The second season of Katie Thornton’s podcast, “The Divided Dial” recently aired on WNYC’s “On the Media” and NPR stations nationwide, digging into the history of shortwave radio propaganda and how it became a recruiting tool for militias and laid the groundwork for right-wing use of the internet and podcasts. The Fund supported the first season of the podcast, which ...
An investigation by Streetlight, a nonprofit news outlet based in Oklahoma City, found that most information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on facilities under its oversight excluded data on Black residents who live within one mile of factories, Superfund sites and other toxic sites. This omission affected a majority-Black neighborhood in Oklahoma City that has fought for better environmental ...
Journalist Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Pereira were brutally murdered in the Amazon while Phillips was investigating illegal fishing in the region for his book, “How to Save the Amazon.” The book was about halfway finished when Phillips was killed, and a group of journalists came together to finish it for him – with support from the Fund and several ...
Independent journalist Beth Shelburne partnered with the Alabama Reflector to investigate the state’s runaway legal spending in defending its prison system. Shelburne obtained and examined years of state finance data connected to civil litigation against prison staff, discovering that the state’s legal spending has surpassed $57 million since 2020. The resulting four-part series revealed an extraordinary number of excessive force ...
Following up on their investigation into the health impact Van Nuys Airport has on Southern California residents, a team from Capital & Main found that the airport is not complying with a decade-old requirement to post warnings about exposure to hazardous fuel. The investigation was supported by the Fund, and it documented widespread community concerns about the airport. Van Nuys ...
In its continuing investigation of Hawaii’s child welfare system, with support from the Fund, Civil Beat reported that state authorities keep thin records of child-abuse deaths – which can ultimately endanger more children. Civil Beat reported on the case of a toddler whose legal guardian was found to have committed medical neglect, triggering a federal requirement that Hawaii’s child welfare ...
A Pittsburgh-based company, Alcoa, has been mining aluminum in Western Australia for more than 60 years under a special agreement that bypasses regulations. To further build its global aluminum empire, Alcoa wants to cut deeper into Australia’s endangered Northern Jarrah Forest, alarming scientists, advocates and indigenous communities. People who live near Alcoa’s three giant refineries in Australia say the community’s ...
An investigation by Hola Cultura, with a seed grant from the Fund, mapped areas in Washington, DC, where healthy trees have been removed over the last five years – and found that the most affected area is Ward 8 in the Southeast section on the city, which is more diverse and less affluent than other parts of the city. The ...