Peter Byrne : Investigative Reporting

California-branded Politicos Seek National Spotlight: A Retrospective

Kamala’s Karma and The Kamala Contradiction

The Political DNA of Kamala Harris, 2003–2017

Bringing Up Baby Gavin

The rich socialite roots of Gavin Newsom, 2003

Neo Con Artist

The Silicon Valley agenda of Ro Khanna, 2004

Who Is Clint Reilly, Really?

He's running for mayor again, and this time he wants to define himself, before his enemies do it for him.

Reporting on local efforts calling for a ceasefire in Gaza

Dispatches from Point Reyes

Investigative Reporter Peter Byrne Sues National Park Service

Pacific Sun Staff, Sep. 7, 2023
The complaint alleges that the National Park Service is violating the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to disclose public records that may reveal decades of federal mismanagement of Point Reyes National Seashore and ongoing environmental concerns.

Ranches Poisoning Point Reyes National Seashore with Manure

Peter Byrne, Feb 2, 2023

The befouling of Point Reyes National Seashore

Peter Byrne, Nov. 16, 2022

Peter Byrne’s Point Reyes Coverage Wins Award

January 28, 2022

Byrne on the Eco-Destruction of Point Reyes

KGUA’s Peggy‘s Place interviews Byrne about his coverage of the battle between cattle ranchers and the Tule Elk and the history of the first people who lived along the coasts and valleys of Marin County, the Miwok

Death by Design: How the National Park Service experiments on tule elk

By Peter Byrne, June 30, 2021
The Pacific Sun/Bohemian has uncovered that the National Park Service at Point Reyes has killed tule elk, often in torturous ways, in medical experiments for decades. The federal agency absolves itself of any moral responsibility by blaming nature for the deaths. If only that were true.

Tamál Húye: Coast Miwoks Fight for Recognition of Point Reyes’ Indigenous History

By Peter Byrne, May 5, 2021
On April 22, the California Coastal Commission held a virtual hearing to discuss the impact of dairy and cattle ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore. Superintendent Craig Kenkel began his presentation with the words, “Point Reyes is the ancestral home of the Coast Miwok.”

Breaking News: Fecal Bacteria Poisons Point Reyes Beaches

By Peter Byrne, May 10, 2021
On any given summer day, scores of families gambol and picnic on the shores of Abbotts Lagoon and Kehoe Lagoon at Point Reyes National Seashore. The stream-fed waters beckon waders and swimmers, toddlers and adults alike. But humans are not the only life forms splashing in the pools.

Apocalypse Cow: The Future of Life at Point Reyes National Park

By Peter Byrne, Dec. 9, 2020
It is 2020. California is burning, beset by plague, violence and cultural dysphoria. It’s way past time to start listening to lessons encoded in the land. But can we still hear?

Local Power Brokers Series

Paradise Cost: The Price of Supporting Private Ranching With a Sales Tax

By Peter Byrne, May 25, 2022

The Shame of Santa Rosa: Whiteness, and the Culture of Lynching

By Peter Byrne, March 16, 2022

MALT Board of Directors’ Conflicts of Interest Exposed as Legal Battle Unfolds

By Peter Byrne, Sep 29, 2020
Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) has spent tens of millions of dollars in public and private funds buying easements from its own board members.

Society of Professional Journalists’ Norcal Chapter Award

Freedom of information and First Amendment champions honored
The SPJ honors Peter Byrne and Will Carruthers for their investigative reporting. Details

Charity Case

By Peter Byrne and Will Carruthers
Investigating PG&E-funded Rebuild North Bay Foundation

Graton Expectations

How lobbyist and media investor Darius Anderson and a senator’s son gambled and lost their bid for a big casino payday | Read at Bohemian.com: Graton Expectations

One-Stop Shop

Cross-ownership of Poppy Bank and Gallaher Homes raises ethical concerns in Coffey Park | Read at Bohemian.com: One-Stop Shop

The Fate of Chanate

Questions and controversy follow sale of public hospital | Read more at Bohemian.com: The Fate of Chanate

Byrne’s The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III Adapted to the Stage by National Theatre of Sweden

Play by Lars Rudolfsson to premiere March 2, 2019. More info

Read Byrne’s Stories on American Consequences

Investigating the rental housing crisis, Kamala Harris’s Chief of Staff, the massive Russian energy deal and more at American Consequences

Byrne on the Panama Papers

Read Peter Byrne’s stories about George Soros’ deep money ties to a secretive weapons and intel investment firm, and other subjects

What makes a white nationalist?

