Extra! Extra!

Sports "doctor" under investigation

Mike Fish of ESPN.com reports that Mack Henry "Hank" Sloan, who runs an Atlanta clinic with a clientele of sports stars, is under investigation for allegedly practicing medicine without a license. "The 36-year-old Sloan calls himself a naturopath, a practitioner of a medical discipline that emphasizes holistic approaches to enhance the body's innate ability to recover. Naturopathy is licensed in only 14 states, but not Georgia." Fish reports that some high-profile patients were not aware that "Dr. Sloan" is not a licensed physician. Sports medicine experts also question Sloan's treatments to speed athletes' recovery.

Lottery sales slow in North Carolina

The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer analyzed North Carolina lottery data and found that fewer outlets and lower prizes accounted for the slow sales in the new state lottery. J. Andrew Curliss and news researcher Paulette Stiles found "the number of outlets for every resident in North Carolina is significantly behind the saturation levels of the nation's best-selling lottery states." They also noted fewer players in areas that would not receive substantial benefits from lottery revenue distributed to schools.

California Department of Justice Hid Millions in Contracts

Michael R. Blood of the Associated Press found that the California Department of Justice improperly concealed tens of millions of dollars worth of contracts with lobbyists, consultants, legal firms - even couriers and parking garages - in violation of its own confidentiality rules. "An internal agency review, conducted at AP's request, found information on scores of contracts, many of them no-bid, was erroneously labeled "confidential" and omitted from computerized state records, shielding it from public view." Among the wrongly classified contracts included two no-bid contracts, worth as much as $489,000, for Washington lobbyists The Ferguson Group, more than $1 million in no-bid contracts for parking spaces for agency workers and a $132,000 contract to the research group WestEd of San Francisco for a survey of students.

NFL On A Diet

Thomas Hargrove of Scripps Howard News Service found that the average weight of NFL athletes dropped more than a pound last year, reversing a 20-year trend in which pro football's behemoths steadily gained bulk at the rate of more than a pound per man per year. According to the Scripps Howard News Service study of the official rosters of 1,739 active players, 19 of the NFL's 32 teams are lighter than they were a year ago. "The total number of really big players who weigh 325 pounds or more has dropped from 95 in 2005 to 85 on the current rosters." This year the two lightest teams in the NFL - the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears - will face each other in Sunday's Super Bowl. The study also found that the total number of really big players who weigh 325 pounds or more has dropped from 95 in 2005 to 85 on the current rosters. Also see the team-by-team analysis.

Wisconsin judges hear cases despite conflicts

Geoff Davidian of Milwaukee Magazine identified Wisconsin judges who frequently try cases involving companies in which they hold investments. Davidian analyzed all civil cases in Milwaukee from the beginning of 2004 through the first eight months of 2006 and checked them against the financial interest statements filed by the judges with the Wisconsin Ethics Board. The results show 202 cases in which judges had a financial conflict, including 54 cases involving Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Dwyer.

Probation Officers Overworked in Douglas County

Ron Knox of The Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World reported that probation officers in Douglas County were among the most overworked in the state - and by far the most overworked in similar judicial districts, based on his analysis of a state probation caseload database. Knox compared the number of adult and juvenile cases with the number of probation officers in each district to show that Douglas County probation officer manage "twice what the average probation officer around the state has to manage — making the officers’ jobs difficult."

Dodging Doomsday

Sam Roe of The Chicago Tribune exposes the story of America's efforts to recover uranium that the U.S. government distributed to other nations in its Cold War-era "Atoms for Peace" program. The enriched uranium, suitable for making bombs, still circulates in politically unstable countries. "Today, roughly 40 tons of the material remains out of U.S. control--enough to make more than 1,400 nuclear weapons," Roe reports. He gained exclusive access to archives and interviews with an Argonne National Laboratory scientist who led the recovery efforts for decades. The stories also draw on congressional testimony, previously classified records, research papers and reports, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iowa drivers dodge high fines, license penalties

The Des Moines Register used data on driving-related offenses in Iowa to identify 78,000 people who owe at least $500 in fines. Reporter Lee Rood and data analyst Michael Corey found "The outstanding debt that all Iowans owe for everything from overdue speeding tickets to drunk driving fines to law enforcement surcharges is at a record high: $438.7 million." With stiff state penalties, the rate of sanctions against drivers' licenses have nearly doubled in 10 years. The online package also includes video and a searchable database of drivers who owe fines.

License to Carry

In a four-part series, Megan O'Matz and John Maines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examined Florida's concealed weapons law and found that licenses have been issued to hundreds of people who, due to their criminal histories, wouldn't stand a chance of getting them in most other states. Courts have found them responsible for assaults, burglaries, sexual battery, drug possession, child molestation - even homicide. The newspaper obtained a database of 443,425 names of licensees before the state passed a privacy law last July 1 closing the records.

Migration patterns mapped

The Charlotte Observer and charlotte.com published stories and interactive maps that show county-to-county migration in North Carolina and across the U.S. The report highlighted the trend of upstate New Yorkers moving to the Charlotte region. An accompanying map is based on the most recent five years of IRS county migration data. Click on any county, and you get a table and a thematic map of county flows to or from that county.

No Defense: Shortcut to Death Row

Stephen Henderson, Supreme Court correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, evaluated the quality of defense lawyering in four states, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia in a three-part series based on in-depth review of 80 cases from 1997 to 2004. By failing to investigate their clients' histories, lawyers in these 73 cases fell far short of the 20-year-old professional standards set by the American Bar Association. Their performances also appear inconsistent with standards that the U.S. Supreme Court has mandated several times."

