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Officials responsible for overseeing NASA expressed concerns regarding launch of Discovery

Michael Cabbage of the Orlando Sentinel studied e-mails sent from NASA's Office of the Inspector General to an agency administrator and the chairman of an advisory panel that monitors NASA safety and found that "key officials responsible for overseeing NASA expressed serious concerns about launching space shuttle Discovery without additional work to prevent foam insulation from breaking off the ship's fuel tank."

Enquirer wins records, shows health department let lead paint violations slide

Sharon Coolidge of The Cincinnati Enquirer won a two-year battle with the Cinncinnati Health Department to obtain records of properties cited for lead contamination violations.
Coolidge analyzed the city health records and found that "Cincinnati's Health Department is failng to force property owners to fix their buildings, leaving hundreds of children at risk for lead poisoning." The investigation revealed 300 open cases in which children had been poisoned. City officials pledged that property owners who refuse health department orders to clean up poisonous lead hazards will find themselves in court.

The original open records dispute went all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, where the Enquirer won its case in March. The city originally had used HIPAA, a federal law designed to protect personal medical information, as a shield against turning over the records, arguing that the records could identify residents who had elevated lead levels in blood tests. The Supreme Court ruled that Ohio open records laws took precedence over HIPAA in this case.

City Hall list reveals 'All-Stars' of insider clout

Steve Warmbir, Art Golab, Natasha Korecki and Mark J. Konkol of the Chicago Sun-Times did a computer-assisted analysis of 5,743 requests for city jobs, promotions or transfers made to the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs from 1989 to 1997 and found that "Tim Degnan, the mayor's friend and political adviser, is the biggest slugger, batting .825. More than eight out of every 10 times he made a request, Degnan got his person that city job, promotion or transfer." The reporters looked at the success rate of the top 15 people and groups submitting requests after the secret list became public in the federal prosecution of city officials accused of illegal hiring practices.

Mistaken identity questions raised in 1989 Texas execution

Maurice Possley and Steve Mills of the Chicago Tribune reviewed thousands of pages of court records and found that Texas may have executed an innocent man in 1989. "" There is no definitive DNA or crime-scene evidence to clear De Luna, but reporters uncovered serious flaws in the investigation that were never presented to the jury.

Workplace safety in Canada

The CBC's investigative unit obtained data from workplace safety insurance boards across Canada to track top national trends in the workplace of today. "Canada's record for reducing workplace fatalities over the previous 20 years was the worst. The project looks at health-care workers, mines, fatalities by province, and more. Audio reports are included in the package. The CBC says the project, the first of its kind, "is the result of three years of research. Journalists with CBC's Investigative Unit navigated freedom of information laws and negotiated for data from workplace safety insurance boards across Canada."

Murders cost Tenn. more than $110 million annually

Melvin Claxton of The Tennessean has a three-part series on the price of murder in Tennessee, finding that "homicides cost state and local governments more than $110 million each year. The bill for Nashville alone, which has accounted for 17 percent of the state's homicides over the past two decades, exceeds $18.7 million annually." The paper's analysis of police and judicial costs puts the average murder case at $626,648.

Schools pay for new boss' travel

Bill Dedman and Michael Brindley of The (Nashua, N.H.) Telegraph studied Nashua's city credit card records and found that "school Superintendent Julia Earl has spent public money to travel out of state at least seven times in her first nine months on the job, including five trips to her home state of Texas." The total cost was more than $8,000. The Telegraph also found that the superintendent owes $147,000 to the Internal Revenue Service, $8,000 to the county for back property taxes, and $2,400 to her homeowners association.

Companies find new way to win contracts

Michael Forsythe and Jonathan D. Salant of Bloomberg analyzed Federal Election Commission records and found that a growing number of companies had found "a new business model: locate facilities in lawmakers' districts and shower them with campaign cash. " The companies were taking advantage of lawmakers' increasing penchant for "earmarking,'' which was at the center of the scandal involving a California Republican serving a prison sentence after admitting he took $2.4 million in bribes to help secure defense-company contracts.

People move closer to National Parks

Frank Bass of The Associated Press analyzed Census data to show that "more than 1.3 million people since 1990 have moved into counties surrounding six of the best-loved parks: Gettysburg, Everglades, Glacier, Yellowstone, Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains. The average number of people per square mile in those counties has grown by one-third. The four urban counties around the Florida Everglades show the most dramatic gains. But even in the remote areas of Glacier, the number of people per square mile has risen from eight in 1990 to 11 in 2005."

