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Center for Public Integrity

Center for Public Integrity

Investigating inequality

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Yvette Cabrera

Author Archives: Yvette Cabrera

Yvette Cabrera is a senior reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, an investigative news nonprofit, where she covers inequality in economic and social well-being with a focus on environmental justice issues. She reports at the intersection of justice and equity, examining the impact of systemic disparities, such as environmental pollution and contamination, on marginalized communities throughout the United States. She has reported extensively on the pervasiveness of toxic lead contamination, and her most recent series, Ghosts of Polluters Past, was honored with a 2023 international Sigma Award for Data Journalism. Her story on the devastating effects of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation won a 2023 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award from Columbia University and a 2023 national Edward R. Murrow Award. She serves as president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and is a founding member of The Uproot Project, a network for environmental journalists of color.

YCabrera@publicintegrity.org
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Ruben, 2, plays hide and seek in his front yard. He is surrounded by dirt on the ground and trash bins.
Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

How to protect your community from the toxic lead lurking in soil

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera April 22, 2024April 26, 2024

Lead poisoning is often treated as if it’s a problem of the past. But its harmful legacy lingers today, particularly in the soil of urban centers across the United States.  This story also appeared in Grist One in every two American children under the age of 6 tested between late 2018 and early 2020 had […]

A sign for General Petroleum Ave., angled oddly, is in the foreground of a photo of the sun rising above small homes.
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Denied

The decades-long fight in a community treated as a dumping ground

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera January 19, 2024January 18, 2024
Several black and white silos (one labeled AJAX) line an industrial park that is behind a fence.
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Denied

EPA promised to address environmental racism. Then states pushed back.

Yvette CabreraAvatar photoGrey Moran is looking into the camera in a black and white photo, wearing glasses and a closed-mouth smile. by Yvette Cabrera, Jamie Smith Hopkins and Grey Moran October 25, 2023October 25, 2023
Pete Buttigieg stands in the foreground wearing a white buttoned-down shirt. In the background is the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, which is in the urban area of Washington D.C.
Posted inEnvironment

Taking the highway to right wrongs of the past in urban areas

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera September 1, 2023August 31, 2023
The three people identified in the caption are standing outside a small, green ranch-style house, two holding a pack of water bottles.
Posted inEnvironment

Planning for environmental justice for all

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera June 16, 2023June 15, 2023
A house sits half submerged in flood water after a storm
Posted inEnvironment

Protecting people’s health in the era of global warming

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera April 21, 2023April 20, 2023
The view from behind 2-year-old Nalleli Garrido's as he looks out on his porch.
Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Lead keeps poisoning children. It doesn’t have to.

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera March 22, 2023April 17, 2023
Sara Perl Egendorf is bent down as she shows a group of young children and one adult soil that has been collected in a rubber container.
Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Eight ways to take action on lead contaminating your community’s soil 

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera March 22, 2023April 17, 2023
Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

El plomo sigue envenenando a los niños. No tiene que ser así.

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera March 22, 2023March 23, 2023
Sara Perl Egendorf is bent down as she shows a group of young children and one adult soil that has been collected in a rubber container.
Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Ocho medidas que puedes tomar cuando el plomo contamina los suelos de tu comunidad

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera March 22, 2023March 23, 2023
Mary Acosta Rodriguez Martinez Garcia is wearing sunglasses and looking up, leaning on metal fencing and her cane, beside railroad tracks with a Pacific Surfliner train on them.
Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Toxic churn: The legacy of long-gone industry pollutes U.S. cities

Yvette CabreraClayton Aldern is looking into the camera with a serious expression. He's wearing an orange shirt and brown glasses. by Yvette Cabrera and Clayton Aldern March 22, 2023April 17, 2023
Santa Ana children walk along the train tracks that are littered with debris.
Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past

Ghosts of polluters past

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera March 22, 2023April 17, 2023
A woman stands looking at her phone next to her van, the only light comes from the van and the sky behind her.
Posted inWatchdog newsletter

I set out to tell his story. Then he found out he was ill.

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera December 2, 2022April 17, 2023
Earl Tulley walks contemplatively, looking down, against a backdrop of mesas with a dusting of snow.
Posted inEnvironment

Nuclear buildup sickened his community. Then it caught up with him.

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera November 30, 2022April 17, 2023
Posted inNatural Resources

Drilling down on water access as drought becomes the ‘new normal’  

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera October 28, 2022October 27, 2022
A piston-engine aircraft flies against a cloudy sky
Posted inPublic Health

Getting the lead out — at long last

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera September 23, 2022September 23, 2022
Smoke from a Houston refinery billows into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Posted inWatchdog newsletter

Flooding could expose toxic soil in city neighborhoods

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera July 22, 2022July 21, 2022
A close-up of a woman's hands in handcuffs
Posted inWatchdog newsletter

When pregnancy loss becomes a crime

Yvette Cabrera by Yvette Cabrera June 3, 2022June 6, 2022

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Public Integrity’s “40 Acres and a Lie” project is honored by the Philip Meyer Journalism Awards

Public Integrity’s “40 Acres and a Lie” project is honored by the Philip Meyer Journalism Awards

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