In the past year, the Supreme Court has made several decisions that have radically reshaped essential rights for Americans spanning from abortion access to gun rights to the separation of church and state. The higher court rulings have prompted an array of analyses of how some of these decisions will disproportionately impact some already marginalized […]
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Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past
Eight ways to take action on lead contaminating your community’s soil
Read the Spanish version here. Lea la versión en español aquí. Is lead lurking in the soil around you? Dangerous lead contamination continues to plague the soil of urban centers, particularly in high-traffic, older neighborhoods where particles and airborne dust from leaded gasoline and lead paint accumulated during the 20th century. Industrial areas where both […]
Posted inIn public view
From worker safety to the wealth gap, ‘deep investigations … save lives’
The second season of the Center for Public Integrity’s podcast, The Heist, tackles some of the biggest drivers of the country’s widening wealth gap. Its host, Jamie Smith Hopkins, investigates structural inequality and works closely with other reporters doing the same. Hopkins joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2014 as a reporter, and for […]
Posted inToxic Labor
Birth of an OSHA policy
John Henshaw didn’t know the legacy he would create in 2001, when he helped oversee the government response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Then the head of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which monitored disaster rescue workers’ exposures to dangerous toxins while toiling among the World Trade Center building debris, he made […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Public Integrity expands audience team
Charlie Hsing-Chuan Dodge and Vanessa Lee are joining an expanding audience team at the Center for Public Integrity that is working to reach, engage and partner with those most affected by the U.S. inequality the nonprofit newsroom investigates. Dodge, an upcoming graduate of New York University who created her 21st century storytelling major by combining […]
Posted inEnvironment
Taking the highway to right wrongs of the past in urban areas
Roads might not seem like an obvious solution to structural inequalities. But for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, addressing those inequalities requires restoring Black and brown communities torn apart by freeways and highways during the building boom of the mid-20th century. Over the last year, Buttigieg has crossed the country visiting cities where the Biden administration […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
What slavery and racism have to do with American gun ownership
Gun politics in the U.S. are inextricably linked to race. Two recent studies have found more evidence that for many white Americans who advocate for gun rights, it isn’t simply about owning and using a tool, but even more about identity and power. One of the research papers found that the larger the percentage of […]
Posted inWho Counts?
How one city ended prison gerrymandering
This story is a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and Bolts. The Howard R. Young Correctional Institution sits between a creek and Interstate 495 in Wilmington, Delaware. For the last ten years, the prison’s 1,281 residents were counted as constituents of Wilmington’s third city council district. But when local officials sat down to […]
Posted inEnvironment
Protecting people’s health in the era of global warming
As the nation’s most populous state, California has long influenced environmental-health protections outside its own borders. And its environmental challenges sound all too familiar in other states, from extreme heat and flooding to lead contamination and air pollution. Now its environmental-protection agency has a secretary with a history of advocating on behalf of vulnerable communities […]
Posted inUnequal Risk
Three families vowed to stop a killer chemical. Here’s how they did it.
A bathtub. A floor. A bike. The items Kevin Hartley, Drew Wynne and Joshua Atkins had been working on at the time of their deaths less than 10 months apart varied, but what cut their lives short was the same: a chemical in paint strippers and other products sold in stores nationwide. This story also […]
Posted inAddressing Anti-Asian Hate
Cut off from our past, Chinese American adoptees seek belonging
China’s one-child policy was implemented in 1980, restricting families to one child per couple in an effort to curb the country’s population growth rate. Until it officially ended on Jan. 1, 2016, this policy was enforced at the provincial level through a variety of measures, including contraception, fines, sanctions, intimidation and coercion, and abortion and […]
Posted inUkraine in crisis
Urban warfare turns neighborhoods into battlefields, leaving only ruin
The evening of Feb 24, outlying military sites of Mariupol, a Ukrainian city on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, came under Russian assault. That assault has intensified in the days and weeks since, as Russian forces advancing from Crimea in the southwest and occupied Donetsk in the east encircle the city, making […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
To imagine a world without Roe, look to Kentucky
For six days last month, Kentucky was the only state in the nation without access to abortion services. A sweeping law that banned abortions after 15 weeks also included new requirements for providers, which the state’s two clinics said they couldn’t meet. Reproductive health organizations worked to overcome new barriers to abortion in one of […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
What does it take to narrow racial health gaps in the U.S.?
Black women in the U.S. were 3.5 times more likely than white women to die of causes related to childbirth from 2016 to 2017, a new study published last week found — a gap that is wider than previously estimated. It’s just one of a long list of racial health disparities in a nation that […]
Posted inGhosts of Polluters Past
Lead keeps poisoning children. It doesn’t have to.
