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Investigations & Narratives

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2021 Pulitzer Prize winner

Pasco’s sheriff created a futuristic program to stop crime before it happens. It monitors and harasses families across the county.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For women working in Tampa Bay’s craft beer industry, there’s progress amid struggle
Nov. 28• Food
Paloma Mejia, 34, adds hops into the whirlpool while brewing Jai Alai IPA at Cigar City Brewing in Tampa. The local craft beer industry — still a heavily male-dominated field — is attracting more women to the profession.
25 years after police killed TyRon Lewis, family’s pain persists
Oct. 28• St. Petersburg
Pamela Lewis, center, and her family listen during an Oct. 24 rally held by the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement to mark the death of her son 25 years ago. His image appears on their T-shirts. TyRon Lewis was shot and killed by a St. Petersburg police officer in 1996 at the intersection where the rally was held, 18th Avenue S and 16th Street S. His death sparked rioting, and more unrest when the shooting was later ruled justified. The family gathers every year on the anniversary of his death to remember him.
The lives of 1,000 Floridians killed by coronavirus
Apr. 10, 2020• Health
Scientology members fuel another land-buying surge in Clearwater
Nov. 17• Clearwater
With the North Marina Area in the foreground, downtown Clearwater and the Memorial Causeway can be seen in the distance. Companies managed or operated by Church of Scientology members have purchased dozens of properties over the last two years in North Marina, a district the city wants to see redeveloped.
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
Sep. 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.
Sep. 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. Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists honors Tampa Bay Times journalists
    Nov. 19• Arts
    From left, Deputy Editor for Photography Boyzell Hosey stands with fellow 2021 Griot Drum Journalism Honorees Jenise Griffin, Ernest Hooper and Eric Deggans.
    The organization honored several newsroom staffers at its annual Griot Drum Awards and Scholarship ceremony for their coverage of people of color.
  2. Reflecting on the journalism that has made a big difference in Tampa Bay in 2021
    Nov. 13• News
    Anil Eglais, 62, suffered from a variety of health problems while working at Gopher Resource, the only lead factory in the state of Florida. His story was among those chronicled by a reporting team at the Tampa Bay Times. The series Poisoned has had a significant impact so far. Several other Times stories also made a difference in 2021.
    Reporting by the Tampa Bay Times this year has given voice to the voiceless and held the powerful to account throughout the region.
  5. St. Petersburg man was one of first in Florida sentenced under ‘two strikes’ law
    Nov. 11• Florida
    Carolyn Youngblood holds photos of her son, Dorian Mackeroy, inside of her St. Petersburg home. He is serving a life sentence in Hardee Correctional Institution. Mackeroy was designated a prison releasee reoffender after committing a robbery in 1997. He has been in prison for 23 years.
    He has seen people who commit homicides, including a man who killed his brother, get released from prison while he serves a life sentence for a robbery in which no one was injured.
  6. Orlando and Orange County scrap crime-free housing programs
    Oct. 6• Investigations
    Meridian Apartments on N 50th St. in Tampa is one of about 100 apartment complexes that participated in Tampa Police Department's Crime-Free Multi Housing program. Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Office have ended their crime-free programs.
    As debate continues about Tampa’s anti-crime initiative for apartment complexes, two other Florida law enforcement agencies have ended programs based on the same national model.
  7. OSHA fines Tampa lead factory $319,000
    Sep. 30• Investigations
    Federal regulators on Thursday gave Gopher Resource a "willful violation" for exposing workers to inhalation hazards.
    The lead smelter was the subject of a recent Tampa Bay Times investigation.
  8. Public health officials urge lower lead limits
    Sep. 29• Investigations
    A Tampa Bay Times investigation found that workers at Gopher Resource in Tampa were exposed to extreme amounts of lead.
    The American Public Health Association made the recommendation after reading a Tampa Bay Times investigation.
  9. Cadmium spiked inside a Tampa lead factory. Workers didn’t get help.
    Sep. 23• Investigations
    Anil Eglais, 62, watched his health decline after working more than 25 years at Gopher's Tampa lead factory, where he was exposed to poisonous metals including cadmium.
    For years, the company’s contracted doctor failed to flag abnormal test results and provide the required follow-up.
  10. Tampa announces reforms to Crime-Free housing program
    Sep. 18• Investigations
    Tampa Mayor Jane Castor on Saturday announced reforms to a Tampa Police Department program that reported the arrest of tenants to landlords and encouraged them to evict. It comes after a Tampa Bay Times investigation revealed that entire families lost their homes even in cases when charges were dropped.
    After defending the program, Mayor Jane Castor agrees to limit when landlords are notified of tenant arrests.
  11. Civil rights groups call for halt to Tampa police Crime-Free housing program
    Sep. 17• Investigations
    A sign at Meridian Apartments on N 50th Street in Tampa advertises its participation in Tampa's Crime-Free Multi Housing program. It was one of about 100 apartment complexes enrolled in the Tampa Police Department program.
    The NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida are among groups asking Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to end the anti-crime initiative they say unfairly puts Black renters at risk of eviction.
  12. Tampa police called for hundreds to be evicted. Entire families lost their homes.
    Sep. 15• Investigations
    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.
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