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Posted inInside Public Integrity

Public Integrity staff share insights on investigating inequality

Journalists from the Center for Public Integrity will offer advice and training on investigative reporting and data journalism that confronts inequality at the annual Investigative Reporters & Editors conference June 22-25 in Orlando. In addition to its own national investigations, one of the organization’s priorities is to build investigative reporting capacity and expertise at local […]

Posted inInside Public Integrity

Public Integrity voting inequity investigation wins National Headliner Award

Public Integrity’s investigation into inequality in access to voting and political representation ahead of the 2022 elections has won a National Headliner Award. “Who Counts?” won first place for best beat coverage in the annual awards program, sponsored by the Press Club of Atlantic City. Judges called the project “a detailed report on voting issues, […]

Posted inInside Public Integrity

Public Integrity report wins award for mental health coverage

The Center for Public Integrity was recognized Tuesday with a Mental Health America 2023 media award for Christine Herman’s reporting about the challenges families face accessing mental health care. The story was published in partnership with Side Effects Public Media as part of the national Mental Health Parity Collaborative led by the Carter Center’s Rosalynn […]

Posted inInequality

Pondering state reparations for tribes, a council documents history of harms

It started with a formal apology. “California Native American peoples suffered violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a 2019 statement. “We can never undo the wrongs inflicted on the peoples who have lived on this land that we now call California since time immemorial, […]

Posted inUnequal Risk

The EPA wants to broaden a ban on a deadly chemical on store shelves

Many toxic substances harm people slowly, causing serious illnesses years after repeated exposure. But methylene chloride’s fumes are so dangerous, the chemical can kill you in a matter of minutes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned consumer sales of paint strippers with this ingredient in 2019 after an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity […]

Posted inEnvironment

Protecting people’s health in the era of global warming

As the nation’s most populous state, California has long influenced environmental-health protections outside its own borders. And its environmental challenges sound all too familiar in other states, from extreme heat and flooding to lead contamination and air pollution. Now its environmental-protection agency has a secretary with a history of advocating on behalf of vulnerable communities […]

Posted inWatchdog newsletter

How drag bans fit into larger attacks on transgender rights

At least 14 state legislatures have proposed bills targeting drag performances, part of the record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed this year. Tennessee and Arkansas have both enacted laws placing strict limits on drag shows. They share similar language, restricting “adult-oriented” performances — sometimes explicitly including “male or female impersonators” in the definition. The bulk […]

Posted inInside Public Integrity

Public Integrity podcast nominated for a Peabody Award

A Center for Public Integrity podcast about one woman’s quest to chip away at an enduring American injustice has been nominated for a Peabody Award. “The Wealth Vortex” season of The Heist podcast, in partnership with Transmitter Media, is among 60 nominees selected from nearly 1,300 entries across broadcasting and digital media. Thirty winners will […]

Posted inInside Public Integrity

Public Integrity’s Yvette Cabrera wins 2023 Paul Tobenkin Award

Yvette Cabrera has won the 2023 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award for a powerful Center for Public Integrity narrative she wrote last year about the personal battle a Navajo activist faced as he sought accountability for federal government uranium mining that has sickened generations of his people. The award, administered by Columbia University and honoring the […]

Posted inInside Public Integrity

Public Integrity ‘Attacked Behind the Wheel’ investigation wins Gracie Award

An investigation the Center for Public Integrity produced with Scripps News has won a Gracie Award in recognition of the country’s best work “created by women, for women and about women in all facets of media and entertainment.” “Attacked Behind the Wheel” found a “disturbing pattern of workplace violence in an industry that has tried […]

Posted inThe Heist

A new tool to find and stop discrimination in small-business lending

It took an act of Congress, at least one lawsuit and a very long wait. But today — decades after lenders were required to disclose mortgage-application information that brings hidden patterns of discrimination to light — the federal government enacted a rule to mandate that type of reporting about small-business lending, too. “Many local businesses […]

Posted inInside Public Integrity

Two Public Integrity projects honored by Shaufler Prize

Center for Public Integrity journalists accepted awards at Arizona State University on Thursday night for two projects that illuminated the impacts of — and the fight against — discrimination. “The Wealth Vortex” — about one woman’s efforts to combat the racial wealth gap in her community — and “Cheated at Work” — about wage theft […]

Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Eight ways to take action on lead contaminating your community’s soil 

Read the Spanish version here. Lea la versión en español aquí. Is lead lurking in the soil around you? Dangerous lead contamination continues to plague the soil of urban centers, particularly in high-traffic, older neighborhoods where particles and airborne dust from leaded gasoline and lead paint accumulated during the 20th century. Industrial areas where both […]

Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Ocho medidas que puedes tomar cuando el plomo contamina los suelos de tu comunidad

Lea la versión en inglés aquí. Read the English version here. ¿Hay plomo acechando en los suelos que te rodean? La peligrosa contaminación con plomo sigue plagando el suelo de centros urbanos, particularmente en vecindarios antiguos y de alto tráfico, donde durante el siglo XX se acumularon partículas y polvo transportado por el aire proveniente de […]

Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Toxic churn: The legacy of long-gone industry pollutes U.S. cities

On a crisp, fall day in Santa Ana, California, Mary Acosta Rodriguez Martinez Garcia steps forward gingerly, leaning on her cane as she walks to the spot along the railroad tracks that intersect with Santa Ana Boulevard. This is where her grandfather’s house once stood, before it was swallowed whole by the expansion of the […]

Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Ghosts of polluters past

The hot, dry Santa Ana winds that whip through Orange County’s Logan barrio are fierce and temperamental. In the mid-20th century, they’d deliver gusts forceful enough to wreak havoc throughout the Southern California region, destroying orange crops, uprooting trees, downing power lines and upending lives. But in the Logan neighborhood, one of the city of Santa Ana’s […]

Posted inInside Public Integrity

Public Integrity reporters’ work honored among best data journalism in world

Investigative reporting by Center for Public Integrity journalists about student homelessness and the legacy of pollution in communities of color was recognized among the best data journalism in the world on Friday at the 2023 Sigma Awards. Senior reporter Yvette Cabrera’s work on the toxic legacy of lead contamination in American cities while a journalist […]