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Indiana officials traveling on taxpayer dime

Niki Kelly of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette tracked taxpayer-funded travel by eight of Indiana's top elected officials since 2002, finding that they "spent more than $72,000 on car and plane travel both in Indiana and elsewhere around the country." The paper "reviewed hundreds of pages of travel documents, vouchers and more for those elected to the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, auditor, treasurer, secretary of state and clerk of courts. The men and women in these positions represent the entire state."

Four med schools produce high rates of troubled docs

Jack Dolan and Andrew Julien of The Hartford Courant analyzed medical disciplinary records to find four medical schools that "produce troubled doctors at about 10 times the rate of the best schools." The four -- the Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico, Howard University in Washington, Manila Central University in the Philippines and Meharry Medical College in Nashville -- have yielded "more than 600 doctors cited by licensing boards for negligence, incompetence, sexual assault, drug abuse, fraud or other problems." Other stories in the series address the struggles of schools that primarily serve African-American students and how lower academic standards have lured some students unable to gain a medical degree in the United States.

Donations tracked to adult entertainment industry

Caitlin Rother of The San Diego Union-Tribune studied local campaign finance reports to find that people affiliated with San Diego's adult entertainment industry often listed vague or incomplete information about their occupations. "For example, people listed as entertainer or waitress on one report would be listed on another as student, homemaker or some other less obvious affiliation. Some donors didn't list an occupation, and several who gave the maximum $250 contribution to more than one candidate listed apartment addresses in less-than-affluent neighborhoods that usually are not home to political donors with cash." The donations were bundled together and delivered by lobbyists for the California Cabaret Association.

Small private college carries high debt

Jeffrey Kosseff of The Oregonian analyzed the financial status of Lewis & Clark College and nine other private schools to find that the "private Southwest Portland college carries a small endowment and relatively high debt load." Lewis & Clark relies less on tuition for its revenues than do similar schools, which could hurt it in the long-term, the paper says. "Of the 10 colleges, Lewis & Clark had the highest ratio of liabilities to assets -- 1-to-3 compared with the median of about 1-to-5."

Analysis shows causes of fatal accidents

Hal Karp of Reader's Digest analyzed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Data on fatal accidents from 1998 to 2001, focusing on incidents at intersections and removing crashes blamed on driver error or impairment. "The result: 24,067 people were killed. One-third of them were at intersections, where confusing lanes, blind spots and inadequate signs can cause havoc." The magazine cites several local and state efforts to improve the readability of signs at problem intersections and notes large drops in fatal accidents.

More than 12,000 allegations of prosecutorial misconduct investigated

The Center for Public Integrity published an investigation of local prosecutors in each of the nation's 2,341 jurisdictions. The project shows which prosecutors' offices, and which specific lawyers within those offices, have bent or broken the rules to win convictions in every type of criminal case. Brooke Williams, Neil Gordon and Steve Weinberg reviewed more than 12,000 allegations of prosecutorial misconduct nationwide going back to 1970 to identify hundreds of individual prosecutors who bend or break the rules over and over without suffering any professional discipline. With a searchable database of cases.

Speed, inexperience are deadly mix for teenage drivers

Laura Ayo of The Knoxville News-Sentinel analyzed data from 60 fatal car accidents in Knox County involving teen-age drivers over the past five years to find that "speeding contributed to more than half of the wrecks. It was the second most frequent contributing factor next to running off the road or failing to stay in the proper lane." In a familiar statistic to safety groups, the paper also found that "more than two-thirds of people killed in the cars being driven by teens were not wearing their seat belts."

Delay in home inspections means some families may not be safe

The rush to build homes in Cincinnati's suburbs has left county officials unable to keep up with the pace of inspections, reports Jennifer Edwards of The Cincinnati Enquirer. "The result: Hundreds of families are living in houses that never were certified as legal or safe," the paper found. An exact count of homes without occupancy certificates is out of reach, but the problem extends for several years. "At least 750 homes built between 1993 and 2001 in Butler County don't have certificates, even though some people have lived in them for a decade."

