Exposing the Flaws

The Sentinel ran a yearlong series investigating what went wrong with the Florida vote in 2000, how many votes might have been lost, and how the system could be repaired for the future.

The New FDA: Partnership With Deadly Risk

Seven drugs approved since 1993 have been withdrawn after reports of deaths and severe side effects. A two-year Los Angeles Times investigation has found that the FDA approved each of those drugs while disregarding danger signs or blunt warnings from its own specialists. Then, after receiving reports of significant harm to patients, the agency was slow to seek withdrawals.

Revealing Terrorism

This team of reporters covered the trial of Ahmed Ressam, following their leads to the little-known international terrorist network to which Ressam belonged, its links to Osama Bin Laden, and the high level of terrorist threat facing the United States.

A Taste of Slavery

A special report on the investigation of labor abuses in West African cocoa plantations, the source of more than 40 percent of the American chocolate industry’s cocoa beans.

Uninformed Consent

The Seattle Times began a five-part investigative series entitled, “Uninformed Consent: What patients at ‘The Hutch’ weren’t told about the experiments in which they died.” In it, Times reporters David Heath and Duff Wilson described how patients had died prematurely in two clinical trials at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, experiments in which some of their doctors and the center itself had a financial interest.

Uncivil Action

The release of the story, entitled “Uncivil Action: A Town Left to Die”, led to litigation against W.R. Grace and the indictment of executives on federal charges of knowing endangerment, obstruction of justice, and wire fraud after the company declared bankruptcy and illegally transferred funds and assets to new companies

The Money Trail

The “Money Trail” series is about the influence of corporate contributions on politics.

The Body Brokers

A five-part series and follow-ups on tissue donation that changed laws, sparked a federal investigation and prompted widespread industry reform.

Strip-Searched at O’Hare

Reporter Renee Ferguson convincingly uncovers racial discrimination by immigration agents at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

“The Failure of the Death Penalty in Illinois” and “State of Execution: The Death Penalty in Texas”

A Tribune investigative series on problems plaguing the capital punishment system in the state.