The Investigations Desk
Send us what needs looking into
The Los Angeles Star keeps one reporter on the records full time. If something in your neighborhood, your workplace or your city's books doesn't add up, this is the desk that reads it.
Nadia Serrano
Investigations editor
Nadia Serrano reads the paperwork nobody else asks for: county contracts, campaign filings, court dockets and the minutes of boards that meet at nine in the morning. She spent nine years covering land use and public money in the Central Valley before joining The Star, and her reporting has prompted two county audits and one grand jury review. She works from records first and people second, and she keeps every source's name in a notebook that never leaves the building.
Read her reportingWhat the desk works on
- Public money — contracts, no-bid awards, consultants, the county budget
- Land and housing — zoning votes, evictions, who actually owns the parcel
- Police and sheriffs — records, discipline files, conditions inside the jails
- Courts and campaigns — filings, settlements, and who paid for the mailer
Your name, address and phone number are kept so the desk can reach you, and are never published. Documents you attach are stored privately and read by the investigations desk alone.
How we protect sources