Extra! Extra!

Bond scam yields profits at the expense of the needy

William Selway, Martin Z. Braun and David Dietz of Bloomberg News exposed a phantom bond scam - over $7 billion in the past 10 years - which promise benefits for the needy (better housing, improvements to inner-city schools, etc.), yet the only ones profiting are banks, insurance companies and financiers. "The arrangements -- often called black box deals, because they're complicated and mysterious -- sometimes contain secret agreements that promise to pay the financial middlemen higher fees if none of the money from the bond offerings is used to help the public. The agencies that issue the bonds buy them back from investors. The money goes untapped, and the advisers keep their fees." CJR complemented the efforts of Bloomberg News for taking a "more expansive view of business news, one that values that seemingly quaint notion of the public good. In this case, Bloomberg's William Selway, Martin Z. Braun and David Dietz outline a scandal of staggering proportions, then make their case through exhaustive research and reporting that backs up the splashy start."

Buying the bench with key contributions?

In a series by Salon.com and the Center for Investigative Reporting, Will Evans exposes a money trail that leads from the pockets of judges to coffers of prominent Republicans - including the President. "At least two dozen federal judges appointed by President Bush since 2001 made political contributions to key Republicans or to the president himself while under consideration for their judgeships, government records show." While not illegal, these contributions are ethically questionable due to their potential influence on lifetime appointments to federal courts. "[T]here must be a balance, some ethics scholars and judges say, between that right and the responsibility of those seeking a judicial post to appear impartial. With the judiciary drawing increasing scrutiny and criticism in recent times, the American Bar Association is overhauling its judicial code of conduct to set new recommended ethical guidelines. The draft of the new code, to be voted on this February, would forbid political contributions by judicial candidates."

MCCCD fraught with fraud

In a four-part investigative series, Ryan Gabrielson of the East Valley (AZ) Tribune exposes rampant misconduct in the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), the largest junior college district in the US. The Tribune reviewed audits from the last five years which revealed rampant fraud - including theft of money and property, falsified enrollment records and nepotism. (See: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4)

Potential exists for deceased to still vote in NY

In the lead-up to November's elections, John Ferro of the Poughkeepsie Journal exposes the potential for voting fraud in New York state. The statewide database of registered voters contains the names of nearly 77,000 deceased - including many who cast votes posthumously. "The Journal's analysis is the first to examine the potential for errors and fraud in New York's three-month-old database. It matched names, dates of birth and ZIP codes in the state's database of 11.7 million voter registration records against the same information in the Social Security Administration's "Death Master File," a database of 77 million records of deaths dating to 1937."

The Social Security Administration Death Master File can be obtained from the IRE and NICAR Database Library.

Sexual misconduct rampant with Utah peace officers

Nate Carlisle and Lisa Rosetta of The Salt Lake Tribune report on sexual misconduct by peace officers in the state of Utah. "It is the most common reason - more than excessive force, falsifying reports or driving under the influence - that Utah officers lose their certifications or are suspended from their jobs, according to a Salt Lake Tribune review of Utah Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Council records."

Freedom for sale in Florida

Carl Jones of Miami New Times reports on corruption in the justice system in southern Florida. The series [See:Part 1 and Part 2] explores the story behind a now disbarred defense attorney, Isreal Perez, Jr., who promised to get the prison sentences of convicted felons reduced - for a price. "If there's any truth to Perez's claims about working with rogue DEA agents, the case raises serious questions about the propriety of drug investigations and prosecutions in South Florida, and about why Perez was never charged with a crime. It could mean there is again a "For Sale" sign on badges in Miami."

Florida realtor rakes in profits

Shannon Behnken of the Tampa Tribune reports of real estate fraud in the St. Petersberg, FL area. "With three months' experience, the agent [Dawn L. Molen] who had never listed a home closed her first sale Jan. 27 in a working-class neighborhood. Her buyer paid $45,000 more than the asking price...over the next eight months, the agent found buyers for 35 more homes...Collectively, the homes sold for at least $2 million more than originally listed." Upon closer scrutiny of these sales, it was found that Molen was not reporting all this profit, nor were the sellers seeing it. "It was going to a third party with ties to Molen, soemtimes without the knowledge of the lenders or the sellers. Federal laws require full disclosure to lenders detailing where the money goes." The Tribune's investigation has triggered three separate state agency investigations, including one by the Florida Attorney General's office.

