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ProPublica’s Top 25 Stories of 2020
Our list of the year’s most-read stories contains deeply unsettling investigations from a deeply unsettling year.
Before Mob Stormed the Capitol, Days of Security Planning Involved Cabinet Officials and President Trump
A Pentagon memo offers one version of events — six days of preparation for a rally that quickly spiraled out of control.
Members of Several Well-Known Hate Groups Identified at Capitol Riot
A ProPublica-FRONTLINE review of the insurrection found several noted hardcore nativists and white nationalists who also participated in the 2017 white power rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“This Political Climate Got My Brother Killed”: Officer Brian Sicknick Died Defending the Capitol. His Family Waits for Answers.
Brian David Sicknick, 42, died of injuries sustained while trying to protect the Capitol. Family members say they don’t want his death politicized. But they do want to understand what happened.
CDC Shut Down a Lab Involved in Making Faulty Coronavirus Tests
A CDC lab involved in making faulty coronavirus tests sent to state and local officials early in the pandemic was closed down hours after an October investigation by ProPublica exposed key mistakes the CDC made in manufacturing those tests.
A Lender Sued Thousands of Lower-Income Latinos During the Pandemic. Now It Wants to Be a National Bank.
Oportun, which lends in only a dozen states, applied for a bank charter late last year. Consumer and Latino civil rights groups are pushing back, citing the findings of a joint investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
The Nursing Home Didn’t Send Her to the Hospital, and She Died
Palestine Howze didn’t have COVID-19, but a law enacted to protect health providers during the pandemic could derail her family’s wrongful death suit.
Domestic Terrorism: A More Urgent Threat, but Weaker Laws
Authorities dissuaded some extremists from traveling to Washington, and shared intelligence with Capitol Police, but could not stop the mob that stormed the Capitol, a senior FBI official says.
Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks in Plain Sight. The Police Weren’t Ready.
Insurrectionists made no effort to hide their intentions, but law enforcement protecting Congress was caught flat-footed.
Lavish Bonus? Luxury Trip? Health Benefits Brokers Will Have to Disclose What They Receive From the Insurance Industry
Employers trust brokers to guide them to the best value, but conflicts of interest abound. Tucked into the coronavirus relief bill, a new federal requirement will mandate more transparency.
Magistrate Judges Took Bribes, Stole Money and Mishandled Cases. South Carolina Officials Now Want Reform.
South Carolina lawmakers are eyeing reforms to strengthen oversight of magistrate judges after ProPublica and The Post and Courier found some had been appointed and reappointed despite ethical and professional lapses.
“Nobody” Hurt, “Just a Perp,” Say Officers After NYPD Shot and Killed Man in His Own Home
The comments were captured in body-worn camera footage the NYPD recently disclosed, 20 months after Kawaski Trawick was shot in his apartment while holding a bread knife.
Timber Tax Cuts Cost Oregon Towns Billions. Then Polluted Water Drove Up the Price.
Rural communities in Oregon paid millions of dollars for clean, safe drinking water because the state didn’t protect their watersheds from logging-related contamination.
Hawaii Officials Promise Changes to Seawall Policies That Have Quickened Beach Destruction
Seawalls erode Hawaii’s beaches, but the state has been lax about approving them and disorganized about enforcing the law. Officials now pledge action, after a Honolulu Star-Advertiser and ProPublica investigation.
Officials Let Hawaii’s Waterfront Homeowners Damage Public Beaches Again and Again
Everybody knows that seawalls cause beach loss, and Hawaii law forbids building them. But Honolulu County officials have granted exemptions to 46 homeowners over the past two decades even as a quarter of Oahu’s beaches have disappeared.
Alaska Requires DNA Be Collected From People Arrested for Violent Crimes. Many Police Have Ignored That.
By failing to collect DNA samples when they arrest people as the law requires, Alaskan law enforcement left the state’s DNA database with crucial gaps, allowing at least one serial rapist to go undetected.
“Those of Us Who Don’t Die Are Going to Quit”: A Crush of Patients, Dwindling Supplies and the Nurse Who Lost Hope
Almost a year into the pandemic, supply shortages remain so severe that nurse Kristen Cline reuses her N95 for several shifts while her hospital buckles, patients suffer and folks nearby socialize maskless as if the pandemic were already over.
After 3 Years and $1.5 Million Testing Rape Kits, Alaska Made One New Arrest
In the state with the highest rate of sexual assault in the nation, testing the backlog of rape kits may not be enough. Many were from cases where the identity of the suspect was already known, or were opened only to find no usable DNA.
