Subscribe on Google | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon At the start of 2023, the U.S. economy showed signs of recovery from a pandemic that had killed millions of Americans. President Joe Biden had successfully pushed key parts of his agenda through Congress during his first two years in office, including a celebrated $1.2 trillion package that aimed to rebuild the […]
Posted inUnhoused and Undercounted
Proposed law aims to lock in protections for homeless students
Months after a Center for Public Integrity investigation showed that Pennsylvania school districts locked children out of class while investigating their families’ claims of homelessness, a bill winding through the state legislature would make the practice illegal. In November, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation that would reverse a state law allowing schools […]
Posted inHigh Courts, High Stakes
Not just the Supreme Court: Ethics troubles plague state high courts, too
This story also appeared in USA TODAY Subscribe on Google | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Since 2015, a North Carolina Supreme Court justice has heard at least six cases involving the massive utility Duke Energy, a company in which he and his wife had a direct financial stake. In each of the cases, Paul Newby — chief justice since 2021 […]
Posted inUnhoused and Undercounted
Gaps in social services are leaving homeless youth with ‘no good choices’
This story also appeared in Teen Vogue Subscribe on Google | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon For months, he woke to the sound of cars. Sometimes the incessant roaring kept him up at night, but sleeping under an overpass was better than sleeping under nothing, so 19-year-old Israel Cook learned to manage. “No human should be living under conditions like that,” […]
Posted inHealth
The South is ‘the epicenter’ of a new HIV crisis. Medicaid expansion could help.
HIV is surging in the South, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designated “the epicenter” of an emerging crisis particularly affecting seven states spanning from Texas to North Carolina. As last month’s gubernatorial election approached in Mississippi — which has the sixth-highest rate of HIV diagnoses in the nation — community […]
Posted inUnhoused and Undercounted
District cites ‘educational larceny’ in aggressive audits of student housing
This story is republished in partnership with The Midwest Newsroom and St. Louis Public Radio. In March, a frustrated parent wrote an email to the Hazelwood School District. Her daughter had been kicked out of Jamestown Elementary School after the district conducted an investigation into where the family lived. In the email, the mother complained […]
Posted inLabor
Millions of low-paid workers will benefit from this obscure new policy
It’s been a record year for labor strikes. Hollywood actors recently ended their historic, 118-day walkout. Thousands of auto workers in Detroit are returning to factories after more than 46 days on the picket lines. Their labor unions secured major gains during contract negotiations at a time when companies are struggling to find job candidates. […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Denied
Environmental impact targeted in new push against ‘Cop City’
Opponents of the developing Atlanta Public Safety Training Center have adopted a new strategy to stop the so-called “Cop City” from being built. Activists filed a complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of External Civil Rights Compliance last week, arguing that the 85-acre site in unincorporated southern DeKalb County is damaging the ecosystem in […]
Posted inThe Heist
How illustrations for a podcast about Black farmers came to life
The Center for Public Integrity’s third season of The Heist podcast, about the government’s long history undermining Black farmers, has powerful illustrations for each episode. Artist Amanda Howell Whitehurst created them. A painter and illustrator whose work often explores the “beauty, confidence, and strength” of Black women, she sat down with Public Integrity to provide […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Black financial institutions face new threat following Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme Court’s decision this summer to strike down affirmative action in higher education has had a chilling effect on racial equity efforts in the public and private sectors. Long considered a tool to correct systemic discrimination, affirmative action programs everywhere are at risk, advocates worry. Now, conservative activists are trying to block programs that […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
What backlash to landmark voting law tells us about debate today
Ronald Reagan praised the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as “vital.” Bill Clinton deemed it a “triumph.” George W. Bush said the law “broke the segregationist lock on the ballot box.” When the U.S. Senate reauthorized the law most recently, in 2006, it passed by a vote of 98 to 0. And even Chief Justice […]
Posted inThe Heist
New USDA data shows declining loan delinquency rates
The share of federal agricultural loans with overdue payments is falling for farmers across racial and ethnic groups, though whether that’s a temporary improvement remains to be seen. This story also appeared in Reckon A Center for Public Integrity analysis of a sliver of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows the delinquency rate […]
Posted inThe Heist
The fight for debt relief and legacy (transcript)
More than $400,000. Nearly half a million. That’s what Nate Bradford Jr. owed the USDA in 2010. He’d done his best to keep up on his loan payments — working the night shift at an off-farm job, spending his weekends and vacations trying to make his ranch profitable, investing his 401k into his business. And […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Denied
Another state refuses to cooperate with EPA on environmental justice
In the latest example of state pushback to civil-rights enforcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a Texas agency has pulled out of negotiations to resolve complaints alleging its decisions on pollution are racially discriminatory. EPA, which disclosed the development on its online docket Thursday with a letter dated Wednesday, said it would continue investigating […]
Posted inWho Counts?
See which states are expanding — or restricting — voting rights
While restoration of the federal Voting Rights Act languishes in a split Congress, an already deep divide in Americans’ access to voting has widened over the past year. In part, that’s because blue states aren’t waiting. According to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, more […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Denied
EPA promised to address environmental racism. Then states pushed back.
