Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest
For years, Washington, D.C., was insulated from many of the economic forces that decimated many older U.S. cities. Now, as Elon Musk’s mass layoffs shake everything from employment to real estate, the region faces the prospect of decline.
While launching a statewide program to distribute packets to dissolve opioids, Attorney General Ken Paxton worked to connect its leaders with the state’s comptroller, who oversees the distribution of millions of dollars in opioid settlement money.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign the legislation, whose Senate sponsors cited ProPublica’s reporting on McKinsey’s conflicts in working for both the FDA and opioid makers like Purdue Pharma.
For a decade, the Justice Department delayed a winning criminal case against Philadelphia-based Endo Health Solutions. That allowed the company to vastly expand its narcotics empire and execute a corporate escape plan.
McKinsey consulted for the FDA without informing the agency of its work for opioid makers. Now lawmakers have introduced a bill to ensure federal contractors disclose conflicts of interest arising from private-sector work.
Police knew she was selling fake Percocet but did not stop her. His mother sought the right treatment for his addiction but could not find it. Two teens got caught up in a system unprepared to handle kids on either side of the drug trade.
A settlement is about to shield members of the Sackler family from civil litigation regarding their alleged roles in the opioid crisis.
A Tennessee mother wanted to end her high-risk pregnancy, but doctors feared prosecution.
The consulting giant was helping Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson fend off FDA regulations even as it helped shape FDA drug policy.
After the Sandusky child abuse scandal rocked Pennsylvania, the state required more professionals to report suspected child abuse. That led to a strained child welfare system and more unsubstantiated reports against low-income families.
A roundup of ProPublica’s strongest visual stories of the year.
Twenty-five years ago, Congress passed a law aimed at speeding up adoptions of children languishing in foster care. In the process, it destroyed hundreds of thousands of families through the termination of parental rights.
Opioid-related deaths in Cook County have doubled since this time last year, and similar increases are happening across the country. “If you’re alone, there’s nobody to give you the Narcan,” said one coroner.
Bloomberg gave media advice to the Sacklers and recommended his longtime mayoral spokesman to them. The relationship could shadow his presidential bid.
Two years ago, the DEA arrested a Mexican general, hoping to lay bare the high-level corruption at the heart of organized crime. Then the case fell apart — and took down U.S.-Mexican cooperation on drug policy with it.
Many states report coronavirus cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations differently, and the federal government is way behind on data tracking. Without consistent information, the U.S. won’t be able to properly respond as new coronavirus hot spots emerge.
Half of Cook County’s confirmed opioid-related deaths have been among Black residents, even though they make up less than a quarter of the county’s population. Officials warn that the COVID-19 pandemic has overshadowed the crisis.
OxyContin’s makers delayed the reckoning for their role in the opioid crisis by funding think tanks, placing friendly experts on leading outlets, and deterring or challenging negative coverage.
Across the country, unregulated “shadow” foster care is severing parents from children — who often wind up abandoned by the system that’s supposed to protect them.
Discount chains are thriving — while fostering violence and neglect in poor communities.
Jim Justice promised West Virginians he would focus on public service, and not his businesses, once he was elected. But he’s frequently used his power as governor to promote his own corporate entities while running the state.
Downplaying its role in the opioid epidemic, Purdue Pharma has embraced a federal statistic showing it was a minor player in the pain pill market. But when we took drug potency into account, Purdue’s importance soared.
Homelessness was at crisis levels in the United States. COVID-19 has put this already vulnerable population even more at risk.
A comparison of University of California filings with federal data shows that moonlighting professors are shortchanging taxpayers.
One of our editors set out to create an ambitious list of data sources on the opioid epidemic. Much of what he found was out of date, and some data contradicted other data.
Sackler testified in 2015 in a lawsuit brought by Kentucky against his family’s company, Purdue Pharma, which makes the painkiller OxyContin. We published the transcript in February. Now you can see the video.
Secret portions of a lawsuit allege that Purdue Pharma, controlled by the Sackler family, considered capitalizing on the addiction treatment boom — while going to extreme lengths to boost sales of its controversial opioid.
As a ProPublica/Frontline documentary shows, the economic and social gaps among cities are growing as dramatic as the gaps between urban and rural areas.
Hundreds of thousands of children are abused or neglected in the U.S. each year, but only one federal law directly addresses this tragic reality for children not in state care. The law is routinely violated — with heartbreaking consequences.
Another lawmaker is asking insurers whether their policies have made it easier for patients to access cheaper, more addictive drugs over less addictive alternatives. Meanwhile, the insurance industry trade group pledged additional steps to combat inappropriate prescribing.
Studies have shown that payments to doctors by opioid makers are linked to more prescribing of the drugs.
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Today’s legislative branch, far from the model envisioned by the founders, is dominated by party leaders and functions as a junior partner to the executive, according to an analysis by The Washington Post and ProPublica.
They want insurers to re-examine coverage policies that, as ProPublica and The New York Times reported Sunday, may be driving patients toward addictive painkillers.
The influence of state government is far-reaching, yet elected officials and state bureaucrats are getting ever less scrutiny. Send us ideas for accountability projects by Sept. 14.
Researchers suggest people getting Vivitrol shots may be more susceptible to a fatal overdose if they halt the regimen early and resume using opiates.
A little-known court document sheds light on the family feud over the multibillion-dollar painkiller’s association with the opioid crisis.
The move follows a story by ProPublica and The New York Times detailing how insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers have made it easier to get opioid painkillers than less risky alternatives.
As the largest employer in Adams County, Ohio, closes its coal-fired power plants there, politicians and companies have thrown up their hands. Families know that finding work means leaving the place they know.
Drug companies and doctors have been accused of fueling the opioid crisis, but some question whether insurers have played a role, too.
The middlemen between drug companies and pharmacies have been hit recently with fines for their role in not calling out suspicious transactions. “They’re like the quarterback. They distribute the ball,” a former DEA supervisor said.
Since Freddie Gray’s death in 2015, violent crime has spiked to levels unseen for a quarter century. How order collapsed in an American city.
Armstrong comes to ProPublica from STAT, where he was a senior enterprise reporter and wrote extensively about the opioid crisis.
Medicare patients in Hawaii take fewer opioid painkillers and fewer antibiotics, on average, than those in any other state. Physicians and health policy experts cite demographics and healthier lifestyles as possible reasons why.
A new account challenges our notion of how the people of Appalachia “acquired civilization and then lost it.”
Hospitals and pharmacies are required to toss expired drugs, no matter how expensive or vital. Meanwhile the FDA has long known that many remain safe and potent for years longer.
Amid a surging opiate crisis, the maker of the anti-addiction drug Vivitrol skirted the usual sales channels. It found a captive market for its once-a-month injection in the criminal justice system.
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