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Developers use preservation method for tax write-offs

Joe Stephens and David Ottaway of The Washington Post report on the abuse of tax incentives intended to preserve land. "Conservation easements" allow landowners to "donate the easements to a nonprofit land trust or a government agency." The landowner can then "seek federal income tax deductions for the reduction in the land's market value." The story follows up on a series of articles about the Nature Conservancy and the way it has bought property, added easements, then sold the property and gotten tax write-offs.

Reports reveal problems with new cockpit doors

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Richard O'Reilly of the Los Angeles Times collected public records on incidents involving the new reinforced airplane cockpits installed after 9/11. "Publicly available documents show there have been at least 35 reported incidents involving problems with the operation of the doors since August 2002," including an episode in which a 12-pound panel from a door struck a pilot on the head, rendering him incapable of continuing his cross-country flight. The Times examined data from NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System database, available from IRE and NICAR.

Thousands in donations to sheriff went unreported

Todd Lighty and Mickey Ciokajlo of the Chicago Tribune used internal campaign finance records to show that "Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan's campaign committee has failed to disclose thousands of dollars in donations and has hidden contributions made by employees that the sheriff pledged not to accept." In some cases, "$125 money orders bearing the names of Al Capone and Dr. Jack Kevorkian" and contributions made in the names of deputies' ex-wives were recorded by the campaign. "Altogether, there was at least $80,000 in donations from anonymous donors, from employees that were masked in the names of others, or from sources that were not recorded, records show. During the period in question, Sheahan raised more than $2.5 million."

Ohio's railroad bridges in especially poor condition

Rich Exner of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer analyzed Ohio inspection records to find that "nearly 3,000 bridges in Ohio are deficient — rated in poor condition or worse ... And those identified as being maintained by the railroads are much more likely to be in bad shape than those cared for by local, county or state governments." State transportation officials closely track government-operated bridges, but aren't in charge of privately-maintained spans. (Note: For others interested in doing similar stories, the National Bridge Inventory Survey, a database of bridge maintenance information collected by the Federal Highway Administration, is available from IRE and NICAR for the nation or for individual states.)

County waiving penalties, interest for delinquent taxpayers

Michael Mansur of The Kansas City Star confirms a longstanding tradition in Jackson County, Mo.: giving delinquent taxpayers a break instead of penalties and interest. "It is unclear exactly how much tax money the county is forgiving, because it has failed to keep track of the waivers. The Star's review of about 100 of the roughly 31,000 delinquent properties in Jackson County found that nearly one-third were granted waivers totaling more than $180,000 since 1999." State officials questioned whether waiving such fees was legal, and the county is now reviewing its practices.

S.C. workers spend millions on travel

Tim Smith of The Greenville (S.C.) News reviewed spending on travel by state employees during the first 10 months of 2003, finding a total of $3.7 million in out-of-state trips even as services were cut in departments due to a budget crisis. "In all, 72 state officials each spent more than $5,000 to attend training, meetings and conferences, according to hundreds of expense reports ... Fourteen of them spent more than $10,000, including three who spent more than $17,000, according to the records obtained by the newspaper." Overall state employee travel spending was down in the most recent fiscal year, but 16 agencies increased their travel costs.

Athletes fare better in court than most

Tom Weir and Erik Brady of USA Today report that, based on cases in the past 12 years, athletes accused of sexual assault "fare better at trial than defendants from the general population." Their investigation looked at 168 cases and found that "of those that have reached disposition, just 32% were convicted, either at trial or through a plea agreement." The story includes a list of the cases where there was a conviction.

Calif. lenient in discipline of state workers

Thomas Peele of the Contra Costa Times has an investigation of California's disciplinary system for state employees, finding that "workers subjected to discipline stand an even chance that the State Personnel Board will soften or revoke their punishment on appeal." The paper examined more than 600 cases from various state agencies showing "employees joyriding in state vehicles, committing crass sexual harassment, making serious work errors and, in the case of rogue prison guards, beating youth wards." Some of the cases drag on for years, costing taxpayers millions. The state board's 2002 votes on appeals found that it "reduced or revoked more than 60 percent of suspensions without pay, salary reductions and demotions bosses had sought." Monday's story examines discipline in California's Department of Corrections. Sidebars include a counselor's defense of his use of tear gas and a former prison guard's allegations about attacks he endured.

