Over the past year, ProPublica has published hundreds of investigations.
In January, Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News examined why it took seven years for a sexual assault case to go to trial in Alaska. In March, a video journalist told the story of three mothers struggling to cope with America’s stillbirth crisis. In August, a newsroom team calculated how drastically President Donald Trump’s administration had cut federal health agencies. And in December, Megan Rose and Debbie Senziper reported on how the Food and Drug Administration’s lax generic drug rules are putting the lives of lung transplant patients at risk.
Here are 25 long-form books to add to your year-end reading list. You can also find out the most read articles of the year.
1. Anchorage Police say they witnessed a sexual assault in a public place. It took seven years for the case to go to trial.
By Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News. Co-published with the Anchorage Daily News.
Published on January 7th.
In Alaska, the time it takes to solve the most serious felony cases has nearly tripled over the past decade, with one case delayed so long that two victims died. A former prosecutor called it a “travesty of justice.”
2. Dozens die at Arizona sober living home as state officials fumble in response to Medicaid fraud
By Mary Hudetz of ProPublica and Hannah Bassett of the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. Co-published with Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
Published on January 27th.
Arizona officials have admitted a fraud scheme targeting addicted Native Americans cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. However, they have not officially accounted for the number of deaths associated with this plan.
3. What $2 million per dose gene therapy reveals about drug pricing
Written by Robin Fields
Published on February 12th.
Video by Jose Sepulveda/ProPublica
Taxpayers and philanthropic organizations helped develop Zolgensma. It then debuted at a record price, ushering in a new class of very expensive drugs. This story challenges the widely held notion that high prices reflect the industry’s heavy investment in innovation.
4. How a global online network of white supremacists led to the murder of a teenager
By AC Thompson and James Bandler, ProPublica, and Lukáš Diko of the Jan Kuciak Investigative Center. Co-authored with Frontline.
Published March 8th.
The murders of two people outside an LGBTQ+ bar initially appeared to be the work of a lone gunman. According to an investigation by ProPublica and Frontline, these were in fact the culmination of a coordinated international recruitment effort by online extremists.
5. Before you take a breath: America’s stillbirth crisis
Written by Nadia Sussman, Liz Mofon, Margaret Cheatham Williams, Lisa Riordan Seville
Published March 20th.
Video by ProPublica
More than 20,000 stillbirths occur in the United States each year, and one in four can be prevented. “Before a Breath” shines a light on three mothers fighting to change these statistics.
6. ‘Totally inaccurate footage’: The reality police show ‘The First 48’ and the man convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.
Written by Jessica Lussenhop, Photography by Sarabeth Money
Published March 29th.
Video by Jose Sepulveda/ProPublica
Edgar Barrientos-Quintana was wrongly convicted and spent 16 years in prison for the shooting that was featured on “The First 48.” The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office effectively argued that the show shaped the case, rather than the case shaping the show.
7. The algorithm deemed this nearly blind 70-year-old prisoner a “moderate risk.” He is currently not eligible for parole.
Written by Richard A. Webster, Verite News. Co-published with Verite News.
Published April 10th.
Louisiana law hands much of the parole board’s powers to algorithms and prohibits the shooting of thousands of prisoners upon early release. Civil rights lawyers argue this could disproportionately harm Black people and could even be unconstitutional.
8. How Chinese prisons helped fuel a deadly drug crisis in the US
Written by Sebastian Rotella
Published on April 23rd.
China has strict laws against domestic drug trafficking, but state-backed companies are openly shipping fentanyl to the United States, investigators say. One prison-run chemical company boasted online that “100% of our shipments pass through customs.”
9. Nike announced that factory workers’ wages are nearly twice the minimum wage. This Cambodian factory produced that much for 1%.
Written by Rob Davis, Photography by Sarabeth Manny. Co-published with The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Published on April 25th.
Nike has made extensive efforts to convince consumers, investors and others that it is improving the lives of the factory workers who produce its products, not exploiting them. A rare glimpse into wages at a factory in Cambodia validates this claim.
10. Threats on the medicine shelf: FDA’s bet on America’s medicines
Written by Debbie Senziper, Megan Rose, Brandon Roberts, Irina Huang
Published June 17th.
A ProPublica investigation found that for more than a decade, the FDA granted special permission to substandard factories banned from the United States to continue shipping medicines to the unsuspecting public.
11. He was accused of murdering his wife. In Idaho’s coroner’s system, clues disappear after his ex-wife’s death.
Audrey Dutton
Published on July 16th.
Video by Jose Sepulveda/ProPublica
Clayton Strong had a history of family turmoil during his two marriages. The woman’s family says a more thorough investigation into Betty Strong’s death in Idaho could have saved the life of her second wife, Shirley Weatherly, in Texas.