Psychologist embellishes credentials, personal past

Ruth Teichroeb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer studied university job records and found that Terry Tafoya, known across North America as a pre-eminent American Indian psychologist and a sought-after speaker for continuing education at schools such as Harvard University, "has scripted his own life, embellishing his academic credentials and past." The tribe he claims to be a member of says he is not enrolled with them. A speakers' bureau that books his appearances "recommends Tafoya as an expert on mental health and substance abuse issues — apparently unaware that Tafoya was charged in January with drunken driving after he smashed into two cars in his Capitol Hill neighborhood." While Tafoya's resume claims he earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of Washington in 1985, verifying his academic credentials is almost impossible. "There's no record of his Ph.D. in the 1985 commencement book" and "Unlike most doctoral graduates, he has no dissertation in the university library." Tafoya appears at up to 100 events a year — most of them funded at least in part by public dollars.

CDC jet used primarily to shuttle official

Alison Young of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed the flight log of the jet leased by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found that "a luxury private jet leased by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use in emergencies has been used instead primarily to shuttle Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to dozens of news conferences and meetings." So far in 2006, leasing and using the aircraft had cost taxpayers $2.1 million. Other Cabinet members said they fly on commercial airlines. To read more: Immediate jet access necessary, CDC says and How Leavitt used CDC jet on one swing

Minorities denied for loans more often

Mc Nelly Torres and Jeremy Milarsky of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data for 2000-04 and found that "blacks and Hispanics who have applied for conventional mortgage loans in South Florida were denied more often than white applicants, even when income levels were about the same." The analysis also showed that when people of color were approved for loans they tended to pay higher interest rates than whites. Homeownership among minorities is at an all-time high nationwide, but minorities continue to struggle.

Disorganized transplant program costly to patients

In an 11-part series, Anna Werner of KPIX-San Francisco analyzed national transplant data and found serious questions about the kidney transplant program at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco. "Kaiser's transplant program was set up poorly and still today is disorganized" and many patients were left waiting. Numerous accusations of disorganization and delays had have affected patients' health. State regulators launched an investigation into Kaiser Permanente's kidney transplant program. The complete 11-part series began May 2.

Charities lose out in bingo game benefits

Darren Barbee of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram analyzed state records and found the proceeds of bingo games were going to the people running the games instead of benefiting the charities they were supposed to help. "No bingo proceeds were reported being spent by more than 40 Texas groups conducting bingo last year, though they raised about $11.5 million." The investigation also found that the state was the ultimate enforcer, but to some extent, charities were supposed to watch their own backs.

Firefighters earned millions in fire-watch duty

Jack Dolan and Scott Hiaasen of The Miami Herald reviewed the fire department records and found that Miami-Dade County had a special program — "'fire watch,' an ostensible public safety program that has never saved a life that anyone can remember, but has put at least $4.3 million into county firefighters' pockets since 2000. " It required building owners to hire county firefighters to stand on ''fire watch'' at extremely high rates. The program also required large venues that host public performances to pay the department for fire protection and paramedic services. "Some big events get extraordinary attention from the county's top-ranking fire officials." Dade County Manager asked Miami-Dade Fire Chief to review his department's fire-watch policy and to look for potential reforms.

Sex offenders live close to children

Tony Rizzo and Laura Bauer of The Kansas City Star studied court records and found that "roughly three in 10 sex offenders did not live where they were supposed to." Additionally, "Many of the missing were the kinds of sex offenders parents most fear. Rapists. Child molesters. Repeat offenders. " There are offenders who readily and repeatedly ignore registration laws and evade authorities. The investigation also found that children remain vulnerable in Missouri, where 1,000-foot residency restrictions became law nearly two years ago. "Hundreds of offenders in Jackson County alone live closer than that to a school or day care." In Kansas, sex offenders can live wherever they want — even if that's right next door to a school.

Judicial conflicts of interest in Nev.

