I'm a Richmond-based reporter specializing in quick-turn enterprise and investigative journalism. I'm focused on exposing abuses of power in government and the criminal justice system.
I'm a recent local investigations fellow at The New York Times, where I trained with Pulitzer Prize-winning editors and investigated coal barons' controversial attempts to remake the economy of Appalachian Virginia.
My reporting led state officials to reinstate over 3,400 voters who'd been mistakenly removed from voter rolls. I've exposed payments from Dominion Energy to a prominent newspaper columnist who'd defended the company in editorials. And I've helped report on a podcast that exposed a cover-up in the state crime lab.
You can reach me at bpaviour14 at gmail dot com
The New York Times
As President Trump pledges to revive “beautiful” coal, Virginia’s coal counties have largely moved on to new ventures. But who stands to benefit?
Virginia Mercury
Virginia's top Republican lawmaker is known as a dealmaker willing to buck his own party — and sometimes blur ethical lines.
VPM News
My reporting led state officials to reinstate 3,400 people who'd be mistakenly purged from voter rolls, just weeks before crucial legislative elections. The incident sparked a state inspector general investigation.
Virginia Mercury, Nieman Lab, and more
June 2025 - Present
The New York Times
Feb 2024 - May 2025
VPM News + NPR
June 2018 - Feb 2024
The Cambodia Daily
Aug 2015 - Sept 2017
Story Mechanics/VPM/iHeartRadio
A 12-part podcast focused on a forensic scientist gone rogue in Virginia's crime lab. I reported and narrated episode 11 and parts of 12.
NPR
Born in Jamaica and raised in the U.S., Winsome Earle-Sears is casting herself as the Republican face of a backlash to 2020's racial justice protests.
VPM News
Dominion Energy paid Hampton Roads newspaper columnist Gordon Morse over $60,000 per year as he wrote unsigned editorials praising the utility, according to new paperwork filed by Dominion.
VPM News
The Richmond Times-Dispatch published two columns endorsing a controversial downtown redevelopment project that was signed by local university presidents but written by the developer, Navy Hill District Corporation.
Floodlight/The Guardian/VPM
When residents in Union Hill, Virginia, decried the pipeline as a form of environmental racism, the energy company insisted it wasn’t.
VPM News
A Japanese scholar moves to the back woods of Appalachia to live out his dream of becoming an old time musician
NPR
Descendants of the enslaved are now leading an effort to complete the history of the mansion, which is the oldest continuously occupied governor's residence in the United States.
NPR + VPM
If you’ve got bad credit, rent-to-own homes can seem like a good way to get your own place. But some housing experts say they come with lots of risks.
NPR
For months, some Republicans have cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The upcoming vote in Virginia presented the state party with the opportunity to run an election of its own.
It hasn't gone smoothly.