In Louisiana, Post-Katrina insurance appeals made more often by whites

Rukmini Callimachi and Frank Bass of the Associated Press report on a disparity in post-Katrina insurance claims. Based on analysis of Louisiana's insurance claims, they determined that residents of predominantly white neighborhoods "have been three times as likely as homeowners in black neighborhoods to seek state help in resolving insurance disputes." Their analysis suggests that those most in need of assistance are not aware of their options to dispute insurance settlements. "The findings surprise few on the front lines of a disaster that has reawakened issues of racial equality...Donelon, the insurance commissioner, said his department made an extra effort to reach as many people as possible and let them know the agency was willing to press their case with insurers."

KDFW exposure of sex offenders in USPS leads to reforms

In May 2006, KDFW-Dallas reporter Rebecca Aguilar and producer Joe Ellis discovered that the U.S. Postal Service had registered sex offenders on its payroll and some of these workers were delivering mail door-to-door. After confronting a few of these registered sex offenders on the job they took the issue to local Postal officials and higher ups in Washington D.C. Officials admitted they had no idea they had registered sex offenders working for them. These were employees who became registered sex offenders after they were hired for the government. Immediately the U.S. Postal Service launched a nationwide investigation, and the U.S. Office of the Inspector General started its own independent investigation across the country. As a result of the KDFW investigation, "U.S. Postal officials say they have now started a computerized program to find registered sex offenders working for them around the country."

Detroit: "The Quality of Urban Life"

A 2-day series by Greta Guest and Victoria Turk in the Detroit Free Press examined the state of grocery stores in the city of Detroit. While the housing market in downtown Detroit is experiencing growth, a lack of desirable grocery store options is a "nagging problem in terms of the city's quality of life." Difficulty in attracting chain grocery stores to Detroit is linked, in part, to "a high number of residents on public assistance, which creates a monthly boom-and-bust cycle...About 25% of Detroit households receive cash public assistance or food stamps, compared with 11% in Chicago, 14% in Baltimore and 12% in Pittsburgh, according to 2004 U.S. Census figures, the most recent available." Additionally, Detroit stores are frequently cited for helath and safety violations. "Overall, city of Detroit stores had an average of 6.3 critical and noncritical violations a year, or double the statewide rate of 2.56. About 26% of the 327 stores represented in the state reports were free of critical violations."

Drunk and disorderly in the Big Ten

Jill Riepenhoff and Mike Wagner of The Columbus Dispatch "collected and analyzed police incident reports to gauge behavior that broke [Big Ten] school rules or criminal laws inside stadiums and to examine police response. More than 4.8 million fans flooded the conference's 11 football stadiums during the [2005] season." Of the almost 1400 incidents reported, alcohol possession and consumption accounted for nearly three-quarters of them.

Tribes profit from gaming and grants

In a story for the Tulsa World, Ziva Branstetter used FAADS (Federal Awards Assistance Data System) to identify the amount of federal grants going to Indian tribes and comparing those numbers with gaming revenues. She found that during the three most recent fiscal years of data available, gaming revenues among all tribes nationally increased about 30 percent while federal grants and loans to tribes and tribal entities jumped 44 percent.

NOTE: The Federal Grants/FAADS data is available from the IRE and NICAR Database Library.

BALCO saga continues: The SF Chronicle held in contempt

Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the paper has agreed to be held in contempt of court for refusing to disclose its reporters' [Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams] sources of grand jury testimony in the BALCO case. This could result in fines of over $500,000. "The Chronicle's editor, Phil Bronstein, said, 'While this latest filing is largely about legal procedure, it again speaks to our unqualified support for these two great journalists, their work and their commitment to standing by the confidentiality of their sources.'"

