Extra! Extra!

Military introduces new mental-health guidelines for troops

Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman of The Hartford Courant reported that the U.S. military has issued sweeping new mental-health guidelines that expand screening for troops being sent to war and set limits on when service members with psychiatric problems can be kept in combat. The changes are aimed at meeting a congressional mandate prompted by a May series in The Courant, titled "Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight," that exposed gaps in the military's mental health care system. The Courant reported that mentally troubled troops were being sent to Iraq and kept there, in some cases with fatal consequences. The paper had obtained Defense Department records indicating that service members' mental illnesses were being missed or ignored during pre-deployment screenings. They also obtained investigative reports that revealed many of the troops who committed suicide in Iraq had clear signs of psychological distress that were dismissed or ignored.

Fort Worth Diocese concealed abuse

After a 19-month legal battle by The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the newspapers obtained more than 700 pages from the personnel files of seven priests that the diocese had fought to keep secret. The records show that Fort Worth Catholic Diocese leaders systematically helped predator priests stay in ministry for two decades by concealing information from parishioners, police and the public.

Methadone series leads to FDA warning

Six months after the Charleston Gazette ran a series about methadone overdose deaths nationwide, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory and strenghtened the warnings on the package insert for methadone this week. The Gazette series revealed that the FDA-approved recommended dosage on methadone's old package insert was wrong and potentially deadly.

Investigation leads to child pornography arrests

Two men who ran dozens of child modeling websites were charged with child pornography following an WTVJ/NBC 6 investigation called "Selling Innocence." After a five-month investigation, Investigative producer Scott Zamost and reporter Deborah Sherman revealed in November 2001 how a South Florida company was putting children online in provocative poses with their parents' permission. The investigation exposed the online world of what authorities called "child erotica," which they said was controversial but legal. However, authorities in Alabama later launched their own investigation and determined the images in the websites were illegal "lascivious poses." A federal grand jury in Birmingham indicted the two men and their company on charges of conspiring to use minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions and with knowingly transporting in interstate commerce visual descriptions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Hurricane shutter fraud on the rise

Sarah Okeson of Florida Today reports that hurricane storm shutter fraud is on the rise in Florida. Records from the Better Business Bureau of Central Florida show that at least six companies offering storm shutters have unsatisfactory records, and at least one faces criminal charges. Complaints range from shoddy workmanship to theft of deposits. A listing of these companies is included in a sidebar.

Investigation sparks nation-wide Volvo recall

An investigation by Denver's KMGH-TV in September of 2005 that exposed a dangerous problem with Volvo vehicles has now prompted a nation-wide recall. Through internal documents, 7News Investigative Reporter Tony Kovaleski, Producer Tom Burke and Photojournalist Jason Foster discovered that Volvo knew many of their electronic throttle modules were failing at an alarming rate, long before the cars ever hit the showroom floor. The report detailed several examples of the cars failing, placing unknowing drivers in dangerous and unexpected situations. The malfunction can cause the car to surge, hesitate and take control of the vehicle away from the driver. In the recall notice, the National Highway Transportation Security Administration references a "throttle control malfunction" and is requiring Volvo to upgrade the software in the nearly 360,000 affected cars and SUV’s.

Holes in Dallas school district's screening process

A Dallas Morning News investigation of the Dallas Independent School District's method of making criminal background checks on potential employees has found a system that still has holes and, at times, ignores district and state rules. The News' investigation found at least 80 current employees who have been convicted of felonies or received deferred adjudication probation on a felony charge in Dallas or surrounding counties.

Air Force rushed air defense system

In a follow-up to an earlier story, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report's Michael Fabey writes that the Air Force rushed the deployment of its airspace defense system by bypassing typical Pentagon standards. Information received by The Daily indicates that "the Air Force accepted the BCS-F [Battle Control System-Fixed] even though it did not meet the Air Force-established IOC (initial operational capability) criteria as a standalone command-and-control (C2) system for the continental United States (CONUS) because it had a pressing need." As of October 2006, the program was nearly 2 years behind schedule and $65 million over budget.

"Precious Cargo" revisited

Following the recent school bus fatalities in Alabama, Phil Williams and the investigative team at WTVF-Nashville updated their extensive investigation into bus safety and the issue of seat belts on buses. Their findings remain timely a year after the first stories aired. The online package includes recent updates, extensive background documents and a 30-minute documentary.

