A prominent New Orleans philanthropist obtained loans and real estate through a nonprofit he controlled and turned the money and property over to for-profit companies he owned, Richard Thompson reported. THE ADVOCATE 

A border patrol agent's gender-reveal party sparked an Arizona wildfire and reporter Tony Davis got video of it through a Freedom of Information Act request. ARIZONA DAILY STAR  

Federal prosecutors are eyeing Missouri's largest provider of mental health services after executives skirted controls to boost income and line their pockets, all at the cost of taxpayers, Eric Besson and Lisa Hammersly reported.  ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE 

Atlanta officials ignored a union contract's salary caps and paid retired cops thousands more than allowed in overtime, leading to a windfall for the officers on the mayor's personal security unit, Dan Klepal reported. THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION 

Federal agents raided the offices of Chicago's longest-serving alderman, seizing computers and boxes of materials from the head of one of the city's most enduring political power structures, a team reported.  CHICAGO TRIBUNE 

As a Houston hospital faced scrutiny for its heart transplant program, patients in its liver and lung transplant program began to die at alarming rates, Mike Hixenbaugh and Charles Ornstein reported. HOUSTON CHRONICLE/PROPUBLICA  

A top aide to Missouri's Attorney General, while sidestepping questions about transparency during an investigation of the governor, flouted open records laws by using a message-deleting app, a team reported. THE KANSAS CITY STAR 

The chairman of the California Democratic Party resigned one day after reporter Melanie Mason published accusations from party staffers and political activists of crude sexual comments and unwanted touching or physical intimidation. LOS ANGELES TIMES 

A California city councilman personally asked companies that do business at City Hall to donate to a private school where his wife was working as a fundraiser and assigned his staff to help with the effort, a team reported. LOS ANGELES TIMES 

While he was a federal prosecutor in Miami, the U.S. secretary of labor kneecapped a sprawling investigation into a New York power player's sex trafficking operation that had exploited underage girls for years, Julie K. Brown reported. THE MIAMI HERALD 

Oregon officials put a woman who openly espoused conspiracy theories in charge of investigating neglected children in foster care, Molly Young reported. The state missed warning signs and failed to review some child deaths altogether.  THE OREGONIAN  

 

Police in Oregon ignored evidence and a victim's testimony, letting a rapist walk free before he went on to become a suspect in four murders on the same stretch of barren highway, Noelle Crombie reported.

More than 1,250 people have been shot in Philadelphia this year, David Gambacorta and Helen Ubiñas reported. Victims struggle to navigate a confusing web of local, state, and federal assistance programs, which in some cases can award as little as $1,500 to victims whose injuries require expensive lifelong care. THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER  

South Carolina social workers are sending children to a group home where kids are boarded up in small, dark, sometimes unheated rooms, even though officials have known about the forbidden use of solitary confinement for months, Lauren Sausser reported.  THE POST AND COURIER 

A public defender in Florida, who has an unusually cozy relationship with prosecutors, lets her clients end up behind bars twice as long for the same crimes as a neighboring county, disproportionately affecting black people like no other place in the state, a team reported.  SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE/PALM BEACH POST 

After the deadly Parkland, Florida mass shooting, school officials dodged transparency and hired a public relations firm, with taxpayer money, to bury information about a series of oversights and missed red flags, a team reported. SUN SENTINEL 

New Jersey wasn't tracking police use of force so a team of reporters filed more than 500 records requests and spent more than $30,000 to create a comprehensive database of every kick, punch and baton blow. The team included nearly three dozen reporters, editors, photographers and designers. THE STAR-LEDGER 

In a tiny South Carolina town, officials for years poured a mysterious chemical into the drinking water. Now, brown water gushes from faucets and residents complain of itchy skin and hair loss, Sammy Fretwell reported. THE STATE 

A renowned hospital in Florida ignored safety concerns and misled patients about the life-threatening problems in its pediatric heart surgery unit, where reporters Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi uncovered an unprecedented string of deaths. TAMPA BAY TIMES 

A Tennessee mayor canceled several city contracts with a top engineering firm and hired a compliance officer after reporter Joey Garrison found an internal audit that showed the vendor's executives entertained officials during sporting events and in some cases paid for the tickets. THE TENNESSEAN