WASHINGTON – Abel Amene was born in Ethiopia and came to the U.S. when he was 13 years old. Amene, who is a green card holder, has lived in the D.C.-area for the past 23 years, where he helps seniors sign up for vaccine appointments and volunteers in political campaigns. In 2021, he wrote a […]
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Posted inInside Public Integrity
It ‘takes a village’ to investigate inequality
Jin Ding, a veteran reporter, philanthropic leader and advocate for inclusive storytelling and diversity and equity in journalism, has joined the Center for Public Integrity as chief of staff at a time when the nonprofit news organization is expanding on its mission of confronting inequality through investigative reporting. We asked about the approach they’ll take […]
Posted inHigh Courts, High Stakes
Not just the Supreme Court: Ethics troubles plague state high courts, too
This story also appeared in USA TODAY Subscribe on Google | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Since 2015, a North Carolina Supreme Court justice has heard at least six cases involving the massive utility Duke Energy, a company in which he and his wife had a direct financial stake. In each of the cases, Paul Newby — chief justice since 2021 […]
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 inEducation
When the punishment is the same as the crime: Suspended for missing class
PHOENIX — Guadalupe Hernandez’s attendance problems started in kindergarten. The boy, who has two attention disorders and oppositional defiant disorder, often refused to sit still for circle time. He also experienced separation anxiety while away from his grandmother, Frances Yduarte, who raised him. He’d spend his days distracted from lessons, wishing he was home with […]
Posted inInside Public Integrity
Q&A with Paul Cheung: ‘Who is journalism really serving?’
Paul Cheung will take over as CEO of the Center for Public Integrity on Aug. 9. Most recently director of journalism and technology innovation at the Knight Foundation, he will lead one of the country’s oldest nonprofit news organizations in its mission of investigative reporting about inequality. We asked about his vision for the role […]
Posted inUS Polling Places
Missouri made it extra hard to vote by mail
Missouri expanded mail-in voting during the pandemic while making it nearly impossible for people to vote this way. People who want to avoid going to the polls can request a mail-in ballot, but it must be requested in person or by mail. Under the new law, most voters must also have their ballot signatures notarized, […]
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 inNational Security
The Pentagon tries to win hearts and minds in Silicon Valley
The American military is desperately trying to get a leg up in the field of artificial intelligence, which top officials are convinced will deliver victory in future warfare. But internal Pentagon documents and interviews with senior officials make clear that the Defense Department is reeling from being spurned by a tech giant and struggling to […]
Posted inElections
Redistricting: Tribes fight for an equal voice
This story also appeared in Investigate West and The Investigative Reporting Workshop The Columbia and Okanogan Rivers to the east, south and west of the Colville Indian Reservation form natural borders on a map of north-central Washington. On the ground, the reservation’s forested hills and lakes juxtaposed with vast grasslands have fueled the tribes’ economic […]
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
Another blow to working people during the pandemic: states snatching back tax refunds
This story was published in partnership with HuffPost. This story also appeared in HuffPost In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many states and local governments temporarily suspended debt collection to ease the financial burden on struggling businesses and families. But one little-known practice has continued mostly unabated: deducting money from tax refunds to collect delinquent […]
Posted inInstitution of One
Million-dollar question: How to find safe homes for those with complex needs
This story also appeared in KJZZ and Slate Zainab Edwards is an ice skater. It runs in the family. Edwards’ mother, Cynthia Elliott, grew up on the ice in Minnesota and her older daughter skated competitively for years. So when Elliott and her husband Dave agreed to foster Edwards five days after her fourth birthday, […]
Posted inSystem Failure
Trump’s pullback of pollution controls is even more hazardous than you think
This story was published in partnership with Vox. The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates betrayals of public trust. Sign up to receive our stories. The Permian Basin is one of the most prolific oil and gas plays in the world, responsible for more than a third of the United States’ oil and […]
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 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 inCheated at Work
USPS has cheated mail carriers for years
This story also appeared in Associated Press and Univision Nancy Campos’ back ached as she loaded more than 100 Amazon packages onto her truck. The 59-year-old grandmother, a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, had worked 13 days in a row without a lunch break, and now she was delivering on the Martin Luther […]
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 inCoronavirus and Inequality
South Dakota’s coronavirus surge is turning nursing homes into a ‘battle zone’
This story was published in partnership with HuffPost. On October 9, an employee in the business office at Tieszen Memorial Home in Marion, South Dakota, tested positive for the coronavirus. She was sent home immediately, but three days later, a nursing aide and a housekeeper both tested positive. Marion, a town of fewer than 1,000 residents, […]
Posted inUS Polling Places
GOP lawsuit in Nevada is a second attack on state’s expanded mail-in voting
Update: November 2, 3 p.m.: On Monday, Nov. 2, Carson City District Court Judge James Wilson denied the Trump campaign and the Nevada Republican Party’s request to halt and add cameras to observe the review of mailed-in ballots in Clark County, Nevada. “There is no evidence of debasement or dilution of any citizen’s vote,” Wilson wrote […]
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
After another shooting, big labor resists calls to shun police unions
This week, senior reporter Alexia Fernández Campbell looks at controversy within the labor movement over the role of police unions, and we’re excited to bring you a sneak peek of a new Public Integrity podcast, “The Heist,” accompanied by a Freedom of Information Act contest and an upcoming discussion with economist Robert Reich. — Matt DeRienzo, editor […]
Posted inCoronavirus and Inequality
Spreading vaccine fears. And cashing in.
