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Lack of median barrier contributes to road's dangers

Robert Fresco of Newsday explains why a stretch of Jericho Turnpike on Long Island has a death rate of "3 persons per hundred million vehicle miles — one of the highest for a Long Island major highway." Unlike some other roads, Jericho Turnpike (also known as Route 25) doesn't have a median barrier for long stretches, and 19 of the 55 fatal accidents on the road between 1998 and 2000 involved head-on or across-traffic crashes. "In just 2001, more people died on Route 25 than on the Long Island Expressway and all parkways combined."

Unpaid parking tickets cost city nearly $1 million

Amy Wolfford of the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record analyzed a database of city parking tickets and found that "if you don't pay a parking ticket, nothing much happens. Drivers have ignored 29,599 tickets since 1987." The unpaid violations, if collected, would net Greensboro more than $930,000, but the city has taken just 84 people to court since 1990 over unpaid parking tickets. One driver has 211 unpaid citations since July 2001.

Concrete continues to fall from New York balconies

Jim Hoffer of WABC-New York City has the story of building conditions at the "world's largest co-op": Concrete falling from balconies has put 35 buildings in violation of city law. "A lot of time has passed since the buildings department found the balconies' falling facades to be unsafe. The law states management had '90 days to complete all repairs.' But three different times, the city granted extensions that have delayed repairs for 19 months and counting."

Volunteer firefighters spend tax money on recreation

Richard Liebson of The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News reviewed White Plains financial records to find that a division of volunteer fire companies gets tens of thousands of fire-insurance tax dollars every year and "spends a significant portion of that money on parties, dinners and outings but has not responded to a fire in decades." The money comes from a century-old tax on insurance premiums issued by out-of-state companies and pays for "fishing trips, parties and picnics" for volunteer firemen such as the current mayor and current and retired city employees. The head of the city's professional firefighters union said, "It's a joke."

Fla. committees raise millions, fail to report

Gary Fineout of the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group in Florida explores some of the state's "committees of continuous existence," political committees formed by legislative leaders that can accept any amount of money and don't always disclose their donors to either state or federal authorities. "What started as a trickle of money into these accounts four years ago has turned into a torrent as nearly every lawmaker in a leadership post, or vying for one, has turned to friends and political allies to set up these accounts." At least $2.8 million has been raised by these CCEs in the past four years, and some of them have failed to file reports with the Internal Revenue Service, as they appear to be required to do.

Mayor's credit card charges include vitamins, lingerie and cosmetics

Mike Fitzgerald of the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat obtained credit card statements detailing purchases by the mayor of Sauget, finding that "between December 2001 and August 2003, Sauget racked up $38,407 in expenses" including weight loss products, lingerie and chiropractic work. The mayor, 78-year-old Paul Sauget (his family gave the village its name), was asked whether his live-in girlfriend might have used the village-issued credit card. "Well, it's possible," Sauget said. The village has no written policy on the use of credit cards and its board is holding a meeting with the mayor Monday.

Minn. DOT takes land for lower compensation

Dan Browning of the Star Tribune investigates cases in which Minnesota's Department of Transportation has taken private land for roads and other projects and offered compensation to the owners. The paper found that the agency frequently offered less money to land owners than was later awarded by an independent panel. "MnDOT's data show that the appraisals it selected usually were below the amounts deemed fair by commissioners. The amount commissioners awarded land owners between 1998 and 2003 was 66 percent higher than MnDOT's appraisals." The agency did acknowledge flaws in their data, making it difficult to make a comprehensive assessment. (free registration required for links)

N.J. legislators face little 'ethical scrutiny'

Paul D'Ambrosio of the Asbury Park Press led a team of Gannett New Jersey reporters in studying state legislators who profit from public service, finding that "New Jersey's laws, regulations and patronage practices provide state lawmakers with a grab bag of financial rewards," including no-bid contracts, larger pensions and government jobs. A third of state lawmakers and a quarter of their spouses hold another public office, boosting their retirement pay, while legislators receive full pay for the second job even while the legislature is in session. "Lawmakers operate almost free of ethical scrutiny because there are virtually no laws to prevent conflicts of interest in the state Senate or Assembly. A member who could profit from a bill can absolve himself by simply sending a note to the secretary of the chamber saying he can still cast a fair vote." The papers combined for a six-day series and also posted the lawmakers' personal financial disclosure forms online.

