Most of the 500 counties with the highest pesticide use per square mile are located in the Midwest. Sixty percent of those counties also had cancer rates higher than the national average. investigatemidwest.org/2026/02/18/p...

Investigative journalism at work: EmblemHealth will compensate customers who paid out of pocket for mental health care because they couldn’t secure an appointment with a provider listed as being in-network. It also pledged to fix its provider directory. www.propublica.org/article/embl...

Millions of pages of court documents, seizure records and government data obtained by @icij.org and @nytimes.com show how agreements have allowed .50-caliber ammunition and components made at the plant to enter retail markets and fall into the hands of Mexican cartels. www.icij.org/news/2026/02...

We're excited to introduce our 2026 Investigative Reporting Fellows! For the next six months, the Society will train these 10 journalists to enhance their reporting skills and produce investigative projects for impact. Get to know the Fellows: idabwellssociety.org/news/introdu...

The FDA has taken down a webpage warning about therapies and products making “false claims” of treating autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discredit long-established science. www.propublica.org/article/rfk-...

Chemotherapy mistakes, treatment delays, a ‘toxic’ workplace: Penn State’s internal reviews found a top doctor’s alarming errors and disruptive leadership. He remains in charge of the cancer center. www.spotlightpa.org/statecollege...

When Tammy Boarman first contacted oil regulators, she was hopeful state officials would find the source of the pollution and clean it up. But regulators delayed or failed to conduct other tests recommended by the agency to locate the pollution source. www.readfrontier.org/stories/salt...

At least two dozen U.S. ICE employees and contractors have been charged with crimes since 2020, and their documented wrongdoing includes patterns of physical and sexual abuse, corruption and other abuses of authority, a review by The Associated Press found. apnews.com/article/ice-...

Using ICE detention data, @startribune.com analyzed the movements of 250,000-plus immigrants detained nationwide. Detainees were funneled from regional facilities into major deportation hubs, with many transferred hundreds of miles from where they were initially detained. gijn.org/stories/epst...

Given widespread misinformation, climate skepticism, and growing autocracy around the world, environmental journalists urge journalists to approach climate and environmental investigations by including likely impact or affected parties in their story choices. gijn.org/stories/tips...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the closely scrutinized 2019 trip he took to Samoa, which came before a devastating measles outbreak, had “nothing to do with vaccines.” Documents obtained by The Guardian and The Associated Press undermine that testimony. apnews.com/article/rfk-...

16-year-old Corey Stingley died from asphyxiation after being pinned down by customers in a convenience store. Under a special agreement, the family of the teen finally feels that “truth, understanding and a measure of healing” has taken place. www.propublica.org/article/core...

A resource for investigative journalists on how to include family perspectives in prison death coverage from @themarshallproject.org:

More than 7,800 research grants terminated or frozen. Some 25,000 scientists and personnel gone from agencies that oversee research. These are just a few of the ways in which Donald Trump has disrupted US science since returning to the White House last January. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Government estimates suggest as much as half of U.S. households have some level of PFAS in their water. While federal officials have put strict limits on water provided by utilities, those rules don’t apply to the people who rely on private drinking water wells. apnews.com/article/pfas...

Investigative journalism at work: Academic research shows that investigative reporting, NGO advocacy, and scholarly scrutiny pushed Chinese authorities from denial to dismantling parts of their mass detention system for Uyghurs. www.icij.org/investigatio...

Wolf's decision to retire coincided with an inquiry by another federal judge into potential misconduct. That inquiry found probable cause to believe an unnamed jurist had engaged in misconduct by creating a hostile workplace for court employees. www.npr.org/2026/02/04/n...

When journalists cannot cross borders or enter bombed neighborhoods, reporting does not stop, but shifts to methods that do not require physical access. Satellite imagery has become a routine tool for documenting civilian harm and investigating potential war crimes. gijn.org/stories/gijc...

Thousands of pages of those transcripts and court documents were recently released as a result of The AP's three-year fight for access after a 2022 AP report about the adoption raised alarms at the highest levels of government, from the Taliban to the White House. apnews.com/article/afgh...

Lawsuits in California federal and state court are unearthing documents embarrassing to tech companies — and may be a tipping point into federal regulation. themarkup.org/privacy/2026...

Colorado was one of the first states to ban intoxicating hemp products made by chemical processing. But despite the ban, the legislature and regulators failed to adopt many critical regulations that other states have employed to keep hemp products off the shelves. www.propublica.org/article/colo...

Nike claims they pay overseas suppliers' average factory worker about twice the local minimum wage. But when a reporter for The Oregonian visited the country and interviewed roughly 100 workers, none said they made anywhere near twice the minimum wage. www.oregonlive.com/business/202...

Investigative journalism at work: The chatbot was meant to provide business owners with an accessible way to check city rules and regulations. But the bot provided answers that, if followed, would lead to illegal behavior by businesses. themarkup.org/artificial-i...

When an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, it was not the first time that federal officers have killed civilians. Federal officers have fatally shot at least three other people in the last five months. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/07/i...

Investigative journalism at work: The senators presented a letter demanding DOJ official Todd Blanche clarify the legality of his actions, pointing to ProPublica reporting that found he owned at least $159,000 in related assets when he shut down investigations. www.propublica.org/article/todd...