Sanjay Bhatt of The Palm Beach Post used data from three federal and state databases to compile his analysis of Florida's medical malpractice insurance system, which insurers say is facing a crisis. Bhatt used SPSS to find that of the 15,000 people who filed malpractice claims in Florida during the 1990s, about half receive no payment. "Of those who do, half are awarded less than $125,000, and three-quarters receive less than $250,000." Legislation being considered in the state would cap damages for pain and suffering at $250,000, but other damages could still be awarded. (The National Practitioner Data Bank, one source used for this story, is available from IRE and NICAR.)

Legislators' relatives get work as lobbyists

In the first of a two-part series, Chuck Neubauer, Judy Pasternak and Richard T. Cooper of the Los Angeles Times examined lobbying and disclosure records to find that "at least 17 senators and 11 members of the House have family members who lobby or work as consultants on government relations, most in Washington and often for clients who rely on the related lawmakers' goodwill." A government ethics lawyer quoted by the paper said the 28 relatives it found was probably a low figure. "Without exception, lawmakers contacted by the Los Angeles Times said they had not been influenced by their relatives' business relationships."

Policies allow violent inmates to escape mental institution

Kirk Mitchell of The Denver Post reports that "nearly 50 men and women held at the state psychiatric hospital for murder and other violent acts have escaped since 1990," and several of them committed violent acts after they left the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo. The escapes "are at least partly the result of the hospital's conflicting obligations to treat criminally insane patients and, at the same time, protect the public from some of the state's most dangerous people."

School district covered up sloppy construction

Debbie Cenziper and Jason Grotto of The Miami Herald analyzed data from Miami-Dade's school construction program to find the school district "has routinely covered the signs of sloppy and incomplete construction by demanding that its own maintenance force fix sweeping deficiencies in new schools, diverting crucial dollars from aging campuses waiting for repairs and upgrades." Since 1988, maintenance crews have put in the equivalent of "81 years of around-the-clock work on campuses with new walls, roofs, plumbing, paint, equipment."

S.C. sex offender data flawed, difficult to search

Suellen Dean and Chandra P. Placer of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal (free registration required) combined Census data with South Carolina's sex offender registry to find "that an estimated 16,500 children in Spartanburg County live within a half-mile of an offender who has been convicted of a crime against a minor." The paper adds that the registry itself "is less valuable to the public than the registries in other states" because it contains incorrect addresses and doesn't produce maps as part of its search function.

Data on ticket-writing habits allows guide for drivers

Larry Higgs of the Courier News reviewed three months' of data on moving violations in New Jersey to confirm some "obvious assumptions," including that police in larger communities write more tickets, but also to provide a guide for New Jersey motorists on which jurisdictions tend to ticket drivers for particular infractions. "Caught speeding? You're probably in Bridgewater, Hillsborough or northern Hunterdon County. Nailed for overdue inspection? You must be in South Bound Brook." Some towns credited state grant money for increasing tickets for certain offenses like failure to wear seat belts.

Air Force Academy board ignored charges of assaults

Elizabeth Aguilera, David Migoya and Allison Sherry of The Denver Post used 25 years' worth of meeting minutes from an Air Force Academy review board to find that the academy's top officials "didn't always tell the board the true extent of sexual misconduct at the school," and attendance at board meetings was sporadic, with some members never showing up. "Instead, members focused on routine business such as dormitory renovations, cadet pay raises, student grades and the school's honor code -- even though new scandals were reported in the media."

Teachers' sick days add up in Massachusetts

Reporters from the Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co.'s four daily newspapers obtained teacher attendance records from 17 school districts north of Boston and analyzed the habits of 6,600 teachers. They found that the "average North of Boston teacher spent more than two weeks away from class during the 2001-02 school year, or 11.4 school days." One teacher took 43 sick days over two school years, including two to care for the family dog. The data was analyzed by David Joyner, projects editor of The Eagle-Tribune Co. newspapers, and Shawn Boburg of The Eagle-Tribune, with the assistance of Grace Rubenstein of The Eagle-Tribune. Here's how they did it. Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co.'s series get reaction.

