"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
Five years after George Floyd’s killing set off nights of destruction, vacant lots and broken buildings remain along Lake Street and other Minneapolis business districts. Some business owners say money woes and city zoning rules have made it hard to rebuild.
The school announced the closure of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity one day after its founder, Rachel Hardeman, departed.
University of Minnesota officials are facing accusations they mishandled claims of plagiarism against a prominent professor who delivered millions of dollars in grant money to the university.
Rachel Hardeman's work catapulted her to prominence following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. A St. Louis researcher, however, says Hardeman copied her work. Hardeman denies it. A University of Minnesota dean told faculty on Monday that Hardeman will leave the U on May 14.
MPR News found problems tied to inspections and local political pressures that leave low-income renters in potential danger across greater Minnesota. In Bemidji, those problems have pushed their way to the surface.
Some youth in Maryland spend more than a year in adult jails before seeing their day in court. Without a fix, the state may lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding every year.
A permitting system designed in the 1970s was supposed to make Alaska's commercial fishing industry more sustainable and more profitable. But over the past 50 years, it has hollowed out many Indigenous coastal villages where residents no longer can earn a living by harvesting salmon.
Instead of regulating fertilizer, Iowa backs a voluntary program that has little impact.
In spite of years of pressure from advocates, access to emergency contraceptives remains difficult for women who rely on the health care systems run by or on behalf of their tribal nations. APM Reports spent more than six months surveying tribal clinics and pharmacies around the country. Dozens refuse to provide Plan B — or impose restrictions.
When Tim Walz first ran for Congress in 2006, his campaign proudly touted his extensive experience in China. In fact, earlier in his political career, he occasionally exaggerated it. But now that he's running for vice president, Walz barely mentions China. And Republicans have tried to turn those connections into a political liability.
In one of America's deadliest cities, police have struggled to solve killings due to staffing shortages, shoddy detective work and lack of community trust.
Once offshore oil platforms drain their wells, the government has the power to force the companies that own them to tear the structures down. But the owners can put off that costly process using a strategy one critic calls “delay, deny and diddle around.” And in Alaska, the state has let them do it — for decades.
Frank Edelblut pledged to stay "nonpartisan." But as head of New Hampshire's education department, he's used his platform to pursue conservative grievances against the education system and individual educators.
Illinois hospitals routinely skirt one of the nation's strongest laws protecting victims of sexual assault.
Maryland automatically charges more teens as adults than almost any other state. An analysis of recent decisions found that some judges rely on what juvenile justice advocates say is unfair reasoning to keep those young people in adult court.
During his campaign for governor, then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo claimed the Las Vegas police department he led seized just six ghost guns in one year. But officers actually seized 252 of the weapons during that time.
The municipal board that approved the sale — and a below-market lease — includes two members with ties to former Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, who also used to represent Alaska in the U.S. Senate.
More than $215 million in federal money is pouring into ARMI, a nonprofit that promises to revolutionize medicine and revitalize Manchester, New Hampshire. At least $34 million is flowing through ARMI to for-profit companies controlled by its executive director.
Graphite is a critical ingredient in the batteries needed to power America's electric vehicle revolution. But every ounce of it is imported. A proposed mine in a remote part of Alaska would change that. But some of the people who live nearby fear it will endanger their way of life.
Newly released data reveals no resolution for the families of hundreds of homicide victims. Police refused to release homicide clearance data, so we sued to find out.
Jeremy Cubas, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy's pro-family policy adviser, made controversial comments about abortion on behalf of the governor.
Jeremy Cubas resigned from his $110,000 a year job as Gov. Mike Dunleavy's pro-family policy adviser after Alaska Public Media and APM Reports revealed that Cubas defended Hitler, used racist slurs and said a man raping his wife is "an impossible act."
Bean's Cafe cashed in big running the Sullivan Arena homeless shelter.
A Washoe County judge ordered the private investigator who put a GPS tracker on Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve's car to name his client.
As a hearing approaches in a lawsuit over the surveillance of local politicians, a Reno Democrat claims her family paid another private investigator to look into her primary opponent.
Surveillance of politicians in the Reno area was more extensive than previously known, and one private investigator had ties to prominent local Republicans.
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.
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.
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.
GS Labs spread across the country with the promise of reliable, convenient Covid testing. An APM Reports investigation finds that the company has at times delivered inaccurate results, faced backlogs, charged high prices, and pushed customers into unnecessary tests. Frustrated state and local government officials have often been powerless to address the complaints.
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.
St. Louis officials are celebrating a big drop in murders while the city's police classify more and more killings as "justifiable homicides" instead.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One facility is being sued after a staffer broke a boy's wrist, while another has been disciplined by the state for similar tactics.
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.
A company has polluted a western Kentucky community, spoiling groundwater for generations and blanketing neighborhoods with forever chemicals.
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.
High levels of PFAS chemicals have contaminated a plastics recycling company in the Western Kentucky community of Henderson.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Critics question whether Utah's oversight is sufficient to keep kids safe.
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.
A state backlog and reporting lags are obscuring the true death toll of the coronavirus surge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A WNYC investigation shows how auto lender Credit Acceptance took advantage of sub-prime borrowers to become a Wall Street darling.
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.
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.
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.
More than 80 years after Thomas Finch was killed, his case still hasn't been resolved.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The levees that failed last week during catastrophic flooding along the Missouri River were maintained by local associations or private owners.
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.
People placed in adult guardianship can lose their right to vote, and in Missouri, this happens far more than in any other state.
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.
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.
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'
Update: Georgia governor signs law to slow 'use it or lose it'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.