The Commercial Development Company (CDC), which calls itself “North America’s leading brownfield developer,” acquires environmentally-impacted lands from industrial operators, pledging to clean them up and sell them for redevelopment. But residents are often left frustrated when the properties remain undeveloped, sometimes for decades. In a six-month investigation supported by the Fund – involving property records, court documents, site visits and ...
Wyoming’s public-defender system has long suffered from inadequate funding and high caseloads. In addition, public defenders in the state work with antiquated records systems and clients caught in cycles of addiction and poverty. With support from the Fund, David Dudley reported on systemic problems in Wyoming through the case of one woman, Aja Johnson, who was represented by an overburdened ...
Business Insider exposed how a series of Supreme Court decisions and laws have made it nearly impossible for incarcerated plaintiffs to seek redress in the courts for violations of the Eighth Amendment – a constitutional protection for prisoners against “cruel and unusual punishments.” Business Insider detailed its findings in a seven-part series. The reporting took over two years and is ...
With support from the Fund, Judith Matloff spent a year investigating a group of white investors who promised to give a tribe in northern Nevada their windfalls from a legal marijuana farm. The venture with the impoverished Ft. McDermitt nation fell apart amid mismanagement and lack of transparency. The story, co-published in The Guardian and High Country News, chronicled how ...
With the Fund’s support, Sara Sneath was working on a series about fossil fuel influence in Louisiana universities when she received a tip about McNeese University’s Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Center of Excellence. Reporter Natalie McLendon, a McNeese graduate, also reached out to her with tips that the industry’s involvement in the center was unusual. Together, with a follow-up grant ...
For A News Café, an independent news site in rural Shasta County, California, R.V. Scheide revisited the sidelining of the county’s sheriff and assistant CEO two years ago and found that complaints against him had been investigated and were not substantiated. Scheide’s reporting, supported by the Fund, involved reviewing hundreds of pages of documents and interviewing more than 30 sources. ...
The Fund for Investigative Journalism is accepting proposals for both regular grants (up to $10,000 for full investigative stories) and seed grants for early reporting (up to $2,500). Proposals for regular grants are due on Jan. 27 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, and applications for seed grants are due on Jan. 31 at 11:59 p.m. Application forms, instructions, an FAQ and ...
Journalist Alex Caudros spent six years of immersive reporting and research, with support from the Fund, for his new book, “When We Sold God’s Eye: Diamonds, Murder, and a Clash of Worlds in the Amazon,” published by Hachette in the U.S. and excerpted in The Guardian. The book tells the story of the Cinta Larga, an Indigenous group that had ...
Over the last year and a half, reporter Sammy Sussman has filed more than 700 records requests and obtained 27,000 pages of police misconduct files from across New York State, with support from the Fund. Reporting for New York Focus and MuckRock, Sussman found that some police departments falsely claim they have no records of misconduct complaints – and some ...
The Buckeye Flame, a statewide LGBT news outlet in Ohio, revisited the case of a Dayton man who was arrested and convicted for felony assault because he had oral sex without disclosing his HIV status. With support from the Fund, Cid Standifer reported that the man was taking antiretrovirals and had an undetectable viral load, which would make it impossible ...