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Ariz. municipalities do business behind closed doors

Ginger D. Richardson and Pat Flannery of The Arizona Republic analyzed records from municipal government meetings in Maricopa County to show that "elected officials held 24 to 48 percent of their meetings behind closed doors under the provisions of Arizona's open-meetings law. The review found that governing bodies often conceal the nature and even the topics of closed-door sessions and interpret the law's exemptions so broadly that virtually any topic is eligible for secret debate." Councilmembers in Chandler, Ariz., held four private meetings about their city manager before she was forced out, holding a public hearing only after agreeing on a $100,000 severance package.

S.C. judges among least diverse

Rick Brundrett of The State studied the makeup of South Carolina's judiciary, finding that the state's "top courts are among the least diverse in the nation when it comes to the person holding the gavel. The state's black population is about 30 percent — the third-highest in the United States. But only 10 percent of judges at the circuit and appellate court levels are black." The paper reports that a shortage of black attorneys in the state isn't the reason for the gap between its African-American population and the number of black jurists. The report was based on legal association records and Census data.

Indians import fuel from Canada, avoid taxes

Michael Beebe and Dan Herbeck of The Buffalo News report that "Mohawk Indian companies have sent gasoline tankers on thousands of trips across the U.S.-Canadian border, stiffing the federal government on $79 million in taxes over eight years." Federal records show that one tribe in northern New York have purchased 400 million gallons of fuel from Canada since 1995 to be sold at gas stations on Indian reservations. The IRS has filed liens against the distributors, but the tribe says that the federal taxes are not applicable to their transaction.

Property owners cash in on undeserved credits

Kevin Corcoran and Sylvia Halladay of The Indianapolis Star used county property tax data to show that "thousands of Marion County taxpayers last year cashed in on multiple homestead property tax credits, a benefit intended only for a homeowner's primary residence." The undeserved breaks, which went to 9,300 property owners in the county, cost taxpayers at least $6 million. "After Marion County Auditor Marty Womacks was given thousands of examples of errors by The Star, her staff removed more than 200 unwarranted homestead credits from properties owned by two dozen people with the most credits."

San Francisco payroll grows to $2 billion

Ilene Lelchuk of the San Francisco Chronicle analyzed city payroll data to find that "between fiscal years 1996 and 2003, which ended last June 30, San Francisco's payroll costs ballooned from $1.3 billion to $2 billion as a result of more hiring and higher wages and overtime spending." The number of employees earning six figures almost tripled in the past three years, and overtime pay grew despite the addition of thousands of new workers. The largest number of new workers came in public works and transportation.

Analysis shows where state money comes from

The Center for Public Integrity analyzed contribution and expenditure data reported to state agencies by 229 political party and caucus committees in all 50 states. The analysis finds that "State parties raised nearly $823 million in the 2001-2002 election cycle, bolstered by millions from labor unions, corporations, wealthy individuals and the national parties." The Center found that "seven of every 10 dollars that state party and caucus committees received from the national parties during the 2001-2002 election cycle came in the form of 'soft money' now banned under federal campaign finance law." The Center's team on this project included Derek Willis, Aron Pilhofer, Daniel Lathrop, Robert Morlino, Alexander Cohen, Agustín Armendariz, David Dagan, Joseph Dietrich, Neil Gordon, Natasha Grant, Jennifer Puckett, Susan Schaab and Brooke Williams.

Only half of Atlantic City restaurants inspected last year

Michael Diamond of The Press of Atlantic City used city restaurant inspection records to find that in Atlantic City, "the equivalent of three full-time inspectors were able to inspect only half the resort's 887 retail food establishments in 2003, despite a state requirement that each be inspected at least once a year." Some places haven't seen an inspector in two to three years, while casino eateries usually get more frequent visits. "Of the resort restaurants that are inspected, half need to be reinspected, a rate that is among the highest in New Jersey." Statewide, none of the 115 New Jersey health departments make their inspection reports available online. (Free registration required.)

University shares information with credit card company

Roger McCoy of WBNS-Columbus, Ohio, and Alice Thomas of The Columbus Dispatch report that "Ohio State University and the OSU Alumni Association are supplying the world's largest independent credit-card company with information on contacting more than 400,000 students, employees and alumni." The school gets $1.3 million a year for the information, according to a redacted version of the contract with MBNA, but none of the students contacted by the station knew about the deal or their right to opt-out of the information sharing.

