The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
Ben Welsh of the Columbia Missourian used Small Business Administration loan records to show that over the past five years, the number of government-backed loans to Columbia’s bars and restaurants has skyrocketed far beyond previous levels. “Between August 2000 and August 2005, 33 cents of every loan dollar the SBA backed in Columbia — more…
Read MoreBrent Schrotenboer of The San Diego Union-Tribune used court records in an investigation of John W. Gillette Jr., a former financial adviser to high-profile athletes. He is four years removed from prison after fleecing those athletes out of more than $11 million. He serves as the chief operations officer at Shadow Mountain Community Church in…
Read MoreRich Cholodofsky of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review analyzed applications for pardons dating to 2000 and found that as the country’s security concerns increased in the wake of 9/11, along with intensified background checks implemented in the late 1990s as a result of the Brady Bill, the number of people seeking to have records of criminal convictions…
Read MoreChristine Willmsen and Michael Ko of The Seattle Times investigated the Chief Sealth High School girls basketball team’s head coach, Ray Willis, and found that the coach had violated numerous amateur athletic rules. Willis and his assistants, Amos Walters and Laura Fuller, have recruited players for more than three years, six of whom helped the…
Read MoreMichael Fabey of Defense News analyzed 3 million contract and modification records from 2000 through 2004 to show that U.S. agencies made more than 2,100 deals worth $1.2 billion for satellite telecommunications and related work. “U.S. federal agencies issued about 35,000 contracts and related modifications for general space-related work, worth about $40.2 billion, the analysis…
Read MoreTim Darragh of The Morning Call investigated why the move to widen a local highway, Route 22, seemed highly unlikely, despite the backing of several powerful groups. “The widening plan has backers that include those who lobbied for and got construction of such landmark road projects as the completion of Route 33 from the Poconos…
Read MoreIlima Loomis of The Maui News reports that Maui’s sand is expected to run out. “The vast system of inland sand dunes that stretches across Wailuku has largely been covered by development, and what’s left is being mined — about 318,000 tons of the stuff dug out and used each year, 70 percent of it…
Read MoreJeffrey Gaunt and Emily Krone of the Daily Herald , outside Chicago, analyzed 206 suburban school district loans to show many taxpayers repay those loans at rates higher than they would on their homes. The investigation found that, despite federal measures that keep government rates low, the district agreed that taxpayers will pay back $6.03…
Read MoreJoni James of the St. Petersburg Times reviewed tax returns to show that Florida’s elected insurance commissioner, Tom Gallagher, invested millions of dollars in insurance-related stocks in his last year on the post. “And as a member of the Cabinet in 2004, Chief Financial Officer Gallagher voted to approve a natural gas pipeline for an…
Read MoreRyan J. Stanton of the Northwest Explorer, a weekly newspaper that covers the northern suburbs of the Tucson, Ariz., area, investigated how local officials are spending taxpayer money. For the five-part series, the paper reviewed town’s travel and training expenses, bank statements and receipts. It found “Marana public officials have charged close to $200,000 on…
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