McNelly Torres reports for the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting: As part of the 2009 economic stimulus package, millions of federal dollars flowed to Florida’s public school districts. The money was intended to benefit low-performing schools as way of closing the so-called achievement gap. Starved for cash as a result of plummeting real estate values and dwindling property tax revenues, ...
Jason Berry – author of Render Unto Rome, is the subject of a Washington Post profile in its Style section. The article focuses on the how Berry continues to practice his faith, while investigating the sexual abuse of children by priests, and most recently in this book, lifting the veil of secrecy that has cloaked the church’s financial affairs. Berry has received several awards from the Fund ...
Kristin Palitza reports in The Guardian on child laborers in the tobacco fields of Malawi: At the height of the tobacco harvest season, Malawi’s lush, flowing fields are filled with young children picking the big green-yellow leaves. Some can count their age on one hand. Since the handling of the leaves is done largely without protective clothing, workers absorb up to ...
The winner of the Robert I. Friedman award, Stealth of Nations by Robert Neuwirth, is coming out this fall. When we think of the informal economy, we tend to think of crime: prostitution, gun running, drug trafficking. Stealth of Nations opens up this underground realm, showing how the worldwide informal economy deals mostly in legal products and is, in fact, a ten-trillion-dollar ...
The Chicago Reporter’s investigation of the State of Illinois’ contracts with minority and disabled business owners has found limited impact, missed goals. Photo by: Jason Reblando. “Empty Jackpot“: Illinois celebrates its program to steer state contracts to businesses owned by minorities, women and people with a disability. But a closer look shows the state may not be fulfilling its goals. “Less ...
In its September/October issue, City Limits, an investigative magazine based in New York City, explores whether the New York Fire Department has learned lessons from Sept. 11 and – as important – after firefighters die in routine fires. “The prospect of another Sept. 11 is as unlikely as it is terrifying. Fires in basements and factories and two-story homes, however, will happen all the time. So ...
Winner of FIJ’s Gene Roberts Book Award, “All the Justice Money Can Buy,” by Snigdha Prakash, is being favorably reviewed: “One can read Snigdha Prakash’s disturbing book on two levels: either as in–depth reporting of a major corporate scandal, or as a legal thriller, the denouement of which is left hanging until the final pages. On any score, she offers a ...
Scott Carney, Jason Miklian, and Kristian Hoelscher report on Fortress India: Why is Delhi building a new Berlin Wall to keep out its Bangladeshi neighbors? “Felani wore her gold bridal jewelry as she crouched out of sight inside the squalid concrete building. The 15-year-old’s father, Nurul Islam, peeked cautiously out the window and scanned the steel and barbed-wire fence that ...
For Mother Jones, Trevor Aaronson writes: “The FBI has built a massive network of spies to prevent another domestic attack. But are they busting terrorist plots-or leading them?” Here is an excerpt from his article, “The Informants”: “Here’s how it works: Informants report to their handlers on people who have, say, made statements sympathizing with terrorists. Those names are then ...
Mary Lou Simms investigated the U. S. Department of Agriculture program that exterminates wild birds and animals for the McClatchy-Tribune News Service. “Wildlife Services is the little-known branch of the USDA deemed largely responsible for geese slaughters coast to coast. Buried under several layers of bureaucracy, Wildlife Services prefers to stay under the radar. However, a copy of a 2010 report obtained ...