"Media Tracker" database relaunched

The Center for Public Integrity has relaunched its "Media Tracker" database in an updated and expanded form. The improved features of the online database "detail the scope of the political influence of top communications, entertainment and electronic companies" by including information on political contribuntions and lobbying expenditures. Click here to see their press release.

Of Note: Interview on Investigative Journalism

John McQuaid, co-author, with Mark Schleifstein, of Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms, interviews Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity, on the future of investigative journalism on the Internet. McQuaid is blogging for newassignment.net.

"Fatal Food"

Thomas Hargrove of Scripps Howard News Service, along with contributions from Sruthi Kunnel and Lee Bowman, completed an investigation into food-borne illness outbreak reports made to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Medical officials in Kentucky have already ordered reform's to the state's disease reporting process as a result of this investigation. Links to the stories and data:

• A Russian roulette of food poisoning in American states
• Food safety can depend on the state you live in
• Who dies from food illness
• Findings from study of food sickness outbreaks
• Methods for the Scripps food disease story
• A nasty little list of food diseases
• Food-borne illness cases by state
• Link to data used in story

Police pensions pumped up by overtime pay

Brian Sharp of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., takes a look at the Rochester police department's overtime pay, an issue gouging the city's budget. Inflated wages due to overtime are being used to bolster the pensions of officers nearing retirement. The investigation included analysis of 10 years of salary records which are included with the story in an online database searchable by name, base or total pay.

Empire Zone abuses afford millions to a lucky few

The (Syracuse, N.Y.) Post-Standard's Mike McAndrew and Michelle Breidenbach expose abuses of New York's "Empire Zone" tax breaks which negate the programs intended purpose:" to create jobs in targeted impoverished areas." One mall owner was able to cash in on about $14 million in tax breaks by paying the city of Geneva to expand the boundaries of its zone to include his property located over 30 miles away. Lawmakers and other business owners are disgusted by these abuses of a program meant to encourage economic development. The Post-Standard found that "none of the 10 businesses that claimed the biggest property tax refunds for 2003 created more than 20 jobs."

Millions lost is ferry debacle

Steve Orr, of the (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, investigates the failed project for a high-speed ferry intended to operate between Rochester and Toronto. Orr "reveals a troubling trail of political maneuvering, lax oversight and lack of follow-through" - issues that cost state taxpayers $14 million.

"Blighted Homeland"

In a 4-part series, the Los Angeles Times looks at the lingering results of uranium mining on a Navajo reservation where almost 4 million tons of uranium was mined for over 4 decades. "Navajos inhaled radioactive dust, drank contaminated water and built homes using rock from the mines and mills. Many of the dangers persist to this day."

"House of Lies" continued

In another installment of The Miami Herald's House of Lies series, reporter Debbie Cenziper found documents, emails and correspondence that showed Miami-Dade government leaders were warned about serious breakdowns in public housing but failed to take action, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

Prince George's County officials abuse credit card privileges

Cheryl W. Thompson of The Washington Post reports that officials in Prince George's County charged thousands of dollar in personal purchases to county-issued credit cards. " The Washington Post reviewed billing statements and other documents covering credit-card use over the past four years for officials in Prince George's, where there has been a move to heighten scrutiny of public spending.." The story details the abuses by specific county officials.

Cardiologist given no-show contracts at New Jersey medical school

Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin of The Star-Ledger cover the details emerging from a “whistle blower lawsuit” against the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. In an effort to make their cardiac surgery program seem robust to avoid being shut down, UMDNJ " paid at least nine local cardiologists in private practice salaries and stipends as high as $150,000 to become "clinical assistant professors" in an effort to increase the number of patients in the university's troubled heart surgery program." These were not physicians who were attending rounds or lecturing, instead they only served the purpose of referring patients to the program. Following the story, the state Senate launched a probe into the allegations. Jobs have already been cut due to the story and probe. "The state's medical university plans to fire two cardiologists who allegedly were given no-show faculty jobs...and plans to cut the salaries of nine other doctors, according to an internal memo from the university president."

