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Extra! Extra! is a blog devoted to current examples of investigative reporting, including in-depth projects, enterprise and breaking news with impact, use of public documents and Freedom of Information laws, use of data or computer-assisted reporting tools, and other examples of watchdog journalism from all media.

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Shut out of Social Security

11/25/09 Posted in CAR, Government (federal/state/local), Justice (courts/crime/law), Workplace

Mike Chalmers of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., found a pattern of “denial and delay” among administrative law judges who have the power to grant or deny Social Security benefits to disabled workers in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The News Journal “analyzed four years of decisions by ALJ in every state, more than 1.7 [...]

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Federal subsidies paid to dead farmers

11/25/09 Posted in Broadcast, CAR, Government (federal/state/local)

Stephen Stock of WFOR reported that as many as 1,399 Florida farmers who have been dead at least three years nonetheless received $55,051,857 in aid. “Working with help from the Environmental Working Group’s database experts, the CBS4 I-Team matched Federal Farm Bill recipients with people, birth dates, addresses and social security numbers found [...]

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Soldier’s suicide illustrates problems in military psychiatric care

11/24/09 Posted in Health, Military

Tapping into hundreds of pages of medical records, Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel told the story of Iraq vet James Weigl, who committed suicide soon after his return to Wisconsin. Kissinger’s reporting identified numerous mistakes and missed warning signs – by the Army and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee. For example, [...]

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Man paroled 22 years after questionable conviction

11/20/09 Posted in Justice (courts/crime/law)

An investigation by Times Herald-Record reporter Christine Young into the questionable handling by police and prosecutors of a 1987 New York City murder has led to the prison release of a man convicted of the crime.

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Consultancies a cash-cow for retired military

11/20/09 Posted in Military

A USA Today investigation found that the Pentagon has hired “at least 158 retired admirals and generals…to offer advice under an unusual arrangement. Most of the retired officers, one to four stars in rank, have been paid hundreds of dollars an hour by the military even as they worked for companies seeking Defense Department contracts.

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Tapes reveal motive in soldiers’ killing of four Iraqi detainees

11/19/09 Posted in Broadcast, Military

An investigation by CNN’s Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost found that U.S. soldiers interrogated by the Army in the 2007 murders of four Iraqi detainees blamed a military policy they said made it too hard to detain suspected insurgents.

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Domestic Silence series

11/18/09 Posted in Justice (courts/crime/law), Social issues

A Columbus Dispatch investigation of domestic violence by Stephanie Czekalinski, Jill Riepenhoff and Mike Wagner shows flaws in Ohio laws and policies that create a culture of tolerance and indifference about the top crime in the state.

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FBI tracked Studs Terkel for over four decades

11/17/09 Posted in First Amendment & FOIA

Through the Freedom of Information Act, CUNY graduate student Valerie Lapinski was able to obtain previously unreleased FBI file of Studs Terkel.  The file revealed that the agency suspected Terkel was a Communist.  “The 269-page paper trail spans 1945 to 1990 – covering everything from Terkel’s McCarthy-era blacklisting to his involvement with Paul Robeson and [...]

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Schools not made aware of tainted food supplies

11/17/09 Posted in Consumer Safety, Education, Government (federal/state/local), Health

An investigation by Blake Morrison and Peter Eisler of USA Today illustrates failures in food safety programs as schools unknowingly continued to receive food from suppliers with a history of tainted products.

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Probation system profits on the poor at unfair price

11/17/09 Posted in Justice (courts/crime/law), Uncategorized

A report by Sandy Hodson of The Augusta Chronicle shows that private probation companies profit while unfairly punishing those who cannot pay their court debts.

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