Virtual schools would cost state real money

S.V. Date and Kimberly Miller of the Palm Beach Post assess the financial impact of a proposal to offer vouchers to students attending Florida's "virtual schools" — Internet-only programs that could appeal to current home-schooled students. Since the state doesn't pay anything for home-schooled children, each one that opted for the computer-based curriculum "would cost the state an extra $4,800 to enroll in virtual school — nearly equaling the savings from seven children who leave traditional 'brick-and-mortar' schools to take the voucher." The Post also reports on the two men who dominate the distribution of donations used to pay for vouchers. The state is investigating the voucher program based on the paper's reporting.

Lack of staff prevents agency from tracking money

Paul Carrier of the Portland Press Herald reports that Maine's "Department of Human Services can't keep track of its money partly because it doesn't have enough people to do the job." The agency has 11 employees in the management and budget office to oversee a $2.3 billion annual budget. As the DHS budget has grown, the management staff has been reduced by 40 percent. The results include the agency's inability to account for how it spent $37 million in federal welfare money and errors in administering the state Medicaid budget.

Public television suffering from decline in funding

Paul Farhi of The Washington Post reveals the difficult situation "many of the nation's 349 public TV stations" are facing. "With pledge week donations lagging, corporate contributions flagging and state support drying up, public stations are growing increasingly threadbare. Layoffs are rampant, and cutbacks in local news, public affairs and cultural programming have become commonplace."

Fla. church not all that it seems

A three-month investigation by the Tampa Tribune and WFLA-Tampa finds that a central Florida church is actually "an elaborate money-making machine that generates revenue three ways." According to the report, the Deeper Life Christian Church sends people seeking food and shelter out on dangerous fund-raising missions, pushes its congregants to donate heavily and receives money from satellite churches in other states. Some church watchdog organizations have compare the organization to a cult. "The bulk of the reporting and research was done by John W. Allman, Michelle Bearden, Michael Fechter and Angie Drobnic Holan of the Tribune, and Rod Carter of WFLA."

Dangerous bridge connects Cincinnati, N. Kentucky

The Cincinnati Enquirer's James Pilcher, in a project with Tom McKee of WCPO-Cincinnati, finds that the Brent Spence Bridge, "the major commuter route between downtown Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky," is one of the most dangerous bridges in the country. The package looks at why the bridge is so hazardous and the problems in building a new bridge. Pilcher used the National Bridge Inventory Survey, available from IRE and NICAR.

Poor areas of Chicago get fewer recreational programs

Liam Ford, Oscar Avila, Stan Donaldson, Gayle Worland and Jon Yates of the Chicago Tribune used Census data and information on city recreation programs to show that "more than 20 years after the federal government sued the Chicago Park District for neglecting fieldhouses and playgrounds in minority neighborhoods, teens in those areas are being shortchanged in recreational programs compared with peers in more affluent areas." Chicago's North and Northwest side contain seven of the city's top ten areas for teen park programs.

Police academy's class of '86 has record number of shootings

David Migoya of The Denver Post explores the careers of "The Animals," 1986 graduates of the city's police academy. The 40 officers, recruited and trained in the midst of rising crime and violence in Denver, "galvanized their reputation for toughness through heroism and sacrifice — but also by amassing an unmatched record of shootings and killings." Fourteen members have been involved in the wounding or killing of 14 people, and more would have but they either missed or chose not to use their weapons because their line of fire was blocked. The class with the next-highest number of shooting incidents is 1995, with eight.

Older drivers in Wis. have more accidents

Robert Imrie of The Associated Press analyzed Wisconsin accident data to find that "drivers ages 81 and older had a higher accident rate per estimated miles driven than any other age group except the youngest drivers." Imrie reviewed data from 1998-2002 and found that older drivers had a rate more than double most other age groups. Wisconsin has no special licensing requirements for elderly drivers.

