Voting in Arkansas was made considerably more difficult by a slew of new laws last year that create stricter voter ID requirements, signature matching, a special voter fraud hotline (despite no evidence of fraud), earlier absentee voting deadlines and much more. In March, an Arkansas judge found many of these measures unconstitutional, but the state’s […]
Posted inWho Counts?
Arizona sued by DOJ over requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote
Amid a failed attempt by supporters of former President Donald Trump to throw out the state’s 2020 election results based on false accusations of voter fraud, Republicans who control Arizona’s state legislature and governor’s office passed significant new obstacles to voting. New laws allow for the purging of names from the state’s mail-in ballot voting […]
Posted inWho Counts?
Maryland expands access to absentee and early voting
Maryland has been among the most aggressive states in the country over the past two years in making access to voting more equitable. Since 2020, the heavily Democratic Maryland state legislature has passed and Republican Gov. Larry Hogan signed new state laws that expand access to early voting and absentee ballots; improve voting access for […]
Posted inWho Counts?
‘A perfect storm of confusion:’ Voting faces systemic challenges in Alaska
Language and other barriers faced by Indigenous communities and the inability to get information to voters in broadband deserts caused a distressingly high rate of ballot rejections in Alaska’s June primaries. These problems exacerbate longstanding issues of inequity in access to voting and political representation in Alaska, such as relying on a postal service heavily […]
Posted inWho Counts?
Alabama again at center of challenges to Voting Rights Act
When Alabama rewrote its state’s constitution in 1901, it limited voting to wealthy white men and established white supremacy as a guiding principle for state law. The fact that some clauses clearly violated provisions in the United States Constitution didn’t stop state leaders. It banned anyone from voting who wasn’t a male over 21, was […]
Posted inLabor
Low-paid workers are unionizing. Corporations are spending a ton to stop them.
Thousands of workers across the country have been busy gathering signatures from their co-workers in the past year. Candy makers at a Hershey’s factory in Virginia. Cooks at a Chipotle restaurant in Michigan. Six employees at a Dollar General store in Connecticut. Their goal: form a labor union to force their bosses to negotiate better […]
Posted inHarm's Way
Join us for a live discussion: Harm’s Way
UPDATE: Watch the replay of the panel discussion below. Join us for a live conversation Monday, Oct. 3, at 10 am EDT with the journalists behind Harm’s Way, a project focusing on the impact of climate-driven disasters in vulnerable communities. This investigation explored how prepared the U.S. government is to help relocate communities from heavily […]
Posted inPublic Health
Getting the lead out — at long last
The country began phasing lead out of gasoline for cars in the mid-1970s, and yet the toxic metal is still in aviation fuel for small aircraft — spewing over neighborhoods with children especially vulnerable to its irreversible impacts. That’s finally poised to change. Following decades of pressure from environmental-justice advocates, the Federal Aviation Administration has […]
Posted inWho Counts?
Court victories deliver cautious hope for voters with disabilities
Paralyzed from the neck down, downtown Milwaukee resident Martha Chambers has difficulty voting. This story also appeared in Stateline She can use a mouth stick to mark her ballot and sign her name on an absentee ballot, but she has no way of folding the ballot, slipping it back in the envelope or returning it […]
Posted inWho Counts?
Voters in jail face ‘de facto disenfranchisement’
Each election cycle, thousands of eligible voters are effectively disenfranchised because they sit in a jail cell. Americans detained before trials are allowed to vote, a status affirmed by a 1974 Supreme Court case. As a matter of law, pretrial detainees are presumed innocent and retain the voting rights they had before being charged with […]
Posted inUnequal Burden
What Nirvana’s birthplace taught me about inequality
ABERDEEN, Wash. — The further I drove from Seattle toward the coast, the denser the grove of evergreen trees on a drizzly July morning. Off of the Olympia Highway, a green welcome-to-Aberdeen sign bore the song lyrics “Come as you are” — an ode to grunge band Nirvana, which formed in the old lumber town […]
Posted inTaxes
Tax terms: Here’s what all those confusing phrases mean
Taxes aren’t simple, but they have big ripple effects on our lives — from our financial bottom line to the quality of life in our community. As we’re reporting on the unequal impact of state and local taxes, we’re coming across a lot of terms we thought could use some explanation. So we put together […]
Posted inUnequal Burden
How state taxes make inequality worse
Hover over any term that is underlined with a dotted line to read its definition. This story also appeared in Crosscut and Investigate West and Mother Jones and Univision ABERDEEN, Wash. — As she opened her $1,600 property tax bill in February, Edith Baltazar suddenly lost her appetite for the eggs she’d prepared for lunch […]
Posted inEn Espanol
Cómo los pobres cargan con el mayor peso de los impuestos
ABERDEEN, Wash. — Cuando Edith Baltazar abrió en febrero la factura de impuestos sobre su propiedad, de inmediato se le quitaron las ganas de comerse los huevos que había preparado para almorzar con su hija. Su mente se puso a mil: ¿le quitarían su hogar si no podía pagar? La hija lloró. La familia se […]
Posted inTaxes
Test your knowledge of state taxes
How much do you know about state taxes? Taxes are an ever-present part of our lives, a bill that must be paid and the source of funds for the roads, schools and other public services we rely on. But how much do you really know about them? Take our quiz to test your knowledge.
