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POISONED

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.
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.

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.
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.
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.

LATEST

  1. School district faces calls for investigation as more accuse Tampa teacher of bullying
    Yesterday• News
    Austen Peffley is speaking out about disturbing comments made by a Wharton High teacher after a Tampa Bay Times investigation into similar complaints.
    Former students, parents and the NAACP ask for scrutiny on how Hillsborough schools document complaints.
  2. Records show Tampa teacher’s troubled history
    Mar. 12• Investigations
    A yearbook photo of Wharton High School teacher Todd Harvey.
    Hillsborough records show that school officials documented at least 23 allegations against Todd Harvey since he started in the late 1990s.
  5. A Tampa teen was racially harassed by her teacher. He’s bullied students for years.
    Mar. 12• Investigations
    Melanie Copeland felt unheard as a freshman at Wharton High after she reported a racist incident involving her teacher.
    Hillsborough records show allegations ranged from performing a Nazi salute to calling a transgender student a slur.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. ‘An excuse to racially profile’: How Florida trains police on bias
    Sep. 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.

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Our team

Rebecca Woolington, Investigative Editor

Bethany Barnes, Deputy Investigative Editor

Eli Murray, Investigative Reporter

Zachary T. Sampson, Investigative Reporter

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