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Jana Cholakovska on Muck Rack

Jana Cholakovska

Verified
(She/Her)
  • Investigative Reporter, NJ.com
New York
As seen in: NJ.com, MSN, The Interlude, Yahoo Entertainment, Yahoo Life, Business Insider, The Guardian, Yahoo News, Aol, Yahoo Finance, The Daily Beast and
Covers:  White-collar crime, criminal justice, immigration, labor, and more
Investigations @njdotcom ✒️ | Words: @grist, @examinationnews, @pubhealthwatch, @vice etc. Got a tip? Shoot me a DM or a text on Signal @jcholakovska.26

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Jana Cholakovska’s Biography

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Jana Cholakovska is an investigative reporter at NJ.com, where she covers white-collar crime, criminal justice, immigration, labor, and more.

She is a two-time Livingston Award finalist and a recipient of the National Press Foundation's Thomas L. Stokes Award for Energy and Environment Journalism, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Collier Prize for State Accountability Reporting, the Barlett & Steele Award, and the Association of Health Care Journalists' Award for Excellence in Health Care Journ…

Jana Cholakovska’s Journalist Portfolio

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He was ‘cooked alive’ in an industrial dryer. Inside the bloody business of cleaning N.J.’s laundry.

He was ‘cooked alive’ in an industrial dryer. Inside the bloody business of cleaning N.J.’s laundry.

The dangerous, exploitative world of the commercial laundry sector.

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A network of cameras is quietly watching every car in N.J. Here’s what it knows about you.

A network of cameras is quietly watching every car in N.J. Here’s what it knows about you.

Across New Jersey, law enforcement agencies have come to heavily rely on license plate readers for recovering…

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How ICE uses mystery ‘shuffle flights’ to move — and break — detainees forced from N.J.

How ICE uses mystery ‘shuffle flights’ to move — and break — detainees forced from N.J.

Detainees are flown thousands of miles without being told where they’re going. The practice has surged under …

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Montclair meltdown

Montclair meltdown

Mysterious $20M debt threatens wealthy N.J. suburb’s way of life. Can divided town survive the crisis?

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Playing with fire

Playing with fire

N.J. firefighters furious as old trucks may spark deadly consequences. What’s being done?

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DJ vs. Goliath

DJ vs. Goliath

This Jersey guy has been battling Live Nation for 14 years. He’s never backing down.

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Articles

How a well-respected family ran a hotel empire — and a $100M Ponzi scheme, feds say Original

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By Jana Cholakovska Verified
| NJ.com Verified
A dozen crumbling, bed-bug-infested hotels. A hundred million dollars in government loans. One New Jersey family that ran the scheme for thirty years. Pankaj Sheth and his son Rajan built a web of shell companies to pull more than $100 million in government-backed loans out of a dozen failing hotels, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
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Town’s 1st ever woman cop says harassment started before she even left the academy Original

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By Jana Cholakovska Verified
| NJ.com Verified
The young, female officer stood beside her colleague as the pair reviewed some body-cam footage. As she watched, his hand crept between her legs and grabbed the back of her thigh. She swatted it away. He laughed. Haley Fitzpatrick — the first and only female officer with the Phillipsburg Police Department — would spend the the following year enduring repeated harassment and taunts from her fellow officers, according to a lawsuit filed in Morris County Superior Court earlier this month.
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‘Get the Flock outta Jersey’: A N.J. group wants license plate cameras gone Original

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By Jana Cholakovska Verified, Gavin Schweiger
| NJ.com Verified
A sizable crowd had gathered around the camera. More than 25 people stood at the edge of a Home Depot parking lot in Berlin Township on Saturday afternoon, signs in hand. “Get the Flock outta Jersey!” “Don’t spy on me” “This camera is spying on you.” Among them, a volunteer sweated inside a homemade costume built to resemble the very thing they’d come to protest — Flock cameras. The costume was black and boxy, with white gloves and sneakers. The mascot’s name? Flocky, of course.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

New York Family Magazine

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Yes, I have. My grandpa has one in his office back in my hometown of Skopje, Noth Macedonia.

What's your favorite social network?

It used to be Instagram, but now it's Twitter for obvious reasons.

Awards

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Livingston Award

2026 - Local reporting
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Livingston Award

2024 - Local reporting
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National Press Foundation Award

2023 - Thomas L. Stokes Award for Energy and Environment Journalism
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Collier Prize

2024 - State Accountability Reporting
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Barlett & Steele Award

2025 - Regional/Local Publications
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Association of Health Care Journalists' Award

2023 - Excellence in Health Care Journalism
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