This story also appeared in Associated Press and Univision For Maribel Hernández, falling ill with COVID-19 at a Louisiana crawfish processor and losing her job was terrible enough. But the Mexican guest worker was in for another shock. A federal labor investigation in 2020, initially focusing on worksite safety, revealed that the company failed to […]
Posted inThe Heist
A closer look at an effort to make loan data public
In 2010, as Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it directed the agency to collect data on small-business lending. That would be the rough equivalent of home mortgage application data made public for decades, which has helped reveal discriminatory practices. Years went by. No rule to get lenders to report small-business loan data was […]
Posted inThe Heist
Small business lending looks unequal. Getting the data has been a battle.
You can’t fix a problem you don’t track. That’s especially true if you’re counting on the federal government to intervene. It’s why, several years after 1968 civil-rights legislation intended to stop housing discrimination, Congress passed a law requiring many financial institutions to report some information about every home mortgage application they receive. The race, ethnicity […]
Posted inThe Heist
Popcorn heaven (transcript)
RESHONDA YOUNG: I first started thinking about going into business for myself when I was like 20 years old. It represented me being able to choose … and so that was important to me. JAMIE SMITH HOPKINS, HOST: To ReShonda, running your own business isn’t only about making your own hours or picking your coworkers. […]
Posted inIn public view
Depth, transparency and the definitive story
Carrie Levine appreciates the space to do investigative reporting that produces the definitive look at a topic and shifts the framing of a debate that has real-world impact on people’s lives. Levine joined the Center for Public Integrity in October 2014 and reports on the influence of money in politics, voting rights and other issues […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Checkerboarded land ownership poses challenge to redistricting
ARLEE, Mont. — On a bright October day, Shelly Fyant sat behind her laptop at the Stonebridge Cafe, Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” softly playing in the background. She had brown, shoulder-length hair and glasses. Nestled in the foothills of the Mission Mountains, Arlee marks the south end of the 1.3 million-acre Flathead Indian Reservation, […]
Posted inCriminalizing kids
Virginia wanted to report fewer kids to police. Now it’s reversed course.
In 2020, Virginia passed a law that allowed principals to decide when to alert police if students committed a possible misdemeanor. Organizations that work on juvenile justice issues championed the change, hoping it would slow the state’s school-to-prison pipeline after a 2015 Public Integrity investigation revealed that students in Virginia were referred to law enforcement […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Public Integrity, Carter Center partner on mental health reporting
In the face of a growing national mental health crisis, the Center for Public Integrity is partnering with The Carter Center to launch the Mental Health Parity Collaborative, a new multistate newsroom partnership focused on exploring access to and inequities in mental health care in the U.S. The newsroom partners are located in six states […]
Posted inThe Heist
How do you catch up? (transcript)
JAMIE SMITH HOPKINS, HOST: A few years ago, ReShonda Young offered to help a neighbor in her Bible study group. RESHONDA YOUNG: One night she had sent a text message to the group and just said that she wasn’t gonna be able to do the small group Bible study because they fired someone, and she […]
Posted inThe Heist
One place was redlined. The other, greenlined. This is how they look today.
In the 1930s, a federal agency created maps for cities across America that color-coded neighborhoods based on their perceived risk for mortgage lending. The “riskiest” were colored red, a process now known as redlining. Areas judged the lowest risk were colored green on the maps. Racism was baked into those judgments. As a result, according […]
Posted inThe Heist
A portrait of Waterloo
In Waterloo, Iowa, white households have 81 percent higher median incomes than Black households and more than double the homeownership rate. Residential patterns set when segregation was enforced by law hang on, driven by a wealth gap compounded over generations of discrimination — an American problem as much as a Waterloo one. Roughly 60% of […]
Posted inThe Heist
A wealth gap that’s not closing
Civil-rights laws of the 1960s aimed to stop racial discrimination, but they didn’t try to close the wealth gap that generations of such discrimination created. Instead, the disparity grew. In 1953, adjusted for inflation, the median net worth of white families was roughly $47,000 more than for Black families. In 2019, the difference had ballooned […]
Posted inThe Heist
Get to know ReShonda Young
ReShonda Young is an entrepreneur from Waterloo, Iowa. She started and franchised a popcorn business, Popcorn Heaven, before selling the company in 2019. She’s also a landlord, the director of an accelerator that supports Black business owners in Waterloo and the leading force behind an effort to open what would be Iowa’s only Black-owned bank. […]
Posted inThe Heist
Fighting the wealth vortex
WATERLOO, IOWA ReShonda Young strode into a church too big for its congregation, in a still-segregated city where economic barriers often strangle Black ambition, on a mission to tackle a tenacious consequence of American discrimination. This story also appeared in The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY and Word In Black If she could buy […]
Posted inIn public view
Diversity, humility and investigative reporting that shares power
As she approaches her second year as an editor at the Center for Public Integrity, Mc Nelly Torres sees the need for bigger and faster changes in an investigative journalism field where numerous roadblocks remain for people of color. The award-winning, South Florida-based investigative journalist is a former investigative producer for NBC6 in Miami. In […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Promised debt relief, some Black farmers get collection notices
This story was updated with additional information. After amassing more than $100,000 in debt over more than two decades of farming, a Georgia-based farmer named Denver got welcome news last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers like him would be eligible for a new debt relief program. USDA would pay off certain loans […]
Posted inInequality
Bank branch closure rate doubled during pandemic
Fewer local banks hampers communities’ ability to build wealth and puts small businesses at risk.