Housing subsidies fueled questionable sales

Tom Pelton of The (Baltimore) Sun has an investigation of a local mortgage broker's plan "for enriching investors by taking advantage of a program designed to provide housing for poor families." The scheme, which is being probed by city, state and federal authorities, "turned out to be a Monopoly game that players couldn't win." The broker, William W. Dent, "misled tenants and investors, defrauded a bank, hurt neighborhoods and exploited poorly supervised government housing programs meant to help the needy." The Sun's review is based on court and real estate documents.

Police chief under fire after confiscating concert tickets

A records request by WOAI-San Antonio led to a Texas school superintendent's call for the district police chief to be fired after records showed the officer had taken concert tickets from people he arrested and didn't return them. The station's FOIA request turned up previous allegations of similar conduct by Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City School District Police Chief Larry Anders. "Obviously, when you take in the case that's against him now and then you add this 1997 thing -- that certainly doesn't look good," said a school district spokesman.

New governor creates positions to reward allies

Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich "has quietly created new high-paying positions and layers of bureaucracy that, in many cases, reward legislative allies, campaign workers and others who helped him get elected," according to a review of state payroll records by The (Baltimore) Sun (because of a byline strike, the reporter's name was withheld). Dozens of campaign aides, associates and relatives of advisers have landed state posts, some of which were newly created or filled only when a waiver of a hiring freeze policy was granted. A former state legislator who headed Democrats for Ehrlich is one of the hires, along with his top aide -- who works for the lieutenant governor despite being paid from the Department of Natural Resources budget.

Court-appointed guardians failing to protect elderly, mentally ill

Carol D. Leonnig, Lena H. Sun and Sarah Cohen of The Washington Post launched a series on flaws in the guardianship system in the District of Columbia. Sunday's piece highlighted court-appointed guardians who failed to file required reports on their clients or misspent clients' money. Monday's installment shows how elderly or mentally ill residents "have been pulled involuntarily into a court system that can run roughshod over those it is supposed to protect." The Post reviewed court dockets and case files covering the past ten years to describe the actions of guardians and also compiled records on court-required reports and cases between 1995 and 2000.

Majority of Phoenix's accused priests were in predominantly Hispanic parishes

An analysis by Joseph A. Reaves and Elvia Diaz of The Arizona Republic shows that "eight of the 11 priests criminally accused or convicted of sexual misconduct with minors in the Phoenix Diocese committed their offenses in parishes with large and often predominantly Hispanic populations." The paper's review, based on legal documents and church assignments, does not say whether Catholic Church officials knew about the allegations of abuse at the time, but six of the priests were transferred to other parishes that had significant Hispanic populations.

Agency hides plan to spend $248 million on development

Using internal documents, Garrett Therolf of The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call shows that the "Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has secretly earmarked $248 million from November's massive toll increase for economic development while telling the public the money is only for self-insurance against terrorism." That money, part of an expected $800 million in revenue from toll increases, would go toward land buys and to lure and promote private businesses on waterfront property. Officials say they only have set aside $30 million for the project. The Commission denied requests for its records, which include details of a trip where 4 bridge officials were entertained by a firm that won a contract from the agency.

Census reveals Cincinnati's loss of young adults

Amy Higgins of The Cincinnati Enquirer used Census data to find that "Cincinnati's young adults are growing up and moving out at alarming rates." Nearly 6 percent of those born between 1966 and 1975 departed Hamilton County during the 1990s, 10th worst among the largest metro counties. The city is responding by emphasizing downtown living, offering more entertainment venues and local music.

DUI sentences not meeting state mandates

Like many states, Pennsylvania has tough laws for repeat DUI convictions mandating at least a month in jail. But Mark Houser of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review analyzed 22,000 state sentencing records to find that some don't get to prison. "At least one in five people sentenced for a second or subsequent drunken driving violation avoids going to jail," and others serve only a few days. The approaches in sentencing vary in different sections of the state.

