The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
“Last week’s hearing on sexual assault allegations against three U.S. Naval Academy football players highlighted a little-known problem at the school: off-campus rental houses that violate academy regulations but have been the scene of alcohol-and sex-fueled parties for years. The Sun found that the houses, nestled in quiet suburban neighborhoods, have been the focus of…
Read More“At the end of a summer that saw significant increases in shootings and homicides, The Sun told the stories of seven Baltimoreans affected by the violence. They included a man whose wife was killed, a witness who fled the city, a cop on the beat and the leader of a neighborhood watch group.”
Read More“Legislators steered more than $170 million in the state’s capital budget toward special projects that largely sidestep public debate and detailed documentation. The list ranges from a college radio station to a monument commemorating a stranded ship.”
Read More“Managers of Homeless Recovery said they do not have the staff to inspect properties where the agency pays to house its clients. Brown is one of dozens of landlords they deal with. The managers said the agency does not refer clients to specific properties, and they’ve never gotten a complaint about Brown’s property. Neither is…
Read More“An extensive Victoria Advocate investigation reveals a program started to promote economic development has instead been riddled with poor record-keeping, questionable loan practices, missing documents and virtually no accountability.”
Read More“A Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting examination of state pharmacy board records showed that during the last ten years, 16 Maine pharmacists had their licenses revoked by the state for stealing drugs. Thirteen pharmacists during the same period were allowed by the board to practice pharmacy despite their history of drug abuse and theft.…
Read More“What’s rare is for the Houston Police Department to punish its officers for excessive force. An eight-month Texas Observer investigation found that during the past six years, Houston civilians reported officers for “use of force”—the department’s term for police brutality—588 times. The Internal Affairs division investigated each complaint and dismissed all but four.”
Read More“The United States’ National Security Agency intelligence-gathering operation is capable of accessing user data from smart phones from all leading manufacturers. Top secret NSA documents that SPIEGEL has seen explicitly note that the NSA can tap into such information on Apple iPhones, BlackBerry devices and Google’s Android mobile operating system.”
Read More“The fund has raised about $10 million since 2000, including about $1 million or 10 percent that a state law designated to help organ donors’ families pay funeral and medical expenses. But none of the money has been spent to defray those bills, a Tribune-Review investigation found. Even after the state started a smaller program…
Read More“The 2011 documents allege several instances of state inspectors taking bribes, one of many problems found in a six-month investigation of assisted living facilities by U-T San Diego and the CHFC Center for Health Reporting at the University of Southern California.”
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