Selected Stories

Living a nuclear legacy

For the Marshallese community in Spokane, nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands back in the 1950s still has lasting impacts on the community today. (Spokesman-Review/2021)

How COVID disproportionately impacted Spokane’s Marshallese community

A history of inequitable access to health care coupled with the slow response of state and local health officials led to hundreds of people testing positive for the virus in Spokane. (Spokesman-Review/2020)

Unpacking what happiness really looks like, American Dream be damned

In a country where a zipcode dictates a person’s academic trajectory, the American Dream is becoming less and less achievable. But what does research say about happiness, and how much does education play a role? (The 74 Million/2019)

Private prison on trial

Inmates at Mississippi’s most notorious private prison sued the corporation alleging egregious living conditions and violence behind bars. (Jackson Free Press/2018)

When COVID paralyzes

COVID-19 means a mild infection in some people, but for one farmworker on an H-2A visa, it led to a stroke, long hospital stays and now medical bills his employer won’t pay. (Spokesman-Review/2021)

The fractured system of care for medically fragile kids in Washington

When the only group home in Spokane that could take medically fragile kids closed, families had to alter their lives and adjust care for nearly a year. (Spokesman-Review/2019)

How integration failed in Jackson’s public schools

Jackson’s public schools have never recovered from the white flight to private academies and outlying counties following court-ordered integration. The effects are still visible today. (Jackson Free Press/2017)

Trans veterans come home and fight another battle: trying to get health care

After fighting and surviving for the United States abroad, transgender veterans struggle to get adequate and appropriate health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Jackson Free Press/2017)

How Spokane pushed heart medicine forward

In the 1970s, doctors in Spokane began operating on people having heart attacks, a procedure thought much too dangerous at the time. (Spokesman-Review/2021)

When a town loses its only clinic

Rural towns across eastern Washington and the United States are losing access to health care in droves. Fairfield, located about half an hour south of Spokane, is fighting to get its clinic back. (Spokesman-Review/2019)

Kicked out with nowhere to go: addressing LGBT youth homelessness in Mississippi

With no statewide supports for LGBT youth in Mississippi, community groups and shoestring nonprofits are housing teens when they have nowhere else to run. (Jackson Free Press/2016)

The fight to reverse Roe v. Wade

Mississippi Republicans want you to sue the state. Using legislation to bait legal groups into a fight, they hope that their abortion bans make it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Jackson Free Press/2018)