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Foreclosure hot spots in Phoenix area

The I-Team of KNXV-Phoenix investigated the growing trend of foreclosures in Phoenix area and found "hot zones" where foreclosure rates are highest. Joe Ducey and investigative producer Dan Siegel showed that in one area of West Phoenix, 1,050 homes have gone into foreclosure since January 2006. Affordable housing purchased with adjustable rate mortgages are at the center of the foreclosure trend. When property values surged, homeowners refinanced "cashing out equity, often more than their homes were really worth."

IRE and NICAR performed the data analysis for this story.

Chicago's drug war toughest on minorities

A Chicago Tribune analysis of federal data shows that enforcement efforts in the the war on drugs hits minorities far harder than whites. Darnell Little reports that inner-city dealers are hit much harder than the more discrete dealings in suburban areas. Prison populations also reflect harsher penalties for minorities. Analysis of Chicago's predominantly African-American neighborhoods revealed that "97 percent of East Garfield Park, 99 percent of West Garfield Park, 98 percent of Woodlawn, 96 percent of Englewood and 82 percent of Austin fall within 'safe zones'" — designated areas that are covered by mandatory sentencing rules.

Attendance discrepancies skew economic impact figures

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel reports that inaccurate attendance reports could be skewing the economic impact that sports venues have in the community seeing as though turnstile counts are often lower than the published "official attendance" numbers. As the County Commission in Orange County, Fla. prepare to consider a $1.1 billion plan for a new downtown arena, they face concerns that discrepancies in attendance prevent an accurate assessment of the venue's potential economic impact.

Fresno suffers more power outages than neighboring communities

California and other states require investor-owned utilities to publish reliability statistics, including the number of minutes the average customer goes without power each year. Brad Branan of the Fresno Bee looked at those numbers to find that "customers in the Fresno division of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. go without power longer than those in most areas served by the utility in Central and Northern California, according to a report the utility filed with state regulators." Statistics from the past year show that Fresno experience 34% more outages than average for communities served by PG&E. California's reliability reports can be found here.

Abuses at Texas state schools go unpunished

A Dallas Morning News investigation into disciplinary records of employees at state schools for the mentally retarded " found hundreds of cases of abuse at the hands of those charged with caring for the mentally retarded – everything from extreme physical violence to flagrant neglect." Yet records are not kept regarding criminal charges filed as a result of abuse. Emily Ramshaw reports that while many reports of abuse find their way to county DAs, very few are considered serious enough to prosecute. "Little fear of criminal punishment, combined with low-paid staffers who receive only cursory training, appear to create an environment in which abuse can thrive, advocates say."

Overtime tops $500 million in California state prisons

Inmate overcrowding and the increasing number of staff vacancies in California's prisons are spiking overtime costs for the state's corrections department, which spent more than half a billion dollars last year on overtime pay, according to analysis of payroll records by the San Francisco Chronicle. Tom Chorneau and Todd Wallack report that the surge -- a 35 percent increase from the agency's overtime bill in 2005 -- comes as the department prepares for a major expansion of the prison system. The Chronicle analysis found that almost 15 percent of the department's 56,000-member workforce earned at least $25,000 in overtime in the last calendar year -- more than eight times the amount paid to the average state worker over the same period.

Shriners investigation

Over a year ago, online investigative reporter Sandy Frost began digging into whistleblower’s allegations that executives of the Shriners Hospitals for Children used their positions of public trust for private gain. Frost researched thousands of pages of tax returns, meeting minutes, and public documents to find that the Shriners have, at the very least, failed to file accurate and complete tax returns. The 17-part investigation published on Newsvine.com can be viewed here.

Without limitations, campaing cash spent freely in Oregon

The Oregonian's Ryan Kost reports that Oregon lawmakers chose not to place limitations on how campaign money could be spent despite promised campaign finance ethics reforms. Two proposed laws limiting how campaign contributions could be spent were never passed, thus it remains legal to spend campaign monies on other things - from candy to airfare. "The Oregonian reviewed the more than 2,000 self-reported expenses legislators made between Jan. 8 and June 28, when the Legislature was in session. About one-fourth of the money spent -- $160,000 -- went to campaign-related expenses such as ads, mailers and polling; the remaining $415,000 went to expenses that seemed to be more closely tied to their legislative duties."

