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  • "There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil." –Walter Lippmann
    Public Media Accountability Initiative
    In 2017 four public radio news organizations joined APM Reports and pooled their investigative reporters to pursue journalism that exposes neglect, injustice, abuse and improper behavior among powerful people and organizations. In 2020 four new stations began working with us. And in 2022, we welcomed more new partners into our team. We all believe that investigative reporting is central to public radio's mission of fully serving a community and a nation. The funding for the work comes from Arnold Ventures, the Hollyhock Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

    INVESTIGATIONS

    October 17, 2022
    GOP donor trying to reshape Nevada politics pushes radical conspiracy theories, repeatedly cites antisemitic propaganda
    Robert Beadles made his name by making unfounded election claims and backing candidates who share his radical beliefs. But an investigation found that he has repeatedly cited antisemitic propaganda and outlandish conspiracy theories.
    September 13, 2022
    Joe Gerace's lies went way beyond Anchorage. Multiple government agencies investigate how they were duped.
    The former Anchorage health director deceived not just the city but also a state commission, the Alaska State Defense Force and the state health department. Now they're investigating how it happened.
    August 8, 2022
    Anchorage Health Department director resigns amid investigation into fabricated resume
    Joe Gerace resigned citing "severe health issues" as Alaska Public Media prepared to publish a story detailing misleading statements he made about his military service, glaring omissions about his work history and outright lies about his education.
    May 31, 2022
    Anchorage's top library administrator was being investigated for workplace complaints. Bronson fired the investigator.
    Heather MacAlpine started looking into what she called “disturbing” allegations about the work environment under Deputy Library Director Judy Eledge shortly before she was fired, emails and interviews show.
    March 31, 2022
    St. Louis' murder total has fallen, but some killings went uncounted
    St. Louis officials are celebrating a big drop in murders while the city’s police classify more and more killings as "justifiable homicides" instead.
    March 8, 2022
    Sent Away
    It didn't seem to matter what happened at the teen treatment center. The state of Utah always gave it another chance. Death. Allegations of abuse. Criminal charges. Bizarre punishments. Whistleblowers coming forward. Each time, the place got a pass.
    Update: In rare move, regulators will shut down treatment center
    February 11, 2022
    As Nashville's police academy grapples with high dropout rates, new leaders tone down the stress
    Nashville's police academy has struggled to graduate women and people of color. But a new administration is making changes to try to attract and better prepare a more diverse set of officers.
    February 10, 2022
    Why are many departments still using military-style training when research suggests it's not the best option?
    Recent shootings by police have raised questions about how officers are trained. But those conversations have mostly focused on the classes recruits take, not the environment in which they learn.
    February 9, 2022
    Nashville’s police department wants to diversify, but its training program has failed many women and people of color
    About 1,000 police recruits didn't complete training in recent years. Despite the department's desire to diversify the force, women and people of color dropped out at the highest rates.
    November 22, 2021
    St. Louis cops are hiding key details about homicide cases from the public
    Despite killings on the rise and the highest homicide rate among big cities, St. Louis police say they don’t have to tell the public which cases have been solved. APM Reports has filed a lawsuit for the information.
    November 19, 2021
    Two Utah teen centers under fire for using 'gooseneck' holds and other 'painful restraints'
    One facility is being sued after a staffer broke a boy's wrist, while another has been disciplined by the state for similar tactics.
    November 15, 2021
    PFAS pollution could last millennia. Kentucky officials told the polluter, but not residents.
    There are no state or federal regulations to stop companies from polluting the environment with forever chemicals. That left the state's Department for Environmental Protection with limited powers to negotiate with polluters like Shamrock Technologies.
    November 8, 2021
    Western Kentucky city grapples with widespread pollution from Teflon recycler
    A company has polluted a western Kentucky community, spoiling groundwater for generations and blanketing neighborhoods with forever chemicals.
    September 29, 2021
    Officers describe a 'toxic culture' within Nashville police
    For years, many employees of Nashville's police department had been holding back a secret. Behind the department's blue wall, these people said, a toxic culture of misconduct and retaliation had scared many into silence. And the disciplinary system that was supposed to hold police accountable, they said, had allowed that culture to thrive.
    August 16, 2021
    'Concerning' levels of forever chemicals polluting Henderson, Kentucky
    High levels of PFAS chemicals have contaminated a plastics recycling company in the Western Kentucky community of Henderson.
    July 21, 2021
    Lax oversight, no-bid contracts and mysterious pricing: Inside the black box of Covid testing
    More than a year into the pandemic, many details about Covid testing remain unclear to the public, including how much the tests will cost taxpayers and how effective they really are. Nowhere is that more evident than in Minnesota.
