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Money intended to protect against terrorism used for other purposes

Jo Becker, Sarah Cohen and Spencer S. Hsu of The Washington Post find that much of the $324 million earmarked to protect the Washington, D.C., area against terrorism "remains unspent or is funding projects with questionable connections to homeland security." The Post found some of the money used for a jobs program, to buy leather jackets for police and to assess environmental problems. Officials say they received little guidance on how the money should be spent. (Note: Similar stories could be done around the country using data from the Federal Assistance Awards Data System, the Consolidated Federal Funds Report and the Federal Procurement Data System, all available from IRE and NICAR.)

Liquor agency spends 20 percent of budget on legal costs

Keoki Kerr of KITV-Honolulu reports that the Honolulu Liquor Commission, responsible for regulating liquor sales, has spent more than $500,000 on investigations, defending itself against lawsuits and hiring public relations firms. In the meantime, the agency has failed to collect nearly $380,000 in fines since 1990. "Maui's Department of Liquor Control, by contrast, collected every penny of its fines last year."

Military justice system mishandles sexual abuse cases

Miles Moffeit and Amy Herdy of The Denver Post have a three-part series on sexual assaults in the military, concluding that the recent investigation of cases at the Air Force Academy are only part of the picture. "All the armed forces have mishandled sexual-assault cases by discouraging victims from pursuing complaints, conducting flawed investigations and depriving victims of support services, according to interviews with military women and an examination of records." The paper spoke with more than 50 victims and reviewed thousands of documents.

Marine cover-up: Massacre of POWs by U.S. troops in Korea

Eric Longabardi, Kit R. Roane, and Edward T. Pound of U.S. News & World Report investigate the cover-up of a secret Marine-IG investigation into a former soldier’s claims that North Korean prisoners of war were murdered during a battle in Seoul in 1950. "The Marine Corps investigators failed to pursue a critical piece of evidence: the after-action report for Easy Company, written on Feb. 15, 1951. The 10-page report covered combat operations that began with the Sept. 15, 1950, ... " The report contains this question: "How long did it take you to go through Seoul?" The detailed response includes this damaging statement on Page 4: "The killing of prisoners is something that should be watched. We had some of that going on."

Series about Hezbollah's global network wins ICIJ Award

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has honored an investigation "that revealed the inner workings of the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah and its global reach" with the 2003 ICIJ Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. The series, "In the Party of God," was reported by Jeffrey Goldberg and published in the New Yorker.

Pressure from Wal-Mart affects suppliers, U.S. economy

Charles Fishman of Fast Company magazine examines how Wal-Mart sets its prices so low and "what that pressure does to the companies Wal-Mart does business with, to U.S. manufacturing, and to the economy as a whole." Fishman says there is little information available on the retailer's effect on its suppliers because "it's nearly impossible to get meaningful data that would allow researchers to track the influence of Wal-Mart's business on companies over time. You'd need cooperation from the vendor companies or Wal-Mart or both — and neither Wal-Mart nor its suppliers are interested in sharing such intimate detail."

Drug industry spends to influence legislation

Mark Brunswick and Ron Nixon of the Minneapolis Star Tribune report on the pharmaceutical industry's attempts to defeat legislation that "would control prices or allow people to import drugs from across the border." Money spent by an industry trade group on advertising, lobbyists and lobbying activities and campaign contributions add up to more than $2.6 million spent in Minnesota in 2000-02.

Most expensive not always best in healthcare

Bernard Wolfson, William Heisel and Chris Knap of The Orange County Register used "public records, including patient discharge records, nursing staff hours, disciplinary actions against doctors, hospital inspection reports and every malpractice lawsuit filed in Orange County to create the first comprehensive report card of Orange County's general hospitals." They found that hospitals that charge the most don't provide the best quality care; nonprofit hospitals rated better than for-profit hospitals; and hospitals run by Tenet Healthcare Corp., which owns 105 hospitals and related businesses, got mixed marks. Also included is a sidebar about how the story was reported. (free registration required)

Mo. children die when signs of danger aren't reported

Donna McGuire and Mark Morris of The Kansas City Star examined court records and other documents detailing 116 Missouri children who died of abuse or neglect since January 2000. "At least one-third of those 116 children might have lived if only the safety net we rely on to protect our children — family, friends, state workers, law enforcement officials — had come to their rescue when the first sign of danger emerged." In a first, Missouri officials released records on 37 of the abuse and neglect cases in response to the newspaper's request, and the Star also sought records on such deaths in Kansas. "Although it has twice as many children as Kansas, Missouri experiences at least five times the amount of fatal abuse and neglect, the newspaper found."

