Extra! Extra!

Minority of students given majority of suspensions

The Charlotte Observer reporters Peter Smolowitz and Adam Bell pried data out of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District to highlight the district's problems with repeat troublemakers: Some 450 students were suspended more than 10 times last year, one child was suspended a whopping 31 times and some kids missed a third of the school year because of suspensions. The district had put out its own analysis of the data, which shed little light on the complex issue. The Observer detailed the trends as well as delved into how educators try to handle misbehaving students while ensuring well-behaved kids can learn without disruption.

Jump in murder rate fails to follow national trend

Jeremy Hudson of The Jackson Clarion-Ledger analyzed details of the 57 murders committed in the city last year, finding that "at least half of the victims had prior criminal records. Seventy percent of the homicides, or 37, occurred in low-income areas that surround downtown." Jackson's murder rate is five times higher than the national average.

Ga. laws tough on borrowers

Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters Ann Hardie, Alan Judd and Carrie Teegardin analyzed foreclosure laws in all 50 states, tracked foreclosure notices and interviewed consumers, lawyers and bankruptcy experts about Georgia's foreclosure law, which drives a bankruptcy rate that is among the nation's highest. David A. Milliron, computer-assisted reporting and analysis editor, and news researchers Nisa Asokan and Alice Wertheim contributed to the reporting.

Panel warned of attacks 30 years ago

Frank Bass and Randy Herschaft of The Associated Press, using declassified documents, found that a panel established by President Nixon warned of dirty bombs and the vulnerability of commercial jets. "The panel's experts fretted that terrorists might gather loose nuclear materials for a "dirty bomb" that could devastate an American city by spreading lethal radioactivity across many blocks." The panel was established in the wake of the 1972 terrorist attacks at the Olympics in Munich. The full panel met only once, but its experts gathered twice a month over nearly five years to identify threats and debate solutions. Links to key documents (PDF) are provided.

Agency withholds Iraq contract details

Kevin Begos of the Winston-Salem Journal reports on the secrecy surrounding a "$236 million contract to promote democracy in Iraq." The the U.S. Agency for International Development is withholding all "financial information about Research Triangle International's government contract" after the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information request. A founder of the company and the leader of North Carolina's congressional delegation have expressed concern over the secrecy. In December, a three-part Journal investigation into RTI's work revealed a wide range of security and management problems that called into question the effectiveness of the program.

Routine maintenance set back caused problems in fire pumper

Matt Campbell and Mark Morris of The Kansas City Star used local records to show that "a Kansas City fire pumper involved in a fatal accident in September had not had its brakes serviced in nearly 16 months, far longer than recommended." The vehicle was scheduled for service in May 2004 but never got any work. "In fact, according to city records reviewed by The Kansas City Star, the pumper had not had any brake work done since May 2003. The city's fire chief acknowledged that a maintenance backlog had affected the whole fleet."

Britain helps fund illegal street meetings for cleric

Sean O'Neill of the The Times of London used Britain's new Freedom of Information law to obtain records showing that "almost €900,000 has been spent by police to steward illegal street meetings by the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers.... The figure is far in excess of previous estimates for the 22-month police operation." Police provided protection for weekly meetings outside the Finsbury Park Mosque.

Congressional travel soars despite regulations

A team of graduate students from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, along with Marketplace and American RadioWorks, researched congressional perks to see if recent regulations have cut down on lobbysits' lavish expenditures. What they found was there has been a significant decrease in expenditures, but not when it comes to travel. More than $14 million was spent by corporations, universities and other institutions, "sending representatives around the world, for sometimes questionable reasons." Their research details how the process works, who is benefiting from it and who the "king of travel" is. The group also has compiled data detailing individual expenditures, as well as breakdowns based on party affiliation and the top beneficiaries and spenders.

Colo. football appears exempt from cutbacks

Kevin Vaughan and Todd Hartman of the Rocky Mountain News examined University of Colorado spending records and found that while the basketball program was cutting its budget, "the football team was spending $34,922 to give every player an electronic organizer as a memento for playing in the EV1.Net Houston Bowl." At the same time, "men's basketball coach Ricardo Patton was cutting back on the use of chartered airplanes - which saved money but meant that his players missed all their classes last week as they navigated the schedules of commercial air carriers."

