Thread by @joey_cranney

U.S. local newspapers are dying at a rate of 2 per week. By 2025, a third of them will be gone. If you’re not convinced that’s a doomsday-level threat to democracy, read this state-by-state list of what local reporters uncovered in 2022. It’s a sample of what we stand to lose.

In Alabama, @JohnArchibald exposed a small town that transformed its one-man police department into a predatory force that ticketed motorists at astronomical rates. Last year, police made more misdemeanor arrests than the town has residents.
al.com/news/2022/04/i…

In Alaska, a special prosecutor charged the former acting attorney general with sexual abuse of a minor after @kylehopkinsAK first exposed the allegations. adn.com/alaska-news/cr…

In Arizona, @TucsonStar obtained emails revealing that a university official had asked for an order of protection against a former student a month before the student shot a professor. tucson.com/news/local/sub…

In Arkansas, @NoelEOman reported that a senior executive of the Little Rock airport said he was fired after a top official told him to hire a white person for a job even though a Black candidate scored better. arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jan/…

In California, @AleneTchek exposed a cover-up at the Los Angeles sheriff’s office over an incident in which a deputy knelt on the head of a handcuffed suspect for 3 minutes. The sheriff then targeted the reporter in a leak investigation. latimes.com/california/sto…

In Colorado, @ShellyBradbury pierced the veil of a cult that requires excessive corporal punishment, fails to protect children from sexual abuse, exploits members for labor and money and espouses racism, misogyny and homophobia. denverpost.com/2022/03/03/twe…

In Connecticut, lawmakers introduced legislation that would stop police departments from hiring officers who were fired for misconduct after @BillCummingsct uncovered cops accused of abuse who stayed in law enforcement. ctpost.com/news/article/C…

In Delaware, federal officials learned of the state’s non-compliance with a lead-testing program at schools after @mandy_fries began asking questions. Schools had to wait more than a year to receive testing results. delawareonline.com/story/news/loc…

In Florida, @NickNehamas exposed the death of an inmate who prison guards had tackled — paralyzing him — then left him to starve. miamiherald.com/article2668963…

In Georgia, @wmariano & @JohnEdwardsAJC reviewed thousands of code enforcement complaints and uncovered a system of lax oversight at rental properties that allows out-of-state landlords to put profits over the safety of their tenants. ajc.com/news/investiga…

In Hawaii, lawmakers proposed $600 million to fix a housing program for Native Hawaiians after @StarAdvertiser teamed with @propublica and revealed it was underfunded and failing to meet its promises. staradvertiser.com/2022/01/21/haw…

In Idaho, @kfixler reported that corrections officials were shielding public records around acquiring drugs for planned executions, including the cost and who provided them. idahostatesman.com/news/local/cri…

In Illinois, @jsmithrichards & @Jodiscohen showed how a school for children with disabilities called the police on its students once every other day on average, a higher rate than any other school in the nation. chicagotribune.com/investigations…

In Indiana, @Binghuihuang & @bykristinep revealed that worker safety officials ignored thousands of complaints during the pandemic, conducted fewer inspections than other states and bungled the few investigations it did carry out. indystar.com/in-depth/news/…

In Iowa, @lathropd obtained statements from a former manager of a theme park where a boy was killed on a ride, who described a litany of safety hazards, including rides held together by duct tape. desmoinesregister.com/story/news/202…

In Kansas, @byChanceSwaim & @Matt_Kelly22222 uncovered an officer’s fatal decision that diverted a teenager — who was having a mental health crisis — from a hospital to a juvenile lockup, where he died in custody. kansas.com/news/local/art…

In Kentucky, @courierjournal examined more than 140,000 cases to show how law enforcement used the state’s persistent-felony offender law mostly to punish people accused of the lowest-level felonies. Black people were 3½ times more likely to face charges.
courier-journal.com/in-depth/news/…

In Louisiana, @NOLAnews, @WWLTV & @propublica analyzed more than 90,000 grants revealing the state’s program to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina shortchanged the city’s poorest, mostly Black residents, while offering more to the wealthy.
nola.com/news/katrina/h…

In Maine, @joelawlorph cracked the lid on the state’s bloated healthcare system, where patients’ bills are stuffed with arbitrary and hidden costs, while insurance companies deny claims without explanation. pressherald.com/2022/08/21/hid…

In Maryland, @lillyptweets reported on a police department that allowed a captain to retire with a pension amid an internal investigation that found he had a romantic interaction on duty with an 18-year-old employee and sexually harassed a subordinate.
capitalgazette.com/news/ac-cn-ann…

In Massachusetts, @willsennott investigated companies linked to private equity firms that have forced out local anglers by taking advantage of lax antitrust laws to dominate the market and shifting costs onto crew-level employees.
newbedfordlight.org/investigation-…

In Michigan, jail officials emptied a juvenile facility of about 120 residents after @cmacfreep & @ReporterGina obtained complaints of teens being deprived of basic care, including daily showers, recreation time and medication. freep.com/story/news/inv…

In Minnesota, the legislature voted to spend $30 million to improve care for those with mental health needs in the criminal justice system after @kare11 exposed that people were going without treatment. kare11.com/mobile/article…

In Mississippi, @ayewolfe uncovered and has led the coverage of the Brett Favre welfare scandal. She obtained texts proving that — despite denials — the governor aided Favre’s proposal to spend $8 million in welfare funds on a volleyball stadium.
mississippitoday.org/2022/09/13/phi…

In Missouri, after a deadly high-speed collision, @KCStar analyzed state records and found at least 12 people recently died in crashes at railroad crossings that had been scheduled for repairs but were never completed. kansascity.com/news/state/mis…