Race-based ideologies are gaining ground across the West. Peter Byrne’s special report delves into the white supremacist scene in the US to ask why.
Read at New Scientist | Download PDF

Anatomy of terror: What makes normal people become extremists?

by Peter Byrne

It takes more than religious fanaticism or hatred to make someone take innocent lives, but recognise the true roots of ISIS-inspired terror and they can be addressed
Read at New Scientist | Download PDF

Byrne Wins International Science Journalism Award for Investigative Series on Breast Cancer Realities

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has recognized “Busted! Breast Cancer, Money and the Media” with a Gold Award

Busted! Breast cancer, money and the media

Read Peter Byrne’s investigative series on a nationwide breast cancer scare that never should have happened:

Part 1: René Willard’s story
Part 2: Climbing Risk Mountain
Part 3: The Marin Syndrome
Part 4: The canary in the gold mine
Part 5: Does hormone replacement therapy cause breast cancer?
Part 6: The perils of mammography
Part 7: The life and death of the Marin Women’s Study
Part 8: How Zero Breast Cancer pays its bills
Part 9: Bad Data: The Dirty Laundry
Part 10: Bad Data: Audit Trail
Part 11: The story of Abigail Adams: How the California Cancer Registry fails women

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Community newspaper launches investigative series on breast cancer

For Immediate Release
Nov. 5, 2015
Contact: Tess Elliott, Editor/Publisher, Point Reyes Light
(415) 669.9709, editor@ptreyeslight.com

POINT REYES STATION, CALIF.

“Busted! Breast cancer, money and the media” deflates a quarter-century of reporting on a non-existent cancer epidemic in Marin County.

In its Nov. 5, 2015 edition, Marin County’s weekly Point Reyes Light commenced a 10-part investigative series on a nationwide breast cancer scare that never should have happened. “Busted! Breast cancer, money and the media” dives into the question of who is most at risk of breast cancer. Hint: Contrary to popular belief, it is not wealthy white women. Focused on Marin County, Calif. and similar affluent, white communities, the series demystifies how breast cancer risk is calculated and explains how researchers and the media benefit by exaggerating risk factors and spreading unwarranted fears of the disease. Investigative journalist Peter Byrne reveals how scientific data have been manipulated to promote non-scientific agendas and to the detriment of women in underserved populations.

“Busted!” details how local epidemiologists spent millions of dollars looking for alternatives to the simplest — and best — explanation of high breast cancer incidence rates in the San Francisco Bay Area: Excess screening mammography.

“Busted!” explains how breast cancer risk is calculated in easy-to-grasp language. It explores the perils of mammography and hormone replacement therapy.

It reports on the shocking racial and genetic bias embedded in the multi-million-dollar Marin Women’s Study and similar studies of white populations.

“Busted!” tracks the influence of the Avon Foundation on local scientists and activists, showing how the group shapes the direction of scientific research in its own interests.

It releases never-before-reported information on the alarmingly poor quality of the research data collected by the California Cancer Registry.

And it exposes emails between high-ranking officials at the California Department of Public Health as they attempted to kill the Light’s investigation.

The Point Reyes Light will serially publish “Busted!” for 10 weeks in print and online. Financed by the Fund for Investigative Journalism, a Kickstarter campaign, the Point Reyes Light and the Marin Media Institute, “Busted!” reflects more than five years of digging into hundreds of scientific studies and thousands of pages of public records. Byrne’s magazine work has appeared in Scientific American, Quanta, Wired, SF Weekly, Mother Jones, California Lawyer, San Francisco, Salon.com and many other publications. His books on quantum physics and cosmology are published by Oxford University Press (2010) and Princeton University Press (2012). Second serial rights negotiable upon request.

Tess Elliott
Editor, Point Reyes Light
editor@ptreyeslight.com

Update:
March 13, 2015: Successfully raised $7,599 USD with 58 backers.
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Please visit Kickstarter to read about my new investigation,

Busted: Breast Cancer, Money, and the Media

"Busted" reports how researchers create non-existent breast cancer clusters from California to Long Island and make headlines. It is a nationally significant story and will change how you view the “war” on cancer.

Please pass this link along to your own networks — and thanks for your support! https://kck.st/16Ns5BV

Truly yours,
— Peter Byrne

Read Byrne in Quanta

Byrne's science writing for Quanta Magazine syndicated to Scientific American and Wired

Going Postal

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's husband sells post offices to his friends, cheap.

