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Explore our journalism as published by newsrooms across the Mississippi River basin and beyond. Click an image to read the article and subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest stories in your inbox twice a month. Editors can sign up here to republish our stories for free. Last updated Sept. 28, 2023.

River shipping industry struggles to adapt to drought and increasing swings in water levels
Chlorine creates harmful byproducts in drinking water. New research seeks solutions.
Army Corps of Engineers forester Sara Rother drives a boat full of trees to be planted on an island in the Mississippi River Friday, June 2, 2023 south of La Crosse, Wis. The Army Corps of Engineers is restoring flood plain forest habitat with trees such a river birch, hackberry, cottonwood, silver maple and swamp white oak. Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The race is on to save the Mississippi River's dying floodplain forests
Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ smaller than average for 2023, but not small enough
Burgeoning Mississippi riverboat industry grapples with new climate threats
Haze obscures the skyline in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on June 27, 2023. Smoke from wildfires in Canada caused low air quality and obscured visibility.
Midwest states, often billed as climate havens, suffer smoke, drought, heat
Activists march across a bridge over the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois holding signs proclaiming "water is life."
Does the Mississippi River have rights? A growing legal movement says yes
Lost in translation: How USDA barriers leave immigrant farmers and ranchers behind
Rising Mississippi River waters approach a sand barrier at the marina in Camanche, Iowa on April 26.
Mississippi River floodwaters swamp upper Midwest
Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or pipedream?
A chance to preserve history on the Mississippi River in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’
Mississippi River mayors rally for a compact to protect the waterway
Juan Carlos Baltazar Pe–a (left) with other farmworkers take a quick break in a field in southeastern Iowa. While this summer has not been especially hot in Iowa, the crew leader (standing) said, he's noticed over the years summers have gotten hotter.Photo taken on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. photo by Sky Chadde/Investigate Midwest
Midwest farmworkers struggle with extreme heat — and almost no regulatory safeguards
A farmer's boot rests on dry soil in Missouri during a drought in 2023.
Most of the Midwest is in drought — and there’s no simple way to get out of it
Adkins Energy’s Ethanol and Biodiesel production facility in Lena, Illinois on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. Atkins, although not on a CO2 pipeline, is seeking federal carbon sequestration tax credits using a technology that would capture CO2 and combine it with hydrogen to make green methanol. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Tax credits jump-start Midwest carbon capture projects — but the cost will be in the billions
White water tanks are seen on a green lawn at the Edmonson County Water Treatment Plant in Wax, Kentucky on May 30, 2023.
With billions on the table for water infrastructure, small towns risk being left out
A farmer holds a palmful of millet grains over a bucket.
Millets — ancient drought-resistant grains — could help the Midwest survive climate change
A white tugboat pulls barges through a dam on the Mississippi river.
Mississippi River shipping infrastructure is aging. Who should pay for the repairs?
The Price of Plenty: Chemical fertilizers feed the world at steep costs to people and planet
Firefighters in silver hazmat suits spray PFAS-based foam from a hose to extinguish a helicopter fire during a military training exercise in 2007.
Destroying ‘forever chemicals’ a tech race that could become a multibillion-dollar industry
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