EXCLUSIVE — Andrew Bailey is heading home to Missouri, and the outgoing FBI co-deputy director has a blunt message for anyone suggesting turmoil at the bureau pushed him out.

«This was 100% about my need to get home and raise my four small children,» Bailey told Digital in an exclusive interview. «I love my kids.»

Bailey, who announced Monday that he is leaving the FBI after just over a year, rejected suggestions that problems at the bureau played a part in his decision. 

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«My decision to go home is based solely upon my need to be a parent to my four children,» he said.

He accused some news outlets of spreading «lies» about the reason for his departure and offered a forceful defense of FBI Director Kash Patel amid scrutiny of the bureau’s leadership.

«Any accusation that Director Patel has focused on anything other than fulfilling the president’s promise to make America safe again are bold-faced lies,» Bailey said. «We wake up every day and work early every morning and stay up late, oftentimes without sleep, to ensure mission accomplishment.»

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Patel, in his own statement Monday, said Bailey was leaving to return to his family in Missouri and praised his role in the FBI’s overhaul.

«Andrew’s leadership at the FBI will be missed but we are grateful he answered the call to serve!» Patel wrote. He said Bailey had helped institute «critical reforms» and thanked him for his dedication to the bureau’s mission.

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Bailey had left his post as Missouri attorney general to join the bureau in 2025.

Asked whether anything about the job factored into the timing of his exit, Bailey insisted it did not. He said protecting children had been central to his work as Missouri attorney general and remained a priority at the FBI.

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According to Bailey, the bureau added 55 agents to child protection efforts and increased the number of victim service providers in field offices nationwide.

During field office reviews, Bailey said he pressed staff on whether the bureau was «fulfilling our moral and legal obligation for victim notification and quality victim services.» He called the FBI’s victim services program «top-notch.»

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Bailey portrayed his time in Washington as part of what he called a «truly historic transformation» of federal law enforcement under President Donald Trump and Patel.

He credited the administration’s creation of homeland security task forces and designation of Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations with helping law enforcement pursue its mission. He also said the FBI had made it easier for state, tribal and local officers to join its task forces, adding more than 2,000 task force officers in a year.

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Bailey also pointed to what he described as a 20% reduction in homicides, more than 5,000 violent offenders arrested by the FBI and thousands of child victims identified and rescued as evidence that the administration’s approach is working.

The outgoing official also said the bureau had seized 3,258 kilograms of fentanyl in one year and arrested more than 4,200 members of foreign terrorist organizations. He cited 11,000 child victims located and identified, without specifying a time period for those latter two figures.

Asked what the public might misunderstand about the FBI, Bailey described the scale of an agency with roughly 38,000 employees and 11,000 armed agents, charged with both criminal investigations and national security work. He said the leadership team had pushed resources from headquarters to field offices, where agents could have a greater impact.

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«We’ve done so much to push resources out of headquarters back to the field where they can maximize their impact,» he said.

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Bailey said more than 1,500 positions had been shifted from headquarters to field offices and that reducing layers of approval allowed agents to follow leads more quickly. He said the FBI processed more than 1.8 million DNA samples and reduced its backlog to zero for the first time in bureau history.

Asked about political considerations at the FBI, Bailey said protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution were «the only considerations.» When asked how he protected agents’ ability to follow the facts, he pointed to those staffing and approval changes. He did not address whether he had seen politics influence a specific investigation or personnel decision.

He rejected criticism of Patel’s approach as resistance to change inside an organization accustomed to the status quo. Bailey alleged that the FBI had previously been «weaponized» against Trump and his family and said Patel wanted to return it to its core mission of protecting Americans and upholding the Constitution.

«That is going to anger those sacred guardians of the status quo,» Bailey said.

As for what comes next, Bailey said he expects to return to public service someday, though he did not name a role. He traced a career that took him from the Army and two deployments to Iraq through Missouri state government and the FBI before returning to the reason he is leaving now.

«I’ve dedicated my life to public service and anticipate that I’ll look to serve again in the future in some capacity,» he said. «But I’m excited right now to get home to the kids and be able to enjoy time with them and their activities.»

us, kash patel, fbi, national security, investigations

During his time as director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., allowed over $1 billion in COVID-19 relief funding to go out the door without required monitoring, records reveal.

The 2022 State of Florida Compliance and Internal Controls over Financial Reporting and Federal Awards flagged the weakness in its annual audit, stating, «FDEM did not monitor the activities of any subrecipients.»

While Digital is not aware of fraud that may have been committed with those funds, the resurfaced audit casts an unflattering light on Moskowitz as he pursues re-election in one of the country’s most competitive districts.

It also raises questions about oversight efforts for state-level allocations for government funds, an issue Republicans have signaled merits more attention.

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Moskowitz’s FDEM approved $210,562,500 in funding to 39 local government recipients in the 2020-2021 fiscal year from the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), according to the audit. The next year, it distributed $1,026,225,200 to 55 locations.

Taken together, the grants add up to $1.23 billion.

«Contrary to Federal regulations, the FDEM did not monitor the activities of CRF subrecipients,» the audit states. «Such monitoring is to include, for example, reviewing subrecipient audit reports and determining whether management decisions are required for any audit findings related to the federal award.»

