Environment & Climate

Alaska has the nation’s highest rate of people living without plumbing, and that can translate into real health problems for rural families. Despite the problem, state officials have declined to make the larger investments needed to improve conditions for the state's more remote residents.

Environmental Health, Poverty and Class

In the wake of Freddie Gray’s death, Baltimore residents took to the streets in protest. The best media coverage showed how years of neglect have crippled West Baltimore economies, fostered distrust and violence, and put a long, healthy life entirely out of reach for many residents, Gray included.

Race and Equity, Poverty and Class, Environmental Health, Community Safety

Reporter Liza Gross was seeking a fresh way to convey the risky environmental conditions facing California farming communities. But after running into a series of data swamps, she turned to experts for help and unexpectedly found her story in the strawberry fields of Oxnard, Calif.

Poverty and Class, Environmental Health, Immigrant and Migrant Health

With Biomonitoring California, state health and environmental officials have hit an early milestone in their efforts to discover which industrial chemicals are making their way into the bodies of residents. Research has shown that chemical exposure can seriously disrupt cellular function over time.

Environmental Health, Immigrant and Migrant Health

The hardest part of reporting on the health implications of Central Valley rivers was not the research or content, but finding the right characters for the stories. In the end, a radio reporter discovered the best way to find the characters that brought his stories to life was on the river itself.

Environmental Health

"Sure, I knew hundreds of residents died in homicides or were hurt and even disabled during assaults,” said McDaniels. "But I wondered if there was something deeper going on that needed to be explored.”

Mental Health, Environmental Health, Community Safety

Leah Beth Ward's sustained reporting in The Yakima Herald-Republic on the impacts of Washington’s dairy industry has helped spur important changes. In the second half of our Q&A, Ward discusses the reaction to her series, both from the industry and the broader community.

Environmental Health, Immigrant and Migrant Health

The Yakima Herald-Republic has an august history of reporting on Washington's dairy industry and its effects on health. Contributor William Heisel interviews the paper's Leah Beth Ward about her reporting on the impacts of such dairies, which has helped prompt new court rulings.

Environmental Health

A new study of kids in the Los Angeles basin found that as air quality “improved dramatically” in recent years, so did the capacity of children's lungs. The study's attributes the gains to more stringent emissions standards. But can the air quality gains continue amid a resurgent economy?

Chronic Disease, Environmental Health