stLouISTThings to do in St. Louis this weekend: A Taylor Swift Tribute, Jeff Dunham and New Year's Eve parties
Here are the events we are looking forward to Dec. 29 to Jan. 4.
Aggregator
St. Louis Police seek assistance in finding missing 32-year-old Brittany Webb
The St. Louis Police Department's Missing Persons Unit is seeking assistance in locating 32-year-old Brittany Webb, who was reported missing from St. Louis City on December 20, 2023, by her family.
How a new way to vote is gaining traction in states — and could transform US politics
With U.S. democracy plagued by extremism, polarization and a growing disconnect between voters and lawmakers, a set of reforms that could dramatically upend how Americans vote is gaining momentum at surprising speed in Western states. Ranked choice voting, which asks voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference, has seen its profile steadily expand […]
The post How a new way to vote is gaining traction in states — and could transform US politics appeared first on Missouri Independent.
Francis Howell District faces backlash over elective course controversy
The students of Francis Howell will still have access to black history and literature instruction next year, despite recent changes to elective courses.
St. Louis wakes up to a falling snow: Friday forecast and weekend outlook
Light snow continues this Friday morning. Thanks to temperatures that have been at or above freezing, this snow continues to have a minimal impact as roads remain wet and white.
The Year in Music 2023: Nothing can stop Bruce Springsteen … except his stomach
A Bruce Springsteen tour after a seven-year absence was something fans were celebrating — until his stomach had other ideas. - In February, Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off their first tour…
Our Year in Visual Journalism
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
Photo illustration by Hisham Akira Bharoocha, photography by Kathleen Flynn, art direction by Anna Donlan, Lisa Larson-Walker and Peter DiCampo for “How We Used Machine Learning to Investigate Where Ebola May Strike” Photography by Stephanie Mei-Ling, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “The Community of Mothers Who Lost Sons to Police Killings” Photography by Elianel Clinton, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “This Man’s Conviction Was Overturned After Two Years in Prison. But the City Said He Didn’t Deserve a Dime.” Photography by Jamie Kelter Davis, photo editing by Alex Bandoni for “As Rail Profits Soar, Blocked Crossings Force Kids to Crawl Under Trains to Get to School” Illustrations by Michelle Urra for ProPublica, art direction by Max Herman and Lisa Larson-Walker for “New York Workers Are Waiting on $79 Million in Back Wages” and “127,000 New York Workers Have Been Victims of Wage Theft” Photography by Kathleen Flynn, photo editing by Peter DiCampo and Anna Donlan for “On the Edge” Animation by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, directed by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Almudena Toral and produced by Lynzy Billing for “The Night Doctrine: ProPublica’s First Animated Documentary Traces Reporting on Afghanistan’s Zero Units” Photography by Trent Davis Bailey, photo editing by Andrea Wise and Jillian Kumagai for “In the Child’s Best Interest” Design and development by Zisiga Mukulu for “Someone Tell Me What to Do” Illustrations by Pei-Hsin Cho, art direction by Zisiga Mukulu for “Someone Tell Me What to Do” Illustrations by Laila Milevski, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker and Max Herman for “TitleMax Demands High-Interest Payments From Borrowers in Bankruptcy” Design and development by Al Shaw for “How Forest Loss Can Unleash the Next Pandemic” Photography by Kim Raff, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “Barricaded Siblings Turn to TikTok While Defying Court Order to Return to Father They Say Abused Them” Illustration by Rose Wong, art direction by Alex Bandoni for “The Newest College Admissions Ploy: Paying to Make Your Teen a ‘Peer-Reviewed’ Author” Illustrations by Cheryl Cook, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “Years After Being Ticketed at School for a Theft She Said Never Happened, Former Student Prevails in Court” Illustrations by Lauren Crow, art direction by Andrea Wise for “A Former NFL Player Persuaded Politicians That His Child ID Kits Help Find Missing Kids. There’s No Evidence They Do.” Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker for “The Supreme Court Will Decide if Domestic Abuse Orders Can Bar People From Having Guns. Lives Could Be at Stake.” Photography by Stacy Kranitz, photo editing by Andrea Wise for“Doctors Warned Her Pregnancy Could Kill Her. Then Tennessee Outlawed Abortion.” Map by Lucas Waldron for “The Colorado River Flooded Chemehuevi Land. Decades Later, the Tribe Still Struggles to Take Its Share of Water.” Map by Lucas Waldron for “Wisconsin’s Legislative Maps Are Bizarre, but Are They Illegal?” Cinematography by Liz Moughon for “The True Dangers of Long Trains” Illustration by Tara Anand, art direction by Andrea Wise for “What ProPublica Is Doing About Diversity in 2023” Photography by Natalie Keyssar and Nitashia Johnson, photo editing by Peter DiCampo for “What You Need to Know About Stillbirths” Short documentary by Liz Moughon, executive produced by Almudena Toral with additional editing by Margaret Cheatham Williams and graphics and animations by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, for “‘With Every Breath’ Captures the Human Toll of Philips’ Failure to Disclose Dangerous Defects of Its CPAP Devices” Development by Ash Ngu, illustrations by Ana Galvañ, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “Claim File Helper: Find Out Why Your Health Insurer Denied Your Claim” Illustration by Regan Dunnick, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Local Newspapers Are Vanishing. How Should We Remember Them?” Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker, portrait illustrations by Brian Lutz, photos by Andrew Dolph for “A Christian Health Nonprofit Saddled Thousands With Debt as It Built a Family Empire Including a Pot Farm, a Bank and an Airline” Animation by Kolin Pope for “A Christian Health Nonprofit Saddled Thousands With Debt as It Built a Family Empire Including a Pot Farm, a Bank and an Airline” Photography by Philip Cheung, photo editing by Alex Bandoni for “Inside the Secretive World of Penile Enlargement” Illustration by Max Erwin, art direction by Andrea Wise for “The Ugly Truth: Inside the ‘We Buy Ugly Houses’ Company” Video by Nadia Sussman for “In the Child’s Best Interest” Photography by Annie Flanagan, photo editing by Peter DiCampo for “‘Where Is There to Go?’ He Needs Gender-Affirming Surgery, but His State Is Fighting to Deny Coverage.” Graphics by Lucas Waldron for “Erasing the ‘Black Spot’: How a Virginia College Expanded by Uprooting a Black Neighborhood” Design and development by Ash Ngu and Andrea Suozzo for “Does Your Local Museum or University Still Have Native American Remains?” Photo illustration by Alex Bandoni for “Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art Displaying Objects That Belong to Native American Tribes?” Animation by Irene Suosalo, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “How a Top Mutual Fund Executive Made Millions for Himself Trading the Same Stocks His Giant Fund Was Trading” Illustrations by Katherine Lam, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker and Anna Donlan, development by Anna Donlan for “The Scientist and the Bats” Graphics by Lucas Waldron for “A Top Mutual Fund Executive Made Millions for Himself Trading the Same Stocks His Giant Fund Was Trading” Photo illustrations by Mark Harris for ProPublica, art direction by Alex Bandoni, Max Herman and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Chaos at the School Board” Design and development by Lucas Waldron for “How School Board Meetings Became Flashpoints for Anger and Chaos Across the Country” Photography by Russel Albert Daniels, photo editing by Alex Bandoni and Jillian Kumagai for “A Scientist Said Her Research Could Help With Repatriation. Instead, It Destroyed Native Remains.” Illustration by Nolan Pelletier, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “How the Ultrawealthy Use Private Foundations to Bank Millions in Tax Deductions While Giving the Public Little in Return” Design and development by Ash Ngu and Nat Lash for “Las Vegas Needs to Save Water. It Won’t Find it in Lawns.” Photography by Russel Albert Daniels for “Waiting for Water: Tribes’ Fight for a Promised Resource” Illustration by Micha Huigen, art direction by Anna Donlan for “The EPA Has Found More Than a Dozen Contaminants in Drinking Water but Hasn’t Set Safety Limits on Them” Photography by Sylvia Jarrus, photo editing by Max Herman for “Could