According to the report, an acceptable level of oversight would normally include inquiries of the recipients as well as checks like onsite evaluations.

«Monitoring of the subrecipient must include reviewing financial and performance reports, following up and ensuring that the subrecipient takes timely and appropriate action on all deficiencies pertaining to the federal award detected through audits, on-site reviews and other means,» the audit states.

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Notably, Moskowitz wasn’t head of FDEM for the entire 2020-2021 fiscal year. He resigned from the post at the end of April, two months before the end of the fiscal year in June, making him the head of the FDEM for the vast majority of the 2020-2021 audit cycle but not the complete window.

Even so, his congressional opponent, Republican candidate Scott Singer, believes the responsibility lies squarely on Moskowitz’s shoulders.

«When Jared Moskowitz ran a state agency, federal regulators and state auditors found that there was a gross lack of oversight of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds, a lack of reporting, a lack of review of where the funds were going,» Singer said in a statement to Digital.

«And that’s unacceptable, especially with public tax dollars. But it’s not surprising.»

Singer argued the audit echoed earlier questions about Moskowitz’s work involving disaster recovery funds.

He pointed to an incident in 2017, when Moskowitz, as an attorney for AshBritt, a disaster-cleanup company, had renegotiated compensation from the City of Parkland after Hurricane Irma. Disclosure reports showed that he was being paid over $400,000 by the company while also serving as a state legislator.

«When Jared was a state representative, he went to his own city and demanded that they pay more for hurricane cleanup that went to a disaster recovery company that paid him millions,» Singer said.

«We can’t afford people who are continuing to do the same thing. A gross oversight of funds and self-dealing.»

When asked about Singer’s criticisms, Moskowitz’s campaign fired back, stating that the congressman was proud of the work that he did, noting that he had been reappointed to the role by a Republican governor.

«As Director of FDEM, I worked directly for Governor DeSantis and his administration. Florida had one of the best COVID responses in the country,» Moskowitz told Digital.

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«I left almost a year before this report was issued as I had to leave the agency to be with my dad, who was battling cancer. Governor DeSantis appointed me again to the Broward County commission. To my knowledge, Florida COVID spending has passed the FEMA audit for reimbursements,» he added.

Moskowitz also pointed out that he had received praise from even Republicans for his disaster-related work, including from Singer himself. Moskowitz shared communications between them in which Singer said the state was «in a much better place because of what you’ve done.» Singer also highlighted a second communication from Singer to Moskowitz stating, «seriously, thank you for all of the amazing work you’ve done and all the help you’re providing to our stay [sic].» 

Having cleared their parties’ respective primaries, Moskowitz and Singer will face off in the Florida general election Nov. 3.

politics, state and local, ron desantis, florida, democrats elections

En los bosques de Brasil, algunos cantos de aves pueden superar el estruendo de una motosierra o un martillo neumático. Un trabajo de Jeff Podos, de la Universidad de Massachusetts Amherst, y del biólogo João CT Menezes identificó al pájaro campana, también conocido como campanero de garganta desnuda, y a la chuña patas rojas, llamada seriema de patas rojas en otras regiones, como dos candidatos al título de las aves más ruidosas del mundo, con picos que superan los 120 decibelios.

El hallazgo va más allá de una competencia por el récord. La investigación, publicada en la revista Evolution, reunió mediciones de 123 especies y buscó responder una pregunta más amplia: qué condiciones físicas permiten que un ave produzca un llamado tan intenso y qué lugar ocupa esa capacidad en su vida social y en el ambiente que habita.

Los investigadores encontraron una relación clara entre el volumen y la anatomía. Las especies más sonoras suelen tener cuerpos de mayor tamaño, músculos capaces de comprimir más aire y picos anchos, una combinación que favorece la emisión de vocalizaciones de gran potencia. Sin embargo, la explicación biológica todavía está incompleta: los datos no confirmaron que esos llamados respondan, de forma general, a una misma ventaja ecológica.

El pájaro campana y la chuña patas rojas llevaron el canto por encima de los 120 decibelios

La diferencia entre un canto habitual y una llamada extrema puede medirse en decenas de decibelios. En la muestra analizada por Podos y Menezes, el registro más bajo correspondió a un colibrí, con 64 decibelios, una intensidad cercana a la de una conversación. En el otro extremo aparecieron el pájaro campana y la chuña patas rojas.

La distancia entre ambos extremos fue de 58 decibelios, una brecha que muestra la diversidad de estrategias acústicas entre las aves. En el caso de las dos especies que encabezan la lista, las mediciones superaron los 120 decibelios en sus picos. La cifra las coloca por encima de sonidos cotidianos asociados a maquinaria pesada.

El pájaro campana habita sectores de la Mata Atlántica brasileña y emite un sonido breve, metálico y penetrante. La chuña patas rojas, propia de zonas abiertas de América del Sur, posee una vocalización distinta, más prolongada y reconocible por sus secuencias de notas. Aunque sus repertorios no se parecen, ambas especies alcanzan intensidades excepcionales.

