The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette and reporter Ken Ward Jr. continued an ongoing series on coal mine safety with a story about coal dust violations and an article that explains that investigators do not always pinpoint the cause of coal-mining disasters.
Read MoreIn another installment to The Miami Herald’s “House of Lies” investigative series, reporter Debbie Cenziper exposes the actions of the former director of the Miami-Dade Housing Agency, which squandered millions of dollars over the past five years in insider deals, mismanagement and corruption. In a follow-up story, Cenziper and reporter Scott Hiaasen report on a…
Read MoreIn a follow-up to an investigation by The Philadelphia Inquirer, reporters Melanie Burney and Frank Kummer found that the culture of cheating on standardized test in New Jersey’s Camden school district dates back to the 1980s. Camden School Board President Philip E. Freeman “said recent internal investigations, including of allegations of grade changing in two…
Read MoreJill Riepenhoff and Doug Haddix of The Columbus Dispatch used U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proxy statements to examine the boards of directors of 30 companies based in central Ohio. They found huge increases in compensation and an increase in directors serving on multiple boards since the 2002 passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Companies defend…
Read MoreA series by Fred Schulte and June Arney of The (Baltimore) Sun reveals that an archaic law is creating problems for thousands of Baltimore residents. “Baltimore’s arcane system of ground rents, widely viewed as a harmless vestige of colonial law, is increasingly being used by some investors to seize homes or extract large fees from…
Read MoreAn investigation by The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.) shows that the habitat of endangered species is being developed despite a plan to protect such lands. “Some of the best places for western Riverside County’s rarest animals and plants face destruction by developers despite a costly, sweeping plan to protect such habitat…In case after case, county and…
Read MoreA on-going special report by The Washington Post looks at federal agriculture subsidies, which topped $25 billion in the last year. In the latest story, Dan Morgan, Sarah Cohen and Gilbert M. Gaul report on the influence of the dairy lobby and its ability to crush the efforts of a California dairyman who was operating…
Read MoreMike Casey of The Kansas City Star reports on the rampant dissatisfaction many consumers have with their insurance providers. The paper conducted an 11-month investigation into insurance problems and analyzed almost 35 million records, including over 600,000 complaints logged in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) database from 2003 through 2005. The analysis shows…
Read MoreDiana B. Henriques and Andrew Lehren of The New York Times report on the proliferation of faith-based rehabilitation programs funded by tax dollars and springing up in correctional facilities across the country. “Since 2000, courts have cited more than a dozen programs for having unconstitutionally used taxpayer money to pay for religious activities or evangelism…
Read MoreAs part of an on-going investigation of Democratic state Rep. Jim Black, Dan Kane and J. Andrew Curliss of The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) report the coordinator of the state page program, Ann Lassiter, had arranged for student pages to stay with her son, a convicted felon. Rep. Black removed Lassiter from her position…
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