ProPublica and Local Reporting Network partner the Connecticut Mirror won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting on what judges described as “an impressive series exposing how the state’s unique towing laws favored unscrupulous companies that overcharged residents, resulting in swift and meaningful consumer protections. » This is the ninth Pulitzer for ProPublica.
A series about how the Food and Drug Administration for years allowed unsafe drugs to enter the United States was named a finalist in the investigative reporting category, and a series about the fallout from the destruction of the U.S. Agency for International Development was named a finalist in the explanatory reporting category. They are the 13th and 14th Pulitzer finalists in 18 years.
In “Crochet“, CT Mirror reporters Dave Altimari and Ginny Monk exposed a wide range of abuses by towing companies across the state – in part due to a lack of oversight by the Department of Motor Vehicles – and how Connecticut’s laws had come to favor the companies over low-income residents. Towing companies could begin the process of selling individuals’ cars in as little as 15 days if the company deemed that the car was worth less than $1,500 The window was one of the shortest in history, CT Mirror and ProPublica found, and that meant many people who couldn’t afford to pay towing fees quickly were frequently losing their cars.
Through a long battle for public records, complex data analysis by Sophie Chou and Haru Coryne, and innovative engagement reporting, journalists discovered that tow truck companies were significantly undervalue cars relative to book value, which allows them to sell vehicles more quickly. They revealed that towing companies often kept people’s belongings, including work equipment and memorabilia with sentimental value, as leverage to get them to pay exorbitant fees. The companies were also flouting a law that required them to keep profits from cars sold and turn them over to the state so owners could claim the money – because the DMV never had a system in place to collect it.
Within 24 hours of the first report, Connecticut DMV management announced that it was review towing practicesand lawmakers quickly proposed an overhaul of the invoice the state’s century-old towing laws. Almost all of the issues raised by Altimari and Monk were included in the bill, which passed in May 2025 with almost unanimous bipartisan support. Towing companies must now warn people before removing vehicles from apartment parking lots unless there are security concerns, accept credit cards for a fee, allow people to collect their belongings and wait at least 30 days before selling cars. A DMV task force created by lawmakers to study how towing companies manage their profits has expanded its reach to other parts of the law, and last week the state Senate adopted a bill It would create an online portal for Connecticut drivers to track their towed cars and require towing companies to consider the age of towed vehicles before selling them.
“Our investigation of Connecticut towing companies is exactly what we envisioned when we created the Local Reporting Network,” said Charles Ornstein, ProPublica’s locals editor. “Start with strong local journalists who have good ideas, give them the time and resources to pursue them to their fullest potential, add ProPublica’s top-notch editorial and specialist teams to the mix and watch what happens.” Since launching the Local Reporting Network in 2018, ProPublica has partnered with nearly 100 newsrooms to support in-depth reporting in communities across the United States.
In “Roulette Rx“, journalists Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose and Brandon Roberts uncovered how a secret group within the FDA quietly allowed dangerous drugmakers to continue to sell generic drugs Since known foreign factories of inferior quality which were banned from the US market. The agency failed to warn doctors or patients about exempt drugs and did not regularly test the safety or quality of these drugs, putting the public at risk.
The series also revealed that basic information on where generic drugs are manufactured is available. fragmented, obscure and effectively inaccessible to consumers – making it impossible for people to know if their drugs are made in failing factories – even though generics account for about 90% of prescriptions in the United States. The team, which included members of ProPublica’s data and news applications teams and more than a dozen students from Northwestern University’s Medill Investigative Lab, interviewed more than 300 people, filed nearly 40 Freedom of Information Act requests and sued the FDA for records, ultimately building a publicly accessible database of 40,000 generic drugs and their factory inspection history – the first comprehensive list of drugs shipped from banned factories.
Citing ProPublica’s investigation, the Senate Select Committee on Aging called on the FDA to conduct more drug testing and alert hospitals and other buyers when manufacturers with safety defects receive exemptions from import bans. The senators also demand immediate consideration of the exemptions. A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation in February, which requires drug labels to indicate where the drug was manufactured, bringing more transparency and accountability to the generic drug industry.
As the Trump administration dismantled the country’s longstanding foreign aid system, USAID ProPublica journalists Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy documented the deadly global fallout and identified Trump officials directly responsible for “The end of aid.” They linked the resulting harms, including the deaths of people who depended on aid, to U.S. policymakers and politicians responsible for budget cuts. The journalists then traveled to war-torn South Sudan to document the return of cholera after the cessation of essential services And or the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenyawhere more than 300,000 people had their food rations reduced after the United States cut funding to the World Food Program.