Philadelphia Inquirer child welfare investigation leads to firings

In response to The Philadelphia Inquirer investigation on the failures of DHS to protect children from abuse -- and death -- two officials have been dismissed. "Mayor Street forced out two top officials at the city's child-welfare agency Friday, acknowledging that his administration had not done enough to protect children from being killed by child abuse. Street said he decided on the dismissals after reviewing cases featured in an Inquirer investigation into children who were killed after child-welfare workers had received reports of family problems." The mayor credited the paper's investigation with bringing the department's failings to light.

Family connections pave inside track to lobbying dollars

An investigation by Matt Kelley and Peter Eisler of USA Today shows that "lobbying groups employed 30 family members last year to influence spending bills that their relatives with ties to the House and Senate appropriations committees oversaw or helped write...combined, they generated millions of dollards in fees for themselves or their firms." USA Today looked at "family ties between lobbyists and the 94 members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, as well as 250 top staffers who serve those members" as well as "thousands of pages of financial disclosures and lobbyist registrations, property records, marriage announcements and other public documents to identify which lawmakers and staffers had relatives in the lobbying business."

Despite reports of abuse, DHS fails to protect child welfare

An investigation by Ken Dilanian and John Sullivan of The Philadelphia Inquirer shows gross failures by the Department of Human Services (DHS) led to the brutal deaths of children at the hands of their parents - parents who had been referred to DHS for abusive behavior. "Three years after a string of blunders by DHS were widely blamed for failing to prevent the torture-murder of toddler Porchia Bennett, an Inquirer investigation has found that young children are still regularly abused to death after coming to the attention of DHS. Although 3-year-old Porchia's death prompted the department to solicit expert advice on how to improve its investigative procedures, agency officials have failed to act on most of those recommendations."

Lein sales a quick fix with dire consequences

Over several months, Tom Meagher of the Herald News examined the records of a bulk sale of property tax liens that the city of Paterson, N.J., conducted to raise the revenue needed to balance its budget. While this resulted in a quick influx of cash for the city, the short-sighted plan cost the city millions in potential revenue and handed over control of hundreds of pieces valuable land to an independent developer. The developer has, in turn, begun to sell the lots for as much as 60 times what they used to pay - including non-profits intending to build affordable housing in the area Included with the story is an interactive map showing the properties described in the story.

"Caltrans: Road to Nowhere"

A watchdog report by Kimberly Kindy and Natalya Shulyakovskaya of The Orange County Register looks at how the California Department of Transportation "has repeatedly displaced property owners for highway projects that went nowhere -- from the abandoned widening of Pacific Coast Highway through Orange County to Hayward’s failed freeway loop near the San Francisco Bay. Along the way, Caltrans used eminent domain to buy thousands of homes and businesses it didn’t need, holding onto them for decades." This has resulted in neglected and abandoned proprerties all over the state of California. In addition to unnecessarily displaced families, these failed projects have resulted in millions in lost tax revenue for the state. Shulyakovskaya includes a detailed description of the data analysis done for this story.

Power of money

John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader examined Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's career, based on thousands of documents and scores of interviews, to show the nexus between his actions and his donors' agendas. "He pushes the government to help cigarette makers, Las Vegas casinos, the pharmaceutical industry, credit card lenders, coal mine owners and others." Corporate documents made public during litigation suggest a close working relationship between the senator and cigarette-maker lobbyists.

Lax regulations for contractors a recipe for trouble

McNelly Torres of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that loopholes state regulations allow corrupt business owners to continue defrauding their customers. Citing the example of John T. Pluto and his company All American Driveways and Pool Deck Inc., Torres documented how countless complaints have not impeded Pluto's business enterprises in Broward County. "State regulators and Broward County building licensing officials say there is no law preventing Pluto from continuing to take on new customers or requiring him to disclose the existing complaints or problems in his past."

