(C) Verite News New Orleans
This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Verite’s Richard A. Webster selected to join ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network [1]

['Verite News']

Date: 2023-12-18

Verite News reporter Richard A. Webster

Verite News and veteran reporter Richard A. Webster have been selected to join ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network for a two-year partnership beginning in January. Verite was one of five newsrooms selected to be part of the network, which ProPublica launched in 2018 to boost investigative reporting at local news outlets.

“Rich is an incredibly talented, diligent reporter with a keen eye for important stories,” said Verite News Editor-in-Chief Terry Baquet. “And we are thrilled to once again partner with ProPublica.”

Webster has worked with the Local Reporting Network twice before. In 2021, his Local Reporting Network series “Unwatched”— published in partnership with WWNO and WRKF — took a close look at allegations of abuse and racial bias by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.



And his 2022 series “Disaster After Disaster” — published in partnership with The Times-Picayune and WWL-TV — exposed how the state’s mismanagement of the post-Katrina Road Home program resulted in thousands of grants being misspent. Despite its own culpability, the state sued grant recipients to recover the money. Following the publication of the first several stories in the series, the state this year announced it would drop the suits.



Webster, who joined Verite News in January, previously was a member of the Times-Picayune’s investigative team, reporting on numerous special projects including “The Children of Central City,” an in-depth look at childhood trauma through the lens of a youth football team; “A Fragile State,” a multipart series on Louisiana’s mental health care system; and “Dying at OPP,” which examined the deaths of inmates in Orleans Parish Prison. Since coming to work for Verite, he has covered allegations of police abuse and other law enforcement issues in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and St. Tammany Parish.

He has also continued to work with ProPublica while at Verite, co-publishing several stories with the New York-based national news outlet, including his recent coverage of Markus Lanieux, who was sentenced to life after fleeing a traffic stop in Kenner — the result of the state’s harsh habitual offender law.

As a Local Reporting Network fellow, Webster will continue to report on criminal justice in Louisiana. He is always looking for tips and can be reached at [email protected].

Related Stories

Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Close window X Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Verite’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications: Look for the “Republish This Story” button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).

You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.

You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.

Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.

If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @VeriteNewsNola @VeriteNewsNola For print publications: You have to credit Verite. We prefer “Author Name, Verite News” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Verite News” and include our website, veritenews.org

You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.

You cannot republish our photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Tim Morris

Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.

You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.

You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.

Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.

If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @VeriteNewsNola on Facebook @VeriteNewsNola on Twitter. If you have any other questions, contact managing editor Tim Morris. Verite’s Richard A. Webster selected to join ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network <h1>Verite’s Richard A. Webster selected to join ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network</h1> <p class="byline">by Verite News, Verite News <br />December 18, 2023</p> <br /> <figure class="wp-block-image alignright size-large"><img src="https://veritenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/cropped-IMG_8294-Edited-1024x1024.png" alt="Rich Webster" class="wp-image-3281" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Verite News reporter Richard A. Webster</figcaption></figure> <p>Verite News and veteran reporter Richard A. Webster have been selected to join ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network for a two-year partnership beginning in January. Verite was <a href="https://www.propublica.org/atpropublica/five-newsroom-partners-join-propublicas-local-reporting-network-3">one of five newsrooms selected</a> to be part of the network, which ProPublica launched in 2018 to boost investigative reporting at local news outlets. </p> <p>“Rich is an incredibly talented, diligent reporter with a keen eye for important stories,” said Verite News Editor-in-Chief Terry Baquet. “And we are thrilled to once again partner with ProPublica.”</p> <p>Webster has worked with the Local Reporting Network twice before. In 2021, his Local Reporting Network series “<a href="https://www.propublica.org/series/unwatched">Unwatched</a>”— published in partnership with WWNO and WRKF — took a close look at allegations of abuse and racial bias by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.</p> <p>And his 2022 series “<a href="https://www.propublica.org/series/disaster-after-disaster">Disaster After Disaster</a>” — published in partnership with The Times-Picayune and WWL-TV — exposed how the state’s mismanagement of the post-Katrina Road Home program resulted in thousands of grants being misspent. Despite its own culpability, the state sued grant recipients to recover the money. Following the publication of the first several stories in the series, the state this year announced it would <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/louisiana-katrina-grants-lawsuits-dropped">drop the suits</a>.</p> <p>Webster, who joined Verite News in January, previously was a member of the Times-Picayune’s investigative team, reporting on numerous special projects including “The Children of Central City,” an in-depth look at childhood trauma through the lens of a youth football team; “A Fragile State,” a multipart series on Louisiana’s mental health care system; and “Dying at OPP,” which examined the deaths of inmates in Orleans Parish Prison. Since coming to work for Verite, <a href="https://veritenews.org/author/richard-a-webster/">he has covered allegations of police abuse</a> and other law enforcement issues in <a href="https://veritenews.org/2023/03/14/suit-highlights-growth-of-surveillance-based-police-stops/">New Orleans</a>, <a href="https://veritenews.org/2023/11/22/jpso-settles-two-use-of-force-cases-including-one-that-led-to-autistic-teens-death/">Jefferson Parish</a> and <a href="https://veritenews.org/2023/06/08/buffer-law-raises-questions/">St. Tammany Parish</a>. </p> <p>He has also continued to work with ProPublica while at Verite, co-publishing several stories with the New York-based national news outlet, including his recent coverage of Markus Lanieux, <a href="https://veritenews.org/2023/09/08/jefferson-parish-louisiana-three-strikes-habitual-offender-jeff-landry/">who was sentenced to life after fleeing a traffic stop in Kenner</a> — the result of the state’s harsh habitual offender law. </p> <p>As a Local Reporting Network fellow, Webster will continue to report on criminal justice in Louisiana. He is always looking for tips and can be reached at [email protected].</p> <div class="wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background"> (function (c, i, t, y, z, e, n, x) { x = c.createElement(y), n = c.getElementsByTagName(y)[0]; x.async = 1; x.src = t; n.parentNode.insertBefore(x, n); })(document, window, "//publicinput.com/Link?embedId=37073", "script"); </div> This <a target="_blank" href="https://veritenews.org/2023/12/18/richard-webster-to-join-propublica-local-reporting-network/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://veritenews.org">Verite News</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/veritenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/cropped-Verite-icon.png?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://veritenews.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=11375" style="width:1px;height:1px;"> Copy to Clipboard

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2023/12/18/richard-webster-to-join-propublica-local-reporting-network/

Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.