Tax breaks given despite broken promise

Sydney P. Freedberg and Jeff Harrington of the St. Petersburg Times analyzed state and local government records to find that they "have paid or promised more than $21 million of benefits plus a tax break worth up to $74.5-million to help a financial corporate titan create jobs in Tampa - the same company that will lay off 1,900 employees this year." For years, JPMorgan Chase & Co. received incentives and other benefits to remain in the area and create high-paying jobs: "There was $1.2-million for help in training workers, $4.3-million for road improvements and right-of-way acquisitions, state tax refunds of at least $6.5-million and $1.3-million to help the company pay governmental fees for its developments." The company announced in January that it was closing a credit card call center.

Consultants benefit from relationship with senator

Christian Berthelsen, Jim Herron Zamora and Todd Wallack of the San Francisco Chronicle used state campaign finance records to show that four political consultants have benefited from their association with state Sen. Don Perata: "they have collectively grossed $1.4 million from campaigns and political funds associated with Perata over the last 10 years." In addition, Perata has had business relationships with some of the same consultants yet has disclosed "far less about his outside work" than other prominent legislators. "Starting in 2001, Perata changed the way he did business. Instead of having several clients, all disclosed, he had a single client — Timothy Staples. And state law does not require him to be specific about his work for Staples."

Nursing home deaths preventable

Rick Linsk of the St. Paul Pioneer Press used Minnesota death certificate data to show that "hundreds of Minnesotans perish annually from possibly avoidable conditions" while staying in nursing homes. "Nearly 4,000 people died over a 15-year period from pressure sores, dehydration, falls and other injuries."

Drastic increase in New Jersey property taxes

Joe Donohue and Tom Hester of The (Newark) Star-Ledger, with an assist from Rob Gebeloff, analyzed property taxes in New Jersey to find a "relentless climb" in rates across the state. "Thirty-six municipalities last year had average bills topping $10,000. Five years ago, just three communities claimed that dubious distinction. Statewide last year, bills rose 10 percent or more in 81 municipalities." The average tax bill is up one-third during the past five years.

Confidential information available via Web at Harvard

J. Hale Russell and Elisabeth S. Theodore of The Harvard Crimson revealed that "the confidential drug purchase histories of many Harvard students and employees have been available for months to any internet user, as have the e-mail addresses of high-profile undergraduates whose contact information the University legally must conceal." With the cooperation of a Harvard student, the paper was able to generate a list of prescription drugs purchased by the student simply by typing in the student's Harvard ID number and birthdate, information widely available to any Internet user.

California migrants losing jobs to mechanization

The San Diego Union-Times reporter Diane Lindquist found that migrant workers in California are steadily losing their jobs due to mechanization. "Last season, many raisin growers turned to machines to do the work. Although they had long held out, they are now joining growers nationwide in embracing mechanization to fend off global competition." This poses a problem for California's growing migrant population, which has seen an increase in the poverty rate to around 30 percent in areas. Per capita income has been hovering around $5,300 and some have had to live on less than $3,000, which is the average yearly income in Mexico.

Backside track workers lack protection

Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Janet Patton, with help from Frank Lockwood and Steve Lannen, found that "only about a third of the trainers licensed in Kentucky report carrying workers' compensation insurance for the grooms, hot walkers and exercise riders who work for them." While the state's courts consider many of those workers to be "independent contractors" and not entitled to worker's comp or other protections, "several lawyers question whether backside workers meet generally accepted tests for being called contractors, such as using your own tools or setting your own hours." The paper looked at records of public ambulance runs to four Kentucky tracks from January 1999 to March 2004 but was not able to see the records for Churchill Downs because it uses a private ambulance service and it refused to release any statistics.

Convicted felons vote in Washington

David Heath, Susan Kelleher, Justin Mayo, Christine Willmsen, Cheryl Phillips, Jonathan Martin and Mike Carter of The Seattle Times used state data on convictions and voting to show that "scores of convicted felons voted illegally in the state's 2004 general election, and officials never noticed because of serious flaws in the system for tracking them." The paper found at least 129 felons in King and Pierce counties who cast a ballot in the November election, some by absentee ballot. An excerpt from the methodology: "The Seattle Times found felon voters by comparing databases of nearly 100,000 court records and more than 1 million voter records in King and Pierce counties. The Times matched full names and birth dates, narrowing the search to more than 600 names. After checking court records for those cases, Times reporters eliminated cases in which felony charges had been reduced to misdemeanors or in which felons' voting rights had been restored."