Scholarship program does more for wealthier students

Andrea Jones, Matt Kempner and Maurice Tamman of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used state education data to show that a college scholarship program targeted at poorer Georgia students has ended up benefiting the well-off more. Of the 100,000 students attending Georgia's colleges and universities, "HOPE scholars are disproportionately middle- and upper-class" and many would have attended college anyway. The paper also found that "HOPE also has led many students to take easier classes, drop tough courses and take longer to graduate."

Buffalo's union workers call in sick more often

Susan Schulman of The Buffalo News analyzed city records to find that "Buffalo's union employees call in sick at two to three times the rate nationally of employees in the private sector and almost double the average of others working in public and nonprofit jobs." Poor-weather Mondays after Buffalo Bills football games seem to increase the likelihood of workers calling in sick. The paper's analysis included unionized employees in the police and fire departments and the city's housing and sewer authorities.

Russian candidates linked to businesses

Francesca Mereu of The Moscow Times studied the lists of state Duma candidates put forth by Russia's major parties to find that "roughly 20 percent of the candidates are directly linked to big or medium businesses, with most of them high up on the lists." The paper analyzed lists from United Russia, the Communist Party, Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. "One candidate linked to one of the major oil companies, who spoke on condition he not be identified further, said once in the Duma, deputies representing the interests of big oil will try 'to take control of the budget and tax committee to avoid an increased tax burden.'"

Government's failures contribute to hepatitis C epidemic

Karen Dillon, Mike McGraw and database editor Gregory S. Reeves of The Kansas City Star find that, although more than 4 million Americans are infected by hepatitis C, the government has failed to inform the public. Other problems included "a stalled search for thousands of patients transfused with tainted blood and hundreds of thousands of patients who were infected in the 1980s when the blood industry delayed a test for six years." The report includes a number of documents posted on the paper's site (free registration required).

Records of Canadian PM's extensive travels kept secret

Ann Rees, a British Columbia reporter and recipient of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, tracked the travels of outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who "has conducted the most extended farewell world tour in Canadian political history," Rees writes in the Toronto Star. After filing freedom of information requests for Chretien's 2002 travel records, "the Privy Council Office (PCO), which arranges many of his trips and handles information requests for the PM, provided only 10 receipts, none for his expenses abroad. The dearth of records contrasts with a similar request three years ago when extensive travel records were released." Rees found a one-day trip to Minnesota which has never been announced or explained, and that the PM's staff was working out of the Disney resort in Vero Beach, Fla., while Chretien was vacationing nearby. The story is the latest in a yearlong "Right to Know" series that "explores the effectiveness of Canadian freedom of information laws."

Okla. legislators' travel expenses climb

Ryan McNeill of The Oklahoman analyzed state government spending records to find that Oklahoma "lawmakers are spending more money for travel than last year, despite taking fewer out-of-state trips." Through Oct. 24, state legislators had racked up $1.04 million in hotels, mileage and other travel-related costs. "The increase comes as agency chiefs have ordered travel limits for state workers amid the nearly two-year-old budget crisis. About 35,000 state employees have trimmed travel costs from $35.8 million to $30.5 million — almost a 15 percent reduction, the analysis shows." (free registration required to view link.)

School investigations cost billions

Matthew I. Pinzur of The Miami Herald reviewed internal investigations of school district employees in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, finding that it cost more than $2.7 million for such probes during the 2002-03 school year. The districts "mounted serious investigations of nearly 170 employees during the 2002-03 school year. Most of them were teachers, who received full pay and benefits while they did low-level clerical jobs." The average length of an investigation was 170 days in Miami-Dade and 150 days in Broward. One former principal accused of mismanaging school money answered parents' phone calls for nearly two years, earning a total of $147,300.