a Michigan School Shooting Have Been Prevented? Families Still Waiting for a Full Accounting of What Happened.” Photography by Kriston Jae Bethel, photo editing by Alex Bandoni for “Unstoppable: This Doctor Has Been Investigated at Every Level of Government. How Is He Still Practicing? Photo illustrations by Justin Metz, development by Lena Groeger, art direction by Andrea Wise for “The Inside Story of How the Navy Spent Billions on the ‘Little Crappy Ship’” Illustrations by Matt Huynh, art direction by Max Herman and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Minnesota Lets Nurses Practice While Disciplinary Investigations Drag On. Patients Keep Getting Hurt.” Photo illustration by Peter DiCampo, photography by Tara Rice for “Maine Rarely Sanctions Residential Care Facilities Even After Severe Abuse or Neglect Incidents” Photography by Sebastián Hidalgo, photo editing by Max Herman for “Can Community Programs Help Slow the Rise in Violence?” Photography by Kitra Cahana, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “Here’s What Can Happen When Kids Age Out of Foster Care” Cinematography by Katie Campbell and Mayeta Clark for “Silver Dollar Road,” a feature documentary directed by Raoul Peck and co-produced with Velvet Film and Amazon Studios Illustration by Chantal Jahchan, art direction by Peter DiCampo for “A Lab Test That Experts Liken to a Witch Trial Is Helping Send Women to Prison for Murder” Design and development by Sergio Hernandez for “Supreme Risk” Interview by John Harwood, production and cinematography by Katie Campbell, Gerardo del Valle, Bruce Liffiton and Sean Healey for “The Biden Interview: The President Talks About the Supreme Court, Threats to Democracy and Trump’s Vow to Exact Retribution” Illustration by Klaus Kremmerz, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “The FCC Is Supposed to Protect the Environment. It Doesn’t.” Illustration by George Wylesol, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker and Peter DiCampo for “How a Big Pharma Company Stalled a Potentially Lifesaving Vaccine in Pursuit of Bigger Profits” Illustrations by Nate Sweitzer, art direction by Alex Bandoni, Anna Donlan, Lisa Larson-Walker and Zisiga Mukulu for “We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority” Photo illustration by Alex Bandoni for “Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel” News app design and development by Sergio Hernandez, Al Shaw, Jeff Frankl, Nat Lash and Alec Glassford, illustration by Nate Sweitzer, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “Supreme Connections” Illustration by Simon Bailly, art direction by Peter DiCampo and Lisa Larson-Walker for “The U.S. Banned Farmers From Using a Brain-Harming Pesticide on Food. Why Has It Slowed a Global Ban?” Animation by Lisa Larson-Walker for “How Verified Accounts on X Thrive While Spreading Misinformation About the Israel-Hamas Conflict Illustrations by Nash Weerasekera, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Arterial Motives” Illustration by Alvaro Bernis, art direction by Alex Bandoni for “The Hidden Fee Costing Doctors Millions Every Year” Animation by Lisa Larson-Walker for “How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them” Illustrations by Laila Milevski, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “What to Know About the Risks of Gas Stoves and Appliances” Art direction by Peter DiCampo and Anna Donlan, design and development by Anna Donlan for “Falling Apart” Illustrations by Pia Guerra, art direction by Peter DiCampo and Anna Donlan for “Falling Apart” Photography by William DeShazer, photo editing by Peter DiCampo for “How Tennessee’s Justice System Allows Dangerous People to Keep Guns — With Deadly Outcomes” William DeShazer for ProPublica, Photo editing by Peter DiCampo “How Tennessee’s Justice System Allows Dangerous People to Keep Guns — With Deadly Outcomes” Illustration by Zeke Peña, art direction by Peter DiCampo for “Mississippi Says Poor Defendants Must Always Have a Lawyer. Few Courts Are Ready to Deliver.” Design and development by Jason Kao for “Bodycam Videos of Police Killings Remain Out of Public View” Illustrations by Cuauhtémoc Wetzka, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Dairy Workers on Wisconsin’s Small Farms Are Dying. Many of Those Deaths Are Never Investigated. ” Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker, based on an original daguerreotype of an enslaved African