The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
Top city officials in Denver are calling for a complete overhaul of the discipline system of the Denver Police Department, reports Christopher N. Osher of The Denver Post. “At least 25 officers remained on the force from January 1997 through September 2006 after they were punished for what the department calls “departure from the truth.”…
Read MoreJohn Gittelsohn and Ronald Campbell of The Orange County Register looked at one street in Santa Ana, Calif. to see the impact of subprime lending in the community. Seventeen homeowners on this quiet block took out 83 mortgages, most of them subprime, during a six-year frenzy of deal-making. Easy credit helped triple home prices from…
Read MoreThe Columbus Dispatch examined each of the 35 bridges over the Ohio River connecting Ohio to neighboring Kentucky and West Virginia. Reporter Randy Ludlow discovered that seven are rated as structurally deficient. That group includes three of the four bridges owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation. The investigation revealed that highway officials have plans…
Read MoreRick Romell of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analyzed federal records and reviewed hundreds of pages of documents to find that JDC Logistics Inc., a Franklin, Wis., firm has been among the most heavily fined trucking companies in the country. Logbook falsification by truckers at the 589-driver firm was so widespread, federal auditors discovered last August,…
Read MoreIn an ongoing Dallas Morning News investigation, Holly Becka and Jennifer LaFleur found that the private contractors housing juvenile inmates in Texas have lost their contracts in other states after abuse and neglect were discovered. In addition, Steve McGonigle and Doug J. Swanson report that records show U.S Justice Department attorneys have been aware of…
Read MoreBen Poston and Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analyzed a database of state dam inspections and found that Wisconsin inspectors have failed to inspect dozens of dams that could pose a danger in the event of a break. In all, the state Department of Natural Resources has not inspected at least 230 state-regulated…
Read MoreLinda Chavez, Bush’s failed nominee for Labor Secretary, and members of her immediate family control political action committees and non-profit political foundations with names like the Republican Issues Committee, the Latino Alliance, Stop Union Political Abuse and the Pro-Life Campaign Committee, which quietly raised more than $24.5 million from January 2003 to December 2006. Matthew…
Read MoreEric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found “cops confronted with a drunken-driving arrest fare better than the average citizen,” according to an investigation of seven years’ worth of internal discipline records, arrest reports, accident reports, license-suspension files and court documents from around Washington state. The P-I’s findings also determined Washington’s police disciplinary…
Read MoreAfter a quick-hit investigation in to liability payouts for sewer damages, Marc Davis of The Virginian-Pilot continues to find stories within city liability databases. For instance, accidents involving city vehicles cost taxpayers millions. “The cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach paid about $7.5 million to more than 1,700 victims of vehicular accidents…
Read MoreA four-part Denver Post investigation found that the loss and destruction of DNA evidence nationwide has stalled the pursuit of justice in thousands of cases, including undermining efforts of prisoners to prove their innocence. In the absence of governmental statistics, reporters Miles Moffeit and Susan Greene compiled data and cases from lawyers and government records…
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