White-collar felons escape serous punishment in N. Alabama

Val Walton and John Archibald of The Birmingham News used federal data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University to show that north Alabama's white-collar criminals "have routinely escaped with a slap on the wrist after being caught stealing thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars." Fewer people convicted of crimes like embezzlement and fraud since 1997 served less than six months in jail — if they went to prison at all. "Alabama's federal courts are traditionally tough on crime, especially in drug, pornography and robbery cases, but they trail much of the nation in sentencing embezzlers and con artists."

AP analyzes contributions to House freshmen

Jonathan D. Salant of The Associated Press has a story detailing campaign contributions to 37 House freshmen six months into their first term. All but two of the lawmakers, who sit on three key committees, "got a larger percentage of their PAC money from the industries and unions under their panel's jurisdiction than they had received before getting their committee assignments."

Data helps show Minn. quality of life

The Saint Paul Pioneer Press used Census data, county business pattern reports, FBI Uniform Crime Reports and educational achievement and spending statistics to revisit a 1973 cover story in Time magazine that praised Minnesota for its economy, low crime rate, attractions and lack of traffic congestion. The special section looked at what the magazine would find today in terms of the state's "quality of life and the challenges ahead."

N.J. juvenile detention crowded, substandard

Judith Lucas of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger used correspondence records obtained through New Jersey's Open Public Records Act to show "a 'pattern of apathy and neglect'" at a Union County youth detention center. State officials urged the county to improve conditions at the facility, which "the state describes a substandard detention center where juveniles lived in filth, were forced to eat in their cells, sometimes housed three to a cell and locked down for 18 to 20 hours at a time. The center was built for 34 inmates and housed double that at times."

Depleted uranium goes undetected during journey

To test security measures, ABC News' Brian Ross carried a suitcase containing 15 pounds of depleted uranium across Europe and then shipped it to New York. The shipment went undiscovered during its "secret 25-day, seven-country journey," despite inspections using X-ray scanning machines and radiation detectors.

Investigation reveals questions about conservator's spending

Bill Medley of The Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat investigated the probate division of Pettis County, finding that Public Administrator Marilyn Schmidt "has used her clients' estates and her office to line the pockets of her friends, purchase services at inflated prices and buy gifts using her clients' own funds, sometimes without their knowledge or consent." A former county employee and her husband, who do not have a contract for their work, "have made thousands of dollars a week from wards' estates in return for taking them on rides through the country, dropping off pills and performing other tasks described in court filings only as 'errands' and 'personal services.'" A blind 85-year-old woman was repeatedly charged $37 for a two-block ride from her home to church, while other wards received unwanted "gifts" purchased with their own money.

Discipline reports vary widely among Austin schools

Kathy Blackwell of the Austin American-Statesman analyzed five years of high school discipline data for the Austin district to find that "in the past two years, fights and assaults have increased at most of the high schools. Districtwide, reported incidents have increased 33 percent." Comparisons are difficult because the figures change dramatically from campus to campus and because each school can determine its own response to all but a handful of serious incidents. "Campus officials report only incidents that lead to in-school suspension, suspension, removal to the Alternative Learning Center or expulsion. If the violations result in punishment such as detention, a parent-teacher conference or Saturday school, officials don't record them."

Take-home cars costing Miami taxpayers

David Kidwell and Justin Willett of The Miami Herald detail the cost of Miami's take-home car program for city employees, which costs $13,139 a day. The much-touted benefit of having police and fire vehicles parked in neighborhoods is offset by the paper's findings, including the fact that "eighty-three percent of the 1,096 employees who drive city cars home — 907 of them — leave the city limits to get there, driving to such distant cities as Tavernier, Loxahatchee, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Homestead and Coral Springs." Other costs include insurance for accidents that occur away from Miami and fuel and maintenance costs. The cars are provided to many employees through public unions' collective bargaining agreements, which are set to be renegotiated next year.

Federal spending for security brings money to Dayton area

Jim DeBrosse and Ken McCall at the Dayton Daily News used government contracts data (available from IRE and NICAR) to track money flowing into the region as a result of post-Sept. 11 spending. "Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, LexisNexis and other Dayton-area centers of innovation are among those being recruited across the nation to develop high-tech strategies for securing the homefront."

