From Chad Bouchard for 100Reporters, the tragic story of millions of dollars from the U. S. State Department squandered on misguided attempts to bring clean drinking water to rural residents of Iraq. The project in the Sinjar district, in northwestern Iraq, was undermined in part by a history of government corruption in the region, corruption that has fueled anger and aided Islamic State recruitment. Since Bouchard’s ...
Li Miao Lovett reports for the National Radio Project that a chemical considered too dangerous for household use is still being sprayed to kill insects on croplands, exposing farmworkers and their families to its hazards. An excerpt from the report: In 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – EPA – moved to protect children by banning in-home use, but the pesticide [chlorpyrifos] remains widely used in agriculture. ...
From Spare Change, the nation’s oldest street newspaper, published in Boston and sold by homeless and low-income vendors: an investigation of public housing conditions by Shawn Musgrave. In his initial report, Musgrave details the frustrations in getting public records from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Although some housing advocates in Boston say housing conditions have improved in recent ...
For High Country News, Claudine LoMonaco reports on a bungled attempt to restore Arizona forest land. The project, she reports, is “in danger of unraveling. And the blame for the delays, uncertainty and outright failures seems to lie squarely with the [U. S.] Forest Service.” Photo credit: 4FRI/USDA Forest Service. [Reporting supported by The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation ...
From Missouri, the legacy of a residential treatment facility for boys and young men, and stories of an abusive regime of “tough love.” Maurice Chammah, reporting for the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, talks to the teens who lived there about the memories that haunt them. He also talks with the staff who tried to maintain control. [Reporting sponsored by The ...
From Cameroon, Christiane Badgley reports for Foreign Policy on the bulldozing of forest land for plantations of trees which produce an oil used as biofuel, and for household purposes such as cooking. “The world is upside down,” the founder of a Cameroon NGO told Badgley, because the country has to import $600 million worth of food each year, while striking ...
IowaWatch reports on the behind-the-scenes money in the battle to curb payday lending in Iowa: Campaign contributions to Iowa legislators from payday loan-associated donors totaled over $480,000 between 2003 and 2013, according to Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board data collected by IowaWatch. An additional $800,000 has flowed into the state as payday loan companies and interest groups contract lobbyists ...
New America Media has published a special investigative report on sea levels rising in immigrant and minority communities in Northern California. In conjunction with several Bay Area ethnic media outlets, the New America Media reporters found that low income communities were particularly vulnerable, without resources to insure against loss, recover from storms, or – the most basic – to flee in ...
Amanda Wilson has the story of a North Carolina town that found new purpose after the Cannon towels mill shut down. That is: supplying human subjects for medical research projects far into the future. For Pacific Standard, she reports: The [Duke University] spinoff is a joint venture with LabCorp, one of the largest clinical lab testing firms in the U.S. In the partnership, Duke brings biological ...
Graham Kates of The Crime Report has found that environmental violations are rarely prosecuted by the federal government. An excerpt: …an analysis by The Crime Report of thousands of records compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), reveals that enforcement of corporate environmental crime remains extremely rare. More than 64,000 facilities are currently listed in agency databases as being in violation ...