At what cost? A look at CA community college football programs

Brent Schrotenboer of The San Diego Union-Tribune looks at the cost of community college football programs in the state of California. There are 72 community college programs in the state of California versus 68 in the rest of the US. Some argue that they cost the state at the expense of academics. "For those that did provide football budgets, expenses exceeded revenue by an average of about $70,000 per year. If that average held for all 72 schools, it would put the cost to the state in excess of $5 million a year." While the football programs continue to be subsidized by state funds, the same schools are having to rely on part-time faculty "who get paid less and are classified as temporary." Advocates argue that the football programs actually make money for the schools because "each full-time student equivalent brings in about $4,000 to cover the cost of his or her education...A football team of 100 could bring a community college $400,000 in public subsidies, mostly from local property taxes and the state general fund. "

Nonprofits helped Abramoff clients for cash

James Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt of The Washington Post present details from a new Senate committee report that says former power lobbyist Jack Abramoff paid conservative nonprofit groups to use their influence to benefit his clients. "The report includes previously unreleased e-mails between the now-disgraced lobbyist and officers of the nonprofit groups, showing that Abramoff funneled money from his clients to the groups. In exchange, the groups, among other things, produced ostensibly independent newspaper op-ed columns or news releases that favored the clients' positions." Grimaldi, Schmidt and R. Jeffrey Smith of The Post won a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for exposing the scandal that led to a prison sentence for Abramoff, who has agreed to cooperate with ongoing federal investigations.

D.C.'s trendy neighborhoods riddled by robberies

Allison Klein and Dan Keating of The Washington Post looked at police data and found that some of the liveliest neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. are also the ones riddled by the greatest number of robberies. "The Washington Post analyzed years of police statistics, focusing sharply on crimes this year, and found the biggest share of robberies happening at night and on sidewalks in neighborhoods north of downtown, including Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights and the U Street corridor." A detailed graphic is included with the story showing, among other statistics, when and where these crimes are committed.

Homeowners stay put in New Orleans

Jean Guccione and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times analyzed data from the Small Business Administration, the federal agency primarily responsible for disaster reconstruction loans, and found that of more than 150,000 homeowners and business owners approved for the loans, 2% were transferring the money to a new property in New Orleans. "Most New Orleans-area property owners seeking government aid for hurricane damage are showing a strong preference for restoring their old neighborhoods rather than take the money to seek new horizons." Records show that although federal and state recovery programs offer aid to those who choose to relocate, few applicants have requested it.
NOTE: Several SBA databases, including business loan data, are available from the IRE and NICAR Database Library.

"Murdering the Messengers"

U.S. News and World Report's David Kaplan writes about the killing of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the Russian government's shocking and atrocious lack of response to the execution-style slaying of journalists there. "For those of us in international journalism training, Anna was something of a legend--a relentless investigative reporter who refused to back down as Putin and his cronies have stifled, squeezed, and squelched that nation's once-promising independent media. We muckrakers in the West are fond of saying that we speak truth to power, but what we do is nothing compared with what Anna Politkovskaya did on a regular basis, exposing war crimes in Chechnya and hypocrisy in the Kremlin. Her work was required reading for anyone--journalists, political scientists, intelligence analysts–interested in how post-Soviet Russia really operates."

Faith and foreign aid

Farah Stockman, Michael Kranish, and Peter S. Canellos of The Boston Globe, with Globe correspondent Kevin Baron, examined the complete database of USAID prime awards from 2001 to 2005, containing more than 52,000 funding actions, to reveal that USAID gave more than $1.7 billion to 159 "faith-based" organizations. The percentage of USAID funds to NGOs that are faith-based doubled from 2001 to 2005, and 98.3% of the faith-based funds go to Christian groups. Bush's orders altered the longstanding practice that groups preach religion in one space and run government programs in another. The administration said religious organizations can conduct services in the same space as they hand out government aid, so long as the services don't take place while the aid is being delivered. The newspaper found many Christian groups are leveraging their proselytizing and missionary activities with US funding - doing the bare minimun, if that, to separate out their church and state functions.