Regional jail ranks amongst highest in state spending

Curtis Johnson of The (Huntingdon) Herald-Dispatch used West Virginia state data to show that "Cabell County spent more money to cover regional jail costs than any other participating county in 2004." The paper reviewed billing records from the state to determine that the county's costs per inmate ranked among the highest in the state, just below Berkeley County. Cabell County also held people longer per capita than at least 52 other counties. A chart showing admissions and costs is also available.

Australian zoo deaths linked to transportation errors

Australia's Daily Telegraph obtained zoo records under Freedom of Information showing that "22 mammals and birds have been killed since 1999 due to what zoo managers admit were man-made slip-ups either within the zoos or in transit. As recently as November 18 last year, two endangered plains rats not seen in the wild in New South Wales since 1937 arrived dead from Alice Springs due to dehydration."

Pentagon unit conducts intelligence missions

Barton Gellman of The Washington Post reports the Pentagon "has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad," according to interviews and documents." The Strategic Support Branch "deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces." The move lets the Defense Department conduct activities that have long been the province of the CIA.

Steroid sales bypass security team

Mike Brunker of MSNBC.com spent three months following the sale of anabolic steroids on eBay, finding that "a few of the auctions occurred in the open but many used the simple ruse of listing the drugs as 'books about steroids' to avoid detection by the site's security team." An eBay vice president said that such sales haven't received the proper scrutiny:" Until you brought this to our attention, it wasn't getting as close a look as it should have." MSNBC.com worked with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to purchase four of the products and have them tested. "All four products - injectable solutions in factory packaging, oral tablets labeled in Spanish as being for veterinary use and unmarked pills in a plastic bag - turned out to be just what the sellers claimed they were: anabolic steroids like Dianabol, Sustanon and testosterone propionate."

Homicide victims linked to drug trade

Michael Grabell, Tanya Eiserer and Holly Yan of The Dallas Morning News tracked murders in Dallas in 2004, finding that "most of the 248 people who made Dallas one of the nation's deadliest big cities last year died in obscurity. Many were almost industrial byproducts of the city's drug trade...The drug trade draws customers from every race and economic group. But overwhelmingly the city's homicide victims are young minority men. Four out of five homicide victims in 2004 were black or Latino. And about half of the victims were black and Latino males under the age of 35 - even though that group accounts for only about 22 percent of Dallas' population. The killers are often black and Latino, too." The paper's tally of 248 killings is four more than the city reported and an 11.2 percent jump over 2003 figures.

Europe filling shoes of EPA, FDA

Mark Schapiro of the Center for Investigative Reporting reports for public radio's Marketplace that "while the Bush Administration unravels decades of hard-fought environmental protections, a new global force is emerging with the power to reshape American industrial practices: the European Union." The three-part series finds that the EU is filling the void left by weakened health and environmental agencies in the United States. "The E.U. is confronting American manufacturers with a dilemma: either conform to Europe's stricter health and environmental standards, or give up the European market." The second and third parts will air in the next month.

Lack of background checks give firearm licenses to felons

An investigation into hunting liscenses by the investigative team for KSTP-St. Paul/Minneapolis has uncovered that 150 violent felons with a lifetime ban on owning a gun were issued firearm licenses. Comparing data from the Department of Natural Resources and a list of violent felons obtained from the Department of Corrections they discovered the dangerous contradiction that "one branch of government says violent felons can't touch a gun and another one sends them off into the woods to shoot deer." The investigators found the only background check performed when buying a license only checks for owed back child support.

