Holly Hacker of The Dallas Morning News looked at new data compiled by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that showed how Texas public school students from the Class of 2007 fared in their first year at Texas public universities. Analysis showed that “at some North Texas high schools, half or more of graduates who go to college earn less than a C average their first year.”
Many Dallas-Fort Worth graduates struggle in college
Posted on March 12th, 2010
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Chemical industry fought ban of bisphenol A
Posted on March 12th, 2010
Reporters Meg Kissinger and Susanne Rust of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviewed thousands of pages of public records, from IRS documents to financial disclosure filings, to get inside the chemical industry’s push to fight a ban on bisphenol A, a chemical used in hard, clear plastics, including baby bottles. Their analysis showed the industry has turned to many of the same tactics — and people — used by Big Tobacco to fight government regulation. The two reporters also found Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), a group purporting to be an independent media watchdog, has ties to the industry and groups that fight deregulation.
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Federal report cites 94 percent of nursing homes for violations
Posted on March 12th, 2010
Robert Pear of The New York Times reports that 94 percent of nursing homes in the United States violated federal health and safety standards in 2007 according to a recently released federal study. Although only 17 percent of nursing homes had violations that threatened the lives of residents, many were cited for abuse, neglect, confusing patients’ medication and poor nutrition. The frequency and proportion of the problems ranged from state to state. Violations were reported in 76 percent of nursing homes in Rhode Island, while 100 percent of homes in Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming and the District of Columbia were cited in 2007.
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No-bid contract for concert producer costs taxpayers
Posted on March 12th, 2010
Reporter Mike McAndrew of The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) used interviews, emails, contracts and other documents to show that the operators of New York’s State Fair contrived the justification to award a lucrative no-bid contract to a national concert producer. The reporting pokes holes in the reasons cited by public officials when they circumvented state law on competitive bidding for Live Nation’s contract to book concerts at the fair. The story shows that New York taxpayers are paying more under the deal.
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Some guards at Maryland jail have arrest records
Posted on March 12th, 2010
Following the apparent strangulation death of 19-year-old inmate Ronnie L. White, the Prince George’s County Jail has been under intense scrutiny. A report by Debbie Cenziper and James Hohman, of The Washington Post, revealed that more than a dozen correction officers at the facility have arrest records, yet many have been retained on staff. “The officers’ legal troubles raise more questions about the jail’s management and the caliber and competency of those responsible for keeping order.”
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Loophole in Hawaii’s pay-to-play law exploited by donors
Posted on March 9th, 2010
An investigation by the Honolulu Advertiser found that donors linked to city and state contractors are giving money to candidates for Hawaii’s gubernatorial races. Experts say the donors are exploiting a loophole in Hawaii’s five year-old pay-to-play law. The study is based on a computer-assisted survey of more than 2,300 campaign contributions made to three top gubernatorial candidates during the second half of 2009.
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New York State road work account raided, little left for repairs
Posted on March 8th, 2010
Michelle Breidenbach of The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) mined state financial documents to show the abuse of New York State’s Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund. It’s not “dedicated” at all. Years of raiding and borrowing have left just 22 percent of the fund to fix the state roads.
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U.S. government funded companies doing business in Iran
Posted on March 8th, 2010
An investigation by The New York Times reveals that “the federal government has awarded more than $107 billion in contract payments, grants and other benefits over the past decade to foreign and multinational American companies while they were doing business in Iran, despite Washington’s efforts to discourage investment there.”
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Parolees clustered in a handful of communities in Utah
Posted on March 8th, 2010
An investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune found clustering of probationers and parolees “in specific neighborhoods and even apartment buildings, despite rules prohibiting people on supervision from associating with one another. Law enforcement and scholars say offenders are more likely to succeed if they are dispersed, but a lack of halfway houses and city ordinances passed in recent years have limited where many offenders can live.”
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Tracking gang activity in Tennessee
Posted on March 5th, 2010
The Tennessean’s three-part series on gangs reveals a growing problem across the state, particularly in suburbia and small towns. Law enforcement is overwhelmed and schools are ripe recruiting grounds in what’s part of a national trend of gangs expanding their influence to areas outside the urban core to sell drugs. The newspaper gained access to gangs, taking readers inside their world, while providing the most complete public accounting to date of gang activity across the state. Included in the online presentation is an interactive map of known gangs that operate in each of Tennessee’s 95 counties. Relying on a confidential report, interviews, police records and court records, the newspaper’s series found there’s no consistent system to track gang activity. The lack of information leaves the public, and sometimes even law enforcement, in the dark about the scope of the problem. The paper also found some homicides with links to gangs never get reported as such by police.
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