ProPublica

Journalism in the Public Interest

Data

ProPublica's News Applications, Graphics, Databases, and Tools.

Selected Interactive News Applications

Machine Bias

Chicago Area Disparities in Car Insurance Premiums

Some car insurers charge higher premiums in Chicago’s minority neighborhoods than in predominantly white neighborhoods with similar risk of accidents.

Trump’s Changing Trust, Annotated

Here’s an annotated look at notable changes to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust’s certification document.

New York State Subsidy Tracker

We’re tracking the state’s growing portfolio of business subsidies.

College Debt

Nothin’ but Debt: Which NCAA Tournament Schools Give Low-Income Students the Best Shot?

Instead of basketball skill, our bracket is based on five factors that measure each school’s ability to graduate low-income students with little debt.

College Debt

Updated Debt by Degrees

Use our interactive database to search federal data on almost 7,000 schools in the U.S. to see how well they support their poorest students financially. Now updated with data from the 2014-2015 academic year.

Across the Country, Reports of Swastika Graffiti

Browse examples of anti-Semitic graffiti collected as part of our “Documenting Hate” project.

Vital Signs

Know more about your doctor.

Here Are More Than 400 Officials Trump Has Quietly Deployed Across the Government

ProPublica has obtained a list of more than 400 people hired by the Trump administration to fill key roles across the federal government.

Map: Bomb Threats to Jewish Community Centers and Organizations

A timeline of bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers and other organizations

Alternative School Enrollment and Warning Signs

Which districts have large numbers of students in alternative schools, and where are those schools potentially problematic?

Trump’s 10 Troubling Deals with Foreign Power-Players

The new president’s deals with foreign power players create clear paths for Trump to put his interests ahead of those of the United States.

Documenting Hate

Hate crimes and bias incidents are a national problem, but there’s no reliable data on their nature or prevalence. We’re collecting reports to create a national database for use by journalists and civil-rights organizations.

Politwoops: Explore the Tweets They Didn’t Want You to See

Politwoops tracks deleted tweets by public officials, including people currently in office and candidates for office.

Nonprofit Explorer Update

We’ve updated our database of nonprofit tax filings. It now includes more than 9 million Form 990s.

Lost Cause

Seeing America through the losing candidates’ map, now updated with 2016 election data

The Rent Racket

Tracking Evictions and Rent Stabilization in NYC

We’ve mapped more than 450,000 New York City eviction cases filed between January 2013 and June 2015. Look up your building to see its recent eviction cases and whether it may be rent-stabilized.

Dollars for Doctors

Updated Dollars for Docs

We’ve updated Dollars for Docs. It now includes payments made from August 2013 through December 2015 — some $6.25 billion in payments to more than 800,000 doctors.

Hell and High Water

Boomtown, Flood Town

Climate change will bring more frequent and fierce rainstorms to cities like Houston. But unchecked development remains a priority in the famously un-zoned city, creating short-term economic gains for some while increasing flood risks for everyone.

New in Represent: House Office Expenditures

Researchers can track official spending by lawmakers and committees.

The Prescribers

We’ve Updated Prescriber Checkup with 2014 Data

Use this tool to compare how your doctor prescribes medications in Medicare’s drug program with other doctors in the same specialty and state. Our data includes information on drug costs and prescriptions for risky drugs.

How Voter Fraud Works — And Mostly Doesn’t

Every election season, cries that voter fraud will threaten the legitimacy of American democracy can be heard throughout the country. Critics say these claims are exaggerated and backed up by scant evidence. But dismissing voter fraud entirely overlooks the fact that that fraud does happen – rarely.

Reliving Agent Orange

Eight Times Agent Orange’s Biggest Defender Has Been Wrong or Misleading

For decades, the government has relied on Alvin Young to advise it on herbicides. Here are some of his statements, and what others have said about them.

The Rent Racket

If You Live In These Tax-Subsidized Buildings, You Are Entitled to a Rent Freeze

Search for your building to see if your landlord has been approved for the program and registered your building for rent stabilization, as required by law. If not, you may be paying more than you should.

Electionland: Monitoring Access to the Vote in Real Time

Covering access to the ballot and problems that prevent people from exercising their right to vote during the 2016 election.

How Are Elections Run in Your County?

