Ava Kofman is a reporter on ProPublica’s national desk. She joined the newsroom in January 2019 after working as a contributing writer at The Intercept, where she covered technology and artificial intelligence. Her reporting and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books and n+1, among other publications. In 2021, she reported with colleagues on toxic air pollution across the United States. The team’s examination of the country’s “Sacrifice Zones,” which helped spur several reforms, was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize and a National Magazine Award for Public Interest. Kofman’s 2022 investigation of the hospice industry prompted congressional hearings and policy changes. It received the 2023 Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism, a National Press Club Award and the Barlett and Steele Award for Outstanding Young Journalist. Kofman is a two-time Livingston Finalist, and her work has also been honored by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Association of Health Care Journalists, and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.
The EPA allows polluters to turn neighborhoods into “sacrifice zones” where residents breathe carcinogens. ProPublica reveals where these places are in a first-of-its-kind map and data analysis.
We analyzed billions of rows of EPA data to do something the agency had never done before: map the spread of cancer-causing industrial air emissions down to the neighborhood level.
If you live close to certain industrial facilities, you may have a higher estimated cancer risk. This may sound alarming. Here are answers to common questions, some crowdsourced tips and how to share your experience to help our investigation.
As the winter’s surge of coronavirus cases overwhelmed Los Angeles hospitals, EMTs like Michael Diaz were forced to take previously unthinkable measures. What lasting impact will the pandemic have on America’s first responders?
State unemployment agencies have been demanding recipients repay thousands of dollars, even if the agency made the mistake and the money’s already been spent. After ProPublica investigated the practice, legislators are trying to end it.
State unemployment agencies are discovering errors in payments affecting hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans. Even when the agencies made the original error, they’re taking aggressive steps to get the money back.
More people than ever became eligible for unemployment benefits after Congress included part-time and gig workers, but the data shows that hasn’t solved a huge racial disparity. Here’s why.
Across the country, unemployment systems are collapsing under an unprecedented number of claims. But some state systems, like North Carolina’s, have long made it harder to receive unemployment benefits.
With regular employees out sick, CVS and Walgreens rely on traveling workers to fill in at short notice. But when these floaters show up at a store, they often aren’t told if anyone there has tested positive.
As prescriptions surge, Walgreens and CVS employees say they need more protective gear, cleaning supplies and sick pay. “Someone will come into work sick and there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” a pharmacist says.
Pharmacists told ProPublica that they are seeing unusual and fraudulent prescribing activity as doctors stockpile unproven coronavirus drugs endorsed by President Donald Trump.
New research and Facebook’s own ad archive show that the company’s new system to ensure diverse audiences for housing and employment ads has many of the same problems as its predecessor.
We found more than 50 government-funded channels from countries including Russia, Iran and the United States that the Google subsidiary failed to flag.
Ankle bracelets are promoted as a humane alternative to jail. But private companies charge defendants hundreds of dollars a month to wear the surveillance devices. If people can’t pay, they may end up behind bars.
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