    June 23, 2021
    The teen got a concussion. The school got a pass.
    Up until 2019, the agency regulating Utah’s massive youth treatment industry rarely cited facilities for violating rules — even after cases of abuse. After a 2016 incident left a teenager with a concussion, state regulators listened to his mom’s complaint — and then did nothing about it.
    June 22, 2021
    Winter homeless deaths expose divisions between St. Louis officials and providers
    An investigation finds at least five homeless people froze to death this winter after city officials declined to fund a 24-hour walk-in shelter.
    June 11, 2021
    As restrictions came and went, Kentucky Covid death backlog skyrocketed
    When Gov. Andy Beshear's administration eased life-saving restrictions in December, more than twice as many people were dying of Covid-19 as the public knew, and Beshear focused his messaging on an optimistic and incomplete metric that's been questioned by top health researchers.
    March 26, 2021
    How Utah has let its many youth treatment centers off the hook
    Utah has become a national center for youth treatment, and it goes easy on the industry. At one facility, teen girls were forced to sit in a horse trough as punishment, and state regulators chose not to punish the people who did it.
    March 25, 2021
    St. Louis moved homeless people into hotels, putting some in danger: 'We were an eyesore to them'
    St. Louis officials stressed last spring that two downtown tent encampments posed a threat to public health, eventually relocating residents to temporary housing across the city. An investigation has found the city may have put residents in harm's way by placing them at hotels with a history of criminal violence, drug activity and unsanitary living conditions.
    March 10, 2021
    Utah inspectors find no problems in 'troubled-teen' facilities 98% of the time
    Critics question whether Utah's oversight is sufficient to keep kids safe.
    March 4, 2021
    Read the violation reports and inspections for Utah's 'troubled-teen' treatment centers
    Thousands of children are sent away to Utah for treatment at "troubled-teen" centers and wilderness programs. But it has been hard to identify which places have a good track record and which ones don’t. Until now.
    February 10, 2021
    Hundreds Of Kentucky Covid-19 deaths left out of state data
    A state backlog and reporting lags are obscuring the true death toll of the coronavirus surge.
    Update: Kentucky has underreported Covid deaths by nearly 1,400, CDC data shows
    February 4, 2021
    Utah's 'troubled-teen' centers use so-called 'booty juice' to sedate kids
    Chemically restraining children is not allowed in a number of states — but it is permitted in Utah, where the so-called "troubled-teen" industry has thrived under light regulations. A bill sponsored by state Sen. Mike McKell could bring significant oversight to the industry, and would ban the use of chemical restraints unless a facility is given special permission.
    December 7, 2020
    Black female police officers in Nashville say they faced retaliation for criticizing the department
    Multiple current and former minority employees at the Metro Nashville Police Department claim they have faced backlash for challenging the status quo. MNPD is 82% and 89% male.
    September 14, 2020
    As property values rise in Atlanta, so does the exploitation of Black homeowners
    Homeownership is often considered a central part of the American dream. Atlanta residents in gentrifying Black neighborhoods have found it also makes them a target.
    February 12, 2020
    Deceit, disrepair and death inside a Southern California rental empire
    At the bottom rung of the SoCal rental market, some tenants live in insect- and mold-infested units, struggling to get their most basic maintenance needs met.
    December 12, 2019
    The other subprime debt problem
    A WNYC investigation shows how auto lender Credit Acceptance took advantage of sub-prime borrowers to become a Wall Street darling.
    December 10, 2019
    Voter purges could create another challenge for Georgia's homeless
    Georgia removed a half-million voters from its rolls in 2017. The state deemed them inactive because they hadn't voted in several elections. But many had something else in common. Nearly 900 voters were registered to the addresses of Atlanta homeless service providers, according to an analysis by WABE and APM Reports.
    October 29, 2019
    How a massive voter purge in Georgia affected the 2018 election
    State officials claimed that people removed from the voter rolls for inactivity had likely died or moved away. But an APM Reports investigation found tens of thousands who hadn't — and still wanted to vote.
    October 28, 2019
    Done in by a deadline
    Voter registration deadlines have long been a part of American elections, but an APM Reports investigation finds that they disenfranchised a surprising number of voters in 2018.
    October 26, 2019
    A forgotten lynching in Atlanta
    More than 80 years after Thomas Finch was killed, his case still hasn't been resolved.
    October 15, 2019
    Foster care instability led to surge in runaways, left children vulnerable to sex traffickers
    Karen Countryman-Roswurm, director of the Center for Combating Human Trafficking at Wichita State University, says 13 girls who ran away from state custody and were later incarcerated for sex crimes should be viewed as children controlled by traffickers.