Lawyers get bulk of money intended for clean up of water supply

Chris Bowman, Cameron John and Rebecca Boyd of The Sacramento Bee pored over environmental, court and city government records detailing the city of Lodi's effort to make insurers pay for contamination of drinking water by city businesses. "The city's pursuit of polluters' insurance money has become a multimillion-dollar sinkhole, the result of state environmental authorities ceding enforcement powers to local government and locally elected officials, in turn, neglecting their watch on public spending." Since 1996, about $14 million in city money has gone to lawyer Michael C. Donovan and his associates — a total that amounts to nearly half of Lodi's annual budget.

Timber industry tops other interests in campaign contributions

Diane Dietz of The (Eugene, Ore.) Register-Guard examined campaign contributions in local races in Eugene, Springfield and Lane County in the past five years, finding that members of Oregon's timber industry dominated the political landscape. "Together, timber-connected donors have dropped more than $200,000 into local races since 1998, routinely writing $500 or $1,000 checks to their favorite candidates." Development interests ranked second, but many of those donors "are backed by timber fortunes that have diversified over the years." Part of a series on local campaign donors, the paper also described how it collected the data for the stories.

Alaska senator benefits from influence

Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper of the Los Angeles Times profile the financial record of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was not among the Senate's millionaire members until recently. "Then, in 1997, he got serious about making money. And in almost no time, he too was a millionaire — thanks to investments with businessmen who received government contracts or other benefits with his help. Added together, Stevens' new partnerships and investments provide a step-by-step guide to building a personal fortune — if you happen to be one of the country's most influential senators. They also illustrate how lax ethics rules allow members of Congress and their families to profit from personal business dealings with special interests."

Pediatric dentists bill Medicare for many baby root canals

Stuart Watson of WCNC-Charlotte, N.C., used Medicaid data to find that pediatric dentists at the Medicaid Dental Centers have billed $1,172,073.40 for baby root canals — "almost as much as every other Medicaid dentist in the state combined." NICAR helped crunch the numbers, which yielded the fact that "the Medicaid centers in Winston-Salem, Raleigh and Charlotte treated about seven percent of the kids on Medicaid in North Carolina, but the clinics performed almost 49 percent of the baby root canals." View the story and a statement from the Dental Centers.

Catholicism on the rise in Dallas area

Linda Stewart Ball and Paula Lavigne of The Dallas Morning News used migration data and parish records to find that "in the last 10 years, a 50-year trend has been reversed. In 1952, 60 percent of Collin County's religious followers were Baptist, and Catholics were almost statistically extinct. During the 1990s, Catholicism became the largest faith in the county, with 34 percent by 2000." Church records show that most of the newcomers are not of Hispanic origin, but usually come other parts of the United States. "As Monsignor Glenn 'Duffy' Gardner at St. Mark the Evangelist parish in Plano put it, 'They're all Yankees.'" (Registration is required.)

D.C. project's cost ballooned to more than $100 million

Dan Keating of The Washington Post analyzed D.C. financial records to find that a $63 million project to modernize the city's tax system ballooned to more than $100 million without a vote by the city council. "Because city administrators sent the paperwork to the council during its summer recess, the contract expansion never appeared on the council's agenda." The District's chief financial officer recused himself from overseeing the contract because his son worked for the firm administering it, but other employees pushed for the expansion of the project. The city denied the Post's FOIA request for project invoices.

Less of a racial learning gap in Philly schools than suburbs

Connie Langland and Alletta Emeno of The Philadelphia Inquirer used federal data released under the No Child Left Behind Act to show that in Pennsylvania, "the racial learning divide exists in 84 percent of the 204 suburban schools with minority students. This achievement gap, with black and Latino students falling behind white students, persists even in such high-performing districts as Abington, Lower Merion, Downingtown, West Chester, Tredyffrin-Easttown and Wallingford-Swarthmore." Taken as a whole, Philadelphia schools have less of a gap than their suburban counterparts.

