Brad Racino
Multimedia-Based Investigative ReporterBrad Racino is a senior reporter and assistant director at inewsource, as well as a photographer, videographer and editor. He has produced work for print, radio and TV on a variety of topics including political corruption, transportation, health, trade, surveillance and maritime. His cross-platform reporting has earned more than 40 local awards and several national awards, including back-to-back medals from Investigative Reporters and Editors, a national Emmy nomination and the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism. Racino has worked as a reporter and database analyst for News21; as a photographer, videographer and reporter for the Columbia Missourian; a project coordinator for the National Freedom of Information Coalition and as a videographer and editor for Verizon Fios1 TV in New York. He received his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 2012.
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HiCaliber Horse Rescue, a Valley Center nonprofit at the center of an inewsource investigation and multiple government investigations over allegations of fraud, animal abuse and improper veterinary practices, is closing, according to a Facebook post on Saturday. -
The action comes about a month after the Attorney General’s Office prohibited HiCaliber from soliciting donations because it hadn’t submitted 2016 paperwork. -
Another former board member of HiCaliber Horse Rescue has come forward to tell inewsource she never saw financial paperwork or detailed receipts while helping to oversee the Valley Center nonprofit. The horse rescue is at the center of multiple local and state investigations involving fraud, animal abuse and improper veterinary practices. -
The state Supreme Court has denied a request by San Diego attorney Cory Briggs and his nonprofit client, CREED-21, to unpublish a precedent-setting opinion involving the California Environmental Quality Act and a Wal-Mart project in Riverside County. -
The investigation inewsource began last month into HiCaliber Horse Rescue involved dozens of interviews and hundreds of pages of public records. Some of the material uncovered provides additional insights into how the Valley Center nonprofit operates. -
KPBS Midday EditionMichelle Knuttila, the founder of the nonprofit HiCaliber Horse Rescue, spent thousands of donor dollars intended for rescuing and rehabilitating horses on late-night fast-food and bar tabs, mobile phone spy technology, Weight Watchers and other purchases from October 2013 to March 2015, according to financial documents provided to inewsource.
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