Special benefits for religious groups

Diana B. Henriques of The New York Times, with computer analysis by Andy Lehren and research by Donna Anderson, examined the quiet expansion of special benefits for religious groups. "In recent years, many politicians and commentators have cited what they consider a nationwide 'war on religion' that exposes religious organizations to hostility and discrimination. But such organizations - from mainline Presbyterian and Methodist churches to mosques to synagogues to Hindu temples - enjoy an abundance of exemptions from regulations and taxes. And the number is multiplying rapidly." An analysis of legislation passed by Congress since 1989 found more than 200 examples of special considerations for religious groups or their members, plus additional benefits created by court decisions and administrative rules.

Ambulance diversions at St. Louis area hospitals

Deborah L. Shelton and Jaimi Dowdell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used local data to revisit a topic the paper first examined five years ago: ambulance diversions from full hospitals. “Five years after Missouri hospital officials vowed to get a handle on the problem, many emergency departments in the St. Louis area still regularly turn away ambulances. Half of the time in the first seven months of this year, at least one hospital was diverting ambulances.” Included is an interactive presentation illustrating how often hospitals turn away ambulances.

Security lax in Philly schools

In response to the latest spate of school violence, reporters at The Philadelphia Inquirer decided to investigate the safey of local schools only to find that it lax. "In spite of rules aimed at limiting public access, reporters who fanned out on a single day walked into more than a dozen schools unannounced and without being challenged." Without state or federal regulations on school safety, decisions are left up to individual districts. As a result, safety policies vary widely leaving many schools vulnerable.

State SAT score rankings are misleading

Student reporter Sarah Rabil at The Daily Tar Heel analyzed state SAT rankings to take into consideration the impact of poverty and participation on these rankings. "An analysis by The Daily Tar Heel shows that the percentage of students taking the SAT in a given state dramatically affects a state's average score. Poverty levels also are an indicator of a state's average performance on the test, the analysis shows. After taking out the effect that poverty and participation have on each state's score, North Carolina ranks 16th in the nation - a jump of 22 positions from its unadjusted 2006 ranking." Included is a graphic showing state rankings with both adjusted and unadjusted scores.

Issues of border security

Reporters from the Arizona Daily Star have put together an extensive investigation into the issues surrounding US-Mexico border security. Their multimedia investigations looks into the issues of why sealing off our borders will not work. "The Star sent a six-member reporting team on a three-week trek from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico this summer to investigate whether the border can be sealed, and what the effects would be."

High cost of US subsidy bailouts for cotton farmers

In an extensive investigation into cotton farming and US subsidies, reporters Dan Chapman and Ken Foskett with CAR specialist Megan Clarke of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution take a look at the impact of this "multibillion-dollar entitlement" program on farming here and abroad. They also look at how "farmers game the system to evade subsidy limits, and the difficulties regulators face trying to detect fraud and abuse in increasingly complex farming transactions." Their investigation included hundreds of interviews and extensive data analysis "including 182 million USDA subsidy transactions from 1994 to 2005...Clarke calculated payments by state, county and farmer. She examined USDA data on loans and insurance losses, and bankruptcy, land value and welfare payment records."

Texas sex-offender registry plagued with problems

In a two-part series Emily Ramshaw of The Dallas Morning News reports on the state of Texas' sex offender registry, which is ladden with inaccuracy. Some experts blame an ever-increasing database without the manpower to maintain the information. " The result? Vigilant parents and community groups are relying on faulty or incomplete data to protect themselves. Some homeowners are targeted as sex offenders because their addresses mistakenly appear in the database. And hundreds of the region's sex offenders are avoiding registration or filing false information with law enforcement agencies - some to hide in the crowd, others to re-offend."A graphic of their findings can be found here.

In the second part of her series, Ramshaw looks at the unintended consequences of Texas' zero-tolerance sex offender registration laws. "They're working to design better risk-level assessments to help police departments distinguish between sexual predators and high school boyfriends. And they've passed legislation to allow some young offenders with negligible recidivism rates, particularly those in consensual-sex scenarios, to be removed from the registry."