Texas hospitals continue to hire disciplined doctors

Lise Olsen and Leigh Hopper of the Houston Chronicle continue their investigation of Texas hospitals with a story reporting that "doctors disciplined by state regulators have been welcomed to practice at many Houston-area hospitals for years, often because officials overlooked or ignored negative information about the physicians." The paper examined six years' of Texas physician discipline records for its report and then looked at the hospitals where sanctioned doctors worked.

Ohio children suffer in mental health system

Spencer Hunt and Debra Jasper of The Cincinnati Enquirer report that Ohio's system for treating mentally ill children suffers from bureaucratic complexities and abuse. "In the past three years, Ohio parents who've run out of insurance or money have given up custody of as many as 1,800 children so the government will pay to treat their mental illness. ... Ohio counties place more than 7,000 children a year in centers where some are abused, molested, improperly drugged and left in wretched conditions, an examination of inspection records, court documents and interviews reveals."

Phily museum director gets top dollar, house

Craig R. McCoy, Marcia Gelbart, Mario F. Cattabiani and Patricia Horn of The Philadelphia Inquirer investigated the finances of the city's Independence Seaport Museum, using public records to show that increased spending has forced the nonprofit to dig into its endowment. "The most recent public figures put its director's salary at $220,416, more than that paid to officials running much larger maritime museums. The director, John S. Carter, lives in a house that the museum owns. It bought the home for $665,000 — and then expanded it at a cost of $800,000 and furnished for an additional $210,000. The museum also invested heavily in a vintage yacht, the Enticer. It lost $2.4 million trying to charter out the vessel."

Police pension fund loses millions in bad deals

Penny Brown Roberts of The (Baton Rouge) Advocate reviewed the financial records of Louisiana's pension fund for police officers, finding that "in addition to taking a $200 million hit in the stock market, the fund has sunk nearly $20 million into golf courses that have only put it further in the hole — then made a $6 million land deal with a company that didn't even exist at the time." The pension fund is now seeking a public bailout from its losses, despite an increase in fees that police departments pay into the system.

Defendants not notified of problems with evidence

Ruth Teichroeb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found that even after a state audit of a forensic scientist's handling of crime evidence revealed problems with 17 cases, "none of those 22 defendants has been notified that the crime lab evidence used against them had been called into question." Five of the people convicted remain in prison. Because the state maintains that the scientist's overall conclusions were correct, "that meant there was no reason to notify counties about the findings of the audit."

Local taxes vary for blacks, whites

Jeffrey Cohan of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a two-part series on the economic conditions of Pittsburgh's suburbs. "While the city's property tax base has remained remarkably stable over the past 25 years, no fewer than 55 other Allegheny County municipalities have suffered decreases in the total value of their taxable property since 1980." The second story found disparity in tax rates between white and black residents: "On average, blacks in this county pay a local income tax rate that is 49 percent higher than what whites pay ... Put another way, the typical black person with a $40,000 salary would pay $908 to the school district and municipality, while a white person with the same salary would pay just $604."

Four inspectors responsible for 700 restaurants

In a two-part series on March 15 and 16, Mark Hayward of The (Manchester, N.H.) Union Leader reported restaurant health inspection scores for Manchester, N.H. Although inspection reports and scores are public records, the city does not publicize them. "City health officials say they have no desire to put the data on the Internet or require restaurants to post their scores." The paper found that even high-risk establishments get visited about once a year, although restaurants get more attention.

Gang-related crime soars in targeted areas

Jason Kandel of the Los Angeles Daily News used city police data to measure crime in areas where law enforcement officials use "gang injunction" court orders, finding that "gang-related crime has soared in three of the four San Fernando Valley areas where the court orders are in place." The court orders make it a crime for gang members to gather or carry cell phones in a certain area, but some experts say that the injunctions can serve as a challenge to gangs. "The figures show the number of crimes committed in the Pacoima area that the Project Boys gang considers its turf has climbed 37 percent since a permanent injunction was imposed in October 2001."

