The Center for Public Integrity’s Board of Directors announced this week that the search for the organization’s next CEO is well underway. The board has retained Sally Sterling Executive Search to assist in the process, working with a search committee composed of six members of the board. More information about the search, and a job […]
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
‘Someone needs to actually do something’: A grim reflection on anti-Asian hate
A year ago this month, Eddie Song was accosted by a stranger at a Costco in New York City. The man accused him of spreading the coronavirus and threatened to punch him in the face. It was a clarifying moment for Song, a Korean American entrepreneur who grew up in the city. He later witnessed […]
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
Will Biden’s relief package break Black farmers’ ‘cycle of debt’?
When President Joe Biden announced that he was reappointing Tom Vilsack as secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, many advocates questioned whether the new administration was serious about tackling the agency’s institutional racism. Vilsack presided over the USDA during the Obama administration. An investigation by the nonprofit news outlet The Counter found that the department foreclosed […]
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
Behind on rent? We want to hear from you.
The coronavirus pandemic has stripped reliable paychecks from millions of Americans, forcing some families to choose between paying rent and feeding their children. Since mid-2020, as money flowed from federal stimulus bills, state and local agencies have been handing out assistance checks to renters and landlords. But there’s still not enough to go around, according […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Kate Myers named interim COO of Center for Public Integrity
Veteran nonprofit journalism executive Kate Myers has been named interim chief operating officer of the Center for Public Integrity. Myers, who served most recently as executive director of revenue and operations of First Look Media Works, the parent organization of The Intercept, will lead Public Integrity’s business operations while the nonprofit investigative news organization completes […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Police reform in response to George Floyd case faces roadblocks
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping policing reform measure last week in honor of George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man whose death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May sparked monthslong nationwide protests. The 220-to-212 vote, mostly along party lines, came six days before jury selection for the murder trial […]
Posted inInequality
Snapshots of inequality
Sometimes a single statistic can help us understand staggering disparities in American life — in housing, education, health care, wealth, work and more. Our journalism is focused on this inequality, and these data points can be a starting point both for our investigations and for broader conversations about what this means for our communities, how […]
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
Looking back: Our inequality stories in the year of COVID
One year ago, the Center for Public Integrity turned the focus of its investigative reporting toward a global pandemic. Our newsroom’s focus on inequality, government transparency and collaboration with local news organizations has been crucial in telling the story of the disparate impact COVID-19 has had on Americans’ health and economic well-being. Public Integrity’s earliest […]
Posted inHealth
‘Unintended consequences’: The rubber industry’s toxic legacy in Akron
This story is published in partnership with Belt Magazine and is part of a series supported in part by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. This story also appeared in Belt Magazine In the winter of 1946, Perkins Pringle boarded the first leg of a 950-mile train ride from Durant, Mississippi, to Akron, Ohio—the Rubber Capital of the […]
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
Biden COVID data director on plugging deadly information gaps in a pandemic
Data and transparency are key to saving lives during this pandemic. To make decisions on everything from visiting relatives to reopening schools, both officials and the public need to know whether hospitals have enough beds, whether social distancing is lowering cases, where hotspots are and much more. Emergency physician Dr. Cyrus Shahpar is the White […]
Posted inBarriers to the Ballot Box
Georgia Republicans want to reshape voting laws, burdening voters of color
Stephanie Lopez-Burgos stood in line about 35 minutes when she went to vote early in Georgia’s Senate runoff election and felt lucky it wasn’t longer. She saw social media posts from many Hall County residents who waited more than an hour — some of whom had to leave without voting. This story also appeared in […]
Posted inSexual Assault on Campus
Biden moves to undo Trump policies on campus sexual assault
Update: March 8, 1:45 p.m.: President Biden today signed an executive order calling for the Department of Education to review Title IX regulations amended by the Trump administration. The order could reverse policies criticized by victims of sexual assault on campus. *Name changed to protect the identity of the student. When Betsy DeVos took the […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Merrick Garland promises to prosecute hate crimes against Asian Americans. Here’s why that matters.
Senators grilled Judge Merrick Garland this week about white supremacy and domestic extremism during his confirmation hearing for the role of U.S. Attorney General. One brief exchange, in particular, was revealing. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) described a recent spike in anti-Asian violence as “extraordinarily alarming.” Then he asked Garland to commit to prosecuting hate crimes against Asian […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Redistricting, plagued by delays, carries high stakes for communities of color
Delays to the release of 2020 census data are upending the already fraught once-a-decade process of redrawing political maps, and experts warn that could prompt a more rushed, opaque process in some states. The census data will shape political power over the course of the next decade. Communities of color have much at stake: Latino, […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Center for Public Integrity welcomes new staff
The Center for Public Integrity has promoted veteran staff member Jamie Smith Hopkins to editor and is making key additions to the nonprofit investigative news organization’s reporting and audience teams. Corey Mitchell, an associate editor and reporter at Education Week, will join Public Integrity on Feb. 22 as a senior reporter covering education. Lisa Yanick […]
Posted inFuture of Warfare
Are we ready for weapons to have a mind of their own?
