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Investigations & Narratives

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POISONED

Gopher Resource promised changes at Tampa's old lead factory. It kept polluting.
Part 3: The fallout
Gopher Resource promised changes at Tampa's old lead factory. It kept polluting.
At Gopher Resource in Tampa, workers recycle 50,000 used car batteries a day. Their safety equipment doesn’t always protect them, an 18-month Tampa Bay Times investigation found.
Part 1: Hundreds of workers are exposed to poisons inside Florida’s only lead factory
At Gopher Resource in Tampa, workers recycle 50,000 used car batteries a day. Their safety equipment doesn’t always protect them, an 18-month Tampa Bay Times investigation found.
OSHA inspectors haven’t been inside Gopher Resource in five years, even as mechanical breakdowns plagued the Tampa plant and made conditions worse for workers.
Part 2: Federal regulators have been missing in action at Florida’s only lead factory
OSHA inspectors haven’t been inside Gopher Resource in five years, even as mechanical breakdowns plagued the Tampa plant and made conditions worse for workers.

UNPROTECTED

Tampa teens reported a teacher’s sexual comments. Then a student’s life was upended.
Part 1: Lesson learned?
Tampa teens reported a teacher’s sexual comments. Then a student’s life was upended.
Tampa teens wanted their school to protect them. Instead, they say, it got worse.
Part 2: 'Students shouldn't be scared'
Tampa teens wanted their school to protect them. Instead, they say, it got worse.
Officers sent notices to landlords detailing arrests and encounters with their tenants that put families at risk of eviction even when charges were later dropped.
Tampa police called for hundreds to be evicted. Entire families lost their homes.
Officers sent notices to landlords detailing arrests and encounters with their tenants that put families at risk of eviction even when charges were later dropped.

TARGETED

Pasco’s sheriff created a futuristic program to stop crime before it happens. It monitors and harasses families across the county.
Pasco’s sheriff uses grades and abuse histories to label schoolchildren potential criminals. The kids and their parents don’t know.
Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco built a controversial approach to policing. He also built a wide circle of powerful friends who don’t question his tactics.
From its headquarters in Boca Raton, GardaWorld has put unsafe trucks on the road, and its workers and unsuspecting motorists have suffered the consequences.
This major armored truck company took dangerous shortcuts. Mayhem followed.
From its headquarters in Boca Raton, GardaWorld has put unsafe trucks on the road, and its workers and unsuspecting motorists have suffered the consequences.
Big banks entrusted money to GardaWorld. It secretly lost track of millions.
Federal agency knew Garda was “really bad” at safety. It took little action.
Dreams become ‘reality’ at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg
Jan. 25• Arts
The Dalí's "Dream Tapestry" is an interactive experience powered by OpenAI’s DALL·E. It transforms peoples' dreams into individual art pieces and combines them with six other dreams to form a collective tapestry.
Scenes from Tampa’s ‘dead mall,’ alive with nostalgia
Jan. 17• Life & Culture
The scene at University Mall in Tampa on Wednesday, December 21, 2022. The mall wasn't empty, but it was far from busy.
DNA could crack a notorious Florida cold case — with infamous suspects
Jan. 26• Crime
Pat Myers, seen here in August 2022, pauses at the gravesite where his sister and her family are buried, at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Arcadia. The Walker family was murdered on December 19, 1959, and Myers has long hoped for closure as the murder remains one of the oldest unsolved cases in the state.
A Florida taxidermist takes clients nobody else will: grieving pet owners
Jan. 18• Pets
Allison Doty, a 31-year-old pet taxidermist from Inverness, poses for a portrait at her home on Dec. 20, 2022. “There's a huge stigma around pet taxidermy,” Doty said. “I’m hoping to break that.”
How did coronavirus overwhelm this nursing home so quickly?
Dec. 3, 2020• Long Reads
An outbreak. Evacuations. Forty families shattered.
An energy efficiency finance program is trapping Florida homeowners in debt
Sept. 10, 2020• Investigations
Solar panels on Ruskin homes purchased with PACE loans.
How Scientology doubled its downtown Clearwater footprint in 3 years
Oct. 20, 2019• Investigations
Scientology’s international spiritual headquarters in downtown Clearwater is anchored by the Flag Building, on left. An elevated walkway connects the building to the Fort Harrison Hotel, the church’s first purchase in the city in 1975.
You’re trapped. This Florida hospital is cashing in.
Sept. 18, 2019• Investigations
Michael Jenkins spent seven days at North Tampa Behavioral Health last July. Since then, he says his three children have been afraid he’ll leave and not come home.

