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Young Girls Were Sexually Abused by a Church Member. They Were Told to Forgive and Forget.
In Minnesota, leaders of an Old Apostolic Lutheran Church community enabled a child abuser by telling his victims that once the sins were “washed away in the blood of reconciliation,” they could never speak of them again.
Reporting From the Midwest
Our team in the Midwest covers Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri. Based in Chicago, it grew out of our first regional publishing operation, which focused on people living and working in Illinois. Read more.
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Featured Stories
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What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vaccines could help, but the USDA hasn’t approved them.
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How ProPublica Investigated a Bird Flu Outbreak in America’s Heartland
Early this year, bird flu ripped through 80 farms in Ohio and Indiana. Using genetic markers, wind simulations, satellite imagery, property records and more, we found that the virus could’ve been airborne.
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Lo que no muestran los videos de la administración Trump sobre una redada de inmigración en Chicago
Venezolanos detenidos y deportados cuentan sus historias sobre lo que ocurrió cuando agentes de inmigración hicieron una redada en su complejo de apartamentos.
Midwest Staff
Midwest Editor
George Papajohn
Deputy Midwest Editor
Steve Mills
Reporters
Anna Clark, Jodi S. Cohen, Vernal Coleman, Duaa Eldeib, Jeremy Kohler, Jessica Lussenhop, Megan O’Matz, Melissa Sanchez and Jennifer Smith Richards
Local Reporting Network Partners
ProPublica is supporting local and regional newsrooms as they work on important investigative projects affecting their communities. Some of our past and present partners in the region:
Chicago Tribune
Chicago, Illinois
The Southern Illinoisan
Carbondale, Illinois
WBEZ
Chicago, Illinois
The Daily Herald
Arlington Heights, Illinois
The Business Journal
Youngstown, Ohio
Outlier Media
Detroit, Michigan
More Stories
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He Vowed to “Protect the Unborn.” Now He’s Blocking a Bill to Expand Medicaid for Wisconsin’s New Moms.
Splitting with anti-abortion members of his own party, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has refused to join 48 other states in ensuring that vulnerable women have access to potentially lifesaving care for up to a year after giving birth.
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What the Trump Administration’s Videos From a Chicago Immigration Raid Don’t Show
Detained and deported Venezuelans tell their stories of what happened when immigration agents raided their apartment building.
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“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime
Authorities said Tren de Aragua “terrorists” had taken over the building. A ProPublica investigation found little evidence to back up the government’s claims. For the first time, the Venezuelans arrested in a Chicago raid are telling their stories.
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“Lo perdí todo”: venezolanos fueron detenidos en un dramático operativo nocturno, pero nunca se les imputó delito alguno
Las autoridades afirmaron que “terroristas” del Tren de Aragua habían tomado el edificio. Una investigación de ProPublica halló pocas pruebas que respalden esa versión. Por primera vez, los venezolanos cuentan sus historias.
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On the Front Line of the Fluoride Wars, Debate Over Drinking Water Treatment Turns Raucous
After decades of fluoridating drinking water to improve public health, some communities are wavering on the practice. In one Michigan county, the medical director is mirroring Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts against fluoridation.
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“I Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore”: They Tried to Self-Deport, Then Got Stranded in Trump’s America
Venezuelan immigrants signed up for a Trump-promoted app called CBP Home, which promised a safe and easy way to leave the country, and prepared to leave on their given departure dates. Those dates have come and gone. They’re still stuck here.
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“No quiero estar más acá”: intentaron autodeportarse y quedaron atrapados en la América de Trump
Inmigrantes venezolanos se registraron en una aplicación promovida por Trump llamada CBP Home, que prometía una forma segura y fácil de salir del país. Se prepararon para partir en las fechas asignadas. Esas fechas pasaron y siguen atrapados aquí.
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Chicago Cop Who Falsely Blamed an Ex-Girlfriend for Dozens of Traffic Tickets Pleads Guilty but Avoids Prison
Retired officer Jeffrey Kriv acknowledged repeatedly lying under oath to avoid paying dozens of speeding and other traffic tickets. Prosecutors have dropped at least 92 cases in which Kriv was a key witness because of credibility issues.
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“His Audience Was Really Trump”: How New FBI Lead Used His Missouri AG Role to Wage a Culture War
Andrew Bailey’s nearly three-year term as Missouri’s top lawyer was marked by splashy fights over gender, schools and diversity that often fizzled but boosted his political profile. Now he’s co-deputy director of the FBI.
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Amid Rise of RFK Jr., Officials Waver on Drinking Water Fluoridation — Even in the State Where It Started
As federal agencies review their guidance on fluoridation and the nation’s top health official calls fluoride “industrial waste,” state and local governments are pulling back on the practice, upending a decadeslong public health success story.
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“Just Let Me Die”: After Insurance Repeatedly Denied a Couple’s Claims, One Psychiatrist Was Their Last Hope
After a North Carolina man attempted suicide twice, his wife tried to get him help at an inpatient clinic. But their insurance provider refused to cover the treatment, deeming it “not medically necessary.”
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Three Chicago Schools Get Expensive STEAM Makeovers. Can the Effort Reverse Declining Enrollment?
After years of allowing chronically underenrolled public schools to struggle, Chicago is spending millions to transform three into STEAM academies, hoping to draw families back to the neighborhood schools that many of them abandoned.
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The Floods Kept Coming. He Needed to Grow a Crop That Would Thrive in Water — or to Quit.
One Illinois man’s decadeslong fight to convert his fields into rice paddies demonstrates how it’s possible to bring diversity to the Corn Belt, but improbable so long as federal farm policy remains focused on soybeans and corn.
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The Federal Farm Policy Trap: Why Some Farmers Are Stuck Raising Crops That No Longer Thrive
Some farmers keep growing in flood- and drought-prone fields because subsidies soften the losses, while federal programs meant to help them change course have been underfunded and mired in bureaucracy. Under Trump, those programs may weaken further.
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Trump’s Pick to Help Run the FBI Has a History of Prosecuting Influential Democrats
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s targeting of Democrats is legally questionable, experts say, but it’s helped to further his career nationally: “The more outrageous you are, the more you are going to attract the attention of Donald Trump.”
