archive
Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities
Baton Rouge's Corroded, Overpolluting Neighbor: Exxon Mobil
May 30, 2013 The Standard Heights neighborhood sits next to the nation's second-largest gasoline refinery. Recently, residents learned a new truth about the plumes of exhaust they see every day: Exxon Mobil's aging refinery and petrochemical facilities — like many others — are pumping out far more pollution than the law allows.
Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities
Breathing Easier: How Houston Is Working To Clean Up Its Air
May 30, 2013 Intensely smoggy days are striking less often thanks to better technology that pinpoints problems, and laws that have prompted fixes. Still, scientists say they haven't yet tracked down all the sources of the pollution fouling the region's air.
Law
Turning Up The Heat On Civil Rights-Era Cold Cases
May 18, 2013 With the death of a possible suspect in one notorious case, activists are weighing the FBI's efforts to tackle cases from the 1950s and '60s. Some are calling for a congressional hearing to see whether the FBI has done enough investigating.
Justice In The Segregated South: A New Look At An Old Killing
May 3, 2013 A white off-duty constable shot and killed a paraplegic black man in Fayette, Miss., in 1965. Despite new witnesses who have memories of what happened that day, there's still not enough evidence to say whether Jasper Burchfield's claim of self-defense is true.
Civil Rights Era Books Focus On Local Citizens
May 3, 2013 The conventional way of looking at American civil rights history teaches about the important and famous civil rights movement heroes. But little is taught about the ordinary people who took risky and courageous stands for their newly protected civil rights.
Old Newspaper Clipping Spurs Cold Case Investigation
May 3, 2013 It was a saved newspaper article that led to the FBI investigation into John Queen's death four decades later.
Was John Queen A Real Life Jim Crow?
May 3, 2013 In some ways, John Queen may resemble the minstrel figure that segregation laws were named for.
Buried In Grain
Fines Slashed In Grain Bin Entrapment Deaths
March 26, 2013 The persistence of grain bin entrapments and a horrific 2010 incident expose weaknesses in worker safety laws and enforcement. An NPR and Center for Public Integrity analysis has found that among 179 deaths since 1984, fines were reduced 60 percent of the time.
Buried In Grain
Should Grain Bins On Farms Be Regulated, Too?
March 24, 2013 When it comes to regulating worker safety for grain bins, OSHA only oversees the commercial industry. There's debate on whether that should also extend to private farms.
Buried In Grain
Documents: Investigating A Grain Bin Accident
March 24, 2013 In July 2010, two young employees died inside an Illinois grain bin after being sucked under a mountain of corn. These document detail the case and the safety violations federal regulators found.