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POISONED

At Gopher Resource in Tampa, workers recycle 50,000 used car batteries a day. Their safety equipment doesn’t always protect them, an 18-month Tampa Bay Times investigation found.
Part 1: Hundreds of workers are exposed to poisons inside Florida’s only lead factory
At Gopher Resource in Tampa, workers recycle 50,000 used car batteries a day. Their safety equipment doesn’t always protect them, an 18-month Tampa Bay Times investigation found.
OSHA inspectors haven’t been inside Gopher Resource in five years, even as mechanical breakdowns plagued the Tampa plant and made conditions worse for workers.
Part 2: Federal regulators have been missing in action at Florida’s only lead factory
OSHA inspectors haven’t been inside Gopher Resource in five years, even as mechanical breakdowns plagued the Tampa plant and made conditions worse for workers.
Gopher Resource promised changes at Tampa's old lead factory. It kept polluting.
Part 3: The fallout
Gopher Resource promised changes at Tampa's old lead factory. It kept polluting.

Unprotected

Tampa teens reported a teacher’s sexual comments. Then a student’s life was upended.
Part 1: Lesson learned?
Tampa teens reported a teacher’s sexual comments. Then a student’s life was upended.
Tampa teens wanted their school to protect them. Instead, they say, it got worse.
Part 2: 'Students shouldn't be scared'
Tampa teens wanted their school to protect them. Instead, they say, it got worse.
Officers sent notices to landlords detailing arrests and encounters with their tenants that put families at risk of eviction even when charges were later dropped.
Tampa police called for hundreds to be evicted. Entire families lost their homes.
Officers sent notices to landlords detailing arrests and encounters with their tenants that put families at risk of eviction even when charges were later dropped.
Pasco’s sheriff created a futuristic program to stop crime before it happens. It monitors and harasses families across the county.
Targeted
Pasco’s sheriff created a futuristic program to stop crime before it happens. It monitors and harasses families across the county.
The kids and their parents don’t know.
Pasco’s sheriff uses grades and abuse histories to label schoolchildren potential criminals.
The kids and their parents don’t know.
Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco built a controversial data-driven approach to policing. He also built a wide circle of powerful friends who don’t question his tactics.
The man behind the machine
Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco built a controversial data-driven approach to policing. He also built a wide circle of powerful friends who don’t question his tactics.
From its headquarters in Boca Raton, GardaWorld has put unsafe trucks on the road, and its workers and unsuspecting motorists have suffered the consequences.
This major armored truck company took dangerous shortcuts. Mayhem followed.
From its headquarters in Boca Raton, GardaWorld has put unsafe trucks on the road, and its workers and unsuspecting motorists have suffered the consequences.
Big banks entrusted money to GardaWorld. It secretly lost track of millions.
Federal agency knew Garda was “really bad” at safety. It took little action.

LATEST

  1. Audits reveal millions in Medicare Advantage overcharges
    Nov. 22• Health
    A page from the 2019 U.S. Medicare Handbook in Washington. Newly released federal audits reveal widespread overcharges and other errors in payments to Medicare Advantage health plans for seniors, Kaiser Health News found, with some plans overbilling the government more than $1,000 per patient a year on average.
    The records, hidden until now, reveal widespread overcharges and other errors in payments.
  2. Poisons killed beloved owls in Tampa Bay. Can their defenders save others?
    Nov. 22• News
    A great horned owlet, left, and its mother share a rat on March 2 in Philippe Park in Safety Harbor. Within days, both would die.
    The birds died one by one in a local park. Admirers blame rat poison. Now they’re trying to get chemicals off the street.
  5. Think you have a rodent problem, Tampa Bay? Here’s what to do.
    Nov. 22• Investigations
    Joe Rufin with Creepy Creatures Termite and Pest Control, of Palm Harbor, organizes blocks of rodenticide while preparing a bait station as he worked to exterminate rodents from a condominium complex on Aug. 18 in Clearwater. The rodenticide is made with cholecalciferol, which is not among the anticoagulants that local wildlife advocates are trying to get off the street.
    Roof rats are common here. Environmental officials and wildlife advocates say poisons should be a last resort.
  6. Dozens of workers file suit against Tampa lead factory
    Nov. 4• Investigations
    Looking east at the Gopher Resource lead smelter, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Tampa.
    Sixty-four workers allege they were exposed to dangerous levels of lead and other toxic chemicals at Gopher Resource.
  7. ‘An excuse to racially profile’: How Florida trains police on bias
    Sep. 8• Investigations
    A screenshot, taken by a Tampa Bay Times reporter, shows a slide from Florida's discriminatory traffic stops training.
    A course designed to teach officers about discrimination in traffic stops instead has significant flaws, eight experts told the Times.
  8. Tampa Bay Times readers helped more than double newsroom’s fundraising goal
    Jun. 3• Newsroom
    Two weeks after winning the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, the Tampa Bay Times newsroom held its annual weeklong fundraiser. Readers helped the Times more than double the fundraising goal.
    Weeklong campaign to benefit local news brought in over $120,000 and counting.
  9. Tampa Bay Times fundraising drive approaches $50,000 goal
    May 28• News
    Tampa Bay Times reporters Corey G. Johnson, right, Rebecca Woolington, center, and Eli Murray, left, won the Pulitzer Prize earlier this month. The newsroom is holding a weeklong fundraising drive that concludes Sunday to help the Times do more high-impact journalism.
    The weeklong campaign to augment the newsroom’s budget and help pay for local journalism ends Sunday night.
  10. Tampa Bay Times launches weeklong fundraising campaign to help sustain local news
    May 23• News
    From front row left, Tampa Bay Times reporters Rebecca Woolington, Eli Murray and Corey G. Johnson celebrate with newsroom staff and guests as Times editor and vice president Mark Katches talks about the trio winning the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting earlier this month. The newsroom estimates the project cost about $750,000 to produce.
    The newsroom sets a target of $50,000 for its annual effort to raise money from the community.
  11. Reporting team that won Pulitzer did work regulators should have done in Tampa years ago
    May 10• Investigations
    Tampa Bay Times reporters Corey G. Johnson, right, Rebecca Woolington, center, and Eli Murray, left, are announced as the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting on Monday, May 9, 2022. The winning series, "Poisoned," exposed dangers at Florida’s only lead smelter. This marked the 14th Pulitzer Prize awarded to the Times.
    Tampa Bay Times journalists filled the void left by regulators to tell the story of Florida’s lone lead smelter.
  12. Tampa Bay Times reporters win Pulitzer Prize for ‘Poisoned’ series
    May 9• Investigations
    Tampa Bay Times reporters Eli Murray, left, Rebecca Woolington, center, and Corey G. Johnson, right, are announced as the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting on Monday. The winning series, "Poisoned," exposed dangers at Florida’s only lead smelter. This marked the 14th Pulitzer Prize awarded to the Times.
    For exposing dangers at a local lead smelter, they earn journalism’s top prize — the newsroom’s third for investigative reporting and its 14th overall.

Send us a confidential tip.

Learn how to securely call, message or email us at tampabay.com/tips.

Our team

Rebecca Woolington, Investigative Editor

Bethany Barnes, Deputy Investigative Editor

Eli Murray, Investigative Reporter

Zachary T. Sampson, Investigative Reporter

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