The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients

Six special-education directors — and three superintendents — have served since that 2007 report, discombobulating a growing department that now serves more than 7,000 students, one-seventh of the district’s overall enrollment. The upheaval has spawned a culture of low expectations in which district officials seem to put avoiding lawsuits above engaging families, training staffers or educating…

“Was Dallas County’s health commissioner slow to react to a key piece of advice from federal health officials as West Nile virus spread this summer? The NBC 5 Investigates team has learned that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested the county “strongly consider” aerial spraying for mosquitoes nearly a month before Dallas County launched the planes. In…

Chemical still damaging lives of those exposed, their families

The latest installment of the paper’s coverage of school’s reveals that more cheating scandals are most likely inevitable, because states cannot ensure the integrity of their tests.

A Mafia icon from Philadelphia has settled in Boca Raton, fresh out of prison. Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown examines what he might be up to now.

As the Michigan Department of Corrections searches for ways to manage its nearly $2-billion budget, it is releasing ex-cons into the community who arecommitting a growing number of violent crimes, a Free Press investigation found.

Developers have drooled for years over the Port of San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal. But each new idea — most with a football stadium attached — has been beaten back by those who believe a rare, deep water port should remain — just that. Today, Port Authority, the latest I-Newsource/KPBS investigation, tackles the question:…

Scores of recent Texas war veterans have died of overdoses, suicide and vehicle crashes, a six-month Statesman investigation finds.

Police also call it ‘professional courtesy’ – forgiving the infractions committed by one of their own. It typically involves speeding, but officers can get a pass for erratic or impaired driving as well. Professional courtesy can extend to the close relatives of police officers, and to the prosecutors, judges and politicians who are part of…

In more than 400 instances, victims of sexual assault turned to the Maricopa County Sherriff’s Office, trusting detectives with wrenching details in pursuit of protection and justice. In some cases, the Sherriff’s Office did little or nothing. Only now is the full impact of that inaction coming to light, as The Republic reveals what victims…