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Elaine Harvey, a member of the Yakama’s Kah-milt-pa, standing before a row of the more than 2,900 industrial-scale wind turbines lining the Columbia River Gorge.
Change-making investigative journalism for the Pacific Northwest
Elaine Harvey, a member of the Yakama’s Kah-milt-pa, standing before a row of the more than 2,900 industrial-scale wind turbines lining the Columbia River Gorge.
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The story Investigativemattered.journalism matters.
InvestigateWest is growing, thanks to help from our generous supporters. 10
It didn’t matter that there was no physical ev idence; they were found guilty solely on the word of a jailhouse informant who got an exceptionally light sentence in exchange for testifying. It didn’t matter that on the first day of their trial, prosecu tors switched the date of the alleged crime, wiping out the men’s alibis in the process. (A judge fined the prosecutors $8,000, but let the trial proceed anyway, saying, “I am sanctioning the state for what I consider to be … a careless handling of these cas es.”) It didn’t even matter when a friend of the in formant wrote to Duane to confess, saying that he and the informant had conspired to pin the crimes on Paul and the other innocent men. None of it
It stands up for truth and justice. It holds power accountable. It fights misinformation, conspiracies, extremism, the apathy of dysfunctional systems. It was Thomas Jefferson who famously remarked, “The only security of all is in a free press.” That idea is at the center of InvestigateWest — that our mission is not to serve any party, but to produce public-service journalism that helps make the world a more just and equitable place. For Paul Statler. For everyone. For you.
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— JACOB FRIES InvestigateWest’s executive director
TheAtlantic,NewoutletspartnerNorthwest.outletsrepublishedarticlesInvestigateWest’sareregularlyinlocalacrosstheWealsowithnationalincludingTheYorkTimes,TheGristandGuardian.
Because of our reporting, laws have been changed and wrongs have been righted. 6
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FACING PAGE: Meseret Haile displays a photo of her son Leoul at her apartment in Bellevue. Leoul, who has special needs, is in a facility in Kansas because Washington doesn’t have adequate facilities. (Dan DeLong photo)
Simply put: theinvestigativechange-makingjournalismforPacificNorthwest.
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uane Statler had lost all hope when I met him. I sat with him for hours on that first visit, going through stacks of court records he’d neatly ar ranged on his kitchen table. Just look, Duane told me, “There’s enough evidence right here, in black and white, to send our boys home.” None of it had mattered. Duane’s 21-year-old son, Paul, had been sentenced to 41 years in prison, convicted with two friends of robbing drug dealers.
WHAT WE DO OUR IMPACT OUR TEAM
Our mission is to engage Pacific Northwest residents in social issues by providing compelling, change-making investigative and explanatory journalism.
hadThenmattered.Ipublished my investigation: “Reason able Doubt: How spotty detective work and careless prosecution may have put the wrong men behind bars.” Duane made copies of the article and mailed them to lawmakers in Olympia. One took an inter est and crafted a bill requiring that an informant’s testimony be corroborated by some other evidence. The article soon reached lawyers at the Washington Innocence Project, then housed at the University of Washington, and they took up the case. Finally, after the young men spent four years in prison, the case was dropped, and they were free to go home.
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THE NEED
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WHAT WE DO
nvestigateWest is dedicated to producing change-making journalism for the Pacif ic Northwest. Our journalists work tire lessly to expose corruption, wrongdoing, abuses of power and society’s broken sys tems. We focus on the most urgent issues of our time — climate and the environ ment, social justice, vulnerable people, threats to democracy.
InvestigateWest has won more than 75 journalism awards and honors since we began publishing in 2010.
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Tens of thousands of reporters have lost their jobs since 2008. Meanwhile, American democracy is under siege, threatened by layingwhilethisaandBigconspiracymisinformation,theories,Tech,tribalismthelike.It’snotcoincidencethatishappeningnewsroomsareoffstaff.
Find us online at invw.org.
Our investigative stories aim for real-world im pact. Over the years, our reporting has sparked policy reforms, lawsuits holding corporations and government agencies accountable, and nine state laws protecting the environment, workers and foster children. Our vision is a society of informed resi dents empowered to exercise their rights and work within their communities to make the world a more just and equitable place.
OUR WORK Robert McClure
“As one of InvestigateWest’s co-founders, I’m proud to see the orga nization doing in-depth reporting that has the power to shape public policy and corporate practice. InvestigateWest continues to produce journalism for the common good, and we are all the better for it.”
OUR AWARDS
FOSTER CARE
OUR IMPACT
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InvestigateWest’s reporting has been cited in na tional congressional investigations and in lawsuits against state and local agencies, including one filed by UCLA’s Voting Rights Project after our report ing exposed discrimination against Latino voters. Meanwhile, our “Driving While Indian” project ex posed how the state patrol searched cars of people of color at disproportionate rates, prompting state action, an academic study and reforms.
AUDIENCE
SEXUAL ASSAULT AT REED COLLEGE
Our stories dissecting Reed College’s failed system for bringing sexual-assault predators to justice led to the end of its once-secret system of prosecuting sexual assaults through a college Honor Code sys tem.