named Renty, for “A Racist Harvard Scientist Commissioned Photos of Enslaved People. One Possible Descendant Wants to Reclaim Their Story.” Graphics and animation by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, producing and reporting by Brandi Kellam, Lisa Riordan Seville, Christopher Tyree and Louis Hansen for “Uprooted” Photography by Sebastián Hidalgo, photo editing by Alex Bandoni, design by Anna Donlan for “Death on a Dairy Farm” Illustrations by James Lee Chiahan, art direction by Alex Bandoni, Lisa Larson-Walker and Anna Donlan, design and development by Jason Kao for “The Scandal that Never Happened” Photography by Adria Malcolm, photo editing by Peter DiCampo for “The Federal Government Accidentally Burned Down Their Houses, Then Made It Hard to Come Home” Photo illustration by Vanessa Saba, art direction by Peter DiCampo for “Committed to Jail: How Mississippi Jails People for Mental Illness” Design and development by Nat Lash and Al Shaw for "The 20 Farming Families Who Use More Water From the Colorado River Than Some Western States" Illustrations by Zeke Peña, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “‘Once You’re No Good to Them, They Get Rid of You’” Photography by Kathleen Flynn, photo editing by Peter DiCampo and Anna Donlan for “Seeding Hope” Illustrations by Dominic Bodden, art direction by Andrea Wise for “This Pharmacist Said Prisoners Wouldn’t Feel Pain During Lethal Injection. Then Some Shook and Gasped for Air.” Photography by Rachel Woolf, photo editing by Peter DiCampo for “When Foster Parents Don’t Want to Give Back the Baby” Photography by Liz Moughon for “With Every Breath: Millions of Breathing Machines. One Dangerous Defect.” Illustrations by Clay Rodery, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “How a Maine Businessman Made the AR-15 Into America’s Best-Selling Rifle” Photography by Taylor Glascock, photo editing by Alex Bandoni for “Years After Being Ticketed at School for a Theft She Said Never Happened, Former Student Prevails in Court” Visual Storytelling Department- Boyzell Hosey, senior editor, visual storytelling
- Lisa Larson-Walker, art director
- Andrea Wise, visual strategy editor
- Alex Bandoni, visuals editor
- Peter DiCampo, visuals editor
- Max Herman, temporary visuals editor
- Lena V. Groeger, graphics director
- Anna Donlan, interactive story designer, interim graphics director
- Zisiga Mukulu, interactive story designer
- Jason Kao, graphics editor
- Lucas Waldron, graphics editor
- Almudena Toral, executive producer
- Lisa Riordan Seville, senior producer
- Katie Campbell, video journalist and filmmaker
- Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, video journalist and filmmaker
- Nadia Sussman, video journalist and filmmaker
- Margaret Cheatham Williams, video and film editor
- Gerardo del Valle, video and film fellow
- Liz Moughon, video and film fellow
- David Sleight, senior director, design & product
- Jeff Frankl, editorial experience designer
- Allen Tan, editorial experience designer
- Emenike Godfreey-Igwe, associate product developer
- Artemis Sparks, principal engineer, devops
- Ken Schwencke, news apps editor
- Al Shaw, deputy editor
- Alec Glassford, news apps developer
- Sergio Hernandez, news apps developer
- Nat Lash, news apps developer
- Ash Ngu, news apps developer
- Andrea Suozzo, news apps developer
- Ruth Talbot, news apps developer
Charges issued against man who fatally shot his girlfriend inside north St. Louis County home
Inmates charged in violent October attack of St. Louis City Justice Center guard
Woman charged in connection to armed carjacking at south St. Louis gas station
Year in Review: The Visuals
Our art director takes a look at his favorite illustrations, pages, and projects from the last year.
From Finland to Mississippi and Back Again
Our managing editor handpicks his Best of 2023.
Best of 2023: Luke Goldstein
Our writing fellow offers his favorite stories of the year.
The Most-Read ProPublica Stories of 2023
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
ProPublica has been producing and delivering the news digitally for 15 years, and while it has never been easy, 2023 was particularly challenging. Audience attention continues to fragment. Many readers find the news depressing and distressing — particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic and the tumultuous political environment of the last few years — and some tune out entirely.
