The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
Liz Chandler, Ames Alexander and Danica Coto of The Charlotte Observer used driving records from several states to show that “an illegal Mexican immigrant in North Carolina was charged with drunken driving at least five times before a July 16 wreck that killed a Gaston County teacher.” North Carolina authorities were unaware of Ramiro Gallegos’…
Read MoreEric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer report in a three-part series on how a disgraced sheriff’s deputy beat the system. The report details the allegations made against the deputy, including drug use, theft, attempted stalking, conspiracy to promote prostitution and official misconduct. “For 14 years, the detective worked on his own, rarely…
Read MoreEunice Trotter, Tom Spalding and Mark Nichols of The Indianapolis Star analyzed police pursuit data to investigate the 86 deaths Indiana saw in the last decade following police chases. They found that “initiated pursuits that ended with at least one injury or death in one of five cases.” Most of the pursuits were found to…
Read MoreTim Darragh and Christopher Schnaars of The (Allentown) Morning Call uses restaurant inspection data to investigate food safety in Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania. They found that Pennsylvania’s “patchwork of food safety laws and public health agencies often fails to provide even minimal monitoring of restaurants and food retailers.” School cafeterias scored well on recent inspections.…
Read MoreGilbert M. Gaul of The Washington Post reports in a three-part series that Medicare policies often pay hospitals to practice medicine poorly. “In a four-year period, 106 heart patients at Palm Beach Gardens developed infections after surgery, according to lawsuits and government records.” In part-two of the series, the Post looks at the nonprofit that…
Read MoreJohn Hill of The Sacramento Bee found that a $2.1 billion bond California voters approved to provide affordable housing hasn’t delivered. “With the pot more than half gone, a Bee investigation has found that what taxpayers are getting falls far short of those promises – a reality that takes on added importance as California officials…
Read MoreEric Gorski of The Denver Post uses church documents and interviews to investigate claims that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver was told “at least three times of child sex-abuse allegations against one of its priests but continued to allow him to serve and moved him from parish to parish for years.” The paper has…
Read MoreNearly four out of every 10 city employees in Chicago registered voters for groups that advocated for Mayor Richard Daley’s re-election, a Chicago Tribune investigation found. The Tribune compared city payroll data with the rosters of political groups that register voters in the city. “The analysis suggests extensive connections between city jobs and the mayor’s…
Read MoreJo Craven McGinty at The New York Times reported this weekend that hate crimes in the city are down 44 percent between 2000 and 2004. The crimes are broken down in graphics and maps. A member of New York’s hate crimes unit credits people “just behaving better” in the city in the wake of a…
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