Cleveland court system flawed

Rachel Dissell and Scott Hiaasen of The Plain Dealer examined Cuyahoga County's court system, finding that "many of the county's courts duplicate work or overlap jurisdictions: A traffic ticket can land in a mayor's court, a municipal court or juvenile court, for example. A child-support dispute can end up in domestic court or juvenile court - or both." The paper surveyed caseloads among the county’s 13 courts, finding wide disparities: "Cleveland Heights is among the busiest suburban courts in Ohio, with more than 24,000 new cases filed in 2003 state records show. Meanwhile, just two miles away, the South Euclid court has a much lighter load, less than 5,700 cases last year."

'Ghost votes' raise election questions

Phoung Cat Le and Michelle Nicolosi of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reviewed election records to find "eight people who died weeks before absentee ballots were mailed out, between Oct. 13 and 15, but were credited with voting in King County. Among them was an 81-year-old Seattle woman who died in August but is recorded as having voted at the polls."

Housing law falls short of promise

Adrian Hampton of the the San Francisco Examiner found that affordable home building hasn't met expectations set up by the three-year old housing law. "The law requires all developers of 10 or more units to dedicate at least 10 percent to residents earning median income or less, and the first units are expected to hit the market this year." The Examiner found that only 7.3 percent of households could afford the median price.

Crime memos violate national standards

Jeremy Kohler of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used public records to find that St. Louis police "arbitrarily discounted hundreds or more crime reports a year" through the use of a "Crime Memo Data Sheet" that classifies an incident as not meeting the department's threshold of a reportable crime. "While the use of memos does not appear to be illegal, it clearly violates FBI standards for reporting crimes in a national compilation widely used for comparisons among cities. The effect makes St. Louis appear safer than it is - both to its own residents and to outsiders."

Paper ballots out match touch-screen voting

Jeremy Milarsky of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed voting data from the 2004 elections, finding that "Florida's touch-screen voting machines performed better in the Nov. 2 presidential election than they did in the March primary, but were still outmatched by older voting devices that use pencil and paper ballots." Voters who cast their ballots using electronic voting machines had more spoiled ballots or undervotes in the presidential race.

Sweet deal for sister of Chicago top aide

Tim Novak and Steve Warmbir of the Chicago Sun-Times used city contract records to show that the sister of a top aide to Mayor Richard Daley was able to win a city contract for minority and women-owned businesses despite the fact that her company, Toltec, had to purchase supplies from a white-owned firm and subcontract the work to another white-owned contractor. "Inserting Toltec into the deal cost taxpayers more money. How much is unclear. Overall, Toltec got about $218,000 for the work on two buildings, starting in 2003, city records show. Toltec got another $480,000 for helping Cecchin with the infrastructure at O'Hare, city records show. Cecchin's owner, Timothy Cecchin, said he could have gotten the supplies cheaper by going to Builders directly. But by allowing Toltec to place the orders and bill Cecchin Plumbing for it, Cecchin Plumbing helped meet Mayor Daley's demand to give minorities and women city business." The city said that rules barred pass-through deals.

Crime is down, but system still has flaws

Phil Brinkman of the Wisconsin State Journal took a look at the Wisconsin prison system in his three part series. The Journal found that some early warning signs for future offenders are going unnoticed. Crimes tend to "point to an inherent flaw in Wisconsin's almost single-minded approach to protecting the public over the past 15 years by ratcheting up penalties on lawbreakers: It puts all the emphasis on the offender, and it tends to target crime only after the fact." The Journal also found that crime has gone down, however, but recent trends around the country might have an effect. With crime rates down, more inmates are also being released early or put on probation, rather than jail time.

Data provides insight into NFL injuries

Carl Prine of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review used numerous interlinked databases for a comprehensive report on how and why professional football players get injured. "To understand how football affects the bodies and minds of those who play it, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review analyzed four years of NFL injury data; interviewed more than 200 current and former players, coaches and managers; and delved into thousands of pages of the latest medical research." Among Prine's findings: in four seasons, NFL players racked up 6,558 injuries; defenders are injured more than their foes on the offense; and quarterbacks, tight ends, wide receivers, safeties and cornerbacks routinely suffer high rates of brain concussions and spine injuries.

