land-grant universities, was taken from 123 Indigenous nations through more than 100 violence-backed land cessions. Grist's editor at large Tristan Ahtone and spatial data analyst Maria Parazo Rose will explain how journalists can use the data for their own stories.

Feds use facial-recognition tech to scan license photos without drivers' consent; does your state or locality allow it?

"Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have turned state driver’s-license databases into a facial-recognition gold mine, scanning through millions of Americans’ photos without their knowledge or consent," Drew Harwell reports for The Washington Post. "Police have long had access to fingerprints, DNA and other 'biometric data' taken from criminal suspects. But the DMV records contain the photos of a vast majority of a state’s residents, most of whom have never been charged with a crime."

According to documents obtained by the Georgetown University law school's Center on Privacy and Technology, state motor-vehicle databases have become "the bedrock of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure," which both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have criticized as "dangerous, pervasive and error-prone," Harwell reports. "Neither Congress nor state legislatures have authorized the development of such a system." In 21 states and D.C., federal agencies are allowed to scan driver's license photos, but the scans must be relevant to a criminal investigation.

"Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the House Oversight Committee’s ranking Republican, seemed particularly incensed during a hearing into the technology last month at the use of driver’s license photos in federal facial-recognition searches without the approval of state legislators or individual license holders," Harwell reports. Jordan said, "They’ve just given access to that to the FBI. No individual signed off on that when they renewed their driver’s license, got their driver’s licenses. They didn’t sign any waiver saying, 'Oh, it’s okay to turn my information, my photo, over to the FBI.' No elected officials voted for that to happen."

Modern policing routinely uses facial recognition to track down low-level suspects, with database searches often authorized by emails between a federal agent and a local official, records show. Some communities have banned their law enforcement officials from using facial-recognition software because they believe it's government overreach and breaches the public's trust, Harwell reports.

Officials from the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and the Secret Service will testify Wednesday before the House Committee on Homeland Security about their agencies' use of the technology.

USDA science pick, faulted for poor credentials, withdraws after being implicated in Russia probe

Sam Clovis (CNN image)

Controversial nominee Sam Clovis has withdrawn his name from consideration as the Department of Agriculture's chief scientist after his name surfaced in the ongoing Russian probe. Clovis, who serves as the USDA's senior White House advisor, was already widely criticized for having no scientific experience; this week the news broke that "he was one of the top officials on the Trump campaign aware of efforts by foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to broker a relationship between the campaign and Russian officials," The Washington Post reports. Clovis didn't resign as the White House advisor for the USDA.

In his letter to President Trump, Clovis said "The relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases in intensity each day. As I am focused on your success and the success of this Administration, I do not want to be a distraction or negative influence, particularly with so much important work left to do for the American people." Click here for the full text.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that "We respect Mr. Clovis' decision to withdraw his nomination," CNN reports. When a reporter asked if President Trump was still comfortable with Clovis serving as the USDA advisor, Sanders said, "I'm not aware of any change that would be necessary."

Interior secretary's travels are under investigation

Zinke with President Trump
(Las Vegas Review-Journal photo)

The Interior Department's inspector general is investigating Secretary Ryan Zinke’s travel, "from his use of taxpayer-funded charter and military planes to his mixing of official trips with political appearances," reports Lisa Rein of The Washington Post.

“It’s not just one trip,” Nancy K. DiPaolo, a spokesperson for Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, told Rein. “It’s seven months of travel.” DiPaolo said the investigation was prompted by complaints from the public and recent newspaper articles. "Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (Ariz.) and A. Donald McEachin (Va.), the top Democrats, respectively, on the House Committee on Natural Resources and the panel’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations, also requested an investigation," Rein notes.

"Zinke, a former Navy SEAL commander and former congressman from Montana, is one of several Trump administration cabinet secretaries whose travel is under scrutiny," Rein notes. "Tom Price, another former member of Congress who was secretary of [the Department of] Health and Human Services, resigned Friday after taking at least $400,000 in chartered flights at taxpayer expense. The watchdog for the Environmental Protection Agency also is investigating agency head Scott Pruitt’s frequent travels to his home state of Oklahoma."

Mo. audit of rural hospitals uncovers $90 million billing scheme at one that outsourced operations

Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway is auditing the finances of the state's rural, county-owned hospitals, Samantha Liss reports for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It's the first time an initiative from the state's auditor has focused solely on rural hospitals, but Galloway says it's important to make sure they are efficient and honest. "These are major employers in these rural counties," Galloway told Liss. "Additionally, they might be the only resource to health care that people have. And if these facilities close because they’re financially in bad shape they might have to drive an hour or more to get access to health care."

Rural hospitals all over the country are struggling, since rural residents tend to be older, poorer, and need more medical care, straining hospital resources. They're more likely to depend on Medicaid and Medicare, and Medicaid isn't very profitable for hospitals — especially in states like Missouri, which did not expand Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The audit is already seeing results. One review uncovered a $90 million billing scheme at Putnam County Memorial Hospital. The five-person hospital board had agreed to hire independent contractor Hospital Partners for the hospital's day-to-day operations but didn't run the contract by legal counsel. There were no stipulations in the contract to limit the salary of Hospital Partners' CEO, who has since increased his own salary from $160,000 to $200,000, Liss reports. Auditors found out-of-state employees on the payroll who were supposedly working for the hospital's lab, and "the vast majority of the laboratory’s billings are for out-of-state lab work for patients who never went to Putnam for care," Liss reports. State and federal officials have been notified about the audit's findings at Putnam.

Panel probing charges Ky. congressman used post to help his wife's animal-rights lobbying

On Friday the House Ethics Committee announced it has opened a formal investigation about Kentucky Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield's potential violations of lobbying rules and other laws, James R. Carroll writes for The Courier-Journal. The Ethics Committee established a four-member subcommittee, which will look into "allegations that (Whitfield) failed to prohibit lobbying contacts between his staff and his wife (Connie Harriman-Whitfiled), improperly used his official position for the beneficial interest of himself or his wife and dispensed special favors or privileges to either his wife, the Human Society Legislative Fund or the Humane Society of the United States," the panel's announcement said.

In a statement Whitfield said, "The allegation that my wife lobbied my office or my staff to convince me to introduce and pass the legislation is absurd. This is an issue I have followed for many years."

Since 2011, Whitfield's wife has been a registered lobbyist with the Humane Society Legislative Fund, a unite of the Humane Society of the U.S., Carroll writes. The report stated that there is substantial reason to believe that Whitfield not only allowed his wife to use his congressional office to assist her lobbing activities but also that he met with her and other lawmakers to talk about legislation she was working on. "In all, a dozen bills were involved, dealing with issues including the abuse of Tennessee Walking Horses, shutting down puppy mills and protecting the great apes," Carroll reports.

"Despite being on notice of the potential ethics issues, Representative Whitfield's staff continued to have contacts with Representative Whitfield's wife related to her lobbying," the board report said. However, Human Society President Wayne Pacelle said that more than 10 years before Whitfield's wife  became professionally involved with the Human Society, Congressman Whitfield was already a leader in animal welfare legislation, especially horse protection."

The investigative subcommittee will be chaired by Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, and also include Florida Rep. Ted Deutch, Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., and John Carney, D-Del. (Read more)