Mo. companies get tax credits despite lack of business licenses

Virginia Young of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch obtained a list of recipients of a Missouri tax credit for "specialized equipment" and found that "companies got the credits by claiming to have bought millions of dollars worth of computer equipment. Many of the purchases were made at a used-computer store in the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis." Each of the companies reported spending at least $187,500 on equipment to gain the maximum tax write-off — $75,000 — this year. "But they're not the thriving startup firms the state envisioned. None of the 12 has a city business license. Five of the companies were started by one man who has shut them down after getting $900,000 in tax credits." State officials are investigating.

Wealthiest colleges get more financial aid

Greg Winter of The New York Times studied federal education data to find that the "federal government typically gives the wealthiest private universities, which often serve the smallest percentage of low-income students, significantly more financial aid money than their struggling counterparts with much greater shares of poor students." The story says that while it follows that schools with higher costs might be expected to get a larger share of federal assistance, that doesn't always happen. "Even some of the beneficiaries of the imbalance concede that it is not entirely rational, and say they would consent to shedding a few dollars for the sake of parity."

Taxpayers funded Paris trip for Penn. officials

Joe Grata of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, along with Paul Martino of KDKA-Pittsburgh, examined spending records of some Pennsylvania delegates to a toll road conference in Paris, finding that four of the seven delegates "spent at least $13,600 in public funds" and that the state "also might have dropped as much as $22,500 in public money on promotional items" during the five-day meeting. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and Delaware River Port Authority paid for the delegates, although expenses were not available for the port authority-paid attendees.

Trucks involved in nearly half of fatal crashes on Iowa road

Kurt Rogahn of The (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette used data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the National Bridge Inventory to find that "nearly half the fatal accidents on I-80 in Iowa from 1994 through 2001 involved semi-trailer trucks," a higher rate than on other Iowa interstates. "Physics, traffic levels and the behavior of other drivers around trucks" are factors in deaths involving semi-trailer trucks. Roghan looks at why mixing trucks and cars is so dangerous, tips for sharing the road and possible ways to make the roads safer. Extra! Extra! readers get special access to this story for one month by entering username "ire" and password "sherlock8" (without the quotes). The Web site features a graphic depicting stopping distances for cars vs. trucks. KCRG-Cedar Rapids also aired a version of this story in cooperation with The Gazette. (Note: Data from FARS and the National Bridge Inventory are available from IRE and NICAR's database library.)

Welfare car program goes without oversight

Eric Eyre and Scott Finn of the Charleston Gazette investigate a West Virginia program that uses $23 million in federal welfare money to purchase and sell used cars to aid recipients, finding that "nonprofit groups have sold clunker cars to welfare recipients while used-car dealers made millions on sales and repairs." Less than half of the recipients of the cars ending up owning them, and the program bought more than 300 cars than it needed. State officials didn't begin auditing the nonprofits until the program was two years old.

Ala. Senate employees get bonuses

Sallie Owen of the Mobile Register reviewed Alabama payroll records to find that "in the midst of Alabama's deepening financial crisis, some state senators doled out more than $200,000 in extra pay to certain Senate employees during the last two years." One staffer received $34,117 in additional pay over that time. Her boss, the Senate Pro Tem, has a fund that can carry over from one year to the next, unlike most other state accounts.

Foundation trustees get lavish perks

Beth Healy, Francie Latour, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes and Walter V. Robinson of The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team reviewed tax records from some of the nation's wealthiest private foundations to find that the kinds of perks that corporate executives have been criticized for enjoying are not uncommon among foundation trustees. "Yet private planes and other big-ticket expenses go virtually unnoticed in the world of philanthropy, even though foundations are publicly subsidized through huge tax breaks for the wealthy donors who set them up. A Globe review of foundation tax returns revealed numerous instances of money earmarked for charity being used to fund travel and lavish perks for foundation trustees — the people charged with protecting foundation assets."