In Montana, at least 4 patients died at a state hospital because of the facility’s noncompliance with federal rules, including an elderly woman who fell 13 times in less than 2 months before a final one killed her, @SeabornLarson reported.
helenair.com/news/state-and…

In Nebraska, @yanqixu_revealed that state parole board members were skipping more than half of their hearings, blocking inmates’ chances of gaining early release. flatwaterfreepress.org/the-full-nebra…

In Nevada, authorities say reporter Jeff German was murdered by the government official he was investigating. His colleague @ByBrianaE continued his work, uncovering the official’s decade of allegations of harassment and other toxic behavior. reviewjournal.com/investigations…

In New Hampshire, @teddyrosenbluth examined a decade of police shootings and found more than 60% of those killed had a mental illness. concordmonitor.com/Special-Report…

In New Jersey, @kaylacanne dug into one city’s mismanagement of a $2 million low-income home renovation program, which allowed landlords to hike rent on the city’s poorest residents after using tax dollars to improve properties. app.com/story/news/inv…

In New Mexico, @edwreports revealed that foster kids with serious mental health issues are regularly shuttled to ill-prepared crisis centers instead of getting psychiatric services the state promised to provide. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-fos…

In New York, @Charlie_Reports built a database of more than 1,300 once-secret records and found more than 200 police officers and jail guards were suspended, fired or resigned while under investigation for misconduct in the last 5 years. buffalonews.com/news/local/mor…

In North Carolina, @KaraFohner reported on more than 30 lawsuits in a single county alleging that Boy Scout leaders or volunteers, over a period of decades, sexually abused boys in their care. gastongazette.com/story/news/202…

In North Dakota, @aprilbaumsaway analyzed data showing the Fargo police department lagging far behind the national average in clearance rates for rape cases. inforum.com/news/fargo/far…

In Ohio, @bethany_bruner uncovered the case of a 10-year-old girl who was raped and forced to cross state lines for an abortion, despite national doubt that the incident existed. dispatch.com/story/news/cri…

In Oklahoma, women are increasingly being charged for drug use during pregnancy, @KassieMcClung reported, highlighting the case of a woman who had a miscarriage and was convicted of manslaughter even though there wasn’t evidence her drug use was the cause. readfrontier.org/stories/she-wa…

In Oregon, @Nicole_A_Hayden surveyed 300 people and found 9 in 10 unsheltered people in Portland said their encampments were removed by city officials. Almost all said the city seized their tents without offering temporary housing or other services.
oregonlive.com/politics/2022/…

In Pennsylvania, Philadelphia officials said they were short-staffed on police officers because many are on disability, but @PhillyInquirer debunked many of those claims. The ranks who claimed injury later dropped 31%. inquirer.com/news/a/philade…

In Rhode Island, @wpri12 reported on a lawmaker who racked up tens of thousands in personal debt, which he repeatedly hid from ethics officials. He was removed from the legislature’s most powerful committee hours after the story was published.
wpri.com/target-12/inve…

In South Carolina, @AveryGWilks exposed an elected clerk in an impoverished county who siphoned funds from a federal account to balloon her salary to more than $92,000, almost three times as much as the area’s median income. postandcourier.com/uncovered/sout…

In South Dakota, @argusleader teamed with @propublica to successfully sue for the release of warrants detailing child pornography charges against a prominent philanthropist and banker. argusleader.com/story/news/202…

In Tennessee, @friedmanadam5 investigated payday loan companies that spent millions lobbying lawmakers, who have unique control over interest rates. The lenders target low-income, minority communities, charging interest up to 100x more than banks. tennessean.com/in-depth/news/…

In Texas, a man died in jail shortly after he was aggressively pepper sprayed and said he couldn’t breathe, but officials blamed his death on a disease he almost certainly didn’t have, @NicholeManna found after enlisting medical experts to review the case. star-telegram.com/news/local/for…

In Utah, more than 174,000 people weren’t told their COVID-19 test results might have been wrong, @Beckerreports found after obtaining documents showing officials knew of issues for months and allowed the lab to keep operating.
sltrib.com/news/2022/01/3…

In Vermont, @paulheintz untangled a disgraced cryptocurrency mogul’s ties to a U.S. Congresswoman, identifying more than $26,000 in contributions to her successful political campaign. vtdigger.org/2022/12/19/sam…

In Virginia, @DanielBerti12 revealed that Norfolk officials bought an unbuildable property from a prominent local rapper who is rumored to be the mayor’s son, bailing him out of a soured development deal.
pilotonline.com/government/loc…

In Washington, @mreicher & @luluramadan showed how the state spent millions of tax dollars a year offloading children with disabilities to a network of private schools despite allegations of abuse and complaints about poor academics. projects.seattletimes.com/2022/local/was…

In West Virginia, @DouglasSoule reported that lawmakers rushed through a series of incentives and tax cuts for a new steel plant, but they relied on a report that included errors and other questionable assumptions about the project’s economic benefits. mountainstatespotlight.org/2022/01/20/wvu…

In Wisconsin, @cspivak & @MSpicuzzaMJS investigated signs of fraud in the prenatal care industry, despite the state’s abysmal Black infant mortality rates. Owners are getting rich, giving cash to political clients and charging suspiciously high rates. jsonline.com/in-depth/news/…

In Wyoming, @CSTribune dug into a community’s persistent issues with crosswalk safety after a 13-year-old was struck by a vehicle and killed on his way to school. wyomingnews.com/news/local_new…

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