The Connecticut Mirror, a ProPublica and Local Reporting Network partner, won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for what the judges called “an impressive series that reveals how the state’s own towing laws favor unscrupulous companies that overcharge residents and push for swift and meaningful consumer protections.” This is ProPublica’s ninth Pulitzer.
A series about how the Food and Drug Administration has allowed dangerous drugs to enter the United States for years was a finalist in the Investigative Reporting category, and a series about the fallout from the destruction of the U.S. Agency for International Development was a finalist in the Explanatory Reporting category. They are the 13th and 14th Pulitzer Prize finalists in 18 years.
In “On the Hook,” CT Mirror reporters Dave Altimari and Ginny Monk exposed widespread abuses committed by the state’s towing companies, due in part to a lack of oversight by the Department of Transportation, and how Connecticut’s laws were designed to favor the companies at the expense of low-income residents. If the towing company determines that the car is worth less than $1,500, it may begin the sale process within 15 days. CT Mirror and ProPublica found the window was one of the shortest in the country, resulting in frequent vehicle losses for many people who couldn’t afford to pay for towing right away.
Through a lengthy public records battle, complex data analysis by Sophie Chow and Hal Colleen, and an innovative engagement report, reporters discovered that towing companies significantly undervalued cars compared to book value, allowing them to sell them faster. They revealed that towing companies often keep people’s belongings, including work equipment and memorabilia with sentimental value, as leverage to force them to pay exorbitant fees. The companies also failed to comply with laws that require them to retain profits from the cars they sell and turn over their money to the state so owners can claim their money. That’s because the DMV had no system in place to collect it.
Within 24 hours of the initial report, Connecticut DMV leadership announced a review of towing practices, and lawmakers quickly proposed legislation to overhaul the state’s 100-year-old towing ordinance. Almost all of the issues Altimari and Monk wrote about were included in the bill, which was passed with near-unanimous bipartisan support in May 2025. Towing companies are now required to warn people before removing vehicles from apartment parking lots, accept credit cards for fees, allow people to pick up their belongings, and wait at least 30 days before selling cars unless there is a safety issue. The DMV Task Force, created by Congress to study how tow companies handle profits, has expanded its reach to other parts of the law, and just last week, the state Senate passed a bill that would create an online portal for Connecticut drivers to track their tow trucks and require tow companies to consider the age of their tow vehicles before selling them.
“Our investigation into Connecticut’s towing companies is exactly what we envisioned when we created the Local Reporting Network,” said Charles Ornstein, ProPublica’s local editor in chief. “Start with the best local journalists with great ideas, give them the time and resources to pursue their full potential, add ProPublica’s top-notch editorial and professional teams, and watch what happens.” Since launching the Local Reporting Network in 2018, ProPublica has partnered with nearly 100 newsrooms to support in-depth reporting in communities across America.
In “Rx Roulette,” reporters Debbie Senziper, Megan Rose, and Brandon Roberts reveal how a secret group within the FDA tacitly allowed dangerous drug companies to continue selling generic drugs from known substandard overseas factories that were banned from the U.S. market. The agency did not warn doctors and patients about exempted medicines and did not regularly test these medicines for safety or quality, putting the public at risk.
The series also found that although generic drugs account for approximately 90% of U.S. prescriptions, basic information about where generic drugs are manufactured is fragmented, unclear, and virtually inaccessible to consumers, making it impossible for consumers to confirm whether their drug is being manufactured in a troubled factory. The team, made up of members of ProPublica’s Data and News Apps team and more than a dozen students from Northwestern University’s Medill Research Lab, interviewed more than 300 people, filed about 40 Freedom of Information Act requests, sued the FDA for records, and ultimately built a public database of 40,000 generic drugs and their factory testing histories. This is the first comprehensive list of drugs shipped from banned factories.
Citing a ProPublica investigation, the Senate Select Committee on Aging called on the FDA to step up drug testing and alert hospitals and other purchasers when exemptions from the import ban are granted to manufacturers with safety deficiencies. The senators also want immediate clarification on the amount of the exemption. In February, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would require drug labels to identify where the drug was manufactured, increasing transparency and accountability in the generic drug industry.
As the Trump administration dismantles the long-standing foreign aid program USAID, ProPublica reporters Anna Maria Barry Jester and Brett Murphy document the deadly global effects and identify the Trump officials directly responsible for the “death of aid.” They linked the resulting harm, including the deaths of those dependent on aid, to the U.S. policymakers and political appointees responsible for the cuts. Reporters then traveled to war-torn South Sudan to document a resurgence of cholera after essential services were shut down, and to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where more than 300,000 people had their food rations cut after the US cut funding to the World Food Program.