One way to predict how the 2016 election will run is to look at how things went the last time we elected a president.

Election DataBot

This new tool, updated every 15 minutes, collects huge amounts of election data and reports the most interesting details, in real time, about campaign finance filings, congressional votes, polls, forecasts, Google search trends, and more.

Median Income Is Down,  But Public College Tuition Is Way Up

From 2000 to 2014, the average cost of in-state tuition and fees for public colleges in America rose 80 percent. During that same time period, the median American household income dropped by 7 percent.

Dollars for Doctors

What Percentage of Doctors at Your Hospital Take Drug, Device Payments?

Where a hospital is located makes a big difference in how many of its doctors take payments from drug and medical device companies. See how your state compares and look up your hospital.

Tax Avoidance Has a Heartbeat

Every year at dividend time, demand to borrow German stocks spikes.

Represent: Browse Lawmakers, Votes and Bills

You can browse the latest votes and bills, see how often lawmakers vote against their parties and compare voting records.

Dollars for Doctors

Updated Dollars for Docs

This release includes updated data, payments to teaching hospitals, and information about brand-name prescribing rates for some doctors.

The Rent Racket

NYC’s Prevailing Wage Apartment Buildings

New York City biggest housing subsidy shells out $1.1 billion a year in property tax breaks to apartment and condo building owners. In return, they’re supposed to pay doormen, janitors and other service workers the “prevailing wage.” City officials provided this list of prevailing wage buildings after a public records request from ProPublica.

Hell and High Water

Hell and High Water

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country. It’s home to the nation’s largest refining and petrochemical complex, where billions of gallons of oil and dangerous chemicals are stored. And it’s a sitting duck for the next big hurricane. Why isn’t Texas ready?

The Rent Racket

Renter Beware: Ten Ways Unscrupulous Landlords Cheat NYC Tenants

Here are the top 10 ways unscrupulous landlords take advantage of tenants, and what you can do about it.

Policing Patient Privacy

HIPAA Helper

Who is Revealing Your Private Medical Information?

G.I. Dough

We Blew $17 Billion in Afghanistan.  How Would You Have Spent It?

The U.S. government has wasted billions of dollars in Afghanistan, and until now, no one has added it all up. Project after project blundered ahead ignoring history, culture and warnings of failure. And Congress has barely blinked as the financial toll has mounted. Here’s just what the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found. See for yourself how that money could have been used at home.

The Making of a Narco-terrorist

Five criminals in far-flung parts of the world, five D.E.A. sting operations, five dubious links between drugs and terror. The characters are different but the story remains the same. Authorities said each case demonstrated alliances between terrorists and drug traffickers, but most of the alleged links fell apart in court. Here’s how narco-terrorism cases are made.

Personal Explanations

When Members of Congress Miss Votes, and Why

College Debt

Debt By Degrees

Use our interactive database to search new federal data on almost 7,000 schools in the U.S. to see how well they support their poorest students financially.

Insult to Injury

Price Check: How Companies Value Body Parts

Benefits for the same body part can differ dramatically depending on which company you work for.

Unforgiven

The Color of Debt

The black neighborhoods where collection suits hit hardest

Sex and Gender

How States Handle Drug Use During Pregnancy

Across the country, hundreds of pregnant women and new mothers have been accused of child abuse or other crimes when they or their newborns tested positive for controlled substances. Laws on drug testing of infants and new mothers vary, but the stakes are always high. Here is a survey of state laws.

Homeschooling Regulations by State

Homeschooling has been legal throughout the United States for about 25 years, but regulations vary dramatically across the country. Use our map to compare how laws vary by state.

Examining Medicare

Treatment Tracker

We’ve updated our database of Medicare’s payments to individual doctors and other health professionals serving the 49 million seniors and disabled in its Part B program.

Nonprofit Explorer

We’ve updated our Nonprofit Explorer app with over 600,000 new tax filings from FY2013. Use the database to search over 1.8 million tax returns from tax-exempt organizations.

FEC Itemizer: Browse Federal Campaign Finance Filings

Itemizer allows you to browse electronic campaign finance filings from the Federal Election Commission and to see individual contributions and expenditures reported by committees raising money for federal elections.