That said, ProPublica’s audience increased meaningfully in 2023, thanks to groundbreaking investigative stories across a variety of subjects and geographies. By the time the year ends, we will have published nearly 600 stories. Our work examining the Supreme Court and its ethical lapses attracted significant attention around the world, though many of our most-read pieces were produced by our regional offices around the country.
Below is the list of the 25 most-read stories published by ProPublica in 2023 as measured by the total amount of time spent reading them across several of our publishing platforms. We’ve also included a list of documentaries and podcasts that you may have missed.
1. Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From GOP Donor By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski
For more than 20 years, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been treated to luxury vacations by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow. He’s been on cruises in far-flung locales on Crow’s yacht, has flown on the real estate magnate’s private jet, and has kept company with Crow’s powerful friends at Crow’s private resort. Until the publication of our story, the extent of Crow’s largesse had not been revealed.
2. The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses” By Anjeanette Damon, Byard Duncan and Mollie Simon
HomeVestors of America, the self-proclaimed “largest homebuyer in the U.S.,” trains its nearly 1,150 franchisees to zero in on homeowners’ desperation. Our investigation found HomeVestors franchisees that used deception and targeted the elderly, the infirm and those so close to poverty that they feared homelessness would be a consequence of selling.
3. UnitedHealthcare Tried to Deny Coverage to a Chronically Ill Patient. He Fought Back, Exposing the Insurer’s Inner Workings By David Armstrong, ProPublica; Patrick Rucker, The Capitol Forum; and Maya Miller, ProPublica
After college student Christopher McNaughton finally found a treatment that worked, the insurance giant decided it wouldn’t pay for the costly drugs, determining that the treatment “was not medically necessary.” His fight to get coverage wound up exposing the insurer’s hidden procedures for rejecting claims.
4. A Grad Student Found the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S. By Jennifer Berry Hawes; photography by Gavin McIntyre for ProPublica
Lauren Davila made a stunning discovery as a graduate student at the College of Charleston: an ad for a slave auction that was larger than any a historian had yet identified. The find yields a new understanding of the enormous harm of such a transaction.
5. Inside the Secretive World of Penile Enlargement By Ava Kofman; photography by Philip Cheung
An exploration of how a doctor’s two-decade quest to grow the penis is leaving some men desperate and disfigured.
6. The Columbia OB-GYN Who Sexually Assaulted Patients for More Than 20 Years By Bianca Fortis, ProPublica, and Laura Beil, photography by Hannah Whitaker for New York Magazine
For decades, patients warned Columbia University about the behavior of obstetrician Robert Hadden. One even called 911 and had him arrested. Columbia let him keep working anyway.
7. Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel By Brett Murphy and Alex Mierjeski
The fullest accounting of Thomas’ travel yet shows how the Supreme Court justice has secretly reaped the benefits of a network of wealthy and well-connected patrons that is far more extensive than previously understood.
8. Barricaded Siblings Turn to TikTok While Defying Court Order to Return to Father They Say Abused Them By Hannah Dreyfus
A judge concluded the children were victims of parental alienation, a theory that continues to influence family courts despite being rejected by mainstream scientific groups, and authorized police to use “reasonable force” to remove them from their mother.
9. Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition. By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski
Republican megadonor Harlan Crow paid for private school for a relative of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whom Thomas said he was raising “as a son.”
10. Big Insurance Met Its Match When It Turned Down a Top Trial Lawyer’s Request for Cancer Treatment By T. Christian Miller
Blue Cross and Blue Shield denied payment for the proton therapy Robert “Skeeter” Salim’s doctor ordered to fight his throat cancer. But he was no ordinary patient. He was a celebrated litigator. And he was ready to fight.
11. Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court By Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski
In the years after the undisclosed trip to Alaska on a private jet, Republican megadonor Paul Singer’s hedge fund has repeatedly had business before the Supreme Court. Alito has never recused himself.
12. Why It’s So Hard to Sue Doctors for Sexual Assault in Utah By Jessica Miller, The Salt Lake Tribune
When dozens of women sued their OB-GYN for sexual assault, a judge said the case falls under Utah’s medical malpractice law. This story was part of a partnership through our Local Reporting Network.
