APM Reports

06/07/2024

These St. Louis families have waited years for answers. They say police seem to have forgotten their loved ones.

A photo essay:

These St. Louis families have waited years for answers. They say police seem to have forgotten their loved ones.

06/06/2024

The St. Louis homicide unit has dealt with short staffing, long hours and a ballooning DNA backlog.

The city’s homicide unit has dealt with short staffing, long hours and a ballooning DNA backlog.

06/05/2024

Several officers in the homicide unit faced internal complaints that they slept on the job, failed to get key evidence and lied to superiors.

06/04/2024

In the past decade, police solved fewer than half of the homicide cases with Black victims and two-thirds of the cases with white ones.

06/03/2024

In one of America's deadliest cities, police have struggled to solve killings due to staffing shortages, shoddy detective work and lack of community trust.

A collaboration with St. Louis Public Radio and Marshall Project:

In one of America's deadliest cities, police have struggled to solve killings due to staffing shortages, shoddy detective work and lack of community trust.

05/06/2024

Once offshore oil platforms drain their wells, the government has the power to force the companies that own them to tear the structures down. But the owners can put off that costly process using a strategy one critic calls “delay, deny and di**le around.” And in Alaska, the state has let them do it — for decades.

Once offshore oil platforms drain their wells, the government has the power to force the companies that own them to tear the structures down. But the owners can put off that costly process using a strategy one critic calls “delay, deny and di**le around.” And in Alaska, the state has let them do...

04/30/2024

Educational publisher Heinemann raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during the 2010s selling reading programs based on a disproven theory. The company now faces financial fallout, as schools ditch its products.

The educational publisher raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during the 2010s selling reading programs based on a disproven theory. The company now faces financial fallout, as schools ditch its products.

04/22/2024

Frank Edelblut pledged to stay “nonpartisan.” But as head of New Hampshire’s education department, he’s used his platform to pursue conservative grievances against the education system and individual educators.

With Hampshire Public Radio:

Frank Edelblut pledged to stay “nonpartisan.” But as head of New Hampshire’s education department, he’s used his platform to pursue conservative grievances against the education system and individual educators.

04/11/2024

In Episode 10 of Sold a Story, the teachers, students, parents and researchers we met in the podcast talk about the impact it's had on their lives and in schools. They also share some of their hopes and concerns about the "science of reading" movement.

Listen at soldastory.org.

04/05/2024

Pressure is mounting on two universities to change the way they train on-the-job educators to teach reading.

The Ohio State University in Columbus and Lesley University near Boston both run prominent literacy training programs that include a theory contradicted by decades of cognitive science research. Amid a $660 million effort to retrain teachers that’s underway in 36 states, other academic institutions are updating their professional development. Yet Ohio State and Lesley are resisting criticism and standing by their training.

Other schools are backing away from a disproven theory about how kids learn to read, but programs started by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell train literacy coaches to believe in it.

04/04/2024

There's a new episode of Sold a Story in the podcast feed today. E9: The Aftermath.

Schools around the country are changing the way they teach reading. And that is having major consequences for people who sold the flawed theory we investigated in Sold a Story. But Lucy Calkins, Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell are fighting back — and fighting to stay relevant. And so are organizations that promoted their work: The Reading Recovery Council of North America and the publisher, Heinemann.

Listen at soldastory.org.

There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this new podcast, host Emily H...

04/02/2024

Illinois is supposed to have one of the strongest laws protecting sexual assault victims in the nation. But in the 17 years since lawmakers introduced a critical exception to the law, the number of hospitals opting out of care for sexual assault survivors has more than tripled.

Read our story, co-published with The 19th News: https://www.apmreports.org/story/2024/04/02/how-illinois-sexual-assault-survivor-law-allows-hospitals-to-deny-care

03/20/2024

Maryland automatically charges more teens as adults than almost any other state. An analysis of recent decisions found that some judges rely on what juvenile justice advocates say is unfair reasoning to keep those young people in adult court.

Read the story:

Maryland automatically charges more teens as adults than almost any other state. An analysis of recent decisions found that some judges rely on what juvenile justice advocates say is unfair reasoning to keep those young people in adult court.

03/19/2024

A Spanish adaptation of Sold a Story is now available. Hosted by journalist Valeria Fernández, the podcast is condensed into one 58-minute episode, plus a conversation between Fernández and Emily Hanford for Spanish-speaking parents whose children are learning to read English in American schools. Produced in collaboration with It Easy Media.

Share with the Spanish speakers in your life:

En todo Estados Unidos, las escuelas han estado enseñando a leer con un método que no funciona muy bien. Hace décadas que los estudios científicos lo desmintieron. A algunos niños puede causarles daños duraderos. En Sold a Story, la reportera Emily Hanford investiga a los influyentes autores q...

02/15/2024

During his campaign for governor of Nevada, then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo claimed the Las Vegas police department he led seized just six ghost guns in one year. But officers actually seized 252 of the weapons during that time.

During his campaign for governor, then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo claimed the Las Vegas police department he led seized just six ghost guns in one year. But officers actually seized 252 of the weapons during that time.