Enterprise zones have gone wrong in New York

James Heaney and Patrick Lakamp of The Buffalo News investigate the results of an idea hatched by hometown congressman Jack Kemp: economic enterprise zones to encourage development. Buffalo's own program "may be the extreme example of Kemp's idea turned on its head." With state assistance, Buffalo "is using its richest development package to provide tax breaks to some of the city's biggest corporations and most-influential business executives." Few jobs are created and New York loses more than $200 million a year in potential tax revenue. First of a four-part series.

Donations to senator went unreported

Rick Daysog of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin did a computer analysis of Hawaii campaign finance records to find that one state senator "did not report more than $20,000 that local companies and unions said they gave to his campaign." The paper studied Democratic Sen. Cal Kawamoto's receipts since 1996 and compared them to records of contributions made by other committees. Kawamoto's campaign finances have become the subject of a state investigation.

Power company's environmental record 'off the mark'

Carrie Teegardin of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined a decade worth of government records and data to find that power company Southern Co. "has overstated its environmental record, pollutes more than most of its peers even when using comparisons favorable to Southern, and has fought numerous federal cleanup efforts along the way." Figures from the company's recent PR campaign touting its environmental record, Southern acknowledges, "might be off the mark." While some plants have reduced their emissions by more than a third since 1990, "the bulk of Southern Co.'s plants are exceeding federal emissions targets -- some by a lot."

Poor judgment led to fatal nightclub fire

Stephen Kurkjian, Stephanie Ebbert and Thomas Farragher of The Boston Globe unveil the results of their two-month investigation into the fatal nightclub fire at The Station in West Warwick, R.I., revealing "willful code violations" and the fact that the club's owners glued the infamous foam to the walls of the club themselves. "The road to one of the nation's deadliest nightclub fires was marked not so much by great acts of malfeasance but by poor judgments, missed opportunities, administrative sloppiness, and shabby acts of self-interest."

Salaries for college coaches continute to rise

Mike Fish of Sports Illustrated.com sent FOIA requests to universities who changed basketball or football coaches in the past year, comparing the contracts of the previous and new occupants of the job. His review shows that when a big name coach left for another school, it created a domino effect of increasing salaries. "At least nine of the 15 basketball coaches hired by major colleges this spring will make more money than their predecessors, and in most cases it's a significant bump." Two schools -- Pitt and Penn State -- refused the requests for records, saying Pennsylvania's new open records law didn't apply to them.

Norfolk fails to spend on care for AIDS patients

Liz Szabo of The Virginian-Pilot used FOIA requests to build a spreadsheet detailing how different regions spent federal dollars granted under the Ryan White CARE Act, a law designed to help care for AIDS patients. What it showed was that Norfolk "has failed to spend an average of nearly $1 million annually" in the past four years while hundreds of local patients go without care. "Last year, more than a quarter of the roughly $6 million given to Hampton Roads for uninsured AIDs patients -- nearly $1.6 million -- went unused, according to budget records. That includes unspent money carried over from previous years and is about enough to pay for doctors' visits for a year." In researching the story, Szabo also found that in their haste to make a paperwork deadline, local officials changed every instance of "White" in their report to "Caucasian," yielding dozens of "Ryan Caucasian CARE Act" phrases throughout.

DUI arrests decline though a third of traffic deaths are alcohol-related

Jim Houston of the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer reviewed six years of arrest records to find that DUI arrests in Columbus have halved during that time, "when at least one in three Georgia traffic deaths continued to be alcohol-related." The paper cites a drop-off in a police program to curb DUI and a staffing shortage as reasons for the decline. "The result is a DUI-arrest pattern that in 2002 found more than 30 percent of all drunken driving arrests in the city were the product of accidents."

