Officials in Chicago are failing to meet their legal obligations to turn over evidence that would be helpful to the defense, including information that calls into question the credibility of prosecution witnesses, such as police officers, according to a new investigation by the Invisible Institute and the Chicago Reader. With support from the Fund, Max Blaisdell, Sam Stecklow and Matt ...
For The Food Section, an online outlet that covers food and drink in the southern U.S., Hanna Raskin investigated potential Salmonella contamination on squab, a flightless pigeon that is consumed mostly by Egyptian and Chinese immigrants. With support from the Fund, Raskin found that microbiological testing is not being conducted on squab farmed in the U.S., despite a longstanding governmental ...
For a story in Es Mental, a health magazine in Puerto Rico, reporter Jeniffer Wiscovitch Padilla found that fentanyl deaths in Puerto Rico have increased dramatically in the last four years – and that Puerto Rico’s forensic agency has not been equipped to handle the situation. With support from the Fund, Padilla spent three months analyzing data and conducting interviews. ...
The team of journalists that produced an 18-month investigation of prosecutorial misconduct in Ohio published a follow-up story showing that, in several cases, prosecutors withheld key evidence that could have led to acquittals. With support from the Fund, Columbia Journalism Investigations, NPR and member stations WVXU/Cincinnati Public Radio, Ideastream Public Media and the Ohio Newsroom analyzed more than 1,600 appellate ...
In the second part of a Texas Observer investigation into conservative billionaires’ influence on public schools, Steven Monacelli reported on some school board members quietly hiring a GOP-affiliated law firm to draft a new policy targeting social issues such as “critical race theory,” “gender fluidity” and “potentially pornographic material.” With support from the Fund, Monacelli reported that when other board members ...
Oregon’s public schools have done little to educate students about the risks of substance abuse and how to combat addiction, according to a collaborative investigation by the LUND Report, the University of Oregon Journalism Project and Oregon Public Broadcasting, with support from the Fund. As part of the series, the team gathered curriculum from most of the state’s 197 public ...
Writing in the nonprofit environmental outlet Mongabay, with support from the Fund, Roberth Orihuela found that mines operated by U.S. companies in Peru have caused pollution for decades that harms local communities and ecosystems. In the Tacna and Moquegua regions, Southern Copper dumped 785 million metric tons of mining waste in Ite Bay, damaging an important fishing area. In Arequipa, ...
Following a year-long investigation by the Maine Monitor about problems in the state’s guardianship program for people unable to care for themselves, reporter Samantha Hogan has taken readers behind the scenes to share her reporting methods. Maine’s 16 independent, county-run probate courts are not a part of the state judicial branch but are run by part-time, elected judges responsible for ...
Hospitals often sue patients over unpaid medical bills in bulk, sometimes by the hundreds of thousands, even when people already face financial hardship or bankruptcy. Judgments against patients in these suits can derail someone’s life but, according to experts, they don’t bring hospitals much money. So why are hospitals motivated to go after their former patients? With support from the ...
Veteran Chicago journalist Ben Austen’s new book, “Correction: Parole, Prison and the Possibility of Change,” examines the criminal justice system through the experiences of two teens imprisoned for four decades after murder convictions and repeatedly denied parole. To research the book, with support from the Fund, Austen sat in on parole hearings in Illinois, visited prisons, halfway houses and clemency ...