Local News Day: How local reporting connects to bigger systems

At Investigate Midwest, we’re a regional newsroom with national reach, but much of our reporting begins with local people who trust us to take a closer look at what’s happening in their communities.

Sometimes that means following a tip about immigration arrests in a small Missouri town. Other times, it’s tracking how pesticides, labor practices or corporate decisions are shaping daily life across the Midwest. The work often starts locally, but the implications rarely stay there.

That’s what Local News Day is about.

https://investigatemidwest.org/2026/04/08/local-news-day/↗

Local watchdog reporting connects what people are seeing on the ground to the policies, systems and decisions driving it. It brings visibility to communities that are often overlooked and holds institutions and decision makers accountable in ways that matter to the people most affected.

This kind of investigative reporting depends on trust, from the people who share their stories and from the readers who support the work.

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Today, we’re asking you to do one simple thing: start local.

Regional news with local impact

Below is a look at some of our most community-centered reporting from the past year. While this isn’t everything, these stories reflect the work we’re committed to.

So, please: Read the stories. Share them. Support deep-dive reporting that helps make sense of what’s happening in your community.

Pesticide use and cancer risk rise together across America’s heartland

America’s farmers and farmworkers, their families and neighbors, are being diagnosed with cancer at rates higher than the national average. A growing body of research indicates that pesticides are partly to blame.

by Ben Felder, Investigate Midwest

Immigrants helped save this Illinois meatpacking town. Trump cut hundreds from its workforce.

Beardstown, Illinois, is an example of how immigration crackdowns are impacting Midwestern communities and the nation’s food supply.

by Juan Vassallo, Investigate Midwest

Broadband’s broken promise: How federal failures and funding fights keep Native and Black farmers offline

Across the US, Indigenous and Black farmers face ‘digital redlining,’ a web of barriers to affordable broadband even as billions in federal dollars flow to internet providers. Rooted in high costs, policy failures and historic exclusion, the connectivity gap endures — but communities are fighting back with local solutions.

by Melissa Dai, Investigate Midwest

Oklahoma’s loophole: How Tyson’s water use goes unchecked

While Tyson says its growers obtain water from ‘lawfully acquired sources,’ the state’s permitting system allows poultry operations to pump water without permits.

by Juan Vassallo, Investigate Midwest

Pesticide drift is catching schools off guard. Lawmakers want to require notice before spraying.

More than 700 Illinois schools are within a quarter-mile of crop fields, yet state law doesn’t require pesticide applicators to notify them before spraying. Advocates say a new notification proposal would give educators and park staff time to move children indoors and reduce exposure.

by Jennifer Bamberg, Investigate Midwest

Threat of ICE raids shadows every shift in Chicago’s food warehouses

With President Trump’s end of a program that once safeguarded whistleblowers and a focus on deportation, advocates warn the nation’s food supply chain is at risk.

by Jennifer Bamberg, Investigate Midwest