Max Blau
I cover health care, the environment, agriculture and immigration for ProPublica’s South unit.
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What I Cover
I am currently reporting on how the H-2A visa program may expand and transform during President Donald Trump’s second term and the potential impact on agricultural workers, farm owners and the supply chains that bring crops to our grocery stores.
My Background
My stories have uncovered a series of preventable deaths that occurred within a prominent transplant center in Tennessee, exposed a powerful utility’s controversial toxic waste disposal practices in Georgia and revealed how a wealthy governor’s family perpetuated a harmful legacy of environmental injustice in Alabama.
My colleagues and I have published “Sacrifice Zones,” a series that examined how toxic air pollution from industrial plants has elevated cancer risk for millions of Americans. I was also part of a team that reported “America’s Mental Barrier,” which focused on the ways that insurance companies interfere with mental health care.
Before ProPublica, I was an independent journalist who published stories in a variety of national publications, including The Atavist, The Atlantic, Time and STAT. I had worked as a staff writer for CNN, Atlanta magazine and the Atlanta alt-weekly Creative Loafing. I also co-founded Canopy Atlanta, a local news organization that pays and trains community members to become journalists.
Tell Us About Your Experience With the Organ Transplant System
ProPublica is looking to hear from patients, medical providers and regulators as part of an ongoing investigation.
How a Powerful Company Convinced Georgia to Let It Bury Toxic Waste in Groundwater
Documents reveal Georgia Power went to great lengths to advocate for risky waste storage. After a ProPublica investigation exposed this practice, the EPA is trying to block the move.
The Dirty Secret of America’s Clean Dishes
The world’s largest chemical maker, BASF, produces ingredients for America’s most popular products, from soaps to surface cleaners to dishwasher detergent. Emissions from their U.S. plants elevate cancer risks for an estimated 1.5 million people.
When Home Is a Toxic Hot Spot
More than a thousand people talked to ProPublica about living in hot spots for cancer-causing air pollution. Most never got a warning from the EPA. They are rallying neighbors, packing civic meetings and signing petitions for reform.
Entergy Resisted Upgrading New Orleans’ Power Grid. When Ida Hit, Residents Paid the Price.
The company failed to build a stronger system after hurricanes repeatedly pummeled Louisiana. Then Ida knocked out power for more than a week.
A Power Company’s Quiet Land-Buying Spree Could Shield It From Coal Ash Cleanup Costs
Georgia Power paid top dollar to buy land from residents living near waste sites at its power plants. Environmentalists fear it’s a tactic to forestall the cleanup bill from new regulations for coal ash.
Local Reporting Network
He Wanted to Fix Rural America’s Broken Nursing Homes. Now, Taxpayers May Be on the Hook for $76 Million.
Ronnie Rollins used a controversial loophole to secure $300 million in bonus payments for his nonprofit nursing home chain. A federal investigation called the payments “inappropriate,” and Georgia is caught in a multimillion dollar dispute.
This Rural Nursing Home Has Lost Nearly a Quarter of Its Residents to COVID-19. Now Its State Is Reopening.
Of Georgia’s more than 1,100 virus deaths, 12% are from long-term care facilities in a region that holds just 3% of the population. As the state reopens, staff know that risks of exposure will only increase.
Local Reporting Network