The Charlotte Observer‘s investigation revealed how one company ignored and threatened injured workers as it created an illusion of safety inside its plants. The stories have led to congressional hearings, federal investigations, the indictment of a top company manager, more staff for safety regulators and new federal legislation to curb the underreporting of workplace injuries.
Cenziper and Cohen’s investigation revealed how Washington, D.C. landlords drove hundreds of tenants from rent-controlled apartments by refusing to make repairs and other harassment methods, and then profited from redevelopment. As a result of the investigation, the Washington, D.C., attorney general sued 23 landlords, half the city’s housing-inspection force was fired and “The Tenant Protection Act of 2008” was introduced. It provided funds for building repair as well as help for tenants suing landlords for code violations.
Priest and Hull exposed the deep and widespread problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Their reporting resulted in the dismissal of the commander of Walter Reed, the surgeon general of the Army, and the secretary of the Army and an overhaul of the system for treating outpatients in the military health system.
While the harmful effects of products made in China and consumed in America were being uncovered, Chinese factory workers were dying from carcinogens used in making these products. Tofani’s reporting spurred Democratic proposals to require overseas enforcement of worker protections in trade agreements.
A two-year investigation by Dubocq exposed Palm Beach County’s worst corruption scandal in nearly a century, prompting federal investigations and leading two county commissioners, a prominent lobbyist, and a governor’s appointee to plead guilty to corruption charges.
Bogdanich and Hooker uncovered what would turn out to be China’s most lethal export: diethylene glycol, an ingredient in antifreeze that was used in medicine and is suspected of killing hundreds around the world. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has halted all imports of Chinese glycerin. China has reversed its position on diethylene glycol.
Kors revealed how military doctors are purposely misdiagnosing soldiers wounded in Iraq as having been ill before joining the Army. His investigations resulted in a congressional hearing, bills in the House and Senate, and an added amendment to the Defense Authorization Act.
Gellman and Becker’s four-part series examined the most powerful vice president in history, providing a greater public understanding of the Bush-Cheney era.
Washington Post reporters Dan Morgan, Gilbert M. Gaul and Sarah Cohen spent more than a year examining federal agriculture subsidies and identified more than $15 billion in wasteful, unnecessary and redundant spending.