12. He came to the United States to support sick children. he was taken into custody. Then he disappeared.
By Melissa Sanchez, ProPublica. Perla Treviso, ProPublica, Texas Tribune. Micah Rosenberg and Jeff Ernsthausen, ProPublica. Rona Riskus, Alianza Rebelde Investiga. and Adrian González, Cazadores de Fake News. Co-published with Alianza Rebelde Investiga, Cazadores de Fake News, and Texas Tribune.
Published on July 18th.
Like most of the more than 230 Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador’s prisons, Jose Manuel Ramos Bastidas was subject to U.S. immigration rules. Trump then rewrote them.
13. Drying planet
Written by Abraham Lustgarten, Graphics: Lucas Waldron, Illustrations: Olivier Kugler (ProPublica)
Published on July 25th.
New research has found that freshwater resources are rapidly disappearing, creating dry “giant” areas and causing sea levels to rise.
14. A middle school cheerleader created a TikTok video depicting a school shooting. they were charged with a crime.
Written by Aliya Swaby. Co-published with WPLN.
Published on July 28th.
In an era of heightened responses to student intimidation, social videos, memes and retweets have become fodder for criminal charges. While authorities say tough penalties are needed, experts say the crackdown is having unintended consequences.
15. “I’m going to break the fucking window and drag him out.”
Written by Nicole Foy and Mackenzie Funk
Published on July 31st.
Nearly 50 incidents have been recorded in which immigration agents broke car windows to make arrests, a tactic experts say was rarely used before Trump took office. ICE claims its officers used “minimal use of force.” You can judge for yourself.
16. Heartbreaking: How deeply President Trump cut federal health agencies
Written by Brandon Roberts, Annie Waldman, and Prashik Lebara, illustrated by Sam Green for ProPublica
Published on August 21st.
A ProPublica analysis found that more than 20,500 workers have retired or been expelled from federal health agencies. Officials say the cuts will reduce the agency’s ability to conduct research, test and fight outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases.
17. “Material Assistance” and an Ohio Pastor: How 9/11-era terrorism rules could power President Trump’s immigration crackdown
Written by Hannah Arum
Published on September 9th.
The U.S. government was trying to deport Ayman Soliman, a chaplain at a children’s hospital in Ohio, because of his ties to terrorism. If DHS had been successful, experts say it could have given the Trump administration a “sledgehammer” for mass deportations. A few weeks after the investigation was made public, Soliman was released.
18. “Just Let Me Die”
Written by Duaa Eldeib, Photography by Sarah Blesener for ProPublica
Published on September 10th.
A psychiatrist became the couple’s last hope after their insurance company repeatedly denied their claims.
19. These activists want to dismantle public schools. Currently, they run the education sector.
Written by Megan O’Matt and Jennifer Smith Richards
Published October 8th.
Under the Trump administration, the Department of Education has introduced hostile activists into public schools. That could mean a new era of tax-backed private and religious schools, and the end of public schools as we know them.
20. How Paul Newby turned North Carolina into a blueprint for conservative courts
Written by Doug Bock Clark
Published October 30th.
Paul Newby, a born-again Christian, turned his position at the top of the North Carolina Supreme Court into an instrument of political power. For more than 20 years, he has been driving change that impacts far beyond state lines.
21. She asked for help. This gap in the state’s probation terms could put her at risk.
By WPLN’s Paige Pfleger and ProPublica’s Mariam Elba. MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, co-published with Tennessee Lookout and WPLN.
Published on November 11th.
Probation officers in Tennessee have suspended in-person visits and home searches for offenders with outstanding arrest warrants. This decline in oversight can last for months. Tempstress Peebles was one of six mothers who died during this gap.
22. The U.S. government denies that bird flu can cause a pandemic.
Written by Nat Rush, graphics by Chris Alcantara
Published on November 18th.
Egg producers suspect that avian influenza is airborne. After a devastating outbreak in the Midwest earlier this year, we put the theory to the test and found that when the wind blows, the virus follows. Vaccines may help, but the USDA has not approved them.
23. More than 1,000 nonprofits stripped DEI language from tax forms under Trump administration
Written by Ellis Simani, designed by Zisiga Mukulu
Published on December 17th.
As the Trump administration ordered government agencies to eliminate “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, we identified more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations that removed such language from their mission statements on their tax returns.
24. Inside the Trump Administration’s Man-Made Hunger Crisis
Written by Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry Jester, Photography by Brian Otieno for ProPublica
Published on December 17th.
‘Brutal and traumatic’: Interviews and voluminous internal documents show government officials and aid workers desperately tried to warn Trump advisers of impending disaster and death.
25. Fight for Breath
Written by Megan Rose and Debbie Senziper, Photography by Hannah Yoon for ProPublica
Published on December 19th.
Lung transplant patient Hannah Goetz’s life depended on a generic version of a critical drug. It was thought to be equivalent to branded drugs, but the FDA does not always guarantee that is the case.
