The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates betrayals of public trust. Sign up to receive our stories. This story also appeared in The Los Angeles Times Thick oil was once so abundant beneath Southern California that it bubbled to the surface, most famously at the La Brea Tar Pits. But after more […]

Author Archives: Mark Olalde
Mark Olalde reported for The Center for Public Integrity as an American University Fellow. He spent several years as a freelance journalist, most recently reporting on the underfunding of coal mine cleanup across the U.S. on a McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism. He previous investigated South Africa's failed mine closure system, which earned him recognition as the 2017 SAB Environmental Media Awards print journalist of the year and placement on the Global Editors Network Data Journalism Awards shortlist. He has also worked for The Arizona Republic and the Medill Justice Project, and he holds an undergraduate journalism degree from Northwestern University.