Investigative journalism site ProPublica, a Knight grantee, is seeing the impact of its work.’

A joint investigation with the Los Angeles Times found that the California Nursing Board took more than three years to punish nurses for abusing or neglecting patients. On Monday, the day after the expose was published, Governor Schwarzenegger fired three of the six members of the board, including President Susanne Phillips. The board’s chief executive, Ruth Ann Terry, resigned on Tuesday.

Another series of reports by ProPublica exposed the environmental damage from hydraulic fracturing, or ‘hydrofracking,’ injecting toxic fluids underground to break rocks and reach deep natural gas reserves. In most states, the process is exempt from government regulation. The expose found that the cost of controlling the water table pollution is not as great as estimated by some industry executives. Congress is discussing removing hydrofracking’s exemption from the Safe Water Drinking Act’s rules. ‘ Another important story: On July 1^st, the Washington Post’s Binyamin Applebaum and ProPublica’s Paul Kiel reported that the Treasury Department steered $135 million in TARP funds to a bank in Hawaii, at which Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) was a founder.

ProPublica is a nonprofit investigative journalism organization that reports and publishes news in the public interest. Last month, Knight Foundation gave a grant to them, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and the Sunlight Foundation as part of our new Investigative Reporting Initiative.