Canadian political parties find way around Finances Act

Fred Vallance-Jones, Laurie Monsebraaten and Phinjo Gombu of the Toronto Star investigated the financing of Ontario's political parties, finding that by using local "ridings" they have been able to raise thousands of dollars in excess of the province's Election Finances Act. "The manoeuvre enabled the Progressive Conservatives to raise nearly a million dollars extra in 1999 and 2000. The Liberals, doing the same thing, raised an extra $72,000 in 1999. By collecting large sums and circulating them through ridings, parties have increased the amount they can raise by up to two-thirds."

Big coaches, big pay

Mike Fish of Sports Illustrated.com sent FOIA requests to universities who changed basketball or football coaches in the past year, comparing the contracts of the previous and new occupants of the job. His review shows that when a big name coach left for another school, it created a domino effect of increasing salaries. "At least nine of the 15 basketball coaches hired by major colleges this spring will make more money than their predecessors, and in most cases it's a significant bump." Two schools - Pitt and Penn State - refused the requests for records, saying Pennsylvania's new open records law didn't apply to them.

AIDS care money goes unspent

Liz Szabo of The Virginian-Pilot used FOIA requests to build a spreadsheet detailing how different regions spent federal dollars granted under the Ryan White CARE Act, a law designed to help care for AIDS patients. What it showed was that Norfolk "has failed to spend an average of nearly $1 million annually" in the past four years while hundreds of local patients go without care. "Last year, more than a quarter of the roughly $6 million given to Hampton Roads for uninsured AIDs patients -- nearly $1.6 million -- went unused, according to budget records. That includes unspent money carried over from previous years and is about enough to pay for doctors' visits for a year." In researching the story, Szabo also found that in their haste to make a paperwork deadline, local officials changed every instance of "White" in their report to "Caucasian," yielding dozens of "Ryan Caucasian CARE Act" phrases throughout.

Attendance key to student success

Michele Kurtz and Bill Dedman of The Boston Globe have a two-part series based on an analysis of state testing results for Boston's class of 2003. The key to passage, they found, is attendance: "the faithful student, the student a teacher has a chance to reach, almost always makes it -- no matter her race or class or even native language." More than 9 of 10 students who progress with their class over time "have passed both the English and math portions of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test. And when those steadily advancing students also attend class at least nine days out of 10 -- meaning they don't miss more than 18 school days, or roughly a month of school, a year -- their passing rate climbs to 94 percent."

Number of Calif. state employees making more than $100,000 grows

With the state in a fiscal crisis, Robert Salladay of the San Francisco Chronicle reviewed California payroll data, determining that "the number of state employees making salaries above $100,000 has grown to new heights -- a fivefold increase since 1995." Judges, doctors and state psychiatrists make up the bulk of the highest-paid employees. "With few exceptions, these people work with convicts and the mentally ill. Nearly 700 judges accounted for 46 percent of workers in the peak salary ranges, while two departments -- Corrections and Mental Health -- accounted for 37 percent."

Money matters in Texas high school sports

Damien Pierce and Jeff Claassen of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram looked at the disparity in athletic results between rich and poor Texas schools, finding that "schools from the state's most affluent communities have begun to dominate University Interscholastic League athletic competitions, giving children from wealthy suburbs a leg up when it comes to painting championship years on the town water tower and winning athletic scholarships." The paper's analysis found that household income, not tax revenues, best predicts athletic success.

Data shows pattern in traffic stops

Bruce Landis of The Providence Journal reviewed data on Rhode Island police traffic stops to find that "practically every police force in the state searched black and Hispanic vehicles more often than those driven by whites. On average, vehicles driven by blacks and Hispanics were searched nearly three times as often." The data comes from a study being conducted by Northeastern University, and the paper suggests that "police may be focusing on the wrong cars."

More money doesn't mean better test scores

Jason Method of the Asbury Park Press analyzed the results of a 1990 New Jersey Supreme Court decision that provided billions for poorer school districts to find that the extra money "made little difference in students' scores on eighth- and 11th-grade standardized tests in those school systems." Even worse, "until last year, the state didn't even keep track of how well the billions it was investing were spent -- or even if students benefited educationally from the extra money, the Press found." The paper's story retraces the court case, the money that followed and test results from thousands of students.