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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.
The kids and their parents don’t know.
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 data-driven approach to policing. He also built a wide circle of powerful friends who don’t question his tactics.
The man behind the machine
Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco built a controversial data-driven 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.
An outbreak. Evacuations. Forty families shattered.
How did coronavirus overwhelm this nursing home so quickly?
An outbreak. Evacuations. Forty families shattered.
Solar panels on Ruskin homes purchased with PACE loans.
An energy efficiency finance program is trapping Florida homeowners in debt
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.
How Scientology doubled its downtown Clearwater footprint in 3 years
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.
You’re trapped. This Florida hospital is cashing in.
Leslie Lugo’s family visits her grave in September.
Despite warnings, All Children’s kept operating. Babies died.

LATEST

  1. A Tampa lead factory hurt workers. Here’s how to avoid a repeat.
    Dec. 24, 2021• Investigations
    Experts say regulators could take steps to protect workers from the kinds of issues they faced at Gopher Resource.
    Experts say the solutions could include adding new reporting requirements and increasing the frequency of inspections.
  2. Join us on Twitter Spaces for a look inside Florida’s only lead smelter
    Dec. 15, 2021• Tampa
    A smoke stack is seen Nov. 7 at the Gopher Resource lead smelter. The Tampa factory is the subject of a Tampa Bay Times investigation, Poisoned.
    Tampa Bay Times journalists will discuss their Poisoned investigation and take questions on the social media platform.
  5. Tampa teens wanted their school to protect them. Instead, they say, it got worse.
    Dec. 12, 2021• Tampa
    Rufus del Valle says that during his time at Blake High School he saw friends suffer from what he understood to be sexual abuse. When de Valle tried to speak up during his freshman year of college, he says no action was taken by the administration.
    Anguished and furious about sexually inappropriate behavior, they tried to help each other.
  6. Regulators to step up monitoring of Tampa lead factory
    Dec. 11, 2021• Investigations
    The county announced this week that it would run the air-quality monitors around Gopher Resource's Tampa plant on a randomized schedule.
    The county plans to increase testing around Gopher Resource’s facility and use a new, randomized schedule following a Tampa Bay Times report.
  7. How a lead factory polluted a Tampa neighborhood
    Dec. 2, 2021• Investigations
    Poisoned, Part 3: The Fallout
    Records show the company pumped lead into the air and mishandled hazardous waste.
  8. Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists honors Tampa Bay Times journalists
    Nov. 19, 2021• 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.
  9. Reflecting on the journalism that has made a big difference in Tampa Bay in 2021
    Nov. 13, 2021• 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.
  10. St. Petersburg man was one of first in Florida sentenced under ‘two strikes’ law
    Nov. 11, 2021• 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.
  11. Orlando and Orange County scrap crime-free housing programs
    Oct. 6, 2021• 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.
  12. OSHA fines Tampa lead factory $319,000
    Sep. 30, 2021• 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.

Send us a confidential tip.

Learn how to securely call, message or email us at tampabay.com/tips.

Our team

Kathleen McGrory, Deputy Editor for Investigations

Corey G. Johnson, Investigative Reporter

Rebecca Woolington, Investigative Reporter

Bethany Barnes, Investigative Reporter

Eli Murray, Data Reporter

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