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First Amendment & FOIA June 10, 2008 Overtime a strain on workers, county budgets Mary Beth Pfeiffer and John Ferro of the Poughkeepsie Journal compiled a two-part report examining overtime at the Dutchess and Ulster county governments. The report found correction officers and deputies at the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office earned $3.9 million in overtime in 2007 - a 21 percent increase from 2006 at a time when the sheriff's payroll grew by less than 4 percent overall, and that a nursing home accounted for more than one quarter of all overtime in Ulster County. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 27, 2008 Execution of unarmed Iraqi draws attention to military pressures Salon.com's Mark Benjamin and freelance journalist Christopher Weaver investigated the 2007 execution of Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi, an unarmed Iraqi prisoner. Three U.S. snipers were charged in the murder. "A review of thousands of pages of documents from the legal proceedings obtained by Salon shows that in the months prior to Khudair's death, the young snipers, already frustrated by guerrilla tactics, were pressed to their physical limits and pushed by officers to stretch the bounds of the laws of war in order to increase the enemy body count." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 19, 2008 Students investigate the suicide of a mentally-ill inmate A three-month investigation by journalism students at Humboldt State University looked into the suicide of James Lee Peters, a mentally-ill Native American inmate at Humboldt County Jail. With few people willing to talk, the students relied on public records obtained through the California Public Records Act to piece together what happened to Lee, and how the system failed him. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 15, 2008 D.C. security breaches An investigation by WTTG's Rick Yarborough and Tisha Thompson revealed serious security problems in the nation's capital. From the metal detectors that protect city government buildings to the firearms training of the D.C. Protective Service Police, WTTG's undercover and hidden camera investigations found serious security breaches. (Parts one, two, and three.) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 12, 2008 Race track deal emerged at great cost to taxpayers A Charlotte Observer investigation by Adam Bell revealed what happened behind the scenes after a race track owner threatened to move his speedway following a dispute with a community over plans to add a drag strip there. The billionaire owner landed $80 million in taxpayer incentives in exchange for staying in town. A review of more than 1,100 pages of previously confidential documents obtained under the NC Open Records Act, and interviews with more than two dozen people, detailed the lengths to which bickering local officials went to keep the track, including a last-minute decision that cost taxpayers an extra $20 million. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 06, 2008 Fatal RV flaws An investigation into RV safety by Chris Halsne, of KIRO (Seattle, Wash.), found that the government only requires "front-end crash and brake tests for the empty chassis." Data analysis revealed that many fatalities in RV accidents are the result of poorly secured interior elements, braking problems, and the weak structural integrity of the fiberglass and wood frames. In response to the investigation, the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association said, "NHTSA (The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) hasn't crash tested finished motor homes because they are fundamentally safe — there simply haven't been enough deaths to warrant the cost of purchasing and testing these types of vehicles." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 21, 2008 Pentagon emerges as puppeteer of favorable wartime coverage A report by David Barstow of The New York Times reveals how the Pentagon has used a cadre of retired military officers to "generate favorable news coverage of the [Bush] administration’s wartime performance...Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks." The Times successfully sued the Defense Department for over 8,000 pages of material that outlines the Pentagon's use of these analysts to "deliver administration 'themes and messages' to millions of Americans 'in the form of their own opinions.'" Many of the analysts have close ties to contractors operating in the war zone that are rarely disclosed in the context of their commentary. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Suicides in D.C. jail point to problems within Department of Corrections Brendan Smith of the Washington City Paper reports on two suicides in the Washington D.C. jail that revealed widespread misconduct and inadequate mental-health monitoring by corrections personnel. For ten months, the Director of the Department of Corrections fought a FOIA request for the reports from the internal-affairs investigations into the suicides. The reports showed that numerous personnel made false statements in an effort to cover-up wrongdoings by the DOC and Unity Health Care, the company contracted to provide psychiatric assessment and care within the jail. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 16, 2008 Accuracy questioned in military's hand-held lie detectors U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan will be issued hand-held lie detectors this month, but Bill Dedman of MSNBC.com uncovered conflicting evidence about their effectiveness. "The Defense Department says the portable device isn't perfect, but is accurate enough to save American lives by screening local police officers, interpreters and allied forces for access to U.S. military bases, and by helping narrow the list of suspects after a roadside bombing." The Pentagon, in a PowerPoint presentation released to msnbc.com through a Freedom of Information Act request, says the PCASS is 82 to 90 percent accurate. But other studies obtained by msnbc.com show that testers discarded inconclusive readings when calculating its accuracy. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 07, 2008 North Carolina selects university leaders in secret An investigation by Corey G. Johnson of the Fayetteville Observer finds that North Carolina is the only state in the nation that selects the top leaders of all its public universities in secret. The Observer surveyed every state university system and more than 50 individual universities in the U.S. and analyzed approximately 113 responses for the story. At least two state legislators, including the head of a subcommittee that reviews university matters, have agreed to look into tweaking the state's open meetings law to allow for disclosure - in response to the Observer's study. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 07, 2008 "Dangerous Drivers" Kevin Wack of the Portland Press Herald investigated the impact that drivers with suspended licenses are having on Maine roads. His series explores the dangers they pose and how efforts to address the problem are falling short. "The newspaper analyzed records from about 160,000 motor-vehicle crashes that occurred from 2003 to 2006 using a statewide database obtained through Maine's Freedom of Access Act; examined hundreds of individual driving records; and interviewed scores of motorists, victims, traffic safety researchers, policymakers and law enforcement officials." Accidents involving drivers with suspended licenses are six times more likely to be fatal; four times more likely to lead to an "incapacitating injury"; and 10 times more likely to involve alcohol or drugs. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 25, 2008 Porn sites exploit photos of high school athletes An investigation by Scott M. Reid and Dan Albano of The Orange County Register has revealed that photographs of unsuspecting high school athletes are being posted next to pornographic images on Internet sites. Investigators are tracking Web profiles and e-mail trails to determine the source of photos taken at water polo events. The discovery also raises questions about privacy and First Amendment rights. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 10, 2008 Separation of church and state blurred by former Utah governor Robert Gehrke of The Salt Lake Tribune reported that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt discussed incorporating Mormon doctrines and beliefs into state government when he was governor of Utah. When The Tribune started inquiring, Leavitt requested the state remove transcripts of his discussions from public display. PDFs of the minutes from the "seminary" meetings he held with other government officials are posted on The Tribune's website. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 07, 2007 Lobbyists see 'confidential' list of worst nursing homes The Des Moines Register reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has refused to publicly release its full list of the nation's worst-performing nursing homes, has shared that same information with lobbyists for the nursing home industry. Reporter Clark Kauffman writes that the federal agency has publicly identified only 54 of the 128 homes on its list of "special-focus facilities." The other 74 poor-performing homes have not been disclosed to seniors, their family members and advocates. Yet the American Health Care Association, which lobbies Congress on behalf of 10,000 care facilities nationwide, recently received the full list from CMS on the condition that it not be shared with the public. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 28, 2007 Plenty of holes in drug screening for college athletes A survey by The Salt Lake Tribune of Division 1-A schools exposed extreme differences in how drug-testing programs are administered from school to school. Through FOIA requests, The Tribune "requested detailed information on student-athlete drug testing programs administered by the schools themselves, separate from the NCAA." Findings show that broken systems allow students to abuse performance-enhancing drugs with little risk of being caught. The data gathered in the survey is available online. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 26, 2007 State data reveal high veteran suicide rates A five-month investigation by Armen Keteyian of CBS News uncovered a startling suicide rate for veterans. Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs keep accurate numbers on veteran suicide rates. CBS News requested suicide data from all 50 states dating back to 1995, and 45 states provided the information. In 2005, "there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That's 120 each and every week, in just one year." Among veterans 20 to 24 years of age, the suicide rate was two to four times greater than non-veterans of the same age. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 31, 2007 Twin Cities residents pocket farm subsidy payments Matt McKinney and Glenn Howatt of The Star Tribune report that millions in farm subsidies are being paid to people who live in urban areas, including some of the toniest neighborhoods of Minneapolis-St. Paul. "The flow of federal largesse comes thanks to rules that allow landowners — including some 2,000 in the metro area — to collect subsidies without farming the land themselves, a legal and increasingly common practice as farm ownership has consolidated over the past few decades." A current $280 billion farm bill before Congress aims for reform, but few expect real change. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 19, 2007 Illinois lags in tracking teachers' misconduct Scott Reeder, writing for Quad-CitiesOnline.com, found that Illinois ranked 49th in a nationwide analysis of disciplinary actions against teachers. The state has no system in place to investigate or flag teachers accused of misconduct. To determine how Illinois compares to other states, Small Newspaper Group obtained information on 20,000 cases of teacher licensure discipline from all 50 state departments of education. The newspaper group then built a computer database to analyze it." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 08, 2007 The assassination of Chauncey Bailey The San Francisco Chronicle published a two-part series beginning with a profile of murdered Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. His suspected killers are linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery, the subject of his last, still unpublished, investigation."Bailey, 57, became the first journalist assassinated in this country since 1993 — according to the Committee to Protect Journalists — his death the likely result of a chance encounter between two of his sources and a careless journalistic slip." The second story looks at the violence and corruption surrounding the downfall of the bakery's empire. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 06, 2007 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. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 29, 2007 Mohamed Atta and 9/11: The Secret FAA Files Eric Longabardi, reporting for "The Enterprise Report" at ERSNews.com, reports on the "secret FAA airmen files" of Mohamed Atta, the lead pilot in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The files, posted on the site, and additional exclusive materials provide details about the extensive flight training that helped Atta earn a commercial pilot's license in the U.S. Longabardi writes that the records show that Atta and his co-conspirators had far more sophisticated skills than previous media accounts acknowledged. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 27, 2007 Sunshine Laws disregarded by council members Beth Kormanik of The (Jacksonville, Fla.) Times-Union evaluated the daily calendars of city council members from June 1, 2005, to Dec. 1, 2006 and found dozens of meetings that violated Florida's open meetings laws. "The computer-assisted analysis documented 307 scheduled meetings, excluding committee and full council meetings. Forty-seven calendar listings dealt with specific items of city business such as the Cecil Field referendum, city contracts and downtown traffic but were held without prior public notice and without a written account of the proceedings." As a result of the investigation, State Attorney Harry Shorstein has recommended a grand jury investigation of the city council's open meeting practices, siting "a culture of blatant disregard." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 30, 2007 Collateral Damage - Human Rights and Military Aid after 9/11 The Center for Public Integrity has published "one of the most comprehensive resources on U.S. military aid and assistance in the post-9/11 era. 'Collateral Damage' couples the reporting of 10 of the world's leading investigative journalists on four continents with a powerful database combining U.S. military assistance, foreign lobbying expenditures, and human rights abuses into a single, easily accessible toolkit." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 09, 2007 Citizen Watchdog Jennifer LeFleur, computer-assisted reporting editor for The Dallas Morning News writes a online column every other week that helps readers understand how they can access, and benefit from, public records. An archive of her past columns can be found here. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 18, 2007 Unethical deals in N.J. school district John Froonjian of The Press in Atlantic City, N.J., dug into insurance contracts in the Pleasantville school district to uncover a web of insider deals and millions wasted in a struggling district that gets two-thirds of its funding from the state. The Press found that in Pleasantville, school board contracts, political fundraising and private jobs are intertwined. The process has produced apparent conflicts of interest, possible violations of the state's pay-to-play law, defiance of election-finance laws and potential violations of the federal law designed to protect personal medical information. The Press investigation followed a successful lawsuit to gain access to minutes of the school board's executive sessions, many of which were missing or had never been recorded. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 26, 2007 Toxic vapors threaten well-being of residents of Victor, NY The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, N.Y., presents stories from a two-month investigation into toxic vapor releases related to toxins improperly disposed of near Victor, N.Y., more than 17 years ago."State officials, drawing upon numerous visits and hundreds of water samples over the last 15 years, have mapped the damage: a mile-long plume of contaminated groundwater that underlies about 50 Victor homes and borders dozens of others. The principal contaminant, TCE [trichloroethene], can harm the central nervous, immune and reproductive systems, impair fetal development and cause cancer in people who are exposed to sufficient quantities." The Democrat and Chronicle website fleshes out the story with interactive graphics and links to documents related to the situation. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 23, 2007 AP found unauthorized classification of Caltrans contracts An investigation by the Associated Press uncovered that the California Transportation Department classified nearly 300 contracts worth over $13 million - and many of them not competitively bid - as confidential without proper authority. The General Services Department grants the authority to classify contracts. "The agency was unaware Caltrans listed confidential contracts in its records until notified by AP." An earlier AP investigation has found many California Justice Department contracts mistakenly labeled confidential, whic the CJD attributed to employee error. The issue of confidential contracts is being considered by a state Senate subcommittee to address concerns with how agencies track expenditures and improve transparency. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 20, 2007 Drug abuse, crime on rise among paramedics A special report by Andrew McIntosh of The Sacramento Bee reveals problems with paramedics and EMTs in the state of California. Substance abuse is on the rise among paramedics, including theft of morphine on hand to treat patients in the field. Additionally, lax oversight of the paramedic and EMT licensing systems have led to fired paramedics being rehired as EMTs. The story had led to state legistlative action to tighten the licensing process, as well as a criminal forgery charge related to licensing fraud in Santa Clara County. The package includes online copies of documents obtained under the California Open Records Act. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 19, 2007 Virginia vanity plates elicit complaints Aaron Lee of the Lynchburg (Va.) News & Advance used FOIA to obtain complaints to the state department of motor vehicles about vanity license plates that had been issued to Virginia drivers, as well as subsequent correspondence between the DMV and the plate holders. The story reveals a host of complaints against many of the vanity plates and detailed the process plate owners are faced with to keep their plates if they appeal. The News & Advance also discovered a surprising lack of oversight by the state when it came to issuing many plates in the first place. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 16, 2007 Florida requires no training for executioners Kevin Begos of The Tampa Tribune reports that executioners in Florida "aren't required to have training, certification or any qualifications other than being at least 18 years old, according to Florida's interpretation of lethal injection guidelines." The Tampa Tribune received a copy of the state's execution guidelines through a public records request. The protocol is under review, and executions have been suspended since December, after it took over 30 minutes for prisoner Angel Diaz to die "because the lethal chemicals missed his veins." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 22, 2007 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. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 16, 2006 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. " Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 28, 2006 SF Police spied on jounalists to find source of internal leak A.C. Thompson of SF Weekly reports on a scandal within the San Franciso Police Department, "a cloak-and-dagger investigation that may have transgressed the department's own rules - and definitely torched the careers of a pair of ethical police officers who dared to air their criticisms of the SFPD." Following the 2003 leak of an internal memo pertaining to a highly publicized police scandal, officers within the department responded by "covertly opening a vigorous criminal probe dedicated to discovering who leaked the Stansberry memo to the media. And during the course of the probe, a secret team, helmed by Morris Tabak, then head of the Special Investigations Division, gathered up a fat stack of documents: the records of more than 2,400 phone calls to and from journalists working in the Hall of Justice press room. " Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 22, 2006 Records reveal extensive White House access to some of Abramoff's cronies Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press reports that recently released Secret Service visitor logs reveal extensive "inside access" to presidential aides by Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, both of whom are linked to Jack Abramoff. The records indicate at least 115 appointments since 2001, some lasting upwards of 12 hours. The release of the records came about in a settlement of an open records lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee. "Questions about Norquist's and Reed's access to the Bush White House surfaced after congressional and criminal investigations of Abramoff found evidence suggesting the lobbyist and his team gained White House access through the conservative activists." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 18, 2006 NY business incentive program wasted millions Mike McAndrew of The Post-Standard used Empire Zone records obtained through Freedom of Information Law requests to show that New York's program to attract new business spent $84 million in recent years on out-of-state power companies with old and dirty facilities and little or no job growth. For instance, taxpayers paid $22 million to NRG Energy for one year, and it did almost nothing to deserve it. "The New Jersey company added one-half of one employee. It operated Upstate electric plants built decades ago by someone else. Two of these plants are the state’s worst polluters and a third rarely operates. " The paper is suing the state for more detailed records. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Lost opportunities in foster care Jenifer B. McKim of The Orange County Register writes about lost opportunities to save a 10-month-old foster child who was returned to his mother and brutally murdered. "The investigation found that nearly two dozen abused or neglected children who had been under protection of the Juvenile Court in Orange County have died over the past six years. Most died of illnesses or accidents, but some could have been saved. " The Orange County Register litigated for more than a year in Juvenile Court to get details of 23 children under court protection who died. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 21, 2006 Sexual misconduct and military recruiters Associated Press reporter Martha Mendoza reports on a probe into sexual misconduct by military recruiters. In a six-month investigation, the AP found "at least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees in 2005, according to records obtained by the AP under dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 04, 2006 Florida plans for potential Cuban exodus Kevin Begos, of the Tampa Tribune, reports that Florida has a plan in place to handle the potential influx of Cuban immigrants into the state. The Tribune obtained the state's Mass Migration Response plan through a public records request. Plans include "setting up long-term detention sites across the country" to help defray the logistical stress placed on Florida communities. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 10, 2006 $1 million grant issued to study restrictions on public records Richard Willing of USA Today reports that "The federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million. . .to produce a national "model statute" that state legislatures and Congress could adopt to ensure that potentially dangerous information 'stays out of the hands of the bad guys.'" The grant was included in this year's budget for the Defense Department by Congress, and will be administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 27, 2006 Workplace safety in Canada The CBC's investigative unit obtained data from workplace safety insurance boards across Canada to track top national trends in the workplace of today. "Canada's record for reducing workplace fatalities over the previous 20 years was the worst. The project looks at health-care workers, mines, fatalities by province, and more. Audio reports are included in the package. The CBC says the project, the first of its kind, "is the result of three years of research. Journalists with CBC's Investigative Unit navigated freedom of information laws and negotiated for data from workplace safety insurance boards across Canada." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 01, 2006 Farm subsidy payments in Denmark go up Farmsubsidy.org has released new data on farm subsidy payments, with an analysis by Nils Mulvad, co-founder of farmsubsidy.org and director of the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting, analyzed new data on farm subsidy payments in Denmark in 2005 and found that "the new Single Farm Payment Scheme has dramatically increased the number of farm subsidy recipients in Denmark, though many of these new recipients receive relatively small payments." "The Danish authority paid €1.3 billion to more than 70,649 recipients. There was a significant increase in the number of recipients compared to former years. Some 17,290 'first time' recipients were paid a total of DKK 440.645.234 or just less than 5 percent of all farm subsidies paid out over course of 2005." The Single Farm Payment Scheme also increased the concentration of payments among the largest recipients, with more than 80 percent of payments going to the top 20 percent of recipients. See the report of the new data. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 26, 2006 Airport screeners' ID and uniforms go missing Brian Collister, Stephen Kline and Mandi Johnston of WOAI-San Antonio analyzed records, obtained through FOIA, from the Transportation Security Administration and found that "more than 1,400 TSA employee ID badges and uniform items have been reported lost or stolen since 2003. " Noting that terrorists have used stolen badges and uniforms to pull off attacks overseas, the Department of Homeland Security issued several warnings to local, state and federal agencies to guard uniforms and badges in the past few years. But the investigation showed that the airport screeners, intended to keep you safe from terrorists, are actually making it easier for terrorists to strike again. See the full story as it was broadcast (approx. five minutes). Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 17, 2006 Troops kept on duty while mentally unfit Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman of The Hartford Courant used military investigative records to show that unsuitable practices handling troops mental health "have helped to fuel an increase in the suicide rate among troops serving in Iraq, which reached an all-time high in 2005 when 22 soldiers killed themselves — accounting for nearly one in five of all Army non-combat deaths." The investigation found that "at least 11 service members who committed suicide in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite exhibiting signs of significant psychological distress" and "the military is sending troops back into combat for second and third tours despite diagnoses of PTSD or other combat-related psychological problems." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Utility district spent ratepayers' money on sports Andrew McIntosh of The Sacramento Bee found that "the Sacramento Municipal Utility District has spent more than $1 million in ratepayers' money on partnership deals with the Sacramento Kings and Monarchs since 2002." The public utility's contracts with Maloof Sports, disclosed under the state's Public Records Act, offer a rare glimpse into an NBA team's advertising and sponsorship dealings with businesses — and the hospitality perks that go with such agreements. See the 2005 contract and 2003 contract. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 10, 2006 Brown's e-mails reveal FEMA reaction to Katrina Daniel Lathrop and John Perry of The Center for Public Integrity used FOIA to obtain e-mail records of former FEMA head Michael Brown, showing that "while many residents were awaiting rescue from rooftops or wading through toxic floodwaters, it was business as usual in the world of money, power and government inside the Washington beltway." The Center posted a PDF containing more than 900 pages of Brown's e-mails. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 02, 2006 Taxpayers subsidize college athletics Mark Alesia of The Indianapolis Star finds that "athletic departments at taxpayer-funded universities nationwide receive more than $1 billion in student fees and general school funds and services." The investigation analyzed the 2004-05 athletic budgets of 164 of the nation's 215 biggest public schools. The Star compiled and put online what is says is the "most detailed, publicly available database of college athletic department financial information ever assembled." The data comes from forms required by the NCAA for the 2004-05 school year that the paper obtained through freedom of information requests. Matt Moore, Mark Nichols, Chris Phillips, Ole Morten Orset, Ben Thomas, Jimmy Trodglen and Kandra Branam helped compile the data. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 17, 2006 Lines blurred in professors' taxpayer-funded research Matt Reed and John McCarthy of Florida Today examined university records to show that every day in Florida, state university professors work as consultants, expert witnesses and researchers-for-hire, earning thousands in fees. Most often, those faculty members work in their roles as public employees, sponsored by grants from corporations, local governments or trade groups. "But roughly one out of four professors also work side jobs as consultants or other specialists, pocketing extra annual income of $4,500 to more than $12,000, depending on their disciplines." The investigation found the work has gone uncharted for years. The newspaper found dozens of examples of research — economic-impact reports, in particular — commissioned by trade groups or special interests to help lobbying efforts. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 14, 2006 Sonics' owners are a secretive team Jim Brunner of The Seattle Times used public records to construct the most complete roster to date of the investors of Seattle's basketball team, the Sonics. "Some were announced when they bought the team in 2001; others were identified in public records or interviews. Several were recently confirmed by the team for the first time after repeated inquiries by the newspaper. " The team still will not identify about a dozen owners; some are family members of other owners. With a combined wealth in the billions, the owners represent a cross section of Pacific Northwest money and influence. It is a millionaires' club with solid political connections. Owners have contributed more than $2 million to state, federal and local campaigns since they bought the team. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Force used for minor offenses in boot camp Carol Marbin Miller of The Miami Herald used juvenile justice records and found that force was used against teenage boys in spite of nonviolent behavior at a Florida sheriff's boot camp. "In only eight of the 180 instances documented since January 2003 were the teenagers described as hitting guards, fighting with other youths, threatening to escape or trying to harm themselves." In many of the cases, the guards used the tactics despite written orders by Department of Juvenile Justice chief Anthony Schembri, who in June 2004 banned the use of physical force except in extreme situations. Juvenile justice experts who reviewed the documents at The Miami Herald's request said the treatment of the youths was unjustifiable. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post LA health officials slow to warn public Joel Grover of KNBC-Los Angeles looked through hundreds of internal health department records to show that even though people were contracting the Hepatitis A virus at well-known restaurants and at a catered lunch, the Los Angeles health department didn't issue a public warning for months. The investigation revealed that officials first learned of a reported outbreak in early September in downtown LA, including workers at a soup kitchen and by early October, there was another outbreak with at least 16 more people getting sick after eating at another restaurant. "Weeks later, at least 18 more people are infected on a movie set after eating food from Silver Grill catering." For months, while the Hepatitis A virus was spreading through LA, the health department didn't issue a single public warning. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 29, 2006 Public records request frightens workers Tamara Koehler of the Ventura County Star reports on the paper's public records audit showing that 40 percent of county government agencies failed to comply with requests. "Ventura Unified School District employees feared for their lives when a young man walked into the office, asked for public records and refused to give his name." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post High salaries, free spending at N.Y. agency Michelle Breidenbach of The (Syracuse, N.Y.) Post-Standard looks into the "high salaries and free spending of the public's money at the New York Power Authority," the state's publicly owned power generator. "NYPA's six trustees oversee a $2.2 billion budget that accommodates the patronage and pork-barrel spending that come with a state public authority as well as the pampering that comes with a private business. As a state public authority, NYPA's policies, practices and profits are separate from the rest of New York state government." After the stories were published, N.Y. Gov. George Pataki directed the agency to review its policies and the Assembly Energy Committee launched an investigation. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 27, 2006 Federal fines go uncollected across the nation Martha Mendoza and Christopher Sullivan of The Associated Press used federal records to show that the amount of unpaid federal fines has risen sharply in the past decade, in an investigation that examined federal financial penalty enforcement across the nation. Individuals and corporations regularly avoid large penalties for wrongdoing — sometimes through negotiations, sometimes because companies go bankrupt, sometimes because officials fail to keep close track of who owes what under a decentralized collection system. "The government is currently owed more than $35 billion in fines and other payments from criminal and in civil cases, according to Justice Department figures." This is enough to cover the annual budget of the Department of Homeland Security. The story includes a breakdown of how much is owed by state. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 21, 2006 Public records difficult to obtain Abraham Hyatt and Leslie Griffy of The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, Calif., found that cities throughout that county don't follow state law when it comes to public records requests. "Only one of the county's seven cities supplied both of the public documents that The Tribune sought. Reporters asked for a directory of city employees' work numbers and the city's contract with its police union. City staff and officials who did not provide the documents claimed they were not public records." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 07, 2006 RCFP finds cases disappear into hidden dockets The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press' quarterly magazine, The News Media & the Law, reports "more than 450 cases in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., were completely hidden from the public through the use of a hidden docketing system that two federal appeals courts have declared unconstitutional." The report, written by Reporters Committee Journalism Fellow Kirsten B. Mitchell and Legal Fellow Susan Burgess, includes a chart, a how-they-did-it sidebar and a glimpse into secret docketing in a Florida case. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Federal cases shrouded in secrecy Michael J. Sniffen and John Solomon of the Associated Press used court records to show that despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the past three years. The investigation found that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains with the government. "Most of these defendants are involved in drug gangs, though lately a very small number come from terrorism cases." Some of these cooperating witnesses include multiple murderers and drug dealers but the public cannot learn whether their testimony won them drastically reduced prison sentences or even freedom. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Wash. court records improperly sealed Ken Armstrong, Justin Mayo and Steve Miletich of The Seattle Times used court records to show that since 1990, at least 420 civil suits have been sealed in King County, Wa. "These sealed records hold secrets of potential dangers in our medicine cabinets and refrigerators; of molesters in our day-care centers, schools and churches; of unethical lawyers, negligent doctors, dangerous dentists; of missteps by local and state agencies; of misconduct by publicly traded companies into which people sink their savings." The investigation found that at least 97 percent of the judges' sealing orders disregard rules set down by the Washington Supreme Court in the 1980s. Judges and commissioners have sealed at least 46 cases where a public institution is a party, 58 cases where a fellow lawyer is a party, usually as a defendant and sealed cases where the person being sued was a licensed professional — for example, a doctor, psychologist or counselor — who was subsequently disciplined by the state. The package includes a sidebar about how they did the reporting and the CAR techniques used. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 30, 2006 University leader serves on 10 boards Eleanor Yang of the The San Diego Union-Tribune used calendar records obtained under the California Public Records Act to show that UC San Diego Chancellor, Marye Anne Fox, has served as a director for 10 corporations and nonprofit organizations, while running the university for the past year and a half. Fox spent more than 180 hours attending board meetings — many of them on the East Coast — in the past 12 months. "For all of her outside positions, Fox, 58, an organic chemist, receives compensation that rivals her university salary of $359,000. " In the past year, she received cash and stock worth at least $339,260 from her board memberships, according to corporate annual reports, proxy statements and tax returns from the nonprofit organizations. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 20, 2006 NYC police avoid reporting grand larceny Paul Moses of The Village Voice reports that New York City's falling crime rate may not entirely credible. "The number of lost-property reports filed with police jumped by 44 percent from 1997 to 2004, according to a document the NYPD released to The Village Voice in response to a freedom-of-information request. Nearly half of that increase occurred in the last two years of that period. And 2005 was on pace, as of Nov. 1, to beat out the previous year. " The investigation found police are taking complaints that once would have been treated as grand larceny or another property crime and reporting them as "lost property." Grand larceny is one of the closely watched seven major "index" crimes monitored in the FBI's Uniform Crime Report and it makes up nearly 60 percent of the reported index offenses, so police commanders know that if they are going to get their numbers down, they have to report fewer thefts. (Editor's note: For other reporters interested in evaluating crime rates, IRE offers Understanding Crime Statistics: A Reporter's Guide.) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 05, 2006 System's weaknesses lead to problems in sheriff's office Eric Nalder, Lewis Kamb, Phuong Cat Le and Paul Shukovsky of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer continue their investigation into abuse, misconduct and disciplinary lapses in the King County Sheriff's Department. The most recent stories examine the reasons for these failures in oversight — and reveal more cases of abuse, favoritism and retaliation against whistleblowers. The investigation, based on thousands of pages of documents received through public disclosure requests and interviews with dozens of present and former deputies and others, shows "An internal discipline system that often protects wrongdoing and punishes those who report it; A pervasive insider network that selectively rewards and protects its own, creating what critics call a culture of cronyism; And a union that has literally designed the department for its own control, successfully lobbying for an elected sheriff, and repeatedly protecting the jobs of problem officers." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 03, 2006 Water department pays for bottled water Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times reports the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which supplies and promotes tap water to the city, spent $31,160 for bottled water. Citywide, city officials spent $88,900 on bottled water, "despite a 1995 directive by former Mayor Richard Riordan that said: The city's tap water satisfies most needs, and bottled water should not be provided ordinarily at city expense.'" The city controller, who said she was stunned, "compiled the bills in response to a Public Records Act request from the Times." The department spends about $500,000 a year on for a report on the quality of its water — "The latest report brags that DWP water 'meets or surpasses all water quality standards.'" Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 22, 2005 Md. oversight of doctors failing public Fred Schulte of The (Baltimore) Sun used state records to show that "Maryland's vow to safeguard patients has been undercut by breakdowns in the state system established to oversee doctors." In a three-part series, Schulte writes that more than 120 doctors have been the subject of four or five malpractice claims and that the disciplinary process for physicians often takes four years or more. "And secrecy policies conceal the names of doctors associated with tens of millions of dollars in injury claims." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 21, 2005 Bonus costing county millions Ron Fonger of The Flint Journal used Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act to show that Genessee County employees who qualify for additional pay based on length of service “cost county taxpayers $1.89 million” in the past fiscal year. “That’s extra pay on top of negotiated across-the-board raises or individual ’step’ raises that also come with seniority.” Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 20, 2005 Children die in spite of Okla. abuse reports Ziva Branstetter, Curtis Killman, Nicole Marshall, Omer Gillham and Ginnie Graham of the Tulsa World report in a three-part series on Oklahoma's failure to save at least 30 children who died from abuse and neglect in the past five years. The series detailed cases in which the Oklahoma Department of Human Services had prior reports of abuse and neglect involving children yet the children were not removed from the home and ended up dying from abuse and neglect. The paper also found the state had paid out at least $1 million during that time to settle lawsuits involving child welfare workers. Branstetter notes "Many states have laws allowing release of information following a child abuse death and this is what we used in Oklahoma to get the records." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 19, 2005 Taxpayer money used to defend city official David Josar of The Detroit News used records obtained under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act to find that "Detroit City Clerk Jackie Currie has spent more than $100,000 in taxpayer funds on a team of private lawyers and advisers to defend her in a lawsuit that accuses her of mismanagement and fraud in the handling of city elections." Typically city attorneys defend the clerk's office in legal proceedings, but Currie dismissed Detroit's own legal counsel and instead hired her own, submitting bills under the threshold required for a city council vote. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Secrecy hides those who prey on children Andrew Wolfson of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal reports that "Kentucky shrouds its juvenile courts behind some of the strictest secrecy laws in the nation, requiring the public to accept on faith that it is being protected from dangerous children — and that innocent children are being protected from dangerous adults." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Mayor withholds crime stats The mayor of Jackson, Miss., has refused to release the city's crime statistics to the City Council. "Under the prior administration of Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., the crime statistics were released to media and published every Monday in The Clarion-Ledger's metro-state section." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 12, 2005 N.J. lottery sales go up as income goes down Judy DeHaven and Rob Gebeloff of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger analyzed five years of lottery data by ZIP code, obtained through the state's Open Public Records Act, and found that lottery revenues rose as incomes fell. "This was particularly true for its bread-and-butter money-makers — the Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings and instant games." The investigation found that per-capita ticket sales were much higher in lower-income ZIP codes. In communities with average household incomes that were below $52,000, the lottery sold an average of $250 of tickets per person annually. That was more than double the amount for ZIP codes with $100,000 households. Using minutes of meetings in the last five years, it was also found that faced with unprecedented budget shortfalls, state officials were pressuring the lottery to grow. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 07, 2005 City gives federal money to unqualified homebuyers John Estus of The Daily O'Collegian at Oklahoma State University found that "Nearly $110,000 in federal funds intended to help poor Stillwater residents buy homes of their own was given to middle-class buyers who did not qualify" in an eight-week investigation that has prompted a state audit of the program. Estus also revealed the program gave nearly $39,000 in city funds not regulated by federal guidelines to homebuyers who would not have qualified as low-income if the federal rules had been applied. Among those buyers was the city official administering the Homebuyer Assistance program at the time. Stillwater Community Development officials frequently balked at Estus' requests for loan recipient applications and other records until an assistant city attorney told the officials to release the records. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 06, 2005 Thousands of serious crimes reported in schools Jonathan Marino of The Washington Examiner looked into crime in public schools in Montgomery County, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. He found "internal reports, dozens of court records, and interviews with educators, parents and law enforcement officials tell troubling stories of abuse & mdash; and reveal hundreds of cases where some principals failed to follow up on serious incidents." The internal reports were obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request. They revealed that "From August 2002 to May 2005, the school system documented nearly 3,000 serious incidents, including allegations of death threats, gang violence, bullying and rape." (Editor's Note: For more about crime and violence in schools, see the November/December issues of The IRE Journal and Uplink.) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post TRAC files suit for release of information David Burnham and Susan B. Long, co-directors of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, are suing the federal Office of Personnel Management for "unlawfully withholding information it normally provides the public about some 900,000 of its civilian employees, including those working for such agencies as the EPA, OSHA and FEMA." The suit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Requests to seal divorce records on the rise Tresa Baldas of The National Law Journal reports that corporations are increasingly requesting that judges seal "the divorce records of top executives to protect trade secrets or crucial financial information from leaking out, or simply to avoid embarrassment." The article cites examples from across the country, including California, New Hampshire and Connecticut. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 02, 2005 Correspondence school offers speedy academic makeover Pete Thamel and Duff Wilson of The New York Times used academic transcripts and documents obtained through a freedom of information request to show that University High, a correspondence school which has no classes and no educational accreditation, offered students little more than a speedy academic makeover. "Athletes who graduated from University High acknowledged that they learned little there, but were grateful that it enabled them to qualify for college scholarships. " The man who founded University High School and owned it until last year, Stanley J. Simmons, served 10 months in a federal prison camp from 1989 to 1990 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for his involvement with a college diploma mill in Arizona. Among the activities Simmons acknowledged in court documents were awarding degrees without academic achievement and awarding degrees based on studies he was unqualified to evaluate. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 28, 2005 FOIA request reveals media's use of FOIA Editor and Publisher reports that The Associated Press leads news organizations in using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents from the Pentagon. A log of such requests from 2000 to early 2005 was compiled by a San Francisco-based activist. The AP filed 73 such requests, followed by the Los Angeles Times with 42 and The Washington Post with 34. Trailing far behind among major newspapers was The New York Times with 21, USA Today with nine and The Wall Street Journal with six. On the TV side, CBS News led with 32 queries; Fox News followed with 22; and NBC with 21. CNN made just 11 inquiries. "The results, which came in response to a FOIA request by blogger Michael Petrelis, are summarized by John Byrne at the Raw Story web site. " The request was sparked by interest in whether former New York Times reporter Judith Miller had ever made such a FOIA request. It was found that she had not. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 22, 2005 'Guest workers' suffer from exploitation, neglect A nine-month investigation by Tom Knudson and Hector Amezcua of The Sacramento Bee "has found pineros [Latino forest workers in the United States] are victims of employer exploitation, government neglect and a contracting system that insulates landowners — including the U.S. government — from responsibility." The report, "based on more than 150 interviews across Mexico, Guatemala and the United States and 5,000 pages of records unearthed through the Freedom of Information Act" shows responsibility for these "guest workers" is spread among several federal agencies and private contractors with no effective oversight. Part two shows the government has been aware of problems with the program but has failed to do anything to fix it. "First in 1980 and again in 1993, Congress expressed shock at the abuse of Latino forest workers in America's woods and the hypocrisy of undocumented workers doing government work." The third part of the series focuses on "The number one cause of death among pineros" — van accidents. "They are the byproducts of fatigue, poorly maintained vehicles, ineffective state and federal laws, inexperienced drivers and poverty-stricken workers hungry for jobs." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 17, 2005 FOI audit shows S.C. officials suspicious, uncooperative Jim Davenport of The Associated Press wrote a series of reports detailing the costs of public records and abuse of executive sessions, as part of a statewide Freedom of Information audit completed by The Associated Press and the South Carolina Press Association. The investigation found that a quarter of elected officials in a statewide survey say they have broken state law by letting their closed-door session stray beyond what they promised the public they would discuss while out of sight and earshot. When asked about open meetings and open records most city or county officials in South Carolina became suspicious. "Police and sheriff's departments around the state turned out to be the biggest source for denial. More than a dozen law enforcement agencies, about one-fourth of those visited, refused to provide copies of incident reports that residents should be able to review without delay." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 11, 2005 Narcotics prescribed for inmates at high rates Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle spent months detailing a drug distribution system to show that hundreds of thousands of powerful, addictive narcotics like morphine and oxycodone are being handed out to Washington prison inmates every year. Narcotics were being prescribed for almost every ailment including simple ones like toothaches, back pain or a sore toe. The story found that "prison doctors and physicians assistants too often write unneeded morphine and oxycodone prescriptions just to keep troublemakers at ease." KIRO obtained painkiller distribution records for Washington's eight biggest prisons after a long fight. They found that in three years, inmates were fed at least 329,000 Oxycodone pills, a minimum 85-thousand doses of morphine, and 800,000 doses of narcotics like Percocet and Hydrocodone, costing taxpayers millions in drug costs and distribution. Halsne's initial reports has prompted the "Washington Department of Corrections to call for a full scale review of its prescription drug network." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 14, 2005 Vast scope of priest abuse in Los Angeles Jean Guccione and Doug Smith with contributions from William Lobdell of the Los Angeles Times tracked the assignments of 228 priests from 1950 through 2003 who have been named or identified as the subject of abuse complaints. The analysis reveals that because the accused priests moved around the archdiocese on average every 4.5 years, the total number of parishes in which alleged abusers served is far larger —more than three-fourths of the 288 parishes. "In at least eight cases, the archdiocese allowed priests to remain in ministry after receiving information about their alleged sexual interest in minors. " Starting in the 1950s, the percentage of diocesan priests who eventually would be accused of wrongdoing climbed steadily from about 6% to a high of 11.5% in 1983. See priest abuse accusations in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 10, 2005 Open records survey carried out in Ky. The Kentucky Press Association, The Associated Press, various newspaper and professional groups and several university student programs carried out a public records survey to determine whether public offices are allowing citizens to view government documents. "More than 100 students, volunteers and newspaper employees visited four local government offices on Oct. 21 seeking specific public records. They were told to act as any ordinary citizen when making their requests in the government offices." The survey showed that while most offices abide by the state's Open Records Act, compliance is not consistent. A request to inspect the city budget was readily met whereas a request made to the County Jail led to jail employees becoming intimidating. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 28, 2005 Navy contracted for planes in CIA operation Seth Hettena of The Associated Press reports the Navy issued contracts for planes "reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice torture." The AP says documents from the Department of Defense, obtained through a FOIA request, involve more planes (33) than previously reported. While there was "scrutiny in 2001, but what hasn't been disclosed is the Navy's role in contracting planes involved in operations the CIA terms 'rendition' and what Italian prosecutors call kidnapping." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 22, 2005 Nonprofits mislead about destination of donations Kelby Hartson Carr of The Times in Munster, Ind., looks into the accuracy of IRS 990 forms filed by nonprofit organizations. After an examination of all 990s filed for "fiscal year 2003 by nonprofit agencies based in Lake County, Porter County and Chicago's south suburbs," the paper found that 70 percent that raised public donations reported no fund-raising expenses. Experts say it is difficult to raise money without spending money and "zero-expense fund-raising claims always should be questioned." The project includes a database of the nonprofits that includes the data from their 990 forms. Other parts of the series look at nonprofit employees who make six figures and have generous benefits packages, the powerful part nonprofits play in the local economy and tips to evaluate a charitiy before donating. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Lax oversight contributes to high foreclosure rate Geoff Dutton and Jill Riepenhoff of The Columbus Dispatch investigated Ohio's high foreclosure rate, "a problem fueled by a weak economy, aggressive mortgage brokers, financial overreaching and tepid state oversight.". The newspaper analyzed Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, obtained U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development audit reports of homebuilders through the federal Freedom of Information Act, and analyzed state and county foreclosure records and sheriff's sales data. On the second day of the series, state lawmakers from both political parties vowed to tighten Ohio's loose regulation of the mortgage industry. (Note: For reporters interested in pursuing similar stories, IRE and NICAR offer a beat book, "Home Mortgage Lending: How to detect disparities," as well as Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data.) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 20, 2005 S.C. port authority operates like a business Michael R. Shea of The Beaufort (S.C.) Gazette delved into the South Carolina State Ports Authority, the state agency that manages "the fourth-largest waterborne shipping network in the country through marine terminals in Charleston, Georgetown and Port Royal, South Carolina." The stories show that political contributions, political appointments and no-bid contracts blur the line between state agency and a private business. It also discusses its battle for records from the agency. The 18-story project includes more than a dozen of the public records, received through FOIAs, that were used in the reporting. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 09, 2005 Sept. 11 loans go to many unaffected by terror Frank Bass and Dirk Lammers of The Associated Press examined nearly $5 billion in loans granted by the Small Business Administration as Sept. 11 recovery aid, and found that many went to businesses "that didn't need terror relief — or even know they were getting it." The SBA said it first learned of the problems from AP. "The records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act also show that many other loan recipients who made cases they were injured by Sept. 11 were far removed from the direct devastation of New York City and Washington, like a South Dakota country radio station, a Virgin Islands perfume shop and a Utah dog boutique." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 31, 2005 Police disregard rape complaints Jeremy Kohler of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis police have failed to file official reports on many sex crimes over the past 20 years, instead writing informal memos on cases that would not be counted in the city's crime statistics. "The Post-Dispatch analyzed many of these cases and found police often discounted claims by women who were reluctant to testify, easy to discredit or difficult to locate." The paper fond that "Memos were a symptom of greater problems in the city's handling of rape cases." Many records were obtained only after a lengthy FOI battle. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 19, 2005 Police helped hide sexual abuse cases involving priests Joe Mahr and Mitch Weiss of The (Toledo) Blade reviewed thousands of documents and interviewed dozens to find that Toledo-area police helped the local Catholic diocese hide cases of sexual abuse by priests. "Beyond past revelations that the diocese quietly moved pedophile priests from parish to parish, The Blade investigation shows that at least once a decade - and often more - priests suspected of rape and molestation have been allowed by local authorities to escape the law." Some alleged abusers were never investigated, while officials prevented the release of case files for other investigations. "The cover-up has been confirmed by former police officers and the diocese's former spokesman, Jim Richards, who said church leaders 'knew who to call in the police department' to keep cases quiet." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post E-mails reveal early hiring concerns Mark Pitsch of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal used Kentucky's Open Records Act to obtain emails showing that "less than three months before the state hiring investigation began, Gov. Ernie Fletcher's deputy chief of staff and the transportation personnel director confided to each other in e-mails that laws may have been broken." The state's Attorney General, who is investigating hiring practices under Fletcher, was unaware of the emails until the paper published them. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 18, 2005 Benefit payouts generous for public employees David Milstead of the Rocky Mountain News used documents and recordings to find that the benefits offered by Colorado's Public Employees' Retirement Association to its employees have been generous. "In total, leave payouts have cost PERA more than $2 million since 2000. The benefits don’t end there. PERA has spent $429,000 on new cars and car allowances for its executives in the past 10 years." The investigation includes a sidebar on how the story was done. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post 20 percent of fired teachers accused of sex crimes Pamela Hamilton of the Associated Press used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records showing that "one in five educators sanctioned by the state for bad behavior in South Carolina in the past three years had been accused of sexual misconduct such as molesting or having sex with students or other children." Nearly 300 teachers have been disciplined during that time span. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 11, 2005 State lobbyists spending nears $1 billion An analysis by The Center for Public Integrity found that lobbyists and their employers in 42 states reported spending nearly $953 million in 2004 attempting to influence state legislators and executive branch officials. That figure is up from the $904 million reported in 2003. "It seems likely that state lobby expenditures will exceed the $1 billion mark this year." The investigation includes a sidebar on methodology and general breakdowns of their findings. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 09, 2005 Blast site had history of problems Dina Cappiello of the Houston Chronicle used state records to show that "the portion of the Texas City refinery that burst into flames July 28 was the site of repeated malfunctions that could have been prevented if BP correctly and more frequently performed maintenance on the unit." The incidents included the installation of an incorrect pipe and a bad valve that released pollution. The paper found "at least eight cases where the incident was part of a 'recurring or frequent pattern'." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 08, 2005 Honorary program gives political insiders cop-like badges Trent Seibert and Brad Schrade of The Tennessean use state department records to investigate an "honorary captains" program that gives campaign donors, political insiders and friends troop-like badges. "Officials say the program is an atta-boy, a way to recognize people's contributions to the state. But critics say it's an invitation for the well-connected to brandish their influence and avoid getting tickets." The report also found the grandson of a powerful Bredesen supporter was under the impression that the badge was supposed to get him out of a drunken-driving arrest in January in Lauderdale County. Although he waved it at a trooper, he was ticketed. The story includes a sidebar listing recent honorary captain recipients. The governor ended the program in response to The Tennessean story. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post County grant program riddled with problems Daniel Chacón of the San Diego Union-Tribune analyzed county grant receipts finding a multimillion-dollar system riddled with shoddy bookkeeping and lax oversight. The investigation "found that records for 54 grants totaling nearly $1 million are missing. Receipts that have been collected show that money has been spent on everything from Cheetos to seared ahi crostini." Many of the organizations receiving grants are considered grassroots organizations and don't have paid staffers to handle financial reports. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 05, 2005 Some furniture purchases seem unneeded Rebecca Walsh of The Salt Lake Tribune used Utah's open records laws to review furniture purchases for state employees moving into two new office buildings. "Many of the dozens of chairs and desks and filing cabinets and bookcases replace stapled-together fixtures from years ago. But other bills might make taxpayers shift in their own seats - a $1,487 flat-screen TV monitor in the administrative services conference room, $20,000 to frame Senate president and member portraits and the $6,000 tab for each legislative staffer's mahogany-colored cubicle." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Weapon seizures increase at airports Lee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News used the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain data on weapon seizures at airports, finding that "daily for the past three years, passengers at U.S. airports surrendered an average of 14,000 potential weapons. That is enough to arm every passenger on 33 filled-to-capacity Boeing 747 jumbo jets - every day." Smaller airports have a higher rate of weapons being turned over, even though most prohibited items are collected at larger facilities. The haul includes nearly 5 million knives and more than 1,000 guns. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Alcohol scam drives up prices Michael Beebe and Robert J. McCarthy of The Buffalo News report that New York's lax regulation of alcohol sales has resulted in a system in which producers and wholesalers provide "retailers illegal payoffs of money, trips, even gold Krugerrands to push certain brands of wine, vodka or whiskey. Some of the biggest liquor wholesalers in the country further defy the law by offering Bacardi, Absolut, Drambuie and other famous brands for $1 a bottle to select retailers, usually the biggest." Using New York's Freedom of Information Act, the paper found that a state investigation - never publicly released - detailed "the biggest stores routinely getting illegal deep discounts not offered to others. When smaller retailers found out about the bargains, wholesalers refused to sell, saying they were 'limited availability' or 'restricted' items." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 04, 2005 State provided child counseling contracts to felon Susan K. Livio and Mary Jo Patterson of The (Newark) Star-Ledger investigated the background of Corey Davis, who got nearly $700,000 in state contracts to provide child counseling services despite the fact that "the budding entrepreneur had a felony drug conviction and owed thousands of dollars in child support to two women. Some of the people he employed also had criminal backgrounds. But the state blindly nurtured Davis until learning one of his mentors had cracked up a car last summer, injuring a 6-year-old boy." The state launched a criminal investigation after the paper began asking about Davis. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Loan deal raises questions Mike McGraw and Michael Mansur of The Kansas City Star uncovered documents showing that a city housing agency provided what experts called a "sweetheart" loan to a group redeveloping an apartment building. The recipient defended the financing, although "neither the original loan documents nor later changes in the agreement were ever made public by recording them at the Jackson County Courthouse - standard procedure for such real estate transactions." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Tow companies use vague laws to keep towed cars John Dickerson of The Scottsdale Times investigates a nearly-legalized theft common across Arizona. "Several tow companies are literally keeping towed vehicles against the will of the owners and later selling them." Tow companies are filing paperwork saying the vehicle has been abandoned and if that vehicle is not reported stolen within 30 days, the tow company gains possession. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 03, 2005 State employees benefit from huge housing perks Duane Pohlman of WEWS-Cleveland investigates why department of natural resource employees are receiving huge discounts on state-owned homes. "On Kelley's Island, where houses rent for thousands a month, a park ranger is renting an entire Cape Cod from the state of Ohio for just $201.50 a month." The department admits that the discounts are based off of outdated estimates on the properties. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Disgraced deputy beats system Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer report in a three-part series on how a disgraced sheriff's deputy beat the system. The report details the allegations made against the deputy, including drug use, theft, attempted stalking, conspiracy to promote prostitution and official misconduct. "For 14 years, the detective worked on his own, rarely checking in, partying with prostitutes, making deals with escort-service operators, driving the county executive's car and traveling to Mexico, Thailand and Canada." In a short period of time the deputy went from "from facing a felony trial and a firing recommendation to a prosperous retirement." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post DWI record worse than known Liz Chandler, Ames Alexander and Danica Coto of The Charlotte Observer used driving records from several states to show that "an illegal Mexican immigrant in North Carolina was charged with drunken driving at least five times before a July 16 wreck that killed a Gaston County teacher." North Carolina authorities were unaware of Ramiro Gallegos' out-of-state convictions, which should have resulted in deportation or a two-year jail sentence. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Bill could make wetlands easier to destroy Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite of the St. Petersburg Times used a social network analysis program analysis and documents to show that "a developers' lobbyist helped write a state bill that would make it easier to get a permit to destroy wetlands of 10 acres or smaller. When it passed, the builders persuaded 15 members of Congress to send Gov. Jeb Bush a letter urging him to sign it. He did." The measure's sponsor was warned by Bush that the legislation could hurt her legislative career. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 02, 2005 Adoption deal raises concerns over surrogate program Kevin Corcoran of The Indianapolis Star investigates a child welfare case involving a surrogate mothers program. The program granted an adoption to a 58-year-old, single, schoolteacher who was approved, despite "the absence of a legally required study of [Stephen F.] Melinger's New Jersey home or a period of preadoption supervision by an Indiana-licensed agency, court records show." The investigation includes sidebars further investigating the surrogate mother in the case, the adopted father, and a sidebar about the judge from Indianapolis who tightened the rules to disallow the adoptive father from taking the infants to New Jersey. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 28, 2005 Mormon population numbers falling Matt Canham of The Salt Lake Tribune used records obtained through a public records request to investigate Mormon population numbers in Utah. The investigation found that "the Mormon share of Utah's population is expected to hit its lowest level since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started keeping membership numbers." According to the 2004 count, Utah is now 62.4 percent Mormon with every county showing a decrease. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 26, 2005 Homicides on the rise in Milwaukee John Diedrich and Bob Purvis at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detail a sharp rise in the number of murders in Milwaukee this year, finding that "through Friday, 72 people have been killed this year, compared to 49 at that time last year. In response, police last week beefed up patrols in the hottest parts of Milwaukee and community agencies increased their presence, trying to address social and economic issues underlying the violence." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 25, 2005 Failed oversight helps surge in air ambulance crashes Alan Levin and Robert Davis of USA Today reviewed hundreds of documents on air ambulance crashes and analyzed a database they created from the documents. They found that since "2000, 60 people have died in 84 crashes — more than double the number of crashes during the previous five years." Despite this surge, air ambulance companies and the federal agency that oversees them failed to take steps that might have averted tragedy and saved lives. The FAA issued a warning to air ambulance companies requesting that they adopt better safety practices, following this investigation. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 22, 2005 Medicaid fraud plagued by lack of oversight Clifford J. Levy and Michael Luo of The New York Times used state Medicaid data to find that "the program has been misspending billions of dollars annually because of fraud, waste and profiteering. A computer analysis of several million records obtained under the state Freedom of Information Law revealed numerous indications of fraud and abuse that the state had never looked into." Examples of the potential fraud include a dentist who billed for as many as 991 procedures a day and a Buffalo school that sent more than 4,000 students "into speech therapy in a single day without talking to them or reviewing their records." Medicaid fraud has turned into a $44.5 billion target and the Times investigation uncovered "numerous indications of fraud and abuse that the state had never looked into." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 18, 2005 Leaders, volunteers used charity money to finance events for themselves John W. Allman and Michael Fechter of The Tampa Tribune investigated the activities of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Sarasota/Tampa Bay, finding that: "For much of that time, it used money intended for sick children to pay for questionable expenses such as lavish dinners for chapter leaders and volunteers. It permitted and covered up a rogue fundraising operation in Sarasota through which hundreds of thousands of dollars passed, some of which has never been accounted for. It failed to comply with state and federal laws regulating charities. The charity says everything is as it should be now but refuses to substantiate that." Many of the details came from a former executive directory who was jailed for making personal use of her foundation credit card. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 14, 2005 Disability program plagued with problems Maxine Bernstein and Brent Walth of The Oregonian investigated Portland's police and firefighter disability progam, finding that "the city's system is an open checkbook, with rules that allow injured police and firefighters to collect checks until they retire, even if they can earn a living in another job." One in nine Portland police officers and firefighters is on disability and half of those have been receiving benefits for more than 10 years. "A claim for lost wages in Portland costs $37,390 a year on average — seven times that of police and firefighters statewide.' Trustees of the program sued to prevent the paper from obtaining certain financial records. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 13, 2005 Young farmer numbers waning Carolyn Jung of The Mercury News used census data to study the decline in young farmers in California. According to the data, the number of farmers under 35 "fell 44 percent in California and 18 percent nationwide from 1997 to 2002." The average age of a principal farm operator in the United States was 55.3 in 2002, according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 12, 2005 Many businesses not inspected, study shows Reporter Christina Murphy and Assistant City Editor Jennie Coughlin of The Daily News Leader analyzed five years' worth of Department of Labor and Industry inspections obtained from the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration. They found that "many businesses are not inspected each year. In fact, the labor department performed too few safety inspections between 1999 and 2003 to reach even a quarter of the construction businesses in more than a third of the state, though construction is considered a high-hazard industry." The story includes a section on how the investigation was done. (Editor's note: IRE and NICAR offer the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Workplace Safety Database for purchase.) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post School district loses big by investing locally Joel Rutchick of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer used local school financial records to show that "the Cleveland Municipal School District has lost out on as much as $14 million in potential investment income over the last three years by investing most of its idle cash through local banks - which have paid lower interest rates than those available elsewhere." The switch to the local banks apparently happened without competitive bids, a normal industry practice. Income from the investments "has lagged well behind that of Cuyahoga County and other urban school districts - such as Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo - all of which invested well within the safety parameters outlined by Ohio law." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 08, 2005 Possible conflicts abound in South Carolina legislature Jeff Stensland of The State reviewed financial disclosure forms from South Carolina state legislators to find that "about 20 lawmakers raked in more than $2.4 million in attorney fees by representing clients in front of state boards and commissions last year." Many of the cases involved worker's compensation claims but others were before the state's insurance or revenue departments. The paper listed each of the lawmakers and their fees. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Human smuggling networks linked to terrorist groups Pauline Arrillaga and Olga R. Rodriguez of the Associated Press reviewed court records from Mexico and the United States as part of an investigation into "the many pipelines in Central and South America, Mexico and Canada that have illegally channeled thousands of people into the United States from so-called 'special-interest' countries - those identified by the U.S. government as sponsors or supporters of terrorism." Individuals affiliated with Hezbollah and the Tamil Tigers were among those who attempted to or were able to cross the border into America. "Even when caught, illegal immigrants from those countries and other nations are sometimes released while awaiting deportation hearings, then miss those court dates, according to the AP's investigation, which also documented deep concerns about security threats along the lightly patrolled, 4,000-mile U.S.-Canada border." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post City denies request for records David Madrid of The Arizona Republic reports on the results of a public records request the paper made asking council members in Surprise, Ariz., "to verify the miles and percentage of driving they do for city business" since the council was set to approve a 289% increase in car allowances. The paper's request "was denied on the grounds that the information is not a public record. Council members aren't required to keep track of mileage or to document auto expenses." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 07, 2005 State's teacher salaries outpace national average Maria Sacchetti of The Boston Globe used state education records to show that "average teacher pay in Massachusetts jumped 37 percent during the last decade, to $53,529 last year." That's a larger increase than teachers nationwide, and Boston schools pay an average teacher salary of $69,022. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Regulators drop toxic chemical warning after plant lawyer complains Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette used the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain records showing that a plan by West Virginia environmental regulators to warn residents of Wood County about the spread of the toxic chemical C8 from DuPont Co.'s Parkersburg plant was killed after complaints from a DuPont lawyer. The paper reported that a state science adviser "insisted that DuPont review, edit and approve all C8-related statements issued by the state." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Contamination levels still high years after discovery Wade Rawlins of The (Raleigh/Durham) News & Observer reports on toxic chemicals that have been contaminating local water sources for the last 15 years. "Ward Transformer spilled thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals on its 11 acres at the edge of Raleigh-Durham International Airport." Investigators knew in 1978 and 1979 of the high levels of contamination, but have done nothing to clean it up, documents show. (Editor's Note: For tips on reporting similar stories, IRE offers "Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter's Guide." The book, produced in cooperation with the Society of Environmental Journalists, shows reporters how to tap into resources for local investigations into environmental pollution.) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 05, 2005 Police department ignores residency requirement Gordon Russell of The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reports that while New Orleans has a residency requirement for its police officers, "dozens of Police Department sergeants and lieutenants and at least seven captains — the department's highest civil-service rank — have been promoted in recent years despite claiming homestead exemptions outside the city." The 10-year-old residency rule has suffered from lax enforcement and poor record-keeping make it difficult to tell exactly how many officers live outside the city. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 29, 2005 Number of highly paid transit employees triples Mike Adamick of the Contra Costa Times used salary data obtained after a legal battle to show that "the number of BART employees making at least $100,000 nearly tripled since 2000. During the same time period, overtime payments surged by 147 percent for the transit district's highest paid employees." The transit agency originally resisted the paper's request for data, saying releasing the names and salaries of employees would be "overly intrusive." BART turned over information on employees making at least $100,000 after the paper won a similar suit against the City of Oakland. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Crucial errors aided courthouse shooter Cameron McWhirter and Steve Visser of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution use public documents and interviews to identify crucial missteps that led to the March 11 attack that left three people dead at the Fulton County Courthouse. The investigation found long-standing problems including "... a sick day for a deputy who may not have been sick, a quick breakfast run, a delayed response to an emergency call, and a failure to close off fire exits." Since the shooting, security upgrades recommended by the Marshals Service have been slow to implement. Among the recommendation yet to be implemented are building new holding cells for some courtrooms, discontinuing the practice of escorting prisoners through public corridors and increasing safety and security training. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 28, 2005 Youth charity fails to deliver on promise Collins Conner and Bridget Hall Grumet of The St. Petersburg Times investigated the Florida Youth Conservation Corps, which receives a state no-bid contract to help maintain highway rights of way in exchange for providing jobs and scholarships to its young employees. "FYCC said 46 trainees got scholarships from 1999 to 2003, but none came out of FYCC's pocket. Instead - unbeknownst to state leaders who supported the program - FYCC asked Americorps to provide them. Americorps is a national work-study program funded by federal tax dollars." Although the FYCC at first said it would provide access to its spending, it later closed its books to the paper, despite the fact that all of its funding comes from government sources. The paper also found that the FYCC "sent its top staff - including St. Petersburg City Council member Jay Lasita - on all-expenses-paid trips to the Dominican Republic where FYCC sponsors a baseball team." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 23, 2005 Lobbyists use nonprofits to finance congressional travel Bob Williams and Stephen Henn of the Center for Public Integrity investigate lobbyists who sit on the governing boards of nonprofits. Lobbyists are not supposed to pay for congressional travel, but the investigation found "that a favored way to evade the prohibition on picking up the tab is to do so through charitable non-profits..." The investigation includes a map detailing the most popular congressional junket locations, a list of the top companies and lobbying firms, and a summary of their findings. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 22, 2005 School crime numbers higher than reported Liz Chandler, Peter Smolowitz, Melissa Manware and CAR specialist Adam Bell from The Charlotte Observer report on their findings that more crime in being committed in Charlotte schools than is being reported by the school district. The investigation found "1,473 crimes reported to police at schools, 631 of them violent or threatening." Compare that to "12,681 suspensions of students for violent or threatening acts. That includes 11,378 for "aggressive physical or verbal actions," ranging from verbal confrontations to serious assaults." An Observer investigation found that "CMS relies heavily on suspensions, which soared to a record 52,648 in 2004." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Private interests pay for state officials' trips David White of The Birmingham News used state records to show that since November 2002, more than 20 state lawmakers and executive officials have taken trips paid for by private interests. "Lawmakers took trips to places such as Australia, the Bahamas and California and got tickets for the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and the Talladega Superspeedway." Reports of the trips are filed with Alabama's Ethics Commission if the cost exceeds $250 a day per person. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 21, 2005 City pays private attorneys millions Steve Neavling of The Bay City Times has a six-part series on Bay County government spending on private attorneys. "Between 2001 and 2004, the county paid private lawyers nearly $1.13 million — more than twice the amount spent by each of four other Michigan counties with similar populations. And that does not include the more than $470,000 Bay County spent on attorneys to defend lawsuits." The paper used county billing records to show that the staffer who oversees legal work "routinely turns to outside lawyers, who charge up to $140 an hour to handle lawsuits, bankruptcy cases, property transfers and union negotiations." With a graphic showing how much outside firms were paid. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Hate crimes rise in Los Angeles school district Naush Boghossian and Lisa M. Sodders of the Los Angeles Daily News use data from the Los Angeles Unified School District police to investigate an increase in hate crimes in the district. "Hate crimes in Los Angeles' public schools have surged more than 300 percent over the past decade..." They found that almost all of the reported hate crimes were racially motivated. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 20, 2005 Experts cast doubt on cause Jason Method and James W. Prado Roberts of the Asbury Park Press raised questions in the airplane death seven years ago of a pilot who was about to buy Marlboro Airport, now the center of a massive political bribery scandal. The NTSB ruled the 1998 crash death of Lino A. Fasio an accident due to a probable bird strike, but five experts who reviewed the report and new photographs of the wreckage for the Press said there is no evidence to support the government's claim. "There have been six known fatal accidents involving birds in civil aviation in the United States in the last 15 years. But in every case - except Fasio's - investigators found solid evidence of birds or bird remains." The series includes 14 chapters, ranging from a bird theory to sabotage claims. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Accident-victim law saves lives Suzanne Hoholik of The Columbus Dispatch used state data to show that a 2002 Ohio law intended to direct accident victims to trauma hospitals was working as intended: "More injured people are being taken to trauma centers, and fewer are dying in small, rural hospitals. Trauma experts believe as many as 900 lives a year are being saved statewide." The paper found that "the number of injured patients transferred from community hospitals to trauma centers increased 22 percent from 2001 to 2004." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 17, 2005 School police accused of profiling David Tarrant and Paula Lavigne of The Dallas Morning News investigated allegations of racial profiling by campus police at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, finding that "police search minorities more often than Anglos after traffic stops." In addition, there have been complaints about pedestrian stops, which campus police do not keep records on. "In 2004, blacks made up 34 percent of all stops by campus police but were six times more likely to be searched following a stop than whites. Hispanics made up 14 percent of all stops but were nearly five times more likely to be searched after a stop than Anglos." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post More firefighters being disciplined Jason Kandel of the Los Angeles Daily News used documents obtained under a California Public Records Act to show that 13 Los Angeles city firefighters were disciplined for inappropriate behavior last year and nine others remain under investigation. "Last year, seven firefighters were disciplined for horseplay or hazing; two for creating a hostile work environment; one for ethnic or sexual harassment, and three for other types of inappropriate conduct. " As many as 22 firefighters, with cases pending, could be disciplined for similar behavior in 2004. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 16, 2005 Congressman's sale of home to contractor questioned Marcus Stern of the San Diego Union-Tribune investigates a defense contractor's relationship with U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and how the contractor "took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of the congressman's Del Mar house while the congressman, a member of the influential defense appropriations subcommittee, was supporting the contractor's efforts to get tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Street gun dealers go to jail, while licensed dealers get a free pass Susan Schulman, Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck of The Buffalo News uses public records to investigate gun dealers in a four-day series. The investigation found that while street gun dealers go to jail, licensed gun merchants get a free pass. "Gun shows are a prime source of crime weapons in many states...Despite those concerns, the U.S. Justice Department shies away from gun shows and rarely prosecutes any of the 68,500 dealers licensed to sell firearms in the United States." The series includes an analysis of where the guns are exported from. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 15, 2005 Hispanic organization evolves into a political powerhouse Mark J. Konkol, Scott Fornek, Fran Spielman and Art Golab of the Chicago Sun-Times used local payroll and voter registration data to show the clout of Chicago's Hispanic Democratic Organization: "1,173 men and women are certified to register people to vote on HDO's behalf. And 482 of those HDO deputy registrars — or 41 percent — also have city jobs." More than 50 of them earn more than $74,000 a year from the city. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Sexual harassment claims inconsistent Brad Schrade of the Tennessean asked state officials to provide documentation on their response to claims of sexual harassment, identified by Gov. Phil Bredesen as a problem. "When Bredesen's office becomes involved in a complaint, as it did when the governor's top lobbyist was demoted last month, notes are purposely not taken or are shredded, or case documents are not released. When other state departments handle cases, reports are generally kept on file as public records, according to a Tennessean review of available state documents. Indeed, state harassment investigators are trained to take notes and document the facts of a case." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Alternative education fails some students The Associated Press reviewed alternative education programs in West Virginia, finding that "some children removed from class for discipline problems receive as little as two hours of instruction a week because West Virginia has no time standards for alternative education." More than 6,000 students throughout the state were enrolled in alternative programs during the last school year. In some schools, that consists of in-school suspension. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 14, 2005 Ex-con funds retirement with leftover campaign money Ted Sherman of The (Newark) Star-Ledger reports on how former Essex County Executive Tom D'Alessio, after serving time on political corruption charges, converted leftover campaign funds into a non-profit foundation that helps support his retirement. "Last year, the foundation reported it gave out $37,750 in contributions of $500 or so to dozens of organizations like the March of Dimes, the United Way and the Boy Scouts. It also paid D'Alessio an $81,708 salary as executive director, leased a $45,665 Mercedes-Benz for him and purchased a $432,000 luxury condominium on Marco Island along Florida's Gulf Coast." New Jersey law permits the practice even though it bars former political candidates from simply taking leftover funds. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Bridge safety ratings drop despite high funding Bruce Golding, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Dwight R. Worley of The Journal-News used state and federal data to show that "safety ratings for the Tappan Zee Bridge have dropped back to some of the lowest levels in a decade despite an infusion of at least $316 million." The span is New York's most profitable, generating about $45 million in "excess revenues" a year, but is nearing the end of its planned 50-year life. "In addition to the drops in the deck and structural ratings, federal records show the Tappan Zee's guardrails have not met acceptable standards in three of four categories since at least 1994." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 13, 2005 Overpayments, conflict of interest plague juvenile system The Detroit News investigates a juvenile system plagued with overpayments and conflicts of interest. Using court filings and campaign records, Joel Kurth reports on findings, which include allegations of payments for fictitious youths, relatives of some county officials benefited from contracts, more than $300,000 in overpayments to contractors and hackers accessed a computer system used to verify bills. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Private money funds legislators' trips James R. Carroll of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal examined congressional travel records for Kentucky and Southern Indiana to show that "in a little more than nine years, the cost of privately paid trips for lawmakers in the area and their aides totaled nearly $1.5 million." Two Kentucky lawmakers have suspended such travel after the recent spate of stories disclosing details about the trips. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 09, 2005 Driving after losing your license not uncommon Andy Nelesen of the Green Bay Press-Gazette used county data to show that driving after losing your license (known as OAR) isn't uncommon: "In 2003 and 2004, more than 250 people racked up more than one OAR case in one year." In one extreme case, a man has been arrested for driving without a license at least 52 times since 1993. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Lack of oversight fuels fraud suspicions Miles Moffeit of The Denver Post used purchasing and accounting records to find that "since 2001, Jefferson County employees have handled millions of dollars in transactions without competitive bidding, close supervision or contracts - and sometimes in conflict with policies." In one example, the county's technology manager made $3.7 million in equipment purchases on his credit card as part of a program to build computers from parts. "The large credit-card charges are not illegal, though in some cases they appear to have violated county policy. But the lack of review over those purchases is part of a pervasive breakdown in financial oversight involving portions of the county's $500 million budget." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Officials free gas card raises questions Hal Marcovitz of The (Allentown) Morning Call used county records to show that Bucks County "Chief Operating Officer David M. Sanko obtains free gas at the county pumps for a county-owned 1997 Ford Explorer, which he is permitted to tank up before making 100-mile trips from the courthouse in Doylestown to his home in Harrisburg." The perk, which came as a surprise to two county commissioners, could cost taxpayers an additional $3,600 a year on top of Sanko's $139,000 annual salary. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 08, 2005 Art collectors go untaxed in Washington An investigation by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found that "millions of dollars in purchases by Washington art collectors have gone untaxed, and that an agent's effort to collect that revenue was squelched by upper management at the Department of Revenue, then suspended late last year." A week after the Post-Intelligencer first reported the story, the Department of Revenue announced that it will begin to aggressively pursue art collectors who do not pay the taxes they owe on works purchased out of state. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 07, 2005 D.C. subway system suffers from mismanagement Lyndsey Layton and Jo Becker of The Washington Post obtained and reviewed documents and data on the performance of the DC-area subway system, finding that "trains break down 64 percent more often than they did three years ago, and the number of daily delays has nearly doubled since 2000. Although the vast majority of trains are on time, more than 14,400 subway riders a day are inconvenienced by a delay or a mechanical problem that forces them off broken trains." The second piece of a four-part series revealed that "time and again, records show, the public transit agency has disregarded the advice of experts and failed to address safety issues." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Stipend boosts school official's pay Rosalind Rossi of the Chicago Sun-Times, with assistance from Art Golub and Dave McKinney, used Illinois state records to find that "the highest-paid public school employee in the state last year was the No. 2 person — the man in charge of finance — at a one-school district in north suburban Lincolnshire." James Hintz took home more than $300,000 in part because of an arrangement that paid him a six-figure "stipend" for health insurance that could be used for anything. The stipend also helps to boost Hintz's pension, which is based on his compensation during his final years of employment. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Schools fail to report all crime An investigation by the Charlotte Observer has found that a lot more violent and threatening behavior takes place in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools than officials disclose in the state's public report on crime. Observer reporters Lisa Hammersly Munn, Liz Chandler, Melissa Manware and Peter Smolowitz, along with database reporter Adam Bell, used school and police records and databases to reveal thousands of incidents of crime, violence and threatening acts that the state doesn't require for its report and that aren't disclosed to parents. Also, the newspaper found that CMS failed to disclose some crimes the state report requires. The investigation includes a downloadable school violence report and school violence charts. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post State homeland security problems uncovered Bert Dalmer of The Des Moines Register reports on an analysis done by the Register using Iowa's critical-asset list. The list "has played a key part in determining how the state divides homeland-security money among Iowa's counties." They found that some "dams and schools on the list have been found not to exist." Historic buildings were left off, while "the state liquor warehouse in Ankeny, Living History Farms in Urbandale and the Danish Windmill Museum in Elk Horn" were put on the list. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 03, 2005 Anti-terrorism spending problems plague state Greg Barrett of The (Baltimore) Sun reviewed thousands of pages detailing homeland security spending in Maryland, finding that while most of the $161 million since 2002 has gone to assist first responders, "Maryland is so flush with anti-terrorism grant funds and spending authority is so broad that the state has struggled, at times, to manage the money." In one case, the state used more than $17,000 to conduct an exercise in which veterinarians "rescued" a llama and walking horse "injured" in a fake attack. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post More students attending four-year colleges Rich Cholodofsky of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports on findings that more of Pennsylvania's graduating high school students are going to four-year colleges. "Within the past five school years, entering the work force, attending technical training or joining the military have fallen behind college as graduates' first option after high school, according to a Tribune-Review analysis of postgraduation reports from the 1998-99 and 2003-04 classes. " Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 02, 2005 Amnesty execs contribute maximum to Kerry Rowan Scarborough of The Washington Times used Federal Election Commission records finding that the top leadership of Amnesty International contributed the maximum of $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. Amnesty International describes itself as nonpartisan. William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty USA and Joe W. "Chip" Pitts III, board chairman of Amnesty International USA, "gave the maximum $2,000 allowed by federal law to John Kerry for President." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 01, 2005 Sexual harassment rarely reported on Oregon campuses Alan Gustafson and Shawn Day of the Salem, Ore., Statesman Journal analyze Oregon University System's handling of sexual harassment. They found that the system lacks "data on the extent to which sexual harassment is happening on Oregon campuses." The university system also fails to inform students on the proper way to file a complaint. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 31, 2005 Police chases lack restrictions Eunice Trotter, Tom Spalding and Mark Nichols of The Indianapolis Star built a database of reports on police chases, showing that "police are virtually unrestricted when they chase suspects. They pursue fleeing vehicles at high speeds and usually for traffic infractions." One of five chases resulted in an injury or death, and state police chases averaged 88 mph. The paper analyzed records from nearly 1,000 chases in 2003 and 2004. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Prisoner complaints ignored by officials Norman Sinclair, Melvin Claxton and Ronald J. Hansen of The Detroit News report that "Michigan lawmakers and prison officials have stymied investigations of sexual abuse in women's prisons, stifled inmate complaints and stripped away the rights of assaulted prisoners to sue for damages." Ten years after federal officials highlighted a problem with assaults of female inmates by guards, the number of complaints has risen slightly. Some of those complaints "have lingered for months and even years, while others were closed within days without talking to crucial witnesses or the Corrections employee accused." Michigan's Corrections Department also "has left staffers with criminal backgrounds or multiple complaints of sexual abuse on the job for years." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Former security chief spent thousands on state issued gas card Eric Eyre and Scott Finn of The Charleston Gazette continue their investigation of Neal Sharp, West Virginia's former homeland security chief, reporting that "Sharp purchased gasoline with his state credit card at least 30 times on days he wasn't working." In all, Sharp charged $6,764 to his state-issued credit card between July 2003 and March 2005. "On a single day in October 2004, he purchased 38 gallons of gas during three stops at service stations in Charleston and Beckley. Another day later that month, he bought 24 gallons of gas during two stops near his home in Poca." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 27, 2005 Cities, counties ignore misdemeanor warrents to save money Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle reports on why many criminals with outstanding misdemeanor warrants don't have to worry about going to jail. The KIRO-Seattle investigative team analyzed 145,000 active misdemeanor warrants in Washington. They found "a growing number of cities and counties ... don't want to pay for the cost of jail time or transportation of a criminal with a misdemeanor warrant. Instead, they routinely tell the deputy to let the criminal go right there on the spot." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 26, 2005 Sheriff deputized friends, family, supporters Christine Hanley of the Los Angeles Times reports on an Orange County Sheriff who deputized friends, family and political supporters. "Of the original 86 reserve deputies, 29 had contributed to Carona's inaugural election campaign in 1998 and his re-election campaign in 2002." The Times used hundreds of documents received through public records requests and provided by other sources, along with interviews to uncover the appointments, which were rushed to avoid tougher training requirements. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Felons registering, voting in Oklahoma Nolan Clay and John Perry of The Oklahoman used state voter data to show that "about 2,500 felons may be registered to vote. About 1,100 may have voted in last year's general election. An exact count is difficult — in part because voters sometimes sign the wrong lines in poll books." The paper found that Oklahoma election officials have ignored records on felons provided by prosecutors in and outside the state. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Section 8 failing to provide adequate housing Antonio Olivo, John Bebow and Darnell Little of the Chicago Tribune used local data to show that "private landlords are fast taking over government's traditional role of housing Chicago's poor. But these subsidized 'Section 8' landlords have been failing four out of every 10 inspections" during the last five years. "More than 6,000 landlords failed the majority of their inspections. Yet those landlords collectively received a quarter-billion dollars in taxpayer-funded rent subsidies in the last five years." Bebow emails that the paper's reporting "was complicated by the fact that the housing authority refused to release the addresses of any of the thousands of apartments in the Section 8 system. They cited a privacy exemption that completely contradicted the federal government's policy on release of addresses of subsidized buildings." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 25, 2005 New evidence casts doubt on convicted killer's guilt Scott Glover and Matt Lait of the Los Angeles Times use scores of documents shedding doubt on the guilt of a man convicted of killing his mother over 20 years ago. Among the evidence discovered was a bloody footprint found at the scene that didn't match the convicted killer's shoes and a mysterious phone call made from the crime scene. The footprint was attributed to Bruce Lisker at trial. But a recent analysis by the Los Angeles Police Department concluded "that the footprint did not match Lisker's shoes, suggesting there was another suspect in the house at the time of the killing." When the reporters contacted eight of the 12 jurors, "five said the new information about the case would have prompted them to acquit Lisker." The former prosecutor in the case, after being shown the findings by the Times, said, "The bottom line is I now have reasonable doubt." The story includes PDFs of 14 documents ranging from a rap sheet of a jailhouse snitch to an inventory record listing the contents of the victim's purse, which includes the $120 that was alleged to have been a motive in the murder. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Fire district underestimates cost of helicopter Andrew McIntosh of The Sacramento Bee used state public records to show that "the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District spent at least $790,000 to refurbish and equip a military surplus helicopter for firefighting and rescues, more than twice the $300,000 budget its elected board originally approved for the project." A member of the fire district's board called the vehicle "a toy for the chief." Eight other California counties or cities have firefighting helicopters. "Documents show district officials grossly underestimated the need for costly spare parts, that some expenses were labeled 'operating costs' when the aircraft wasn't operating and that the board approved the helicopter hoping that it might generate revenue to defray costs, but little money has been raised." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post State lobbyists on course towards record earnings Arthur Kane and Mark P. Couch of The Denver Post used state records to show that "Colorado lobbyists have earned more than $7.5 million so far this year, sending some of the most influential people at the statehouse well on their way to another year of record earnings." A worker's compensation measure received the most attention from lobbyists, with more than 250 lined up either for or against it. "Over the past decade, the amount special interests paid lobbyists has increased every year, nearly tripling from $7.56 million in 1995 to $20.95 million last year. During that time, lobbyists were paid $147 million to influence legislation and spent more than $14 million lobbying." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 24, 2005 Large endowments lead to heavy spending Justin Pope of the Associated Press used federal data and other documents to show that "forty-seven U.S. colleges and universities now have endowments of $1 billion or more, compared to 17 a decade ago." Along with rising endowments, many of these schools have also increased tuition: "Despite tripling its wealth over the last decade, the average billionaire college has nearly doubled its price. Tuition and fees at the average private billionaire college hit $29,002 in 2004; at public universities in the group, it cost $7,230 to attend the typical flagship campus." The AP also published an explainer on its methods for the piece. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Heavy trucks wearing down roads Pat Stith of The (Raleigh/Durham, N.C.) News & Observer reports on how the state relaxed laws to allow overweight trucks to destroy roads, while the enforcement of heavy trucks has also declined in the past five years. "... [S]tate lawmakers voted 10 times for bills that benefit trucking interests at the public expense." Fines for overweight trucks have dropped by half since the last legislation on the issue in 1981 and "about 100 fewer officers prowled the state's back roads to weigh trucks with portable scales or were available to work at the weigh stations on North Carolina's interstates." The series includes an interactive calculator that calculates how an overweight truck can damage the road. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 23, 2005 Indiana bridges failing in comparison to Illinois bridges The Northwest Indiana Times analyzed federal inspection records for 771 elevated road bridges in Lake and Porter counties (Ind.). They found "that as of 2003, 27 percent were either structurally deficient or unable to accommodate rising traffic loads because of size constraints or outdated design." Using data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's 2003 bridge inventory they found that "47 bridges had sufficiency ratings of 50 or less, which means they're eligible for federal replacement funds." The Times review of Illinois bridges found a much lower percentage of deficient bridges. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Mercury levels in fish may mean more advisories Mike Dunne of The (Baton Rouge, La.) Advocate uses state date on fish containing "action levels" of mercury to "show that about 19 lakes and streams in Louisiana may need advisories to warn pregnant women and children under 7 to limit their fish consumption." Last year the state offered to test residents who ate fish from Bayou Bartholomew or the Ouachita River. "Of the 77 people tested, 25 percent had blood levels of mercury greater than what might be considered "background" and were advised to limit their fish consumption. Seven percent, or about five of those tested, had elevated blood mercury levels and were advised to be evaluated by a physician." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 20, 2005 Extreme speeders get off easy Scott Powers of The Orlando Sentinel used county traffic ticket data to show that "last year Florida Highway Patrol troopers, Orange County deputies and police ticketed 342 high rollers for driving at least 100 mph." Those who are caught typically are young, white men and many were traveling on the Central Florida GreeneWay. "And though the penalty for a 100-mph speeding ticket normally includes a stiff fine of $305, the vast majority of high rollers last year avoided getting traffic-violation points attached to their license records, usually by attending traffic school. Officially they are not convicted, so their insurance companies cannot raise their premiums." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Thousands erasing convictions due to murky law Jason Riley and Kay Stewart of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal used Kentucky court records to show that "thousands of Kentuckians are erasing their arrests and convictions every year by taking advantage of expungement laws that make it cheap and easy to bury their past mistakes." Variances in the process and the lack of a tracking systems for expungements help to hide repeat offenders and create unequal justice. "In the past two years, more than 12,000 criminal cases have been wiped off the state's books as if they never existed," while neighboring Indiana makes it more difficult to have a case expunged from the record. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Many to blame for social programs mess Karen Augé of The Denver Post used state records to show that "nearly every agency, contractor and department that touched the state's new $200 million computer benefits system in some way contributed to its debacle." Colorado's new system was a year late when it came online last fall, and the contractor and state officials have blamed each other for its failures. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post N.C. judges influenced by local lawyers Ames Alexander of The Charlotte Observer, working with database editor Ted Mellnik, investigated the relationship between lawyers and judges in the North Carolina's judicial district that is most lenient on drinking and driving. "District judges there acquitted suspects in more than 87 percent of the DWI trials in which they rendered a verdict. Statewide, the acquittal rate is 39 percent, state courts data show." One lawyer, John Nobles won 203 straight DWI trials from 2000 to mid-2004. The story also links to in-depth information on the judges, the lawyers and information on how and why the data was analyzed. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 19, 2005 Sex offenders clustered in impoverished areas Brady Dennis and Matthew Waite of the St. Petersburg Times mapped the locations of registered offenders to show that "9 of 10 people in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties live within a half-mile of a sex offender." Most are clustered in poor areas, and state law restricts some offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Incentives pay millions, while companies fall short Mike McAndrew and Michelle Breidenbach of The (Syracuse) Post-Standard report on how New York Governor George Pataki's administration gives millions of dollars to businesses that promise to hire people, but often don't. The Post-Standard uses the state's Freedom of Information Law to obtain financial accounts, as well as records on companies' penalties. "The newspaper's review of those records shows that in 2004, companies with active grants and loans fell short of their combined targets by at least 6,000 jobs. In all, 47 percent of the companies missed their targets." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Detroit mayor spends on city's dime M.L. Elrick and Jim Shaefer of The Detroit Free Press continues their investigation into personal expenditures made by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on the city's credit card. Numerous Freedom of Information Act requests uncovered expenditures including an $850 steakhouse dinner and $11,644 he spent on Super Bowl hotel rooms. On the mayor's first day on the job "the mayor charged $52.55 for Pearl Moon swimwear and $265 at the Four Seasons Spa for him and bodyguard Mike Martin". The story also includes information on how the story was orchestrated and what the law says about open records. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Review finds hundreds of deficient bridges in Utah Lee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News used federal data to review deficient bridges in Utah. "Federal data, based on state inspections, show that 256 bridges in Utah were considered structurally deficient in 2004. Another 250 were functionally obsolete." Despite the high number of deficiencies, Utah's bridges are rated Ninth best among states, federal data shows. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 18, 2005 Lack of inspectors lead to unsafe trucks on highways Ginny MacDonald and Brett J. Blackledge of The Birmingham News used federal data to show that "thousands of big trucks travel Alabama's highways with bad brakes, bad tires and bad drivers ... Many of those dangerous trucks in recent years have been involved in accidents that have killed hundreds, injured thousands and cost millions in highway repairs." The state has many fewer inspectors than other states, and nearly one in three stops in 2003 resulted in yielded a condition "so serious that officers wouldn't let them back on the road until the problem was fixed." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 17, 2005 Dateline analyzes America's most dangerous roads Dateline NBC analyzed five years of federal crash data to uncover the deadliest roads in America. "There are 400,000 miles of two lane highways in the United States, many with a disproportionate share of accidents." The most dangerous road they found was Florida's US-19, a six-lane highway stretching 30 miles up the coast. The highway has incurred 100 fatalities in the last five years. The story includes a searchable database, searchable by state, county and road, listing road fatalities, speeding accidents and drinking related accidents. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Bad bridges plague Oklahoma Steve Lackmeyer and John Perry of The Oklahoman used state and federal data to find that "fixing Oklahoma's bridges — the nation's worst — would cost taxpayers billions of dollars. All proposed remedies fall woefully short." The state has had the highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges for at least three years. The bulk of such bridges are owned and maintained by county governments, which receive fuel tax revenues from the state for repair and upkeep. "Oklahoma has 140 bridges more than 80 years old. With the current funding structure, the agency can only replace about 324 bridges over the next decade. By that time, the state will have another 800 bridges more than 80 years old. The state has 199 highway bridges with either wooden structures or decking." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Front-runner grabs majority of contributions Andrew Conte and Mark Houser of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review analyzed and mapped campaign contributions for the Pittsburgh mayoral race. They found that "nearly two-thirds of the $1.2 million raised by front-runner Bob O'Connor ... has come from outside the city." A lot of O'Conner's contributions were found to have come in large chunks. The story also features a graphic detailing the analysis. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 16, 2005 Airport project shut down for environmental violations Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records on two logging contractors shut down for repeated environmental violations. Department of Environmental Protection records "showed that the agency cited Yeager [airport contractors] last month for two violations of its stormwater control permit on the slide repair work." The 170-acre airport project includes about 55 acres of clear-cutting. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post LAPD spends millions over overtime budget Jason Kandel of the Los Angeles Daily News obtained overtime expenditures from the Los Angeles Police Department and used Excel to analyze the data. He found that the LAPD has already overspent their overtime budget by $8 million with two months still remaining in the fiscal year. "The Los Angeles Police Department spent $62.8 million through April 30, although it had budgeted $54.7 million for 1.2 million overtime hours for the fiscal year that ends June 30, documents show." The biggest chunk of the expense was found to be from court-related activities. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 13, 2005 Highway project costing taxpayers millions more than originally projected Kimball Payne and Bob Evans of the Hampton Daily Press uses a large number of documents, maps and thousands of e-mails to investigate a federal highway project that is projected to be completed two years past the original completion date and have an added cost of twice what the Virginia Department of Transportation had projected. "E.V. Williams has already been paid $25.9 million more than its original bid of $64.7 million. By the end, VDOT estimates the added costs will double, creating a 77 percent overrun." The series is divided into eight sections: Money, Design, Delays, Infighting, Contract, Bridge, Magruder and Next. A timeline detailing "The roadmap to chaos" is also included with the piece. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Special interest groups paying for congressional travel Jeff Zeleny, Mike Dorning and Michael Tackett of the Chicago Tribune reviewed travel records for Illinois' congressional delegation, finding that "at least 835 trips taken by either Illinois Congress members or their staff highlight the uneasy intersection between private dollars and public policy that raises questions about whether a special interest group is trying to influence legislation. And there is little enforcement considering lawmakers file reports within Congress." The paper found that two Chicago Democrats had not filed any reports since 2000, despite taking at least 30 trips between them. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Convicted youths escaping custody Sheila Burke of The Tennessean used state data to show that "children convicted of crimes escaped from state custody more than 4,400 times during the past five years, often by simply walking away from foster homes or other unsecured facilities where they had been placed by the Department of Children's Services." Tennessee's rate of escapes for all kids is about two times the national average. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Athletic department purchased banned supplements Danny Robbins of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram used the Texas Public Information Act to show that "the Texas A&M University and University of Texas at Austin athletic departments have routinely purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of dietary supplements labeled as containing ingredients that make them impermissible for distribution to student-athletes under National Collegiate Athletic Association rules." The two universities have spent about $120,000 during the past four years on such supplements. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 12, 2005 Home assessment accuracy up Gregory S. Reeves of The Kansas City Star used Jackson County real estate data to show that "an old problem - over-valuing homes under $50,000 - may have gotten worse with the new property tax appraisals ... and homes that sold for $600,000 and up remain under-appraised by 25 percent." Most houses, the paper found, were appraised accurately. Overall, the county's houses were appraised at around 91 percent of market value, up from last year's average assessment of 75 percent or less of market value. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Security chief's use of plane, helicopter questioned Eric Eyre and Scott Finn of the Charleston Gazette obtained flight records showing that West Virginia homeland security chief Neal Sharp "flew on the state plane or helicopter to attend meetings, scout disaster training sites and inspect emergency equipment" nineteen times in 19 months and chartered five additional private flights, prompting a state investigation. "All told, Sharp's agency was charged for 26 trips on state aircraft and chartered planes. The flights cost more than $60,000." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 11, 2005 State spends millions transporting recovering heroin addicts Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle uses receipts for methadone delivery cabs obtained through the Open Records Act to shed light on a system that is spending millions transporting recovering heroin addicts in taxicabs. "Washington taxpayers spend $2.8 million each year for transportation of heroin addicts to treatment clinics that's over and above the cost of serving up counseling and doses of methadone." The story includes links to pdf files detailing the transportation charges by county. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Police failing to prevent false identifications Bill Moushey and Nathan Crabbe of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in conjunction with the Innocence Institute at Point Park University, investigated potential wrongful convictions in Pennsylvania, finding that "police failed to follow the steps that can help prevent false identifications." Many police agencies in the state either were not aware of federal guidelines for eyewitness identifications or disagreed with them, the project found. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Marine Corps issued flawed armor Christian Lowe of the Marine Corps Times used the Freedom of Information Act to show that "the Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that government experts urged the Corps to reject after tests revealed critical, life-threatening flaws in the vests." The Marines obtained about 19,000 pieces of armor from Point Blank Body Armor Inc. that failed government tests, with a Marine program manager signing a waiver to permit their use. The story prompted the service to issue recalls for the vests. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 10, 2005 Domestic violence suspects avoid jailtime through pretrial program Rick Brundrett of The (Columbia, S.C.) State studied records from pretrial intervention programs to find that South Carolina "prosecutors accepted more than 1,800 suspects accused of criminal domestic violence into a program that allows their charges to be dropped over the past five years." Violent offenders aren't supposed to be eligible for the program, but a loophole in state law permits those charged with domestic violence to enter. "Until last year, even the most serious criminal domestic violence charge - criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature - was not classified as violent. That meant suspects charged with the crime for the first time also could be admitted into PTI." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Pension abuses hurt employees Michael L. Diamond, with contributions from Paul D'Ambrosio and Nicholas Clunn, Eileen Smith and Peter Spencer of Gannett New Jersey newspapers reviewed the state's pension program, finding that "while the private sector has sharply cut pension and health insurance benefits, the state has gone the opposite way. New Jersey's system features generous payouts to retirees and is subject to abuse." Other employees hold multiple positions: using 2002 data, the papers found "at least $238 million was paid in salaries to 9,500 individuals holding 24,700 government jobs. That represents about 3 percent of the entire payroll in local, county and state government, excluding police, firefighters and teachers." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 09, 2005 State legislators spend lavishly due to leeway in laws Jennifer Dixon and Victoria Turk of The Detroit Free Press used state campaign finance records to show that "Michigan legislators have dipped into campaign cash to buy cars, jewelry, expensive gifts and entertainment in possible violation of federal tax codes." The IRS is investigating whether the spending, which lawmakers defend as necessary, constitutes a personal benefit. One state senator "has spent roughly $64,000 in campaign contributions to buy a sedan and a sport utility vehicle, new tires, insurance and license plate tags, and to pay for repairs." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Poor care at nursing homes leads to light punishments Jeffrey Meitrodt, Jan Moller and Steve Ritea of The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune used state data to show that "most of Louisiana's 300 or so nursing homes have been cited since 1999 for mistakes that harmed or endangered residents. But in the sometimes illogical world of nursing home regulation, facilities in Louisiana often pay little or no penalty for fatal errors. In fact, homes that make mistakes resulting in a resident's death or serious injury often pay less than those cited for repeating minor violations." The paper's five-part series has numerous stories about the system, how other states regulate nursing homes and lots of photos. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Potential terrorism targets find lax security efforts David Kocieniewski of The New York Times uses public records to investigate the homeland security threat, specifically along a two-mile stretch, deemed the most vulnerable by terrorism experts. The investigation looked into "... a chemical plant that processes chlorine gas, so close to Manhattan that the Empire State Building seems to rise up behind its storage tanks." A reporter and photographer for The Times spent five minutes snapping photos in front of the plant without being questioned. "... New Jersey officials have spent more than $350 million in state tax money on counterterrorism, building an apparatus that is run by seasoned law enforcement experts and is generally well regarded. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 06, 2005 U.S. legislative leaders take frequent trips on corporate jets R. Jeffrey Smith and Derek Willis from The Washington Post analyzed federal campaign expenditure records to find that top congressional leaders "flew on corporate-owned jets at least 360 times from January 2001 to December 2004." Members of both parties took part in the practice, although leading Republicans flew more often than Democrats. "The records show that flights were provided by some of Washington's largest corporate interests, including tobacco, telecommunications, business consulting, securities, air transport, insurance, pharmaceutical, railroad and food companies." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Court concealed lawsuits involving rich and famous Dave Altimari of The Hartford Courant used documents released under a federal lawsuit by the paper to show that Connecticut's "judicial branch began an organized effort in the 1990s to hide the existence of some lawsuits involving the rich and famous, years before court officials claimed those so-called super-sealed cases were merely the results of informal decisions by a handful of judges." The paper revealed the existence of such cases in March 2003. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 04, 2005 TV evangelist receives millions from ministry Carolyn Tuft of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used Missouri's Open Records law to obtain documents showing that "TV evangelist Joyce Meyer and her family have received millions in salary and benefits from her worldwide ministry in recent years." The details were included in a property tax dispute involving the tax status of the ministry's headquarters. Joyce Meyer earned a $900,000 salary in 2002 and 2003, and her husband got $450,000 in each of those years. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Fewer women in top Kentucky posts Elisabeth J. Beardsley of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal studied demographic patterns among top Kentucky officials, finding that "the share of top government posts held by women shrank when Gov. Ernie Fletcher took over from Gov. Paul Patton." Women held 36 percent of top government jobs at the end of Fletcher's first year in office, down from 42 percent in the final year of Patton's term. The Courier-Journal also studied demographics of the state legislature and state judgeships to find that women are underrepresented in both instances. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Head Start execs spend lots on trips, gifts Susan Vinella of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reviewed spending records from Ohio's largest Head Start agency to find "executives and board members spending tens of thousands on meals, trips and gifts. Many of the expenses were paid with government money that the Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland receives for its annual budget, which tops $50 million." Trips to Puerto Rico and Hawaii were among the expenses detailed, as were gifts from Tiffany & Co. worth $1,300. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 03, 2005 Disney looks to improve parks to further growth Jerry W. Jackson, Debbie Salamone and Sean Mussenden of The Orlando Sentinel used public records to determine that Walt Disney World represents a more than $4 billion-a-year business in Central Florida. The paper reviewed state, local and county tax records, corporate annual reports and 15 years' worth of federal SEC filings, using computer-assisted reporting, to analyze the company's size and impact on the community, as well as its contribution to the revenue and profitability of the theme park division and to Walt Disney Co. overall. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Restaurant inspections find high number of infractions Lee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News uses computer assisted-reporting to analyze nearly 10,000 restaurant inspections during 2003 and 2004. The data were obtained through a state open records request. "The analysis shows which restaurants had the most violations per inspection and the fewest, with 25 establishments averaging 13 or more critical violations per inspection, while 30 had perfect scores with no violations of any kind during the two years." The most common violation of any type, cited 5,3739 times over the two years, was the "critical" violation of using unclean equipment. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 02, 2005 Rush hour trains running late Rob Gebeloff and Joe Malinconico of The (Newark) Star-Ledger analyzed state data to find that while New Jersey Transit's overall on-time performance is close to 95 percent, "on-time rates for dozens of rush-hour trains are twice as bad as the overall average." The paper's analysis also showed that "on the Northeast Corridor, one of every six trains during the morning rush hour ran late. In contrast, the Bergen County Line missed the on-time mark by just one out of every 32 trains." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Police chases up in Nashville Ian Demsky of The (Nashville) Tennessean used local police data to show that "a record number of police pursuits zipped through Nashville streets last year, even as beefed-up safety measures caused officers to cancel more of the dangerous car chases than ever before." A third of the 269 police chases in 2004 led to some kind of property damage. "While officers and supervisors called off 67 pursuits last year - almost twice as many as they did in 2003 - the number of chases for minor traffic violations, nonviolent crimes and stolen vehicles rose from 153 to 175." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 29, 2005 Medicare schemes may have cost taxpayers millions Erin McCormick of the San Francisco Chronicle investigated Medicare scams dealing with elderly immigrants. What the Chronicle discovered were two scams: the first was a sleep clinic, which billed Medicare for tests that were over-billed and unnecessary. The second scam, the electronic wheelchair scam, dealt with Medicare recipients receiving free motorized scooters. In both scams the Medicare recipients were given $100 for going to the clinics and recruiters were given $50 for each person they brought with them to the clinics. The story breaks down each scam, how they worked, and provides examples of what was going on. The second installment in the series explores the ability of the government to crack down on the fraud. The Chronicle found that the scams growth is far outpacing the crackdown, as scammers are becoming more cunning. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 28, 2005 Radiologist's long hours invoke suspicion Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber of the Los Angeles Times used California's Public Records Act to show that "Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center paid more than $1.3 million over the last year for the services of a radiologist who said he worked an average of 20 hours a day, seven days a week, during one recent six-month stretch." Supervisors signed off on the employee's timesheets even when they indicated working more than 20 hours a day at the facility. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 27, 2005 Felony, not petty criminals fill jail Karen E. Crummy of The Denver Post analyzed county data to find that "most of the inmates crammed into the Denver County Jail are accused of robbery, burglary, selling drugs and even violent assaults. Relatively few of them are the drunken drivers and petty drug users whom people often associate with county jail." Local residents will vote in May on building a new jail. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 26, 2005 Parolees living in state nursing homes Chris Fusco and Lori Rackl of the Chicago Sun-Times used state documents to show that sixty-one criminals on parole from the state's prison system are living in 37 nursing homes alongside vulnerable people who have virtually no way of knowing they're there. "The Sun-Times found an example of this in southwest suburban Bridgeview at Midway Neurological & Rehab Center, formerly called Century Village. Among the 404-bed facility's residents is Louis White, 35, a convicted second-degree murderer who also was convicted of sexually abusing a girl in 1999." The story provides a graphic detailing the number of offenders in each facility, age ranges of the offenders and the types of offenses the parolees committed. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post County workers cashing in on overtime Mickey Ciokajlo and Todd Lighty of the Chicago Tribune used Cook County payroll data to find that "more than 100 county workers were each paid $50,000 or more in overtime last year, with one industrious nurse pulling down $187,500 in extra pay. Oak Forest Hospital nurse Usha Patel, who earned the overtime on top of her regular $92,700 salary, also led county employees in overtime pay in 1996, when the Tribune last totaled up the tab." Overtime spending by the county has more than doubled during the past eight years. Nearly 60 employees, many in health-related jobs, doubled their regular pay through overtime. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post City officials spending with little oversight Jim Davis of The Fresno Bee used city expense reports to show that "Fresno Mayor Alan Autry and the City Council spent tens of thousands of dollars in the past four years on meals, hotel bills and other expenses with little oversight and less public debate." Autry had the city pay for 422 business meals in the first 11 months of 2004, records show. "The mayor and council members rarely turn in receipts when asking to be reimbursed for meals. The city doesn't require receipts for meals that cost less than $9 for breakfast, $14 for lunch and $19 for dinner. Almost no rules are in place to regulate how elected officials spend their expense allowances. The reimbursement form they sign each month asks only that the money be spent on 'official business.'" Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 25, 2005 City insiders' tickets dismissed at much higher rate than most Patrick Lakamp of The Buffalo News analyzed 24,000 parking ticket hearings, finding that most Buffalo residents pay the majority of their fines, whereas as a select few city insiders get their fines dismissed. "They just write letters to the city's parking enforcement director. Two-thirds of the time, their tickets go away." A deputy commissioner of jurors saved $1,205 when 95 percent of his contested fines were waived. The story also includes a sidebar detailing the city's biggest benefactor Paul G. Gaughan, deputy commissioner of jurors in Erie County. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post FEMA contracts with criminals Megan O'Matz and Sally Kestin of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that "government inspectors entrusted to enter disaster victims' homes and verify damage claims include criminals with records for embezzlement, drug dealing and robbery." The paper found the names of more than 100 inspectors for the Federal Emergency Management Agency through public and confidential sources; 30 had criminal records. "The story is the latest in the paper's investigation into FEMA's mismanagement of hurricane relief funds. Read more about the story in the upcoming May/June issue of The IRE Journal." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 22, 2005 Web site lists day-care violations, not punishments Robin Farmer of the Richmond Times-Dispatch used the Freedom of Information Act to investigate licensed day-care centers in Virginia. Parents can look-up online if their child's center has violations, but the site does not reveal whether the center has been punished for them. The Times-Dispatch found that "nearly 95 percent of 2,600 centers had at least one violation last year. There are more than 600 standards for centers to meet." The story also includes two sidebars, the first lists the day-care centers appealing their sanctions, and the second lists information that is not available on the state's Web site. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 19, 2005 Foundation administrators highly compensated Erin Jordan of the Des Moines Register obtained salary records of foundation employees at Iowa's three public universities. They found on average the employees made less than the national average, but the administrators were far above the average salary with "... U of I Foundation President Michael New topping out at $250,000 a year." Despite the high pay for administrators, the foundations are bringing in lots of money for student scholarships, classroom equipment and more resources for the universities. "The U of I Foundation, with a payroll of about $8 million, had 144 full-time employees. The foundation brought in about $100.5 million in fiscal 2004." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 18, 2005 U.S. implements secret policy to win over Islam David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Reports details how the White House is implementing a secret policy to intervene not just in the Muslim world, but within Islam itself, and how Washington has set up a program of political warfare unmatched since the height of the Cold War forty years ago. The project details how the U.S. government is quietly funding Islamic schools, mosques, think tanks, and media around the world. The piece also includes a graphic detailing the United States' projects to influence Islam globally, and two sidebars, the first describing the role of rocket scientists in the strategy, and the second examining Sufi, a moderate sect of Islam and an enemy to al-Qaeda and other extremists organizations. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Orlando convention center fails to meet high standards Dan Tracy of the Orlando Sentinel spent more than six months investigating the Orange County Convention Center and the industry surrounding Central Florida's largest single public-works project. "The center's $748 million expansion, which opened in August 2003 in the midst of a tourism and travel slump, attracted only 154,317 new visitors during its first full year of operations — less than a third of the 500,000-plus who had been projected." In their second installment in a series of three, Orlando's biggest competitor, Las Vegas, was analyzed to see why the city has been and continues to be the number one draw for conventions. The series also includes time-lapse video of the convention center project, details about the numbers, four detailed graphics and information about the series. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 15, 2005 Physicians stay on, despite past drug and alcohol problems Cheryl W. Thompson of The Washington Post studied medical board records from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, finding that "scores of physicians in the area and across the country have been given repeated chances to practice, despite well-documented drug and alcohol problems." In addition, sanctions in such cases can take months or years and rarely result in a loss of the license to practice. "The District and Maryland boards do not permanently revoke doctors' licenses. In Virginia, where a license can be permanently taken away only with a doctor's agreement, just one was revoked for substance abuse from 1999 to 2004, records show." Maryland and Virginia punish their physicians nearly twice as often as D.C. does. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Armor shortage due to Pentagon missteps Joseph Tanfani, Tom Infield, Carrie Budoff and Edward Colimore of The Philadelphia Inquirer studied the availability of armor for military vehicles in Iraq, finding a shortage "had more to do with Pentagon missteps than any lack of industrial capacity." The importance of vehicle armor is highlighted in casualties: "Since May 1, 2003, when the United States declared an end to major combat operations, attacks on vehicles have accounted for as many as 40 percent of the 1,037 deaths of soldiers attributed to hostile action." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 14, 2005 Housing authority spending practices questioned Brian Meyer of The Buffalo News used city records to show that "the agency that runs public housing in Buffalo set aside nearly $124,000 last July for trips, credit card spending, cell phones, insurance and stipends for its seven volunteer commissioners for this fiscal year. ... This is the same Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority that plans to abolish its police force and lay off all 26 officers by July 1 in order to balance its budget." Among the perks are health and dental insurance for five of the seven commissioners. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post House members hire family, pay with campaign funds Larry Margasak and Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press reviewed federal campaign filings to find that "dozens of lawmakers have hired their spouses and children to work for their campaigns and political groups, paying them with contributions they've collected from special interests and other donors." The AP identified about 50 House members who pay their spouses or children to work on campaigns and raise money for them. Similarly, Richard Simon, Chuck Neubauer and Rone Tempest of the Los Angeles Times found that "at least 39 members of Congress have engaged in the controversial practice of paying their spouses, children or other relatives out of campaign funds." Both stories were possible because House members file electronic reports; senators do not. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 13, 2005 School accountability reports flawed David Olinger and Jeffrey A. Roberts of The Denver Post examined reports of violent incidents in Colorado schools, finding that "disclosures of school violence vary wildly from one district to another. Some schools report every punch thrown on the playground. Others did not include assaults that police classified as felonies." The state requires districts to report certain incidents, but the guidelines lead some officials to report only those that cause severe injuries. "How accountable are the accountability reports? To accept their reliability, you must believe that in the last school year: Thirteen Colorado grade schools had more assaults and fights than any high school in Denver. A rural high school in Rifle witnessed more assaults than 25 high schools in Denver and Aurora. The most violent school in Colorado is a middle school in the suburban community of Fountain." A graphic shows some of the incidents that didn't make the state's report. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post State officials hire relatives Tim Smith of The Greenville News used state records to show that "relatives of two South Carolina Department of Transportation commissioners have been hired at the agency, but the board members said there was nothing improper about their employment." The two relatives are part-time employees, but one has worked for the agency since 1999 and earns about $50,000 a year for her 20-hour-a-week position helping direct a training program. The paper used the state's Freedom of Information Act to obtain the records. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 12, 2005 Faulty oversight put youth at risk Jonathan D. Rockoff and John B. O'Donnell of The (Baltimore) Sun analyzed spending by 25 companies that run group homes for foster children, finding "a broad failure by the state to protect the interests of 2,700 youths who live in 330 privately run homes in Maryland. The state licenses and funds the facilities but does not routinely hold them accountable for the quality of care they provide - putting children at risk." In some cases, the paper found that deaths of children were not recorded in state files and "unqualified or unfit caregivers are hired because the state does not enforce training requirements and leaves screening to the operators." Also included is a section about how the series was done. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post State offers big incentives at a large price Sydney P. Freedberg and Connie Humburg of the St. Petersburg Times wrote about Florida's attempt to attract business by offering large incentives to help companies create jobs. The incentives were not working with some companies shipping jobs oversees instead of creating them. These economic efforts come at a big price with Florida's economic development efforts costing the state government more than $900 million. "In a state with a $61-billion proposed budget, $900-million could pay for nearly 11,000 new teachers, prekindergarten classes for 150,000 4-year-olds and all of next year's tuition increase for more than 250,000 university students." The story also includes 14 charts that break down details from wages to cash grants. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 11, 2005 Wildfire risks fail to slow home growth Diana Hefley and Scott North of The (Everett) Herald used state and local data to show that "the areas of Snohomish County with the highest potential for wildfires are home to more than 5,500 people, most relatively new arrivals. ... Since 2000 an average of 100 new houses and mobile homes have sprouted in the fire-prone areas each year." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 08, 2005 County practice of selling brains scrutinized Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle uncovered, using the state's Open Records Act, an alarming trade arrangement between the county medical examiner's office and a medical research institute for human brain specimens. "In the past seven years, the medical examiner's office received more than $1 million for collecting brains of people with schizophrenia. In return for the money, county pathologists shipped at least 180 brains to a private research facility." The investigation also exposed a practice that only requires consent by phone to get the okay from family members for "brain-tissue donation." The story includes links to the text of the agreement between Stanley Institute and the King County medical examiner, charts detailing money paid by Stanley Institute and the medical examiner, and an e-mail from a county official explaining the county's position on the matter. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Refinery warned about dangerous ventilation stack Dina Cappiello and Anne Belli of the Houston Chronicle obtained OSHA data on the British Petroleum refinery that exploded March 23. They found that the refinery had been fined and warned about the ventilation stack and given ideas on how to make it safer in 1992. "To correct the problem, OSHA recommended that Amoco reconfigure the unit so that liquids and vapors discharged go to a flare, or set up air monitors." The company was cited for 15 violations and initially fined $50,000. If the flare system had been in place, officials said the accident would never have happened. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 07, 2005 Recruiting actions put program under investigation Carter Strickland of The Oklahoman used the state's Freedom of Information Act to obtain phone records from Oklahoma University's men's basketball program showing improper contact with high school recruits. "Coaches are allowed one phone call a week to recruits, parents or legal guardians. But phone records obtained by The Oklahoman show representatives of the OU program called an Amarillo, Texas, player and his mother 18 times last August. Members of the OU staff called a Seattle recruit and his family 13 times in September." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Lobbyist fail to follow rules A team from the Center for Public Integrity released LobbyWatch, an analysis of nearly $13 billion spent on federal lobbying since 1998. One story reveals that more than 19 percent of all filings to the Senate Office of Public Records were late and "49 of the top 50 lobbying firms (in terms of revenue) failed to file one or more required forms during the last six years. Similarly, 1,200 of the 6,400 companies registered to lobby - 20 percent in all - failed to file one or more forms that the federal disclosure law requires." With several charts and online lookups. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Police issue tickets more frequently by the beach Rick Neale of Florida Today analyzed 2004 traffic ticket data from Brevard County, finding that "beachside police ticket at far higher relative frequencies than their mainland counterparts." The county's smaller towns write far more tickets per capita than larger cities. "Melbourne Village issues almost eight times more tickets per capita than Brevard's biggest city, Palm Bay." Police mostly blame tourist traffic on State Road A1A and commuters seeking alternate routes. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 05, 2005 Legislators took gifts, trips from lobbyists Nolan Clay of The Oklahoman used state disclosure reports to find that "Oklahoma politicians, their aides and relatives accepted at least $125,000 worth of meals, drinks, football tickets and other gifts last year." Many of the freebies were associated with the state's college athletic programs, including season tickets to football games at Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University. Golf outings and tickets to the NCAA Final Four basketball games were among the other gifts given by lobbyists and colleges. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 31, 2005 Police failing to notify schools about sex offenders Ofelia Casillas of the Chicago Tribune investigated juvenile sex offenders in schools, specifically looking into school knowledge of the sex offender(s) in their school. They found that "some principals were not told that young sex offenders had enrolled in their schools, because the state system designed to notify them is mired in confusion." They found more disturbing data when looking into what types of crimes the juvenile sex offenders had committed. "Of the juveniles registered, 41 percent were found guilty of aggravated or criminal sexual assault, and 33 percent committed aggravated criminal sexual abuse" Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post High-risk drivers make up majority of DUI offenses Matthew Junker of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review used arrest data from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts to determine that fully 56 percent of the people arrested last year were in the most intoxicated category under Pennsylvania's .08 DUI law. "Statistics for the law's first 11 months -- from Feb. 1, 2004, to the end of that year -- show that more than half of those charged with drunken driving had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16 percent or higher, twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 30, 2005 Emergency fund used by legislators Eric Eyre and Scott Finn of the Charleston Gazette examined records of a contingency fund controlled by West Virginia's governor, finding that "Hardy County received $6.7 million from the contingency fund since 1997 - more than any county in the state - even though the county ranks 42nd out of 55 counties in population." The link? Delegate Harold K. Michael, D-Hardy, chairman of the House of Delegates Finance Committee, which helps steer the contingency money. "The governor's contingency fund was set up to help out West Virginians during disasters — floods, fires and ice storms. But during the past eight years, more than $72 million has been spent on items that were hardly emergencies." A PDF chart shows how much went to recipients in each county. Another story details $8 million in state education funds that state officials didn't request. "Legislative leaders won't say exactly what they earmarked the money for. And state schools Superintendent David Stewart doesn't have a clue about the purpose of the funds. Stewart said the $8 million came with just one caveat: that it can be released only on orders from Harold K. Michael, D-Hardy, chairman of the House of Delegates Finance Committee." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Hispanic girls lack high school sports participation MaryJo Sylwester, in her swan song at USA TODAY before joining the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, used federal education data to help illustrate the comparative lack of participation in high school sports by Hispanic girls. "Nationally, about 36% of Hispanic sophomore girls played interscholastic sports, compared with 52% of non-Hispanics for the 2001-02 school year." Money doesn't seem to be a factor, but rather the influences of culture and family that may emphasize home obligations over after-school activities. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Inmates awating trial drive up costs Curtis Johnson of The (Huntingdon) Herald-Dispatch used Cabell County court and jail records to show that ."inmates facing felony charges, most of whom were awaiting trial, accounted for 62 percent of the month's bill. That's important, because if convicted, the state takes over the cost of their imprisonment." The records show that "reducing the jail bill would require a dramatic shift toward speedier trials along with pre-trial and sentencing alternatives." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 29, 2005 County jails outdated fail to meet standards Leon Alligood of The Tennessean reviewed state data to report on overcrowding in county jails. He found that "a total of 26 of the 129 jails statewide have been 'decertified'," because of varying reasons, ranging from unhealthy living conditions, to out-dated facilities. Of the 26 jails that were decertified, the average age of the facilities was 46.5 years old. The story also includes links to sidebars including, few penalties for not meeting standards for jails, some of the state's basic rules for jail standards and information on certified jails that have overcrowding in their detention facilities. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Governor's office political dealings in question Alan Judd of The Atlanta-Jounal Constitution investigated claims that the Georgia governor's office put heat on the state's consumer regulatory office over dealings with a major car dealership and donor to the governor's campaign. "In the Bill Heard Chevrolet case, Hills' inquiry became a key point in a series of events that, Smith says, undermined the agency's already limited authority." The story uncovers numerous accounts of collaboration between the governor's office and the dealership, that eventually led to the firing of the consumer agency's chief, just months away from reaching retirement. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 28, 2005 Train delay rates climbing Sewell Chan and Jo Craven McGinty of The New York Times studied delays on New York's subway system, finding that "a typical weekday rider on the subway today is likely to experience a train delay roughly once every three weeks, compared with about once every five weeks in September 2003, when the number of stalled trains reached a record low." The delays - defined as being at least five minutes late at the end of a run - occur for a wide variety of reasons, including worker error or signal malfunction. Passengers who hold doors open also contribute to the lateness. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 24, 2005 Dot com insiders made millions, while investors lost Reporters Sharon Pian Chan and David Heath of The Seattle Times used unsealed documents successfully won in state and federal lawsuits to investigate Infospace's rise and downfall. At its peak, Infospace was worth over $31 million, but a bad investment on a Canadian wireless investment and questionable business dealings led to the eventual collapse of the dot com giant. They interviewed 100 people, ranging from former employees, investors, experts and regulatory officials. The three-part series details who the winners and loser were, how company insiders fled, dumping their stocks, making millions and the series will feature the aftermath of the downfall March 8. Emails, voicemails and documents are also included in the series, as well as a piece about how the series was done. The Seattle Times Executive Editor Mike Fancher wrote a column discussing the series. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Detroit high on list of top spenders Kathleen Gray and Marisol Bello of The Detroit Free Press used federal data to show that "Detroit spends more on city government than most of the nation's big cities." The city ranks fourth in government employees per capita and fifth in overall general fund spending per capita, "behind New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago, spending $1.7 million for every 1,000 residents." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 23, 2005 City program accountability questioned Toni Coleman of the St. Paul Pioneer Press analyzed data on the city's Sales Tax Revitalization (STAR) grant program, finding that "accountability under STAR is uneven because of the program's complicated structure. Most projects go through a structured review process, for example, but individual City Council members circumvent that if they want. In addition, some of the money is earmarked for cultural improvements, but city officials have a pattern of breaking their own guidelines for how to use it." The city council has taken some of the STAR money and given council members the right to dispense it as they want, often under less scrutiny. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 22, 2005 FOI requests improve, but some agencies still lag Colleen Krantz of The Des Moines Register and Janet Rorholm of The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette report that a newspaper audit of public records in Iowa shows that "law enforcement agencies in Iowa provided greater access to their public documents during a recent investigation by Iowa newspapers than the agencies did five years ago, yet police departments and sheriff offices still violated the law by withholding records about a third of the time." City clerks and county government agencies provided better access to records this time, according to the audit, which was assisted by Drake University journalism students. A searchable database of results is available. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 21, 2005 Wealthy schools benefit more from construction money Steve Chambers and Robert Gebeloff of The (Newark) Star-Ledger analyzed state school construction data to find that "New Jersey's wealthiest districts have been far more successful qualifying for state money than middle-class or blue-collar ones. And with two-thirds of the state money already spent or committed, affluent districts have landed 24 percent more construction funding per pupil than other districts." The state's first-come, first-served method for distributing the money "left many poor and middle-class districts in the lurch." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Chicago recycling program success exagerated Laurie Cohen and Dan Mihalopoulos of the Chicago Tribune, along with Gary Washburn, used city records to show that "less paper, plastic, metals and other recyclables were salvaged from Chicago's household garbage in the last two years than at any time since the program's earliest years." The paper's investigation found that the city "has quietly begun allowing nearly 30 percent of Chicago's residential waste to bypass the expensive sorting centers built a decade ago to pull out recyclables." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 16, 2005 Expunged records raise concern over judicial fairness Steve Myers of the Mobile Register reveals the existence of hundreds of court cases where convictions were removed from the public record. "The practice of expunging records came to the forefront recently due to the case of Mobile County school board President David Thomas, who was arrested for drunken driving in 1998. Before he was ever scheduled to appear in court, a Mobile municipal judge ordered that Thomas stay out of trouble for a year and that the DUI record be expunged. The file was held from public view until recently, when the Mobile Register learned of its existence and asked that it be opened. Hundreds of other expunged city cases - 268 last year alone, according to police - remain closed and are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Register." The practice appears to happen much less frequently in the state courts. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 14, 2005 Police response times longer in certain areas Paul Goodsell and Lynn Safranek of the Omaha World-Herald examined 911 calls between 2000 and 2004 to find that "police took longest to respond to west Omaha calls. East of I-680, it took an average of 6 minutes and 31 seconds last year for the first officer to arrive on the highest priority calls. West of I-680, the average time was 8:28. The difference held true for priority two calls, which are less urgent and far more numerous. In the east, the average response time was about 11 minutes. In the west, 14 minutes." The gap between east and west widened in 2004 compared to earlier years. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Special ed students pack troubled schools In a story produced by Beth Fertig and edited by John Keefe of WNYC-New York, school enrollment data was used to compare special needs enrollment data for the more violent schools compared to the lesser violent schools. Using freedom of information laws, WNYC obtained fall enrollment data for the 278 academic high schools that enroll more than a quarter of a million students. They found that "while special ed kids make up 12 percent of the high school population citywide, they make up 17 percent of students at violent schools. And they're 18 percent at schools the state says are failing." The story includes an in-depth analysis of Special Education and English Language Learners, as well as supplying the radio version of the story. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 09, 2005 High toxin levels downplayed by regulators Keith Matheny of the Traverse City Record-Eagle used state and federal records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to show that while the public learned about deadly toxins present in the Bay Harbor gated community last fall, "regulators knew of contamination from cement kiln dust piles as far back as the 1980s." The documents also shed light on a deal between Michigan and Bay Harbor developers over the existence of contaminants and cleanup procedures. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Nonprofits not required to follow sunshine laws Matthew Hirsch of the San Francisco Bay Guardian investigated nonprofit city contracts and found that San Francisco is spending billions on nonprofit contracts without adequate oversight. "Since 2002 ... the city has distributed more than $1.5 billion to nonprofit organizations ..." The nonprofits receiving the contracts, unlike city agencies, do not have to comply with sunshine laws. "They're run by nonelected boards that often meet behind closed doors, effectively making public policy decisions without direct public input or oversight." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Problems shielding troops more extensive than thought Michael Moss of the New York Times used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents showing that "the Pentagon's difficulties in shielding troops and their vehicles with armor have been far more extensive and intractable than officials have acknowledged." The paper used a Department of Defense inspector general's report that outlined the problems in supplying armor to soldiers in Iraq. "The Pentagon put the inspector general on the case after Defense Department officials, noticing that its allies were getting armor so quickly, became suspicious that they were taking armor intended for American soldiers. But the report wound up criticizing the Pentagon instead." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 08, 2005 Officials fail to act on abuse claims Michelle Roberts of The Oregonian found that warnings about abusive behavior by state parole officer Michael Lee Boyles went unheeded for years, and Oregon officials acted only after the suicide of a young man supervised by Boyles. "State officials received repeated and detailed warnings from a family raising concerns about Boyles and his behavior with another boy on his caseload. The warnings, received and responded to at a high level within the juvenile department, were earlier and more detailed than previously known. Top juvenile department officials promised to investigate Boyles, according to a letter sent to the family, and to remove the child in question from his caseload. But documents show neither happened." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 07, 2005 Delays, inconsistencies plague veteran affairs Chris Adams and Alison Young of Knight-Ridder Newspapers sued the Veterans Administration to obtain records never before released to the public. They showed that "injured soldiers who petition the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for those payments are often doomed by lengthy delays, hurt by inconsistent rulings and failed by the veterans representatives who try to help them." Knight-Ridder compiled a database comparing VA regional offices, finding "wildly inconsistent results" in providing care to vets. Ted Mellnik of the Charlotte Observer assisted with formatting the database for display on the Web site; here's how the series was done. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Helicopter problems put crew members at risk Michael Fabey of the Savannah Morning News used Coast Guard data to find that "Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter engines continue to lose power, threatening the lives of pilots and crew members. There were 423 incidents of power failure in the helicopters in the fleet between Aug. 4, 1985, and Sept. 30, 2004." Air Station Savannah ranked in the middle of Coast Guard stations in number of incidents reported. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Affluent residents more likely than minorities to show up for jury duty Andrew Tilghman of the Houston Chronicle analyzed local court data to show that "residents of Harris County's predominantly white, affluent neighborhoods are up to seven times more likely to show up for jury duty than those in the county's lower-income, mostly minority neighborhoods." The paper used the area's more than 140 ZIP codes to divide up juror pools, finding that "the 10 ZIP codes with the lowest turnout, all below 10 percent, have populations that are predominantly Hispanic or black. Those areas had a median income of $29,636." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Serious workplace violation fines low Marc Chase of The (Northwest Indiana) Times used OSHA data to investigate workplace safety violations. They found "that fines at or below the minimum are the rule, not the exception, in cases involving what OSHA considers serious violations. The average fine from 1991 to 2003 was $862.74 per serious violation, $637.26 less than the minimum of the penalty range during that time period." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 02, 2005 Land deals raise nepotism concerns J.M. Kalil of the Las Vegas Review-Journal used local property records to find that the grandson of a former Las Vegas mayor has been able to quickly profit from land deals that may have involved inaccurate appraisals. Scott Gragson "has obtained a total of 104 parcels in 20 land exchanges with the county. In each case, he gave the county privately held land that had been appraised at an equal value. Raising the question of whether inaccurate appraisals have shortchanged the public, Gragson has been able to flip at least 10 of the 104 parcels for profit less than a week after acquisition." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 01, 2005 Teen driving fatalities data shows an alarming trend Jayne O'Donnell from USA Today investigated teenage driving accidents across the United States and found an alarming trend. Nearly three-fourths of teenage accidents occurred when males were behind the wheel with 16-year-olds being the riskiest of them all. "Their rate of involvement in fatal crashes was nearly five times that of drivers ages 20 and older, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety." States with restrictive licenses saw a significant decrease in teenage fatalities once the restriction was in place. "Seven states and the District of Columbia don't give unrestricted licenses to anyone under 18." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Prison health care company faces harsh criticism Paul von Zielbauer of The New York Times spent a year investigating Prison Health Services, a private company that provides medical care in many of New York's state prisons. "A yearlong examination of Prison Health by The New York Times reveals repeated instances of medical care that has been flawed and sometimes lethal. The company's performance around the nation has provoked criticism from judges and sheriffs, lawsuits from inmates' families and whistle-blowers, and condemnations by federal, state and local authorities. The company has paid millions of dollars in fines and settlements." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Complaints high for Florida repair shop Jim Schoettler of The Florida Times-Union used state records to show that auto repair shops in Northeast Florida were the subject of nearly 600 complaints since 1999. "Hundreds more are fielded by local agencies and the courts, while countless others are reported to the shops. No one knows how many people who suspect they've been mistreated never complain." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Politicians benefit from cheaper tickets Dave McKinney of the Chicago Sun-Times obtained a list of state politicians who have the opportunity to purchase tickets to the top-ranked University of Illinois basketball team's games at face value. "As demand for Illini tickets has rocketed off the charts, the university has dispersed more than 2,000 tickets to its trustees, dozens of state lawmakers, congressmen, lobbyists and even the son of indicted former Gov. George Ryan, who has booked most of the team's schedule." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 25, 2005 Scam stole land from the dead Mike Hoyem of The (Fort Myers) News-Press has a new twist on Florida land deals: the use of phony deeds to sell land owned by dead people. "Forged signatures, faked notarizations, phony witnesses and easy access to land records via the Internet are robbing the dead and their relatives of land as property values in Lee County skyrocket. And the fraud could cause big problems for the people who are buying the properties." The paper posted copies of fake deeds on its site, and state and federal authorities are investigating the scam. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 24, 2005 Unsafe bridges put public safety at risk Dani Dodge of the Ventura County Star used Federal Highway Administration data to show that "twenty-eight of Ventura County's 485 bridges are considered 'structurally deficient' ... Bringing just 15 of those bridges up to standard would cost $50 million." A map shows the location of the troubled spans, and a sidebar describes the condition of bridges nationwide. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Consulting work pays big for former employees Brett J. Blackledge of The Birmingham News used state records to show that Alabama's Department of Human Resources has spent millions on computer consultants, including payments to former agency employees who left DHR only to return for consulting work. "The agency responsible for helping needy children and families now is facing questions from federal officials about how much money it has spent on consultants and how some of those consultants are related to agency officials. DHR has spent more than $20 million since 2003 on computer consultants, with dozens receiving between $50 and $85 an hour. Not all the jobs are highly technical computer positions. Some of the former state workers are paid from the computer contracts to handle financial and administrative jobs in the agency, records show." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 22, 2005 Low tax penalty serves as cheap loan for some businesses Lee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News used local records to show that "at least 443 land developers, real estate companies and construction companies owed more than a combined $5.17 million in back property taxes and penalties" as of January 2005. Ski resorts, an airline and telecommunications firm MCI are among the other tax delinquents in Salt Lake County, where some businesses elect not to pay taxes because the penalties and interest are low enough that "many businesses view it as a way to obtain relatively cheap and easy loans." State law assesses a 2 percent penalty on late taxes and interest around 8.25 percent last year. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 21, 2005 Coaches' contracts with Nike raise ethical questions Hartford Courant reporters Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman won a month-long legal battle for release of the contracts between University of Connecticut mens' and womens' basketball coaches Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma and Nike Inc. Over strenuous objections by the coaches' lawyers, the state Ethics Commission decided that the contracts were public documents. A Courant review of the contracts raised questions about whether the contracts violate state ethics laws by linking Calhoun and Auriemma's endorsement deal to a requirement that the teams where Nike sneakers and uniforms. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 17, 2005 High donations pour in through campaign finance loophole Michael Cooper of The New York Times found gaps in New York's campaign finance laws. "Local parties can still accept unlimited corporate donations to their so-called housekeeping committees, which have few restrictions on how they can spend the money." The Times uncovered a growing number of corporate donors topping the $100,000 mark, well above the $5,000 corporate limit for state campaigns. "Several election lawyers said that sending money directly from housekeeping accounts to individual campaigns appeared to be illegal. But Lee K. Daghlian, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections, said the law does not specifically prohibit such transfers, so they are permissible in some cases, as long as they do not violate contribution limits." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 16, 2005 Charity linked to evangelical sex cult Don Lattin of the San Francisco Chronicle used tax and property records to show that a Southern California charity called the Family Care Foundation has "deep, ongoing ties between the organization and the Family, the evangelical sex cult rocked by a recent murder-suicide." Officers of the foundation are linked to the Family via property records, Internet domains and other ties. "Former members say the vast majority of projects funded by the foundation are run by the Family. Two children's programs, including one which was based in San Francisco, were run by one-time cult members who had faced separate allegations of child sexual abuse." The foundation denies any link to the Family. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Former gov. remains on state payroll Patricia Alex of The (Bergen County) Record reports that former New Jersey governor Jim Florio "has stayed on the state payroll, and in the state pension system, thanks to a $90,947 side job at Rutgers University." Florio, voted out of office in 1993, teaches one class a semester and sits on two advisory boards. Two Florio cabinet members also are Rutgers faculty members, each earning more than $100,000 a year. The paper obtained salary information through the state’' Freedom of Information Act. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 14, 2005 Legislator used state funds for own benefit Kim Chandler of The Birmingham News used state and local records to show that "an east Alabama lawmaker steered state money to pave the dirt road that led to a subdivision he and his wife were developing." A $50,000 state grant in 2002 went to the paving project, but was also intended to be used to pave other roads. Property records show that the lawmaker and his wife bought 15 acres and divided the land into lots before the state money arrived. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 10, 2005 FOI investigation finds most comply, but not entirely Mark Chellgren of the Associated Press reported on an investigation led by the Kentucky Press Association and the Associated Press into "whether public offices are allowing citizens to view government documents. The investigation "showed most are obeying the state's Open Records Act, but compliance is not uniform." The results were mixed, varying from a smile for a city budget request to intimidation when requesting a list of current inmates at the Motgomery County Jail. Also included is a list of participants in the investigation, as well as a section on how the investigation was done. Jim Hannah of The Kentucky Enquirer, Gregory A. Hall of The Courier-Journal, Herb Brock of The Advocate-Messenger and Bill Estep and Lee Mueller, both of the Lexington Herald-Leader, followed up the AP story with their conclusions to the investigation. They found that cities responded the best to public record requests, while jailers were the worst. "Kentucky turned down requests to see a list of inmates seven out of 10 times, the Oct. 21 audit showed." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Superintendents pay outpaces teachers pay Reid R. Frazier of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review analyzed salary data from six Western Pennsylvania counties to find that "school superintendents' salaries have increased at twice the pace of classroom teachers' salaries over the past five years." School district officials said that finding top candidates for the superintendent jobs was increasingly difficult. "The average teacher salary rose from $48,357 in 1999-2000 to $51,804 in 2003-04. For superintendents, average pay climbed from $96,409 to $109,938 in the same period." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 08, 2005 Documents reveal baseball's cost to taxpayers Mark Segraves of WTOP-Radio in Washington, D.C., used documents obtained through the FOIA to determine the District of Columbia "has paid $465,000 to consultants linked to baseball" despite the city's insistence that bringing baseball wouldn't cost the taxpayers. One of the consultants is from Oakland, Calif., so D.C. must foot the bill for her travel and related expenses. Money for the consultants came from a newly created city agency, the Center for Innovation and Reform, that D.C. Council members haven't even heard of. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Executive pay soars at Indianapolis hospitals Jeff Swiatek of The Indianapolis Star used data from federal filings to show that "high-level officials at Indianapolis' four urban-based hospital systems pulled down average annual raises of more than 20 percent in their most recent reporting period, despite slim earnings margins and growing scrutiny of hospital salaries by federal tax authorities." Most of the top-paid executives worked for Clarian Health Partners, a company that runs four area hospitals. Community Health Network's William Corley topped the list with $777,140 in total compensation. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 07, 2005 School aid declining in Ohio Doug Oplinger and Dennis J. Willard of the Akron Beacon Journal used state data to show that spending in some Ohio school districts has declined in the past two years after five years of increases. "Data obtained from the Ohio Department of Education show that in the 2003-04 school year, one in three districts had fewer inflation-adjusted dollars to spend per pupil than in 2001-02. That counts state and local money plus the small share that comes from the federal government." Smaller revenues combined with increasing enrollment is raising the prospect of higher local taxes to pay for schools. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 02, 2005 'Free rides' come at high cost, despite regulations Mike Knobler of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution used public record requests to investigate the recruiting expenditures on top high school football prospects by Georgia and Georgia Tech. The restrictions on lavish expenditures have not effected the food and hospitality, the results are still impressive. "Tech budgeted $556,703 for 2004-05 football recruiting, which works out to more than $25,000 for each of the 18-20 players expected to sign with the Yellow Jackets on Wednesday. But that per-player figure is misleading: In recruiting, like in fishing, you spend much of your effort on the ones that got away." The story details expenses ranging from filet mignon dinners to rental cars with GPS navigation systems so that coaches don't get lost visiting recruits' homes. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 01, 2005 Recruiting expenditures high at Ind. universities Mark Alesia of The Indianapolis Star used public records requests to track what Indiana colleges spend to recruit top high school football players. A single weekend at Indiana University in December 2003 cost nearly $50,000 for 22 recruits and eight parents. "In all, IU spent $314,120 on football recruiting in the 2003-04 fiscal year. Purdue University spent $299,943." The paper tracked dinners, travel and even security by off-duty police officers. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 28, 2005 Panel warned of attacks 30 years ago Frank Bass and Randy Herschaft of The Associated Press, using declassified documents, found that a panel established by President Nixon warned of dirty bombs and the vulnerability of commercial jets. "The panel's experts fretted that terrorists might gather loose nuclear materials for a "dirty bomb" that could devastate an American city by spreading lethal radioactivity across many blocks." The panel was established in the wake of the 1972 terrorist attacks at the Olympics in Munich. The full panel met only once, but its experts gathered twice a month over nearly five years to identify threats and debate solutions. Links to key documents (PDF) are provided. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Agency withholds Iraq contract details Kevin Begos of the Winston-Salem Journal reports on the secrecy surrounding a "$236 million contract to promote democracy in Iraq." The the U.S. Agency for International Development is withholding all "financial information about Research Triangle International's government contract" after the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information request. A founder of the company and the leader of North Carolina's congressional delegation have expressed concern over the secrecy. In December, a three-part Journal investigation into RTI's work revealed a wide range of security and management problems that called into question the effectiveness of the program. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Routine maintenance set back caused problems in fire pumper Matt Campbell and Mark Morris of The Kansas City Star used local records to show that "a Kansas City fire pumper involved in a fatal accident in September had not had its brakes serviced in nearly 16 months, far longer than recommended." The vehicle was scheduled for service in May 2004 but never got any work. "In fact, according to city records reviewed by The Kansas City Star, the pumper had not had any brake work done since May 2003. The city's fire chief acknowledged that a maintenance backlog had affected the whole fleet." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Britain helps fund illegal street meetings for cleric Sean O'Neill of the The Times of London used Britain's new Freedom of Information law to obtain records showing that "almost €900,000 has been spent by police to steward illegal street meetings by the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers.... The figure is far in excess of previous estimates for the 22-month police operation." Police provided protection for weekly meetings outside the Finsbury Park Mosque. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 27, 2005 Congressional travel soars despite regulations A team of graduate students from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, along with Marketplace and American RadioWorks, researched congressional perks to see if recent regulations have cut down on lobbysits' lavish expenditures. What they found was there has been a significant decrease in expenditures, but not when it comes to travel. More than $14 million was spent by corporations, universities and other institutions, "sending representatives around the world, for sometimes questionable reasons." Their research details how the process works, who is benefiting from it and who the "king of travel" is. The group also has compiled data detailing individual expenditures, as well as breakdowns based on party affiliation and the top beneficiaries and spenders. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Colo. football appears exempt from cutbacks Kevin Vaughan and Todd Hartman of the Rocky Mountain News examined University of Colorado spending records and found that while the basketball program was cutting its budget, "the football team was spending $34,922 to give every player an electronic organizer as a memento for playing in the EV1.Net Houston Bowl." At the same time, "men's basketball coach Ricardo Patton was cutting back on the use of chartered airplanes - which saved money but meant that his players missed all their classes last week as they navigated the schedules of commercial air carriers." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Tax breaks given despite broken promise Sydney P. Freedberg and Jeff Harrington of the St. Petersburg Times analyzed state and local government records to find that they "have paid or promised more than $21 million of benefits plus a tax break worth up to $74.5-million to help a financial corporate titan create jobs in Tampa - the same company that will lay off 1,900 employees this year." For years, JPMorgan Chase & Co. received incentives and other benefits to remain in the area and create high-paying jobs: "There was $1.2-million for help in training workers, $4.3-million for road improvements and right-of-way acquisitions, state tax refunds of at least $6.5-million and $1.3-million to help the company pay governmental fees for its developments." The company announced in January that it was closing a credit card call center. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 25, 2005 Backside track workers lack protection Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Janet Patton, with help from Frank Lockwood and Steve Lannen, found that "only about a third of the trainers licensed in Kentucky report carrying workers' compensation insurance for the grooms, hot walkers and exercise riders who work for them." While the state's courts consider many of those workers to be "independent contractors" and not entitled to worker's comp or other protections, "several lawyers question whether backside workers meet generally accepted tests for being called contractors, such as using your own tools or setting your own hours." The paper looked at records of public ambulance runs to four Kentucky tracks from January 1999 to March 2004 but was not able to see the records for Churchill Downs because it uses a private ambulance service and it refused to release any statistics. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Australian zoo deaths linked to transportation errors Australia's Daily Telegraph obtained zoo records under Freedom of Information showing that "22 mammals and birds have been killed since 1999 due to what zoo managers admit were man-made slip-ups either within the zoos or in transit. As recently as November 18 last year, two endangered plains rats not seen in the wild in New South Wales since 1937 arrived dead from Alice Springs due to dehydration." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 24, 2005 Homicide victims linked to drug trade Michael Grabell, Tanya Eiserer and Holly Yan of The Dallas Morning News tracked murders in Dallas in 2004, finding that "most of the 248 people who made Dallas one of the nation's deadliest big cities last year died in obscurity. Many were almost industrial byproducts of the city's drug trade...The drug trade draws customers from every race and economic group. But overwhelmingly the city's homicide victims are young minority men. Four out of five homicide victims in 2004 were black or Latino. And about half of the victims were black and Latino males under the age of 35 - even though that group accounts for only about 22 percent of Dallas' population. The killers are often black and Latino, too." The paper's tally of 248 killings is four more than the city reported and an 11.2 percent jump over 2003 figures. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 19, 2005 Crime memos violate national standards Jeremy Kohler of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used public records to find that St. Louis police "arbitrarily discounted hundreds or more crime reports a year" through the use of a "Crime Memo Data Sheet" that classifies an incident as not meeting the department's threshold of a reportable crime. "While the use of memos does not appear to be illegal, it clearly violates FBI standards for reporting crimes in a national compilation widely used for comparisons among cities. The effect makes St. Louis appear safer than it is - both to its own residents and to outsiders." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 13, 2005 The collapse of a spy case Ray Rivera of The Seattle Times made heavy use of FOIA in his series on James Yee, the Army chaplain accused of espionage but later honorably discharged. The paper posted a collection of documents it obtained in reporting the story and also described its methodology. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 06, 2005 Fire districts fail to file public records Matt Batcheldor of the Louisville Courier-Journal studied records from Jefferson County's 19 suburban fire districts, finding that oversight is limited: "Few people vote in elections for board members who run the departments, many records that districts are required to provide to the public were not filed last year and no one at the state or county level keeps tabs on what is being filed - or not filed." The state can penalize districts for failing to report or incomplete disclosure, but that hasn't occurred. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 04, 2005 Teacher turnover highest in poor areas Seattle Times' reporter Sanjay Bhatt documents disparities in teacher turnover in Seattle's public schools. He found that chronic teacher turnover ranged between 7 percent and 35 percent annually among elementary schools, and was highest in the city's poorest areas. Bhatt obtained employee data from Seattle Public Schools under a public records request and worked with a university graduate student who had done her own analysis of teacher turnover using data from Washington state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Bhatt used SPSS and ArcGIS for the story. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 15, 2004 Poor schools get teachers who failed Chris Davis and Matthew Doig of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune find that a third of Florida teachers failed the teaching certification test at least once; that schools in poor neighborhoods and those with a high number of minority students get teachers who failed the test more often, and those teachers scored lower on every section of the test. The series includes a sidebar detailing what data the paper used and its methodology. There is also a story about the state's reluctance to release public information. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 14, 2004 Oil refineries missing deadlines Scott Streater of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram finds the Environmental Protection Agency has "quietly allowed oil refineries nationwide to miss court-mandated deadlines to reduce air emissions, prolonging the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people to dangerous pollutants." The article is based on an analysis of progress reports submitted by refineries that have settled, released by the EPA through the federal Freedom of Information Act, and interviews with more than 50 environmental regulators, legal experts and oil company officials. A second story looks at a deal the EPA has struck a deal to clean up five refineries owned by ChevronTexaco. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 03, 2004 U.S. 50 deadly in Kansas Hurst Laviana of The Wichita Eagle used a state database of highway deaths to show that the Kansas portion of U.S. 50 is "arguably the state's deadliest highway. Ninety-seven people died on the highway from 1999 through the end of 2003, more than any other two-lane road in the state." Interstate 70, which has many times the traffic of U.S. 50, also had 97 deaths during the same period. Each county that U.S. 50 passes through in Kansas had at least one fatality. The paper also described its methodology. (Editor's note: The November/December issues of The IRE Journal and Uplink feature investigations of transportation issues, including drunken drivers, speeders and trucks violating safety rules.) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 29, 2004 Civil rights cases in decline A report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse finds "Key data from the Justice Department and the federal courts show that the government's enforcement of civil rights cases — an extremely rare event under all recent presidents — sharply declined during the Bush years." This is the first of two special reports by TRAC focusing on how the government enforces the nation's civil rights laws. The second report is scheduled to be released Dec. 1. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 18, 2004 Vets uninformed about poison gas tests David Zeman of the Detroit Free Press unearths details of a military program that tested the effects of chemical exposure on soldiers during World War II. The Veterans Administration pledged to find vets sickened by the program, but the agency "contacted nobody. Not one letter. Not a single phone call — even after the Pentagon turned over lists of thousands of potential victims. The VA relied mainly on unpaid public service ads in veterans magazines, even though the agency was aware that most veterans don't see those publications." One unit involved "does not even exist in Washington's official database on the testing program." Other contributors to the series include analyst Victoria Turk, and researchers Shelley Lavey, Patrice Williams and Chris Kucharski. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Suspects in violent crimes released Josh Noel of The (Baton Rouge) Advocate has a story about crowding at Parish Prison, where "at least 332 people were arrested by police between May and October, but none were booked into" the facility because there was no space available. In addition to DWI and drug arrests, some of the people arrested and then released included those accused of rape and domestic violence. A police officer called the situation "a glitch." The paper unearthed the details through a public records request. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 12, 2004 Police chases more deadly than shootings Debra Jopson and Gerard Ryle of the Sydney Morning Herald report on police chases in New South Wales, finding that " more than 1800 police pursuits in NSW over the past 10 years have ended with a crash, resulting in at least 54 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Eleven people died as a result of police shootings over that same period." Police disciplinary records about the incidents are tough to come by, too: "NSW Police failed to respond to a Freedom of Information request made by the Herald two months ago for documents showing how many police had faced criminal charges arising from police pursuits." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 28, 2004 Ind. officials tested on open records laws Eight Indiana newspapers participated in a public records audit, sending representatives to agencies in all of the state's 92 counties to ask for records. "Government officials routinely broke or skirted Indiana's open records law during a statewide test by eight newspapers." The newspapers found that sheriffs' offices were the least likely to comply and, in one case, the "sheriff's department staff watched the reporter leave town, checked his license plate in an effort to identify him, then called his employer to question his motives." The package includes resources for citizens, a sample letter for requesting public records, a comparison of copying costs and a look at electronic availability. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 27, 2004 Data reveals claims made by Iraqis against U.S. Russell Carollo, Larry Kaplow, Mike Wagner and Ken McCall of the Dayton Daily News report on thousands of civil claims made by Iraqis against the U.S. Army in Iraq, cases found in a database obtained by the paper under the Freedom of Information Act. "The records provide a previously unseen portrait of the toll the war has had on civilians in Iraq, and the kinds of incidents described in the records have fueled the growing insurgency and hatred toward the American-led coalition. About 78 percent of the claims are for incidents that occurred after President Bush declared major combat operations over on May 2, 2003." The claims involve more than 400 deaths, although the paper reports that an Army official estimated that as many as 18,000 were filed in 2003. Some of the claims are from people detained in prisons by the military. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post FOI suit reveals more National Guard documents A new set of papers uncovered through Freedom of Information lawsuits by The Associated Press show that President Bush "stopped flying and attending regular drills two-thirds of the way through his six-year commitment — without consequence." The AP "identified large numbers of documents that should have been produced under the Guard's 1970s regulations but had not been released, such as flight logs and mission orders. It sued in both federal and Texas state court and filed supplemental document requests to get answers." The AP also includes a chronology of the questions that have been raised about President Bush's service and some of the explanations that he and his spokesmen have given. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 18, 2004 Amtrak pays millions in liability claims Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times, with contributing reporters Claire Hoffman, Eric Koli and Jenny Nordberg, reports that Amtrak, the federally subsidized railroad, has been paying millions in lawsuits even when it is not liable. "An analysis by The Times of records obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act found that Amtrak has paid more than $186 million since 1984 for accidents blamed entirely or mostly on others." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 13, 2004 FBI tracked activist for years Seth Rosenfeld of the San Francisco Chronicle obtained records under the Freedom of Information Act showing that the "FBI trailed Mario Savio for more than a decade after he led the 1964 Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley, and bureau officials plotted to 'neutralize' him politically — even though there was no evidence he broke any federal law." The agency collected personal information on Savio, got copies of his tax returns and placed the activist on a list of people to be detained in a national emergency. "The bureau used tactics against Savio that Congress in 1976 found were improper — including some similar to investigative methods that agents may now use against suspected terrorists under the Patriot Act and under loosened FBI guidelines, experts said." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 11, 2004 Councilman accused of interfering with police Eric Leonard of KFI-AM in Los Angeles has been covering the arrest and subsequent treatment of a city councilman's son. Albert M. Vera Jr. was arrested on drug charges in August. His father, Culver City vice-mayor and councilman Albert M. Vera Sr. is accused of threatening an officer and taking his son's car keys from the officer. In addition, "the officer claims the Culver City police chief ordered her to leave the threats out of her police report." Vera Sr. is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the sheriff's office. Leonard has now uncovered another criminal case in which "it appears Culver City's top cops may have tried to bend the rules for the councilman's son by writing leniency letters to prosecutors." The online presentation of the story is mostly audio in Windows Media Player format, but there are also documents obtained through public records requests. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 17, 2004 Australian schools profit from land sales Bruce McDougall and Kelvin Bissett of Australia's Daily Telegraph used records released under the Freedom of Information law to find that "scores of public schools are making millions of dollars selling off part of their grounds and using the cash to bankroll new halls, canteens and libraries." The paper found more than 80 transactions that range from the sale of an entire school to smaller lots of unused land. "Sales of land and other property assets on education sites have topped $80 million over the last two years." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 27, 2004 Military officials choose administrative discipline Miles Moffeit and Arthur Kane of The Denver Post obtained Pentagon records, some via the Freedom of Information Act, showing that "by more than a 2-to-1 ratio, military officials have handed down administrative discipline rather than pursue criminal punishments for service members accused of prisoner abuse or sexual-assault crimes in war zones." The cases involve beatings, manslaughter and rape by former service members during the Iraq war. "From the start of the Iraq war in February 2003 through the middle of this year, 66 service members accused of prisoner abuse or sex assault were given administrative punishments, including fines and reprimands, compared with 29 sent to courts-martial." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Records reveal disputes at Mich. agency Steve Neavling of the Bay City Times in Michigan used state public records laws to show that "a local agency that handles millions of tax dollars for senior citizen programs in the Bay area has been tangled in personnel disputes under the tenure of its latest director." The episodes at the Agency on Aging in Bay City include the settlement of sexual harassment lawsuit, the hiring of two women who wrote recommendation letters for the director and payments made to two of the director's sons, according to documents. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 23, 2004 Ethics failures by Yonkers' officials go unnoticed Rich Calder of The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News used New York's Freedom of Information law to find that "not a single Yonkers employee or board member submitted annual financial-disclosure statements on time for at least four years, and dozens never filed at all." Those that did file sometimes failed to list interests in businesses that won city contracts. The city's Ethics Board, which is responsible for overseeing the forms, has been "virtually dormant for more than four years." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 11, 2004 Officials delay, deny access in public records audit Thomas Peele, Denis Cuff, Liz Tascio and Ashley Surdin of the Contra Costa Times in the San Francisco Bay Area conducted a public records audit of more than 100 government agencies in the Bay Area, finding "numerous impediments to seeing routine public records such as employment contracts and elected officials' economic disclosure forms." Over a six-week period, the paper sent 20 reporters and editors to school, government and police agencies to ask for records. "When asked for immediate access to the records as state law requires, government workers sometimes demanded the reporters' identities and their reasons for wanting to see public documents. One official who denied access said she did so partly because she is 'told to always watch over my shoulder for terrorists.'" The Times will host a workshop for government officials and the public on Aug. 6. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Judges deleting disclosure data The Washington Post reports that nearly 600 times in recent years, a judicial committee acting in private has stripped information from reports intended to alert the public to conflicts of interest involving federal judges. The committee decided that the information removed might tend to endanger a particular judge or put his or her financial investments at risk, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 02, 2004 Cash-strapped town goes on spending spree Kollin Kosmicki of the Hollister, Calif., Free Lance used California's Public Record Act to show that that "during a four-year span when Hollister exhausted nearly half of its rainy day reserve, the city bought 82 new vehicles for $2.4 million and spent a total of $7.1 million on capital improvements from the deficit-ridden general fund." More than $1 million spent between 2000 and 2003 went to buy vehicles for the city's fleet. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 23, 2004 Crime lab has recurring DNA errors Ruth Teichroeb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer finds that DNA contamination and errors at the Washington State Patrol crime lab are a recurring, and critical, problem. "Forensic scientists contaminated tests or made other mistakes while handling DNA evidence in at least 23 cases involving major crimes over the last three years, according to State Patrol and court records." Through public records and interviews, Teichroeb offers a glimpse into what can go wrong with DNA evidence. "Crime labs across the country are struggling with similar problems but documented evidence has been hard to come by." Another story says officials have "been slow to deal with misconduct by long-time employees." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 19, 2004 Wis. handed out more than 1,500 citations to programs John Dipko of the Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette obtained state records on licensed family and group day-care centers and programs in the Green Bay area, finding that "in a two-year period in Brown and five area counties, more than three-dozen licensed child-care centers and programs were cited for the same violations more than once." During 2002 and 2003, Wisconsin issued more than 1,500 citations and handed out $4,550 in penalties in the area, most for cleaning and paperwork violations. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 13, 2004 Federal workers owe billions in back taxes Andrea McCarren of WJLA-Arlington, Va., used the Freedom of Information Act to show that federal employees owe more than $2 billion in back taxes to the government. More than 600 congressional staffers and 46 White House employees owe money to the IRS, while one of the worst agencies is the Department of Veterans Affairs: more than 9,700 VA employees owe a total of $71 million. Included is a chart showing the agencies and the amounts owed. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 07, 2004 Theme park spends thousands on travel Alan Findlay of The London Free Press in Ontario used Canada's Freedom of Information law to obtain records showing that theme park Ontario Place "has been shelling out more than $3,000 a month in travel expenses to fly its part-time vice-chairperson to and from Timmins for board meetings." The expenses for Peter Doucet include flights to Toronto from his home "three or four times a month" for three-hour meetings. "Adding up airfares, hotel rooms and taxi and limousine charges from 2001 to last March, Doucet's travel costs have totalled $128,599.07." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 02, 2004 Bill would seal access to now-public information James Bruggers of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal found two sentences in a highway spending bill that would allow the federal government to seal information now available to the public. The bill "would give the federal Transportation Security Administration wide latitude in defining what is 'sensitive' and should be kept secret" and it would supersede state open-records laws. Open government advocates say "it is worded so broadly that it could also prevent the public from knowing about mismanagement among public officials and private contractors at the nation's airports and seaports." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Justice Dept: Copying database could destroy it In response to a Freedom of Information Act request for a database on lobbying activities by foreign governments, the U.S. Department of Justice told The Center for Public Integrity that the database is so "fragile" that making an electronic copy of it "could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating." The Justice Department's Foreign Agent Registration Unit has refused to answer follow-up questions about the database. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 23, 2004 Most Ariz. charter schools won't release information Daryl James of the East Valley Tribune requested salary information on the principals of 81 charter schools, but "about two-thirds either ignored the requests or declined to grant access." Arizona state law defines charter schools as "public schools" and most receive state funding, but only 28 of the 81 schools provided the salary details requested. "Mission Montessori Academy in Scottsdale said it did not have to allow inspection of its records because salary information could be found on the Internet. The school declined to say where." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 18, 2004 Public records audit shows 47 percent compliance in Ohio Ohio media outlets joined with the University of Dayton and Ohio University to conduct a public records audit in the state in April, finding that "employees in city halls, police stations and school boards across Ohio followed state law only half the time when asked for public documents." Other stories detail public employees' lack of understanding of the law and the penchant of county seat governments to deny public records. Some state lawmakers promised action in response to the audit: "It would be my hope that the public becomes outraged. These are the people's records. These records were paid for with tax dollars," said House Judiciary Chairman Scott Oelslager, R-Canton. The Plain Dealer's Tom O'Hara and Tom Gaumer led the effort, while the data collection and analysis was done by David Knox of the Akron Beacon-Journal. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Former meth houses making children sick David Steves of The (Eugene) Register-Guard used Oregon's public records law to explore houses declared by the state as drug manufacturing facilities but still being rented to unsuspecting tenants. The paper found 358 sites that mostly were used to make methamphetamines but weren't fully cleaned before being rented out, despite a state law requiring decontamination. The story focuses on one property where several children fell ill after moving in: "Among the 358 properties on the state's list of contaminated methamphetamine properties, only three other sites have gone longer without being cleaned up." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 10, 2004 Accidental chemical release could sicken thousands James Bruggers and Gregory A. Hall of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., used public records to determine the possible effects of toxic releases from dozens of plants in the area. "The newspaper's analysis of the risk-management plans for area companies found 33 reporting worst-case scenarios that could expose people to harmful concentrations of chemical vapors" in the six counties. Another story looks at public access to such data, noting that " Security fears compete with accountability." (Note: IRE and NICAR now offer the Toxic Release Inventory, information about on- and off-site releases of chemicals and other waste management activities reported annually by industries, including federal facilities.) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 02, 2004 Disaster funds pay for sand, signs, bike paths Gilbert M. Gaul of The Washington Post obtained Federal Emergency Management Agency records on money given to towns after Hurricane Isabel last fall, finding that "dozens of wealthy beach towns and coastal communities turned to the federal agency after Isabel and received tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded disaster relief. The bulk of the money was used to clear debris and pay for emergency workers' overtime. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, however, were used to repair flagpoles, signs, bike paths and ball fields. And, in what some environmental groups and regulators say is a troubling development, the federal agency is paying for an estimated $15 million worth of sand." The Post got the records through a Freedom of Information Act request. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 28, 2004 Va. assisted living troubled and worsening David S. Fallis of The Washington Post has a four-part series on assisted living in Virginia, finding "a troubled and worsening record of care at the facilities, including avoidable injuries and death, and a system of state oversight that often failed to identify or correct problems." A second piece examined violent crimes committed by residents of assisted living facilities in Virginia. The Post used Virginia's public records law to obtain documents and more than 20 years of data from the state's Department of Social Services that had never been publicly released. A searchable database of state violations from 1998 to February 2004 is available. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 21, 2004 At least 75 Calif. teachers helped students on state tests Erika Hayasaki of the Los Angeles Times used California's Public Records Act to obtain documents showing that "more than 200 California teachers have been investigated for allegedly helping students on state exams, and at least 75 of those cases have been proved." Most teachers received reprimands or warnings, but a handful have been fired or quit their positions. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 18, 2004 60 percent of federal workers get bonuses Christopher Lee and Hal Straus of The Washington Post used a database of federal government personnel to analyze bonuses paid to employees, finding that "almost two-thirds of 1.6 million civilian full-time federal employees received merit bonuses or special time-off awards in fiscal 2002." The payments were as much as $25,000 and as little as less than $100, but half of those receiving bonuses got at least $811. The paper created a Federal Workers Lookup on its Web site where visitors can search for employees who received bonuses. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 12, 2004 Perks inflate official's actual earnings Bob Wheaton and Matt Bach of tThe Flint (Mich.) Journal examined compensation records for more than 450 local public officials, finding that "actual income for many public officials far exceeds their base salaries — the figures most often made public to taxpayers." Perks like allowances and reimbursements pushed Grand Blanc School Superintendent Gary Lipe's total pay last year to $218,147, nearly $60,000 more than his base salary. The paper found that school officials typically earned more than their counterparts in city government. Some public charter schools initially resisted FOIA requests by the paper; all but one eventually provided the information. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 11, 2004 Conditions at Gitmo detailed; prisoners identified Scott Higham, Joe Stephens and Margot Williams of The Washington Post tracked the development of the prison at Guantanamo Bay naval base and its detainees, compiling "the largest public list of detainee names, encompassing 370 out of the 745 or so men detained at the camp since January 2002." Saudi Arabian nationals make up the largest contingent among identified prisoners held at Gitmo. The report describes some of the interrogation techniques used at the base, which had shrunk in size before the 2001 terrorist attacks but now costs about $118 million a year to run. The full list of names compiled by Williams, the Post's research editor, includes an explanation of how it was compiled. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 04, 2004 Australian officials use taxpayer money to customize cars Kelvin Bissett of The Daily Telegraph in Australia used documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to show that "top State MPs have spent more than $100,000 of taxpayers' money souping up their official limousines with sports suspension, sunroofs, spoilers, mag wheels and even satellite navigation systems." The Holden Caprice vehicles have leather seats, ABS brakes, cruise control and alloy wheels standard, but some MPs added items such as mag wheels and Pirelli tires. "Even the usually frugal Treasurer Michael Egan, who often drives his white Caprice himself, added a $2000 sunroof, as well as cigarette lighter and ashtray. The extras total $2451." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 30, 2004 Candies from Mexico contain unsafe amounts of lead Jenifer McKim, William Heisel, Valeria Godines and Keith Sharon of The Orange County Register found California has withheld hundreds of test results showing more than 100 brands of candy — most coming from Mexico — have dangerous levels of lead. The Register spent two years tracing the roots of the problem to the chili fields of Mexico and to a Mexican town connected to the candy industry that has become contaminated. The newspaper conducted 425 tests and found alarming lead levels in children, key candy ingredients and in candies — some of which the state or FDA have never tested before. "The Register reviewed about 6,000 pages of state, county and federal documents obtained under public-records laws and built a unique database of all candy tests conducted in California." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 26, 2004 Calendars reveal chancellors' priorities John Frank of The Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina used the chancellor's weekly calendars obtained through records requests to determine "the number of times Chancellor James Moeser met with certain groups or spent his time on certain issues." The 950 appointments in the calendars were entered into spreadsheets and categorized to help indicate how Moeser prioritizes his time. Frank acknowledges "the data is imperfect because Moeser's calendar changes often" but this "analysis is the first day-by-day look at what issues and officials get the most attention from UNC's chancellor." The calendars showed the chancellor spends the majority of his time on fund-raising activities. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 21, 2004 1948 plane crash case formed basis of Patriot Act Barry Siegel of the Los Angeles Times spent eight months unraveling the story of a 50-year-old court case that "provides a fundamental basis for much of the Bush administration's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including the USA Patriot Act and the handling of terrorist suspects." The case, involving the families of three men who died in an B-29 plane crash and the ability of the government to withhold information about the accident, created a legal privilege "that has enabled federal agencies to conceal conduct, withhold documents and block troublesome civil litigation, including suits by whistle-blowers and possible victims of discrimination." Siegel used declassified Air Force records and court documents for the story. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Mismanagement led to tripling of arena's price Bill Heltzel and Bill Schackner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviewed state and university records to find out why the price tag for the University of Pittsburgh's new on-campus basketball arena ballooned from $35 million to $119 million. "One explanation is that officials nearly doubled the size of the building. But the Post-Gazette's research also revealed a project beset by indecision, squandered work, miscalculations and hidden costs." Speeding up the construction work in time to meet a 2002 commencement deadline also contributed to the cost. The two-part series resulted from two years of reporting and requests under Pennsylvania's Open Records Law. Also included is the university's response to the paper's inquiries. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 05, 2004 Drug makers, FDA waited to alert public about PPA danger Kevin Sack and Alicia Mundy of the Los Angeles Times reviewed documents from lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests on phenylpropanolamine, or PPA. Formerly a main ingredient in nonprescription decongestants and diet pills, PPA was declared unsafe by the Food and Drug Administration in November 2000 after industry research tied PPA to strokes. The paper found that "rather than alerting the public during cold season, drug makers launched a yearlong campaign to keep the results quiet and stall government regulation. By the time the FDA acted, 13 months and hundreds of strokes later, the companies had reformulated their brand names with little interruption in sales. The market for PPA has been estimated at $500 million to $1 billion annually." Included on the Times' Web site are source documents cited in the report. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 01, 2004 IRE awards three medals An astonishing story of brutal war crimes by The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade and a book on the American tax system by David Cay Johnston took top honors in the 2003 IRE Awards. In addition, the Freedom of Information Award went to a team from the (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader for exposing a massive secret pardons program rife with questions and conflicts for the governor. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 30, 2004 Ariz. municipalities do business behind closed doors Ginger D. Richardson and Pat Flannery of The Arizona Republic analyzed records from municipal government meetings in Maricopa County to show that "elected officials held 24 to 48 percent of their meetings behind closed doors under the provisions of Arizona's open-meetings law. The review found that governing bodies often conceal the nature and even the topics of closed-door sessions and interpret the law's exemptions so broadly that virtually any topic is eligible for secret debate." Councilmembers in Chandler, Ariz., held four private meetings about their city manager before she was forced out, holding a public hearing only after agreeing on a $100,000 severance package. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 15, 2004 Fla. agency ignored child abuse reports Paul Pinkham of The Florida Times-Union obtained internal state records using Florida's open records law to find that the Department of Children and Families staffers in Jacksonville "regularly blew off reports of abuse and danger to children, inaction that contributed to at least one child's murder in 2001." Court documents and agency e-mails and memos show that counselors failed to complete basic checks and follow-up on complaints. The death of a 2-year-old boy three years ago resulted in an internal audit that shed light on DCF's troubles. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post March 01, 2004 Australians waiting longest for hip replacements Jill Pengelley of Australia's The Adelaide Advertiser used hospital records obtained under the Freedom of Information law to show that patients getting hip replacements have the longest waits for surgery. "In the 2003 December quarter, the number waiting more than a year for orthopaedic surgery was 21 per cent higher than it was three years ago, despite the orthopaedic waiting list growing only 6 per cent in that time." Ear, nose and throat surgeries had the second-longest waiting list. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 20, 2004 NASA loses track of $58 million in property John Kelly of Florida Today reviewed property loss reports filed by NASA to discover that "at least $58 million worth of government property has turned up missing at NASA centers across the country during the last five years, from easy-to-pilfer items such as portable computers to the curious disappearance of two 500-pound, ice-making machines." The space agency almost never questions the reports' statements about the missing items. The value of such materials is in line with other large government operations, the paper reports, and "the agency stresses that much of the property reported missing is believed to be on its grounds somewhere, but that employees responsible for it just can't find the items." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 09, 2004 Florida public records law tested Chris Davis and Matthew Doig of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune joined colleagues from 29 other Florida newspapers to test the availability of public records in 62 of the state's 67 counties. The results: "Overall, 57 percent of the agencies audited complied with the public records law. The rest made unlawful demands or simply refused to turn over the records. Public officials lied to, harassed and even threatened volunteers who were using a law designed to give citizens the power to watch over their government. In six counties, volunteers were erroneously told that the documents they wanted didn't exist. One volunteer was almost arrested." The best results came from city managers, while county administrators handed over e-mail records only half the time. The stories are accompanied by an explainer about how the audit was done and a database of journals kept by reporters. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post February 02, 2004 Educators tried to manipulate standards used in ranking Sarah Schmidt of CanWest News Services used documents obtained under British Columbia's Freedom of Information Act to show that "senior administrators at the University of British Columbia embarked on a deliberate campaign to manipulate course enrollments to improve the school's standing in the influential Maclean's university ranking," even though some professors warned that such moves could actually hurt students. Despite the efforts, the university repeated its fifth-place performance in the magazine's 2003 national rankings. "Many schools, including UBC, place great weight on their standing in Maclean's annual university ranking; a strong showing is often used in promotional and fundraising campaigns. At UBC, it meant senior administrators asked department heads to split some large classes into smaller ones. In other cases, they pressured professors to adopt class sizes established by Maclean's." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 20, 2004 Colo. children dying even after contact with system David Olinger of The Denver Post spent eight months investigating Colorado's child protection system, finding that "child welfare agencies were involved before the deaths of at least 107 of 258 children who were victims of suspected abuse or neglect from 1993 through 2002. Yet in nearly half of those cases, a state system created to learn from child abuse deaths has reported nothing about those prior contacts." The paper also found gaps in the state's recordkeeping process and a pattern of confidentiality that can mean that mistakes in child abuse cases "can remain hidden indefinitely." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 12, 2004 Wrongful dismissal suits cost county Mike Wereschagin and Andrew Conte of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review used court records and county settlement documents to show that "Allegheny County has paid out more than $1.5 million since 1996 to end lawsuits filed by fired employees who claimed politics cost them their jobs." The county likely faces more such suits since a new Democratic chief executive fired 19 employees who worked for his Republican predecessor. "The county has won four jury trials in U.S. District Court, lost three federal trials, settled 17 cases of wrongful dismissal and resolved one case through arbitration. Ten cases from 1998 are pending. Taxpayers and the county's insurers bore the costs of the litigation." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 09, 2004 Book examines record campaign fundraising A new book from Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity, The Buying of the President 2004, looks at who bankrolls Bush and his Democratic rivals for the presidency. It finds that Enron Corp., the Houston-based energy firm that touched off a financial, legal and political scandal when it declared bankruptcy in December 2001, remains the top career patron of President George W. Bush, whose prolific fundraising in 2003 shattered all previous records for candidates. Enron's employees and political action committee have given more than $600,000 to Bush over the course of his political career. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post January 07, 2004 N.J. donors get lucrative no-bid contracts Shannon D. Harrington, Clint Riley and Jeff Pillets of the Bergen Record have a two-part series on "pay to play" in New Jersey, "a system that encourages politicians to reward their big contributors with juicy — and perfectly legal — no-bid contracts financed by the taxpayers." One story focuses on the lucrative law practice of M. Robert DeCotiis, finding that the "DeCotiis firm billed at least 128 government entities nearly $26.6 million during the 2˝-year period starting in January 2001," all while ranking among the most prolific donors and fundraisers in the state. The paper obtained copies of the law firm's billing records from more than 550 government agencies via New Jersey's freedom of information law. The second story examines why attempts to curb the pay to play phenomenon have failed. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 18, 2003 D.C. project's cost ballooned to more than $100 million Dan Keating of The Washington Post analyzed D.C. financial records to find that a $63 million project to modernize the city's tax system ballooned to more than $100 million without a vote by the city council. "Because city administrators sent the paperwork to the council during its summer recess, the contract expansion never appeared on the council's agenda." The District's chief financial officer recused himself from overseeing the contract because his son worked for the firm administering it, but other employees pushed for the expansion of the project. The city denied the Post's FOIA request for project invoices. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 17, 2003 Extensiveness of administration's secrecy documented In a five-month investigation, Christopher H. Schmitt and Edward T. Pound of U.S. News & World Report, find that "the [Bush] administration's efforts to shield the actions of, and the information obtained by, the executive branch are far more extensive than has been previously documented." The report made use of federal reports, regulations, Web sites, legislation, interviews, information from public interest groups and the responses to more than 200 FOIA requests. They note that this administration "has quietly but efficiently dropped a shroud of secrecy across many critical operations of the federal government — cloaking its own affairs from scrutiny and removing from the public domain important information on health, safety, and environmental matters." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 15, 2003 159 Wash. coaches fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct Christine Willmsen and Maureen O'Hagan of The Seattle Times conducted a year-long investigation of girls' sports coaches, finding that in the past 10 years, "159 coaches in Washington have been fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape. Nearly all were male coaches victimizing girls. At least 98 of these coaches continued to coach or teach." The paper sought records from Washington state school districts, one of which sought to prevent disclosure of files by collaborating with the teachers union. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 04, 2003 Records show $1.6 million in unreported expenses for new home Janet Miller of The Ann Arbor News reviewed more than 2,000 pages of university spending records obtained under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act to find that "Eastern Michigan University spent at least $5.1 million to build, furnish and landscape a new home for its president, a figure that is $1.6 million more than publicly disclosed." School officials repeatedly said the project cost $3.5 million, but the paper "found expenses, including $860,500 in landscaping on the site and a $76,000 commercial kitchen, that were billed to campus accounts other than the house. The added expenses never were explicitly approved by the regents." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post December 02, 2003 Web blog to cover environment-related FOI issues The Society of Environmental Journalists has launched a Web log that will follow First Amendment news, especially as it pertains to environment-related issues. The site is updated by editor Joe Davis as often as news occurs. Organizations and individuals can also subscribe to this page as an RSS News Feed. The site is also accessible via SEJ's home page. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Highest-paid employees get top bonuses Alex Wayne of the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record analyzed Guilford County payroll records to find that some of the largest bonuses in 2002 and 2003 "went to the government's best-paid and highest-ranking employees." The report is based on data released by the county after the paper sued for the information in October. "The records the county released provide a 17-month snapshot of the bonus and merit-raise system, dating to July 2002. The snapshot is incomplete, however, because the county only released records about merit raises, and not about two other common types of salary increases that county employees can attain." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post 'Supersealed' federal court cases concern lawyers, judges Dan Christensen of the Daily Business Review in South Florida reports on two federal court cases that have been sealed by judges and kept off the public docket. In the cases, one involves a terrorism-related investigation and the other is a narcotics case, "the secrecy in these two cases was put into place without any explicit legal process or criteria established by Congress or the Supreme Court." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 24, 2003 Marine cover-up: Massacre of POWs by U.S. troops in Korea Eric Longabardi, Kit R. Roane, and Edward T. Pound of U.S. News & World Report investigate the cover-up of a secret Marine-IG investigation into a former soldier’s claims that North Korean prisoners of war were murdered during a battle in Seoul in 1950. "The Marine Corps investigators failed to pursue a critical piece of evidence: the after-action report for Easy Company, written on Feb. 15, 1951. The 10-page report covered combat operations that began with the Sept. 15, 1950, ... " The report contains this question: "How long did it take you to go through Seoul?" The detailed response includes this damaging statement on Page 4: "The killing of prisoners is something that should be watched. We had some of that going on." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 18, 2003 Mo. children die when signs of danger aren't reported Donna McGuire and Mark Morris of The Kansas City Star examined court records and other documents detailing 116 Missouri children who died of abuse or neglect since January 2000. "At least one-third of those 116 children might have lived if only the safety net we rely on to protect our children — family, friends, state workers, law enforcement officials — had come to their rescue when the first sign of danger emerged." In a first, Missouri officials released records on 37 of the abuse and neglect cases in response to the newspaper's request, and the Star also sought records on such deaths in Kansas. "Although it has twice as many children as Kansas, Missouri experiences at least five times the amount of fatal abuse and neglect, the newspaper found." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 14, 2003 Records of Canadian PM's extensive travels kept secret Ann Rees, a British Columbia reporter and recipient of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, tracked the travels of outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who "has conducted the most extended farewell world tour in Canadian political history," Rees writes in the Toronto Star. After filing freedom of information requests for Chretien's 2002 travel records, "the Privy Council Office (PCO), which arranges many of his trips and handles information requests for the PM, provided only 10 receipts, none for his expenses abroad. The dearth of records contrasts with a similar request three years ago when extensive travel records were released." Rees found a one-day trip to Minnesota which has never been announced or explained, and that the PM's staff was working out of the Disney resort in Vero Beach, Fla., while Chretien was vacationing nearby. The story is the latest in a yearlong "Right to Know" series that "explores the effectiveness of Canadian freedom of information laws." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 10, 2003 New Dallas PD officers have had brushes with law, trouble graduating Tanya Eiserer, Holly Becka and Howard Swindle of The Dallas Morning News analyzed 29 recent hires by the Dallas police department, finding that "some have had brushes with the law, have been rejected by other police departments or have been given second or third chances to graduate from the police academy." One recently hired officer had to pay $1,200 in traffic tickets and drove with a suspended license eight months before being fired. The names of the officers were provided to the paper by police colleagues, "many of whom said they were dismayed by the department's diminished hiring standards and the questionable character of some rookie officers." Other details were gleaned from files obtained through the Texas Public Information Act. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post November 03, 2003 Crackdown on terrorism, civil liberties in conflict In a four-day series of stories, the Sacramento Bee looks at "how the crackdown on terrorism has come into conflict with the civil liberties that set America apart." Staff writers Sam Stanton and Emily Bazar, with photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr., look at the effect on libraries, mosques, activists and everyday people when the government exercises its "broad new investigative powers in an effort to flush out and neutralize terrorist threats." The series also looks at other times in the country's history in which constitutional rights fell by the wayside to "to quell resistance and protect the government." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Many ferry accidents attributed to human error Mike McIntire of The New York Times reviewed 1,500 Coast Guard safety records to find that "Staten Island ferries have been involved in dozens of accidents that injured hundreds and were often attributed to human error — chiefly what investigators called inattentiveness, poor judgment or negligence by crew members." The records, obtained under a FOIA request, detailed Coast Guard investigations and disciplinary hearings and suggest that a deadly ferry crash last month should not have come as a complete surprise. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 31, 2003 N.M. governor used fund to pay for coffee, rental cars, more Barry Massey of The Associated Press has the details of a $90,000 "contingency fund" for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. "Since January, Richardson and his staff have dipped into the money several times for a mishmash of expenditures in New Mexico and elsewhere, ranging from coffee and mints to rental cars and out-of-state hotel expenses. The governor's office, after a public-records request and repeated inquiries by the AP about his use of the fund, said this week he had reimbursed or would reimburse the state for some expenses — such as coffee and newspapers — that the fund paid for." The Democrat-controlled state legislature increased the fund from $30,000 to its current level shortly after Richardson took office. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 28, 2003 Records reveal dangers faced by Peace Corps volunteers Russell Carollo and Mei-Ling Hopgood of the Dayton Daily News have a special report on violent attacks on Peace Corps volunteers, using statistics from reports covering the past four decades. "Records from a never-before-released computer database show that reported assault cases involving Peace Corps volunteers increased 125 percent from 1991-2002, while the number of volunteers increased by 29 percent, according to the Peace Corps. Last year, the number of assaults and robberies averaged one every 23 hours." The paper analyzed records from the Peace Corps' Assault Notification and Surveillance System database, concentrating on incidents that occurred in the past 12 years. The Peace Corps responded to the Daily News, claiming that the paper's reporting was flawed and that its crime reporting system "is more effective and has proven to be successful at Peace Corps." With a number of sidebars and additional stories. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 27, 2003 Cutting-edge jail's electronic security system failing Aaron Corvin of The (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune writes about Pierce County's multimillion jail that opened in April, promising state-of-the-art security but falling short of that goal. "The computer-driven security system regularly failed before and after the new jail opened," and in the old jail — where the security system also was installed — errors led to the wrong doors being opened, "forcing officers into guessing games in a maximum-security unit." Interviews and records also show the new jail and renovations to the old one are $2.5 million over budget. "County officials have been reluctant to discuss the problems. They rejected a News Tribune request for records about claims filed against the county. County officials said making the information public would threaten the security of the two-jail complex, even though The News Tribune specifically excluded codes, blueprints or anything that would endanger lives." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 22, 2003 Army unit's actions in Vietnam went unpunished Michael D. Sallah and Mitch Weiss of The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade investigate alleged war crimes by an American Army platoon in 1967, finding that although "the Army substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 Tiger Force soldiers committed in 1967 — with numerous eyewitnesses — no charges were filed. ... Instead, the case was hidden in the Army's archives, and key suspects were allowed to continue their military careers." Included with the several stories are audio files of platoon members interviewed years after the incidents Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 20, 2003 Illegal pharmaceutical trade threatens lives Gilbert M. Gaul and Mary Pat Flaherty of The Washington Post begin a five-part series on America's prescription drug system, finding it riddled "by a growing illegal trade in pharmaceuticals, fed by criminal profiteers, unscrupulous wholesalers, rogue Internet sites and foreign pharmacies." A shadow trade in prescription drugs that includes orders for nursing home patients who don't exist, watered-down or fake medicines and middlemen of dubious (or criminal) natures "constitute a new form of organized crime that now threatens public health." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post October 08, 2003 Coroner's travel bill raises questions John Woolfolk of the San Jose Mercury News details the travels of Santa Clara chief medical examiner Dr. Gregory Schmunk, who "has billed taxpayers for more than $42,000 in travel for conferences and seminars since he was hired in March 1999, a figure at least one county official found alarming and other coroners said seemed unusually high." The travel records, obtained through a public records request, show that Schmunk racked up travel costs of at least $12,000 in each of the past two years and was on track to match that in 2003. San Francisco's medical examiner has reported $125 in professional development travel costs since 1999. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 29, 2003 Mayor's credit card charges include vitamins, lingerie and cosmetics Mike Fitzgerald of the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat obtained credit card statements detailing purchases by the mayor of Sauget, finding that "between December 2001 and August 2003, Sauget racked up $38,407 in expenses" including weight loss products, lingerie and chiropractic work. The mayor, 78-year-old Paul Sauget (his family gave the village its name), was asked whether his live-in girlfriend might have used the village-issued credit card. "Well, it's possible," Sauget said. The village has no written policy on the use of credit cards and its board is holding a meeting with the mayor Monday. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Minn. DOT takes land for lower compensation Dan Browning of the Star Tribune investigates cases in which Minnesota's Department of Transportation has taken private land for roads and other projects and offered compensation to the owners. The paper found that the agency frequently offered less money to land owners than was later awarded by an independent panel. "MnDOT's data show that the appraisals it selected usually were below the amounts deemed fair by commissioners. The amount commissioners awarded land owners between 1998 and 2003 was 66 percent higher than MnDOT's appraisals." The agency did acknowledge flaws in their data, making it difficult to make a comprehensive assessment. (free registration required for links) Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 17, 2003 N.J. juvenile detention crowded, substandard Judith Lucas of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger used correspondence records obtained through New Jersey's Open Public Records Act to show "a 'pattern of apathy and neglect'" at a Union County youth detention center. State officials urged the county to improve conditions at the facility, which "the state describes a substandard detention center where juveniles lived in filth, were forced to eat in their cells, sometimes housed three to a cell and locked down for 18 to 20 hours at a time. The center was built for 34 inmates and housed double that at times." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 09, 2003 Post-Sept. 11 grant not spent where officials intended Edward Wyatt and Joseph P. Fried of the New York Times report that "more than a third of the emergency grant money intended to help small businesses in Lower Manhattan survive after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack went to investment firms, financial traders and lawyers." Almost $200 million of the $539 million World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant program went to those businesses, while "far smaller amounts went to restaurants, retailers and other small businesses, many of them dependent on the foot traffic that largely disappeared from Lower Manhattan after the attack." The Times obtained information on the grant from the Empire State Development Corporation through a Freedom of Information request. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post September 04, 2003 Australian government subsidizing business' rent Gerard Ryle and Brian Robins of The Sydney Morning Herald reviewed 18,000 leases obtained under Australia's freedom of information law to find that "big businesses and some of the world's wealthiest people are renting taxpayer-owned land in NSW for peppercorn rates under a system that is riddled with inconsistencies and loopholes." The total rent for some 37.5 million hectares is $60 million a year — less than $2 per hectare for land that contains office buildings, homes and resorts. The package reveals a resort that pays less than $30,000 for 9.2 hectares, a Sydney Harbour marina with land valued at nearly $4 million that doesn't pay taxes, an insurance company that rents an entire Sydney block for $70 a year and other similar situations. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 26, 2003 Series of problems contributed to Columbia disaster Kathy Sawyer of The Washington Post used "official records, transcripts and video from NASA and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, including Freedom of Information Act releases and engineering test results and analyses — and interviews" to tell the story of the Columbia's breakup during re-entry. The article also details efforts by NASA personnel to obtain spy satellite photos of the damaged part of Columbia's wing while the shuttle was still in orbit. "Investigators would blame the entire system as well as a large number of individuals for missed communications going up and down the chain of command as well as for allowing their knowledge of classified imaging capabilities to wither." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post August 22, 2003 Records show link between officials, agency Robert Gammon of The Oakland Tribune used public records to show that a California agency tasked with advising the Oakland school district on its finances instead played a key role in placing itself in charge of the struggling school system. "The records show top officials from the Bakersfield-based County Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) called Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, the office of state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, and then-Compton schools chief Randy Ward at least 40 times each in the months before the takeover. By contrast, FCMAT officials made no calls to the Oakland school leaders they were appointed to advise on how to solve the district's financial problems." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 30, 2003 One-fifth of D.C. police recruits fail test on first try David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post requested records detailing exam results for Washington D.C. police trainees and found that more than 20 percent of recruits flunked the final test on their first try, a much higher percentage than other jurisdictions. "Policing experts said that the poor scores on the District's final exam might signal a flaw in the teaching or testing of new officers or show where the city's police academy missed a crucial opportunity to test the readiness of its graduates." After submitting a FOIA request for the records, the paper got to review test results for the last 17 classes at the police academy. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Data pinpoints concentrations of lead-poisoned children Wendy Wendland-Bowyer, Tina Lam and Megan Christensen of the Detroit Free Press used state health data to pinpoint the neighborhoods with the most lead-poisoned children in Michigan. Areas of Grand Rapids, Detroit and Benton Harbor showed the highest concentrations of sick children. "More surprising is the fact that health officials did not use the data to zero in on areas where the poisoned children lived." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 29, 2003 Baltimore officials get gifts, free parking Doug Donovan of The (Baltimore) Sun used public records to illustrate the perks of being elected to the Baltimore City Council. "Public documents and interviews reveal that a majority of council members have hired relatives as paid assistants and the entire council receives gifts, such as free parking and movie passes, not enjoyed by most Baltimoreans." Ten of the 19 members have put a relative on the payroll, and council members get free parking from a garage seeking tax breaks from the city. "Everybody does it, so I didn't know there was anything wrong with it," Councilwoman Pamela V. Carter said. "No one has ever said anything to me that it was against the ethics law." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 23, 2003 Utah police most disciplined for sexual misconduct Dan Harrie of The Salt Lake Tribune found that many of the internal discipline charges lodged against Utah police relate to sexual misconduct. "Sex crimes and improprieties are by far the most common offenses for which peace officers in the state are publicly disciplined, making up nearly one-third of the cases brought before" a state board. Twenty five of the 80 cases during the last two years that ended with the suspension or firing of an officer fell into that category. A former prosecutor who now teaches prospective police officers tells recruits: "The badge will get you sex, but sex will get your badge." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 18, 2003 Athletic directors' salaries, bonuses rival those of CEOs Brian Bennett of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal used state open-records laws to obtain the contracts of 57 public university athletic directors from seven Division I conferences to find that more than a dozen earn at least $300,000 a year, while the average salary for ADs in the six largest conferences is $268,000. "Many athletic directors' contracts include performance and longevity clauses that can increase the total potential package anywhere from a few thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. And this does not include other perks that have become nearly standard, such as the free use of one or more cars, memberships in private country clubs and supplemental life insurance." Kentucky's AD has the fourth-highest guaranteed salary among his peers, which does not include private schools such as Duke University or Notre Dame who are not subject to public records laws. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 16, 2003 Federal highway money funds range of barely related projects Sean Reilly of the Mobile Register used Freedom of Information Act requests to assemble records on federal transportation spending in Alabama, which turns out to be paying for lots of projects barely related to transportation. "In the last several years, members of Alabama's congressional delegation have routed more than $70 million in highway funds to university buildings, urban renewal and other projects with loose links to traditional transportation needs." Many of the projects were funded through the Federal Highway Trust Fund, and Alabama has two lawmakers who sit on panels with oversight of transportation spending. "But few other congressional delegations seem to have been so creative in pioneering new uses for gas tax revenue, according to the Federal Highway Administration documents obtained by the Register that spell out the projects targeted for each state sinc e 1996." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post July 14, 2003 Pollutants may force Louisville under fed control James Bruggers of the Louisville Courier-Journal reviewed federal and local air pollution data to find that while "yearly releases of some types of industrial pollutants in Jefferson County have sharply decreased, but others, including those that contribute to cancer, heart disease and asthma, appear to be on the rise." The Louisville metro area is likely to fall short of new federal guidelines, which could trigger pollution controls. The paper used the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory and two local sets of records it obtained through a state open records request. With loads of graphics and follow-ups. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 20, 2003 Air Force Academy board ignored charges of assaults Elizabeth Aguilera, David Migoya and Allison Sherry of The Denver Post used 25 years' worth of meeting minutes from an Air Force Academy review board to find that the academy's top officials "didn't always tell the board the true extent of sexual misconduct at the school," and attendance at board meetings was sporadic, with some members never showing up. "Instead, members focused on routine business such as dormitory renovations, cadet pay raises, student grades and the school's honor code -- even though new scandals were reported in the media." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 17, 2003 Police chief under fire after confiscating concert tickets A records request by WOAI-San Antonio led to a Texas school superintendent's call for the district police chief to be fired after records showed the officer had taken concert tickets from people he arrested and didn't return them. The station's FOIA request turned up previous allegations of similar conduct by Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City School District Police Chief Larry Anders. "Obviously, when you take in the case that's against him now and then you add this 1997 thing -- that certainly doesn't look good," said a school district spokesman. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 11, 2003 Agency hides plan to spend $248 million on development Using internal documents, Garrett Therolf of The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call shows that the "Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has secretly earmarked $248 million from November's massive toll increase for economic development while telling the public the money is only for self-insurance against terrorism." That money, part of an expected $800 million in revenue from toll increases, would go toward land buys and to lure and promote private businesses on waterfront property. Officials say they only have set aside $30 million for the project. The Commission denied requests for its records, which include details of a trip where 4 bridge officials were entertained by a firm that won a contract from the agency. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 09, 2003 Salaries for college coaches continute to rise Mike Fish of Sports Illustrated.com sent FOIA requests to universities who changed basketball or football coaches in the past year, comparing the contracts of the previous and new occupants of the job. His review shows that when a big name coach left for another school, it created a domino effect of increasing salaries. "At least nine of the 15 basketball coaches hired by major colleges this spring will make more money than their predecessors, and in most cases it's a significant bump." Two schools -- Pitt and Penn State -- refused the requests for records, saying Pennsylvania's new open records law didn't apply to them. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post Norfolk fails to spend on care for AIDS patients Liz Szabo of The Virginian-Pilot used FOIA requests to build a spreadsheet detailing how different regions spent federal dollars granted under the Ryan White CARE Act, a law designed to help care for AIDS patients. What it showed was that Norfolk "has failed to spend an average of nearly $1 million annually" in the past four years while hundreds of local patients go without care. "Last year, more than a quarter of the roughly $6 million given to Hampton Roads for uninsured AIDs patients -- nearly $1.6 million -- went unused, according to budget records. That includes unspent money carried over from previous years and is about enough to pay for doctors' visits for a year." In researching the story, Szabo also found that in their haste to make a paperwork deadline, local officials changed every instance of "White" in their report to "Caucasian," yielding dozens of "Ryan Caucasian CARE Act" phrases throughout. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post June 03, 2003 Big coaches, big pay Mike Fish of Sports Illustrated.com sent FOIA requests to universities who changed basketball or football coaches in the past year, comparing the contracts of the previous and new occupants of the job. His review shows that when a big name coach left for another school, it created a domino effect of increasing salaries. "At least nine of the 15 basketball coaches hired by major colleges this spring will make more money than their predecessors, and in most cases it's a significant bump." Two schools - Pitt and Penn State - refused the requests for records, saying Pennsylvania's new open records law didn't apply to them. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post AIDS care money goes unspent Liz Szabo of The Virginian-Pilot used FOIA requests to build a spreadsheet detailing how different regions spent federal dollars granted under the Ryan White CARE Act, a law designed to help care for AIDS patients. What it showed was that Norfolk "has failed to spend an average of nearly $1 million annually" in the past four years while hundreds of local patients go without care. "Last year, more than a quarter of the roughly $6 million given to Hampton Roads for uninsured AIDs patients -- nearly $1.6 million -- went unused, according to budget records. That includes unspent money carried over from previous years and is about enough to pay for doctors' visits for a year." In researching the story, Szabo also found that in their haste to make a paperwork deadline, local officials changed every instance of "White" in their report to "Caucasian," yielding dozens of "Ryan Caucasian CARE Act" phrases throughout. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 28, 2003 Program failing to diversify university Erik Rodriguez and Sharon Jayson of the Austin American-Statesman studied the effects of Texas' top 10 percent law, in which the top students from state high schools gain admission to the University of Texas, and found that entrance exam scores had fallen "and the measure has failed to substantially improve ethnic diversity on campus," one of its goals when it replaced UT's affirmative action policy. "Students accepted to UT-Austin under the law are making lower SAT scores, while scores for all other students have climbed significantly. And a deluge of top 10-qualified applicants from predominantly white areas appears to offset a growing number of minority students recruited by admissions officials." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 23, 2003 Student's FOI request reveals patterns in grading Jeremy Crider, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, submitted a public records request seeking information about grades at the school. The result, published and broadcast on VCU Insight, is that "over the past three years, the percentage of A's given out has remained fairly steady. Between 33-34% of all grades awarded every semester were A's. On the flip side, about 15-16% were D's & F's. However, there are fairly dramatic differences between the various colleges and schools at the university and definitely among individual instructors." The project is similar to one done by The Virginian-Pilot earlier this year. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 12, 2003 FOIA request reveals lost, stolen military weapons Sydney P. Freedberg and Connie Humburg of the St. Petersburg Times report that "since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, thousands of pounds of explosives, hundreds of mines, mortars, grenades and firearms and dozens of rockets and artillery rounds have been lost or stolen from U.S. stockpiles, government documents show." The Times used a FOIA request to obtain details on 242 cases of lost or stolen munitions, mostly from Army installations. "More than half of the roughly 150 thefts were inside jobs involving military personnel, National Guardsmen or civilian employees of the military." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 09, 2003 Kansas parole violators commit serious crimes Hurst Laviana of the Wichita Eagle analyzed Kansas Department of Corrections records to find that "in the past four years, more than two dozen Kansans have died at the hands of people being supervised by state parole officers. In addition, murder charges are pending against parolees in eight other homicides." The maximum prison sentence for parole violations is 180 days, and many violators are released in half that time. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 06, 2003 Toronto officials rarely investigate gas line ruptures A week after an explosion caused by a worker who hit an underground gas line killed seven people in Toronto, a Toronto Star investigation finds that while "more than 21,000 incidents have occurred between 1997 and 2001" involving Ontario pipelines, only a fraction are ever investigated. Robert Cribb writes: "Authorities investigated only 1,013 ruptures in the past six years, incidents which, like last week's explosion, were considered serious due to personal injuries or extensive damage to property or the environment, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information request." Most of those accidents were caused by construction workers doing excavation similar to what caused the latest episode. And just eight of the 1,013 cases have resulted in prosecutions. With a map of pipeline incidents (pdf). Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post May 01, 2003 Lax enforcement contributed to sniper shootings Mike Carter, Steve Miletich and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times delve into the history of Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, the gun store that previously had the rifle used in the Washington, DC-area sniper shootings last fall. "Long before last fall's sniper slayings, Bull's Eye was among a minuscule group of problem gun dealers that, willingly or not, 'supply the suppliers' who funnel guns to the nation's criminals, the ATF says." Using ATF records, the paper reports that the store displayed all the warning signs. "An analysis of records obtained by The Seattle Times through a freedom-of-information lawsuit against the ATF shows that between 1997 and 2001, guns sold by Bull's Eye were involved in 52 crimes, including homicides, kidnappings and assaults -- a rate the ATF considers alarming." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 28, 2003 University's credit card charges raise questions The Kansas City Star spent five years seeking access to audits of the University of Missouri system's credit cards, and reporters Kevin Murphy and Shashank Bengali detail how auditors have routinely found questionable purchases and sought reimbursements. Some $75 million was charged to university procurement cards last year, and spot checks by auditors in eight departments resulted in "$124,000 in transactions that lacked receipts or did not comply with spending policies. Although the systemwide effect cannot be determined, that sample could indicate that more than $3 million in charges would raise questions." Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post April 23, 2003 N.J. changes policy on selling spare police weapons Michael Diamond and John Froonjian of The Press of Atlantic City report that, even as New Jersey officials decry the availability of guns, their own police agencies have been selling spare and seized weapons to gun dealers. "Newark has provided more than 1,500 firearms to gun dealers who in turn sell the used weapons over the counter. Like most New Jersey cities, Newark trades in used police weapons to dealers who provide a large discount when the city buys new police guns. It's as legal as selling popcorn." More than 100 of the 12,000 weapons traded in between 1985 and 2000 were used in crimes, according to the paper's analysis of federal gun records. As a result of the report, New Jersey's governor announced the state will destroy used police guns. Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post See older postings. |
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