Prisoners suffer from poor health care

The Columbus Dispatch and WBNS-Columbus teamed to find "the medical care provided to 45,402 inmates in 33 prisons is riddled with hidden problems and costs." In the three-month investigation, the Dispatch's Randy Ludlow and WBNS reporter Eve Mueller found that taxpayers foot the bill of more than $122 million for prison health care and another million dollars for "wrongful death and medical-negligence claims filed by inmates and their families." They tell stories of inmates waiting for care, fatal mistakes and failures to check the backgrounds of prison doctors.

NW Fla. residents drank unsafe water for 4½ years

Scott Streater of the Pensacola News Journal reviewed thousands of documents to find that "for at least 54 months, between February 1996 and September 2000, more than 10,000 residents in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze were drinking water polluted with radium 226/228 at levels considered unsafe by the federal government." Two former Escambia County Utility Authority regulators knew of the levels, records showed, but "resisted attempts by state regulators to force ECUA to take immediate corrective action, which the administrators said would cost the utility millions of dollars."

Latest IRE Journal focuses on air pollution

The latest issue of The IRE Journal is out. The Sept./Oct. cover focus is on "Bad Air: Investigating Pollution." It includes stories by David Danelski, The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise; Mark Grossi, Barbara Anderson and Russell Clemings, The Fresno Bee; and James Bruggers, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal.

High rates of children taken from homes in Mo. county

In a three-part series for The Joplin Globe, Jeff Lehr takes a look at "the system and the stories of those whose lives have been affected" by problems in the child-protection system in southwestern Missouri. "Jasper County would appear to have one of the highest rates of removal of children from their homes by the state than any other county in Missouri. At the same time, the county's rate of children reunited with their parents is below the state average."

Crystal meth has become epidemic in Hawaii

A team at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, including Sally Apgar, Debra Barayuga, Rick Daysog, Susan Essoyan and Craig Gima, examine Hawaii's widespread use of crystal methamphetamine and measures that are being taken to stop the epidemic. The first day of the series looks at the scope of the problem, the cash flow, how it started and who uses crystal meth. Day 2 looks at meth use in teens and Day 3 profiles treatment options.

Post-Sept. 11 grant not spent where officials intended

Edward Wyatt and Joseph P. Fried of the New York Times report that "more than a third of the emergency grant money intended to help small businesses in Lower Manhattan survive after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack went to investment firms, financial traders and lawyers." Almost $200 million of the $539 million World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant program went to those businesses, while "far smaller amounts went to restaurants, retailers and other small businesses, many of them dependent on the foot traffic that largely disappeared from Lower Manhattan after the attack." The Times obtained information on the grant from the Empire State Development Corporation through a Freedom of Information request.

Police data pinpoints haven for crack dealers

Lee Arnold of The (Huntingdon, W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch analyzed city data to find that "of the 633 drug arrests made by the Huntington Police Department during the past 20 months, more than 10 percent of them have taken place on the 1600 block of Artisan Avenue and around the corner onto 8th Avenue. Another 100 of the 633 arrests have occurred between 16th and 20th streets from 8th to 13th avenues." The remainder of drug arrests are scattered throughout other areas of Huntington, but few areas account for so many. "The area around the 1600 block of Artisan Avenue has become like a drive-through crack stop."

Utilities donated to legislators investigating blackout

Capital Eye, a newsletter produced by the Center for Responsive Politics, reports that legislators now investigating the recent Northeast power blackout have received donations of "more than $7 million from electric utilities over the past 15 years." The largest contributors were a trade group called the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Southern Company.

Detroit area school officials spend freely

L.L. Brasier of the Detroit Free Pressreviewed expense records of the Oakland (Mich.) Intermediate School District and "found a freewheeling environment with few controls over spending on travel, meals and gifts in a district that serves special education and vocational students." The records show that board members and employees spent taxpayer money on travel around the world and on items ranging from a vacuum cleaner and crystal to sight-seeing tours and golf. Meanwhile, "some special-needs students were put on waiting lists for services."