Extensiveness of administration's secrecy documented

In a five-month investigation, Christopher H. Schmitt and Edward T. Pound of U.S. News & World Report, find that "the [Bush] administration's efforts to shield the actions of, and the information obtained by, the executive branch are far more extensive than has been previously documented." The report made use of federal reports, regulations, Web sites, legislation, interviews, information from public interest groups and the responses to more than 200 FOIA requests. They note that this administration "has quietly but efficiently dropped a shroud of secrecy across many critical operations of the federal government — cloaking its own affairs from scrutiny and removing from the public domain important information on health, safety, and environmental matters."

Families with severely ill kids face challenging choices

Debra Jasper and Spencer Hunt of The Cincinnati Enquirer have a three-day series on families who face tough economic conditions because of a sick child. "Too rich to get government aid and too poor to pay extraordinary medical costs, some families are forced to make decisions that the rest of us can hardly comprehend." In addition, state budget cuts have forced reductions in health insurance programs in Ohio and Kentucky. Parents seeking day care for a severely disabled child have to endure long waits, and four of the six biggest Ohio facilities "were so troubled that in the past three years the state threatened to revoke their funding."

Widespread poverty, crime a problem for easter Romania

The Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism spent three months exploring conditions along the eastern border of Romania, which soon will become the far reaches of an enlarged European Union. Reporters found widespread poverty, poaching and smuggling in the region, including a large black market for cigarettes. Stefan Candea, Sorin Ozon and Roman Olearciuc contributed reporting to the project, which is set to be published in four newspapers in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine.

Number of children disciplined for fighting on the rise

Eric J.S. Townsend of the Cecil (Md.) Whig analyzed county school data to find that "nearly one out of seven Cecil students received at least one suspension during 2002-2003. A large majority come from secondary schools, notably the sixth through 10th grades." The school system ranked sixth in the state for the highest percentage of students suspended. Suspensions for fighting tripled in elementary schools, while alcohol and tobacco-related suspensions dropped at the high school level. "Cecil County isn't alone in its upward trends. State statistics indicate a growing number of Maryland school children, at younger ages, get sent home each year because of fighting and insubordination."

Invoices reveal firefighting expenses

Eve Byron of the Helena, Mont., Independent Record reviewed invoices submitted by firefighters who battled the Lincoln Complex blazes in the Helena National Forest. She found a combination of expenditures: "Some initially seem straightforward — $1,456 for a bulldozer, plus another $868 for its trailer — until you realize that this set was in Lincoln for two days, never left fire camp, but was paid $7,000." Four state legislators are planning to ask for an audit of firefighting costs.

Beginning teachers placed in poorest schools in Tacoma area

David Wickert of The (Tacoma, Wash.,) News Tribune used a Washington state database of personnel to examine the levels of experience for teachers in the Tacoma area. "The elementary schools with the highest poverty rates in the Tacoma, Auburn, Clover Park, Federal Way and Kent school districts have a higher proportion of beginning teachers than the lowest-poverty schools in the same districts." The newspaper's research echoes similar analyses in other parts of the nation.

159 Wash. coaches fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct

Christine Willmsen and Maureen O'Hagan of The Seattle Times conducted a year-long investigation of girls' sports coaches, finding that in the past 10 years, "159 coaches in Washington have been fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape. Nearly all were male coaches victimizing girls. At least 98 of these coaches continued to coach or teach." The paper sought records from Washington state school districts, one of which sought to prevent disclosure of files by collaborating with the teachers union.

Inconsistent rules allow doctors with questionable education to practice

Andrew Julien and Jack Dolan of The Hartford Courant continue their series of investigations into the medical profession, finding that "nearly 900 doctors practicing across the country are graduates of schools banned in states including California and Texas because of questionable educational standards." Uneven state standards allow these doctors to work in the U.S. after attending foreign medical schools "that would be hard-pressed to win accreditation on U.S. soil."