13. How the Navy Spent Billions on Failed Littoral Combat Ship Program By Joaquin Sapien
Littoral combat ships were supposed to launch the Navy into the future. Instead they broke down across the globe, and many of their weapons never worked. Now the Navy is scrapping them. One is less than five years old. How did the program fail to live up to its promise?
14. Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property From Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal. By Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski
The transaction was the first known instance of money flowing from Crow to the Supreme Court justice. The sale netted the GOP megadonor two vacant lots and the house where Thomas’ mother was living.
15. Facing a Life-Threatening Pregnancy Under Tennessee’s Abortion Ban By Kavitha Surana, photography by Stacy Kranitz, special to ProPublica
Mayron Michelle Hollis stood to lose her bladder, her uterus and her life. She was desperate to end her high-risk pregnancy. Two doctors agreed that abortion was the best path forward, but doctors in Tennessee feared prosecution after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
16. Behind the Scenes of a Deal With a “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise By Anjeanette Damon
Royanne McNair believed she had canceled her contract with a “We Buy Ugly Houses” franchise, so she pursued another offer on her house — this one for $100,000 more. Then an anonymous envelope froze the deal.
17. How Liberty HealthShare Left Thousands With Debt as It Built a Family Empire By Ryan Gabrielson and J. David McSwane, graphics by Kolin Pope
Despite a history of fraud, one family has thrived in the regulatory no man’s land of health care sharing ministries, where insurance commissioners can’t investigate, federal agencies turn a blind eye and prosecutors reach paltry settlements.
18. Clarence Thomas’ Private Complaints About Money Sparked Fears He Would Resign By Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski and Brett Murphy
Interviews and newly unearthed documents reveal that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, facing financial strain, privately pushed for a higher salary and to allow Supreme Court justices to take speaking fees.
19. Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
20. How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them By Patrick Rucker, The Capitol Forum, and Maya Miller and David Armstrong, ProPublica
Internal documents and former company executives reveal how Cigna doctors reject patients’ claims without opening their files. “We literally click and submit,” one former company doctor said.
21. What Happened to Jefferson Rodríguez By Melissa Sanchez and Maryam Jameel
When an 8-year-old Nicaraguan boy was run over on a Wisconsin dairy farm, authorities blamed his father and closed the case. Meanwhile, the community of immigrant workers knows a completely different story.
22. Two Women Died on an Alaska Mayor’s Property. No One Has Ever Been Charged. By Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News
Before they died, Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton were both victims of domestic violence, but the men involved — the ex-mayor’s sons — faced few consequences despite a long history of similar allegations. This story was part of a partnership through our Local Reporting Network.
23. How One Chicago Cop Got Out of 44 Traffic Tickets By Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica, and Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune
Chicago police officer Jeffrey Kriv used the same alibi to contest dozens of traffic tickets over the years. A deeper look at his career sheds light on Chicago’s troubled history of police accountability. This story was part of a partnership through our Local Reporting Network.
24. This Pennsylvania Doctor Has Been Investigated at Every Level. How Is He Still Practicing? By Annie Waldman
Medical boards, a health department and even federal investigators have scrutinized Dr. James McGuckin’s vascular clinics. Today he still practices, despite a decadelong string of sanctions, fines and lawsuits.
25. People Who Used Recalled Philips Breathing Machines Face Painful Choices By Margaret Fleming, Monica Sager, Nicole Tan, Susanti Sarkar, Evan Robinson-Johnson and Claire Gardner, Medill Investigative Lab; photography by Liz Moughon, ProPublica
The devices at their bedsides were lifelines, until they learned the foam inside could break down and make them sick. Now, they’re plagued by illness, lost sleep and worry.
Documentaries You May Have Missed1. Inside the Uvalde Response Co-published with FRONTLINE and the Texas Tribune
The May 2022 gun massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead. It was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. More than a year and a half later, findings from a state-led investigation into the chaotic response — in which officers took more than an hour to take down the shooter — have yet to be released. Most of the officers involved in the response have declined to talk publicly about what happened that day. But FRONTLINE, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica gained access to a trove of the materials from the Uvalde investigation and were able to review the accounts of almost 150 responding officers, as well as hours of body camera footage and 911 call recordings.
