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Candies from Mexico contain unsafe amounts of lead

Jenifer McKim, William Heisel, Valeria Godines and Keith Sharon of The Orange County Register found California has withheld hundreds of test results showing more than 100 brands of candy — most coming from Mexico — have dangerous levels of lead. The Register spent two years tracing the roots of the problem to the chili fields of Mexico and to a Mexican town connected to the candy industry that has become contaminated. The newspaper conducted 425 tests and found alarming lead levels in children, key candy ingredients and in candies — some of which the state or FDA have never tested before. "The Register reviewed about 6,000 pages of state, county and federal documents obtained under public-records laws and built a unique database of all candy tests conducted in California."

Anti-terrorism money goes to rural areas

Bert Dalmer of The Des Moines Register analyzed federal anti-terrorism spending in Iowa to find that "Iowa's five largest counties — Polk, Linn, Scott, Black Hawk and Johnson — are home to 33 percent of the state's population. But those five counties combined will receive 15 percent of the federal grant money. Polk County, with 13 percent of Iowa's people, will get 4 percent of the state's total." Some officials complain that the allocation gives too much to rural counties and the state government, while short-changing more populated areas. "Pocahontas County, which ranks 86th in population, is using $20,000 in grant money to purchase eight helmets, shields and body armor designed to withstand sniper bullets and shrapnel. But Des Moines police will have to forgo purchasing 35 such helmets because there is not enough money."

Wis. neighborhood driven into despair

Andy Hall and Dean Mosiman of the Wisconsin State Journal investigated Allied Drive, the worst neighborhood in the Madison area, and found that a decade of neglect and half-steps by local officials and property owners drove the area deeper into danger and despair. The eight-day series showed that Allied Drive was left behind even as local officials achieved national acclaim for reviving other troubled neighborhoods. Residents' struggles with crime, poverty, housing and education were explored through interviews and data analysis.

Utility disconnections concentrated in low-income areas

Lukas Velush and Scott North of The (Everett, Wash.) Herald analyzed county records to find that "Turn-off notices in Snohomish County are concentrated in neighborhoods where residents have the lowest incomes." Disconnections have soared since utility rates increased in 2001, including more than 15,000 in 2002. The Snohomish Utility District has some of the highest electricity rates in Washington.

Ill. cities see increase in sales tax receipts

Isaac Guerrero of the Rockford Register Star analyzed Illinois tax data to find that sales tax receipts in the Rock River Valley have increased during the past 11 years. "Seven cities enjoyed double-digit percentage gains in 2003 sales taxes coming back from the state." Just two of the 22 cities studied by the paper saw sales tax declines in 2003, and in both cases the drop was less than 1 percent.

Calendars reveal chancellors' priorities

John Frank of The Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina used the chancellor's weekly calendars obtained through records requests to determine "the number of times Chancellor James Moeser met with certain groups or spent his time on certain issues." The 950 appointments in the calendars were entered into spreadsheets and categorized to help indicate how Moeser prioritizes his time. Frank acknowledges "the data is imperfect because Moeser's calendar changes often" but this "analysis is the first day-by-day look at what issues and officials get the most attention from UNC's chancellor." The calendars showed the chancellor spends the majority of his time on fund-raising activities.

Native American children in peril

Larry Oakes of the Star Tribune writes about the condition of Native American youth on the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota. The series found that alarming numbers of children on the reservation are being lost to alcohol, drugs, prison and death. "Cass County, where most of the reservation's people live, ranked last among 77 Minnesota counties in a 1999 government study that measured the health and safety of children." Several stories are accompanied by a full list of credits (registration required to view links).

Latinos lose out in Calif. city's elections

Reporter Edwin Garcia and data analyst Seth Hemmelgarn of the San Jose Mercury News looked at voting patterns in East Palo Alto in the San Francisco Bay Area and found the election system there may violate federal law. "Time and again, Latinos, who make up almost two-thirds of the city's 30,000 residents, have run for council and failed." The system in East Palo Alto requires each city council member to run citywide, while many municipalities "have sliced themselves into geographic districts to give minority voters a better chance at winning elections by concentrating their votes in smaller areas."

Activists may influence domestic violence cases

Steve Hart of The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif., writes about prosecution of domestic violence allegations against police officers and finds that, in at least one case, the district attorney may have pursued a case under pressure from an activist group. "The Purple Berets were biased against the officer, according to one of the jurors."

