The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
Michael Mansur of The Kansas City Star used computer-assisted analysis of court records to show the court repeatedly allows thousands of speeders and red-light runners to reduce dangerous moving violations to defective-equipment pleas. That means tickets for serious violations are pleaded down to offenses such as broken taillights, which means no points against a driver’s…
Read MoreDaniel J. Chacón of the Rocky Mountain News used local data to show that code-enforcement cases in Denver increased more than 12 percent between 2004 and 2005 and by more than 20 percent in five of the city’s 11 council districts, according to data obtained under a Colorado Open Records Act request. “The number of…
Read MoreRob Perez of The Honolulu Advertiser investigated the Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii to show that a number of families are seeking compensation for what they allege was substandard care, in a series that looks at medical malpractice at Tripler. “The cases have generated questions about the overall quality of care provided at the…
Read MoreThomas Hargrove of the Scripps Howard News Service tracked the deaths of 3,850 pro football players to show that athletes of the National Football League are dying young at an alarming rate and many of the players are succumbing to ailments typically related to weight. The heaviest athletes are more than twice as likely to…
Read MoreSusan Sward, Bill Wallace and Elizabeth Fernandez, with contributions from Lois Jermyn, of the San Francisco Chronicle used city police logs to create a database tracking the use of force by officers, finding that, for years, the San Francisco Police Department has failed to control officers who repeatedly resort to force, hitting, choking, clubbing and…
Read MoreJon Burstein of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reviewed more than 700 pages of court documents and sworn statements involving two companies, as well as more than 1,500 pages of financial records obtained by the Attorney General’s Office to show a pattern of telemarketers getting money from senior citizens who seem confused or hearing-impaired. The Global…
Read MorePatricia Callahan, Jeremy Manier and Delroy Alexander of the Chicago Tribune examined tobacco-lawsuit documents to show that America’s largest foodmaker and its biggest cigarette company have pooled expertise in search of more alluring foods and cigarettes since the dawn of their corporate pairing two decades ago. “Documents show Northfield-based Kraft collaborated on flavor issues with…
Read MoreJonathan Schuppe and William Kleinknecht of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger analyzed homicides in Essex County between 1998 and 2003 and found killers went unpunished more often than they went to prison. In the cases in which a defendant was convicted, more than a quarter led to prison sentences of 10 years or less. “Essex County…
Read MoreJason Grotto of The Miami Herald analyzed more than 100,000 cases of sexual crimes, reviewed court cases, state records and documents and conducted dozens of interviews to show that seven years after the passage of the Jimmy Ryce Act, Florida’s program for screening, confining and treating the worst sexual offenders is failing. The four-part series…
Read MoreKent Fischer, Pete Slover and Tawnell D. Hobbs of the The Dallas Morning News used district records to show that a plan by Dallas schools to outsource copying and printing to industry giant Kinko’s, started to slash copying and printing expenses by 21 percent, has in fact quadrupled expenses. “Across the entire Dallas Independent School…
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