List highlights great local accountability journalism of 2018

It's the end of the year, and "Best Of" listicles lay thick upon the ground. Here's a good one from reporter Joseph Cranney of The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., who compiled a list of great local accountability journalism in 2018. Among those of interest to rural readers:

• In Connecticut, the Hartford Courant reported how council members in the small town of Bloomfield ordered lavish dinners on the taxpayers while discussing the town budget.
• In Columbus, Miss., Zach Plair and Isabelle Altman of The Dispatch obtained surveillance footage that showed a council member stole hundreds of dollars in merchandise from a store.
• In West Virginia, Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail found that, over the past decade, out-of-state drug companies had shipped more than 20 million prescription opioids to two pharmacies in a small town of 2,900. That was part of a package that won a Pulitzer Prize.