Over the past year, ProPublica has published hundreds of investigations.
In January, Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News examined why a sexual assault case took seven years to go to trial in Alaska. In March, our video journalists told the stories of three mothers fighting to address America’s stillbirth crisis. In August, a team across the newsroom calculated how deeply President Donald Trump’s administration cut federal health agencies. And in December, Megan Rose and Debbie Cenziper reported how the Food and Drug Administration’s lax generic drug rules put a lung transplant patient’s life at risk.
Here are 25 long-reads to add to your end-of-year reading list. You can also explore our most-read stories of the year.
1. Anchorage Police Say They Witnessed a Sexual Assault in Public. It Took Seven Years for the Case to Go to Trial.
By Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News. Co-published with Anchorage Daily News.
Published Jan. 7.
In Alaska, where the time to resolve most serious felony cases has nearly tripled over the past decade, one case was delayed so long that both victims died. A former prosecutor called it “a travesty of justice.”
2. Dozens of People Died in Arizona Sober Living Homes as State Officials Fumbled Medicaid Fraud Response
By Mary Hudetz, ProPublica, and Hannah Bassett, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. Co-published with Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
Published Jan. 27.
Arizona officials acknowledged that a fraud scheme targeting Indigenous people with addictions cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. But they haven’t accounted publicly for the number of deaths tied to the scheme.
3. What a $2 Million Per Dose Gene Therapy Reveals About Drug Pricing
By Robin Fields
Published Feb. 12.
Video by Jose Sepulveda/ProPublica
Taxpayers and charities helped develop Zolgensma. Then it debuted at a record price, ushering in a new class of wildly expensive drugs. Its story upends the widely held conception that high prices reflect huge industry investments in innovation.
4. How a Global Online Network of White Supremacists Groomed a Teen to Kill
By A.C. Thompson and James Bandler, ProPublica, and Lukáš Diko, Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak. Co-published with FRONTLINE.
Published March 8.
The murders of two people outside an LGBTQ+ bar at first looked like the act of a lone shooter. A ProPublica and FRONTLINE investigation shows they were, in fact, the culmination of a coordinated, international recruiting effort by online extremists.
5. Before a Breath: America’s Stillbirth Crisis
By Nadia Sussman, Liz Moughon, Margaret Cheatham Williams and Lisa Riordan Seville
Published March 20.
Video by ProPublica
More than 20,000 stillbirths occur in the U.S. each year, but 1 in 4 may be preventable. “Before a Breath” sheds light on three mothers fighting to change those statistics.
6. “A Wholly Inaccurate Picture”: Reality Cop Show “The First 48” and the Wrongly Convicted Man
by Jessica Lussenhop, photography by Sarahbeth Maney
Published March 29.
Video by Jose Sepulveda/ProPublica
Edgar Barrientos-Quintana spent 16 years behind bars wrongly convicted for a shooting featured on “The First 48.” The Minnesota attorney general’s office effectively alleged that the show shaped the case instead of the case shaping the show.
7. An Algorithm Deemed This Nearly Blind 70-Year-Old Prisoner a “Moderate Risk.” Now He’s No Longer Eligible for Parole.
By Richard A. Webster, Verite News. Co-published with Verite News.
Published April 10.
A Louisiana law cedes much of the power of the parole board to an algorithm that bars thousands of prisoners from a shot at early release. Civil rights attorneys say it could disproportionately harm Black people — and may even be unconstitutional.
8. How a Chinese Prison Helped Fuel a Deadly Drug Crisis in the United States
By Sebastian Rotella
Published April 23.
While China enforces strict laws against domestic drug trafficking, state-supported companies have openly shipped fentanyl to the U.S., investigators say. One prison-owned chemical company boasted online: “100% of our shipments will clear customs.”
9. Nike Says Its Factory Workers Earn Nearly Double the Minimum Wage. At This Cambodian Factory, 1% Made That Much.
By Rob Davis, photography by Sarahbeth Maney. Co-published with The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Published April 25.
Nike has made an expansive effort to convince consumers, investors and others that it is improving the lives of factory workers who make its products, not exploiting them. A rare view of wages at one Cambodian factory tests this claim.
10. Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA’s Gamble on America’s Drugs
By Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose, Brandon Roberts and Irena Hwang
Published June 17.
A ProPublica investigation found that for more than a decade, the FDA gave substandard factories banned from the United States a special pass to keep sending drugs to an unsuspecting public.
11. He Was Accused of Killing His Wife. Idaho’s Coroner System Let Clues Vanish After a Previous Wife’s Death.
By Audrey Dutton
Published July 16.
