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Airport screeners take thousands of banned items

J.M. Kalil of the Las Vegas Review-Journal used federal aviation security records to show that air travelers still try to bring prohibited items onto planes in Las Vegas. "Federal screeners at McCarran International Airport confiscated nearly 4,500 'deadly or dangerous weapons' at security checkpoints in the 18-month period ending Oct. 3." The banned items included guns, box cutters and explosives. The paper found that scissors were the most common item taken by federal screeners — more than 77,000 pairs since April 2002. While other states sell confiscated material, Nevada either gives them away or junks them.

Truck companies linked to campaign contributions

Tim Novak and Steve Warmbir of the Chicago Sun-Times tracked the city's habit of hiring private trucks to haul refuse and other loads, finding that "Mayor Daley's administration spends nearly $40 million a year hiring hundreds of trucks — primarily dump trucks — that often do little or no work." The paper requested bills from six participating companies, noting that many are not listed in the phone book and appear to be run from an owner's home. Chicago officials could not produce records for two of the firms, and the paper pegs the number of trucking companies favored by the city at about 165. "Many are listed on campaign reports showing they contribute money to the mayor and other politicians — in all more than $800,000 since 1996. Over the last five years, more than 25 percent of the Hired Truck money has been spent on firms operating out of the 11th Ward, the mayor's political power base."

Many Mass. inmates released without parole supervision

Stephen Kurkjian of The Boston Globe used state corrections data to find that a get-tough on crime policy in the 1990s has had a dramatic impact on Massachusetts: "Inmates convicted of violent crimes are increasingly serving out their sentences and being released to the streets, without parole or much of any supervision. Many, not surprisingly, swiftly reoffend. ...more than 4,000 inmates serving time for violent crimes or sex offenses in maximum- and medium-security prisons have been discharged since 1995 without the parole restrictions of the past." The state directly discharges prisoners at a rate nearly three times the national average.

Wealthiest nonprofits get bulk of foundation money

Marcella Bombardieri and Walter V. Robinson of The Boston Globe have a follow-up to their earlier pieces on nonprofits, finding that "the largest foundations parcel out a surprisingly high proportion of their grants to already well-endowed colleges and universities and other elite institutions." The paper commissioned a study by the Foundation Center to track patterns of grantmaking by 1,000 of the largest foundations between 1992 and 2001. Sixteen of the top 20 grant recipients were "elite universities" including Harvard, Stanford and Columbia. "By contrast, nonprofits identified in the study as human service providers received about 1 in 10 foundation dollars in 2001."

Officials' phone calls increase at times of major issues

Matt Galnor of the Florida Times-Union studied five months' worth of cell phone records from members of the Jacksonville City Council, with an eye on talks between officials. The paper found that "surges in the number of conversations directly paralleled major issues, including the November vote to increase the Duval County Courthouse budget to $232 million and the beginning of the race for council president last month. Some conversations are more than 40 minutes long, records show, and as many as 12 of the 19 council members are talking to one another on the same day." Florida law requires that any meeting of at least two members of the same elected board be open to the public if official business is discussed.

Calif. prisons have overspent budget for past 5 years

Bob Porterfield of The Associated Press reports that "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's initial efforts to tame California's out-of-control spending are unlikely to impose fiscal control on the state's prisons, which have overspent their budgets by $1.4 billion in the past five years." Porterfield found that each fiscal year, the prison system appeals to California's state finance agency to cover deficits, and more often than not the state ponied up: "Overall, the state agreed to pay nearly 90 percent of the $1.58 billion in extra bills the prison system ran up since 1999."

Utility fee goes to nonprofit controlled by legislator's allies

Mario F. Cattabiani of The Philadelphia Inquirer, continuing his investigation of a nonprofit connected to state Sen. Vincent Fumo, used state audits and IRS records to find that customers of utility company Peco Energy have been funding the Delaware Valley Regional Economic Development Fund, which is controlled by Fumo allies. "Fumo secured the Peco money in the 1998 electric-rate restructuring talks that opened the industry to competition. Since then, the nonprofit has, virtually unnoticed, redirected about $4 million in low-interest loans and grants to a small circle of recipients, all in Philadelphia and most with unmistakable links to the powerful Democrat."

Standards lax for substitute teachers

Mary Shanklin and Denise-Marie Balona of the Orlando Sentinel have a two-part series on substitute teachers in Central Florida, finding that "students with substitutes for at least four weeks scored lower on reading tests than their peers in the same school," and poor-performing school often get the least-educated subs. About 2,000 substitute teachers work each day in the area's schools, and many "earn no more than convenience-store clerks." Florida is one of 22 states that require that subs have only a high-school equivalency degree.