The camouflage-clad cadets are huddled around a miniature arena in the basement of a building dug into the cliffs on the West Point campus. They’re watching a robotic tank about the height of a soda can with a metal spear attached whir into action. Surrounded by balloons of various colors representing either enemy fighters or […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Q&A with the ‘father’ of environmental justice at a turning-point moment
For four years, the Trump administration’s rollbacks of environmental protections fell hardest on communities of color and low-income neighborhoods — places that have long borne the brunt of pollution. But even before that, the federal government’s efforts to combat environmental injustices were often spotty and weak. That may be changing. President Joe Biden pledged as […]
Posted inBarriers to the Ballot Box
Republicans target ballot access after record turnout
The months after November’s presidential election have been filled with conspiracy theories, lies and myths about the security and integrity of U.S. elections, led by former President Donald Trump and many Republican leaders. This story also appeared in Stateline As a result, polls show that more than half of Republican voters wrongly believe that President […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
With the stroke of a pen, Biden begins undoing Trump’s deregulation policies
Former President Donald Trump rolled back federal regulations more than any other president in U.S. history — in some cases to the detriment of Americans’ health and safety, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and Vox. But President Joe Biden has already set the stage for undoing Trump’s changes, and Congress can quickly wipe out Trump’s deregulations pushed […]
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
For some COVID patients, pre-existing conditions and long-term consequences part of the struggle
This story was published in partnership with Flint Beat. This story also appeared in Flint Beat A sharp tingle shoots through Terrell Harris’ leg. He pops a pill for the pain, but his nerves will act up again when the medicine wears off. His legs are so weak and unpredictable he uses a walker to get […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Biden’s immigration ‘reset’ faces some GOP roadblocks
Shortly after taking office Jan. 20, President Joe Biden ordered a 100-day moratorium on most deportations. Six days later, a federal judge in Texas blocked the moratorium with a 14-day restraining order. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought the restraining order, arguing that Biden was endangering the state. Paxton’s challenge is a sign that more […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Climate change contributed to more than 70 natural disasters since 2015
One of President Joe Biden’s first actions after his inauguration Wednesday was signing an executive order to rejoin the Paris climate agreement. There’s no time to waste in the fight against global warming, and here’s one number that drives it home: 76. That’s how many disasters and temperature anomalies scientists have demonstrated were made more likely […]
Posted inDemocracy
Analysis: Threats to democracy on Inauguration Day, and the lies that got us here
This is a news analysis from the Center for Public Integrity. Today’s inauguration, part of the ritual of American democracy, is offset by images usually associated with a coup. Thousands of armed National Guard members are juxtaposed with the monuments and symbols that tell the American story. The Washington Monument. The Lincoln Memorial. And the […]
Posted inHidden Epidemics
In Florida, worsening heat puts more people at risk
For more than two decades now, Jeannie Economos has been advocating for farmworkers’ health. Pesticide exposure was her first focus. But for half that time, she’s also zeroed in on deadly heat. “It gets hotter every summer,” said Economos, coordinator of pesticide safety and environmental health at Farmworker Association of Florida. “This past summer was […]
Posted inHidden Epidemics
Dangerous heat, unequal consequences
This story also appeared in Columbia Journalism Investigations Mario Wilcox won’t set out in the summer without an emergency kit in his car trunk: a cooler with an ice pack and a blanket. He learned this improvised life saver from his time in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; ice and a wet cloth can cool […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Trump administration will pay Public Integrity attorney’s fees in two more FOIA lawsuits
Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense and Office of Management and Budget agreed to settle a federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act and pay the Center for Public Integrity $15,000 in attorney’s fees. In October, U.S. Customs and Border Protection settled a separate lawsuit and paid $13,000 in attorney’s fees to Public […]
Posted inDemocracy
Corporate America presses pause on political contributions
Weeks before a 2018 special U.S. Senate election in Mississippi, a video came out in which Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican running for the seat, could be heard saying that if a political supporter “invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” Her comments set off a furor. Corporate donors […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Capitol attack underscores white supremacist infiltration of police, military
In the aftermath of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray vowed to muster the full investigative powers of his agency to bring “violent agitators and extremists” to justice. The ensuing investigation, billed as “unprecedented” in its scale and scope, has led to the prosecution of more than 70 […]
Posted inBarriers to the Ballot Box
Democrats push wide-ranging voting, ethics reforms in charged moment for democracy
A sweeping package of voting-rights, government-ethics and anti-corruption measures failed to make it through Congress in 2019, but an updated version of the bill is at the top of Democrats’ agenda. Proponents say the aftermath of the 2020 election and last week’s violent attack on the U.S. Capitol makes the need for the legislation more […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Center for Public Integrity announces a leadership transition
The Center for Public Integrity announced today a leadership transition. CEO Susan Smith Richardson will be leaving to become Deputy Editor of The Guardian-US. Susan will remain at Public Integrity until March 12, 2021 to assure a smooth transition. We congratulate her on her new position and wish her the greatest success. “While we are […]