Michael J. Goodman and William C. Rempel of the Los Angeles Times analyzed court and campaign records and found that in Las Vegas, "some judges routinely rule in cases involving friends, former clients and business associates — and in favor of lawyers who fill their campaign coffers." Federal and Nevada judicial canons say judges should withdraw from cases where their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. Some lawyers even "spoke openly about its pernicious effects — particularly about how lawyers and their clients sometimes must pay to play on a level field."

Mayor's brother paid for promoting social service center

Gregory Korte of The Cincinnati Enquirer analyzed weekly billing statements and found that the brother of Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory billed a federal anti-poverty program for working to bring a controversial social services center to the West End. "Dale Mallory, the West End Community Council’s former president and a Democratic candidate for state representative, has a $40,000-a-year contract to work on community development for the Cincinnati Empowerment Corp., a federally funded job training and development agency." The investigation showed that taxpayers paid Mallory for his work promoting Citylink, a one-stop social services mall proposed for five acres on Bank Street in the West End.

Car repair stores charge for work they don't do

Joel Grover and Matt Goldberg of KNBC-Los Angeles used test cars with hidden cameras to show the apparent scheme at car repair stores: charging customers for the work they never even done. "'Does this happen to customers a lot?' NBC4's Joel Grover asked a former employee of America's biggest Lube and tune chain, Jiffy Lube. 'Every day,' the insider replied. "

NY boat operators without training increase risk

John Ferro of the Poughkeepsie Journal analyzed the Coast Guard's recreational boating accident database and found that "the rate of boating accidents in New York involving operators who never received any kind of formal safety training has consistently exceeded the national average." In 2004, the rate was 57 percent, the highest since 1996. New York's rate is well above the national rate, which has declined steadily. Overall, the number of boating accidents and deaths is declining, both across the country and in New York. Read more stories about boating safety: Being informed benefits boaters and Bills seek stricter education requirements for boat operators.

Abuse and neglect at Mo. mental health facilities

Carolyn Tuft and Joe Mahr of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviewed thousands of paper and electronic records from the Department of Mental Health and found that "mentally retarded and mentally ill people in Missouri have been sexually assaulted, beaten, injured and left to die by abusive and neglectful caregivers in a system that for years has failed at every level to safeguard them." The investigation uncovered widespread mistreatment in 19 large state institutions and hundreds of smaller group homes supervised by the state across Missouri. There were 2,287 confirmed cases of abuse and neglect of residents since 2000. Of those, 665 resulted in injuries with 21 deaths.

Pain drug can kill when taken as prescribed

Scott Finn and Tara Tuckwiller of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette analyzed death certificates and found that "patients could die if they take the "usual adult dosage" on methadone's package insert — information that comes with the prescription and was approved by the federal government." Methadone, once given mostly to heroin addicts to ease their cravings, now is prescribed by more doctors to treat pain. It contributed to 2,992 deaths nationwide in 2003, up from 790 four years earlier. Despite knowing about methadone's dangers, federal officials have not strengthened the warnings most doctors and patients receive about methadone. The series includes information about how they reported the story.

Campaign fund paid for trips to Super Bowl, Vegas

Brad Bumsted and Debra Erdley of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review compiled records from 2,300 receipts filed by Perzel's chief of staff and found that House Speaker Perzel, Pennsylvania General Assembly's top fundraiser, "used campaign cash to treat his chief of staff and both men's sons to Super Bowl trips the past two years." Campaign money also paid a half dozen trips to Las Vegas for them two men and assorted guests including their wives and other lawmakers to takeout food for babysitters and children. The investigation also found that Perzel, who raised $5.2 million in two years when he faced minimal opposition, tapped campaign funds to cut checks for $700,000 to a dozen legislative staffers and family members for campaign costs over a two-year period.

Rating communities' performance

Michael Mansur and Rick Montgomery of The Kansas City Star used Data Envelopment Analysis to analyze the budget and performance numbers from 18 area cities and rank how efficiently they provided eight municipal services. "Four cities tied in police services: Belton, Grandview, Liberty and Prairie Village. Three cities tied in fire and fire-and-ambulance services: Belton, Gladstone and Liberty. Four cities tied in municipal court services: Gladstone, Lawrence, Lenexa and Shawnee" The newspaper found most cities aren't doing well scoring themselves or even keeping key data, much less weighing it all against nearby peers. Read more about how the story was reported.