Colo. children dying even after contact with system

David Olinger of The Denver Post spent eight months investigating Colorado's child protection system, finding that "child welfare agencies were involved before the deaths of at least 107 of 258 children who were victims of suspected abuse or neglect from 1993 through 2002. Yet in nearly half of those cases, a state system created to learn from child abuse deaths has reported nothing about those prior contacts." The paper also found gaps in the state's recordkeeping process and a pattern of confidentiality that can mean that mistakes in child abuse cases "can remain hidden indefinitely."

Public record of police discipline is incomplete

David Paulsen of The Wausau Daily Herald finds that despite a policy change in 1997, "most residents' complaints against Wausau police officers are resolved without disciplinary action against the officers, but department records afford only limited public oversight into how the department reaches those conclusions." At least 14 of the 80 complaints filed in the past six years have resulted in some sort of official action aside from a letter to the complainant.

Administration doubles; nursing and health inspector jobs unfilled

Tom Wilemon and Beth Musgrave of The (Biloxi, Miss.) Sun-Herald used state payroll data to find that Mississippi's Department of Health "has more than doubled its top administrative staff at a cost of more than $1 million, while its front-line employee positions, such as nurses and restaurant inspectors, have gone unfilled." Between September 2002 and November 2003, central administrative salaries were boosted by $1.15 million while "salaries for front-line workers decreased by $1.7 million." More than 40 nurses and 16 health inspectors left their jobs during that period. State officials defend the reorganization of the agency, saying it will make it more "user-friendly."

NE Fla. schools still paddle students

Cynthia L. Garza of The Florida Times-Union reports that Northeast Florida schools still engage in corporal punishment of students, which must be reported to the state. Using state data, she found that "the region's largest school system, Duval County, leads the state in its overall use of corporal punishment during the past 10 years, paddling students more than 15,000 times during that time." That's at odd with Florida's largest school districts, in the southeast of the state, who haven't used such tactics in the past five years. Paddling or spanking is clustered in a small number of schools in Duval: "Last year alone, the 1,300 paddlings that took place in Duval County schools happened in about a fourth of all its schools, with one school -- Northwestern Middle School -- using it 474 times alone."

Minn. fails to commit sex offenders deemed likely to reoffend

Josephine Marcotty and John Stefany of the Minneapolis Star Tribune checked state records on sex offenders to find that "since 1999, three-fourths of the rapists and pedophiles most likely to reoffend were released in Minnesota instead of being committed for indefinite treatment at a secure psychiatric facility." The paper found that 92 sex offenders, including the man suspected of kidnapping college student Dru Sjodin, "scored at very high levels on a test that predicts their chances of reoffending." But most were not referred for recommitment, and county attorneys or judges declined to have a handful of others committed. The story includes the scoresheet used by the state to determine likelihood that someone will reoffend.

Business interests make up bulk of donors to council candidates

David A. Grant of the King County (Wash.) Journal analyzed state campaign finance records to find that "real estate and other business interests dominated a list of a dozen politically plugged-in organizations and individuals who contributed to the campaigns of all four winning City Council candidates last November."

Wrongful dismissal suits cost county

Mike Wereschagin and Andrew Conte of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review used court records and county settlement documents to show that "Allegheny County has paid out more than $1.5 million since 1996 to end lawsuits filed by fired employees who claimed politics cost them their jobs." The county likely faces more such suits since a new Democratic chief executive fired 19 employees who worked for his Republican predecessor. "The county has won four jury trials in U.S. District Court, lost three federal trials, settled 17 cases of wrongful dismissal and resolved one case through arbitration. Ten cases from 1998 are pending. Taxpayers and the county's insurers bore the costs of the litigation."

Principals cash in on unused sick days

Rosalind Rossi and Art Golab of the Chicago Sun-Times analyzed Illinois education salary data to find that some Chicago school principals earned the most money in the state last year due to a provision that permits them to convert up to 315 sick days into cash upon retirement. "Chicago's sick-day benefit — won by the Chicago Teachers Union but shared by principals — amounts to a unique 'double-dip' not available in the Chicago suburbs, New York City or Los Angeles." The unused sick days can be used to boost pay and, to a lesser extent, to increase length of service, which can boost the value of a pension. "I wish we had that,'' said Mike O'Sullivan, president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles.

Sex offender registry called into question

Zack Kucharski and Frank Gluck of The (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette spent six months assessing the accuracy of Iowa's sexual offender registry, finding that "the addresses of nearly one in four high-risk sex offenders on the list police and the public use to track them are incorrect." The paper sent certified letters to each of the 718 high-risk offenders last summer and was able to confirm fewer than 60 percent of the addresses; more could be wrong. In some counties, the offenders themselves are responsible for filling out the forms for Iowa's Internet registry. (Extra! Extra! readers get special access to this story for one month by entering username "ire" and password "sherlock8" — both without the quotes.)