After InvestigateWest’s reporting laid bare a crisis of historic proportions in Washington’s child-wel fare system, the Washington Legislature passed six laws to help foster kids and foster parents, and $48 million in new funding.
TOXIC ASPHALT
Melissa Malott, executive director of Communities for a Healthy Bay, CommencementonBay in Tacoma. (Dan DeLong photo)
handle chemotherapy drugs, the state of Washing ton passed two new laws, creating an occupational cancer registry and mandating regulations govern ing how toxic drugs are handled in the workplace.
Washington became the first state in the nation to ban toxic asphalt sealants — made from can cer-causing industrial waste — that have been spread over vast swaths of the nation’s cities and suburbs after InvestigateWest published the first indepth national reporting on the material.
Following an InvestigateWest investigation into the health hazards faced by health care workers who
Here are a few other examples of InvestigateW est getting things done:
FOCUS AREAS
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HEALTH HAZARDS
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Our journalism is reaching more people than ever, with a dozen outlets regularly redistrib uting our stories. Traffic to our website (invw.org) was up 111 percent in August 2022 over the previous August. In 2022, we more than doubled the number of subscribers to our weekly newsletter.
s a nonprofit, InvestigateWest measures success differently than other media — not in advertising or clicks or trends on Twitter, but in real-world change. To date, InvestigateW est’s reporting has resulted in nine new laws in Washington to protect workers, the environment and foster kids, and helped push forward a new law in Oregon in tended to promote justice for people of color.
GETTING THINGS DONE
Looking ahead, our reporters are focused on a handful of coverage areas: 1. Climate and the environment; 2. Democracy disinformation;and 3. Youth and education; 4. Race and equity; 5. Crime and punish ment; 6. Housing and society’s safety nets.
InvestigateWest has been examining one of the most problematic pollutants of the 21st century: plastic. We have examined efforts to address the problem through legislative solu tions, the scope of plastic pollution in the Pa cific Northwest, and how consumers and pro ducers can shift our focus to reuse the plastic we’ve already created. This project was funded in part by the Sustainable Path Foundation.
NOTABLE WORKS
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
PLASTIC POLLUTION
Our yearlong series called “Getting to Zero: Decarbonizing Cascadia” won first prize in SPJ’s Pacific Northwest Excellence in Journal ism Contest for collaboration in 2022. Stories from the series also won first prize for envi ronment and natural resources reporting. The impact of the project is still being felt as advo cates and policy-makers continue to point to our central findings definitively documenting how politicians came up short on ambitious promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
EDUCATION
An investigation revealed how where you live in Washington may determine whether you get stuck in jail before trial. The initial article in our "Justice by Geography" series ran in nearly 10 news outlets across the state, and one com munity has already embraced reforms after our reporting.
THE STORIES WE TELL
An investigation in 2022 exposed how Wash ington state was shipping more disabled stu dents out of state, splitting up families and costing taxpayers millions. Directly as a result of our reporting, state lawmakers called for a special summer session to figure out how to end this practice.
Value Village, a for-profit thrift store chain accused of deceiving consumers, continues to find itself in hot water because of Investi gateWest reporting. In March 2022, the Wash ington Supreme Court agreed to review the case and deliver the final verdict on whether the company scammed consumers.
CHILD CARE
Our project examining cracks in the child care system continues to pay dividends in terms of public understanding and policy initiatives. In 2022, parents we profiled in our “Child Care in Crisis” series were flown to D.C. by a local non profit to lobby Congress to address rising costs and staffing shortages. (That lobbying trip was featured in reports by the Seattle Times and local TV stations.)
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
ENVIRONMENT
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DEMOCRACY
Our reporting exposing how Washington state had disproportionately rejected ballots of Latinos formed the basis of a suit filed by the UCLA Voting Rights Project. The New York Times also cited our reporting in examining the issue nationwide in 2022. (The project was honored in the 2022 Best of the West journal ism contest in the social justice reporting cate gory, alongside the Houston Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times.)
InvestigateWest is building on its track record of change-making journalism with a number of new projects. We’ve been doing groundbreaking reporting about the treatment of disabled students, disparities in the justice system and the economic obstacles facing rural Indigenous communities. Our articles are now reaching more people than ever and, relatedly, have had greater impact on public policy and the community’s understanding of issues critical to the Pacific Northwest. Here are a few examples.
OUR
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InvestigateWest was founded in 2009 by Seattle InvestigateWest.Tribune,inintrendsettersbreakingbuildingprofitsmoreadvertising.andrelyingthroughpublic-serviceatorganizationspioneeringgateWestacrossreportersuponofYorknue,”Worstnesstimepublishing.afterreportersPost-IntelligencerandeditorsthepaperstoppedItwasacriticalforthenewsbusi—“PapersFacingYearforAdRevedeclaredtheNewTimesinthesummer2008—andthousandsthousandsoflosttheirjobsAmerica.InvestiwaspartofagroupofnewscreatedthattimetopreservejournalismanonprofitmodelonreadersupportdonationsratherthanTherearenowthan400newsnonacrossthecountry,onthegroundworkoftheearlylikeVTDiggerVermont,inewsourceCalifornia,TheTexasProPublicaand HISTORY
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MEET THE TEAM
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create a pipeline for reporters of all backgrounds to develop crucial investigative skills.
