Behind the Headlines

In this gripping episode of Behind the Headlines, host Dean Hoffmeyer is joined by public service journalism reporter Emily Hamer to delve into a series of investigative reports on a controversial religious community in Tucson, Arizona. The Golden Dawn Tabernacle, a church for the followers of William Branham's "The Message," faces allegations of cult-like behavior, abuse, and cover-ups. Emily sha...

In this episode of Behind the Headlines, we investigate the chilling case of Donald Dean Studey with reporter Eric Ferkenhoff . Discover the allegations of a possible killer of dozens near Omaha, based on claims of his daughter Lucy about her father luring women to their deaths in the Green Hollow area of western Iowa. Explore the suspicious deaths of Studey's wives and the family's suspicions of...

Welcome to Behind the Headlines, a Lee Enterprises podcast, where we feature news journalists discussing a variety of stories.  In this latest episode, host Faith Dey speaks with Ted McDermott, a reporter for the Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism team. Ted has spent over a year investigating the high rates of fatal encounters between Native Americans and local law enforcement, particu...

Lead pipes have been banned since the 1980s, but millions of residents in Illinois and across the Midwest remain exposed to lead from water lines — and the prospects for equitable and quick remediation for low-income families and people of color could be dimming, a Lee Enterprises examination of public records and interviews shows. Read the full story here and listen to a conversation with r...

Welcome to another episode of Behind the Headlines, where we feature experts and journalists discussing a variety of topics. In this latest episode, Virginia Annable, a reporter for Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism team based in Hickory, North Carolina, discusses her story about Johnathan Howard Hayes, a nurse in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hayes stands accused of murder and attempted...

Welcome to another episode of Behind the Headlines, where we feature experts and journalists discussing a variety of topics. In this latest episode, Hayleigh Colombo, a reporter for Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team, talks about her story on logo apparel for colleges and the labor that is being used to produce the clothing. Read the story Broken threads: College clothing made in facto...

The American justice system guarantees a presumption of innocence and the right to legal counsel. For those that cannot afford an attorney, public defenders are available to provide a defense. But a new report from Emily Hamer, a reporter for Lee Enterprises' Public Service Journalism team, reveals that public defenders across the country are overworked. In the story "Public defenders work 3 times...

There has been a lot of change in college sports as many major Division I schools continue to consolidate into one of the Power Five conferences. The Big Ten currently has 14 members with four more schools set to join in 2024. Prominent conferences also negotiate for big television contracts, and the Big Ten has just ended its longtime agreement with ABC and ESPN and entered into a new deal with C...

Welcome to another episode of Behind the Headlines, where we feature experts and journalists discussing a variety of topics. In this latest episode, Patrick Wilson, a reporter for Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism team, talks about his reporting on the Virginia State Police . After spending at least $1.6 million over a decade for the purpose of recruiting minority troopers, the percentage...

Welcome to another episode of Behind the Headlines, where we feature experts and journalists discussing a variety of topics. In this latest episode, Molly Parker, a reporter for Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism team, talks about her reporting of the state of institutional care for people with developmental disabilities in the state of Illinois. The Illinois State Police division that look...

Welcome to another episode of Behind the Headlines, where we feature experts and journalists discussing a variety of topics. In this latest episode, Hayleigh Colombo, a reporter for Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism team, talks about a story she’s working on about PFAS, which are frequently referred to as “Forever Chemicals.” PFAS are found in rivers, lakes, streams, make their way into dr...

In the three years since the murder of George Floyd was caught on a bystander’s phone camera, law enforcement agencies large and small across the nation have invested in body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras for patrol vehicles. As part of a seven-month investigation, Lee Enterprises and Type Investigations reached out to more than 170 law enforcement agencies across much of the United States se...

Nearly three quarters of more than 100 law enforcement agencies across much of the U.S. don't reflect the racial makeup of their communities, data supplied by the departments to Lee Enterprises shows. As part of an investigation by Lee and Type Investigations , agencies were ranked based on the gap between the proportion of officers and leadership in the agency who identify as people of color and...

