Hey there!! :)My name is Omar S. Rashad and I'm an investigative reporter who uses data to understand how systems — and those in charge of them — create outcomes that everyday people grapple with.I most recently spent three and a half years reporting on Fresno, California's fifth-largest city.I've made a habit of looking into how government decisions take place behind closed doors and how public taxpayer money is spent, and at times misspent.I was the first to break the news that Fresno city officials were eyeing a rural correctional facility to place unhoused people — a discussion that was inconspicuously kept out of the public eye. I also broke the news on how a nonprofit leader embezzled more than a million dollars in public tax revenue, as well as how city officials and law enforcement found out about it.My reporting has so far triggered an ACLU lawsuit against the City of Fresno, revealed that Fresno leaders violated state law for illegally negotiating the city budget in private for at least five years, forced city leaders to reform their policies on handing out city contracts and uncovered the ways political dark money has influenced Fresno's elections.I also investigated how a nonprofit hospital sent upwards of $70 million to its associated medical group over the span of a decade, but claimed those funds were direct community benefits in annual tax filings.