InvestigationJustice This Rap Song Helped Sentence a 17-Year-Old to Prison for Life A growing number of scholars, lawyers, and lawmakers are calling for a reassessment of how rap lyrics are used in court. Jaeah LeeThe New York TimesMarch 30, 2022
InvestigationJustice The Jailing of Jesse Harvey A drug war activist turned to civil commitment for help — and found a civil liberties nightmare. Jordan Michael SmithThe InterceptMarch 16, 2022
InvestigationJustice What Happened When Oakland Tried to Make Police Pay for Misconduct In the ‘90s, the city passed a policy requiring the police department to pay some of their own legal costs. There’s no evidence that the department ever paid up. Akintunde AhmedThe AppealMarch 1, 2022
InvestigationEnvironment How the Country’s Most Prominent Conservation Agency is Failing to Tackle Climate Change Newly obtained documents show FWS officials pursued plans to remove protections from an endangered Florida animal despite internal warnings about sea level rise. Jimmy TobiasThe GuardianMarch 1, 2022
InvestigationPolitics The New Right’s Grim, Increasingly Popular Fantasies of an International Nationalism In the quest to unify American conservatism’s fragmented ranks, a right-wing vanguard is looking to Hungary and Poland for inspiration. Kathryn JoyceNew RepublicJanuary 6, 2022
InvestigationImmigration, Justice Texas National Guard Filmed Trespassing During Border Operations Allowing soldiers to patrol border communities with assault rifles is the latest escalation in Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. Melissa del BosqueThe InterceptDecember 17, 2021
InvestigationEnvironment The Big Thaw Alaska becomes the nation’s first frontier of climate disruption. Adam FedermanSierra MagazineDecember 14, 2021
InvestigationEnvironment Abrupt Permafrost Thaw Has Scientists Worried Adam FedermanSierra MagazineDecember 14, 2021
InvestigationImmigration, Journalism The Facility A new documentary goes inside Georgia’s Irwin County Detention Center as the pandemic spreads Seth Freed WesslerField of VisionDecember 2, 2021
InvestigationImmigration, Justice Texas Troopers Opened Fire From a Helicopter in 2012. Families Are Still Fighting to Hold Them Accountable. A state police marksman unloaded 19 bullets into a speeding pickup, killing two men. Now, depositions unearth startling new details about what happened. Melissa del BosqueThe InterceptNovember 29, 2021