Retired workers rehired to help with turnover

Dave Hogan and Janie Har of The Oregonian reviewed state government records to find that "one-third of the 3,000 state employees who retired last year immediately returned to their jobs temporarily — usually for six months or less — to help their agencies cope with the sudden turnover." The rehired workers get mostly similar salaries and pensions but few benefits. In 2002, public employees that retired after 30 years received an average of 79 percent of their salary as a pension.

Questions raised about internal affairs' OT

Mark Gillispie of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer analyzed police overtime records to find that members of the Cleveland police Internal Affairs department were among the biggest recipients of overtime pay — something they are charged with policing themselves. The head of Internal Affairs through last fall, Lt. Robert Klimak, "averaged more than $43,000 a year in overtime, which helped make him the highest-paid police officer in the city" during the past few years. "During Klimak's watch, Internal Affairs was one of the biggest overtime users in the department. And an examination of police records raises questions about the validity of claims submitted by Klimak and some of his subordinates."

Fla. agency ignored child abuse reports

Paul Pinkham of The Florida Times-Union obtained internal state records using Florida's open records law to find that the Department of Children and Families staffers in Jacksonville "regularly blew off reports of abuse and danger to children, inaction that contributed to at least one child's murder in 2001." Court documents and agency e-mails and memos show that counselors failed to complete basic checks and follow-up on complaints. The death of a 2-year-old boy three years ago resulted in an internal audit that shed light on DCF's troubles.

Mexican workers in U.S. more likely to die than Americans

Justin Pritchard of The Associated Press analyzed federal workplace safety data to find that "the jobs that lure Mexican workers to the United States are killing them in a worsening epidemic that is now claiming a victim a day. Though Mexicans often take the most hazardous jobs, they are more likely than others to be killed even when doing similarly risky work. The death rates are greatest in several Southern and Western states, where a Mexican worker is four times more likely to die than the average U.S.-born worker." The AP also explains how it did the story. Workplace safety data from OSHA is available from IRE and NICAR.

Pay, benefits for Calif. employees rising fast

Troy Anderson of the Los Angeles Daily News reviewed spending on public employees at the state and local levels in California, finding that "the cost of salaries and benefits for public employees has soared far faster than inflation in the last five years — three times as fast in the case of the Los Angeles Unified School District." In some cases, spending on benefits alone increased 186 percent.

Plea deals common in Buffalo court

Patrick Lakamp of The Buffalo News analyzed more than 1,500 criminal cases over the past two years to show that "City Court is the court of deals and dismissals, where defendants are far less likely to leave with a misdemeanor conviction than they are in other upstate cities or in Buffalo's major suburbs." Another finding: Blacks are convicted of misdemeanors more often than whites, 33 percent compared to 23 percent. Blacks also tend to come to court with more charges than whites. "City Court, The News found, is not only a revolving door, but a missed opportunity to stop petty criminals who don't understand the full force of the law until they graduate to county, state or federal courts."

State chose hospital with serious violations

Andrew Julien of The Hartford Courant found that Connecticut's Department of Children and Families selected a psychiatric hospital for a publicly funded $3.4 million treatment unit for juvenile female delinquents without checking the hospital's regulatory record with the state health department. When the paper checked the record, it found instances of substandard care, improper use of restraints and abuse of children. The regulatory file outlined "problems serious enough to spark tight oversight by the state health department in the form of a regulatory tool known as a consent agreement three times between 1999 and 2002."

Plea bargain includes donation to Iowa agency

Clark Kauffman of The Des Moines Register obtained a list of cash donations to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, finding that one man gave $1,500 to the state agency as part of a plea bargain in a case in which he was accused of assaulting a police officer with a weapon. The department returned items seized from the man when he was arrested, including hunting equipment. "The plea bargain is unusual in two respects. Property seized by law-enforcement agencies is considered the property of the people of Iowa, and it typically must either be returned to the defendant or sold at auction. Also, Iowa law does not allow criminal defendants to make donations to police agencies or government offices as part of sentencing agreements. Donations can be made to charities under certain circumstances, but not to state agencies."