Risks found in adoption incentives

Troy Anderson of the Los Angeles Daily News conducted a two-year investigation of Los Angeles County's foster program, finding that as many as half of the county's foster kids "were needlessly placed in a system that is often more dangerous than their own homes because of financial incentives in state and federal laws." As the number of foster children in Los Angeles County has doubled since the early 1980s, they are "six to seven times more likely to be mistreated and three times more likely to be killed than children in the general population." Anderson reviewed audits of foster-care agencies to find! more than $9 million in questionable spending since 1998.

Worst schools in Baltimore get uncertified teachers

Mike Bowler of The (Baltimore) Sun analyzed the credentials and school assignments of Baltimore area teachers, finding that hundreds "lack basic state certification, and they're employed disproportionately in the worst-performing schools." The paper found 239 teachers labeled as "conditional" by Maryland working in the 25 elementary schools with the lowest test scores — all of them in Baltimore.

Saudi charities financed terrorism as U.S. looked away

David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report spent five months tracing the relationship between Saudi Arabian money and terrorism, finding that "over the past 25 years, the desert kingdom has been the single greatest force in spreading Islamic fundamentalism, while its huge, unregulated charities funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to jihad groups and al Qaeda cells around the world." Saudi charities played an important role in a $70 billion campaign to spread the message of the ruling Wahhabi sect. "Saudi largess encouraged U.S. officials to look the other way, some veteran intelligence officers say. Billions of dollars in contracts, grants, and salaries have gone to a broad range of former U.S. officials who had dealt with the Saudis: ambassadors, CIA station chiefs, even cabinet secretaries."

High death rate of children found on Oregon reservation

Brent Walth, Kim Christensen and Julie Sullivan of The Oregonian examined the death of children in Warm Springs Reservation, finding that "children and teenagers on the high desert reservation die at a rate more than three times that of the rest of Oregon and nearly twice that of Native American kids in the Northwest and around the country." The paper cites many causes, including car accidents in which few victims wear seat belts, a poor child welfare system and alcoholism. Since many tribal records are not public, the paper built a database of state records and used summary figures from the reservation.

Memphis Habitat homeowners filing for bankruptcy

Marc Perrusquia of The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial Appeal found that 40 percent of Greater Memphis recipients of Habitat for Humanity housing have filed for bankruptcy after getting their homes. An eight-month investigation found that the city's rate is highest among the 20 largest Habitat affiliates. "Nowhere is the comparison more stark than between Memphis and Jacksonville, Fla., the nation's largest Habitat affiliate. Volunteers in Jacksonville have built 1,200 homes — nearly five times the number here — yet more bankruptcies and foreclosures have resulted in Memphis."

Examining immigrant "slavery" in Florida

Christine Evans, John Lantigua, Christine Stapleton, Jane Daugherty and Connie Piloto of The Palm Beach Post explore the condition of illegal migrant workers in Florida, finding that "five modern-day slavery cases prosecuted in the past six years by the U.S. government have roots in Florida. In addition,The Post has found two new cases in which men and women say they were locked up while employed in Florida tomato fields." In addition, the paper found widespread Social Security fraud among the workers, often orchestrated by employers in the citrus industry. The series includes a story describing a trip across the Mexican-U.S. border and the financial and human costs of t! he pract ice.

Lax oversight found in zoo operations

In a two-part series, Karlyn Barker, James V. Grimaldi and D'Vera Cohn of The Washington Post found that "neglect, misdiagnosis or other mistakes have marked the deaths of 23 animals at the National Zoo in the past six years, and some veterinary records are incomplete or were changed after the fact." The paper found lax oversight of zoo operations! by federal authorities and by the zoo's own internal committee, which "rarely meets or conducts investigations, contrary to the zoo's own policy and federal regulations." The Post also placed pathology reports and internal meeting minutes on its Web site.

Medicaid fraud costs Fla. millions

In a four-part series, Fred Schulte of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that "even as the state faces a budget crisis in which Medicaid costs figure prominently, abuse of the health care system for the poor by doctors -- and by willing pharmacists and patients -- has gone largely unpunished." A sidebar includes information about how the story was reported and the data used.