02/02/2024

Our latest reporting collaboration with Alaska Public Media:

The municipal board that approved the sale — and a below-market lease — includes two members with ties to former Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, who also used to represent Alaska in the U.S. Senate.

01/26/2024

Columbia Journalism School announced that Sold a Story from APM Reports has won a coveted duPont-Columbia Award. The duPonts highlight outstanding public service in audio and video reporting. Congratulations to the team who produced this powerful podcast that has changed the national conversation on how we teach children to read.

Congratulations to our colleagues at APM Reports for this incredible honor. If you haven’t listened to the podcast yet, check it out here: soldastory.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.

12/11/2023

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen.

Read the full story: https://www.apmreports.org/story/2023/12/11/benchmark-assessment-system-reading-test-often-wrong

11/19/2023

At least $34 million in federal money is flowing through the nonprofit ARMI to a constellation of for-profit businesses controlled by the nonprofit’s executive director: Dean Kamen, a prolific inventor and New Hampshire icon best known for developing the Segway scooter.

Read the story:

More than $215 million in federal money is pouring into ARMI, a nonprofit that promises to revolutionize medicine and revitalize Manchester, New Hampshire. At least $34 million is flowing through ARMI to for-profit companies controlled by its executive director.

09/26/2023

Graphite is a critical ingredient in the batteries needed to power America’s electric vehicle revolution. But every ounce of it is imported. A proposed mine in a remote part of Alaska would change that. But some of the Indigenous people who live nearby fear it will endanger their way of life.

Full story, in collaboration with Alaska Public Media:

Graphite is a critical ingredient in the batteries needed to power America’s electric vehicle revolution. But every ounce of it is imported. A proposed mine in a remote part of Alaska would change that. But some of the people who live nearby fear it will endanger their way of life.

08/04/2023

Court filings reveal how the owners of a North Dakota company navigated the gray areas of Minnesota’s fledgling THC edibles law and a regulatory system still in its infancy.

07/17/2023

Police refused to release homicide clearance data, so we sued to find out.

Newly released data reveals no resolution for the families of hundreds of homicide victims. Police refused to release homicide clearance data, so we sued to find out.

05/31/2023

Jeremy Cubas resigned from his $110,000 a year job as Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s pro-family policy adviser after Alaska Public Media and APM Reports revealed that Cubas defended Hi**er, used racist slurs and said a man ra**ng his wife is "an impossible act."

In collaboration with Alaska Public Media: https://www.apmreports.org/story/2023/05/30/jeremy-cubas-alaska-policy-adviser-resigns

Jeremy Cubas resigned from his $110,000 a year job as Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s pro-family policy adviser after Alaska Public Media and APM Reports revealed that Cubas defended Hi**er, used racist slurs and said a man ra**ng his wife is "an impossible act."

05/30/2023

At school board meetings and in state legislatures, people are talking about the Sold a Story podcast. It's changed their understanding of reading instruction, and they want schools to change how kids are taught to read.

Two bonus episodes available now: soldastory.org

05/18/2023

State legislators are trying to change reading instruction, requiring it to align with cognitive science. Several of them say they were motivated by our Sold a Story podcast.

New bonus episode out today. https://www.apmreports.org/story/2023/05/18/legislators-reading-laws-sold-a-story

At least 18 states are considering new laws after Sold a Story, but there is pushback.

05/16/2023

An Anchorage soup kitchen ran up huge profits during the pandemic courtesy of city contracts funded by federal taxpayers, including what city officials allege were hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments for services the organization never provided.

Bean’s Cafe cashed in big running the Sullivan Arena homeless shelter.

05/11/2023

When Sold a Story ended, messages poured in: voicemails, emails, tweets. In a new bonus episode, out today, we bring you some of their voices. A 10-year-old figures out why he has struggled to read. A mom stays up late to binge the podcast. A teacher confirms what he's suspected for years — he's not really teaching kids how to read.

Listen: soldastory.org

04/11/2023

Today in the Sold a Story feed, Emily Hanford joins the hosts of Brains On to talk about how people learn to read.

Grab the kids in your life and listen to this special episode made for kids and curious adults. https://www.brainson.org/episode/2023/04/11/how-do-we-learn-to-read-and-why-is-it-hard

Reading is your one-way ticket to adventure! But have you ever wondered how we learn to read?

03/24/2023

Two private investigators accused of tracking local politicians in Nevada have refused to publicly name their clients, but records show one is connected to major far-right donor Robert Beadles.

Our collaboration with KUNR Public Radio and The Nevada Independent: https://www.apmreports.org/story/2023/03/24/nevada-politicians-investigated-tracked-by-private-detectives

Surveillance of politicians in the Reno area was more extensive than previously known, and one private investigator had ties to prominent local Republicans.

03/20/2023

Last week we rereleased Emily Hanford's documentary Hard to Read on the Sold a Story feed. Followers probably noticed.

We're going to do that the next few weeks with our previous reporting on reading. Then we'll be back April 20 with a new episode of Sold a Story.

https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/

There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this new podcast, host Emily H...