Colo. school ranks high in crime categories

Burt Hubbard at the Rocky Mountain News analyzed campus crime data and found that the "University of Colorado at Boulder, voted the top party school in the U.S. last year, had the third highest incidence of alcohol and drug violations among large universities nationally." The data shows that in 2002 the university referred 2,410 students for alcohol violations and 393 for drug violations, or almost nine referrals for every 100 students. Hubbard used Campus Crime Statistics available from IRE and NICAR that includes 19 tables of crime data reported to the U.S. Department of Education by campus police and local law enforcement.

Richer schools would benefit from Mass. plan

Anand Vaishnav and Bill Dedman of The Boston Globe used Massachusetts school test results to find that a "scholarship proposal that Gov. Mitt Romney is touting to help working-class families would give the edge to richer school districts." The program selects recipients solely on the basis of their scores on the MCAS exam, administered to high school juniors. "The districts with the largest share of winners under Romney's proposal are overwhelmingly affluent, suburban, and white, according to the Globe's review of MCAS scores for this year's junior class."

New generation of Fla. lobbyists raise millions

Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times, with the assistance of five Times researchers, has put together a comprehensive analysis of lobbying in Florida's capital, finding that a new crop of younger lobbyists are giving thousands of dollars to legislative candidates. "Instead of the $25,000 to $40,000 lobbyists were getting from handfuls of clients, the turks and some old-line lobbyists command fees that top $100,000 from each of dozens of clients. Some make as much as $4-million a year." With a bevy of charts listing the top lobbyist donors and spending totals for legislative candidates.

Texas donors lead Bush fund raising

Wayne Slater of The Dallas Morning News used federal campaign finance data to unearth details of President Bush's top fundraisers, who earn titles depending on how much money they can steer to the campaign. "Texas leads the nation in the number of Pioneers and Rangers with 49, followed by Florida with 47, California at 37 and New York at 31." Pioneers and Rangers from the Lone Star State account for half the $12.6 million Bush has raised from Texas.

Fla. legislators benefit from tax policies they shape

Sydney P. Freedberg of the St. Petersburg Times surveyed Florida state lawmakers to find that "at least 18 of the 34 legislators who shape state tax policy benefit from the current tax code" in the form of reduced corporate income taxes on their businesses. Others are employed by nonprofit organizations that receive state funding. "Combined, these policymakers have interests — or once had interests — in at least 50 businesses that are exempt from Florida's corporate income tax, the Times found."

Lobbyists spend almost $2.4 million on legislators

Kit Wagar of The Kansas City Star reviewed reports detailing lobbyist spending on members of the Missouri legislature, finding that "lobbyists reported spending nearly $2.4 million on Missouri public officials, their families and their staffs from 2001 through 2003. The gifts ranged from free meals, concerts and alcohol to seminars at Harvard, lavish birthday parties, trips to the Kentucky Derby, and New Year's at the Four Seasons lodge for seven lawmakers and their spouses." The average Missouri lawmaker got nearly twice as much as legislators in neighboring Kansas, and many gifts went to groups of lawmakers, which are not required to list each recipient's name. (Free registration required to view the story.)

Dead people cast votes in San Francisco

Anastasia Hendrix of the San Francisco Chronicle, with assistance from eight other reporters, reports that five votes in the city's recent mayoral runoff election "were placed in the name of people who have died." The paper used election and death records to find the dead "voters," who would not have changed the outcome of the contest between Supervisors Gavin Newsom and Matt Gonzalez (Newsom won). Absentee ballots were sent to one person who died in May even though her death was reported to the Elections Department.

Australians waiting longest for hip replacements

Jill Pengelley of Australia's The Adelaide Advertiser used hospital records obtained under the Freedom of Information law to show that patients getting hip replacements have the longest waits for surgery. "In the 2003 December quarter, the number waiting more than a year for orthopaedic surgery was 21 per cent higher than it was three years ago, despite the orthopaedic waiting list growing only 6 per cent in that time." Ear, nose and throat surgeries had the second-longest waiting list.

Fresno donors familiar to local candidates

Russell Clemings of The Fresno Bee analyzed local campaign finance records to show that the top contributors "share at least one common trait. Their names appear regularly on agendas of the Fresno City Council and the Fresno County Board of Supervisors." Nearly one of every four dollars given to local candidates comes from just 10 donors.