This week, we teamed up with reporters across the nation to see how stories we’ve reported on are playing out in local communities. 

After our show in February exposed the limits of concussion laws designed to protect high school athletes, KUNC reporter Michael de Yoanna dug into data in Colorado to tally the number of head injuries in local school districts, asking “Who is responsible?” Want to learn more about concussion policies in your district? Fill out the form here. 

Then, reporter Eleanor Klibanoff of the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting at Louisville Public Media builds on one of our investigations (with Newsy and ProPublica) from 2018, in which we found that law enforcement agencies across the country make it appear as though they’ve solved rape cases when they’ve simply closed them, a practice known as exceptional clearance. Louisville had the sixth-highest percentage of rape cases exceptionally cleared, and Klibanoff digs into the story behind that statistic.

Finally, California’s Silicon Valley has been the epicenter of a housing crisis that has displaced many longtime residents and now threatens to strain economic growth. To understand one of the catalysts, Reveal joined forces with NBC Bay Area, Bay Area News Group, KQED, Renaissance Journalism and Telemundo 48 to identify the largest landowners in Silicon Valley and what they’re doing – or not doing – to alleviate the crisis. 

Listen to the full story here. 

University of Phoenix settles for record $191 million on charges of deceptive advertising

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission announced a record settlement with the University of Phoenix, requiring the for-profit college and its parent company to pay $191 million following federal charges alleging that it marketed false job opportunities to students, including veterans and members of the military.  

The FTC launched its investigation in 2015, following our investigation documenting how the college had sidestepped an executive order from then-President Barack Obama designed to halt predatory recruitment of servicemembers and veterans.

In a statement, the for-profit college said that it “continues to believe it has acted appropriately” and that the settlement will “enable the University to maintain focus on its core mission of improving the lives of students.” 

The agreement represents the largest settlement the FTC ever has reached with a for-profit college; the company will pay the government $50 million in cash and cancel $141 million in student debt.

Read the story here. 
 

Judge backs Reveal’s suit to end secrecy around Silicon Valley’s diversity

On Tuesday, a judge ordered the U.S. Department of Labor to release diversity reports filed by major Silicon Valley firms such as Oracle, Fitbit and Gilead Sciences, striking down their attempts to keep company staff diversity statistics secret. 

Magistrate Judge Kandis A. Westmore of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sided with the argument made by Reveal that the records are not confidential business information. 

The ruling means that reports showing the breakdown of a company’s workforce by race, gender and broad job category, called EEO-1s, should now be accessible through Freedom of Information Act requests. Whether the reports should be public has been the subject of debate for decades and the subject of FOIA battles by journalists since at least 2008. 

The lawsuit and FOIA requests were filed by Reveal as part of Will Evans and Sinduja Rangarajan’s reporting on the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley. 

Read the story here.

Behind the Smiles

A few weeks ago, we released a major investigation into workplace safety practices in Amazon warehouses across the U.S. We amassed internal injury records from 23 of the company’s 110 fulfillment centers nationwide, then turned them over to local reporters.

Last week, the Portland Mercury’s Alex Zielinski delved into the work environment at Amazon’s Troutdale factory, called PDX9, where the injury rate is far above industry standards. According to Amazon’s records, 26 of every 100 PDX9 workers sustained an injury in 2018.

Zielinski spoke with current and former workers at Amazon’s factories in Oregon to understand what working conditions are like at the facility. 

“Amazon doesn’t want any long-term workers,” said Dan Maloney, who has been working at the Troutdale factory since 2018. “They want you to work hard and fast and get rid of you when your body can’t take it anymore. That’s their business model.”

In Salt Lake City, KUER’s Sonja Hutson spoke with Derek Parker, a former warehouse worker there who had a shoulder injury on the job that is still causing him intense pain nearly 10 months later. 

Parker’s injury was one of 157 that Amazon has reported so far this year at the Salt Lake City fulfillment center, where the injury rate is more than double the average of the warehouse and storage industry in Utah and the nation. 

He was one of a few workers at the Salt Lake City warehouse who said the factory’s production quotas encouraged speed over safety, resulting in injuries. 

“The guidelines aren't working, so obviously, something needs to be changed,” Parker said. 

You can use our interactive map to find injury rates at facilities that handle your packages or help us get records for those facilities.

Fact-based journalism is worth fighting for.