Federal researchers also act as drug company consultants

David Willman of the Los Angeles Times reports that top-ranking officials of the National Institutes of Health have received "hundreds of consulting payments" from drug companies, often without public notice. "Such dual roles - federal research leader and drug company consultant - are increasingly common at the NIH, an agency once known for independent scientific inquiry on behalf of a single client: the public." A 1998 legal opinion allows the NIH to keep top officials' consulting income confidential, a practice that sets it apart from 34 othe! r federal agencies The Times surveyed.

Link between mainenance problems, airline fatalities increasing

Ames Alexander, Ted Reed and Ted Mellnik of The Charlotte Observer have a four-part series on airline maintenance and safety, finding that "since 1994, maintenance problems have contributed to 42 percent of fatal airline accidents in the United States, excluding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That's up from 16 perc! ent the previous decade." The paper analyzed federal databases to find that contractors hired by airlines handle an increasing amount of maintenance jobs, and that such contractors operate with less scrutiny from regulators than their airline counterparts.

Trampled shopper has history of store injuries, report says

Tony Pipitone and Darran Caudle of WKMG-TV in Orlando, Fla., have the story of a woman who claimed she was "trampled" by Wal-Mart shoppers on Black Friday, finding that Patricia Vanlester "has a long history of claiming injuries from Wal-Marts and other businesses where she worked or shopped." Pipitone used court records and other sources to find 15 previous injury claims against retailers by the woman, who has worked for several Orlando-area Wal-Marts.

Seattle school guide shows lagging grad rates

Jolayne Houtz, Linda Shaw and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times report that "in the Seattle area, just 73 percent of students in the class of 2002 graduated on time." As part of the paper's 2003 School Guide, the Times used a method created by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research to estimate the graduation rates for Seattle-area public high schools. "Washington state officials have set a goal to meet the new federal law: 85 percent of high-school students will graduate on time by 2014. Most schools have a long way to go. In The Times' analysis, only seven high schools in the Seattle area meet the 85 percent goal today."

Virginia fishing enforcement growing lax

Scott Harper and David Gulliver of The Virginian-Pilot reviewed state fishing enforcement programs and records to show that the Virginia Marine Patrol "is at its lowest staffing level in at least 30 years. Its budget has been cut six times in the past 12 years - to the point that some officers say they have all but stopped routine fishing patrols." Even when the so-called "fish cops" catch offenders, courts and state regulators often go easy on those who break fishery laws. "Since 1996, about half of the commercial fishermen, or watermen, who appeared before the (Virginia Marine Resources Commission) went out and broke the law again."

Chicago-area forestry jobs based on connections

Abdon M. Pallasch of the Chicago Sun-Times analyzed the payroll of the Cook County Forest Preserves, finding that "most top-paying jobs -- $80,000 and higher -- have been awarded to politicians and the politically connected, not to experts in forestry or natural resource management." Former local and state politicians and their family members often get the most lucrative positions with the organization, which was created to help conserve land. "The Forest Preserves over the years has hired political loyalists at the lower ranks and ex-elected officials at the higher ranks. Use of Forest Preserve property for private concerns was tolerated. One official was suspended a few months ago for attaching a Forest Preserve hitch to his daughter's car to haul her jet ski."

School district settles lawsuits quietly

Josh Funk of The Wichita Eagle requested information from the city's school district about lawsuit settlements, finding that the district "has settled 11 lawsuits worth more than $1 million total since 1999, handling all but two outside the public's view." Even though the district requires school board approval of expenditures totaling more than $10,000, the school board wasn't always informed of the settlements. "The board voted publicly on only two of the settlements. Five of the remaining nine settlements weren't voted on even though they involved expenditures of more than $10,000."

Records show $1.6 million in unreported expenses for new home

Janet Miller of The Ann Arbor News reviewed more than 2,000 pages of university spending records obtained under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act to find that "Eastern Michigan University spent at least $5.1 million to build, furnish and landscape a new home for its president, a figure that is $1.6 million more than publicly disclosed." School officials repeatedly said the project cost $3.5 million, but the paper "found expenses, including $860,500 in landscaping on the site and a $76,000 commercial kitchen, that were billed to campus accounts other than the house. The added expenses never were explicitly approved by the regents."