Ohio workers comp probe continues

In a three-part series, Steve Eder and James Drew of The (Toledo) Blade report that, since early 2004, the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation has failed to fully investigate allegations of kickbacks and fraud in its managed-care section. The report, "Falling Down on The Job," is the latest installment in The Blade's two-year investigation into the state-managed workers' compensation system, which unearthed Ohio's "Coingate" scandal and resulted in numerous criminal convictions and reforms.

Nail salon violations on the rise in Florida

Mc Nelly Torres of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that state inspectors issued 163 citations for violations at nail salons from June 2005 to July 2006, compared to 99 in 2003 to 2004. Torres examined three years of inspection data for salons that received citations from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and found "ignoring sanitation rules, failing to use disinfectant to sterilize tools, storing dirty instruments with clean ones and, in some cases, allowing unlicensed employees to work for months."

Email reveals Port of Seattle police scandal

Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer expose an explicit email and Internet scandal within the Port of Seattle Police Department. The reporters used public records requests to obtain internal investigation documents and personnel records showing that nearly one-third of the Port's police force sent, received and exchanged racist, sexist and explicit emails over a 16-month period. Through other documents and interviews, the P-I discovered the inappropriate use of public computers and similar questionable actions by officers has remained unchecked and part of the department's culture for years.

Dead still hold parking spots

Eric Herman, Stephanie Zimmermann and Art Golab of the Chicago Sun-Times investigated a city program that allows residents to request handicapped parking spots near their homes. A computer-assisted analysis found at least 260 dead people on the list of 11,423 participants. "Throughout the summer and fall, the Sun-Times visited the sites of all 260 active permits held by dead people. In neighborhoods around the city, vehicles were parked in those spots, including cars with out-of-state plates, a contractor vehicle, a Dumpster, and in several cases, cars whose owners had transferred the deceased permit holders' placards to their own dashboards."

Gates Foundation investments scrutinized

Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon of the Los Angeles Times explore the investments held by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and found that it "reaps vast profits every year from companies whose actions contradict its mission of improving society in the United States and around the world, particularly the lot of people afflicted by poverty and disease." The two-part series highlights the conflicts created by its "blind-eye investment strategy" dictated by profit rather than its philanthropic priorities. "At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health [in the Niger Delta], The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France -- the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe."

Auto execs' flight costs questioned

Steve Wilson of WXYZ-Detroit looked into Big Three auto executives' use of corporate jets for personal trips, despite cost-cutting pressures in the industry. The story estimated that non-business travel for a handful of top leaders costs in the neighborhood of $700,000 annually at both Ford and GM.

A Hidden Shame

Alan Judd and Andy Miller of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution presented the first in a series of reports on Georgia's system of state psychiatric hospitals. Reporters used state vital records and death data, autopsy reports and claims filed against the state to flag 115 suspicious deaths among patients in state custody in the past five years. "This study revealed a pattern of neglect, abuse and poor medical care in the seven state hospitals, as well as a lack of public accountability for patient deaths."

Watchdogs at Work

Leann Frola interviewed six award-winning investigative journalists for Poynter Online to find out how they continue to produce high-quality investigative journalism despite industry cut-backs. The interviewees include IRE Executive Director Brant Houston, former board president Deborah Nelson and former board member Stuart Watson.

Campaign Consultants: The Price of Democracy

The Center for Public Integrity investigated campaign spending for the 2003-2004 federal elections and found that the majority of the money being spent on campaigns is going to campaign consultants. In the 2003-2004 election cycle, approximately 600 consultants were paid $1.85 billion, with 65% of that money going to media consultants.

Taxpayers foot bill to insure contractors in Iraq

Joseph Neff of The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., that the U.S. government is responsible for paying insurance premiums and benefits for all private contractors working in Iraq. "These insurance policies differ from conventional workers' comp in one major way: Domestic workers' comp is heavily regulated and analyzed, but the contractors' insurance is not. The U.S. Department of Labor monitors the number of claims and resolves disputes over benefits, but it has no authority over pricing of availability." Currently, there are about 100,000 private contractors working in Iraq.

Durham, N.C. fails to report lead detected in tap water

Michael Biesecker of The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., reports that the city of Durham failed to inform state regulators that there was tainted drinking water in the area. A report submitted in October claimed that the city's drinking water met federal standards despite the fact that several tests detected lead in the tap water. "Durham officials acknowledged this week that they failed to disclose at least 20 test results from seven homes to state regulators, a violation of federal rules."

Paper trail of questionable management plagues New Jersey medical school

An article by Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger uncover new scandals at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). After a long legal battle with the University, the Star-Ledger obtained documents which "paint a picture of a state institution in which high-paid administrators chased state grants they didn't need, built buildings that now seem pointless and embarked on bizarre schemes -- like moving a bioterror lab without telling the officials who funded it."

Sago Anniversary

On the anniversary of the Sago Mine explosion, The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette continues to probe safety issues behind the blast that killed 12 miners. Ken Ward Jr. reports that "the Sago disaster might not have happened if regulators and the coal industry had heeded the warnings... from a series of other lightning-induced explosions in the U.S. and abroad dating back more than 30 years, federal and state investigators have learned."

Foreclosing the American Dream

An ongoing series by Jeff Roberts, David Olinger, Greg Griffin and Aldo Svaldi of The Denver Post "examines why the state's foreclosure rate leads the nation and how it is affecting Coloradans, their communities and the economy." A computer-assisted analysis revealed a problems in neighborhoods where builders acted as lenders.