Extra! Extra!

Casino licenses granted without adequate background checks

Matt Birkbeck and Christina Gostomski of The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa) report that the Gaming Control Board is giving out casino licenses to owners and suppliers of Pennsylvania's casino industry without checking each person's complete criminal background. Though the original plan was to have the Pennsylvania State Police control the investigations because only law enforcement agencies can gain access to sensitive information, "such as whether an applicant has ties to the mob or is being looked at by the FBI." However, the background checks were instead left to the responsibility of a "new investigative bureau that doesn't have the authority to obtain nonpublic protected criminal and intelligence information." The full report details the history of this controversy and what problems have arisen as a result of it.

Investigation leads to recall of deadly crib

An investigation by the Chicago Tribune prompted the Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall popular cribs sold under the Simplicity and Graco brand names from 1997 to 2008. Maurice Possley of the Tribune found numerous complaints about a drop rail that "can detach from the crib's frame, creating a dangerous gap that has led to the deaths of at least three children." After Possley found a victim's family - two years after the baby's death - the commission sent an investigator to examine the faulty crib and issued a recall three days later.

Speculators driving foreclosures in Nevada

Southern Nevada's foreclosure rates are the nations highest, due primarily to investors walking away from their property. "Roughly 85 percent of actual auctions or repossessions of homes from March 1 through Aug. 31 involved properties not occupied by their owners," according to a report by Jeff German, Steve Kanigher and Alex Richards of the Las Vegas Sun. They were able to identify the investor-owned homes from owner-occupied foreclosures using property tax records. The story includes a map of Las Vegas-area properties that have either been auctioned or repossessed since January 2006.

A matter of life and death

Citing arbitrary and unfair practices in Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court disbanded the death penalty nationwide thirty-five years ago. The death penalty was ultimately reinstated with promises of reform but The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says application the application of the death penalty remains "as predictable as a lightning strike." Reporters spent two years investigating the reasons for the inconsistencies.

Billions disappear in Baghdad

An investigation by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele in the October issue of Vanity Fair traces $12 billion in U.S. currency which was sent from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad between April 2003 and June 2004. While some of the money was spent on special projects and ministries, Barlett and Steele report that over $9 billion is missing. "Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled." The story is accompanied on the web by a Q&A with Barlett and Steele.

Credit card promotions profitable for two Iowa universities

Clark Kauffman of the Des Moines Register reported in a two-part series that Iowa's two largest public universities are aggressively marketing credit cards to their students as part of an arrangement that generates millions of dollars for the schools' privately run alumni organizations. Records obtained by the Register showed that while the schools and their alumni have kept secret the details of their arrangement with Bank of America, they have given the bank access to mailing addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of students, parents and people who buy tickets to football and basketball games. One of the schools has used coaches and student athletes to promote the cards, promising the biggest spending cardholders lunches with football players and private, 90-minute Q&A sessions with coaches.

The football injury to die for

Most high-school football players aren't concerned about concussions, nor would they tell their coach if they got one. However, Alan Schwarz of The New York Times, gives some compelling arguments for why they should be a lot more concerned. According Schwarz's investigative report, teenagers who receive a second blow to the head following a first, even benign, injury can very easily slip into a "metabolic chain of events," winding up in a coma or even dying. At least 50 high school football players have been killed or have sustained serious head injuries on the field since 1997.

Fugitives evade Tennessee authorities

Tennessee has let more escaped fugitives slip through its judicial cracks than almost any other state. In fact, convicts on the run have murdered at least nine people during the past 30 years, all due to a system not equipped to handle fugitives who get out of state custody. In a series, bolstered by in-depth multimedia, The Tennessean finishes the investigation that staff began last December. They track the stories of more than 200 men and women who escaped from the state prison system since the 1930s. The articles relate personal stories of victims, explore the failure to bring fugitives to justice, and explain the issues facing the prison system.

Series investigates Twin Cities groundwater

In a three-part series that began Sunday, Sept. 16, David Shaffer of the Star Tribune analyzed databases and pollution reports to identify 20 areas of significant groundwater contamination in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region. Most of them are located in the suburbs, and some pose a serious threat to drinking water supplies. The series looks at the costly and seemingly endless effort it takes to filter the underground pollution and its toll on people and communities.

Chronic Polluters, Tainted Waters

Josh Kovner and Regine Labossiere of The Hartford Courant conducted a two-month investigation into the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's lax enforcement of the federal Clean Water Act. They found that 17 of 35 companies covered by the Act are dumping toxic chemicals into the state's waterways under permit limits that have expired, some more than 10 years ago. The Courant also found Connecticut takes little action against violators, including companies that dump lead and cyanide at levels up to 200 percent above what is permitted.

US exports unsafe products

While much hoopla was made of the recall of certain Chinese-made products by the Consumer Product Safety Division, United States companies have been allowed to export unsafe products overseas, according to a report by Russell Carrollo of The Sacramento Bee. These items included very flammable children’s clothing, toys and wax crayons with toxic chemicals in them and other goods banned in the U.S., but deemed fit to ship.

CEOs of healthcare nonprofit netting top dollars

The Honolulu Advertiser examined nonprofit salaries and reported that "the largest healthcare nonprofits in Hawai'i pay their chief executive more than $820,000 on average. Large foundations and trusts in Hawai'i pay an average of $341,000 to their top manager. Executives at a sampling of service providers were paid the least, averaging $133,100." The healthcare companies say competition and job performance played a role in the high salaries, but critics say executive pay is inflating health care costs.

