From Cathryn Jakobson Ramin for MORE Magazine, a report on “bioidentical” hormones that are NOT what the doctor ordered. Lab testing of compounded hormones was financed in part by the Fund for Investigative Journalism: “[T]he ingredients of each capsule were analyzed using a process called high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection mass spectrometry, meant to evaluate the specific pharmaceutical content of the ...
For the San Jose Mercury News, New America Media, and Viet Bao Daily News, Ngoc Nguyen reports on Vietnamese Americans who have suffered in silence, victims of Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War. “As a soldier in the South Vietnamese army, Trai [Nguyen] gathered intelligence that helped American soldiers. He fought alongside the Americans and was exposed to the defoliants ...
From Todd Melby for Prairie Public, a series of stories on the rising number of workplace deaths and injuries in North Dakota, where there has been an oil boom. North Dakota is now the most dangerous state in the US for workers, according to a labor union study, worse than Alaska – also an oil producing state. Melby investigates in detail how and why a young oil worker, ...
From Amy Lieberman for Women’s eNews, the story of transgender immigrants who are detained in US facilities as they seek asylum or resolution of other cases. In the latest part of her series, Lieberman describes a jail in California where conditions have improved by creating a unit where gay, bi-sexual, and transgender individuals are housed together. But it is the only official federal immigration ...
For The Chicago Reporter, Maria Ines Zamudio reports on deportations that are rushed through without hearings. An excerpt: In recent years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been deporting more and more immigrants by bypassing formal court proceedings, the Reporter found. Reinstatement is one of several legal strategies devised for this effort. Others are known as “administrative orders,” “expedited removals,” “stipulated order ...
From Claudine LoMonaco, for the Sante Fe Reporter, an investigation of a national forest restoration project that “has gone haplessly awry.” An excerpt: “[The initiative’s] aim is to thin and restore 2.4 million acres along the Mogollon Rim in northern Arizona, an enormous swath of land on four national forests stretching from Flagstaff to the New Mexico border, and reintroduce the ...
From Simon & Schuster, The Tender Soldier: A True Story of War and Sacrifice, by Vanessa M. Gezari investigates the “Human Terrain System,” a complex military mission that aims to understand the enemy in Afghanistan. From the book jacket: “What happens when the Pentagon sends three Americans to help carry out the most audacious experiment since Vietnam? On the day Barack Obama ...
From author Jennifer Margulis, “The Business of Baby,” published by Scribner. An excerpt: “As this book will show you, time and time again corporate profits and private interests trump what is best for moms and babies. The science is consistently ignored, and practices proven to be harmful are continued. Doctors – even though most have the best possible intentions – often unwittingly ...
From Steve Fisher for New America Media, the story of an element needed for cell phones, weapons, and hybrid cars – available to be mined in Alaska. Its discovery brings hope to the unemployed, but concern for the environment: “Dysprosium, a “rare-earth” element, is essential in the production of technologies as varied as iPhones, wind turbines, smart bombs and predator drones. China currently ...
From Lee van der Voo, for InvestigateWest and the New York Times, the investigation of a federal anti-poverty program for Alaska fishing communities, which finds that lavish salaries for program leaders and a lack of oversight has undermined progress. Some villages still lack basic necessities such as sanitary toilet facilities for its public health care clinic. An excerpt: “..the results on the ground, ...