Now available on Kindle: National award-winning investigative journalist Peter Byrne reports that the husband of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California has been selling post offices at bargain basement prices — often to his own business partners. Richard C. Blum is the chairman of CBRE Group Inc., the largest commercial real estate firm in the world. In 2011, the Postal Service awarded Blum's company an exclusive contract to sell off postal real estate in cities and towns across America. Byrne's in-depth investigation details the many apparent conflicts of interests driving the CBRE deals. It brings to light a scathing government audit of Blum's contract that is being ignored by the Obama administration. The investigation reveals how Senator Feinstein pressured the Postmaster General to stop a postal construction project, and to favor the interests of a developer working with her husband's firm. Byrne explains why the Post Office is not really broke and how powerful forces on Capitol Hill are angling to franchise the U.S. Mail monopoly. We learn that the post office executives in charge of Blum's contract have been up to financial shenanigans of their own. This is first-class investigative reporting on a vital issue of the day that you will not find anywhere else.
Get it at Amazon

Byrne Serving as Journalist in Residence at UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics

(01.24.2013)

Bad Boy of Physics:
Peter Byrne Interviews Leonard Susskind

(06.07.2011, Scientific American)
Leonard Susskind rebelled as a teen and never stopped. Today he insists that reality may forever be beyond reach of our understanding.
Download PDF, 295K

Byrne a Finalist for Investigative Reporters & Editors Partnership Award

(04.2011) Peter Byrne’s story on UC regents' conflicts of interest was just announced as an Investigative Reporters & Editors Partnership Award finalist (along with ProPublica, NPR, Financial Times, etc).
Investigative Reporters & Editors site

Byrne honored by the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California chapter with a First Amendment Award

(02.2011) SPJ honors Byrne for reporting the multipart series on the now defunct website Spot.us outlining how several University of California (UC) Regents approved a series UC investments in private deals and public companies in which they had personal financial interests.
Byrne's Regents story (Originally published on Spot.us. See also Investors’ Payday 101

The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III

Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family

Now available from Oxford University Press
Peter Byrne, 368 pages | 50 b/w photographs | Hardback | Publishing in May 2010 (estimated)
Price: $25.00
Also available on Amazon!

Reviews for The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III:

Metascience

“The author is the first to have obtained access to the Everett family archive, and he also draws on a large number of conversations and correspondences with people who knew Everett during the genesis of his theory and through the years following its publication. The book is admirably researched; and it is authoritative both on Everett‘s opinions about his own theory and on its reception by others.” Full review (PDF)

American Journal of Physics

Look for Adrian Kent’s review of “The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III” in the next issue of the American Journal of Physics.

The Quantum Times

“With the publication of Peter Byrne’s biography of Hugh Everett, the story of the sometimes troubled life of the father of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics has finally been released from its abode in dusty boxes stored in a basement in California.” full review

Secrecy News

Book: The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett: "...a thoughtful account of an original figure and his diverse contributions to a momentous period in the history of science and national security."

New Scientist

Not for this world: The heartbreaking and strangely beautiful story of a troubled genius (web) (pdf)

Nature

The father of parallel universes: Robert P. Crease is fascinated by a biography of quantum physicist Hugh Everett III, the difficult man behind one of the most logical and bizarre ideas in the history of human thought. (pdf)

News

(09.2010) The Investors' Club: How the University of California Regents Spin Public Money into Private Profit
Read Byrne’s 8-part investigation into financial conflicts of interest among the Regents of the University of California, orginally published by Spot.us and a consortium of California news weeklies.

(08.2008) The Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) has awarded Byrne a grant in support of his biography of Hugh Everett III: “The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III: Multiple Universes, Mutually Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family.” (Oxford University Press, 2010) Link

(03.2008) Byrne’s series exposing United States Senator Dianne Feinstein’s longtime conflict of interest with her husband's military contracting businesses is a FINALIST in the 2008 Investigative Journalists & Editor’s National Award Contest.

(2008) California Newspaper Publishers Association has awarded Byrne for Investigative / Enterprise Reporting on Dianne Feinstein’s Iraq Conflict.

“The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett” in Scientific American
(Scientific American 11.21.2007, PDF, 2.3MB)
After his now celebrated theory of multiple universes met scorn, Hugh Everett abandoned the world of academic physics. He turned to top-secret military research and led a tragic private life.

The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Collected Works 1955-1980 with Commentary
Edited by Prof. Jeffrey A. Barrett of UC Irvine and Peter Byrne

“What can be said without dispute is that the present editors have done an excellent job in presenting the available material. Their book can be highly recommended to physicists in each of the two parallel branches of the mental universe!”
—Peter J. Bussey, Contemporary Physics

Previously

(2007) Byrne and Prof. Jeffrey Barrett of UC Irvine are contracted to Princeton University Press to publish an annotated anthology of Everett’s works in 2011.

FQXI has this to say about Byrne and his Everett project.