Archive
She Was Afraid of Her Lawyer. Then the Text Messages Started.
Leah Kerwin started receiving daily texts and videos explicitly requesting oral sex or intercourse. They came from her court-appointed attorney, who had already been suspended for other misconduct.
Illinois Has Had COVID-19 Outbreaks in 44 Schools but Won’t Say Where They’ve Occurred
More children are testing positive for COVID-19 than they were between March and mid-August, when schools shut down. As parents weigh the safety of in-person learning, Illinois has not published information about the virus’s spread in schools.
Your Guide to Voting in Illinois
Everything you need to know about local election deadlines, what the pandemic has changed and casting your ballot so it counts.
DOJ Frees Federal Prosecutors to Take Steps That Could Interfere With Elections, Weakening Long-standing Policy
In an internal announcement, the Justice Department created an exception to a decadeslong policy meant to prevent prosecutors from taking overt investigative steps that might affect the outcome of the vote.
In Florida, the Gutting of a Landmark Law Leaves Few Felons Likely to Vote
State officials don’t know how many felons are registered or eligible to vote. So we did our own analysis and found only a very small percentage of them will be able to cast ballots this election. Some could face prosecution if they do.
Maine Hires Lawyers With Criminal Records to Defend Its Poorest Residents
Maine is the only state in the country with no public defender system. Instead, legal services for the poor are left to private attorneys, who face disproportionately high amounts of discipline, and an office that doesn’t supervise them.
The Justice Department May Have Violated Attorney General Barr’s Own Policy Memo
In a memo from May, the attorney general reminded Justice Dept. prosecutors to avoid partisan politics. Then a U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania announced an election investigation that had partisan overtones.
Debt Collectors Have Made a Fortune This Year. Now They’re Coming for More.
After a pause for the pandemic, debt buyers are back in the courts, suing debtors by the thousands.
California Will Keep Burning. But Housing Policy Is Making It Worse.
There are ways to keep people and homes safer from wildfires. Then, there’s what California does.
Meet the Baconator
How to make a dynamically generated news site work like a statically generated one and sleep better at night.
Electionland 2020: PA Voting, NYC Absentee Ballots, Legal Battles and More
This week’s headlines on election funding, mail-in voting, and misinformation.
What Happens After a Debt Collection Machine Grinds to a Halt
One year ago, Methodist Le Bonheur hospital system erased nearly $12 million of medical debt after an investigation from MLK50 and ProPublica. We checked in with two women who have new jobs and a new optimism about their future.
Meet the Customer Service Reps for Disney and Airbnb Who Have to Pay to Talk to You
Arise Virtual Solutions, part of the secretive world of work-at-home customer service, helps large corporations shed costs at the expense of workers. Now the pandemic is creating a boom in the industry.
Do You Work in Customer Service? We’d Like to Hear About Your Work-From-Home Jobs.
Have you worked with a contractor such as Arise, Sykes, LiveOps or Concentrix? We want to learn more about how customer service works at big companies like Apple, Intuit, Disney and Airbnb.
It’s His Land. Now a Canadian Company Gets to Take It.
Federal regulators have given a Canadian oil company the power to seize property from Oregon landowners for a gas pipeline that will help … Canada.
What’s It Like to Be a Contact Tracer? We Spoke With 3 to Find Out.
We wanted to know what life is like for the public health workers charged with limiting the spread of the coronavirus in Illinois. “A lot of people are initially in shock,” one said about making calls.
The Kushners’ Freddie Mac Loan Wasn’t Just Massive. It Came With Unusually Good Terms, Too.
Despite a history of underperforming properties, Kushner Companies received a near-record sum from a government-backed lender. Should it default, taxpayers could be forced to foot much of the bill. The agency says politics played no role.
Investors Extracted $400 Million From a Hospital Chain That Sometimes Couldn’t Pay for Medical Supplies or Gas for Ambulances
Prospect Medical, which mostly serves low-income patients, has suffered a litany of problems: broken elevators, dirty surgical gear, bedbugs and more. Its owners, including Leonard Green & Partners and Prospect’s CEO, have cashed in.