La novedad no radica únicamente en haber detectado esos niveles. El estudio reunió una base de datos de campo que antes era muy limitada. De las 123 especies medidas, 113 no contaban con registros previos de la intensidad de sus cantos,

Los instrumentos de golf y seguridad laboral cambiaron las mediciones de campo

Cuantificar el volumen de un pájaro en libertad presenta una dificultad central: la intensidad percibida cambia con la distancia. Un llamado puede resultar abrumador a pocos metros y apenas audible desde otro punto del bosque. Por eso, un sonómetro aislado no alcanza para establecer un valor preciso si no se conoce también la separación exacta entre el ave y quien toma la medición.

Durante años, una alternativa consistió en capturar ejemplares y trasladarlos a un laboratorio. Ese método permite controlar condiciones, pero resulta poco práctico para comparar muchas especies, sobre todo en trabajos de campo realizados en distintos países. También puede alterar el comportamiento natural del animal.

Menezes y Podos recurrieron a herramientas que se popularizaron fuera de la ornitología. Usaron telémetros láser, desarrollados y comercializados para golfistas, para calcular distancias con precisión. A eso sumaron sonómetros portátiles de alta resolución, empleados en ámbitos de seguridad laboral. La combinación les permitió estimar la amplitud de las vocalizaciones sin apartar a las aves de su ambiente.

Las mediciones se realizaron en los alrededores de Amherst, en Estados Unidos, y en distintos puntos de Brasil. Allí, los investigadores registraron aves en condiciones naturales, donde la orientación del cuerpo, la vegetación, el viento y la distancia modifican la forma en que el sonido llega al observador.

“Determinar la intensidad del canto de un pájaro debería ser bastante sencillo en el laboratorio”, explicó Menezes, quien desarrolló parte del trabajo durante sus estudios de posgrado en la Universidad de Massachusetts Amherst. “Pero hasta hace muy poco, ha sido muy difícil hacerlo en el campo, y hay muy pocos datos disponibles”, señaló.

Los cuerpos grandes y los picos anchos favorecen los llamados más potentes

La asociación entre tamaño corporal y volumen era una de las hipótesis que los autores esperaban confirmar. Un ave de mayor porte suele disponer de músculos respiratorios más robustos y de una estructura corporal capaz de impulsar una mayor cantidad de aire. Ese aire comprimido atraviesa el sistema vocal del animal y sale por el pico.

El ancho del pico también aparece como un factor relevante. Los investigadores comparan esa función con la campana de instrumentos de viento, como una trompeta: una abertura más amplia puede contribuir a proyectar mejor el sonido. En las especies de mayor volumen, esa característica anatómica se repitió con frecuencia.

La anatomía ofrece parte de la respuesta sobre cómo las aves producen cantos tan intensos. Pero el estudio no logró establecer todavía por qué la evolución habría favorecido, en todos los casos, esa capacidad. La diferencia es relevante: conocer el mecanismo físico no implica haber resuelto la función ecológica.

Podos y Menezes habían planteado varias posibilidades. Una era que las aves menos aptas para vuelos prolongados compensaran esa limitación con llamadas que viajaran lejos. Otra hipótesis apuntaba a los bosques densos, donde los individuos pueden oírse sin verse. También consideraron la poligamia: una vocalización más potente podría alcanzar a potenciales parejas situadas a mayor distancia.

Los resultados no respaldaron un patrón general para esas explicaciones. Algunas especies ruidosas viven en ambientes cerrados, otras en áreas abiertas; algunas presentan sistemas de reproducción que podrían beneficiarse de la difusión sonora y otras no encajan con esa idea. La potencia del canto parece responder a una trama más compleja que todavía requiere más observaciones.

El récord de 2019 quedó como antecedente de una pregunta mayor

Podos ya había llamado la atención sobre los límites acústicos de las aves en 2019. Entonces participó de una investigación que identificó al campanero blanco como el ave con el canto más fuerte registrado hasta ese momento. El dato fue reconocido después por el Libro Guinness de los Récords.

Aquel antecedente instaló una comparación fácil de entender: el llamado del campanero blanco podía ser más intenso que permanecer junto a una motosierra encendida. Sin embargo, el nuevo trabajo cambia la escala del debate. En vez de concentrarse en un único ejemplar o en una especie récord, pone el foco en un conjunto amplio de aves y en las reglas biológicas que ordenan sus diferencias.

“Ahora conocemos algunos de los mecanismos: cuerpos más grandes y picos más anchos, pero aún no hemos descubierto los motivos”, afirmó Menezes. Para los autores, harán falta registros de muchas más especies antes de poder vincular con mayor seguridad el volumen, el hábitat, el comportamiento y la historia evolutiva de cada linaje.

El próximo paso vuelve a estar lejos del laboratorio. Podos anticipó su intención de continuar las mediciones de campo junto a Menezes, con el telémetro y el sonómetro como herramientas centrales. Cada nuevo registro puede sumar una pieza a una pregunta que permanece abierta: qué gana un ave cuando su canto atraviesa el paisaje con una fuerza que deja al resto del bosque en silencio.

Campanero de garganta desnuda