Beyond Sago - a series on mine safety

Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette analyzed government reports and data and found that 9 out of every 10 coal mining deaths nationwide over the last 10 years could have been avoided if existing safety rules had been followed. Ward's report, the first in a series of special investigative stories, appeared in Sunday's Gazette-Mail.

College coaches cash in

Jodi Upton and Steve Wieberg of USA Today have taken an extensive look at the contracts of NCAA Division 1-A football coaches. "Head coaches at the NCAA's top-level schools are making an average of $950,000 this year, not counting benefits, incentives, subsidized housing or any of the perks they routinely receive. At least 42 of the 119 Division I-A coaches are earning $1 million or more this year, up from five in 1999." These lush contracts include far more than a base salary. The perks range from use of private jets to vacation homes and family travel accounts. Media and apparel contracts have also fed the salary explosions. Included as part of the story is a multi-sortable database that is also a table of contents to 100 of the contracts themselves.

Food safety at Houston schools compromised

In a three part series, reporter Mark Greenblatt and 11 News Investigates of Houston's KHOU-TV uncovered how one of the largest school districts in the nation was putting more than 200,000 children in danger of food poisoning, serious illness, and worse. The problem? The I-team discovered not only were the Houston school district's cafeterias serving food that could put children at severe risk for food poisoning, but KHOU discovered the district intentionally chose to lower its own safety bar. Even worse, administratorscovered up the problem by using a loophole in the food code to actually stop City Health Inspectors from writing up health violations for the dangerous food. Greenblatt and executive producer David Raziq, producer Chris Henao, and photogpraher Keith Tomshe also found more: a district plan to get out of having cafeterias inspected, raw food stored in terrible conditions, and other problems. The I-Teams broadcasts drew community-wide calls for change, including from a Congressman, and caused the District to stop these practices. See part one, two and three online.

Staged accidents used to defraud insurance

Reporter Patricia Andreu and Investigative Producer Scott A. Zamost of WTVJ/NBC 6 in Miami revealed in "Crash For Cash" how criminals set up phony car accidents to bilk insurance companies. They were able to actually capture on tape a fake accident as it happened during a police sting operation. The operator of a South Florida medical clinic allegedly set up the accident and recruited fake patients to later claim phony injuries. The National Insurance Crime Bureau ranks Miami as number one in the country for staged accidents. The two-part investigation (Part 1 and Part 2) showed how the accident was set up and arrests of those involved.

Clocking the Cops

Tisha Thompson of WMAR-Baltimore found that police officers in Baltimore continuously broke speed limits, sometimes by over 10mph, even in the absence of an emergency. The investigation revealed that in an emergency, fifty percent of the police cars drove at more than 10 mph over the speed limit.Armed with hidden cameras, the investigators also found that 8 out of 10 police vehicles without lights and sirens were breaking speed limits while driving in residential neighborhoods.

Glitches in Nashville's 911 cause delays in response

WSMV-TV's second installment of an investigation into Nashville's 911 system discovered that thousands of emergency callers waited more than 30 seconds for someone to answer the phone, and no one's exactly sure why. On an average of three times a day a caller waits more than two minutes for 911 to pick up the phone, even when operators there aren't busy. The I-Team's Nancy Amons discovered the problem after requesting a database of every call that had waited more than 30 seconds. 911 was unaware of the scope of the problem until the I-Team investigation.

Violent crime in Houston on the rise

Mark Greenblatt of KHOU-TV looks at a surge in violent crimes in Houston - an increase of 22% in the last 2 years. For the story, Greenblatt used Access, Excel, ArcGIS, and CrimeStat to first look for trends in rise in specific crimes, then mapped them out to find further trends. Included in the report are interactive online tools that allow you to search violent crime incidents by neighborhood and zip code.

Post-election mapping wrap-up

• Cincinati Enquirer takes a county-by-county look at the Democratic shift in Ohio
• The Herald Tribune's coverage of the 13th Congressional District recount and the vote breakdown by precinct
• The Fresno Bee covers the neck-in-neck race for sheriff with a map showing how the votes split

"Inquest for a Warrior"

The Associated Press has published a series, "Inquest for a Warrior", which looks at the probe into the April 2004 death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan.

