Author Archive

Jennifer Berry Hawes

Digital Government

Local officials have a powerful tool to warn residents of emergencies. They don’t always use it

ProPublica has identified at least 15 major disasters since 2016 in which officials in the most-harmed communities failed to use a federal system to send emergency alerts to residents — or waited until it was too late.

  • By Jennifer Berry Hawes, ProPublica
Management

How many of your state’s lawmakers are women? If you live in the southeast, it could be just 1 in 5.

A record number of women were elected to statehouses last year. But in the Southeast, where some legislatures are more than 80% male, representation is lagging as lawmakers pass bills that most impact women, like near-total abortion bans.

  • By Jennifer Berry Hawes, ProPublica