New Dallas PD officers have had brushes with law, trouble graduating

Tanya Eiserer, Holly Becka and Howard Swindle of The Dallas Morning News analyzed 29 recent hires by the Dallas police department, finding that "some have had brushes with the law, have been rejected by other police departments or have been given second or third chances to graduate from the police academy." One recently hired officer had to pay $1,200 in traffic tickets and drove with a suspended license eight months before being fired. The names of the officers were provided to the paper by police colleagues, "many of whom said they were dismayed by the department's diminished hiring standards and the questionable character of some rookie officers." Other details were gleaned from files obtained through the Texas Public Information Act.

Cincinnati teens more likely to take requests for abortion elsewhere

Phil Trexler of the Akron Beacon Journal requested data from Ohio courts on judicial bypass requests from minors seeking abortions, finding that while 86 percent of such requests were approved during the past three years, "few teens even ask for permission in conservative Hamilton County, the birthplace of Right to Life. Despite being the state's third-largest county, the number of requests to Cincinnati judges compares more closely to smaller, rural counties." Statistics from such cases aren't reported to the Ohio Supreme Court, so the paper had to go through county court systems to get the information.

Companies promote prescribing drugs for unapproved uses

Alison Young and Chris Adams of Knight Ridder's investigative team spent six months tracking the effect of medications without federal approval: "[P]atients nationwide are being injured and killed as doctors routinely prescribe drugs in ways the FDA never certified as safe and effective. Moreover, these unapproved prescriptions are soaring. Over the last year, 115 million such prescriptions were written, nearly double the number of five years ago." Here's how the reporters did it. The project uses data from the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System database, available from IRE and NICAR.

Contracts in Iraq present problems

Rod Nordland and Michael Hirsh of Newsweek investigate allegations of "overspending, favoritism and corruption" in the contracts awarded to help rebuild Iraq. "Six months ago the administration decided to cut corners on normal bidding procedures and hand over large contracts to defense contractors like Bechtel and Halliburton on a limited-bid or no-bid basis." The magazine says there may be "just as many problems ahead, raising serious questions about the vast amounts of money Bush has demanded for Iraq with little tolerance for debate."

Political donations made by contractors examined

In a six-month investigation, The Center for Public Integrity finds that more than 70 companies and people have been awarded contracts for work in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that they have "donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush — a little over $500,000 — than to any other politician over the last dozen years." The Center says it has compiled "the most comprehensive list to date of American contractors in the two nations that were attacked in Washington's war on terror."

Convictions reversed because of N.C. prosecutorial misconduct

Joseph Neff of The (Raleigh, N.C) News & Observer investigated prosecutorial misconduct in North Carolina death penalty cases, finding at least five cases in which "prosecutors broke the law by withholding evidence helpful to defendants, such as witness statements or deals cut with jailhouse informants. The prosecutors have received no significant punishment." A little-publicized change in state law in 1996 now gives death row inmates access to prosecutors' files in their cases. The second part of the series centers on a woman convicted of murder in 1984 who served 15 years before being released due to misconduct at her trial.

Data reveals regional differences that muddy Oregon's future

Jeff Mapes, Alex Pulaski and Gail Kinsey Hill of The Oregonian used census, economic and voting data to help describe Oregon's nine distinctive regions, each with its own culture and priorities. "These differences are at the heart of why the Legislature has been gridlocked, why there is little consensus on how to compete in the global economy and why Oregon's prospects don't seem as clear as they did 30 years ago when timber was king." In a separate note, the paper explains its approach to the series.

Hot off the presses: The IRE Journal

The latest issue of The IRE Journal has been shipped to members and subscribers. The November-December cover focus is on "Digging Deeper at City Hall." It includes stories by Amie Streater, formerly of the Pensacola News Journal; Doug Donovan, The (Baltimore) Sun; John Tedesco, San Antonio Express-News; and Michael Mansur, The Kansas City Star.