    October 14, 2019
    Kansas made this sex trafficking survivor a criminal. She wants another chance
    Hope Zeferjohn, a Topeka native, became a victim of the commercial sex trade while in state custody, ran away, and was sent to prison for aggravated human trafficking.
    August 7, 2019
    Collateral Damage
    How LA's fight against sex trafficking is hurting vulnerable women.
    June 19, 2019
    An opportunity for the rich
    Part of President Trump's tax law, opportunity zones are meant to spur new investment in poor areas by reducing taxes for the wealthy. How much those communities will benefit is unclear.
    May 9, 2019
    Tasers are less reliable than their maker has claimed. The results can be deadly
    Tasers have become an essential tool for police, but how effective are they? An APM Reports investigation finds that officers in some big cities rated Tasers as unreliable up to 40 percent of the time, and in three large departments, newer models were less effective than older ones. In 258 cases over three years, a Taser failed to subdue someone who was then shot and killed by police.
    • In Los Angeles
    • In New York
    • In Texas
    March 24, 2019
    10 failed levees in Midwest flood zone were not inspected by federal government
    The levees that failed last week during catastrophic flooding along the Missouri River were maintained by local associations or private owners.
    Feb. 6, 2019
    NYCHA hires private 'slumlord' to run public housing
    Wavecrest Management's new tenants at a NYCHA project in Queens are happy — so far. But Bronx tenants and activists who've known the company longer? Not so much.
    Nov. 5, 2018
    Missouri leads the country in removing voters for 'mental incapacity'
    People placed in adult guardianship can lose their right to vote, and in Missouri, this happens far more than in any other state.
    Nov. 1, 2018
    Former Confederate states have purged a growing number of felons from voting lists
    Most of the country is making it easier for former felons to vote. But in the South, the number of voters removed due to felonies has nearly doubled in the past decade.
    Oct. 22, 2018
    Meet the Kansas woman who exposed security flaws in Kris Kobach's voter fraud tool
    Come in and sit down at Anita Parsa's kitchen table. Help yourself to the chocolate chip cookies and she'll get you an iced tea. Might as well make yourself comfortable. Because for the next hour, she's going to school you on a massive voter-tracking program run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
    Oct. 19, 2018
    Georgia purged an estimated 107,000 people largely for not voting
    A handful of states, most of them led by Republicans, are using someone's decision not to vote as the trigger for removing them from the rolls. No state has been more aggressive with this approach than Georgia, where Brian Kemp, the secretary of state, oversaw the purging of a growing number of voters ahead of his own run for governor, according to an APM Reports investigation. Voting rights advocates call it a new form of voter suppression, and they fear it will soon spread to other states.
    Update: Georgia governor signs law to slow 'use it or lose it'
    July 27, 2018
    Ryan Stokes was killed by a Kansas City cop. His family wants police to tell the truth
    Narene Stokes had the talk with her only son early on. It was the same conversation that generations of black parents have had with their children: When you're out in the world, be on your guard, protect yourself. If the police stop you, stay calm, do what they say. Stay alive.
    June 20, 2018
    Security concerns stall Kris Kobach's controversial voter tracking program in Kansas
    A massive voter-tracking program run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — which purports to help states keep voter rolls accurate — has halted operations over concerns about its own accuracy and security.
    June 2018
    Puerto Rico: The future of debt
    Puerto Rico is facing a human-made disaster to the tune of $120 billion. New York has played a big role: Wall Street banks helped fuel a borrowing spree and now a federal judge in Manhattan is overseeing the largest and possibly most complex bankruptcy in U.S. history. What comes out of it could affect cities and states across the United States.
    May 14, 2018
    The big disconnect: Google Fiber's unfulfilled promise in Atlanta
    It's been more than three years since the Google Fiber frenzy took hold of the Atlanta area. From Alpharetta to Avondale Estates, Sandy Springs to Sdmyrna, folks fed up with chronically unreliable internet connections, abysmal customer service and expensive monthly bills lapped up Google Fiber's promise.
    May 9, 2018
    Rats, roaches, bedbugs, mold: Why thousands of LA's homeless shelter beds sit empty each night
    Every night, some 43,000 people sleep on the streets of Los Angeles County in tents, cars and makeshift structures. So why do thousands of beds run by the biggest homeless agencies also sit empty each night?
    February 2018 - Present
    Trump, Inc.
    Who's profiting from this administration and at what cost?
    Dec. 14, 2017
    The Minneapolis Police Department used to give new recruits five psychological tests. Now it just uses one
    The protocol is less rigorous than best practices and the evaluator lacked the proper license. The city is taking steps to replace him, worried he screened out too many minority candidates.
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