Investigative
I had a summer internship with IowaWatch, The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, which is an investigative, non-profit news organizaition in Iowa.
I got to pick two projects to work on and also interviewed the governor of Iowa on a topic I reported and fact-checked, which was printed in the Dubuque Times Herald and referenced in one of Hillary Clinton's campaign speeches in Iowa. One of those projects included an investigation into how the three public universities in Iowa investigated sexual assault. The story is still in progress as I work to find a sexual assault survivor willing to speak about their experiences after many sources declined to have their name and comments in the story after being interviewed.
The other project included an investigation into Iowa Lottery ticket sales, which was printed on the front page of the Metro & Iowa section of the Des Moines Register.
I also wrote and recorded radio reports for the IowaWatch Connection on the stories I reported.
Seven of the top 10 places Iowans bought lottery tickets at in fiscal 2015 are in areas where the median household income is below the state median, an IowaWatch analysis of Iowa Lottery and Census data revealed.
Half of the stores on the top 10 list are in Cedar Rapids. The other five are in Waterloo, Council Bluffs, Fort Dodge, Mason City and Des Moines.
The top locations were ranked by the amount of sales in fiscal 2015, which ended June 30.Iowa’s median household income is $52,229.
While not more likely to gamble, people with low incomes statistically are less likely to seek treatment for gambling addiction, an Iowa Gambling Treatment Program survey reported in 2013.
Moreover, Iowans with a salary of less than $50,000 in annual household income were least likely to know about gambling treatment programs in Iowa, according to an Iowa Gambling Treatment Program 2013 report. [Read more]
Highest Iowa Lottery Ticket Sales In Lower Income Neighborhoods
No set criteria exist yet to gauge whether or not a redesign of how Iowa delivers mental health treatment, which included the controversial closing of two mental health institutes June 30, will be as beneficial to Iowans as hoped, Gov. Terry Branstad said in an IowaWatch interview.
Branstad said he will continue to review a four-year plan for re-designing how Iowa provides mental health care.
The redesign plan, implemented in 2012, is to bring mental health care services from being delivered at the county level to being delivered in a regional level containing multiple counties. Fifteen mental health regions exist in Iowa.Mental health care advocates in Iowa have not embraced the changes, and Branstad is well aware of that. [Read more]