Read the Spanish version here. Lea la versión en español aquí. SANTA ANA, California — The news came as a shock: Lead, lurking somewhere in Nalleli Garrido’s home, was poisoning her 1-year-old son. His pediatrician instructed her to clean all the toys of her toddler, Ruben, keep the home dust-free and prevent him from playing […]
Posted inWho Counts?
New York adopts a state Voting Rights Act while rejecting wider ballot access
Voting in New York is a work in progress. In the past year, the state adopted a new Voting Rights Act, but its voters shot down an opportunity to make mail-in voting broadly available. In these midterms, advocates’ most pressing concern is the lack of education around unnecessarily complicated absentee ballot changes. Deadlines to request […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Are schools the next target of ‘great replacement theory’ conspiracists?
Next month marks the 40th anniversary of Plyler v. Doe, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring public schools to educate all children, regardless of their immigration status. But with the high court potentially overturning decades-old precedent in the Roe v. Wade abortion decision, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sees a potential opening to undo Plyler, […]
Posted inWho Counts?
Connecticut weighs changes to improve voting access
Connecticut’s state constitution makes voting harder for people who can’t take time off from work, travel to the polls or navigate long lines, which disproportionately hurts voters of color. But a proposed constitutional amendment and a push for the Democratic-controlled state to adopt a version of the federal Voting Rights Act could change that landscape […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Police presence in schools causes long-term harm, advocates say
The presence of police patrolling school hallways has fundamental consequences and causes long-term harm to Black, brown and disabled students, in particular, a panel of experts said in a forum hosted by the Center for Public Integrity and San Diego investigative journalism organization inewsource Wednesday night. “Criminalizing Kids,” a Public Integrity investigation by Corey Mitchell, […]
Posted inWho Counts?
‘The restrictions are unbelievable’: States target voter registration drives
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center and co-reported with NPR. This story also appeared in NPR ORLANDO, Fla. — Carolina Wassmer piloted a gray SUV around the city, dropping off canvassers from the civic engagement group Poder Latinx one by one. It was a muggy day, but the canvassers hopped out with their […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Rethinking what fair banking means
A law meant to correct the harm done by decades of discrimination in bank loans is undergoing a long-awaited overhaul. Fair lending advocates have said it’s too easy for banks to get a passing grade under the Community Reinvestment Act, and that communities of color continue to be disproportionately denied home loans. Now federal regulators […]
Posted inHealth parity
Families take drastic steps to help children in mental health crises
An insufficient mental health care system pushes some families to give up custody of their children for care. States look for better solutions.
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
I’m pregnant. Here’s why I decided to get the coronavirus vaccine.
I was hoping my doctor would be more helpful. I’m a journalist who’s spent the last year reporting on the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic. But one thing my job teaches me every day is how little I know. So as a pregnant woman, I thought it would be prudent to follow the advice […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Indigenous solutions to climate change could inform nationwide policies
Following heavy rainfall earlier this week, Northwest Washington residents rescued neighbors in fishing boats on washed-out roads. Rising flood waters closed most routes to and from the peninsula where the Lummi Nation Reservation is located. Aerial footage of the area showed houses surrounded by several feet of water, like islands in a sea of flood […]
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 inHealth parity
Despite efforts to close gap, parity in mental health care remains elusive
In recent years, mental health care has become a mainstream issue. President Biden proposed an expansion of services nationwide. Lawmakers and celebrities speak openly about their struggles. States are providing incentives to expand the behavioral health workforce. Companies are recognizing the need for mental health leave. Telehealth care is rapidly expanding. But countless surveys have […]
Posted inGrowing Food, Sowing Trouble
A common fertilizer can cause explosions. Uneven regulation puts people at risk.
This story was published in partnership with Grist and The World. This story also appeared in Grist and The World The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates betrayals of public trust. Sign up to receive our stories. WEST, Texas — The blast sent Robby Payne into a plastic tank of liquid cattle feed, knocking him […]
Posted inHealth parity
Mental Health Parity Collaborative
Updated May 16, 2024 The Mental Health Parity Collaborative is a partnership between The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, The Center for Public Integrity, and news outlets in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. More than 40 reporters and editors from more than 15 news outlets are working […]
Posted inWatchdog newsletter
Proposed iPhone protections could put LGBTQ youth at risk
Virtual communities have long provided a space for LGBTQ youth to explore their identities, allowing queer children to safely come out of the closet without fear of abuse from unsupportive parents. But as technology companies ratchet up surveillance in the name of content moderation, the digital privacy of LGBTQ youth and other vulnerable people may […]
About Us
The problem | Our mission | Our expertise | Our values | Our impact | Our team The problem As the country has reached historic disparities in wealth and across a range of other measurements of well-being, Public Integrity is focusing its investigative reporting on inequality, a problem ingrained in the culture and economy of the U.S. since its founding. Our mission Public […]