The story sparked an immediate outcry. Experts, lawyers, nonprofit groups and lawmakers have called on the Trump administration to change course, and ProPublica’s reporting has been cited in legal filings and congressional investigations challenging the dismantling of USAID. Rep. Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent multiple letters to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing media reports and asking him to explain to Congress his assertion that no deaths were caused by the administration’s actions.
After Barry Jester and Murphy discovered that USAID employees were being instructed to shred and burn classified documents, legal experts filed a complaint with the National Archives, and Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group filed a motion for an emergency temporary restraining order to halt the destruction of federal records. And after ProPublica raised questions about the Agent Orange removal effort in Vietnam, where hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of poisoning due to USAID funding cuts, the project received some funding from the United States to continue operating.
“We’re proud of the work we do to bring accountability at the state, national and international levels,” said ProPublica Editor-in-Chief Steven Engelberg. “The two finalists and the winning piece from the Connecticut Mirror once again demonstrate the power of investigative journalism to expose injustice and inspire change in the lives of ordinary people.”
ProPublica won Pulitzer Prizes for public service in 2025, public service in 2024, national reporting in 2020, feature writing in 2019, public service in 2017, expository reporting in 2016, national reporting in 2011, and investigative reporting in 2010. Local Reporting Network partner Anchorage Daily News has won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Read about other projects here. Named as a finalist.
project credits
“On the Hook”: Shaharzad Lasek, Jose Luis Martinez, Asia Fields, Elizabeth Hamilton, Michael Gravel, Shoshana Gordon, Peter DiCampo, Rachel Molenda, Sarah Bluestein, Charles Ornstein, Ken B. Morales, Agnel Phillippe, Ryan Little, Hannah Fresque, Alysandra Calderon, O. Livia Walton, Ariana Tobin, Steven Busemeyer, Andrew Brown, Anuj Shrestha, Julia Rothman, Grace Palmieri, Kristin Malikse, Gabby DeBenedictis, Diego Sorbara, Emily Goldstein, Colleen Barry, Jack Putterman, Roman Broszkowski, and Ryan Mena contributed to the series.
“Rx Roulette’: Kevin Armacher, Ruth Talbot, Alison Kojak, Nick Bircherver, Alexandra Zayas, Tracy Weber, Kaitlyn Kelly, Ken Schwenke, Lucas Waldron, Ashley Clark, Nick McMillan, Carissa Quiambao, Hayley Clark, Joanna Shan, Diego Sorbara, Colleen Barry, Emily Goldstein, Lisa Larson Walker, Anna Donlan, Grace Palmieri, Kathy Navarro, Sam Cooney, Chris Moran, Isabel Yang, Jeff Frankl, Prashik Lebara, Andrea Suozo, Al Shaw, Alec Glassford, Irina Huang, Nat Rush, Aaron Brezel, Melody Kramer, Alice Crites, Vidya Krishnan, and Andrea Wise contributed to the series.
Students from the Medill Investigative Lab in Washington, DC, also participated: Haajrah Gilani, Emma McNamee, Julian Andreone, Isabela Lisco, Aidan Johnstone, Megija Medne, Yiqing Wang, Phillip Powell, Gideon Pardo, Casey He, Lindsey Byman, Josh Sukoff, Kunjal Bastola, Shae Lake, Alyce Brown, and Katherine. Daily, Anavi Prakash, Jesse Nguyen, Xin-Yi Au, Zhiyu Solstice Luo, Kate McCurry, Sadie Leight, Victoria Maris, Tian-Yi Wang, Gabby Shell, Zara Norman, Nisha Roy.
“The End of Aid”: Sarah Childress, Jesse Eisinger, Tracy Weber, Steven Engelberg, Lisa Larson-Walker, Boisel Horsey, Alex Bandoni, Peter DiCampo, Lena Gruger, Chris Alcantara, Chris Moran, Alexis Stevens, Alex Miajewski, Molly Redden, Mariam Jameel, Ashley Clark, Prasik Lebara, Emily Goldstein, Olivia Walton, Diego Sorbara, Colleen Barry, Brian Otieno, Phoebe Ouma, Le Van, Yel Awat, and Ngoc Nguyen contributed to the series. ProPublica’s tip track was a key component to generating sources.