Planes dangerously close in Canadian skies

Robert Cribb, Fred Vallance-Jones and Tamsin McMahon of The Toronto Star analyzed the aviation data and found that "more than 80,000 passengers have been put at risk over the last five years when airplanes they were travelling in came dangerously close together in Canadian skies." Between 2001 and mid-2005, there were more than 800 incidents in which planes got too close to each other. "The investigation found a safety system straining at the seams. Experts — pilots, mechanics, airline workers and people who study aviation data — warn significant changes must be made to prevent a major catastrophe."

Fla. officials profit from weak ethics laws

Bob Mahlburg of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reviewed state financial disclosure records to show Florida's weak ethics laws and how state and local officials with real estate investments walk a tightrope between their public posts and personal profits. "State Sen. Mike Bennett has made more than $2 million renting office space to a state agency he helps oversee." The investigation also explained how Florida, which once had some of the nation's toughest ethics laws, now lags most major states and shows little apparent interest in changing.

Police break into six-figure club

Thomas J. Dolan of The Buffalo News analyzed police contracts and 2005 payrolls for seven towns and the City of Buffalo and found that "47 officers from Buffalo and the near suburbs broke the $100,000 mark in 2005, the last year for which complete figures were available. And nearly three dozen more are poised to do so, with gross pay in the high five figures." The investigation showed police receive a wide variety of "perks," from allowing them to cash in their unused sick time, to a contract provision that allows Cheektowaga officers to claim time and half pay if their lunch is interrupted by police work.

Some Minn. schools doing well at teaching poor students

Megan Boldt, MaryJo Sylwester, Meggen Lindsay and Doug Belden of St. Paul Pioneer Press analyzed three years of test scores from all 731 Minnesota elementary schools and found that 13 high-poverty schools were "doing better than predicted and seem to have found a way to overcome education's biggest challenge — teaching high numbers of poor students well." Read about how they reported the story.

Congressional travel adds up to $50 million

An analysis of more than 25,000 travel disclosure documents over a 5½-year period by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University's Medill News Service found that "members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips — valued at almost $50 million — financed by private sponsors, many of them corporations, trade associations and nonprofit groups with business on Capitol Hill." While some of these trips no doubt were educational, others appeared to be thinly veiled attempts by special interests to influence lawmakers and their advisers. Also see Top Gun of Travel and Rangel Trip Raises Ethics Questions.

Package recalls Bolles and the Arizona Project

The Arizona Republic has published a package of stories, photos and audio in remembrance of the 30th anniversary of the bombing that killed reporter Don Bolles. The bombing and Bolles' death 11 days later was the catalyst for the Arizona Project, an important event that had a hand in shaping IRE's early years. The present-day package of stories, researched and written by Arizona State University students, includes articles about the state of investigative journalism today. A survey of IRE members at the 100 largest newspapers in the country found that newspapers today care about investigative stories but frequently don't provide the resources that reporters need to do in-depth work.

State records show complaints about 'death care' business

Rick Anderson of the Seattle Weekly reviewed state files and revealed Washington consumer complaints about funeral homes and cemeteries. Consumers were "being 'penalized' by funeral homes for buying coffins elsewhere." There were "complaints about bodies buried in the wrong graves, cremated when they should have been planted, or occupying plots that have been resold" and "protests over misspelled headstones, mishandled remains, and high-pressure sales pitches by the industry's 'grief counselors.'" A sidebar tells the story of two teenage crime victims buried in the same grave, unbeknownst to parents, and another examines "low-cost, do-it-yourself, eco-conscious burial options."

Farm subsidy payments in Denmark go up

Farmsubsidy.org has released new data on farm subsidy payments, with an analysis by Nils Mulvad, co-founder of farmsubsidy.org and director of the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting, analyzed new data on farm subsidy payments in Denmark in 2005 and found that "the new Single Farm Payment Scheme has dramatically increased the number of farm subsidy recipients in Denmark, though many of these new recipients receive relatively small payments." "The Danish authority paid €1.3 billion to more than 70,649 recipients. There was a significant increase in the number of recipients compared to former years. Some 17,290 'first time' recipients were paid a total of DKK 440.645.234 or just less than 5 percent of all farm subsidies paid out over course of 2005." The Single Farm Payment Scheme also increased the concentration of payments among the largest recipients, with more than 80 percent of payments going to the top 20 percent of recipients. See the report of the new data.