Irena Hwang
Irena Hwang is a data reporter at ProPublica.
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Irena Hwang is a data reporter at ProPublica. She previously worked at NPR, The Associated Press and The Dallas Morning News. She has a master’s degree in journalism and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
How Not to Count Salmon
Data reporter Irena Hwang thought counting fish to evaluate the hatchery system in the Pacific Northwest sounded like a fun project. That was before she started asking biologists about what the publicly available data could really tell us.
Local Reporting Network
The U.S. Has Spent More Than $2 Billion on a Plan to Save Salmon. The Fish Are Vanishing Anyway.
The U.S. government promised Native tribes in the Pacific Northwest that they could keep fishing as they’d always done. But instead of preserving wild salmon, it propped up a failing system of hatcheries. Now, that system is falling apart.
Local Reporting Network
The Disappearance of Hispanic Drivers From Traffic Records
In Louisiana, law enforcement agencies have been accused of targeting Hispanic drivers in traffic stops and identifying them as white on tickets. Misidentification makes it impossible to track racial bias, experts say.
Local Reporting Network
How ProPublica Used Genomic Sequencing Data to Track an Ongoing Salmonella Outbreak
For a ProPublica reporter who did Ph.D. work in bioinformatics, data on bacterial DNA helped reveal how a once-rare salmonella strain spread through the chicken industry.
America’s Food Safety System Failed to Stop a Salmonella Epidemic. It’s Still Making People Sick.
A dangerous salmonella strain has sickened thousands and continues to spread through the chicken industry. The USDA and companies know about it. But contaminated meat continues to be sold.
In a California Desert, Sheriff’s Deputies Settle Schoolyard Disputes. Black Teens Bear the Brunt.
Deputies in California’s Antelope Valley are disproportionately citing Black teens, often for minor infractions, like getting in fights or smoking.
Local Reporting Network