A major Republican donor funded a campaign to pass three ballot initiatives in Dallas that would cripple the city’s capacity for self-governance – and, in the process, he may have violated multiple laws, according to an investigation by Steven Monacelli, with support from the Fund. Monacelli reported for the Texas Observer that Monty Bennett, a Republican “megadonor,” hired a company ...
A new documentary film, produced with the Fund’s support, examines the politics of parole through the case of Ronnie Carrasquillo, who was convicted of killing a plainclothes police officer 47 years ago. Dan Protess, producer and director of the film, filed public records requests, dug through documents, interviewed sources, and filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department, in order ...
With support from the Fund, EcoRI News Reporters Rob Smith and Colleen Cronin combed through Rhode Island’s environmental laws for months to get a first-of-its-kind comprehensive look at which laws are unenforced, identify which public bodies are destitute and track how little money the state spends on its own environmental goals. They discovered that a 2021 law mandating that all ...
With support from the Fund, Beth Shelburne conducted an extensive review of accounting data to track Alabama’s skyrocketing legal spending to defend its overcrowded prison system. Shelburne uncovered a record number of lawsuit settlement payments to victims of excessive force, wrongful death and medical neglect inside Alabama prisons. The first story in her reporting, published in the Alabama Reflector, details ...
For the last two years, a team from Feet in 2 Worlds (a nonprofit news organization that engages immigrant journalists) has conducted an in-depth investigation into misinformation and disinformation on Spanish radio in the U.S. With support from the Fund, the team, led by Paulina Velasco, examined the sources of misinformation, the lack of regulatory scrutiny that enables it, and ...
Journalist Ashli Blow has spent three years investigating Velsicol Chemical’s toxic legacy in Memphis for the Tennessee Lookout. The investigation began with a 2021 tip about Velsicol possibly stalling efforts to avoid Superfund designation, leading to years of reporting through public records requests, data analysis and interviews with residents, scientists and legal experts. Supported by the Fund, Blow’s latest story ...
Bangor Daily News reporter Sawyer Loftus has partnered with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network since July to investigate evictions in Maine. For Loftus’ first story, which was supported by the Fund, he wrote about how a new eviction-prevention program in Maine excludes people in federal public housing despite the dire consequences they are likely to face if evicted. He focused on the ...
A state program to compensate people who were sterilized in California prisons has rejected most applications for compensation, according to an investigation by Cayla Mihalovich, with support from the Fund. For 18 months, Mihalovich has been investigating the flawed implementation of the reparations program. Her latest story, published in Cal Matters and KQED and republished in other outlets, includes the ...
California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently vetoed a bill intended to protect farmworkers when employers violate state outdoor heat-safety law, Robert J. Lopez reported with support from the Fund. The report was published in Capital & Main. It followed an investigation by Lopez, also supported by the Fund, that detailed how California sharply cut back on enforcement of outdoor heat-protection laws ...
For decades, police agencies in California have hidden evidence that officers engaged in misconduct and criminality – even paying the officers six-figure settlements to leave without a fight and then lying in reference checks when the officers apply for jobs in other places – according to an investigation by Katey Rusch and Casey Smith for UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program, ...