State wastes millions paying workers never hired

Pam Kelley and Eric Frazier of the Charlotte Observer have a three-part series on group homes that found that "North Carolina has wasted tens of millions of dollars since 2001, paying group homes for workers who were never hired, a six-month Observer investigation shows. That mistake made the group home business in North Carolina so lucrative that hundreds of new homes opened, so many that the state couldn't regulate them." The state raised the rate of reimbursement to group homes in 2001, costing taxpayers another $81 million through July 2004. The money was supposed to go to hire more workers, but many facilities didn't increase staffing. The series also focuses on group home violations and weak state oversight.

School funding estimates overstated

Duane Schrag of the Salina Journal used Kansas education data to show that a district judge's estimate of $1 billion to improve the quality of education was far off the mark. "An analysis by the Salina Journal suggests that the actual cost of implementing the controversial study's recommendations in the 2003-04 school year would have been $493 million, less than half the figure widely accepted today." Using formulas developed by an outside firm, the paper combined enrollment figures with spending estimates to reach its conclusion.

Many deaths on state highway

Brandon Ortiz and Linda J. Johnson of the Lexington Herald-Leader used state highway data to judge the safety of Kentucky's roads. Among the findings: "U.S. 23 through Pike County had more deaths than any other road in the state from 1999 to last November. Thirty-eight people died in 31 accidents, ranging from cars pulling into oncoming traffic during the day to cars rear-ending slow-moving coal trucks in the dark of night." The county-by-county analysis also used federal data to show that "at least 53 people have died and 536 have been injured in accidents with trucks licensed to haul coal" during the past five years.

Private information part of anti-terror initiatives

National security effort depends on personal data Robert O'Harrow Jr. and the Center for Investigative Reporting led an investigation into the post-9/11 marriage of private data services and government anti-terror initiatives. The project,"No Place to Hide" shows how the government depends on "burgeoning private reservoirs of information about almost every aspect of our lives to protect homeland security and fight the war on terror." The multimedia project includes a Web site, book, radio documentary and a piece on ABC News.

The collapse of a spy case

Ray Rivera of The Seattle Times made heavy use of FOIA in his series on James Yee, the Army chaplain accused of espionage but later honorably discharged. The paper posted a collection of documents it obtained in reporting the story and also described its methodology.

Newspapers boost circulation with unsolicited deliveries

Jacques Steinberg and Tom Torok of the New York Times analyzed newspaper circulation data to show that "across the country each week, more than 1.6 million people who are not on newspaper subscriber rolls are being delivered copies that did not cost them a cent - but they are still being classified as paying customers." Many large papers, including The Miami Herald, The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe, make such unsolicited deliveries.

Florida swampland sales return through Internet sales

Ron Hurtibise of the Daytona Beach News-Journal used Volusia County property records to show that web sites like eBay are boosting sales of land in so-called "paper subdivisions" that mostly consist of swampland. "Thanks to the Internet, sales in paper subdivisions are exploding again four decades after sparking national outrage and a state crackdown. As state officials look into the new trend, experts fear that today's buyers, many of whom are immigrants in northern states, are repeating costly mistakes." The paper ran a map of recent transactions in University Highlands, where more than 1,600 lots have sold in the past three years.

Boeing taking chance with new plastic plane

Michael Oneal and David Greising of The Chicago Tribune take an in-depth look into Boeing's efforts to regain primacy in the aviation industry. Boeing has bet it all on a new plane that could change the way the aviation industry does business. "If the company's engineers can solve the puzzle of building successfully with composites, they will eliminate hundreds of thousands of rivets, hours of machining time, and billions of dollars in expensive manufacturing machinery. That, in turn, should allow Boeing to price its new jet more competitively." Boeing hopes to compete with Airbus, who delivered more commercial jets for the first time in 2003 than Boeing.

Tighter border security leads to more drug busts

Katie N. Johannes of The Bellingham Herald used federal data to report that increased spending on border security since 9/11 has had one side effect for Whatcom County's border with Canada: more smuggled marijuana has been seized outside official ports of entry. "The amount of marijuana seized is down from 7.7 tons in 2003, but still is double what was seized in the years just prior to 9/11. The numbers dropped significantly at the ports of entry in Whatcom County, from 11,590 pounds in 2003 to 4,777 for all but December of 2004. Conversely, Border Patrol agents - who monitor the lands between official ports of entry - seized more than 6,200 pounds of marijuana in the first 11 months of 2004 - up from 3,744 pounds in all of 2003."

