Our Reporting

August 25, 2016

What exactly should school cops do?

Police officers have been in schools for years, initially brought in as a means of student protection. But some say they have become too involved in school discipline.

August 18, 2016

States attack college readiness in high school

Using a solution as obvious as it is rare, a few states have begun designing remediation course work while students are still in high school.

June 8, 2016

Where to go? The stories of three families after Mesabi Academy

Families and counties are scrambling to place children after Mesabi Academy said it would close its doors June 30. Hennepin and Ramsey counties have sent more complaints about the correctional facility.

May 26, 2016

State, county and federal supervision didn't convey worry about Mesabi Academy

A flawed, confused system prevents judges, social services officials and guardians from discovering critical information about the condition of the residential treatment facilities regulated by the Department of Corrections. Mesabi Academy, scheduled to close next month, is a case study. Since opening in 1998, the juvenile correctional facility had been seen as a reliable jobs provider, receiving subsidies from government and tens of millions of dollars in loans from its parent. But attempts to sustain the business may have compromised resident and worker safety.

May 26, 2016

Incidents and complaints at Minnesota DOC juvenile centers, 2009-2016

Minnesota's Department of Corrections tracks reports about the 60-plus juvenile residential treatment centers it licenses. But it does little to disseminate that information. APM Reports obtained the data about what the department calls incidents and complaints for 2009 to March 2016 and sorted it in this searchable table.

May 20, 2016

Closure of juvenile center reveals Minnesota's lack of adequate treatment

The decision to close Mesabi Academy raises short-term questions about where troubled boys will be sent but also longer-range questions about whether the state's system is sufficient.

May 19, 2016

Facing removal of kids, Mesabi Academy to close

The parent company of an Iron Range juvenile residential treatment center said it planned to close the facility by the end of next month. The decision came after several counties pulled residents and the state froze new admissions, actions that followed several APM Reports stories about Mesabi Academy.

May 12, 2016

Mesabi Academy agrees to temporarily halt admissions

The Minnesota Department of Corrections said the juvenile corrections facility agreed to suspend new admissions while an investigation proceeds into allegations of maltreatment.

May 12, 2016

Israel: Using technology, engineering to cut reliance on Galilee

Water has been a matter of national security for Israel since the nation's inception. Drought and growth have pushed the country to use desalination, wastewater recycling and other technology and engineering feats to address the demand. But it's a different picture where Palestinians are involved.

May 12, 2016

Numbers elusive when it comes to trafficking

Estimating the number of human trafficking victims in the United States is notoriously difficult.

May 12, 2016

India: Delivering water by hand

In much of India, getting enough water is a low-tech affair. In some places, women draw water by hand; in others suicide rates among farmers have risen because drought and dropping water tables make their lives difficult.

May 12, 2016

Victims, not criminals: Rebranding teen sex trafficking

The nation is changing the way it thinks about teen sex trafficking. States have decriminalized it for teens and offered help, and some are attacking the demand for commercial sex.

May 11, 2016

Lawmaker on Mesabi Academy: State, counties overreacting

DFL Sen. David Tomassoni, who represents the area that is home to Mesabi Academy, says agencies pulling boys from the facility are endangering jobs.

May 10, 2016

State agency pulls boys from Mesabi, warns other states

The Minnesota Department of Human Services is removing five boys it has jurisdiction over at the Iron Range residential treatment facility Mesabi Academy. It also told other states with boys there of its action.

May 9, 2016

Ramsey County to remove all youth from Mesabi Academy

Ramsey County officials said Monday they would pull the remaining 21 boys the county's courts have sent to the private correctional facility in Buhl, Minn. The action follows similar steps by Hennepin County on Friday and comes a week after APM Reports published results of an investigation into the facility, Mesabi Academy.

May 6, 2016

Hennepin County removes 20 children from Mesabi Academy after reports; Ramsey considering same

Hennepin County officials said Friday they're removing 20 children from a juvenile correctional facility on the Iron Range — Mesabi Academy — that's been the subject of two investigative news reports this week.

May 6, 2016

Claims of maltreatment, meager staff training and inadequate programs at Mesabi Academy

Interviews and records indicate troubling incidents and practices. Twin Cities counties are looking more closely at a facility where they've sent boys who need help.

May 5, 2016

Ramsey County freezes some placements at Mesabi Academy

Ramsey County social services authorities said Thursday they are not placing any more boys in the care of Mesabi Academy, a treatment facility in Buhl, Minn., in the wake of an APM Reports investigation into the center.

May 2, 2016

County reopens Mesabi Academy sex abuse inquiry

St. Louis County investigators asked for a tape recording a woman made of her son, talking about whether he had sex with a staffer at Mesabi Academy.

May 2, 2016

Private juvenile center conceals abuse inquiries and pressures county to keep its business deal

On the Iron Range, investigations have created tension between Mesabi Academy and St. Louis County. Job loss, though, was the main concern when county commissioners discouraged a health and human services leader from ending a critical contract with the company.

November 13, 2014

The First Family of Radio: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's Historic Broadcasts

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, he and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt both used the new medium of radio to reach into American homes like never before.

February 12, 2011

Power and Smoke: A Nation Built on Coal

The production of electricity in America pumps out more greenhouse gases than all of our cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined, and half of our electricity comes from burning coal.

January 8, 2011

State of Siege: Mississippi Whites and the Civil Rights Movement

Mississippi led the South in an extraordinary battle to maintain racial segregation. Whites set up powerful citizens groups and state agencies to fight the civil rights movement. Their tactics were fierce and, for a time, very effective.

January 1, 2011

Say It Loud: A Century of Great African-American Speeches

Titled after the classic 1969 James Brown anthem, "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud," this anthology illuminates the ideas and debates pulsing through the black freedom struggle from the 1960s to the present. These arguments are suffused with basic questions about what it means to be black in America.

June 1, 2010

The Great Textbook War

What should children learn in school? It's a question that's stirred debate for decades, and in 1974 it led to violent protests in West Virginia. Schools were hit by dynamite, buses were riddled with bullets, and coal mines were shut down. The fight was over a new set of textbooks.

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