“Similar to times of war.”
The Big Story
Mon. May 4, 2020
“Similar to Times of War”: The Staggering Toll of COVID-19 on Filipino Health Care Workers
One of every four Filipinos in the New York-New Jersey area is employed in the health care industry. With at least 30 worker deaths and many more family members lost to the coronavirus, a community at the epicenter of the pandemic has been left reeling.
by Nina Martin and Bernice Yeung
VIEW STORY
Read Our Pulitzer Prize-Winning Work

The Pulitzer Board announced Monday that two series published by ProPublica were awarded Pulitzer Prizes. “Lawless,” a ProPublica Local Reporting Network project by the Anchorage Daily News that revealed how indigenous people in Alaska are denied public safety services, was awarded the prize for public service. “Disaster in the Pacific,” an investigation on the staggering leadership failures that led to deadly accidents in the Navy and Marines, won a national reporting prize. The two designations are ProPublica’s 6th Pulitzer win in 12 years and the first Pulitzer awarded to a Local Reporting Network partner.
Lawless
Lawless
At least one in three Alaska villages has no local law enforcement. Sexual abuse runs rampant, public safety resources are scarce, and Governor Mike Dunleavy wants to cut the budget.
by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News
Alaska’s Law Enforcement Crisis Is a Public Emergency. Here’s How Experts Want to Fix It.
More than a third of Alaska communities have no local police of any kind. Criminals have been hired as cops in some remote villages. A federal emergency has been declared and millions of dollars are promised, but here’s what else experts recommend.
by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News
Alaska’s Uneven Rural Law Enforcement System Often Leaves Remote Villages With No Cops
A tiny Alaskan village got a police officer. He’s never had to make an arrest. Meanwhile, larger communities with more crime have often been left behind as the state’s two-tiered policing crisis gets worse.
by Kyle Hopkins , Anchorage Daily News
The Village Where Every Cop Has Been Convicted of Domestic Violence
Dozens of convicted criminals have been hired as cops in Alaska communities. Often, they are the only applicants. In Stebbins, every cop has a criminal record, including the chief.
by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News
Clergy Abused an Entire Generation in This Village. With New Traumas, Justice Remains Elusive.
Long before city officials said they had no choice but to hire criminals as cops, justice evaded the Norton Sound village of Stebbins and neighboring St. Michael.
by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News
After the Last Cop Killed Himself, All the Criminals Have to Do Is Hide
Days before his death in 2005, Simeon Askoak told officials how an Alaskan rural policing program was broken. His village hasn’t had another permanent cop since.
by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News
These Cops are Supposed to Protect Rural Villages. They’re in the Suburbs Instead.
Many remote Alaska Native villages have no law enforcement at all. But state troopers can be found in wealthier, and mainly non-Native, suburbs, where growing communities have resisted paying for their own police department.
by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News
Disaster in the Pacific
Years of Warnings, Then Death and Disaster
How the Navy failed its sailors
by Robert Faturechi , Megan Rose and T. Christian Miller
Death and Valor on an American Warship Doomed by its Own Navy
Investigation finds officials ignored warnings for years before one of the deadliest crashes in decades.
by T. Christian Miller , Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi
In Navy Disasters, Neglect, Mistakes, and 17 Lost Sailors
Snapshots of the sailors who perished in a pair of collisions in the Pacific in 2017.
by Nate Schweber and T. Christian Miller
The Navy Installed Touch-Screen Steering Systems to Save Money. 10 Sailors Paid With Their Lives.
When the USS John S. McCain crashed in the Pacific, the Navy blamed the destroyer’s crew for the loss of 10 sailors. The truth is the Navy’s flawed technology set the McCain up for disaster.
by T. Christian Miller , Megan Rose , Robert Faturechi and Agnes Chang
How We Investigated the Navy’s Twin Disasters in the Pacific
by T. Christian Miller , Robert Faturechi and Megan Rose
Navy Promised Changes After Deadly Accidents, but Many Within Doubt It’s Delivering on Them
Interviews and an examination of the Navy’s publicly announced reforms raise uncertainty over whether senior leaders have fully followed through on them after the 7th Fleet disasters in 2017.
by Robert Faturechi and T. Christian Miller
Blame Over Justice: The Human Toll of the Navy’s Relentless Push to Punish One of Its Own
Navy Cmdr. Bryce Benson accepted responsibility for the deadly crash of the USS Fitzgerald and was told, “That’s done now.” But when another ship crashed, the Navy decided it wasn’t through with him. Its pursuit nearly destroyed him and his family.
by Megan Rose
Iran Has Hundreds of Naval Mines. U.S. Navy Minesweepers Find Old Dishwashers and Car Parts.
As tensions heat up in the Persian Gulf, the Navy’s minesweeping fleet may once again be called into action, but its sailors say the ships are too old and broken to do the job. “We are essentially the ships that the Navy forgot.”
by Robert Faturechi , Megan Rose and T. Christian Miller
How the Navy’s Top Commander Botched the Highest-Profile Investigation in Years
On Wednesday, the Navy said it was abandoning all remaining criminal charges against sailors involved in fatal accidents in the Pacific. Here’s how the actions of the chief of naval operations helped doom the cases.
by T. Christian Miller and Robert Faturechi
 
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