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
What slavery and racism have to do with American gun ownership
Gun politics in the U.S. are inextricably linked to race. Two recent studies have found more evidence that for many white Americans who advocate for gun rights, it isn’t simply about owning and using a tool, but even more about identity and power. One of the research papers found that the larger the percentage of […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
‘Sí se puede’: Mc Nelly Torres wins 2022 Gwen Ifill Award
The International Women’s Media Foundation today announced Mc Nelly Torres as the recipient of its annual Gwen Ifill Award. Torres, an editor at Center for Public Integrity and board member of the National Association for Hispanic Journalists, is being recognized for her career-long dedication to building diversity, equity and inclusion in the news media. “Mc […]
Posted inEducation
Teacher shortage pushes schools to 4-day schedule
MINERAL WELLS, Texas — As Amber Gary dropped her children off for the first day of school she wondered what to do with them every Friday for the rest of the year, when school would close. Her two daughters attend schools in Mineral Wells Independent School District, a rural school district west of Fort Worth […]
Posted inTaxes
This tax break helps lower-income people. Too many don’t get it.
For financially-strapped families, refundable tax credits can make the difference between covering rising rent and food prices or falling short. But not everyone who is eligible gets them. According to 2018 Internal Revenue Service data, the most recent year for state participation rates, 22% of taxpayers eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit didn’t […]
Posted inHarm's Way
When climate change makes home unsafe
Standing on a bridge between downtown Freeport and its east side, I could see why floods in this Illinois city aren’t equal-opportunity disasters. On the downtown side of the Pecatonica River, the bank was reinforced with a stone wall. The east bank was lower yet had no protection. The east side was for years the […]
Posted inHarm's Way
Reporting on residents in harm’s way
I didn’t know what to expect as I drove the two-lane road from Greenville to New Bern after I landed from South Florida one early morning in March. I was there as a reporter to find stories about climate change relocation as part of a year-long project, Harm’s Way, produced by Columbia Journalism Investigations in […]
Posted inHarm's Way
Leaving the island: The messy, contentious reality of climate relocation
This article was produced in partnership with Columbia Journalism Investigations, the Center for Public Integrity and Type Investigations. ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, Louisiana — A sliver is all of this islet that remains above water. What hasn’t slipped into the Gulf of Mexico shows the punishing effects of disastrous climate change: trees killed by saltwater, […]
Posted inHarm's Way
Hear from those leaving a beloved, disaster-threatened home
Albert White Buffalo Naquin, chief of the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation, remembers the time when Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana was tens of thousands of acres large. Climate change and oil and gas development have decimated this island, home to members of his tribe, other Indigenous residents and some non-Indigenous people. For Johnny Tamplet, […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Schools target students with disabilities for discipline ‘too often’
New federal guidelines aimed at reducing high rates of discipline for students with disabilities affirm that schools are responsible for the discriminatory behavior of police and school resource officers on campus. That includes incidents when schools refer students to law enforcement, an action that can lead to school-related arrests, criminal charges, fines or citations that […]
Posted inHarm's Way
Too little, too late for people seeking climate relief
The federal government knows that millions of Americans will need to move to avoid the most punishing impacts of climate change, but the country offers little organized assistance for such relocation. When communities ask the government for help, they face steep barriers — a particular problem for communities of color.
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Kristian Hernández and María Zamudio join Public Integrity as investigative reporters
Kristian Hernández and María Inés Zamudio are joining the Center for Public Integrity as investigative reporters focused on inequality in the United States. For Hernández, who has worked as a state policy reporter based in Texas for Pew Charitable Trusts’ Stateline project the past year and as an investigative reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Black voters cool on Biden
Willie Head is so infuriated with President Joe Biden and other Democrats that he’s considering not voting for the party in future elections. “I’m here to say for the record, I can’t, I will not vote Democratic again for this kind of results from my Democratic congressional people, and I’m asking everybody of color to […]
Posted inHarm's Way
On the ground: Reporting from the front lines of a climate relocation crisis
As climate change worsens, areas that were once safe become unlivable. Repetitive flooding, wildfires and other hazards are prompting some Americans to move. Millions more are expected to follow suit in the coming decades — if they can get out. Public Integrity stories The latest stories from Public Integrity in the Harm’s Way series can […]
Posted inHarm's Way
Trapped in harm’s way as climate disasters mount
SMITHFIELD, Va. — When flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 1999 destroyed Betty Ricks’ home, she rebuilt. Several years later, she posed proudly for a Christmas photograph beside her daughter and granddaughter in her new living room. Then another flood — brought by Tropical Storm Ernesto in 2006 — claimed her house a second time, leaving […]
Posted inHarm's Way
Atrapados en la zona de peligro: sin ayuda para reubicarse, una catástrofe tras otra
SMITHFIELD, Va. — Cuando las inundaciones provocadas por el huracán Floyd en 1999 destruyeron la casa de Betty Ricks, ella la reconstruyó. Varios años después, posó orgullosa para una fotografía navideña junto a su hija y su nieta en su nueva sala. Luego, otra inundación — provocada por la tormenta tropical Ernesto en 2006 — […]