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.

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.

Rezulin: A Billion-Dollar Killer

An exposé of seven unsafe prescription drugs that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and an analysis of the policy reforms that had reduced the agency’s effectiveness.

Doing Harm: Research on the Mentally Ill

A four-part series by Robert Whitaker and Dolores Kong shed light on the abusive research parameters of non-therapeutic experiments conducted on mentally incapacitated individuals. They focused on several victims who had suffered and were harmed by experiments that violated medical ethics standards.

Deadly Alliance

The series exposed a 50-year pattern of misconduct by the U.S. government and the American beryllium industry – wrongdoing that caused a chronic lung disease in dozens of workers producing the strategic metal. The articles sparked major safety reforms, numerous lawsuits, and two congressional investigations.

The Bridge at No Gun Ri

Revealed, with extensive documentation, the decades-old secret of how American soldiers early in the Korean War killed hundreds of Korean civilians in a massacre at the No Gun Ri Bridge.