A Closer Look
Examining the News
How ProPublica’s Local Stories Reach the Communities We Report On
Getting our investigation’s findings to the people we write about is just as important as reaching a large audience. Consider these two examples.
What’s Really at Stake in a Politically Charged Supreme Court Case on Elections
Moore v. Harper could transform the law — but not in the way that many pundits, or even politicians, anticipate.
What Will UnitedHealth’s New Trove of Claims Data Mean for Consumers?
A federal judge allowed the company to acquire a clearinghouse of health insurance claims. UnitedHealth says it won’t use the data to give itself an edge, even as some company documents suggest otherwise.
How Effective Is the Government’s Campaign Against Hospital Mergers?
The newly energized Federal Trade Commission has recently enjoyed successes in blocking hospital mergers. But derailing the broader trend is a tall order for the agency.
Tim Ryan: The Working-Class-Jobs Candidate in the Era of Resentment
Democrat Tim Ryan has long emphasized manufacturing jobs, a stance his party has lately begun to embrace. How he fares in his Senate race in Republican-dominated Ohio could reveal a lot about his party’s future prospects.
For Donald Trump, Information Has Always Been Power
People have wondered why the former president collected classified intel, speculating that he is just a packrat. But he has a long history of gathering and wielding sensitive info to help himself.
How We Fight Back When Officials Resist Releasing Information You Have a Right to Know
Texas agencies have fought against releasing records that could help clarify the response to the Uvalde school shooting. The blanket denials are reminiscent of another tragic case one reporter covered years ago.
Why the Black Educator Forced Out Over Bogus Critical Race Theory Claims Agreed to Share Her Story
ProPublica reporter Nicole Carr explains why educator Cecelia Lewis was hesitant to speak to reporters about white parents forcing her out of her job, and why she ultimately decided she had to.
Will the Jan. 6 Hearings Change Anyone’s Mind?
The 1973 Watergate hearings changed popular opinion after Richard Nixon’s landslide win. Here’s what is — and isn’t — different today.
Daniel Taylor Was Innocent. He Spent Decades in Prison Trying to Fix the State’s Mistake.
He was in police custody at the time of the murders, but a dubious confession led to his wrongful conviction while Chicago police and prosecutors turned a blind eye to inconvenient facts that eventually exonerated him.
New Documents Show How Drug Companies Targeted Doctors to Increase Opioid Prescriptions
A trove of documents published as part of a legal settlement offers an unvarnished look inside the financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and the medical community — from the perspective of drug companies themselves.
“If You’re Getting a W-2, You’re a Sucker”
There are many differences between the rich and the rest of us, but one of the most consequential for your taxes is whether most of your income comes from wages.
How Reporters Reconstructed a Deadly Evacuation From Kabul
ProPublica Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg on the challenges and urgency of examining the final days of the war in Afghanistan, even as new conflicts demand our attention.
Welfare Is No Substitute for a Child Tax Credit
Some in Congress say the child tax credit isn’t needed because Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a success. Our reporting found it’s marked by repeated failures.
A Police Car Hit a Kid on Halloween 2019. The NYPD Is Quashing a Move to Punish the Officer.
Civilian investigators found that officers engaged in serious misconduct, including hitting one boy with a car, pointing a gun at another and wrongly arresting three teens. Then the NYPD intervened.
One Major Reason the U.S. Hasn’t Stopped Syphilis From Killing Babies
In reporting on the rising number of newborns needlessly dying of syphilis, ProPublica reporter Caroline Chen identified a contributing factor: the CDC’s funding structure, which is influenced by both politics and shifts in public attention.
The Billionaires Tax Isn’t New
Taxing billionaires on their wealth may sound novel, but the ideas behind it are already frequently used in the tax code.
Recent White House Study on Taxes Shows the Wealthy Pay a Lower Rate Than Everybody Else
When ProPublica compared the richest Americans’ wealth gains to the taxes they paid, we found a system that benefits billionaires. White House economists recently used a similar method to calculate tax rates, revealing stark inequality.
Loan Forgiveness for Disabled Borrowers Was 10 Years in the Making
At ProPublica, we measure our success by the tangible impact our stories have. Sometimes it takes more than a decade to see a flawed policy change.
The Inside Story of How We Reported the Secret IRS Files
The ProPublica journalists who obtained the secret tax documents of thousands of America’s richest people share how they conceived of their stories, what readers should understand about the tax system and where they’re taking these stories next.