2. The Night Doctrine: The Truth About Afghanistan’s Zero Unit Night Raids
“The Night Doctrine,” ProPublica’s first animated documentary, traces the story of Lynzy Billing, a young British journalist of Afghan-Pakistani origin, who returns to Afghanistan to find out who killed her family 30 years earlier, only to stumble upon a secretive U.S.-backed program killing hundreds of civilians.
The documentary, presented in partnership with The New Yorker, is a companion piece to Billing’s reporting in “The Night Raids,” a gripping and powerful investigation published in 2022. The film is directed by ProPublica’s Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Almudena Toral and animated by Rodríguez Pons. Billing is a producer of the film, which is scored by Afghan composer Milad Yousufi.
3. The Human Toll of Philips’ Massive CPAP Recall: With Every Breath
“With Every Breath,” a documentary from ProPublica and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is an intimate glimpse into what happens when people learn that a Philips Respironics CPAP machine may be causing harm.
The film braids together the stories of three people, who face the unanswerable question of how their health has been impacted, and a sleep doctor who leads her patients through the chaotic recall. The film humanizes a public health crisis that has affected millions and whose full scope may not be known for years, if ever.
This 20-minute film is directed by Liz Moughon and produced by Almudena Toral. It accompanies the investigative series also called “With Every Breath,” published by ProPublica in partnership with the Post-Gazette.
4. Uprooted: What a Black Community Lost When a Virginia University Grew
This short documentary reveals a Black community’s decadeslong battle to hold onto their land as officials in Newport News, Virginia, used eminent domain to establish and expand Christopher Newport University.
“Uprooted” is directed by Brandi Kellam, who grew up in the area and has spent more than two years investigating this story. She reported the story with Louis Hansen of the Virginia Center for Investigative Reporting at WHRO. It is produced by ProPublica’s Lisa Riordan Seville, with cinematography, editing and post-production by VCIJ’s Christopher Tyree and graphics by ProPublica’s Mauricio Rodríguez Pons. The work was part of a series from ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network.
5. America’s Dangerous Trucks Co-published with FRONTLINE
An average of about 5,000 people a year are killed in crashes involving large trucks, a death toll that has soared by almost 50% since 2011, according to the most recent federal data. Tens of thousands more have been injured.
“America’s Dangerous Trucks,” a joint investigation from FRONTLINE and ProPublica, examines one particularly gruesome kind of truck accident — underride crashes — and why they keep happening. Underride crashes occur when a car slides beneath the trailer of a big truck. Trucks can also crush pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists. Hundreds of people die in such accidents every year.
There is a simple solution for reducing these deaths and injuries: build barriers that hang from the sides of the trucks to help prevent vehicles and people from slipping underneath. In the face of opposition from the industry, the federal government has failed for decades to take simple steps to limit the danger.
Podcasts You May Have Missed1. We Don’t Talk About Leonard by Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll and Ilya Marritz This podcast series withWNYC’s “On The Media” explores the web of money, influence and power behind the conservative takeover of America’s courts — and the man at the center of it all: Leonard Leo.
2. The Kids of Rutherford County Co-produced with Serial Productions, the New York Times and Nashville Public Radio When a video surfaced of an after-school scuffle, 11 Black children were arrested. Their crime: not stepping in to stop a fight. The arrests set off a firestorm of controversy — and an investigation into the juvenile justice practices in one Tennessee county.
Reporters Meribah Knight with Nashville Public Radio and Ken Armstrong with ProPublica obtained years’ worth of personnel files, state inspection reports, emails, depositions and other records, and reports from all 98 juvenile courts in the state.
They discovered that for more than a decade, Rutherford County had arrested and illegally jailed hundreds of children. And behind those decisions was a powerful judge, Donna Scott Davenport, who went unchecked by higher authorities in Tennessee. The work was part of a series from ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network.
Looking for work after layoff
Dr. Zhivegas
The only thing I don't like about provel cheese is how it sticks to your teeth.
Restaurant where I can bring a birthday cake
A house in Town and Country hits the market
Nestled in the woods near Queeny Park, this contemporary home sits on a 3.65-acre lot.