Railway's chronic problems endanger drivers

Steve Orr of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle investigated railroad accidents at highway crossings, finding that "CSX, the largest freight railway in the eastern United States, has suffered chronic problems with highway crossings, especially in this part of the country." Some of the blame can be attributed to weather, but regulators and union officials also cite poor maintenance and malfunctioning equipment as factors. The paper used local records on 911 calls reporting problems at crossings and federal data on train accidents.

Boston workers cash in $12 million worth of sick time

Ric Kahn of The Boston Globe, with assistance from Matt Carroll, Meredith Goldstein, Douglas Belkin, and Emily Shartin, reviewed municipal records to find that "from July 2002 through June 2003, the last fiscal year, 159 cities and towns in Greater Boston paid out at least $29.4 million in sick-time buybacks." Boston led the way with $12.6 million in cashed-in unused sick days, but other cities and towns paid out more than half a million or more. "Of 904 Boston retirees, only 69 did not get sick-time buybacks." A chart divided into geographical areas shows how much each government spent.

Fla. home buyers hit with increased taxes

Brittany Wallman and John Maines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed records of home sales in Broward County to show that new homeowners often find an unwelcome present: property tax bills that double or triple over the previous year. "Proportionately, the hardest hit are those who buy lower-priced homes, especially in cases where buyers pay in the low- to mid-$100,000s. Many of them are shelling out as much as four times more in property taxes than the previous owners." The jump is due to a 1995 law that keeps taxes artificially low for current homeowners. Once sold, the property is reassessed at current values.

No accountability for Pa. Turnpike spending

Tim Darragh of The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call has a two-day series on the financial history of Pennsylvania's Turnpike, which in seeking a 44 percent increase in tolls this summer is continuing "a nearly two-decade-long spending binge that has left the agency with billions of dollars of debt, a doubling of tolls and the prospect of more to come." Part of the problem, the paper reports, is that "decisions were made easy by a closed loop of Turnpike officials, who have no direct accountability to taxpayers, and legislators, who ordered the highway system's expansion but have no budgetary authority over the Turnpike." A second story tells of a "black hole" expressway project in southwestern Pennsylvania, while reporter John M.R. Bull writes that the best way to get a toll-booth job is through political connections.

1948 plane crash case formed basis of Patriot Act

Barry Siegel of the Los Angeles Times spent eight months unraveling the story of a 50-year-old court case that "provides a fundamental basis for much of the Bush administration's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including the USA Patriot Act and the handling of terrorist suspects." The case, involving the families of three men who died in an B-29 plane crash and the ability of the government to withhold information about the accident, created a legal privilege "that has enabled federal agencies to conceal conduct, withhold documents and block troublesome civil litigation, including suits by whistle-blowers and possible victims of discrimination." Siegel used declassified Air Force records and court documents for the story.

Calif. hiring despite freeze

Clea Benson and John Hill of The Sacramento Bee analyzed state payroll data to find that "though the state work force has shrunk, the California government has employed more than 4,000 new workers, ranging from heavy-equipment operators to a Catholic chaplain, since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would clamp down on state hiring in November." Even so, "Schwarzenegger's hiring freeze has held up better than one instituted by former Gov. Gray Davis."

Mismanagement led to tripling of arena's price

Bill Heltzel and Bill Schackner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviewed state and university records to find out why the price tag for the University of Pittsburgh's new on-campus basketball arena ballooned from $35 million to $119 million. "One explanation is that officials nearly doubled the size of the building. But the Post-Gazette's research also revealed a project beset by indecision, squandered work, miscalculations and hidden costs." Speeding up the construction work in time to meet a 2002 commencement deadline also contributed to the cost. The two-part series resulted from two years of reporting and requests under Pennsylvania's Open Records Law. Also included is the university's response to the paper's inquiries.

Okla. system fails to supervise incompetent defendants

Ziva Branstetter and Nicole Marshall of the Tulsa World explore the issues involved when people accused of crimes are found incompetent to stand trial. In many cases, the World found that mentally retarded defendants accused of sex crimes, manslaughter and other crimes were being released unsupervised into the community. Companies paid by the state to supervise them had discouraged victims from reporting possible crimes and failed to properly supervise defendants. In other cases, incompetent defendants accused of violent crimes were placed in nursing homes or group homes for the mentally retarded. The newspaper's Web site has set up special access for Extra! Extra! readers that will be available for a limited time. Use UserID "law" and Password "disorder" (without the quote marks).