This story also appeared in Mother Jones FLINT, Mich. — Civil rights law offers a tool for communities of color trying to stop unequal exposure to pollution. Over and over, people here have tried to make it work. From 1992 to 2015, residents and community groups filed a series of federal complaints asking the U.S. […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Denied
Facing environmental discrimination? Read this before complaining to EPA
Is your neighborhood choked with pollution or facing other environmental woes that you think are discriminatory? You can write to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to request an intervention. But it’s easy to get tripped up. That’s what the Center for Public Integrity found as part of a new investigation of EPA’s handling of complaints […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Denied
Why you should report on environmental justice — and how to get started
You don’t need to report on the environment to investigate environmental justice. The issue intersects with many other topics: politics, planning and zoning, budgets, business, community advocacy, road building, energy and more. And it cuts to the heart of equal opportunity. Does everyone in your region get to breathe clean air, drink clean water and […]
Posted inThe Heist
Can USDA’s efforts on equity help Black farmers overcome ‘toxic debt’?
It was nearly a quarter century ago when thousands of Black farmers filed a class action discrimination lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to receive financial compensation. More than 15,000 got $50,000 lump sum payments, and a small number were approved for larger payments. Some had hoped that it would finally help them get […]
Posted inThe Heist
The forever fight (transcript)
You know how, when someone is talking about something they really love, their passion comes through in their voice? How you can see in their eyes, their gestures, how important this thing is to them? That’s what it’s like to talk to Eddie Slaughter about farming. Eddie Slaughter: You know, it’s something about if you […]
Posted inNational Security
Visions of a new national security paradigm
More than 20 years after 9/11, Muslim Americans continue to face discrimination at U.S. airports, at banks and in the security-clearance process, says the Muslim Public Affairs Council. These actions fuel anti-Muslim animus throughout the U.S. and abroad, warns the council’s president and co-founder, Salam Al-Marayati. Created in 1988, the nonprofit works to improve public […]
Posted inThe Heist
In Oklahoma’s Black Belt, land ownership and power built Black wealth
BOLEY, Okla. The biggest weekend of the year in this tiny town kicks off with an hours-long parade. Cowboys and cowgirls trot their horses along downtown blocks lined with watchful spectators and vendors selling their juiciest barbecue meats. This story also appeared in Reckon Inside a squatty stone community center, a vintage photography exhibit documents […]
Posted inThe Heist
Boley was a rip-roaring place, honey (transcript)
Nate Bradford, Jr. is standing at a large round grill in his hometown of Boley, Oklahoma. It’s Memorial Day weekend, and he’s cooking up beef burgers. Not for your typical family cookout to celebrate the holiday, no. Nate’s cooking for hungry parade spectators. And he’s not the only one getting ready. Close by, there are […]
Posted inEducation
What’s the effect of school voucher programs on students with disabilities?
Several years ago, West Virginia parent Christy Black searched for an inclusive private school for her daughter Gracie, who has Down syndrome, but to no avail. “There wasn’t any in my area or a few counties over, even, that would accept my daughter,” Black recalled. So it concerned her when the West Virginia Legislature in […]
Posted inImmigration
How families fleeing violence won — then lost — the green card lottery
Osama Mohamed let out a sigh of relief as he and his wife stood at the steps of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the first day of September. Clutched tightly in his hands was the letter he’d been chasing for nearly a year and a half. “Congratulations!” its bolded words declared. “Your […]
Posted inThe Heist
Why is accurate data about Black farmers so hard to get?
As a third-generation Black farmer in Arkansas, Dewayne Goldmon understands the frustrations of Black farmers trying to get more aid for past injustices from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This story also appeared in Reckon But as the senior advisor for racial equity to the USDA secretary, he also understands why the agency has […]
Posted inThe Heist
Dancing With The Devil (transcript)
Nate Bradford’s relationship with the USDA started about two decades ago, when he was fresh out of college, and decided he wanted to be a rancher. He needed land and a loan to buy it. So he went to the branch of the USDA that deals with loans, the Farm Service Agency. He got one […]
Posted inToxic Labor
Reporting on workers who rebuild after natural disasters
I felt anxious asking disaster restoration workers to share their experiences with exposure to toxins such as asbestos, lead and mold on the job in New Orleans this past spring during a reporting trip. The trip was at the heart of our project, Toxic Labor, which documents the hidden health impact workers face after prolonged […]
Posted inThe Heist
‘Black farmers and ranchers, it’s a dying deal.’
The morning sun hugs the horizon just as Nate Bradford Jr. hops into his pickup truck to make the hour drive home. Many in this rural Oklahoma town are getting ready to go to work. Bradford is getting off. He works as a gas plant operator, earning around $70,000 a year. This story also appeared […]
Posted inThe Heist
The Cowboy Way and the Color Line (Transcript)
It’s a Saturday morning in eastern Oklahoma. The sky is clear and big…the air is sticky and hot — and the mosquitos are vicious. I’m here to meet a local rancher named Nate Bradford Jr. One of our producers, Camille, is with me. We’re at Nate’s corral: a cluster of pens on rolling, grassy land. […]