Airwars has documented more than 15,000 individual incidents in Gaza where civilians were allegedly killed or injured … Its archive allows investigators to identify patterns that contradict official narratives. gijn.org/stories/gijc...

The first principle of navigating offshore structures is knowing which documents can offer clues and which cannot. gijn.org/stories/gijc...

A cottage industry of lawyers, lobbyists and consultants with close ties to Trump has sprung up to help people and companies seek leniency, often by arguing they had been victims of political persecution by the Biden administration. www.propublica.org/article/bitc...

An investigation by The Marshall Project found that understaffing and gang violence in Mississippi’s prisons led to dozens of incarcerated people being killed in the last 10 years. Their killers seldom face consequences. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/13/m...

A bill moving through the Wisconsin Legislature would offer low-interest loans to small dairy farmers to boost efficiency, but major farm and dairy industry representatives pushed for changes that would allow large industrial farms to access the loans. investigatemidwest.org/2026/01/21/a...

The Trump administration has terminated, redirected, or delayed more than $1 billion in federal grants related to gun violence, public safety, mental health, and other efforts to save lives, according to a Trace analysis of data. www.thetrace.org/2026/01/trum...

ProPublica found more than 40 cases over the past year of immigration agents using chokeholds and other moves that can restrict breathing or blood flow on immigrants, citizens and protesters. The agents are usually masked, their identities secret. www.propublica.org/article/vide...

For Steffens, metrics are no longer a bureaucratic afterthought but a central pillar of investigative sustainability. Steffens said journalists must understand how their work translates into demonstrable impact — especially when seeking funding. gijn.org/stories/gijc...

Artificial intelligence models can produce lifelike video footage with a simple text prompt. When CalMatters and The Markup asked dancers and choreographers about whether AI could disrupt their industry, most concluded that human dancers could not be replaced. themarkup.org/show-your-wo...

New Mexico’s lawsuit accuses three Texas oil executives of pocketing revenue from oil and gas wells and offloading cleanup costs to the public. An investigation in 2024 by ProPublica and Capital & Main uncovered some of these business dealings. www.propublica.org/article/new-...

The Midwest Newsroom is awarding a 12-month reporting fellowship to cover immigration policy and its impact on individuals and communities. The Fellow will have the opportunity to enhance skills in Data journalism, Public records and more. Apply by Feb. 16: idabwellssociety.org/job/the-midw...

Scores of communities nationwide have aging and decrepit wastewater systems that can put people and their homes at risk. Now, hundreds of millions in grants and loans promised by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to address racial/economic disparities have been canceled. apnews.com/article/trum...

A former principal in Modesto City Schools was promoted after he’d already been charged for sexual acts with an underage student in Merced County. The district where this happened wrote him a letter of recommendation, a Modesto Bee/Merced Sun-Star investigation found. buff.ly/1ukX7JF

A @ProPublica.org investigation found that Averhealth’s lab practices have not only been faulted by its own accreditor but also targeted in lawsuits, and prompted Michigan’s child welfare agency to order its employees not to use the tests as evidence in court. www.propublica.org/article/aver...

From a Manitowoc foundry to a south-central Wisconsin dairy, immigrant workers and their employers are grappling with visa changes, enforcement crackdowns and an increasingly fragile labor pipeline. wisconsinwatch.org/2026/01/skil...

For decades, corn has reigned over American agriculture. But a growing body of research reveals that America’s obsession with corn has a steep price: The fertilizer used to grow it is warming the planet and contaminating water. floodlightnews.org/corn-ethanol...

The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism obtained and analyzed the off-duty employment policies of more than 100 police agencies across the country. The team of journalists analyzed each policy in comparison to best practices identified by policing experts. www.cbsnews.com/projects/202...

ProPublica reporting has found that abortion bans generally don’t include exceptions that cover health concerns pregnant women with chronic conditions can face — or if they do, doctors aren’t using them. www.propublica.org/article/high...

The FDA commissioner’s effort to drastically shorten the review of drugs favored by the Trump administration is causing alarm across the agency, stoking worries that the plan may run afoul of standards used to vet the safety and effectiveness of new medicines. apnews.com/article/fda-...

Averhealth’s lab practices have been faulted by its own accreditor, and the company has been targeted in lawsuits and dropped by two child welfare agencies, a ProPublica investigation found.

2026 has already delivered an extraordinary catalog of geopolitical upheaval, giving data newsrooms plenty to dig into. This edition of @gijn.org Top 10 in Data Journalism highlights a mapping project explaining how wildfires are now destroying twice as much forest. gijn.org/stories/ddj-...

A new lawsuit alleges that an insurer’s ghost network hindered New York City employees from accessing the mental health care they sought — and harmed the reputation of psychiatrists wrongly listed as being in-network. www.propublica.org/article/embl...

Take your journalism skills to the next level and deepen your understanding of environmental issues by applying for the Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism. Five journalists will audit courses and work on a significant project. Learn more: idabwellssociety.org/job/center-f...

An NPR investigation with The Marshall Project in 2021 exposed the issue of states taking survivor benefit checks from children in foster care. Since then, Democratic and Republican leaders in several states and cities have moved to end the practice. www.npr.org/2026/01/08/n...

New from 2025 Ida B. Wells [email protected] Intern Daranee Balachandar: In his first day in office, Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 people in the Jan. 6th Capitol riot. The country has moved on, but for some the day still looms large. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...