Aging oil tankers a risk on high seas

Reporter Mark Schapiro, in a project from the Center for Investigative Reporting and Frontline, looks at the maritime industry, "long shrouded in secrecy and protected from accountability by complex corporate structures and foreign flags." Aging tankers are allowed to continue carrying oil around the world as a result of a "tangled web of responsibility" and "elements of the international maritime system," according to "The Lawless Sea." The Los Angeles Times published a column about the subject written by Schapiro.

Book examines record campaign fundraising

A new book from Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity, The Buying of the President 2004, looks at who bankrolls Bush and his Democratic rivals for the presidency. It finds that Enron Corp., the Houston-based energy firm that touched off a financial, legal and political scandal when it declared bankruptcy in December 2001, remains the top career patron of President George W. Bush, whose prolific fundraising in 2003 shattered all previous records for candidates. Enron's employees and political action committee have given more than $600,000 to Bush over the course of his political career.

Despite willful violations, OSHA often fails to punish employers

David Barstow of The New York Times finds that in 93 percent of the cases in which OSHA determined an employer's "willful safety violations" caused a death, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration declined to seek prosecution. The report also finds that "OSHA's reluctance to seek prosecution persisted even when employers had been cited before for the very same safety violation," even when the violations caused multiple deaths, or when the victims were teenagers. (Note: IRE and NICAR offer four sets of OSHA workplace safety data: one listing companies and inspection results, and three subordinate databases listing worker accidents, hazardous substance injuries and workplace violations.)

N.J. donors get lucrative no-bid contracts

Shannon D. Harrington, Clint Riley and Jeff Pillets of the Bergen Record have a two-part series on "pay to play" in New Jersey, "a system that encourages politicians to reward their big contributors with juicy — and perfectly legal — no-bid contracts financed by the taxpayers." One story focuses on the lucrative law practice of M. Robert DeCotiis, finding that the "DeCotiis firm billed at least 128 government entities nearly $26.6 million during the 2½-year period starting in January 2001," all while ranking among the most prolific donors and fundraisers in the state. The paper obtained copies of the law firm's billing records from more than 550 government agencies via New Jersey's freedom of information law. The second story examines why attempts to curb the pay to play phenomenon have failed.

Accidents drop after limits placed on teen drivers

Robert Imrie of The Associated Press reviewed the impact of two-year-old restrictions on Wisconsin teen drivers, finding that "the average number of crashes in Wisconsin with 16-year-olds behind the wheel and the number of people killed in those crashes dropped dramatically in the first two full years" the restrictions were in place. The AP analyzed more than 1 million state accident reports to find a 15 percent drop in accidents involving 16-year-old drivers that were investigated by the police.

Data shows unsolved murders in LA's urban core

Jill Leovy and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times used city police and coroner data from 1988-2002 to find that neighborhoods south of the Santa Monica Freeway have seen some 2,400 unsolved homicides during the past 15 years. "Nowhere in the San Fernando Valley or the Westside is there a similar concentration of killings, let alone unsolved ones. South Bureau, for example, has more than three times the number of unsolved homicides as the LAPD's Valley Bureau, even though it covers only one-fourth the area." The report includes a database of unsolved murders, searchable by zip code or proximity to local elementary schools.

Bingo parlors fail to pass income to charities

Kristina Buchthal of The Indianapolis Star analyzed state records to find that "twenty-five Indiana bingo parlors collectively took in more than $52 million last year, but gave only $1.6 million to the charities they were established to support." One operation earned more than $1.5 million but gave just $677 to charity, triggering a state investigation. Indiana is the fourth-largest bingo state in the nation, but rules requiring large bingo parlors to give 10 percent of their revenues to charity don't go into effect until May.

Approvals to drill wells up 34 percent under Bush

The Associated Press reports that oil and gas companies seeking government approval for drilling since 1998 have an ally in the Bush administration, which is "approving wells at a pace well ahead of the Clinton administration and looking to get even faster." Nearly all the applications are for projects in the Mountain West states of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Electronic waste poses problems for developing countries

Karl Schoenberger of the San Jose Mercury News reports on scrap yards in India that process waste from discarded computers. "As India emerges as a technology powerhouse, poverty, cheap labor and rampant corruption make it a prime market for the dumping and burning of unregulated electronic waste, environmental activists say." The Indian government maintains that electronic waste is not brought into the country and therefore isn't a problem.

L.A. foster children at risk

Troy Anderson of the Los Angeles Daily News finds that "Los Angeles County's child protective system is one of the most violent and dangerous in the nation, and its foster children are up to 10 times more likely to die from abuse or neglect than elsewhere in the country." The two-year investigation found that between 6 percent and 28 percent of the children in the county's foster system suffer abuse or neglect. A sidebar reveals that children are committing suicide at younger ages.