Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest
Investigative Journalismin the Public Interest
ProPublica is a nonprofit, investigative newsroom that exposes corruption. We report in all 50 states and partner with local newsrooms. Our work spurs real-world impact and has received numerous awards, including nine Pulitzer Prizes.
How Abortion Bans Lead to Preventable Deaths
How Recent Arrivals at the Border Have Changed the Country and Its Attitudes
SCOTUS Justices’ Beneficial Relationships With Billionaire Donors
Decades ago, Mark Schleifstein and his colleagues exposed environmental threats coming out of industrial plants all along the Louisiana section of the Mississippi River. A lot of those plants never went away, and even more are moving in.
In St. James Parish, Louisiana, a Taiwanese industrial giant seems likely to be granted a permit to build a billion-dollar plastics plant. Its proposed emissions could triple levels of cancer-causing chemicals in one of the most toxic areas of the U.S.
Attention: Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Pennsylvania. Accel Entertainment became the largest video gambling operator in Illinois. Now it has its eyes on you.
Tal vez solicitó una boleta de votación por correo, pero cambió de opinión y ahora quiere ir personalmente a las urnas. A continuación, explicamos lo que se puede hacer en cada estado si ha cambiado de parecer sobre cómo desea emitir su voto.
Air quality has improved for decades across the U.S., but Louisiana is backsliding. Our analysis found that a crush of new industrial plants will increase concentrations of cancer-causing chemicals in predominantly black and poor communities.
In New Orleans, hospitals sent patients infected with the coronavirus into hospice facilities or back to their families to die at home, in some cases discontinuing treatment even as relatives begged them to keep trying.
Renowned inventor Walter Hutchins has voted in every presidential election since 1952. This year, as many states stopped sending teams to help seniors vote, his nursing home was on coronavirus lockdown and his streak was in jeopardy.
FEMA has helped pay for the burials of victims of past disasters. But months into the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration has sat on similar requests. Families of COVID-19 victims have been forced to turn to religious centers and GoFundMe.
It is FEMA’s job to warn homeowners about major flood risks, but its approach is notoriously limited. In Cook County alone, researchers found about six times as many properties in danger as FEMA estimated. Look up your address with a new tool.
While the social media giant says it opposes voter suppression, the data shows a stark picture: Nearly half of all top-performing posts that mentioned voting by mail were false or misleading.
Here’s the dismal equation for food banks: Panic shopping and hoarding have led to supply shortages. Volunteers frightened of the virus have stopped showing up. And a newly jobless population has sent demand soaring.
Reliable statistics on deaths and near-deaths from abuse and neglect can help shape better policies to protect children. A new report shows the breadth of government failures to collect and report this information.
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.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statewide stay-at-home order, though he declined to refer to it as such, that also designated religious services as essential. Some religious groups in Texas — it’s unclear just how many — are still welcoming parishioners.
Near America’s largest coal-fired power plant, toxins are showing up in drinking water and people have fallen ill. Thousands of pages of internal documents show how one giant energy company plans to avoid the cleanup costs.
Since 2007, the government had held off on releasing an official estimate of expectant and new mothers who died from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. It waited for the data to get better. But the new, long-anticipated number falls short.
El padrón electoral de Georgia ha aumentado en casi dos millones desde que el Tribunal Supremo de los EE. UU. invalidó la Ley de Derechos de Votación en 2013, pero los centros de votación se han reducido en casi un 10% y la zona metropolitana de Atlanta se ha visto particularmente afectada.
“It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of his tube.”
The CDC and hospitals have put medical providers and patients at risk as they fail to address national supply shortages. One emergency room doctor who did not have proper equipment and learned he had COVID-19 said, “I’m sure I exposed everyone I saw.”
No, the coronavirus is not an “equalizer.” Black people are being infected and dying at higher rates. Here’s what Milwaukee is doing about it — and why governments need to start releasing data on the race of COVID-19 patients.
When Laura Whalen went to a hospital with COVID-19, she brought her kids. Her husband was already in an ICU, and she couldn’t risk them exposing their grandma. But the state told her to find someone to take them or it would.
Jim Tucker, Troy Hebert and Nick Gautreaux are among 35 past lawmakers since 2010 who became lobbyists, agency heads, legislative influencers or state board appointees.
States may shift primary dates, but only Congress can change the federal elections. We spoke to an elections expert to learn what you need to know about how coronavirus could affect the way voters cast their ballots in November.
USPS forced out 44,000 workers who got injured on the job. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the effort, part of a five year program, violated the law. But the Postal Service has fought its workers’ claims since 2007.
Half the country votes on machines made by ES&S. Many experts and election officials say the manufacturer remains dominant because there’s little government regulation and almost no oversight.
“Caí por primera vez en la cuenta de lo diferente que es cuando vi deteriorarse a mi primer paciente de coronavirus. Pensé ‘Maldita sea, esto no es una gripa’, mientras veía a este hombre relativamente joven que se esforzaba por respirar y expulsaba secreciones espumosas de color rosa por su tubo”.
The tax agency, Justice Department and Congress have all taken aim at a much-abused deduction exploited by wealthy investors. Yet the crackdown is having minimal impact, costing the Treasury billions.
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.
Gov. Jim Justice is West Virginia’s richest man. Over the last three decades, lawsuits over unpaid bills have cost his constellation of companies more than $128 million in judgments and settlements.
We found multiple Trump ethics pledge violations hidden in a little-noticed government report. They show inappropriate actions by government employees, lobbyists and former business clients.
More than 2,000 workers in eight states will lose their jobs after Amazon dropped three companies after reports by BuzzFeed News and ProPublica.
What to consider to avoid losing land that has been passed down through generations without a will and is shared among heirs.
When Mississippi lawmakers passed prison reform legislation in 2014, they pledged to devote some of the savings to drug rehabilitation, reentry programs and prison alternatives. That hasn’t happened.
A federal crackdown on professors’ undisclosed outside activities is achieving what China has long struggled to do: spur Chinese scientists to return home. In this crisis, it’s costing the U.S. intellectual firepower.
Widely supported legislation would have allowed Uber and Lyft to operate throughout Louisiana. But John Alario took steps to kill it, and colleagues point to his long-standing ties to a power broker who sells insurance to cab companies.
A trip that included a walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, drew a number of officials from states with controversial voting requirements.
A New Jersey utility sparked outrage for charging customers to subsidize nuclear plants. Turns out, that was just one of 16 lurking surcharges.
One lawmaker supported a bill that would help his brother, who owns truck stop casinos. Another, a lawyer who represents physicians, sponsored a bill that helps doctors under investigation by the state medical board.
Why are the rural poor audited more frequently than other groups, he asks, citing ProPublica. Another Democratic senator adds, “There are two tax codes in America, and there are also two enforcement regimes.”
Legislators own everything from gas stations to nursing homes, yet they rarely recuse themselves on bills that directly affect them.
Illinois will finally conduct a thorough study of the gambling problem in the state — the first such survey in nearly 30 years. It said it will spend more money to treat addiction, too.
Following up on ProPublica stories about the IRS, lawmakers pressed the commissioner on the agency’s disproportionate focus on auditing the working poor while examinations of the rich plummeted.
Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, give us some context and insight into the recent dust-ups over the death penalty and the case of Domineque Ray, who was executed on Feb. 7.
We spent a night at President Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C. — and we met some interesting people.
Over three years, nearly 400 pregnant or new mothers died in Texas. Its system for helping the uninsured thwarts women at every turn, frustrates doctors and midwives, and incentivizes substandard care.
The state’s leaders want a federal loan guarantee to build a giant chemical storage plant that could cost as much as $10 billion.
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