These stories immediately sparked an outcry. Experts, lawyers, nonprofits and lawmakers have called on the Trump administration to change course, and ProPublica’s reporting has been cited in legal filings and congressional investigations challenging the dismantling of USAID. Rep. Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent several letters to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing media coverage and urging him to explain to Congress his assertion that no deaths resulted from the administration’s actions.
After Barry-Jester and Murphy discovered that USAID personnel I was told to shred it and burn it documents, legal experts filed complaints with the National Archives, and Democracy Forward and the Public Citizen Litigation Group filed a petition for an emergency temporary restraining order to stop the destruction of federal records. And after ProPublica raised questions about an Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam which had stalled due to reductions in USAID funding, putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of poisoning, the project received US funds to continue operating.
“We are proud to do work that brings accountability to the state, national and international levels,” said Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica editor-in-chief. “Our two finalists and our winning entry with The Connecticut Mirror once again demonstrate the power of investigative journalism to expose wrongs and spark change in the lives of ordinary people.”
ProPublica received Pulitzers for public service in 2025, public service in 2024, national reports in 2020, writing features in 2019, public service in 2017, explanatory report in 2016, national reports in 2011 and investigative reporting in 2010. Local Reporting Network partner Anchorage Daily News won the Pulitzer for public service in 2020. Discover our other projects designated as finalists.
Project credits
“Crochet”: Shahrzad Rasekh, José Luis Martínez, Asia Fields, Elizabeth Hamilton, Michael Grabell, Shoshana Gordon, Peter DiCampo, Rachel Molenda, Sarah Blustain, Charles Ornstein, Ken B. Morales, Agnel Philip, Ryan Little, Hannah Fresques, Alissandra Calderon, Olivia Walton, Ariana Tobin, Stephen Busemeyer, Andrew Brown, Anuj Shrestha, Julia Rothman, Grace Palmieri, Kristine Malicse, Gabby DeBenedictis, Diego Sorbara, Emily Goldstein, Colleen Barry, Jack Putterman, Roman Broszkowski and Ryanne Mena contributed to the series.
“Rx Roulette”: Kevin Uhrmacher, Ruth Talbot, Alison Kodjak, Nick Varchaver, Alexandra Zayas, Tracy Weber, Caitlin Kelly, Ken Schwenke, Lucas Waldron, Ashley Clarke, Nick McMillan, Carissa Quiambao, Haley Clark, Joanna Shan, Diego Sorbara, Colleen Barry, Emily Goldstein, Lisa Larson-Walker, Anna Donlan, Grace Palmieri, Kassie Navarro, Sam Cooney, Chris Morran, Isabelle Yan, Jeff Frankl, Pratheek Rebala, Andrea Suozzo, Al Shaw, Alec Glassford, Irena Hwang, Nat Lash, Aaron Brezel, Melody Kramer, Alice Crites, Vidya Krishnan and Andrea Wise contributed to the series.
Students from the Medill Investigative Lab in Washington, DC, also contributed: Haajrah Gilani, Emma McNamee, Julian Andreone, Isabela Lisco, Aidan Johnstone, Megija Medne, Yiqing Wang, Phillip Powell, Gideon Pardo, Casey He, Lindsey Byman, Josh Sukoff, Kunjal Bastola, Shae Lake, Alyce Brown, Katherine Dailey, Anavi Prakash, Jessie Nguyen, Sinyi Au, Zhiyu Solstice Luo, Kate McQuarrie, Sadie Leite, Victoria Malis, Tianyi Wang, Gabby Shell, Zara Norman and Naisha Roy.
“The end of aid”: Sarah Childress, Jesse Eisinger, Tracy Weber, Stephen Engelberg, Lisa Larson-Walker, Boyzell Hosey, Alex Bandoni, Peter DiCampo, Lena Groeger, Chris Alcantara, Chris Morran, Alexis Stephens, Alex Mierjeski, Molly Redden, Maryam Jameel, Ashley Clarke, Pratheek Rebala, Emily Goldstein, Olivia Walton, Diego Sorbara, Colleen Barry, Brian Otieno, Phoebe Ouma, Le Van, Yiel Awat and Ngoc Nguyen contributed to the series. THE ProPublica advice truck was a key element in generating sources.