Transportation fatalities overlooked for migrant workers in Florida

Mike Schneider of the Associated Press checked federal and state records, finding "transportation-related accidents to be the leading cause of work-related deaths for Florida's farmworkers, responsible for 83 fatalities and more than 400 injuries since 1992. Only California, which has more farm laborers, has had more such deaths over the past decade." AP used state citations of farmworker vehicles in its story and found that transportation violations are punished less severely than other types of problems.

Mo. prison population increases, more serving longer sentences

Gregory S. Reeves of the Kansas City Star analyzed federal statistics to show that "more people are behind bars in Missouri based on population than any state outside the South ... Missouri now has the eighth-highest imprisonment rate in the nation." The paper used data from the Department of Justice for its story, reporting that the state's prison population has doubled since 1990, and the average sentence is three months longer than the national average.

Provisional ballot rejections anger voters

Fritz Wenzel of the Toledo Blade studied the rejection of local provisional ballots in the presidential election, concluding that "a high percentage of the rejected votes could have been salvaged had the voters been a little more knowledgeable about voting procedures or had they received a little help from poll workers." The two main reasons ballots were invalidated were a purge of about 30,000 registered voters from local rolls and votes cast in the wrong precinct. People who were registered but had not voted in the past two federal elections were sent notices that they would be dropped from the list in August.

Causes of bankruptcy complex in Utah

Rosemary Winters, Julie DeHerrera, Steve Oberbeck and Tony Semerad of the Salt Lake Tribune analyzed a sample of bankruptcy filings in Utah between 2003 and 2004, finding that "nearly two-thirds of bankruptcy filers have one or more dependent children, making them twice as likely to be supporting children younger than 18 as the average household nationally. Utahns face the financial responsibilities of home-making and supporting a family early in life when they are just embarking on their careers and earn little." The paper described its methodology for the project.

Calif. uses special projects money for general expenses

Bob Porterfield of The Associated Press used California state records to show that "since 2001, the Legislature has borrowed or transferred $9.5 billion collected for special projects such as highway improvements and telephone access, sending it to the general fund, documents from the Finance Department and the state Legislature show. The money hasn't been repaid." The state has used more than $3 billion in transportation funds to help pay other expenses, often delaying road projects for years.

Affluent parts of Buffalo targeted

Patrick Lakamp and Jay Rey of The Buffalo News analyzed parking ticket data to show that "ticket writers don't treat all Buffalo neighborhoods equally. While downtown and the relatively affluent Upper West Side are prime targets for the city's parking enforcement officers, they spend a lot less time in South Buffalo." The city also has higher fines and shorter payment periods than many cities. The paper also profiled a man who has been ticketed 102 times during the past two years, paying nearly $4,000 in fines.

Local governments avoid bond bids

Thousands of municipal bond issuers in the United States -- schools, cities, public agencies and states -- have permitted investment banks to sell their municipal bonds without vying for the business, writes David Dietz of Bloomberg Markets magazine. These "negotiated sales," have in the past 25 years gradually replaced the century-old tradition of competitive bidding according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Volatile mix at Ore. psychiatric hospital

Alan Gustafson of the Salem, Ore., Statesman Journal investigated Oregon's treatment of the criminally insane, finding that Oregon State Hospital suffers from crowding, sentencing of criminals that don't belong in a mental institution, assaults on employees and significant overtime costs. "New patients are funneling into the forensic program at a record pace. A scant supply of community housing is stalling discharges for dozens of patients deemed ready to go. It's a perfect formula for perpetual overcrowding."

Ethics gap revealed through privatization

R.G. Ratcliffe of the Houston Chronicle investigated a proposal to privatize Texas' human services system, finding "weaknesses in Texas ethics laws concerning conflicts of interests and cronyism. Their relationships and how they benefited from state business illustrate how Texas law has overlooked the power of lower-level bureaucrats who are often charged with crafting laws." The paper illustrated the ties between Deputy Health and Human Services Commissioner Gregg Phillips and private consultant Chris Britton, who helped author the bill and later joined with a business founded by Phillips to obtain a state contract.

