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His Research on Pregnant Opioid Users Was Widely Celebrated. Auditors and Experts Found Major Flaws.

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Dr. Craig Towers in 2018. The local newspaper gave him an award for his work with pregnant women with opioid addiction Michael Patrick/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images When Dr. Craig Towers moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2010, the high-risk obstetrician encountered a crisis unlike anything he’d seen. Towers, who had practiced for 25 years in California and Wisconsin, found himself caring for an unusual number of pregnant women addicted to painkillers — and delivering newborns who were suffering withdrawal symptoms. Those babies, born shaking and inconsolable and who required weeks of specialized care, were becoming tragic symbols of the region’s raging opioid epidemic. “We were inundated,” Towers later told the Knoxville News Sentinel. In those initial years in Tennessee, Towers recognized a need — and a research opportunity. Medical doctrine had long held that a pregnant patient with an opioid addiction could not be safely detoxed because withdrawal could ha...
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They Rebuilt After Texas’ Devastating Floods. Then Their Home Flooded Again.

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Joan Connor and David Stearns survived the 2025 floods in Kerr County, Texas, by clinging to the pergola outside their house. Their home flooded again this year. Brenda Bazán for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune When deadly flooding swept through the Texas Hill Country in July of last year, Joan Connor and her husband swam and waded out of their home, surviving only by clinging to a pergola in their front yard.  The Guadalupe River flood destroyed most of their possessions. It killed at least 119 people in Kerr County, where the couple live, about 100 miles west of Austin.  But Connor, now 82, and her husband, now 99, moved back into the refurbished house by Christmas, with donated furniture arranged by volunteer decorators.  They didn’t fear another flood. Connor told me earlier this year: “We don’t think a thing like that will happen again in our lifetime.” Last month, almost exactly one year after the last deluge, their house flooded again . ...
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Missouri Republicans Are Trying to Repeal Abortion Rights by Leaning Into Anti-Trans Sentiment

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Demonstrators filled the Missouri state Capitol building in January to protest legislative efforts to alter or overturn citizen-led measures passed at the ballot box, including an amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion. Lilley Halloran/St. Louis Public Radio Two years ago, abortion opponents in Missouri tried to defeat Amendment 3, a ballot initiative to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution, by falsely telling voters that it would allow gender transition surgeries for minors — even though it wouldn’t. Voters approved Amendment 3 anyway , overturning the near-total abortion ban enacted by Missouri’s GOP-dominated legislature that had taken effect after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022. Now Republican leaders in the state are trying to repeal those rights again, using the same issue. They placed a new amendment on the November ballot, also called Amendment 3, that would restore Missouri’s abortion ban while allowing limit...
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Oregon Is Spending More Than Ever on Low-Income Housing. A State Law Keeps the Details Secret.

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Illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: records obtained by ProPublica, Don Ryan/AP. Oregon’s spending on low-income housing has exploded in the past five years. The state has given developers an unprecedented $1.4 billion, and the cost of developing each apartment has nearly doubled, to $540,000. Dozens of projects are lined up for an additional $850 million in future state funding. Federal tax credits, which the state oversees, will bring even more money to bear. Yet one thing has remained constant: The public isn’t allowed to see the details of how all these dollars are being spent. Oregon is one of the only states in the country with a carve-out in its public records law that prevents disclosing the financial details of subsidized housing projects, thwarting researchers and journalists who have tried to examine their costs. The issue is especially pressing in the Pacific Northwest, where leaders have tied the lack of affordable housing to the ...
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What Parents Need to Know About Sexual Abuse in Youth Sports

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Collage by ProPublica. Photo by Sarah Blesener for ProPublica. As a reporter for The Washington Post and now ProPublica, I’ve investigated how youth sports organizations have failed to protect kids from sexual predators. I’ve spoken to dozens of parents. Some had children who were victimized by coaches. Others wanted to know how to keep their children safe. Nearly every parent I’ve met said they didn’t have the information they needed to understand the system set up to protect their kids. Here’s what you need to know (and how to get in touch with tips): How is the system supposed to work? The system revolves around one organization: the U.S. Center for SafeSport. SafeSport, as it’s known, is charged with investigating allegations of abuse at all levels of sport, from elite Olympic athletes to young recreational players. Its focus is sexual abuse, but it can also look into allegations of emotional and physical abuse.  The center has the power to suspend co...
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