Data Reporter
Joel Jacobs is a data reporter at ProPublica. Previously, he was a data reporter on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s investigations team, where he worked on a variety of accountability projects including examining hospital price transparency and public housing conditions. He also covered the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes for The Washington Post. He completed his master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University and previously worked as a software engineer.
The Lac du Flambeau tribe of Wisconsin settled a civil suit filed by Minnesota’s attorney general that alleged its triple-digit interest rates violated state caps. The tribe is under increasing legal pressure nationally over its lending practices.
Facing financial ruin, the Lac du Flambeau tribe began offering short-term loans online with annual rates often over 600%. But as the tribe rose in an industry derided for predatory practices, it put its reputation at risk and drew costly lawsuits.
The Lac du Flambeau tribe is at the center of a $1 billion class-action settlement that comes after years of fending off claims of predatory lending practices.
ProPublica and Documented identified 25 employers that, despite histories of wage theft, have received contracts worth more than a collective $500 million from city and state agencies since 2018.
Gretna, Louisiana, brings in more money through fines and fees than some larger cities in the state. Much of that revenue comes from motorists who rack up multiple traffic violations, according to a WVUE-TV and ProPublica investigation.
We found more than a dozen places in Louisiana where the mayor sat on the bench of a court that pulled in a sizable share of the town’s revenue. The state says this arrangement could be unfair to defendants.
In Georgia, borrowers looking to alleviate debt through Chapter 13 bankruptcy can’t escape their high-interest title pawns thanks to a legal loophole that TitleMax helped secure.
No statewide agency monitors Georgia’s high-interest title lenders, so we used a variety of data sources to reveal the scope of the industry and its impact on customers who file for bankruptcy.
Using data from Kentucky and West Virginia environmental regulators, ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight found that mines that have gone through multiple bankruptcies in the past decade had a higher median number of environmental violations than nonbankrupt mines.
New Mexico places foster teens with serious mental health conditions in shelters that don’t offer psychiatric services. When a crisis erupts, they call 911. “This happens all the time,” said one officer.
In Gallup-McKinley County Schools, wearing the wrong color shirt can get you written up for “gang-related activity.” Banging on a window is bullying. The district is responsible for most of New Mexico’s disproportionate expulsions of Native students.
New Mexico does not publish public school discipline data. When we looked at it, we found that Native American students in the state were disciplined more than their white peers.
Title lenders in the U.S. often use predatory practices to trap customers in high-interest loans, ProPublica recently reported. This guide will help you understand how title lending works and what your options are if you’re stuck in a contract.
For some Georgia residents, title pawn contracts offer a quick way to obtain desperately needed cash. But poor regulation of a confusing system traps many borrowers in high-interest debt they can’t pay off.
Youth crisis shelters aren’t set up to deal with foster youth who need intensive mental health treatment. When teens try to harm themselves or others, staff resort to calling 911.
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