Whistleblower doctors face severe retribution

Steve Twedt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette spent 10 months tracking doctors who became whistleblowers about workplace conditions, finding that "doctors who question quality standards or practices can pay a steep personal and professional price," including loss of patients, lengthy investigations and an unsympathetic legal system. Other parts of the series examine the stories of individual doctors labeled as "troublemakers."

Cleveland police pay nearly $5 million in OT for court appearances

Scott Hiaasen and Mark Gillispie of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer investigate overtime pay for police attending court hearings, finding that Cleveland "squanders hundreds of thousands of tax dollars a year paying police officers overtime for attending court proceedings where they're not needed, including some hearings that never happened at all." The city pays about $17,000 a day for court-related police overtime, providing "the equivalent of a second job for some officers." Some of the appearances hardly resemble work, the paper says, finding "dozens of instances" where officers "claimed six or seven hours of overtime for court hearings that appear to have been much shorter or, in some cases, that never occurred at all." The county prosecutor and city police chief announced they would start to curb the overtime costs.

Paper finds problems in most new homes

Dan Tracy of the Orlando Sentinel and WESH-Orlando hired a home inspector to design a study of new home construction in the Orlando area, finding "leaks, cracks and bad weatherstripping around windows and doors in 64 percent of the houses; major wall, floor and deck cracking in 61 percent; significant cooling/heating system problems in 50 percent; mold in 20 percent; and poor drainage in 18 percent." Engineering students from the University of Central Florida, under the guidance of Ron Resch, performed what the paper bills as "the first statistically valid assessment of new-home construction ever done in Florida and likely the nation." Builders downplayed the flaws as cosmetic and mostly minor.

Data pinpoints most dangerous traffic areas

Laura Ayo of The Knoxville News-Sentinel analyzed 21,000 automobile accidents over 19 months to find the city's most dangerous intersections. "More than 16 percent of all the city's crashes occurred at the 20 sites with the highest number of crashes, according to the analysis." Interstate interchanges and exits ranked highest on the list. Knoxville's new mayor said he'll use data to help guide his transportation policy.

Crackdown on terrorism, civil liberties in conflict

In a four-day series of stories, the Sacramento Bee looks at "how the crackdown on terrorism has come into conflict with the civil liberties that set America apart." Staff writers Sam Stanton and Emily Bazar, with photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr., look at the effect on libraries, mosques, activists and everyday people when the government exercises its "broad new investigative powers in an effort to flush out and neutralize terrorist threats." The series also looks at other times in the country's history in which constitutional rights fell by the wayside to "to quell resistance and protect the government."

Criminal cases against Arabs in Detroit triple since 9/11

John Bebow of The Detroit News tracked federal terrorism cases in the Detroit area since 9/11, finding that "federal prosecutors in Detroit have tripled the number of criminal cases brought against Arabs and Muslims in the past two years while dozens of people have been labeled as terror suspects. But the government has so far proven terror connections against only three of 155 terror suspects considered for prosecution." The paper used Justice Department to identify 34 people of Arab descent who have been charged with lesser crimes but who are targets of anti-terror probes.

Democratic donors add to Republican candidate's record fundraising

In advance of Tuesday's gubernatorial election, Tom Loftus of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal studied campaign finance records to find that Republican Ernie Fletcher's campaign has been bolstered by "the financial backing of many state contractors who have traditionally supported Democrats." The top 100 contributors to the previous Democratic governor and the state party have given at least $151,200 to Fletcher, compared to $176,650 to Democrat Ben Chandler. "Of the 100, 40 have given exclusively to Chandler, 23 have given exclusively to Fletcher, and 20 have given to both."

Many ferry accidents attributed to human error

Mike McIntire of The New York Times reviewed 1,500 Coast Guard safety records to find that "Staten Island ferries have been involved in dozens of accidents that injured hundreds and were often attributed to human error — chiefly what investigators called inattentiveness, poor judgment or negligence by crew members." The records, obtained under a FOIA request, detailed Coast Guard investigations and disciplinary hearings and suggest that a deadly ferry crash last month should not have come as a complete surprise.