Billions of dollars were supposed to help small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program. But the money was marred by racial inequity.

Lance Williams
Reporter
Lance Williams is a former senior reporter for Reveal, focusing on money and politics. He has twice won journalism’s George Polk Award – for medical reporting while at The Center for Investigative Reporting, and for coverage of the BALCO sports steroid scandal while at the San Francisco Chronicle. With partner Mark Fainaru-Wada, Williams wrote the national bestseller “Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports.” In 2006, the reporting duo was held in contempt of court and threatened with 18 months in federal prison for refusing to testify about their confidential sources on the BALCO investigation. The subpoenas were later withdrawn. Williams’ reporting also has been honored with the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Edgar A. Poe Award; the Gerald Loeb Award for financial reporting; and the Scripps Howard Foundation’s Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment. He graduated from Brown University and UC Berkeley. He also worked at the San Francisco Examiner, the Oakland Tribune and the Daily Review in Hayward, California.
Since California speaker rose to power, corporate donations flowed to nonprofits tied to his wife
Since 2016, nonprofits associated with Anthony Rendon’s wife have received more than $500,000 from companies with business before the Legislature.
Charging COVID-19 failures, California lawmaker seeks to crack down on fast food chains
The new legislation charges that the industry has flouted rules designed to keep workers safe during the pandemic.
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McDonald’s across the country are hit by COVID-19 outbreaks as hundreds of complaints allege safety breakdowns.
How a national health crisis fell on the backs of local leaders
With a leadership vacuum in Washington, the San Francisco Bay Area’s shelter-in-place orders led the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Divided states of the pandemic
The federal government’s failure to manage the pandemic shifted the burden to local officials. We look at state responses in California and Florida.
Quarantine nation
Quarantines are supposed to contain the new coronavirus, but are the right people going into isolation, and are federal guidelines strong enough?
California created a massive medical reserve – with acute care beds, ventilators and N95 masks — then let it collapse
Mobile acute care hospitals, ventilators and N95 respirators were stocked, but state leaders refused to allocate funds to maintain them.
Fear of a census undercount
Anti-immigrant sentiment, partisanship and untested technologies risk a historic undercount in 2020, which could distort U.S. politics and spending for a decade.
Don’t count on the census
As the 2020 census approaches, experts warn the count will be inaccurate. A look at why the census is struggling and whether efforts to save it can work.