First Came the Warning Signs. Then a Teen Opened Fire on a Nashville School.
Tennessee authorities were alerted to Solomon Henderson’s threatening and violent behavior long before he brought a gun to Antioch High School. It’s unclear how many red flags were heeded.
Reporting From the South
ProPublica’s seven-person reporting unit, based in Atlanta, covers North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. The region plays a pivotal role in national issues including political representation, racial equity and environmental justice.
How Many Students Have Been Expelled Under Tennessee’s School Threats Law? There’s No Clear Answer.
Tennessee gives public agencies wide latitude to refuse to release data. That made it challenging for our reporters to figure out just how many students were affected.
They Followed North Carolina Election Rules When They Cast Their Ballots. Now Their Votes Could Be Tossed Anyway.
A Republican judge is trying to overturn his election loss by challenging more than 60,000 ballots. These are some of those voters’ stories.
Women Made Electoral Gains in Statehouses Across the Country in 2024. The Southeast Is a Different Story.
All but one state that held legislative elections last fall in the Southeast saw losses of Republican women. In South Carolina, that means the Senate Republican caucus, which will make decisions that directly affect women, is an all-men’s club.
South News Staff
- South Editor
- Mara Shalhoup
- Reporters
- Max Blau, Doug Bock Clark, Jennifer Berry Hawes, Aliyya Swaby and Amy Yurkanin
Local Reporting Network Partners
ProPublica is supporting local and regional newsrooms as they work on important investigative projects affecting their communities. Some of our past and present partners in the region:
- MLK50: Justice Through Journalism
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Mountain State Spotlight
- West Virginia
- Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
- Tupelo, Mississippi
- Sun Herald
- Biloxi, Mississippi
- AL.com
- Birmingham, Alabama
- The Palm Beach Post
- Palm Beach, Florida
- Miami Herald
- Miami, Florida
- Richmond Times-Dispatch
- Richmond, Virginia
Georgia Touts Its Medicaid Experiment as a Success. The Numbers Tell a Different Story.
Only 6,500 participants have enrolled in a program that has cost taxpayers more than $86 million — a warning for other states looking to impose restrictions on Medicaid in a second Trump presidency.
Tennessee Lawmakers Push to Change How the State Disarms Dangerous People to Better Protect Domestic Violence Victims
The GOP-sponsored bill would provide more transparency when a court orders someone to give up their firearms. The move follows WPLN and ProPublica reporting that found the state’s lax gun laws allow weapons to remain in the hands of domestic abusers.
Is a New Mississippi Law Decreasing Jailings of People Awaiting Mental Health Treatment? The State Doesn’t Know.
Community mental health centers, counties and a state agency have reported vastly different numbers of people who spent time in jail while waiting to be treated for serious mental illness.
North Carolina Supreme Court Candidate Wants Military Absentee Votes Tossed. Years Earlier, That’s How He Voted.
Republican Jefferson Griffin is trying to overturn his election loss by asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to toss 5,500 military and overseas absentee ballots. He used the same method to vote in 2019 and 2020.
How Segregated Are Your Local Private Schools? We Made a Tool to Help You Find Out.
Our reporters mined a trove of data that revealed detailed demographic information about private schools. That helped us find illuminating stories about how those schools divide communities.
This Storm-Battered Town Voted for Trump. He Has Vowed to Overturn the Law That Could Fix Its Homes.
Donald Trump has said he will overturn a law that helps communities better weather the effects of climate change. If he follows through, he’ll be reversing an initiative that has disproportionately benefited areas that make up his base.
Two Families Sue After 11-Year-Old and 13-Year-Old Students Were Arrested Under Tennessee’s School Threat Law
The lawsuits, filed in federal court this month, argue East Tennessee school officials violated students’ rights by calling the police on them under Tennessee’s threats of mass violence law.
North Carolina Supreme Court Blocked Certification of a Justice’s Win. Activists Fear It’s “Dangerous for Democracy.”
The move gives the court time to consider a challenge by Republican Jefferson Griffin, who has cited debunked legal theories in his previous failed attempts to block Justice Allison Riggs’ reelection.
A North Carolina Supreme Court Candidate’s Bid to Overturn His Loss Is Based on Theory Election Deniers Deemed Extreme
Republican Jefferson Griffin narrowly lost his race for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Now he’s asking that 60,000 ballots be thrown out based on a theory that an election denier said amounted to “voter suppression.”
The Story of One Mississippi County Shows How Private Schools Are Exacerbating Segregation
A new ProPublica analysis shows a stark pattern across states in the Deep South: Alongside majority-Black public school districts, a separate web of private academies are filled almost entirely with white students.
UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism
Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal.
Segregation Academies in Mississippi Are Benefiting From Public Dollars, as They Did in the 1960s
ProPublica identified 20 schools in the state that likely opened as segregation academies and have received almost $10 million over the past six years from the state’s tax credit donation program.
Georgia Dismissed All Members of Maternal Mortality Committee After ProPublica Obtained Internal Details of Two Deaths
In a letter, the state’s public health commissioner said the action was taken because “confidential information provided to the Maternal Mortality Review Committee was inappropriately shared with outside individuals.”
Segregation Academies Across the South Are Getting Millions in Taxpayer Dollars
North Carolina offers an especially telling window into what is happening across this once legally segregated region where legislatures are now rapidly expanding and adopting controversial voucher-style programs.
A 13-Year-Old With Autism Got Arrested After His Backpack Sparked Fear. Only His Stuffed Bunny Was Inside.
Disability rights advocates said kids like Ty should not be getting arrested under Tennessee’s school threats law. And they tried to push for a broader exception for kids with other kinds of disabilities. It didn’t work.
