The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
Kathleen Gray and Marisol Bello of The Detroit Free Press used federal data to show that “Detroit spends more on city government than most of the nation’s big cities.” The city ranks fourth in government employees per capita and fifth in overall general fund spending per capita, “behind New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago,…
Read MoreReporters Sharon Pian Chan and David Heath of The Seattle Times used unsealed documents successfully won in state and federal lawsuits to investigate Infospace’s rise and downfall. At its peak, Infospace was worth over $31 million, but a bad investment on a Canadian wireless investment and questionable business dealings led to the eventual collapse of…
Read MoreToni Coleman of the St. Paul Pioneer Press analyzed data on the city’s Sales Tax Revitalization (STAR) grant program, finding that “accountability under STAR is uneven because of the program’s complicated structure. Most projects go through a structured review process, for example, but individual City Council members circumvent that if they want. In addition, some…
Read MoreDavid Leonhardt and Ford Fessenden of The New York Times used regression analysis to show that “over the last decade, black NBA coaches have lasted an average of just 1.6 seasons, compared with 2.4 seasons for white coaches … That means the typical white coach lasts almost 50 percent longer and has most of an…
Read MoreAdrienne Packer and J.M. Kalil of the Las Vegas Review-Journal continue their investigation into land swap deals, finding that “on at least three occasions, land broker Scott Gragson traded property to McCarran International Airport and then reacquired it nearly two years later for less than he originally sold it for…That means the properties depreciated hundreds…
Read MoreLee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News used state data to show that “44 percent of such Utah ‘high hazard’ dams meet all minimum safety standards – more than a sixfold improvement” since the paper last examined Utah’s dams in 1988. “At that time, officials rated as safe a mere 7 percent of those dams…
Read MoreColleen Krantz of The Des Moines Register and Janet Rorholm of The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette report that a newspaper audit of public records in Iowa shows that “law enforcement agencies in Iowa provided greater access to their public documents during a recent investigation by Iowa newspapers than the agencies did five years ago, yet police…
Read MoreLaurie Cohen and Dan Mihalopoulos of the Chicago Tribune, along with Gary Washburn, used city records to show that “less paper, plastic, metals and other recyclables were salvaged from Chicago’s household garbage in the last two years than at any time since the program’s earliest years.” The paper’s investigation found that the city “has quietly…
Read MoreSteve Chambers and Robert Gebeloff of The (Newark) Star-Ledger analyzed state school construction data to find that “New Jersey’s wealthiest districts have been far more successful qualifying for state money than middle-class or blue-collar ones. And with two-thirds of the state money already spent or committed, affluent districts have landed 24 percent more construction funding…
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