Best of 2023: Investigations

For Marcos Cux — and thousands of other migrant children — working dangerous jobs that violate child-labor laws is the only American dream there is.

For nearly two years, AP journalists traced the story of one boat across three continents — and the people it carried from hope to death.

Fifty years ago, a fire ripped through the National Personnel Records Center. It set off a massive project to save crucial pieces of American history—including, I hoped, my grandfather’s.

Sometimes an investigation begins with a single word. In 2016, as part of legislation expanding government support for the prevention and treatment of opioid addiction, Congress amended existing child-welfare policy. “Federal law had long required newborns vaguely identified as ‘affected by’ illegal drugs to be flagged to child protective services,” Shoshana Walter explains. “In this new iteration, lawmakers removed the word ‘illegal.’” The change was intended to help infants exposed in utero to prescription opioids, but in practice, it created a devastating dragnet. Drawing from meticulous…

How a doctor’s two-decade quest to grow the penis is leaving some men desperate and disfigured.