LATEST

  1. Storm surge is deadly. We built a computer model to show how
    Dec. 18, 2022• Hurricane
    The Tampa Bay Times built a model in partnership with researchers at the University of South Florida to help explain the power – and danger – of storm surge.
    Understanding the threat of storm surge can make the difference between life and death. The Times’ tool shows why.
  2. The worst of Hurricane Ian missed Tampa Bay. What if it hadn’t?
    Dec. 18, 2022• Hurricane
    Part 4 of our Rising Threat series looks at how a hurricane like Ian could affect Tampa Bay. This photo shows the remains of Times Square near the Fort Myers Fishing Pier on Thursday, Sep. 29, 2022, after Hurricane Ian's landfall.
    Thousands more people, homes and businesses would have been at risk. The storm should be a wake-up call.
  5. Audits reveal millions in Medicare Advantage overcharges
    Nov. 22, 2022• Health
    A page from the 2019 U.S. Medicare Handbook in Washington. Newly released federal audits reveal widespread overcharges and other errors in payments to Medicare Advantage health plans for seniors, Kaiser Health News found, with some plans overbilling the government more than $1,000 per patient a year on average.
    The records, hidden until now, reveal widespread overcharges and other errors in payments.
  6. Poisons killed beloved owls in Tampa Bay. Can their defenders save others?
    Nov. 22, 2022• News
    A great horned owlet, left, and its mother share a rat on March 2 in Philippe Park in Safety Harbor. Within days, both would die.
    The birds died one by one in a local park. Admirers blame rat poison. Now they’re trying to get chemicals off the street.
  7. Think you have a rodent problem, Tampa Bay? Here’s what to do.
    Nov. 22, 2022• Investigations
    Joe Rufin with Creepy Creatures Termite and Pest Control, of Palm Harbor, organizes blocks of rodenticide while preparing a bait station as he worked to exterminate rodents from a condominium complex on Aug. 18 in Clearwater. The rodenticide is made with cholecalciferol, which is not among the anticoagulants that local wildlife advocates are trying to get off the street.
    Roof rats are common here. Environmental officials and wildlife advocates say poisons should be a last resort.
  8. Dozens of workers file suit against Tampa lead factory
    Nov. 4, 2022• Investigations
    Looking east at the Gopher Resource lead smelter, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Tampa.
    Sixty-four workers allege they were exposed to dangerous levels of lead and other toxic chemicals at Gopher Resource.
  9. ‘An excuse to racially profile’: How Florida trains police on bias
    Sept. 8, 2022• Investigations
    A screenshot, taken by a Tampa Bay Times reporter, shows a slide from Florida's discriminatory traffic stops training.
    A course designed to teach officers about discrimination in traffic stops instead has significant flaws, eight experts told the Times.
  10. Tampa Bay Times readers helped more than double newsroom’s fundraising goal
    Jun. 3, 2022• Newsroom
    Two weeks after winning the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, the Tampa Bay Times newsroom held its annual weeklong fundraiser. Readers helped the Times more than double the fundraising goal.
    Weeklong campaign to benefit local news brought in over $120,000 and counting.
  11. Tampa Bay Times fundraising drive approaches $50,000 goal
    May 28, 2022• News
    Tampa Bay Times reporters Corey G. Johnson, right, Rebecca Woolington, center, and Eli Murray, left, won the Pulitzer Prize earlier this month. The newsroom is holding a weeklong fundraising drive that concludes Sunday to help the Times do more high-impact journalism.
    The weeklong campaign to augment the newsroom’s budget and help pay for local journalism ends Sunday night.
  12. Tampa Bay Times launches weeklong fundraising campaign to help sustain local news
    May 23, 2022• News
    From front row left, Tampa Bay Times reporters Rebecca Woolington, Eli Murray and Corey G. Johnson celebrate with newsroom staff and guests as Times editor and vice president Mark Katches talks about the trio winning the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting earlier this month. The newsroom estimates the project cost about $750,000 to produce.
    The newsroom sets a target of $50,000 for its annual effort to raise money from the community.
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