Anushuya Thapa, a junior at internedUniversityNorthwesterninIllinois,inspring2022.
In 2022, we added three springinternsWepart-timereportersfull-timeandfoureditors.alsohostedthreeovertheandsummer.
Our andorg)emailusepage,emailsreporter,Toimportanttipsreportersinvestigativewelcomeaboutbigorstories.contactaspecificfindtheironthefacingoryoucanourgeneraltips(tips@invw.tosendustipsdocuments.
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e’re building InvestigateW est with diversity, equity and inclusion as a core val ue, using that lens to guide our hiring, our story selec tion, our reporting process and our story presentation. It’s built into our mission as we seek to support emerging journalists of color and do our part to
Joseph Lopez and other volunteers collect marine trash at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle.
Meanwhile, our investigative reporting focuses on injustices and inequities impacting historically marginalized and vulnerable communities, includ ing BIPOC and low-income communities, children with disabilities, foster children, nonnative English speakers, tribes, refugees and those previously in carcerated.
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“I spent 10 weeks interning at InvestigateWest, where I was able to write and report on stories that mattered — from covering climate change and wildfires to the treatment of students with disabilities at Washington public schools. Working closely with seasoned reporters and editors at InvestigateWest helped lay the foundations for my professional network and gave me invaluable real-world experience as a reporter.”
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JASON BEGAY SENIOR EDITOR
BRAELA KWAN
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Jacob Fries is executive director of Investi gateWest. Previously, Fries spent more than a decade leading the Inlander, a Spokane-based weekly. A Pacific Northwest native, he also worked as a reporter at the Tampa Bay Times and the New York Times, and his work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Seattle Times, the Denver Post and the Boston Globe. Reach him at jacob@invw.org.
JACQUI BANASZYNSKI SENIOR EDITOR
Jim Simon is currently an adjunct journalism instructor at the University of Washington. He is the former managing editor of Honolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit focused on in-depth report ing in Hawaii and the Pacific. Simon is also the former managing editor of the Seattle Times, where he spent more than 30 years as an edi tor and reporter.
KAYLEE TORNAY
Jason Begay is an associate professor at the University of Montana School of Journalism, where he teaches the Montana Native News Project, a capstone course that gives students the opportunity to cover in-depth news sto ries on the state’s seven reservations. He grew up on the Navajo Nation and has worked as a reporter at the Navajo Times, the New York Times, the Oregonian and the Oakland Tribune. STAFF
Jacqui Banaszynski is a career journalist who now edits Nieman Storyboard, a global web site that explores the art and craft of stories. She is an emerita professor at the Missouri School of Journalism and faculty fellow at the Poynter Institute. While at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, her series “AIDS in the Heartland” won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing.
Wilson Criscione, a lifelong Washingtonian, has reported for various outlets across the state, including the Bellingham Herald and the Inlander. His work has exposed top state offi cials for ignoring domestic violence, triggered criminal investigations into police, and uncov ered mistreatment of children in schools and foster care. Reach him at wilson@invw.org.
JACOB FRIES
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
FELLOW & DIGITAL MEDIA PRODUCER
Zachariah Bryan has written for newspapers and magazines in Washington, Alaska and Montana. Most recently, he worked at the Daily Herald in Everett, where he was assistant news editor and reported on breaking news, the criminal justice system and the environment. Reach him at zachariah@invw.org.
JIM SIMON SENIOR EDITOR
ANDREA OTÁÑEZ
WILSON CRISCIONE
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
ZACHARIAH BRYAN
Braela Kwan writes InvestigateWest’s weekly newsletter and oversees the organization's so cial media channels. Braela earned a Master of Journalism from the University of British Co lumbia in Vancouver, B.C., where she is based. Her work can be found in The Tyee, Hakai Mag azine, The Star Vancouver, and Slate Magazine.
Kaylee Tornay has been documenting stories in Oregon and California since her high school days in Bend, Oregon, covering the progress of the water polo team. She has won regional awards for her work watchdogging public and private schools’ efficacy in meeting student needs, from safety to mental health support to instruction. Reach her at kaylee@invw.org.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Andrea Otáñez has worked as a reporter, copy editor, team editor and columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune and The Seattle Times. She is currently an associate teaching professor at the University of Washington, where she has developed courses in communication studies; race, gender, power and media representa tions of Latinx people; and critiques of journal istic objectivity.
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Nathaniel Sanders was featured in our report "Full of Injustice: Burden of Court Fines Vary by Race, County in WA." The 60-year-old was living with his 90-yearold mother in Seattle and didn’t know how he’d come up with a quarter-million dollars in restitution and court fees. (Dan DeLong photo)
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Mary Curry works on an art project with Mylah at Curry’s home-based child care center. (Dan DeLong photo)
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