David Kidwell

Better Government Association — A three-part investigation into oversight failures leading to 61 deaths by fire throughout Chicago. The project won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.

Better Government Association — An examination of the deceptive practices behind Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's "reinvention" of City Colleges of Chicago, the largest community college system in the United States. The project won the 2017 Education Writers Association award for investigative reporting. Comments from the Judges: “This is fantastic investigative, public service journalism.” “This excellent investigation of cynical manipulation of data and degree requirements to enhance a 2-year college system’s academic profile … is undergirded by records requests, extensive interviews and sophisticated data analysis.”

Plymouth Independent — An investigation in to real and perceived conflicts of interest between the personal and public interests of the Plymouth Municipal Airport Commission.

Plymouth Independent — An examination of a candidate's record, including the alleged theft of a $5,000 check.

Chicago Tribune — A yearslong investigation of the conflicts between the public decisions and private interests of Illinois' longest serving Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan. The series prompted a federal investigation which led to federal charges against Madigan for improper dealings with utilities giant Commonwealth Edison. Madigan is currently serving a 7 1/2-year federal prison term on corruption convictions.

Chicago Tribune — From 2012 through 2014, the Tribune unraveled a $2 million bribery scheme involving the globally traded Redflex Traffic Systems and a city officials responsible for selecting the company to install more than 400 redlight cameras throughout Chicago. The investigation extended to 13 other states and resulted in nine criminal convictions, including the entire U.S leadership of the company. The series won numerous local and national awards, including the 2014 Neiman Foundation Taylor Family Fairness Award from Harvard University. Commenting on “Red Lights,” Taylor Award judge Ellen Gabler said: “The Chicago Tribune brought a big dose of fairness to an incredibly unfair situation: tens of thousands of motorists have received tickets they did not deserve...Tribune reporters fought City Hall for data that the reporters would later analyze to reveal the unfair practices, and also made the data searchable so motorists could see if they had been unjustly slapped with a ticket. Using extreme perseverance and data to cut through ‘he said/she said’ arguments, the Chicago Tribune told a fair story that got results.”

Chicago Tribune — After exposing corruption in the city's red light camera program, the focus turned to the effectiveness of the cameras themselves. A Tribune investigation revealed thousands of unfair tickets, inconsistent enforcement and enormous anomalies in the performance of dozens of cameras.

Chicago Tribune — Exposed the self-enrichment and corruption of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, stories that prompted federal authorities to place wiretaps on his phone. Those wiretaps caught him selling the appointment to the vacated U.S. Senate seat of Barack Obama, for which he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.