Mollie Simon
I identify documents, sources and specialized datasets to advance investigations.
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What I Cover
I’ve investigated topics spanning education, housing, mental health, consumer finance and the environment. I often dig into archives to understand how history is shaped by, and repeated in, the present.
My Background
My work at ProPublica began in 2020, originally through a fellowship with the Scripps Howard Foundation. Before that, I worked as a researcher at LegiStorm and as a reporter for the Anderson Independent-Mail and Greenville News. In that role, I covered Clemson, South Carolina, as well as broader education stories.
How Title Lending Works
Title lenders in the U.S. often use predatory practices to trap customers in high-interest loans, ProPublica recently reported. This guide will help you understand how title lending works and what your options are if you’re stuck in a contract.
Local Reporting Network
The Cold War Legacy Lurking in U.S. Groundwater
For the first time, ProPublica has cataloged cleanup efforts at the 50-plus sites where uranium was processed to fuel the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Even after regulators say cleanup is complete, polluted water and sickness are often left behind.
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.
Local Reporting Network
“The Human Psyche Was Not Built for This”
How Republicans in Montana hijacked public health and brought a hospital to the brink
Casinos Pled Poverty to Get a Huge Tax Break. Atlantic City Is Paying the Price.
Despite growing profits, casino operators used predictions of “grave danger” to convince the state to slash their tax burden, denying millions to the city, its school district and the county.
Local Reporting Network
Meet ProPublica’s 2022 Student Conference Stipend Recipients
With additional support from The Pudding, ProPublica will be sponsoring these 25 talented student journalists to attend conferences including NABJ, AAJA, ONA and IRE.
Trump Just Endorsed an Oath Keeper’s Plan to Seize Control of the Republican Party
The “precinct strategy” widely promoted by Steve Bannon has already inspired thousands of Trump supporters to fill local GOP positions, intent on preventing a “stolen election.”
Students! ProPublica and The Pudding Want to Send You to a Conference in 2022.
We’re giving 25 stipends to help you attend a journalism conference and/or to support your work.
The Low-and-Slow Approach to Food Safety Reform Keeps Going Up in Smoke
The U.S. has one agency that regulates cheese pizza and another that oversees pepperoni pizza. Efforts to fix the food safety system have stalled again and again.
Utah Makes Welfare So Hard to Get, Some Feel They Must Join the LDS Church to Get Aid
Utah’s safety net for the poor is so intertwined with the LDS Church that individual bishops often decide who receives assistance. Some deny help unless a person goes to services or gets baptized.