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Behind the Headlines

6-7pm ET
November 19, 2025
Virtual
Free, but reserve your spot here to receive a Zoom link

Hosted by the Society for Professional Journalists - Detroit

A virtual conversation with Beth LeBlanc of the Detroit News on her dogged work exposing the state's dubious practice of awarding secretive big-dollar earmarks.

In SPJ Detroit’s first-ever Behind the Headlines program, we take a deep dive into local impactful journalism. Beth LeBlanc of The Detroit News and her editor on the project, Chad Livengood, will share the process and what they learned as they pursued this three-year series, which recently won the inaugural SPJ Detroit A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism.

The discussion will be moderated by Anna Clark, SPJ Detroit board member and investigative reporter for ProPublica. There will be time for audience questions.

Judges called LeBlanc’s reporting “an infuriating look at government spending” that is “a strong example of why journalists are needed, what news outlets are supposed to do.”