Patient Safety

Surgeon Scorecard

We calculated complication rates for surgeons performing one of eight elective procedures under Medicare, carefully adjusting for differences in patient health, age and hospital quality. Use this database to know more about a surgeon before your operation.

Bet Big, Then Go Short

Governments that borrow money to fund their pensions often pay less into their pension funds in future years than they’re supposed to. Here’s how the 20 biggest pension bonds deals since 1996 have worked out.

Dollars for Doctors

New Dollars for Docs

Pharmaceutical and medical device companies paid billions to doctors from late 2013 through 2014, new data shows. Search for your doctor in our interactive database.

Killing the Colorado

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, While Water Supplies Last

How 40 years of unchecked growth may eventually bust Las Vegas’ water supply.

Killing the Colorado

Killing the Colorado: Explore the River

How the Colorado was turned into a giant plumbing system.

Cruise Control

Your one-stop shop for health and safety data on cruise ships

Boondoggle HQ

The $25 Million Building in Afghanistan Nobody Needed

Money as a Weapons System

How U.S. commanders spent $2 billion of petty cash in Afghanistan

Dragnets

NSA Surveillance Lawsuit Tracker

A federal appeals court recently ruled that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records is illegal.

Insult to Injury

Workers’ Comp Benefits: How Much is a Limb Worth?

If you suffer a permanent injury on the job, you’re typically entitled to compensation for the damage to your body and your future lost wages. But depending on the state, benefits for the same body part can differ dramatically.

Insult to Injury

Employers Complain of Rising Premiums, But Workers’ Comp Is at 25-Year Low

Despite the drumbeat of complaints about costs, employers are paying the lowest rates for workers’ compensation insurance than at any time in the past 25 years, even as the costs of health care have increased dramatically.

Insult to Injury

Workers’ Compensation Reforms by State

Over the past decade, states across the country have been unwinding a century-old compact with America’s workers: A guarantee that if you are injured on the job, your employer will pay your medical bills and enough of your wages to help you get by. In all, 33 states have passed laws that reduce benefits, create hurdles to getting medical care or make it more difficult to qualify for workers’ comp.

Policing Patient Privacy

Over 1,100 Health Data Breaches, but Few Fines

Since October 2009, health care organizations and their business partners reported 1,142 large-scale data breaches, each affecting at least 500 people, to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Of those, seven breaches have resulted in fines.

The Human Toll of Flashbangs

At least 50 Americans have been seriously injured, maimed or killed by flashbangs since 2000. Here are their stories.

Open Payments Explorer: How Much Industry Money Goes to Doctors and Teaching Hospitals

Beginning in 2014, the federal government mandated that pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers publicly report payments made to doctors and teaching hospitals. The first report covered the last five months of 2013. Use this tool to search for a company, drug or device — and compare it to another.

Segregation Now

A National Survey of School Desegregation Orders

Use ProPublica’s reporting to see if your school district is under a court order to end segregation.

Dragnets

Inside the Firewall: Tracking the News That China Blocks

Every day since Nov. 17, 2014, ProPublica has been testing whether the homepages of international news organizations are accessible to browsers inside China. Of the 18 in our test, 0 are currently blocked. Below are the results. To test, we use GreatFire.org, a censorship monitoring service in China that launched in 2011.

Timeline: The Tortured History of the Senate’s Torture Report

It has been more than five years since the Senate began investigating the CIA’s detainee program, a period marked by White House indecisiveness, Republican opposition, and what we now know was CIA snooping.

Louisiana’s Moon Shot

The state hopes to save its rapidly disappearing coastline with a 50-year, $50 billion plan based on science that’s never been tested and money it doesn’t have. What could go wrong?

Will My Obamacare Health Plan Costs Go Up?

The open enrollment season for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act is open until Feb. 15, 2015. Our interactive tool lets you compare plans before you renew your insurance through the federal exchange.

Crude Connections: Where Do Trains Carry Crude Oil?

The amount of crude oil being carried on America’s railroads has grown enormously in recent years. Though the routes taken by crude-bearing trains is hidden from the public, safety-incident data reveals some of the routes.

