Ruth Talbot is a news applications developer at ProPublica.
Ruth Talbot
News Applications Developer
Cities Say They Store Property Taken From Homeless Encampments. People Rarely Get Their Things Back.
Storage programs are meant to protect people’s property rights and allow them to reclaim their possessions. But they rarely accomplish either objective, according to a ProPublica investigation of cities with the largest homeless populations.
Swept Away
From birth certificates to loved ones’ ashes, these are just some of the belongings cities take when they clear homeless encampments.
U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Will Allow More Aggressive Homeless Encampment Removals
The court upheld a ban on camping in Grants Pass, Oregon, empowering local governments to punish people for living outside. ProPublica found that some cities are discarding homeless people’s property despite policies to preserve their belongings.
How a Network of Nonprofits Enriches Fundraisers While Spending Almost Nothing on Its Stated Causes
ProPublica identified a group of connected political nonprofits — with names like American Breast Cancer Coalition and National Coalition for Disabled Veterans — that appear to be funneling more than 90% of donations to fundraisers.
Introducing ProPublica’s 527 Explorer
Nonprofits known as 527s can raise unlimited sums for political spending. ProPublica is releasing a new database that will allow journalists, researchers and others to more easily search these organizations’ finances.
527 Explorer
Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars flow through little-known political organizations commonly called 527s. Use our database to explore who funds these organizations and how they’re spending their money.
Have You Experienced Homelessness? Do You Work With People Who Have? Connect With Our Reporters.
Journalists in our newsroom are working on multiple projects related to homelessness in New York, Maine and Oregon. We’re also interested in how cities have further criminalized sleeping outside. Learn more about our work and how to get in touch.
Albuquerque Is Throwing Out the Belongings of Homeless People, Violating City Policy
The city has violated a court order and its own policies by discarding the personal property of thousands of homeless people, who have lost medications, birth certificates, IDs, treasured family photos and the ashes of loved ones.
ProPublica Adds Ownership Information to Our Nursing Home Database
It can be hard to determine who is ultimately responsible for the quality of care in a nursing home. ProPublica’s Nursing Home Inspect tool now has detailed information on who owns a facility and who is responsible for running it.
How to Use the Updated “Nursing Home Inspect” Database
Our “Nursing Home Inspect” tool is now easier to use. Here’s what you can find when searching our database by state, county or facility.
We Updated “Nursing Home Inspect.” Here’s What Changed.
The new and improved nursing home database includes more data, new views that summarize problems, and advanced search features to help you navigate the new information.
Porn, Piracy, Fraud: What Lurks Inside Google’s Black Box Ad Empire
Google’s ad business hides nearly all publishers it works with and where billions of ad dollars flow. We uncovered a network containing manga piracy, porn, fraud and disinformation.
How Google’s Ad Business Funds Disinformation Around the World
The largest-ever analysis of Google’s ad practices on non-English-language websites reveals how the tech giant makes disinformation profitable.
How We Determined Which Disinformation Publishers Profit From Google’s Ad Systems
We identified websites that collected Google ad revenue despite publishing false claims about COVID-19, climate change and other issues in apparent violation of Google policies.
Google Says It Bans Gun Ads. It Actually Makes Money From Them.
The tech giant has long boasted that it doesn’t accept ads for firearms, but a ProPublica analysis shows that Google’s ad systems served up more than 100 million ads from gun-makers.
Do Police Give Students Tickets in Your Illinois School District?
Do police in your Illinois school district give students tickets for truancy, vaping, fighting or other violations of local ordinances? Search our interactive database to find out.
Look Up Nursing Home Staff COVID-19 Vaccination Rates
Now, users can quickly compare staff COVID-19 vaccination and booster rates across states and between nursing homes.
