Clean drinking water isn’t a problem most of us worry about in the United States today. But there are still communities in our country where water is brown or green out of the tap. It’s got stuff floating in it. It smells bad.

Neena Satija of our partner The Texas Tribune heads to two Texas towns that sit along the Mexican border to meet with residents who’ve fought for drinkable tap water for decades.

Got green? Those with money sure do – both in their pockets and around their houses in the form of sprawling lawns and towering hedges.

If you didn’t know California was experiencing a historic drought, driving through the streets of Beverly Hills and Bel Air would only keep you in the dark. The area is lush and dazzling. Streets bask in the healthy green glow of the abundant trees, grass and plants growing carelessly about.

Unsurprisingly, some of the state’s biggest known water guzzlers live here.

But finding out exactly who they are isn’t easy. Reveal reporters go on the hunt for extreme water bingers in the rain-starved Golden State. These super-users are living in homes consuming millions of gallons of water a year.

So who are these guzzlers? And why are they allowed to keep their yards green?

Throughout this month, we’ve heard about NamUs, a federal database of missing and unidentified persons. This system allows law enforcement agencies and amateur sleuths to search and gather information about active cases. Networks and communities of volunteer detectives have grown online – sleuthing on their own time. In an effort to make matching those lost … Continue reading Matching the lost and the found →

In 1980, 18-year-old Michelle Busha left home and never returned. It’s every family’s worst nightmare and it’s a circumstance so tragic that it touched a complete stranger thousands of miles away. Reporter Michael Montgomery meets two women who didn’t know each other, but each had a deep connection to the young woman who disappeared 35 … Continue reading Buried in Blue Earth →

Out of the thousands of unidentified bodies scattered across the country, many are found in South Texas, where migrants are crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. Crossing the border is treacherous – it’s hot and there’s a lot of ground to cover. Dehydration and heatstroke claim many who try to make the trek. And dying in … Continue reading Unidentified migrants reach undignified end →

In 1969, a young woman was stabbed to death in Harlan, Kentucky, and buried without a name. To many locals, she’s known as “Mountain Jane Doe.” To Darla Jackson and Todd Matthews, her case deserved a little extra digging. We follow Darla and Todd into the wooded hills of Harlan to exhume the body of … Continue reading She never left Harlan alive →

In April, we learned that schoolchildren in Virginia have been referred to police at almost three times the national rate – and most of these students have special needs or are African American. Susan Ferriss of The Center for Public Integrity introduced us to Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a sixth-grader with autism who was charged with disorderly … Continue reading Change in the air in Virginia →

Do you remember Ted Liming? He’s a truck driver from North Dakota we met in an earlier episode. He was looking for a safe place to invest a substantial sum of money and stumbled upon secureinvestment.com when searching online for, well, secure investments. Spoiler alert: It was a scam. Ted’s not-so-excellent adventure into the world … Continue reading The Con Man and His Mentor →

In February, we heard about at the culture of secrecy within the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Reveal reporter Trey Bundy told us how the Witnesses’ religious hierarchy was keeping allegations of  child sexual abuse from law enforcement and how the organization’s policies allowed perpetrators to strike again and again. Since our story aired, Bundy has fielded hundreds … Continue reading Shunned and Shamed by Jehovah’s Witnesses →

Caffeine is arguably the most popular drug in America. But what do you really know about it? This short video explains how the beloved stimulant became the key ingredient in top-selling soft drinks and how those drinks came to be blended with foreign-made synthetic caffeine. It also examines the regulatory mess surrounding this potentially lethal … Continue reading Video: The Buzz(kill) about Caffeine →