The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
John M.R. Bull of the Daily Press examined Army records to show that the previously classified weapons-dumping program was far more extensive than ever suspected and that chemical weapons that the Army dumped at sea decades ago are ending up on shore in the United States. The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64…
Read MoreMatthew Benson of the Fort Collins Coloradoan analyzed a decade of accident data to show the ineffectiveness of the camera system at reducing red-light running and preventing collisions. The number of accidents and accident rates, at a certain intersection in Fort Collins, Colo., have steadily increased in the years since the city installed a system…
Read MoreLowell Bergman, Jane Perlez, Kirk Johnson with other contributing reporters of the FRONTLINE/World and The New York Times examined the growing conflict between the local people and the Yanacocha Mine in Peru along with tours of gold mines in the American West, Latin America, Africa and Europe to provide a rare look inside an insular…
Read MoreRick Anderson of Seattle Weekly examined King County’s internal jail records to show that deceptive administrative tactics hid a spike in local jail deaths this year, including what turned out to be two preventable suicides. Record requests showed that among the 13 deaths in a 27-month period were that of a man who died from…
Read MoreDonald L. Barlett and James B. Steele report, in the Oct. 31 issue of Time magazine, that more and more companies are walking away from the promise of retirment benefits, leaving millions of Americans at risk of an impoverished retirement. "The investigation looks at how Congress let it happen and the widespread social insecurity it’s…
Read MoreJames Drew and Steve Eder with contributions from Mike Wilkinson, Christopher D. Kirkpatrick, Jim Tankersley, and Joshua Boak of The Blade report that the Ohio business leaders and lobbyists who contributed at least $4.1 million to President Bush’s re-election campaign last year collected more than $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars for their companies and clients.…
Read MoreMike Chalmers of The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal analyzed 115,000 felony cases overseen by Attorney General M. Jane Brady during her 11-year tenure, to show that plea deals involving gun crimes are common in Delaware. The newspaper found that "of the nearly 16,000 weapons-related cases filed from 1994 through 2004 — years Brady served as…
Read MoreLauren Markoe and Seth Borenstein of Knight Ridder Newspapers conducted a computer database analysis to show that a Defense Department purchasing program called prime vendor is costing taxpayers 20 percent more than the previous system. " Run by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the program is based on a military procurement strategy to speed delivery…
Read MoreStephanie Hooper of The Telegraph examined records obtained from the Nashua Police Department, as part of their six-day “Gangs of New Hampshire” series, to show the budding gang activity in Nashua and southern New Hampshire. The report that comes in three installments, unraveled the workings of a local chapter of one of the nation
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