NASCAR crashes up 26 percent this season

Chris Jenkins and MaryJo Sylwester of USA Today tracked the number of crashes on the NASCAR racing circuit this season, finding that the figure increased 26 percent over the previous season. "Many in the sport attribute the increase in on-track incidents to passing difficulties that lead to over-aggressive driving. NASCAR officials don't agree that parity is causing more accidents, but they do acknowledge it's too hard to pass."

Investigation reveals staged accidents, insurance fraud

Patricia Andreu and Scott Zamost of WTVJ in South Florida have an undercover investigation of personal injury protection insurance fraud, in which criminals stage accidents and then refer "injured" victims for medical treatment to be billed to insurers. "In the last four years, agents have arrested 550 people for PIP fraud in Miami-Dade County alone. More than half the arrests are for staged accidents."

Test scores raise doubts about Houston's education claims

Diana Jean Schemo and Ford Fessenden of The New York Times revisit the Texas "education miracle" in Houston, where school officials boasted of higher test scores and academic profiency. "An examination of the performance of students in Houston by The New York Times raises serious doubts about the magnitude of those gains. Scores on a national exam that Houston students took alongside the Texas exam from 1999 to 2002 showed much smaller gains and falling scores in high school reading." The paper analyzed test scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills and the Stanford Achievement Test to reach its conclusions.

Data shows crime rate in Atlanta declining

Steve Visser and Maurice Tamman of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used Atlanta crime data to show that despite two recent killings in the city's popular Buckhead area, "serious crime in the area has dropped at a faster rate than in the city overall." Robberies and burglaries both increased in Buckhead between 2000 and 2002, but the overall crime rate fell by 15 percent because incidents of other crimes were down. The crime rate across Atlanta declined 10 percent during the same period.

Web blog to cover environment-related FOI issues

The Society of Environmental Journalists has launched a Web log that will follow First Amendment news, especially as it pertains to environment-related issues. The site is updated by editor Joe Davis as often as news occurs. Organizations and individuals can also subscribe to this page as an RSS News Feed. The site is also accessible via SEJ's home page.

Highest-paid employees get top bonuses

Alex Wayne of the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record analyzed Guilford County payroll records to find that some of the largest bonuses in 2002 and 2003 "went to the government's best-paid and highest-ranking employees." The report is based on data released by the county after the paper sued for the information in October. "The records the county released provide a 17-month snapshot of the bonus and merit-raise system, dating to July 2002. The snapshot is incomplete, however, because the county only released records about merit raises, and not about two other common types of salary increases that county employees can attain."

Flights for Fla. legislators total more than $75,000

Alisa Ulferts and Connie Humburg of the St. Petersburg Times reviewed travel records for Florida state lawmakers, finding that "the Legislature has spent more than $75,000 so far this year on state plane trips and about a third of that was for flights home." State Senate President Jim King has made at least 31 trips home, which the Senate's general counsel argues is legal because "the definition of commuting isn't clear in state law."

'Supersealed' federal court cases concern lawyers, judges

Dan Christensen of the Daily Business Review in South Florida reports on two federal court cases that have been sealed by judges and kept off the public docket. In the cases, one involves a terrorism-related investigation and the other is a narcotics case, "the secrecy in these two cases was put into place without any explicit legal process or criteria established by Congress or the Supreme Court."

Denver's water supply dwindling

Lou Kilzer, Jerd Smith and Burt Hubbard of the Rocky Mountain News report that much of the well water for Denver, "once thought abundant enough for a century, could be out of reach in 10 to 20 years." Deborah Frazier writes that more than 80 percent of home owners in the affected areas were not told when buying their homes about the shrinking water supply. Another story reveals that officials and developers have ignored warning signs for 15 years. The last part of the series looks at possible solutions and obstacles.

Police protection uneven in St. Louis area

In a six-month investigation, Heather Ratcliffe and Trisha L. Howard of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch find that St. Louis-area residents get unequal police protection based on where they live, work and drive. One problem, according to the paper, is that police departments let problem officers go without conducting formal investigations, allowing them to take jobs in other police agencies. David Carson writes about one officer whose connection with his community is his biggest asset.