Centers fail to keep tabs on dementia patients

Dawn MacKeen, Lauren Terrazzano, Amanda Harris and Eden Laikin of Newsday found that "since 1998, at least 126 elderly people have been reported missing from centers that offer assisted living on Long Island." At least seven of those died. "Some wanderers were found miles away, at train stations, on busy highways including the Long Island Expressway, and in New York City. But others didn't get far at all: Two elderly women with dementia were found dead in sub-freezing weather within feet of the centers where they lived." The paper attributed the cases in part to assisted living centers that are not prepared to handle residents with Alzheimer's disease and a lack of state oversight.

Charity's leader failed to reimburse for home repairs

David Kidwell of The Miami Herald reports that the executive director of a Miami homeless services charity "used his employees and homeless clients to renovate his own homes with thousands of dollars in labor and materials bought on the charity's credit cards." The official, Dale A. Simpson, resigned but denied any improper conduct. "But interviews and records — including receipts and canceled checks provided by Simpson — indicate that the Miami-based charity's $182,000-a-year director reimbursed Camillus House for only about half of nearly $4,500 in materials that The Herald could trace to work at his home." (Registration required to view story.)

Ky. schools in danger of not meeting tougher NCAA rules

Brian Bennett of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal analyzed graduation rates of athletes at University of Louisville, University of Kentucky and Indiana University in advance of tougher new NCAA standards expected to be passed later this month. Bennett finds that "the UK football team ranks in the bottom 5 percent of Division I-A in graduating players" and the University of Kentucky men's basketball team "has not listed a graduate in nine of its past 13 annual reports to the NCAA." Indiana has a graduation rate of 72 percent in football for the past four classes. The Courier-Journal looked at NCAA graduation reports as well as including transfer students and those who graduated after more than six years, two factors not included in the NCAA reports.

Analysis finds inconsistency in auto emissions tests

Lisa Chedekel and Jack Dolan of The Hartford Courant analyzed state records to find that the state's new emissions test may not be effective and may even lead to fraud. "In the first five months of the program, 621 cars and trucks that failed a standard emissions test were later given dubious passing grades on an alternate test that does not check for nitrogen oxides, and is considered easier to pass." In 143 cases, car owners were persuaded to have repairs made to their cars that were pointless.

Death of PI looking into police was ruled suicide

Roger McKinney of The Joplin (Mo.) Globe reports on the death of a private investigator near Galena, Kan. The investigator, Jim Potts, was found dead next to his still-running car with a gunshot to the back of the head. Authorities quickly concluded the death was a suicide. The Globe reports that Potts was looking into complaints against the Galena Police Department and that the conclusions of some experts "raises questions about the ruling that the death was a suicide."

Runs, high salaries draw fans to baseball games

Anthony Spangler and Jeff Claassen of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram compiled a database of factors that affect attendance at Major League ballparks then performed a statistical analysis to find runs scored and high-salaried player, not wins, were the most significant factors in drawing fans to ballgames. But the Texas Rangers bucked that trend. Although the Rangers scored the second-most runs in the last five years and had the fifth-highest team payroll during that period, the team ranked 15th in attendance. The Rangers also lost a quarter of its fan base since the team last made the playoffs in 1999. (Free registration required to view the link.)

Fla. county losing millions in code violation fines

Bill Thompson of the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner used code violation records to show that about 600 property owners "owe Marion County almost $5 million through liens levied for code violations. More than half of that — $2.9 million — stems from board-sanctioned fines handed down in 1995 or earlier." Although the county has several options for pursuing unpaid fines, officials acknowledge that their current efforts are "toothless."

Bush-Cheney Web site drove e-mails to FEC about ruling

Andrew Mollison of Cox News Service performed a statistical analysis on e-mail comments submitted to the Federal Election Commission in advance of a ruling on political committees, finding that "roughly 48 percent arrived through a feature on the Bush-Cheney Web site, where users could sign and e-mail a pre-written message directly to the commission." Cox checked a random sample of 384 e-mails posted by the FEC. About 4 percent of the 142,121 comments consisted of spam or virus-infected messages.

Fewer people than expected apply for Minn. gun permits

Matt Mckinney and Ron Nixon of the Star Tribune looked at statistics from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and found "less than half of the estimated 50,000 people who were expected to apply in the first year for a right-to-carry permit have done so." In addition, the records show that about two dozen people whose permits were initially denied because of "domestic assault, felony theft or drunken driving convictions later got permits."