Cities liability records expose wide disparities

A quick-hit investigation by Marc Davis of The Virginian-Pilot looked at city liablitiy records and found "Virginia Beach paid 84 homeowners and businesses a total of $457,000 to fix damages or repay plumbing fees for sewer backups in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Among the other four cities - Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk - none has paid for more than 13 claims of sewer backup repairs over the same three years. And none has paid more than $48,000 total - roughly one-tenth of Virginia Beach's total."

Pentagon dismissed requests for mine-resistant vehicles

The Pentagon failed in its efforts to protect troops in Iraq, according to an investigation by Peter Eisler, Blake Morrison and Tom Vanden Brook of USA TODAY. The Pentagon has known for years that Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles could save lives for soldiers on patrol and in combat, but ignored appeals for such vehicles. USA TODAY found that the first requests for MRAPs came from Marines in December 2003. It was not until two months ago that the Pentagon finally backed supplying MRAPs for U.S. troops with thousands on order at a cost of nearly $2.4 billion. Some officials blame delays on adopting the MRAP for troop use on the belief that the war would not last this long.

WARN Act riddled with loopholes

In a four-part series, James Drew and Steve Eder of The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade report that a 19-year-old federal law that requires companies to give notice to workers losing their jobs is so full of loopholes and flaws that employers repeatedly skirt it with little or no penalty. A Blade analysis of 226 lawsuits filed in federal courts since 1989 revealed that judges threw out more than half of the cases alleging violations of the Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act. In the majority of those decisions, judges cited loopholes in the law, ranging from companies that said they tried their best to give notice to employees to firms that claimed they couldn't predict bad financial times. A day after The Blade's series began, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown introduced a bill to overhaul the law.

Computer security issues plague Boeing financial records

Andrea James and Daniel Lathrop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigated security problems with Boeing's computer system which leaves it vulnerable to manipulation, theft and fraud. The issues relate to Boeing's failure to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, "a wide-ranging law aimed at preventing stockholder rip-offs such as the Enron scandal from happening again." For the past three years, Boeing has failed to prove its system is in compliance with the S-O Act.

Subprime crisis looming in Pennsylvania

The latest report on subprime lending woes comes from The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. Reporters Tim Darragh and Matt Birkbeck predict that the worst is yet to come in the region. With their home prices pumped up to record levels, Lehigh and Northampton counties ranked first and second among Pennsylvania's 67 counties for growth in high-rate, subprime mortgages from 2004-2005, according to federal data."

Political speed zones

Sarah Okeson of Florida Today looked into a new law that sets up enhanced penalty zones in which drivers who speed get higher fines. Reviewing more than 1 million crashes in Florida from 2002 to 2005, she found that the speed zones aren't located in areas with the highest rates of speed-related crashes. The state officials in charge of the program didn't calculate the rates for speed-related crashes using numbers for how much traffic was on the roads. The law set up the zones in counties where the bill's top supporters lived.

Monitoring contractors' misconduct

The Project on Government Oversight unveiled a new version of its online Federal Contractor Misconduct Database. "The new database, which covers instances of misconduct from 1995 to the present, includes the source documents for each instance, drawing primarily from government documents," noted a POGO press release. The site reports that the top 50 firms took in business worth more than $177.8 billion and had misconduct penalties totaling over $12.5 billion.

Revisiting a conviction

Denver Post reporter Miles Moffeit investigated the "the largely unnoticed months-long battle over DNA testing and evidence preservation" created by efforts to overturn the murder conviction of Tim Masters. The Post will follow up with a four-part series on the loss and destruction of DNA evidence by authorities nationwide and how it's undermined justice for thousands of victims and more than 100 possibly wrongfully convicted prisoners. It's accompanied by documentary footage, including from inside evidence rooms that resemble dumps.

State pensions profit from nuclear waste, rogue states

Nevada's pension fund for state workers, legislators and judges holds investments in companies that have pushed to dump nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain— even though the state has fought to keep the shipments out. Steve Kanigher and Alex Richards of Las Vegas Sun discovered that the $23 billion portfolio, run by independent fund managers, holds hundreds of millions in controversial investments, such as companies that do business in Iran, which the United States accuses of sponsoring terrorists. The fund invests in firms accused by critics of war profiteering (Halliburton), using child labor (Nestle) and furthering toxic pollution (Newmont Mining Corp.)."

Prominent trainers cited for horse doping

All seven of the top horse trainers leading the national earnings list faced penalties for horses testing positive for ephedrine, bicarbonate loading or powerful painkillers in the past decade, a San Diego Union-Tribune investigation found. Reporter Brent Schrotenboer checked records for 20 successful trainers in Southern California; 12 had violations, including some in 2006. Trainers debate whether stringent testing rules penalize legitimate treatments or whether unethical practices are widespread.