This story also appeared in HuffPost Heather Simpson never thought to question vaccines. Her parents vaccinated her when she was a child, and she got tetanus and flu shots as an adult. But when she and her husband were thinking about starting a family, she saw an ad for the documentary series “The Truth about […]
Posted inSystem Failure
Trump reduced fines for nursing homes that put residents at risk. Then COVID-19 happened.
This story was published in partnership with Vox. 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 Vox Few places represent the calamity of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Life Care Center of Kirkland. Starting in February and […]
Posted inInequality
The secret bias hidden in mortgage-approval algorithms
This story was reported by The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom investigating the effects of technology on society. The new four-bedroom house in Charlotte, N.C., was Crystal Marie and Eskias McDaniels’s personal American dream, the reason they had moved to this Southern town from pricey Los Angeles a few years ago. A lush, long lawn, 2,700 square […]
Posted inGrowing Food, Sowing Trouble
We’re not fixing this environmental crisis. One ditch in Indiana could provide a solution.
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 Grist and The World MENTONE, Indiana — If you want to clean up the largest pollution spill in the country, one unaltered by decades of work and billions of dollars, you […]
Posted inEnvironment
Farming’s growing problem
ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa — Everywhere Randy Souder looked, he saw mud. On his soggy fields. In the mechanized crannies of his planter. Along the rural road to his house, where he’d left a trail of clumps. It was late June, and record-breaking rain had pushed the state’s corn-planting rate to its lowest level in nearly […]
Posted inImmigration
Lawsuit seeks court action to prevent deaths and neglect in ICE detention
A lawsuit filed Monday in California includes extensive allegations of preventable deaths, medical neglect and other abusive treatment of immigrant detainees inside an expanding national network of public and privately-run jails. The 200-page class-action lawsuit includes disturbing descriptions of life for people held in civil — not criminal — custody at some of the 158 […]
Posted inGrowing Food, Sowing Trouble
Lake Erie turns toxic every summer. Officials aren’t cracking down on the source.
This story was published in partnership with Grist and The World. OREGON, Ohio — It was sunny and 82 degrees, a perfect August day for a trip to the public beach just outside Toledo. But hardly anyone was here. And no one was swimming. “DANGER,” warned a red sign posted in the sand near the edge of Lake […]
Posted inGrowing Food, Sowing Trouble
Gulf shrimpers fight for their livelihoods in a fertilizer-fueled dead zone
GRAND ISLE, La. — The Ace of Trade trawler motored toward Dean Blanchard’s dock early last summer in southern Louisiana, its skipper slowly winching its nets into storage. Blanchard’s workers, strengthened by a lifetime at sea, worked shirtless in the humid summer air. It was the beginning of hurricane season, and 2019 was on track […]
Posted inNational Security
Coming soon to the battlefield: Robots that can kill
Wallops Island — a remote, marshy spit of land along the eastern shore of Virginia, near a famed national refuge for horses — is mostly known as a launch site for government and private rockets. But it also makes for a perfect, quiet spot to test a revolutionary weapons technology. If a fishing vessel had […]