Abuse, neglect found within juvenile justice agency

Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel, using state records, finds that Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice has been "responsible for 661 confirmed cases of abuse or neglect since 1994." The agency's records show a pattern of both physical and sexual abuse, with incidents scattered all over the state. The story also finds that it is unclear what happens to most department workers who are found to have abused or neglected a child in the agency's care.

Wages in one region of SF Bay Area falling behind

George Avalos of Contra Costa Times analyzed data from researchers at Saint Mary's College and California's Employment Development Department to find that wages in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay region are significantly lower than in other parts of the area, even though pay in the East Bay is about 54 percent higher compared with the country as a whole. "The average annual wage in the East Bay in 2003 was about 11 percent below the wages in the San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin region and 15 percent less than wages in Santa Clara County." Economists say one reason for the disparity is the East Bay has a more diverse economy.

NW Ind. truck violations higher than national average

Marc Chase at The Times of Northwest Indiana found that "at least 26 of the region's largest 100 heavy truck carriers have been flagged for inspection by the federal government for safety problems." The analysis of data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found that for the past two years violations for those companies were above the national average. Note: IRE and NICAR offer the federal truck inspection data, as well as databases from the U.S. Department of Transportation giving details about commerical truck accidents and records on each company that has commercial interstate vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds.

Drug makers, FDA waited to alert public about PPA danger

Kevin Sack and Alicia Mundy of the Los Angeles Times reviewed documents from lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests on phenylpropanolamine, or PPA. Formerly a main ingredient in nonprescription decongestants and diet pills, PPA was declared unsafe by the Food and Drug Administration in November 2000 after industry research tied PPA to strokes. The paper found that "rather than alerting the public during cold season, drug makers launched a yearlong campaign to keep the results quiet and stall government regulation. By the time the FDA acted, 13 months and hundreds of strokes later, the companies had reformulated their brand names with little interruption in sales. The market for PPA has been estimated at $500 million to $1 billion annually." Included on the Times' Web site are source documents cited in the report.

Pickup truck seat belt loophole costs lives, dollars

Michele McNeil Solida and Mark Nichols of the Indianpolis Star analyzed federal transportation data to find that changing Indiana's law to require seat belt use by people riding in pickup trucks "could save as many as 50 lives and $25 million each year." The paper tracked fatal truck accidents in which victims were not wearing seat belts, reporting that 30 percent of occupants were thrown from the vehicles and most died or suffered severe injury. Georgia is the only other state that does not require adult pickup riders to wear seat belts.

Recent home appraisals cite values way above neighbors

Gordon Russell of the New Orleans Times-Picayune surveyed nearly 1,700 city property sales to find that "New Orleanians who bought homes in 2003 on average paid 70 percent more than the value assigned by the assessor, exposing serious deficiencies in the appraisal process." In addition to generating smaller tax revenues for the city, undervalued homes can make for unequal bills for owners. "In general, homeowners who bought property recently are paying taxes based on a value close to their home's actual worth, while others -- usually those who have lived in the same place for years -- are getting a break, often a big one."

Public defender caseload strains chances at justice

Ken Armstrong, Florangela Davila and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times have a series on public defenders in Washington State, where the promise of justice "is strained by limited budgets, exploding caseloads, overburdened lawyers and indifferent officials." Most of the state's county governments hire public defenders on a fixed contract basis, leading some attorneys to shoulder huge case loads. One Grant County public defender handled 413 felony cases last year, "a staggering figure that eviscerated the chances of a vigorous defense." Grant County had the highest percentage of guilty pleas in Superior Court cases between 1999 and 2003.

Developers save thousands through farming tax breaks

Allen G. Breed and Martha Mendoza of The Associated Press reviewed property tax arrangements around the country to find that "millions of dollars in property tax breaks intended to preserve farmland are going instead to companies that bulldoze farms to build housing subdivisions, malls and industrial parks." Among the beneficiaries of such programs are singer Michael Jackson, who received a 50 percent discount on property taxes on his Neverland ranch through California's agriculture property tax break program (he has since removed it from the program after an inspection). One Alabama developer planted 54 acres of trees after building two hotels and two stores on the remainder of a property and now paid a 2003 tax bill of $152 instead of $64,230.

IRE awards three medals

An astonishing story of brutal war crimes by The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade and a book on the American tax system by David Cay Johnston took top honors in the 2003 IRE Awards. In addition, the Freedom of Information Award went to a team from the (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader for exposing a massive secret pardons program rife with questions and conflicts for the governor.