Lawmakers try to save earmarks despite new spending bill

Earlier this year, Congress passed a major spending bill that it promoted as being stripped of all earmarks and a strike against pork-barrel spending. But even as the bill passed, a joint investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Los Angeles Times reveals top Democrats and members of both parties deluged government agencies with special requests to fund pet projects. CIR obtained congressional correspondence under the Freedom of Information Act showing 122 spending requests from 52 senators and 205 representatives in the wake of that "earmark-free" bill, including multiple letters from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. You can see the story from the Los Angeles Times here.

Contractors' murders blamed on Blackwater manager

The gruesome 2004 massacre of four Blackwater USA security guards is being blamed on their Baghdad site manager, Tom Powell, accoring to documents obtained by The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer. Joseph Neff reports that memos reveal the Bravo 2 and November 1 squads were commanded by Powell to go on a mission despite being undermanned and underprepared. Bravo 2 disregarded directions to drive through Fallujah, instead skirting the city, and returned safely to Baghdad. November 1 drove through Fallujah as directed and was ambushed. All four guards were killed in the attack. The News & Observer's extensive coverage of the Blackwater killings can be found here.

EXPOSÉ on the Web

Stay up to date on the latest season of EXPOSÉ, produced by WNET in New York and airing on PBS. The July 6 episode "Becoming the Story" looks at the San Francisco Chronicle's Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada and how they became enmeshed in the story of BALCO and Barry Bonds. You can find the broadcast schedule for your local PBS affiliate here. Keep up with the season on the accompanying series blog. Episodes can also be streamed online.

The Center for Investigative Reporting also offers several companion pieces on its blog The Muckracker: Reporters Notebook.

Boy Scouts executives splurge on conference

Tony Saavedra and Teri Sforza of The Orange County Register report on internal travel records showing that executives of the Boy Scouts ran up a tab of over $27,000 at a four-day conference in Key West, Fla. held last January. The Orange County Boy Scouts chapter picked up most of the tab, although they were reimbursed by other chapters within 30 days. Expenses included alcohol, greens fees and chartered fishing expeditions, some of which were reimbursed after The Register raised questions about the charges.

Taser use on the rise in Utah

The Salt Lake Tribune's Jeremiah Stettler looked at the rise in use of Tasers by Utah's police force and found that they are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice to subdue aggressive suspects. More than 4,200 Tasers have been distributed to officers in Utah's law enforcement agencies. Anaylsis of 180 cases where Tasers were deployed, showed that they are most frequently used upon those who resist arrest or struggle while in custody; fleeing suspects ranked second.

Nonprofit subsidizes Schwartenegger's lavish travel

Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Time reports that much of Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger's travel is billed to "an obscure nonprofit group that can qualify its secret donors for full tax deductions." Not only do watchdogs claim these write-offs are "abuse of tax codes," but they also create a loophole to limits on campaign finance contributions since charities are not governed by disclosure rules and donors can contribute an unlimited amount.

Equity stripping preys on desperate homeowners

With the housing market on the decline and foreclosures on the rise, a scheme known as equity stripping is taking advantage of vulnerable homeowners, The New York Times' Gretchen Morgenson and Vikas Bijaj report. Companies offer relief to those behind in their mortgage by offering "cash upfront, free monthly rent and a chance to retain their houses in the long run. But in the process, someone else takes over the deed, borrows as much as possible against the value of the house and pockets the cash. And, almost always, the homeowners still end up losing their homes."

Job-creation subsidies go unchecked

Steven Schultze and Joel Dresang of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that, while the state doles out hundreds of millions in subsidies to Wisconsin businesses for job creation, it fails to track if the money actually makes a difference. The Journal Sentinel investigation shows that thousands of promised jobs are not getting filled. Schultze and Dresang focused on 25 companies that got $80 million in subsidies. About 40 percent of the jobs they promised never materialized.

Suicide, substance abuse deaths high in Nevada

Analysis of the CDC's mortality data by Marshall Allen and Alex Richards of the Las Vegas Sun shows that residents of Nevada and Clark County "die younger and at higher rates of suicide, substance abuse and certain chronic illnesses compared with the rates nationally and in other large counties." Sociologists and medical professionals seek to understand what is behind these trends in Nevada.