Archive - South
City Receives Half a Million Dollars for Air Monitoring After Report Reveals Elevated Cancer Risk
After years of resident complaints of toxic fumes and health issues, the EPA has funded Mississippi to conduct air monitoring in Pascagoula. This comes a year after a first-of-its-kind analysis by ProPublica into “sacrifice zones” across the country.
Endgame: How the Visionary Hospice Movement Became a For-Profit Hustle
Half of all Americans now die in hospice care. Easy money and a lack of regulation transformed a crusade to provide death with dignity into an industry rife with fraud and exploitation.
Complaint Filed Against Mississippi Judge for Failing to Hand Over Search Warrants to Clerk
The judge has signed a number of no-knock search warrants that have been challenged in court, but they weren’t on file at the clerk’s office.
A Florida Fund for Injured Kids Raided Medicaid. Now It’s Repaying $51 Million.
“The Medicaid program provides a safety net for our most vulnerable populations that do not have access to traditional healthcare coverage,” U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez said. “The misuse of Medicaid funds will not be tolerated.”
“We Need to Defend This Law”: Inside an Anti-Abortion Meeting With Tennessee’s GOP Lawmakers
Anti-abortion groups helped write and pass laws that kicked in to ban abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned. The groups see Tennessee’s ban as the country’s strongest — and they want to keep it that way, according to audio reviewed by ProPublica.
How Title Lenders Trap Poor Americans in Debt With Triple-Digit Interest Rates
For some Georgia residents, title pawn contracts offer a quick way to obtain desperately needed cash. But poor regulation of a confusing system traps many borrowers in high-interest debt they can’t pay off.
How Tennessee Disenfranchised 21% of Its Black Citizens
While many states have made it easier for people convicted of felonies to vote, Tennessee has gone in the other direction.
A County Elections Director Stood Up to Locals Who Believe the Voting System Is Rigged. They Pushed Back Harder.
Even in a county where Trump won more than 70% of the 2020 vote, local election deniers have mounted a campaign to access voting machines and slash the elections director's pay.
EPA Calls Out Environmental Racism in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley
In a “remarkable” letter, the EPA accused Louisiana regulators of neglecting Black residents’ concerns about toxic air pollution and urged the state to move kids out of a school where monitors found extreme levels of a cancer-causing chemical.
How Ron DeSantis Blew Up Black-Held Congressional Districts and May Have Broken Florida Law
DeSantis’ move, secretly aided by GOP-linked national operatives, came over the objections of the Republican-controlled state legislature.
The CDC Scientist Who Couldn’t Get Monkeypox Treatment
As a Black man and a senior CDC scientist, William L. Jeffries IV knows a lot about health inequities and infectious diseases in America. Still, it took visits to 3 doctors — and a desperate call to a colleague — for him to get treatment for monkeypox.
Mississippi’s Missing Search Warrants Prevent Scrutiny of No-Knock Raids
No-knock warrants authorize police to burst into someone’s home unannounced. Search warrants are supposed to be filed at the courthouse, but they’re missing from many of Mississippi’s justice courts.
New Air Monitors Among Major Impacts of ProPublica Toxic Air Pollution Reporting
Communities identified as “Sacrifice Zones” in a ProPublica analysis of toxic air pollution scored major wins this month. In one, the EPA will start monitoring the air. In another, a judge withdrew permits from a giant petrochemical complex.
This Hurricane-Ravaged Town Has Waited Years for Long-Term Aid. It Could Happen Again.
Homes and businesses still sit in ruins in a small Louisiana city, left behind by the government’s convoluted and unpredictable system for rebuilding communities devastated by natural disasters.
Meet the Woman Fighting for the Rights of Voters Who Can’t Read
Olivia Coley-Pearson offered help to voters who struggle to read. For taking on one of America’s oldest forms of voter suppression, she got threats, a trip to jail and a reminder of the nation’s long legacy of weaponizing literacy.
The Fight Against an Age-Old Effort to Block Americans From Voting
As a new wave of restrictions makes voting harder for people who struggle to read — now 1 in 5 Americans — Olivia Coley-Pearson has taken up the fight, even if it makes her a target.
Actions of Deputy Who Dragged Woman by Her Hair Deemed “Reasonable and Acceptable”
Video showed the officer, who has been named in at least nine excessive force lawsuits, grabbing the woman by her hair and slamming her to the ground. The sheriff now says the actions were justified and the woman is “looking for a paycheck.”
The Tragedy of North Birmingham
Industrial plants in Birmingham, Alabama, have polluted the air and land in its historic Black communities for over a century. In an epicenter of environmental injustice, officials continue to fail to right the wrongs plaguing the city’s north side.
A Tax Credit Was Meant to Help Marginalized Workers Get Permanent Jobs. Instead It’s Subsidizing Temp Work.
The government gives hundreds of millions of dollars in Work Opportunity Tax Credits to temp agencies, even if the jobs they offer don’t lead to permanent employment. Many top recipients of the credit have long records of labor violations.
Visualizing Toxic Air
Making data public isn’t enough when it’s incomprehensible to the people it affects. ProPublica set out to decode a complex EPA data set to expose hot spots of industrial air pollution across the U.S.