Video by Jose Sepulveda/ProPublica
Clayton Strong had a history of domestic unrest in two marriages. The women’s families say a more thorough investigation of Betty Strong’s death in Idaho might have saved the life of his next wife, Shirley Weatherley, in Texas.
12. He Came to the U.S. to Support His Sick Child. He Was Detained. Then He Disappeared.
By Melissa Sanchez, ProPublica; Perla Trevizo, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune; Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Ernsthausen, ProPublica; Ronna Rísquez, Alianza Rebelde Investiga; and Adrián González, Cazadores de Fake News. Co-published with Alianza Rebelde Investiga, Cazadores de Fake News and The Texas Tribune.
Published July 18.
Like most of the more than 230 Venezuelan men deported to a Salvadoran prison, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas had followed U.S. immigration rules. Then Trump rewrote them.
13. The Drying Planet
By Abrahm Lustgarten, graphics by Lucas Waldron, illustrations by Olivier Kugler for ProPublica
Published July 25.
A new study finds that freshwater resources are rapidly disappearing, creating arid “mega” regions and causing sea levels to rise.
14. Middle School Cheerleaders Made a TikTok Video Portraying a School Shooting. They Were Charged With a Crime.
By Aliyya Swaby. Co-published with WPLN.
Published July 28.
Social videos, memes and retweets are becoming fodder for criminal charges in an era of heightened responses to student threats. Authorities say harsh punishment is necessary, but experts say the crackdown has unintended consequences.
15. “We’ll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out”
By Nicole Foy and McKenzie Funk
Published July 31.
We’ve documented nearly 50 incidents of immigration officers shattering car windows to make arrests — a tactic experts say was rarely used before Trump took office. ICE claims its officers use a “minimum amount of force.” You can judge for yourself.
16. Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies
By Brandon Roberts, Annie Waldman and Pratheek Rebala, illustrations by Sam Green for ProPublica
Published Aug. 21.
More than 20,500 workers have left or been pushed out of federal health agencies, a ProPublica analysis found. Staffers say the cuts will leave their agencies less equipped to conduct studies, perform inspections and combat deadly outbreaks.
17. “Material Support” and an Ohio Chaplain: How 9/11-Era Terror Rules Could Empower Trump’s Immigration Crackdown
By Hannah Allam
Published Sept. 9.
The U.S. government was trying to deport Ohio children’s hospital chaplain Ayman Soliman, alleging tenuous connections to terrorism. If DHS had succeeded, experts say it could have handed the Trump administration a “sledgehammer” to use on mass deportations. A few weeks after this investigation was published, Soliman was freed.
18. “Just Let Me Die”
By Duaa Eldeib, photography by Sarah Blesener for ProPublica
Published Sept. 10.
After insurance repeatedly denied a couple’s claims, one psychiatrist was their last hope.
19. These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.
By Megan O’Matz and Jennifer Smith Richards
Published Oct. 8.
Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of public schools as we know them.
20. How Paul Newby Made North Carolina a Blueprint for Conservative Courts
By Doug Bock Clark
Published Oct. 30.
Paul Newby, a born-again Christian, has turned his perch atop North Carolina’s Supreme Court into an instrument of political power. Over two decades, he’s driven changes that have reverberated well beyond the borders of his state.
21. She Begged for Help. This State’s Probation Gap May Have Put Her in Danger.
By Paige Pfleger, WPLN, and Mariam Elba, ProPublica. Co-published with MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, Tennessee Lookout and WPLN.
Published Nov. 11.
Tennessee probation officers pause in-person visits and home searches for offenders facing an arrest warrant. That reduced supervision can last for months. Temptress Peebles was one of six mothers who died during this gap.
22. What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic
By Nat Lash, graphics by Chris Alcantara
Published Nov. 18.
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vaccines could help, but the USDA hasn’t approved them.
23. Under Trump, More Than 1,000 Nonprofits Strip DEI Language From Tax Forms
By Ellis Simani, design by Zisiga Mukulu
Published Dec. 17.
As the Trump administration ordered agencies to eradicate “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, we identified more than 1,000 nonprofits that removed such language from the mission statements in their tax filings.
24. Inside the Trump Administration’s Man-Made Hunger Crisis
By Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester, photography by Brian Otieno for ProPublica
Published Dec. 17.
“Brutal and traumatizing”: Interviews and a trove of internal documents show government officials and aid workers desperately tried to warn Trump advisers about impending disaster and death.
25. Fighting for Breath
By Megan Rose and Debbie Cenziper, photography by Hannah Yoon for ProPublica
Published Dec. 19.
Lung transplant patient Hannah Goetz’s life depended on the generic version of a critical drug. It was supposed to be equivalent to the brand-name medication — but the FDA doesn’t always ensure that’s the case.
