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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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Loopshole in Hawaii’s pay-to-play law exploited by donors

03/9/10 Posted in CAR, Campaign Finance

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.

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New York State road work account raided, little left for repairs

03/8/10 Posted in Government (federal/state/local), Infrastructure, Uncategorized

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

03/8/10 Posted in Business, Government (federal/state/local), International

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

03/8/10 Posted in CAR, Justice (courts/crime/law)

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 [...]

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Tracking gang activity in Tennessee

03/5/10 Posted in CAR, Justice (courts/crime/law), Mapping, Organizations

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.

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Unintended acceleration problems not just limited to Toyota

03/5/10 Posted in Broadcast, CAR, Consumer Safety, Transportation

The dangerous problem of cars accelerating without a driver’s input has put Toyota in the headlines – and brought the car maker’s executives to congressional hearings. But an NPR News Investigation by Robert Benincasa found that unintended acceleration is not limited to Toyota. It is actually a problem found throughout the auto industry.

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Fish oil industry stresses Chesapeake Bay

03/5/10 Posted in Broadcast, Environment, Health

Tisha Thompson, of WTTG-Washington, D.C., reports on the overfishing of menhaden, small silvery fish critical to the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia-based company Omega Protein uses these fish for their production of Omega-3 fish oil supplements as menhaden have a high concentration of this valuable oil.

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Thousands of rape kits went untested in Memphis

03/4/10 Posted in Broadcast, Justice (courts/crime/law)

An investigation by Keli Rabon and Jim O’Donnell of WREG-TV in Memphis uncovered the failure of the Memphis Police Department to send thousands of rape kits off for testing leaving cases unsolved and potentially criminals on the street.

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Payday loan industry profits, fights regulation

03/3/10 Posted in Consumer Safety, Economy

Keith Epstein of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund provides an inside look at the tactics of the influential $42 billion-a-year payday lending industry, which is thriving from a surge in emergency loans to people struggling through the recession as it pours record sums into lobbying and campaigns.

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Lawyers to Ohio’s governor intervened in active criminal investigation

03/3/10 Posted in Government (federal/state/local), Justice (courts/crime/law)

An investigation by Randy Ludlow of The Columbus Dispatch revealed that the top two lawyers to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland intervened in an active criminal investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

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