Posted inIn public view
An investigative reporter’s job: “Good journalism has always sought to expose injustice”
Liz Essley Whyte joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2014 as a fellow, and she became a reporter in 2015. Her investigative work has won Goldsmith and Gerald Loeb awards, as well as honors from the National Press Club, Editor & Publisher, the Association of Healthcare Journalists and others. She graduated summa cum laude […]
Posted inInequality
Shirley Sherrod was fired by USDA. Why is she serving the agency again?
Among the 15 members of a new Equity Commission charged with dismantling discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one name stood out: Shirley Sherrod. Sherrod rose to national prominence more than a decade ago when right-wing website Breitbart selectively edited video of Sherrod, then the USDA’s Georgia state rural development director, telling an audience […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
‘All the shelves would be bare’
Once again, librarians are in the center of the culture wars. Parents questioning the teaching of racism, sexual identity and gender are bringing increasing numbers of challenges to books in school and sometimes public libraries that they say aren’t appropriate for children. Conservative politicians are also calling for more scrutiny of school libraries, and in […]
Posted inCriminalizing kids
‘She looks like a baby’: Why do kids as young as 5 or 6 still get arrested at schools?
ORLANDO — The preschoolers filed offstage in royal blue caps and gowns, hugging their parents and ready for treats to celebrate their 2018 graduation from Trinity Learning Academy. All but one. This story also appeared in USA TODAY A 5-year-old took center stage, dancing to upbeat music, legs kicking in white tights and shiny white […]
Posted inThe Heist
The Heist: Season 2
Season 1 | Season 2 Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google | Stitcher | Pandora Click transcript to read the trailer transcript.ReShonda Young is trying to do something nobody in the country has managed in more than 20 years. Open a new Black-owned bank. In the second season of The Heist, we follow her quest to confront the enormous wealth gap between […]
Posted inIn public view
An investigative reporter’s job: “Look at the entirety of a situation”
Melissa Hellmann joined the Center for Public Integrity in August 2021 as a reporter covering racial, gender and economic equality. She was formerly a reporter with the Seattle Times, where she covered marginalized communities, and artificial intelligence including bias in facial recognition systems and the changing landscape of labor. She previously worked for Seattle Weekly, […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
A fifth of nursing-home workers remain unvaccinated as deadlines loom
Federal deadlines to vaccinate all health-care workers against COVID-19 are just weeks away, but the most recent federal data show that roughly a fifth of nursing-home employees are not yet fully vaccinated. The Supreme Court in January upheld the mandate that covers 76,000 health care facilities and their 10.4 million employees. Now medical employers have […]
Posted inThe Heist
Season 2: trailer transcript
Listen to the trailer for Season 2 of The Heist. Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google | Stitcher | Pandora[Sound of door knocking] RESHONDA YOUNG: Hello, hello! NEIGHBOR: How are you? RESHONDA YOUNG: I’m good, how are you? ReShonda Young is at a front door in Waterloo, Iowa. She’s holding a clipboard, but this is no visit about politics or religion. RESHONDA […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Pratheek Rebala recognized among ‘25 Under 35’ journalism leaders
Center for Public Integrity news developer Pratheek Rebala has been recognized as one of Editor & Publisher magazine’s 25 Under 35 leaders in the journalism industry. Rebala, 26, was honored alongside editors, publishers, audience specialists and revenue leaders from newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, Arizona Republic, Boston Globe, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Columbus Dispatch, as […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Millions of workers just got a pay raise
January has been rough. COVID-19 infections spiked, consumer prices surged and Congress has been unable to pass a new economic relief package that would extend monthly child tax credits and provide paid leave for workers. But here’s a bit of good news: Millions of low-paid workers just got a raise. Twenty-one states and 35 municipalities […]
Posted inElections
A battleground fight over polling places and voting rights in Georgia
As a half-dozen voting rights advocates filed into the Lincoln County Board of Elections to deliver a petition that temporarily halted plans to shutter polling places, the tension between them and elections director Lilvender Bolton was nearly palpable. This story also appeared in Georgia Public Broadcasting and NPR After spending the afternoon anxiously watching the […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Why Mississippi is ground zero in the fight for voting rights
In the wake of the 2020 election, over a dozen states passed laws that make it harder for residents to vote. Mississippi wasn’t among them. It’s not a battleground state. And Mississippi already has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country. Those laws include rigid vote by mail rules and the disenfranchisement […]
Posted inHousing
Home lending remains unequal
Mortgage lenders aren’t making headway on longstanding racial disparities in home lending, according to a new analysis. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, tapping federal data, found that Black and Latino borrowers were still receiving loans to purchase homes in 2020 at lower rates than white borrowers. And the boom in refinancing touched off by falling […]