13 April 2021 by: Tony Bartelme Tony Bartelme tests floodwaters for fecal contamination for his "Rising Waters" series in May 2020. | Lauren Petracca/The Post and Courier Tony Bartelme tests floodwaters for fecal contamination for his "Rising Waters" series in May 2020. | Lauren Petracca/The Post and Courier As local news deserts expand, deep reporting about science and other complex topics also has dried up. Tony Bartelme, a 2018 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award winner, offers one way to fix that. In just the past 15 years, a quarter of America’s newspapers vanished, leaving roughly 1,800 communities in news deserts – places without a local news presence. At the same time, many surviving newspapers have cut staff, creating ghost papers where a handful of reporters dash from council meetings to sports events. In a growing number of small towns and cities, these journalists simply have no time to dig deep into complex issues, such as government corruption and climate change.