• Startling findings in the Tillman probe
• Pat Tillman's last day, reconstructed
• Penalties resulting from Tillman's death
• Charges possible in Pat Tillman's death
• Sources used by the AP in Tillman probe

Deceased citizens still voting in Ohio

Duane Pohlman of WEWS-TV in Cleveland, with assistance from NICAR, compared Cuyahoga County voting records with death records provided by the Social Security Administration. Dozens of dead people have had votes cast in their names. U.S. Representitive Dennis Kucinich called this an " an assault on the integrity on the electoral process."

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

Campaign finance at the local level

As the election nears, it's nice to see a collection of state-level campaign finance stories, since most of the attention is on the federal races. Among the recent examples is a St. Louis Post-Dispatch piece on electric utility donations to state lawmakers and a story on gubernatorial donors related to the Trans-Texas Corridor in the San Antonio Express-News (nice to see bylines for researcher Julie Domel and database editor Kelly Guckian). And then there's a New York Times story on contributors switching from Gov. George Pataki to his apparent successor, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

ABC 15 investigators take a fresh look at the Bolles murder

ABC 15 investigator Abbie Boudreau looks at the murder of Don Bolles murder 30 years after his car was bombed. Bolles died 11 days later. With new evidence and questions about the killing of Don Bolles, ABC 15 calls into question whether an innocent man, Max Dunlap, was framed for one of Arizona's most infamous murders. Included online is video of Dunlap explaining how he believes he was set up; his description of life behind bars; a pdf of his letter to investigative reporter Abbie Bourdreau; and several more pieces of supplimentary coverage.

Suspiscious real estate deals in Ohio raise concern

Geoff Dutton of The Columbus Dispatch dissected unusual property deals worth more than $11 million involving Middle Eastern buyers who paid far above the list price on expensive houses. The catch: "the sellers must agree to immediately refund the difference between the asking price and the sale price". Neighbors and real-estate experts fear that the deals, in some of the most affluent subdivisions outside Columbus, are fraudulent. With few people talking, and a limited public paper trail, key details remain a mystery. But some observers fear the worst - that dealmakers might abandon the houses and disappear with the mortgage money, leaving neighbors and lenders to sort out the mess. A lawyer for the central Ohio chapter of the Building Industry Association warned group members in October to steer clear of such deals. Even sellers could be held liable if deals turn out to be fraudulent, he said, reminding builders of the danger of lawsuits or criminal racketeering charges. "This has been a really recent phenomenon," said David Martin, chief executive of Stewart Title, which refused some of the deals. "It's like a whole new industry has formed overnight."

Criminal investigators tried to stop abuses at Gitmo

In a 2-part series for MSNBC.com, Bill Dedman details the investigations into detainee abuses at Guantanamo. "[F]ormer leaders of the Defense Department's Criminal Investigation Task Force said they repeatedly warned senior Pentagon officials beginning in early 2002 that the harsh interrogation techniques used by a separate intelligence team would not produce reliable information, could constitute war crimes, and would embarrass the nation when they became public knowledge." Despite these warnings against aggressive interrogation techniques, such abuses continued at Gitmo. Techniques used on Mohammed al-Qahtani (the alleged "20th hijacker") could make him "unprosecutable".

TRAC data suggests shortcomings in FBI's dealing with international terrorism

Data from the Justice Department indicates that federal prosecutors appear to have big doubts about the FBI's criminal enforcement activities when it comes to fighting international terrorism. According to a TRAC report, federal prosecutors so far in FY 2006 have rejected 87% of the FBI's referrals on international terrorism. The report also shows that despite across-the-board staffing increases in the last few years, FBI investigations of all kinds have consistently resulted in fewer federal prosecutions. And detailed graphs and tables reveal how FBI staffing and enforcement priorities have been constantly changing since 1986.

Remaking the U.S. Intelligence Community: Playing Defense

In this week's U.S. News & World Report cover story -- part two of their series -- David E. Kaplan and Kevin Whitelaw reveal how America's top spies are attempting the most sweeping reforms since the intelligence community's creation nearly 60 years ago. The investigation is based, in part, on interviews with nearly two dozen senior intelligence officials -- including Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden. Among the findings: classified budget figures reveal the US intelligence budget has more than doubled in the last eight years; nearly 100,000 people work in the intel community -- including 17,000 analysts; reformers are opening to US allies some of the goverment's most classified computer networks, including the Pentagon's backbone warfighting SIPRNET system; and FBI agents are now being trained in CIA case officer tradecraft at the "Farm," the CIA's top-secret training campus.

