Fact-checking

Home of the Brave: Served as the lead fact-checker for this seven-part investigative series from Long Lead published in June 2024. (Read & watch here).

"In 1888, wealthy landowners donated prime Los Angeles real estate to the U.S. government to house military veterans. The gift “will cause land in that section to advance in value, and the trade thrown into the way of our merchants will be considerable,” wrote the Los Angeles Times. Today the 388-acre property abuts the Brentwood neighborhood and the UCLA campus, is some of the country’s most valuable real estate, and houses very few vets — many in tiny, temporary shelters. Meanwhile, L.A. has become the homeless veteran capital of America.

"Why isn't this land, which once housed thousands of disabled soldiers, home to more veterans? The answer is a scandal in plain sight, a story of government malfeasance, neglect, graft, and even death.

"This multi-part, multimedia feature tells the full story — from the property’s founding to the legal fight to take it back — of a centuries-spanning land war between the U.S. government, local forces, and generations of service members seeking a place to call home." (Read & watch here)

Lifting Ukraine: Worked as fact-checker on this print and photo story from Long Lead, published February 2024. (Read here)

"Since 2022, Russia has pounded southern Ukraine, attempting to make it uninhabitable by bombing villages, destroying water supplies, and wreaking havoc on its infrastructure. Amid the chaos, survivors have endured — including thousands of stray animals orphaned by the war. Record-setting powerlifter Anna Kurkurina has rescued and rehomed countless of these injured and unhoused pets, showing just one way how Ukraine’s “volonteri,” a loose network of civilian helpers central to the country’s fight for freedom, has bolstered its battle-worn government.

"In this series of intimate photos and videos, photojournalist Maranie Staab presents an inspiring profile of Kurkurina, chronicling the athlete’s daily struggles and triumphs as she attempts to uplift the most vulnerable inhabitants of her city, Mykolaiv. Rescuing pets left to scavenge the rubble of airstrikes, strength-training disabled children, and feeding an ever-growing pack of four-legged houseguests, the three-time world champion muscles through her days demonstrating unwavering strength in the face of seemingly endless war."