(Originally published Feb. 7 as part of the Hot off the Wire podcast .) An 1835 treaty between the Cherokee Nation and United States that led to the death of thousands on the Trail of Tears included a provision that would allow the Cherokee to seat a delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. Nearly 200 years later, the Cherokee have renewed calls for Congress to honor the treaty and seat its...

In October, billionaire business magnate and investor Elon Musk completed his purchase of the social media platform Twitter. Since that time a variety of moves to cut costs as well as try and generate more revenue for the platform have led some to wonder whether Musk’s acquisition was the beginning of the end for popular microblogging site.  While Twitter has many critics, Dr. Anjana Susarla,Profe...

Our host Teri Barr is talking with Sydney Brown ( twitter ), Education Reporter for The Daily News in Longview, Washington, about the issue of dress codes in some schools. Sydney learned why the dress codes are not consistent across one school district, how it's leading to a disruption in education, particularly for girls, and what some parents want done about it. Here's Sydney's original article:...

Our host Teri Barr is talking this week with Jay Tokasz , a journalist with the Buffalo News , who has been reporting on the ongoing revelations of sexual abuse, coverups, resignations and lawsuits related to the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo. It's very much a continuing story, so you can get caught up with the articles below and follow further developments in the civil case, the “review board,” the...

Over the past century Florida has seen rapid growth, with less than one million residents in 1920 and more than 22 million today. Many new residents were retirees who relocated to the state either full time or as seasonal snowbirds – residents who flock south for the warmer winter weather and then return to their home states for the summer. But are hurricanes putting the Florida retirement dream a...

If you're 45 or older, you may have had a colonoscopy or have had a conversation with your physician about being screened for colorectal cancer. However, recent headlines began calling into question the effectiveness of colonoscopies. Dr. Franklin Berger, director of research & outreach for the Colorectal Cancer Prevention Network at the University of South Carolina, was not happy with what he...

host Teri Barr is talking with Meteorologist Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Meteorologist Sean Sublette with the Richmond Times Dispatch in Richmond, Virginia. Their discussion revolves around weather as a headline, starting with Hurricane Ian. What have we learned more than a month later? Why are we still surprised about the path it took? How is climat...

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than 100,000 people died last year due to a drug overdose. And that was and increase of 15% compared to 2020. What's to blame for this continuing rise in drug use and overdose deaths? Synthetic opioids, specifically fentanyl. Host  Teri Barr  is spoke with  Kasey Faur  and  Mike Smith , reporters with  The Montana Standard  in Butte, Mon...

John F. Kennedy College, in Wahoo, Nebraska embraced women's sports early, recruiting and even offering scholarships to athletes years before Title IX . Arguably as a result, they won not only the first ever Women's College Softball World Series in 1969 but successfully defended the title in 1970 and 1971. For this episode our host, Teri Barr , is talking with Nancy Gaarder , a reporter for the Om...

Part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives funding from the federal government.  Five decades on, though, is it working? This week our host Teri Barr is talking with Henry Cordes , a Senior Enterprise Reporter with the Omaha World Herald in Omaha, Nebraska, who has been digging into recent federal data look...

Our host Teri Barr talks with Holly Kozelsky , an Editor with the Martinsville Bulletin in Martinsville, Virginia, who found herself asking if "We buy houses, cash" was legit, or a scam, and decided to use her own home to uncover the truth. The response from readers to her column, 'How the "We buy houses cash" scam really works ,' was overwhelming, so listen in to hear all the details! See omnystu...

Idaho bowhunter Raymond Jones went missing on his son's 12th birthday, Sept. 7, 1968. Fifty-three years later, Jones' body was found by another bowhunter, solving a mystery that had long haunted his relatives, including his only son. Our host Teri Barr talks with Brett French , Montana Untamed editor for the Billings Gazette, who covered the story last year. You can read his article at the article...