Nurse-to-patient ratios violate state requirements

Jia-Rui Chong of the Los Angeles Times used state inspection records to show that "state regulators discovered that more than half the hospitals they checked were in violation of California's strict nurse-to-patient ratios." Fifteen of the 28 medical centers visited had assigned nurses too many patients. "The Times' review of the violation reports showed that hospitals were having particular trouble complying with the ratios during nurses' work breaks."

Fire districts fail to file public records

Matt Batcheldor of the Louisville Courier-Journal studied records from Jefferson County's 19 suburban fire districts, finding that oversight is limited: "Few people vote in elections for board members who run the departments, many records that districts are required to provide to the public were not filed last year and no one at the state or county level keeps tabs on what is being filed - or not filed." The state can penalize districts for failing to report or incomplete disclosure, but that hasn't occurred.

Superintendents' pay outpaces teachers' pay

Amy Hetzner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analyzed state data to find that "pay for most school superintendents in metropolitan Milwaukee has risen faster than average teacher salaries in their districts over the last decade, despite a state law that links pay for the two." A Wisconsin law says that superintendents be given a 3.8 percent raise or the same increase given to teachers in the previous year. "Since the law was enacted in 1993, the Legislature has approved enough loopholes that the law can be largely ignored. There also is apparently no oversight other than local school boards and their voters."

Traffic enforcement lieutenant wrote majority of tickets to Hispanics

Kevin Krause of The Dallas Morning News used local traffic stop records to show that "the lieutenant over Denton County's traffic enforcement unit wrote 86 percent of his tickets to people with Hispanic surnames during the last two years." Hispanics account for about half of all Texas truckers, and overall Denton County traffic officers issue tickets to people with Hispanic names about half the time.

Ambulance response times increase

Anthony Farmer of the Poughkeepsie Journal analyzed Dutchess County emergency ambulance dispatches from 2001 to 2003, finding that "where you live has a direct bearing on how long it takes for an ambulance to arrive when you call 911 in an emergency." Average response times varied from six minutes within Poughkeepsie to 21 minutes in the Town of Union Vale. "In general, the average response time in the county is up slightly from 10 years ago, the Journal analysis found, reflecting the area's growing population and increasingly limited volunteer pool. The average response time in the county went from just over nine minutes to just under 10 minutes."

State mental health program lacks competence

Scott Finn of the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette shows how bureaucractic incompetence in the state's mental health program led to funding cuts, record numbers of suicides and overcrowded mental hospitals and jails. State officials also have failed to help mentally ill adults who are a danger to themselves and others, including one woman they knew was burning trash in a small uncovered grill inside her home. They refused to take responsibility for the woman, even after she burned down three homes and six businesses.

Teacher turnover highest in poor areas

Seattle Times' reporter Sanjay Bhatt documents disparities in teacher turnover in Seattle's public schools. He found that chronic teacher turnover ranged between 7 percent and 35 percent annually among elementary schools, and was highest in the city's poorest areas. Bhatt obtained employee data from Seattle Public Schools under a public records request and worked with a university graduate student who had done her own analysis of teacher turnover using data from Washington state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Bhatt used SPSS and ArcGIS for the story.

Poor districts get inexperienced teachers

Kerrie Frisinger of the Newport News, Va., Daily Press used local data to show that "Hampton and Suffolk, which have some of the highest percentages of black students and students receiving free or reduced-price lunches, also have more inexperienced teachers than other school districts." Hampton pays starting teachers up to $2,000 less than other Virginia districts, but experts said that reputation often was a bigger factor in a school district's ability to retain teachers.

Companies pay only fraction of clean-up costs

David Pace of The Associated Press used federal records to show that "bonds posted by companies with federal oil and gas leases cover only a small fraction of the projected costs of plugging wells and restoring land once the fuel is extracted, leaving taxpayers with the potential for huge cleanup bills." The price tag for cleanup could reach as much as $1 billion, while the Bureau of Land Management has raised $132 million from companies that maintain more than 100,000 oil and gas wells. "The current rates were set in 1960, and gas and oil companies are the only federal mineral lease holders that aren't required to post full reclamation bonds. Coal and hard rock mineral companies must post bonds equivalent to the estimated cleanup costs."