The Millions New York Counties Coulda Got

In 1999, New York counties had a choice to make. They had just been promised annual payments from tobacco companies as part of a national settlement to reimburse them for smoking-related health care costs. Like winning the lottery, they could either get small payments indefinitely—or take a lump sum immediately by entering into “securitization” deals. Counties knew that these deals would mean less money in the long run, but bankers said they offered protection in case the payments shrank or went away. Now the cost is clear: millions pledged to investors that counties could have kept for themselves.

Losing Ground: Southeast Louisiana is Disappearing, Quickly

Scientists say one of the greatest environmental and economic disasters in the nation’s history—the rapid land loss occurring in the Mississippi Delta—is rushing toward a catastrophic conclusion. ProPublica and The Lens explore why it’s happening and what we’ll all lose if nothing is done to stop it.

Tobacco Debt

Tobacco Bonds May Be Dangerous to Your State’s Financial Health

After a bruising legal fight, tobacco companies agreed in 1998 to compensate 46 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories for the health-related costs of smoking. Wall Street helped turn their annual payments into upfront cash by selling bonds to investors. Some of the deals included a form of high-risk debt, capital appreciation bonds, which obligated governments to pay out billions of their tobacco income in the future.

A Disappearing Planet

Today’s extinction rates rival those during the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Dragnets

The NSA Revelations All in One Chart

We plotted the NSA programs, showing which ones fall squarely into the agency’s stated mission of foreign surveillance, and which ones are more controversial.

Restraints

Can Schools in Your State Pin Kids Down? Probably.

Public schoolchildren across the country were physically restrained or isolated in rooms they couldn’t leave at least 267,000 times in the 2011-2012 school year, despite a near-consensus that such practices are dangerous and have no therapeutic benefit. Many states have little regulation or oversight of such practices. This map shows where your state stands.

Restraints

Restraint Techniques

A Minnesota Department of Education report shows these three common restraints. So-called prone restraints are known to restrict breathing and can be lethal to children. About half of states don’t have a law prohibiting public schools from using such restraints. Minnesota doesn’t allow prone restraints on disabled children and will ban the tactics altogether after August 2015.

Examining Medicare

Ambulances for Dialysis Patients on Rise

New Jersey leads the nation in average annual Medicare spending on ambulance services per dialysis patient, billing for unusually large numbers of non-emergency ambulance rides, according to a our analysis of Medicare payment data. Several ambulance providers said they’ve heard of providers who sign up patients who don’t need the service — a form of fraud. These charts show spending by state from 2001 to 2011, compared to national averages. Sort by the most-recent year or by state.

Guns

Where Do the Guns Traced in Your State Come From?

Nearly a third of the 155,000 guns officials recovered in 2012 were traced back to sources outside the state they were found in, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Use this tool to see firearms traces in each state that year.

Examining Medicare

Treatment Tracker

Medicare recently released, for the first time, details on 2012 payments to individual doctors and other health professionals serving the 46 million seniors and disabled in its Part B program. Part B covers services as varied as office visits, ambulance mileage, lab tests, and the doctor’s fee for open-heart surgery. Use this tool to find and compare providers.

Segregation Now

School Segregation After Brown

Hundreds of school districts were placed under court order to desegregate following the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Many communities do not know the status of these orders. Use this tool to find out whether your district is or ever was under a desegregation order, and also to look at the levels of integration and segregation in your schools.

Segregation Now

Desegregation Court Records

Search here for desegregation documents we collected during our reporting.

Internships

The Department of Labor’s Internships Investigations

In 2010, the Labor Department issued a new fact sheet clarifying when an intern needs to be paid under federal labor law. We collected the case files for all the internship investigations the Labor Department concluded in the three years after issuing new regulations.

A Deadly Surge in Tower Climber Accidents

Nineteen workers have died in communication tower accidents since 2013, a sharp rise from recent years. OSHA has announced new changes in how it polices the industry, including tracking what cell carrier or tower owner subcontractors had been working for when accidents occurred.

Internships

The Price of an Internship

Unpaid internships can help young workers advance their career goals. But they can also vary significantly in cost and quality. Explore college internship programs at different schools across the United States — or tell us about your experience interning for academic credit.

Dollars for Doctors

Doctor Payments on the Decline

Pharmaceutical company payments to health care professionals dropped between 2011 and 2012 among most of the companies and categories ProPublica tracks, driven in part by increased transparency as well as blockbuster drugs losing patent protection. Research payments, however, have increased among that group.