Poughkeepsie firms benefit from government grants

The Poughkeepsie Journal used an analysis of federal data to find that "United States government agencies paid $39.4 million through federal contracts to more than 150 local businesses, nonprofits and individuals in the two most recent fiscal years." While there has been a trend nationally of larger corporations receiving more grants at the expense of smaller companies, the Poughkeepsie area has experienced growth.

Federal contract data is available from the IRE and NICAR Database Library.

Animal shelter practices questioned

Sarah Okeson of Florida Today investigated the Brevard County animal services department after questions have been raised about how the Animal Services & Enforcement Department is being run. Allegations include one employee who has been illegally selling animals from the shelters. An audit found that the ownership records of 43 animals were changed in the department's database with no other documentation other than a sticky note, and that whereabouts of at least 29 animals are unknown.

Railroads of Neglect

A Blue Line train bounced off its track and derailed in a fire that sent 1,000 passengers running for their lives in July 2006. Jon Hilkevitch and Monique Garcia of the Chicago Tribune read thousands of pages of investigative files and transcribed interviews of Chicago Transit Authority workers after the accident. Their story describes the gross lack of management and oversight by the nation's second-largest transit system, including interviews with workers who say they wrote their concerns on the walls of the subway because their superiors did not want to hear about the hazardous conditions.

BusinessWeek tallies payoff from lobbying

BusinessWeek notes that, while scrutiny of federal earmarks and corporate lobbying has intensified recently,"no one outside the lobbying firms and corporate boardrooms has ever known just how much all those lobbyists bring in." Based on an analysis of nearly 2,000 earmarks that went to companies in fiscal 2005, the story by Eamon Javers estimates that, on average, companies generated roughly $28 in earmark revenue for every dollar they spent lobbying.

Perks grew while budgets shrank in three Florida counties

With tax cuts and the real estate bust forcing local governments to slash their budgets, Doug Sword, Anthony Cormier and Patrick Whittle of the Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Fla.) looked at spending in three local sheriff's agencies. They found a number of questionable expenses, such as a luxury SUV for Sarasota's sheriff with upgrades like climate controlled leather seats and a $2,000 navigation system. Here are the stories for the counties of Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee.

Officer's record leads courts to re-evaluate misconduct policies

Gina Barton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mined court records to find ten similar cases alleging that Jason Mucha, a Milwaukee Police officer, had beaten suspects or planted drugs. Despite the claims of misconduct, Officer Mucha had never been disciplined. Instead, the department promoted him to sergeant. After reviewing the cases, a state Court of Appeal issued a groundbreaking ruling that has changed the way Wisconsin courts consider police misconduct cases.

Flex-Fuel fleet remains shrouded in secrecy

Kimberly Kindy, reporting for the San Jose Mercury News and the Sacramento bureau of MediaNews, adds more on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempts to create a fleet of environmentally friendly vehicles, which earned him international recognition but also handed a single-source contract to General Motors, a longtime political supporter. The latest story describes how the governor's administration has repeatedly refused to release documents that reveal the level of its involvement in crafting this fleet. In July, Kindy reported that the "green" cars still burn normal gasoline because they have no access to the cleaner ethanol blend, E85.

Accuracy of 9/11 health reports debated

Anthony DePalma and Serge F. Kovaleski of The New York Times explore questions about the health data reported by the Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, which has overseen the treatment of thousands of ground zero workers. While the clinic's efforts have been called "well meaning," the resources needed to track and report data have been inadequate and caused many to question the accuracy of their findings. "Researchers in this field say that the clinic's data collection was so badly planned that its usefulness may be limited. Others say that doctors at the clinic, which has strong historical ties to labor unions, have allowed their advocacy for workers to trump their science by making statements that go beyond what their studies have confirmed."

Youth programs vulnerable to internal theft

San Diego Union-Tribune reporters Leonel Sanchez and Brent Schrotenboer looked into employees stealing money from non-profit organizations taking a cue from the case of Pamela Sue Adams, who was sentenced to a year in jail for embezzling as much as $131,000 from the non-profit Friends of Jamul-Dulzura Schools. The newspaper asked for information on similar cases in 42 school districts, with six reporting back that they had investigated missing funds, as well as problems in four youth sports groups.

Repair funds not keeping up with aging bridges

In the wake of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Patrick Garmoe of the Duluth News Tribune reported on how age has affected bridges in the St. Louis County area of Minnesota. As the costs of repairing the bridges increased, 11 bridges in St. Louis County have been rated "fracture-critical" and at risk of collapse. The News Tribune also reported on guidelines drafted by the county for determining when a bridge should be closed.

Focus intensifying on Toledo point-shaving scandal

ESPN.com reporters Mike Fish and George J. Tanber investigate the point-shaving scandal involving a University of Toledo football player. Harvey "Scooter" McDougle would have been a senior this season, but his implication in a gambling ring has likely ended his chances at playing football again, college or pro. The report includes a list of four possible games in question, in which players including quarterback Bruce Gradkowski had questionable performances.

Hotel security linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery

Robert Gammon of East Bay Express investigated the private security officers at the Oakland Marriott and found links between their firm and the Black Muslim clan believed to be responsible for the murder of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. Despite initial denials from the Mariott's spokesman, public records revealed a history of connections between UD Security, the firm employed by the Marriott, and Your Black Muslim Bakery founded by Yusef Bey nearly forty years ago. East Bay Express's Chris Thompson reported extensively on the troubled history of Yusef Bey's corrupt empire in 2002. Thompson's coverage was recently discussed on On the Media.