ProPublica

A deeply upsetting object lesson in how the arcane details of inheritance and property law are used to strip black Americans of their land.

In partnership with MLK50, ProPublica investigates a nonprofit hospital system’s aggressive debt collection practices with poor patients: “Its own employees are no exception. Since 2014, Methodist has sued dozens of its workers for unpaid medical bills, including a hospital housekeeper sued in 2017 for more than $23,000. That year, she told the court, she made $16,000. She’s in a court-ordered payment plan, but in the case of more than 70 other employees, Methodist has garnished the wages it pays them to recoup its medical charges.”

“In 2016, 10 sailors were captured by Iran. Trump is making it a political issue. Our investigation shows that it was a Navy failure, and the problems run deep.”

Stem cell purveyors suggest that they “ease” every aging-related malady from arthritis and erectile dysfunction to wrinkles and everything in between. What don’t these stem cell snake-oil salespeople have? Any science to prove these claims or any scruples about preying on the vulnerable at tens of thousands of dollars per injection.

In 2009 the IRS created a special team to investigate when and how the extremely wealthy were avoiding taxes. Reporters Jesse Eisenger and Paul Kiel illustrate how that team was stymied using the case of the heir to a German automative parts fortune.

In sharing the story of each of her tattoos and their meaning, journalist Adriana Gallardo — who was once an undocumented immigrant from Mexico — recounts her family’s hard won-luck at life in America, a luck they earned by back-breaking janitorial work and sheer determination.

“The men and women of the Navy deserve better.”

When a cargo ship plowed into the USS Fitzgerald, it tore a hole in the destroyer as big as a tractor trailer; seven sailors ultimately died. A cargo ship should be hard to miss, so how did it happen?

Tax evaders, rejoice: the Internal Revenue Service may not have enough resources to come after the vast majority of those offshore bank accounts. It also doesn’t have enough resources to investigate white collar crime, curb suspicious corporate activity, shore up the nation’s rising budget deficit, or answer tens of millions of law-abiding taxpayers’ questions. And now, just when morale is at its lowest, the IRS stands to lose a third of its most valuable and experienced workers next year as the organization’s most senior cohort becomes eligible for retirement.

Officer Stephen Mader chose not to shoot R.J. Williams, choosing instead to de-escalate. He was right — Williams’ gun wasn’t loaded, so he was never a real threat — but another office on the scene shot him anyway. And then Mader got fired.