Failing the Fallen

Bud’s Story, from the Records

Private Arthur ‘Bud’ Kelder died as a POW in the Philippines during World War II. His parents always hoped that his body would eventually be sent home. But despite clues, the military has never recovered his remains. Here are letters and others documents from his case from 1941 to 1950. The documents and photographs below are either from the National Archive or courtesy of John Eakin.

Chart: Trauma Hospitals Fail to Screen for Civilian PTSD

A growing body of research shows injured civilians, particularly those injured as a result of violence, are developing PTSD at rates comparable to veterans of war. But many hospitals are doing little to address the problem. We asked 21 top-level trauma centers in cities with the nation’s highest murder rates whether they screen injured patients for signs of PTSD.

Temp Land

Temp Worker Regulations Around the World

The United States has some of the weakest labor protections for temp workers in the developed world. Here, we map out how countries compare based on data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Buying Your Vote

How Dark Money Flows Through the Koch Network

An obscure Arizona nonprofit disbursed millions in cash from anonymous donors. Some was spent on the 2012 elections.

Dragnets

Stasi Social Network Analysis

This hand-drawn graphic, which is undated, was made by the East German secret police and appears to show the social connections the Stasi gleaned about a poet they were spying on.

Tire Tracker

Use this database to look up how your tires are rated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Journalists: Send ProPublica Your Redaction Classics

The Obama administration’s take on transparency can be rather opaque. Send us your most memorable FOIA documents for our Redaction Classics collection.

ER Wait Watcher

Which emergency room will see you the fastest? We’ve got a handy guide for impatient outpatients.

After the Flood

How Well Did FEMA’s Maps Predict Sandy’s Flooding?

When Superstorm Sandy struck New York and New Jersey last year, the accuracy of FEMA’s flood-risk maps for the area, used to help guide development and set flood insurance rates, varied widely. In some cases, the data behind the maps dated as far back to the 1970s. Click a county below to see more about FEMA’s data for that county.

Dragnets

China’s Memory Hole: The Images Erased From Sina Weibo

ProPublica has been collecting images that have been deleted by censors from Sina Weibo, “China’s Twitter,” since May. We gathered a team of people proficient in Mandarin to read and interpret 527 deleted images collected during a two-week window this summer. The images provide a window into the Chinese elite’s self-image and its fears, as well as a lens through which to understand China’s vast system of censorship.

Dragnets

How the NSA’s Claim on Thwarted Terrorist Plots Has Spread

In the months since revelations about NSA surveillance began, intelligence officials and members of Congress have claimed that the agency’s efforts have thwarted 54 terrorist attacks. But a review of official statements shows the NSA has been inconsistent about how many plots have actually been thwarted and what the role the spying programs played. Despite a lack of evidence, Congress and the media have rushed to repeat the most extreme version of the NSA’s claims.

Overdose

How Much Acetaminophen Are You Taking?

Many common over-the-counter drugs contain acetaminophen. Taking more than one at the same time increases your chance of “double-dipping”—accidentally overdosing.

Dragnets

Has the Gov’t Lied on Snooping? Let’s Go to the Videotape

Since Edward Snowden leaked documents detailing the NSA’s surveillance programs, the Director of National Intelligence acknowledged that part of his congressional testimony was “erroneous.” But that’s not the only questionable comment by administration officials.

Timeline: America’s Long Civil Rights March

ProPublica has created a timeline to appreciate the key moments and often differing aims of the government’s judicial and legislative branches in the ongoing clash over civil rights.

Internships

Tracking Intern Lawsuits

The complaints against Condé Nast, Warner Music and Gawker Media are the latest in a rising tide of lawsuits brought by unpaid interns, many of which are still in progress.

After the Flood

New Maps and a New Plan for New York

FEMA’s released new, preliminary flood insurance maps for New York City, which specify how likely areas are to flood. The new maps, which replace maps that used data from 1983, double the number of structures in flood zones.

Dragnets

Mass Surveillance in America: A Timeline of Loosening Laws and Practices

The evolution of the National Security Agency’s dragnet under Presidents Bush and Obama. 

Photo by flickr user sparkieblues http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparkieblues/3971258497/

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