After decades of discriminating against Black farmers and ignoring their complaints, the USDA is promising to do better. Again.
Economic Crisis
Chicago Has Been Quietly Intercepting Millions From State Tax Refunds During the Pandemic
The Lighfoot administration intercepted at least $27 million in 2020 from residents’ state tax refunds to collect on debt, disproportionately hitting lower income neighborhoods and communities of color.
The Immokalee Way: Protecting Farmworkers Amid a Pandemic
While some companies do everything to escape accountability, the Fair Food Program proves there’s an alternative.
Trump’s National Labor Relations Board Is Sabotaging Its Own Mission
The federal agency that’s supposed to protect union rights is instead championing the interests of bosses.
The Fintech Debt Trap
Aggressive online lenders are preying on desperate borrowers and could trigger a new consumer financial crisis.
Minority Exclusion at the Makeshift Morgue
Across the U.S., temporary facilities built in response to COVID-19 went up quickly and minority contractors were left out.
When Shelter Comes Down to the Luck of the Draw
As eviction moratoriums expire, lotteries determine who gets rent relief.
‘Inundated and Overwhelmed’: Black Undertakers Struggle Amid Pandemic
Black-owned funeral homes were already in decline. Can they survive Covid-19?
The Factory Oversight Industry Protects Profits, Not People
An investigation into the dangerously irresponsible business of “ethical factory” audits.
Detroit’s Health Care Workers Ask: ‘How Many Lives Can We Save?’
Doctors and nurses in one of the nation’s poorest, blackest big cities are fighting a raging coronavirus outbreak and a flawed health care system. Here’s what life is like for them right now.
As Coronavirus Spread, Financial Services Contractor Told Warehouse Workers They Aren’t Allowed to Get Sick
In a Long Island warehouse, immigrants work long hours doing mailings for a multibillion-dollar financial services company. Now they’re getting sick.
Renters In Turmoil As Federal And State Relief Measures Fall Short
“I can’t be out on the street right now,” a woman in Jackson, Mississippi, said.
The stimulus halts a corporate trick that gouges workers. But it comes too late.
Stock buybacks enriched companies and their leaders — at everyone else’s expense.
If the Tuition Doesn’t Get You, the Cost of Student Housing Will
National developers are behind a proliferation of luxury student housing on campuses, driving low-income students far away.
A Harvard Professor Filed a Shareholder Lawsuit to Restrict Shareholder Rights
The legal team includes a Trump nominee and an attorney who has railed against unions, trans rights and Black Lives Matter.
NYCHA Denies Transfers to Crime Victims
Crime victims and witnesses are trapped living near assailants.
The Advice Trap
Financial advisers want to rip off small investors. Trump wants to help them do it.
Contract Selling Is Back in Chicago
Fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr. fought against predatory sales, Wall Street-backed firms are duping would-be homebuyers again.
Money for Nothing
Confessions of a payday lender: “I felt like a modern-day gangster.”
Google’s Payday Loan Gamble
Over the years, the company’s more profitable advertisers have been payday lenders.