Mine deaths avoidable

Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette analyzed government reports and data and found that 9 out of every 10 coal mining deaths nationwide over the last 10 years could have been avoided if existing safety rules had been followed. Ward's report, the first in a series of special investigative stories, appeared in Sunday's Gazette-Mail.

"Lead Astray"

In a piece for MotherJones, CIR correspondents Sara Shipley Hiles and Marina Walker Guevara reveal how the St. Louis-based firm, Doe Run, expanded its operations abroad at a time when it was facing increasing scrutiny and regulation in the United States, milking money from its Peruvian operation while claiming it couldn't afford to finish its mandatory cleanup plan there. Meanwhile, ninety-nine percent of La Oroya's children are lead-poisoned - a price some families think they have to pay to put food on the table.

Citizenship for sale

Reporter Jeff Burnside and Investigative Producer Scott Zamost of Miami's WTVJ/NBC 6 spent four months investigating why thousands of immigrants from around the country are flocking to South Florida to buy memberships in an obscure Indian tribe. A man on probation for a pyramid scheme is selling memberships in the Pembina Nation Little Shell Band of North Dakota, telling people they can stay and work in the United States, even if they are here illegally. An immigration official, shocked by the findings, said "you can't buy your way into the United States." NBC 6 went undercover to go inside the multi-million dollar operation being run from a suburban storefront office. In the two-part investigation called "Citizenship For Sale, Burnside traveled to North Dakota where he found the tribe's real chief, who criticized the scheme, which is already drawing the attention of federal and state authorities.

Academic assessment industry gets failing grade

David Glovin and David Evans report on "Tests that Fail" for the December issue of Bloomberg Markets. Their story exposes egregious faults in the $2.8 billion academic assesment industry. Regularly, the largest testing companies make errors in grading and scoring exams - from mistakenly failing over 4,000 aspiring teachers on the national Praxis exam to sending out over 5000 incorrect SAT scores. "One reason for the testing foul-ups and their dire effects is that there's no federal oversight of the testing industry."

Criminals make big money on eBay

Debbie Dujanovic and Kelly Just of KSL-TV (Utah) uncovered an organized ring of thieves who cased neighborhoods, stole property and then unloaded it on eBay. eBay provides an easy outlet for the stolen goods, as it does not have a policy of doing background checks on sellers or policing individual transactions.

Hydrant repair and inspection delinquent in some Washington cities

Chris Halsne of KIRO-TV looked at 50,000 hydrant repair records in Seattle and the surrounding area and found that firefighters encountered malfunctions in 10% of area hydrants when they arrived to use them. In addition to malfunctions, the records indicated that proper inspections were not taking place. The National Fire Protection Association dictates that all hydrants are inspected once a year, yet the KIRO investigation turned up some hydrants that hadn't been inspected in 10 years. A map of hydrants in the region - inlcuding inspection records - can be found here.

Remaking U.S. Intelligence: Hubs, Outreach, Blogs, and Wikis

David E. Kaplan and Kevin Whitelaw released Part One of a series in U.S. News & World Report on how reformers are trying to remake the U.S. intelligence community. In this week's issue, Whitelaw presents the first in-depth portrait of the secretive National Counterterrorism Center, which acts as the hub for foreign and domestic intel on terrorism and sifts through up to 5,000 terrorist suspect names each day. Kaplan reveals the intelligence world's most ambitious outreach effort since the height of the Vietnam War, with U.S. intelligence spending millions of dollars to generate new ideas from college campuses, corporate America, and the non-profit world. Kaplan also reports on the boom in wikis and blogs in U.S. intelligence, including the Intellipedia, the CIA Wiki, and 1700 CIA blogs.

Air defense system behind schedule and over budget

Michael Fabey of Aerospace Daily & Defense Report writes that the Air Force's planned defense system meant to protect the US against a repeat of 9/11-type aviation attacks is 2 years behind schedule and millions over budget. In the meantime, the US relies on NORAD Contingency Suite - the interim system put in place immediately following 9/11 - which marries FAA radars with militariy Air Defense Sectors to more thoroughly monitor US airspace.