Museums have gotten artifacts from grave looting

Anne C. Mulkern of The Denver Post used little-noticed government reports to find that some of America's most prestigious museums have been "more involved in the looting of Native American burial grounds than they have previously admitted." A 1990 law requires federally funded museums to list Indian items and to describe how they ended up in the collection. "Documents indicate that some of the most vaunted museums — the Field Museum, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. — bought Native American items, including human remains, from collectors who had just dug them up from graves." A second story reports that "national parks and federal agencies hold the remains of more than 2,000 native people, often stolen from graves during a century of tomb raiding."

Fla. farmworkers exploited in near-slavery conditions

Ronnie Greene of The Miami Herald has a three-part series on the dangers faced by Florida's farmworkers, some of whom are lured into the work with promises of cash and drugs but end up in a system "filled with sweatshop hours, slum housing, poverty pay and criminal abuse. At its extreme, it includes modern-day slavery in a state where oranges adorn license plates and tourists pull in for a free cup of juice when they cross the border." North Florida's farmworkers are typically poor African-Americans, rather than Latin Americans, and some are recruited from homeless shelters.

Australian government subsidizing business' rent

Gerard Ryle and Brian Robins of The Sydney Morning Herald reviewed 18,000 leases obtained under Australia's freedom of information law to find that "big businesses and some of the world's wealthiest people are renting taxpayer-owned land in NSW for peppercorn rates under a system that is riddled with inconsistencies and loopholes." The total rent for some 37.5 million hectares is $60 million a year — less than $2 per hectare for land that contains office buildings, homes and resorts. The package reveals a resort that pays less than $30,000 for 9.2 hectares, a Sydney Harbour marina with land valued at nearly $4 million that doesn't pay taxes, an insurance company that rents an entire Sydney block for $70 a year and other similar situations.

Buying back vacation time costs county

Charles Levin of the Ventura County Star used a spreadsheet and an assist from NICAR to help calculate how much money county government officials were being paid for unused vacation time: $4.3 million during the 2001-02 fiscal year, according to records, and another $4.4 million the next fiscal year. "When employees sell unused leave, the county pays them for working, plus the value of the vacation time. And they don't just get their regular salary for the unused vacation time — the county adds the hourly value of their benefits to the vacation cashout, according to Derse. Top managers making $50 or $60 an hour may get more than $90 an hour for their unused vacation time." Like an earlier project by the Newark Star-Ledger, Levin's story notes the policy of paying employees at their current salary, rather than what they made when they accrued the vacation days.

Missouri lake is 3rd most dangerous body of water

James Goodwin and Didi Tang of the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune used federal boating accident data (available from IRE and NICAR) to show that the popular "Lake of the Ozarks is one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the country. Between 1997 and 2001, only the Atlantic Ocean and Colorado River had more accidents." The paper's analysis showed that most accidents on the lake involve smaller boats and jet skis, not larger craft, and that many of the incidents could be avoided if people simply watched where they were going.

Phoenix hospitals' bad debts exceed industry standard

Jodie Snyder of The Arizona Republic reviewed the financial condition of hospitals in the Phoenix area, which isn't very healthy: "Of 24 hospitals in the Valley, at least 18 have bad-debt levels that are higher than the national standard of 5.2 percent of total operating revenue." Some facilities have three times the standard level of bad debt, which is defined as money hospitals expect to be paid but do not collect. The economic downturn and slow responses by managed care companies are among the reasons cited for the levels of bad debt.

Female prison population grows in Penn.

Debra Erdley and David Hunt of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reviewed state prison records to find that "the number of women behind bars has grown about twice as fast as the number of male inmates over the last three decades." Women still make up a small percentage of Pennsylvania's prisoners — about 4.5 percent — state figures show that they cost more to imprison, "on average about $7,000 more per year per inmate."

Working-class neighborhoods affected by questionable home deals

Ken Alltucker of The Cincinnati Enquirer has an investigation of a property-flipping scheme that targets low-income buyers who end up losing their overpriced new homes to foreclosure. "At a time of historic low interest rates and strong homeownership nationally, questionable home deals here are helping cause record foreclosures." Foreclosures in Hamilton County have increased 66 percent between 1999 and 2002. "African-American communities were hit hardest, accounting for 13 of 15 communities with the highest loan default rates." A second story focuses on the impact of foreclosures in two Price Hill neighborhoods.