More than 60 years ago, Prince Edward County, Virginia, closed its public schools for five years, rather than desegregate. As a result, more than 1,700 Black children were locked out of their classrooms for five years; many of them never learned to read. With support from the Fund, Kavitha Cardoza dug into that event – and its continued impact, generations ...
In a lawsuit that could reshape public access to water, a handful of East Texas hunters and anglers are fighting a landowner over their beloved fishing grounds. With support from the Fund, Andrew Becker dug into the case and explored the landowner’s connections to dark-money and think tanks that have fought for years to limit public access to water. ...
A school board in Ohio greenlit tax break worth $280 million over three decades for weapons manufacturer Anduril to build a mega-factory producing drones and missiles, according to reporting by Taylor Barnes. With support from the Fund, she obtained a contract hinged on a little-known provision: The tax break would only be given if the local school board consented, since ...
A new investigative podcast from Georgia Public Broadcasting examines the impact of a massive chemical fire at BioLab’s plant in Conyers, Georgia, two years ago. Pamela Kirkland obtained documents showing that state officials recommended that debris from the fire be tested for hexavalent chromium, a known human carcinogen – but testing was not conducted. With support from the Fund, GPB ...
Women in Turkey who make clothes sold in the U.S. and Europe say they work up to 20 hours a day, suffer verbal abuse, are denied bathroom breaks and face threats of dismissal, according to an investigation by Ozlem Temena for New Lines, with support from the Fund. The factories benefit from Turkish government incentives, while conditions for workers have ...
As part of his ongoing coverage of data centers, Edward Donnelly reported that the developer of a proposed center in Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania, communicated extensively with state officials before local residents were even aware of the plans – and the developer also asked federal officials to relax air-pollution rules in order to rush through approval of the data center. ...
The regulatory system designed to protect farmworkers from pesticides is enforced haphazardly across California, according to new reporting by Robert Lopez published in the Los Angeles Times and Capital & Main. With support from the Fund, Lopez obtained 40,000 state enforcement actions for the last five years and found that even when regulators determined that companies endangered workers or committed ...
In the first part of a series on deed theft affecting Black homeowners in New York, Karen Carrillo reported for the Amsterdam News on an uptick in fraudulent schemes to take people’s homes in gentrifying neighborhoods. Deed theft happens when someone illegally takes someone’s home without the owner’s knowledge or tricks a homeowner into signing over the deed. Carrillo reported ...
With support from the Fund, What’s Up Worcester News analyzed more than 90,000 service requests from residents and found that – while the city data is limited – requests from lower-income areas take longer to resolve. The story grew out of repeated community concerns about neighborhood conditions, including potholes, street signs, traffic signals and sanitation, and broader questions about whether ...
With support from the Fund, Katia Savchuk spent a year reporting on a Denver pastor and his wife who say God told them to launch their own cryptocurrency. Though they had no background in crypto, they hawked their INDXcoin in Christian communities. More than 500 people – including retirees and a disabled veteran – handed over around $3 million. When ...