Investigations
Through my investigative reporting, I aim to hold powerful people, government agencies and institutions accountable. Below are stories I’ve written using government documents I’ve obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and/or information from confidential sources. If you have a story tip you’d like to send me, visit my Contact page. (Be sure to follow my instructions for communicating confidentially).
When the Check Isn’t in the Mail (Pressland)
To understand how late and non-payments affected freelancers, I obtained late and non-payment complaints by media freelancers filed under New York City’s Freelance Isn’t Free Act. I talked to named and unnamed sources regarding their experiences with either not being paid on time or having to manage freelance payments within media companies.
Why Is The TSA Still Searching Black Women’s Hair? (Cosmopolitan)
In this story, I outline my personal experience with a Transportation Security Officer searching my hair at an airport. Using documents I’ve obtained via FOIA, I then examined the Transportation Security Agency’s policies for searching travelers’ hair, talked to other Black women who had and had not filed complaints against the agency and discussed the history behind Black women’s relationship with their hair.
Salon workers are holding on to their masks, and not just because of Covid-19 (Vox)
I obtained complaints from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) to understand how cosmetic chemical exposures were affecting cosmetology workers. In collaboration with Vox and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, I interviewed salon workers about the ways in which cosmetic chemical exposures affected their health and how they navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. I also spoke with experts about the lack of protections for and misclassification of salon workers.
What to Do if You Face Anti-Muslim Discrimination at Airport Security (Vice)
Following my previous story about how TSA searched Black women’s hair, I obtained more documents examining the agency’s search procedures for Muslim travelers and complaints filed by Muslim travelers who felt that they had been discriminated against because of their religion. I then interviewed experts about what Muslim travelers can do to file complaints if they’re searched as well as spoke with Muslim people about how their airport experiences changed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
How Chicago fell for crypto (Chicago Reader)
Through multiple FOIA requests, I obtained cryptocurrency scam complaints from the FTC and emails exchanged between FTX U.S., the now-defunct cryptocurrency trading firm, and government officials within the city of Chicago. From there, I wrote an article for the Chicago Reader explaining how local government officials courted the crypto industry as Illinois residents were defrauded by crypto scammers.