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WASHINGTON — The Fund for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) is seeking grant proposals for independent investigative projects from journalists who need support for travel and other reporting expenses. The deadline for proposals is 5 p.m. EDT, Monday, April 30. FIJ is interested in proposals that break new ground and expose wrongdoing. Projects relating to government accountability and environmental issues in the ...

Mc Nelly Torres of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting has won a citation for investigative reporting from the Education Writers Association. This is the second national education reporting citation for Torres. Her story, School of Hard Financial Knocks, exposed how Florida schools diverted federal money intended for education reform to cover general operating expenses. The investigation was supported by a ...

2012 Tracie McMillan – The New York Times likes her new book, “The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table.” From the Times review: “The news Ms. McMillan brings about life on the front lines is mostly grim… She names names… [Her] book is lighted from within by anger at the poor food options many in ...

2012 Christopher Ketcham – The cover story for the January 2012 issue of Harper’s Magazine is “Stop Payment!” which discusses efforts to rally homeowners to fight back and file lawsuits, if their mortgages were packaged for sale as financial products. Leading the efforts, and Ketcham’s story, are the people behind the National Homeowners Cooperative and the website Protect America’s Dream. Ketcham ...

Oakland Local – A continuing series of stories  exposes the city’s Building Services division’s unfair treatment of property owners. The department is supposed to tackle blight and enforce housing codes, but in so doing, has caught fire for “imposing excessive fines, allowing inspectors to intimidate and threaten property owners.” It has also angered property owners for its “frequent use of prospective liens ...

Sarah Favot, Kirsten Berg and Jenna Ebersole for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting –  The application of Massachusetts law passed to crack down on juvenile “super predators’’ has produced profound inequities. “One 16-year-old went looking for pot at a Brookline High School graduation party, then shot the guest of honor in the chest when he got a racial slur instead. ...

Colin Woodard – Portland, Maine – An investigative profile of Maine’s governor, written for The Portland Phoenix, explains how an improbable candidate and the Tea Party movement combined to win Paul LePage state-wide office. “[Paul] LePage’s actions in his first year in office suggest  that his poverty-to-power experience has led him to see the world from the top  down, and that ...

Oakland Local is publishing a continuing series of stories exposing the city’s Building Services division’s unfair treatment of property owners. The department is supposed to tackle blight and enforce housing codes, but in so doing, has caught fire for “imposing excessive fines, allowing inspectors to intimidate and threaten property owners.” It has also angered property owners for its “frequent use of prospective liens ...

Tracie McMillan’s “The American Way of Eating” has hit a nerve. The New York Times review of her book investigating the food industry praises her approach as forthright and “lighted from within by anger.” According to the Times, the book is a “brutal takedown of corporations” that cheat food workers out of pay and supply Americans with poor quality food. Rush Limbaugh has a ...