Local Reporting Network Archive
Shielded From Public View, Misconduct by Corrections Staff in Illinois Prisons Received Scant Discipline
At least 18 corrections employees abused or used excessive force against incarcerated people in Illinois, according to internal corrections investigations. They all remained on the job.
Juvenile Detention Center That Illegally Jailed Kids Now Will Answer to an Oversight Board
The board is being put in place after a Nashville Public Radio/ProPublica investigation detailed how Tennessee's Rutherford County was jailing children at rates unmatched in the state.
New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call the Cops Instead.
Many residential treatment facilities for children in New York are shutting down, leaving families frustrated and scrambling to find mental health services. Some kids age out of care as they wait.
Yes, We Fact-Checked These Watercolors
For a project about salmon hatcheries, ProPublica data reporter Irena Hwang wanted to exercise a different part of her brain. She learned that there are many ways of looking at a fish.
Casinos Pled Poverty to Get a Huge Tax Break. Atlantic City Is Paying the Price.
Despite growing profits, casino operators used predictions of “grave danger” to convince the state to slash their tax burden, denying millions to the city, its school district and the county.
New Jersey Officials Refused to Provide the Numbers Behind New Casino Tax Breaks. So We Did the Math.
Lawmakers claimed, without providing evidence, that casinos would close without a tax cut. A ProPublica, Press of Atlantic City analysis found otherwise.
Louisiana Sued Hurricane Katrina Survivors for Misusing Recovery Grants. Now It Has Halted Collection Efforts.
Louisiana sued thousands of homeowners for not following the rules in spending grants after Katrina. After a joint news investigation, the state says it hopes a federal agency will approve a settlement that will allow it to drop the lawsuits.
How Not to Count Salmon
Data reporter Irena Hwang thought counting fish to evaluate the hatchery system in the Pacific Northwest sounded like a fun project. That was before she started asking biologists about what the publicly available data could really tell us.
Alaska Charges Former Acting Attorney General With Sexual Abuse of a Minor
Ed Sniffen faces three counts of sexual abuse of a minor for having sex with a 17-year-old girl he coached in high school in 1991.
Native Hawaiians Are Split Over How to Spend $600 Million to Help Those Who Need Housing
State lawmakers passed legislation to bolster a long-troubled homesteading program for Native Hawaiians. Distrustful of the state, Native leaders are now crafting their own visions for the money.
The U.S. Has Spent More Than $2 Billion on a Plan to Save Salmon. The Fish Are Vanishing Anyway.
The U.S. government promised Native tribes in the Pacific Northwest that they could keep fishing as they’d always done. But instead of preserving wild salmon, it propped up a failing system of hatcheries. Now, that system is falling apart.
Katrina Survivors Were Told They Could Use Grant Money to Rebuild. Now They’re Being Sued for It.
After Hurricane Katrina, struggling homeowners said, they were told not to worry about the fine print when they received grants to elevate their homes. Now the state is going after them because they did exactly that.
Lawmakers Demand Action on Child Welfare Failures
Calls for improved access to mental health and substance abuse treatment follow reporting by ProPublica and The Southern Illinoisan on the large number of parents investigated repeatedly by Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services.
ProPublica and Local Reporting Partners Are Pulitzer Prize Finalists
A series with Nashville Public Radio was nominated in the feature writing category; our work with The Palm Beach Post was nominated for local reporting.
Lawmakers Approve $600 Million to Help Fix Housing Program for Native Hawaiians
State legislators passed landmark legislation to help buoy a long-troubled program for making reparations to Native Hawaiians. The move follows a ProPublica and Star-Advertiser investigation.
Black Students in Illinois Are Far More Likely to Be Ticketed by Police for School Behavior Than White Students
Federal data has shown Illinois schools suspend and expel Black students at disproportionate rates. Now we know it’s happening with tickets and fines, too.
Wrongly Convicted Man Receives $7.5 Million Settlement in Indiana
In 2018, the South Bend Tribune and ProPublica reported on major flaws in a prosecution in Elkhart, Indiana. Years later, the city expressed regret and agreed to pay the man millions.
Colorado Legislature Passes HOA Foreclosure Reform Bill
The measure limits homeowners associations’ ability to foreclose on residents who accumulate fines for violating community rules known as covenants.
Maine Will Soon Hire Its First Five Public Defenders. Most of the State Remains Without Them.
The only state in the country with no public defenders will still need an estimated $51 million to provide the service to indigent defendants in all 16 of Maine’s counties. It’s “not a solution, it’s a patch,” says the agency’s director.
