Molly Parker is a reporter at The Southern Illinoisan who’s been covering the housing and economic crisis in Cairo, in southern Illinois, for the past two-and-a-half years. She is one of seven reporters selected to join ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, a yearlong initiative that aims to boost local, investigative reporting by partnering with and paying the salaries of journalists in cities with populations below 1 million. This week, ProPublica Illinois engagement reporter Logan Jaffe interviewed Parker. Below is a lightly edited version of what Parker told Jaffe in their conversation