Keegan Kyle, Grant Smith and Ben Poston of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analyzed more than 11,000 pothole fixes in the city of Milwaukee and found that the city repaired potholes at a slower rate in minority neighborhoods in the first half of the year. Using SPSS, the analysis found that minority areas on the north side were waiting significantly longer for repairs. Even major arterials in minority neighborhoods took longer to repair than problems in largely white residential neighborhoods. The reporters mapped all the pothole repairs from January through mid-July of this year and overlaid census tract data to find disparities.

A recent study shows that the number of “dead zones” in bodies of water across the globe has doubled every decade since the 1960s, reports Joel Achenbach of The Washington Post. Fertilizer in agriculture run-off and air pollution are two factors that are causing hypoxia in coastal waters. “A few hypoxic ecosystems have improved in recent years because of better management of pollutants…Globally, however, only 4 percent of the dead zones are improving.”

A Mother Jones investigation by James Ridgeway, Daniel Schulman and David Corn reveals that an NRA spy had infiltrated anti-gun groups for the past several years. The investigation shows that Mary Lou Sapone, a freelance spy for the NRA, spent years posing as gun control activist Mary McFate. McFate had penetrated the highest ranks of the anti-gun organizations for the benefit of the NRA. “McFate’s (now former) colleagues note that she was well-positioned for many years to provide the NRA — or any other gun rights groups — the plans, secrets, and inside gossip of practically the entire gun violence prevention movement.”

Robert McClendon of Columbus, Ohio was freed from prison by a Franklin County judge after serving 18 years for a child rape that new DNA tests showed he did not commit, report Geoff Dutton and Mike Wagner of The Columbus Dispatch. McClendon was one of 30 prisoners identified by The Columbus Dispatch and the Ohio Innocence Project as strong candidates for DNA re-examination and highlighted in the Dispatch’s Test of Convictions series.

A report by Dina ElBoghdady of The Washington Post reveals that renters are becoming unwitting victims of the mortgage crisis as property owners lose houses to foreclosure. “Several localities around the country, as well as some members of Congress, are pushing to give renters more time before the new owners, usually banks, can evict them. Such a measure takes effect in Baltimore on Monday, and the District plans to launch television ads this month informing tenants of their rights.”

Jason Felch and Maura Dolan of The Los Angeles Times reported on findings that raised questions about the reliability of DNA testing to identify suspects. An Arizona state lab analyst found several instances where people shared several of the 13 markers used to distinguish individuals, findings that defied the odds estimated by the FBI. “As word spread, these findings by a little-known lab worker raised questions about the accuracy of the FBI’s DNA statistics and ignited a legal fight over whether the nation’s genetic databases ought to be opened to wider scrutiny.” The Times found that the FBI tried to suppress the results of the Arizona lab’s findings, as well as avoid similar searches at other labs.

A company under investigation for its role the Minneapolis bridge collapse has received a substantial subcontract as part of the reconstruction project, reports Brian Bakst of the Associated Press. “Progressive Contractors Inc. will make nearly $3.6 million for paving and barrier work on the Mississippi River bridge project, according to records reviewed by the Associated Press.” Federal investigators have suggested that heavy construction materials placed on the bridge by PCI likely contributed to the collapse of the bridge.

Fifteen witnesses in a trial that led to the conviction of five people in the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters told The Kansas City Star that a federal investigator in the firefighters’ explosion case had pressured them to lie. Star projects reporter Mike McGraw conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed 30,000 pages of court and investigative files and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to assemble the third in a series of reports on the 20-year-old firefighter’s case.

A series by Dana Priest and Amy Goldstein of The Washington Post uncovers an alarming level of neglect in immigration centers across the United States. “As tighter immigration policies strain federal agencies, the detainees in their care often pay a heavy cost.” In the last 5 years, 83 detainees have died while being held in these facilities. Psychiatric patients “undergo months and sometimes years of undermedication or overmedication, misdiagnosis or no diagnosis.” Correspondent Scott Pelley, of 60 Minutes, reported on the issue in conjunction with The Post’s investigation.

In “The Cruelest Cuts,” a six-part series by The Charlotte Observer, the paper examines the human cost of bringing poultry to the table. The series illustrates how one N.C.-based poultry processor, House of Raeford Farms, masked injuries inside its plants and ignored its largely Latino workers who complained of debilitating pain. To conduct the series, the newspaper interviewed more than 200 poultry workers across the Southeast and reviewed thousands of pages of OSHA documents, academic studies, workers’ compensation cases and rarely-examined company injury logs. Said a top OSHA official about the newspaper’s findings: “This is abuse. I don’t know what else to call it.”