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Camila Ortiz González, 7, holds her 8-month-old brother, Isaías, at home in Omaha, Nebraska, in June. Although the Environmental Protection Agency cleaned up their family’s yard in 2012, the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica tests found levels of lead that are higher than before the agency remediated it. The agency denied their mother’s request to resample the yard. Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica In the last 10 months, residents in neighborhoods across Omaha, Nebraska, have contacted the city and federal government after tests by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica showed they had enough of the toxic metal in their yards for the dirt to be dug up and replaced under Environmental Protection Agency rules. But the responses they’ve received have been inconsistent. Three of them received new testing and were promised additional cleanup. Yet others were denied a new cleanup or told the news organizations they never heard back.  One resident said the city teste...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appointed a 21-person board to oversee water in a broad area surrounding the Nueces River, which runs through Corpus Christi, Texas. Brenda Bazán for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded with fury after Corpus Christi officials announced in March that this Gulf Coast region of more than 500,000 people could face unprecedented restrictions as its water supply dried up. The state had already committed over $750 million in low-interest loans to the city’s plans for a desalination plant, a project that would add 30 million gallons a day to the region’s water supply. But the project had gone nowhere. “You know what they did? They squandered it, and then they changed their plan and then they were indecisive about what to do,” Abbott said of city officials in a heated response to a reporter’s question at an unrelated March press conference. “What Corpus Christi leaders have to do is make a decision,” Abbott said. “We...

From left, Brenda González Rocha holds her 8-month-old, Isaías, as González’s daughters Carolina, 6, and Camila, 8, play on the trampoline in their backyard in June. González’s front yard tested high for lead, and she is concerned how the contamination could “affect their quality of life.” Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica Shortly after buying her house in 2022, Mary Royers learned from a man across the street that her Omaha, Nebraska, neighborhood was contaminated with lead. But her yard, like thousands of others, had been cleaned up, the neighbor said. Royers wanted to be sure. So the 36-year-old educator checked a website where the city tracks the soil test results of every home in a 27-square-mile area surrounding the site of an old lead smelter. She saw “remediated” written in bright green letters. The federal government had completed the work two decades ago. An expert must have tested the dirt and determined the problem was solved, she thought. Relieved, Royers se...

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, rear, attends a hearing with commissioners Anna Gomez, right, and Olivia Trusty. Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg/Getty Images Two government watchdog groups have demanded investigations into whether Federal Communications Commission members violated ethics requirements by accepting luxury gala tickets from Paramount as the company sought government approval for its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The complaints filed by Democracy Defenders Fund and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington cite a recent ProPublica investigation that detailed how CBS or its parent company, now Paramount, have for years given FCC commissioners tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala , which the television network sponsors. The commissioners accepted the gifts even as the FCC was reviewing or about to review major Paramount business decisions, including two megamergers. Commissioner Olivia Trusty’s most recent...