Gaps in Wisconsin tornado warning system identified
After tornadoes ripped through the southern part of the state earlier this month, Ben Poston of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that thousands of southeastern Wisconsin residents are out of range for tornado warning sirens. Using mapping software, Poston plotted nearly 75 siren locations in Milwaukee and Racine counties and then overlayed census data to identify gaps in the warning system.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Drought threatens nuclear power in Southeast
AP's Charlotte correspondent Mitch Weiss identified 24 nuclear reactors located in areas of severe drought that could potentially force reactors in the Southeast to reduce power or shut down later this year. The drought threatens the rivers and streams that supply massive amounts of cooling water. Weiss reports that, while utility officials issue public assurances about the plants' operability, documents reveal warnings about potential shutdowns and the expense of buying power from alternate sources. His analysis and mapping covered 104 nuclear reactors nationwide.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Some Houston banks more prone to ATM robberies
This investigation by KHOU-Houston used crime data to map the locations of ATM robberies. The analysis showed that some bank branches seem to be hot spots for robberies. Reporter Jeremy Rogalski spoke with police about why some areas are more vulnerable than others and how consumers can protect themselves from being robbed at an ATM.

The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism assisted in the data analysis for this story.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

No-proof loans fuel foreclosure problems
Dale Kasler, Phillip Reese and Jim Wasserman of The Sacramento Bee examined the impact of stated-income loans in the wave of subprime loans devastating the area's housing market. Analysis of "61,000 Sacramento-area mortgages over two years reveals striking discrepancies — gaps as high as 25 percent — between what homebuyers earned and what was listed on their loan applications." They also found higher gaps in lower income neighborhoods and aggressive use of stated-income loans, which do not require documentation of the borrower's income, in the late phase of the housing boom.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Sex offenders not deterred by residency laws
Lisa Fletcher of KNXV-Phoenix mapped "level 3" sex offenders — considered the most dangerous and most likely to re-offend. Data analysis located 123 offenders living within 1000 ft. of schools and daycares in Maricopa County in violation of residency laws. One expert, Dr. Tom Selby, a psychologist who specializes in work with sex offenders, suggest these laws only provide a false sense of security. "In terms of it having any significant impact on reduction of sex offenses, research in general says that residency laws have no impact on recidivism rates," he said.

The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism, assisted with the data analysis.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Tennessee gun permits mapped
WBIR-Knoxville reporter John Becker and producer Jake Jost looked at gun permit holders around the state, from pockets outside of Memphis where up to 11 percent of residents have a permit, to a rural area where six percent of residents own guns. Data analysis and mapping suggested a broad profile of gun owners: "They tend to live in rural areas. If they are anything like the typical person in their area, the numbers suggest they are upper middle-class, white, and own their own homes. They have a family, and the household makes between $50,000 and $150,000 each year."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Foreclosures: Living in the zone
KSHB's Keith King reported on foreclosure rates in and around Kansas City. Analyzing data from RealtyTrac.com, King mapped all the foreclosures between June 2006 and July 2007 to see what neighborhoods were impacted the most. Foreclosures affected more residents on the Missouri side of the metro area, where there is no court oversight of foreclosures, compared to neighborhoods in Kansas. A searchable database lists foreclosures in the greater Kansas City area through September 2007.The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism, assisted with the data analysis for this story.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Sex offenders clustered near school bus stops
An investigation by WTEV-Jacksonville, Fla. found "more than 500 sex offenders and predators living within two blocks of local bus stops," according to Celine McArthur. Certain sex offenders are barred from living within 1,000 feet of bus stops, but there are so many bus stops that enforcing the rule would place most of the city off-limits. The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism, assisted with the data analysis and mapping.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Fresno fire stations fail in timely response to fires
An investigation by Brad Branan of the Fresno Bee shows that the Fresno County fire district is failing to meet the national standard for response time when called, leaving residents and property in peril. An analysis of about 1,500 fires over a 21-month period revealed frequent failure to respond in the 5-minute window. One district only met that national standard on 16 percent of their calls. The county cites too few stations as their main problem. A graphic maps the stations with the percentage of fires they respond to within five minutes.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Residential areas grow in wildfire risk zones
According to a USA Today report by Brad Heath, "Since 2000, roughly 450,000 people — enough to populate a city the size of Atlanta — moved to Western areas endangered by wildfires." Heath's analysis combined historical fire data from the USGS Forest Service, Census population data, fire modeling software used by researchers and a wild and urban interface map to discover this dangerous migration.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Sold a Nightmare
A four-part series by Binyamin Appelbaum, Lisa Hammersly Munn and Ted Mellnik of The Charlotte (N.C) Observer profiles Beazer Homes USA and the failure of starter-home neighborhoods in the Charlotte area. As it sold homes and arranged mortgages, the company crossed the line between selling to people who could barely afford homes and selling to people who couldn't. The series features an up-close look at what went wrong in one neighborhood. It also includes an interactive map that allows readers to check foreclosure rates in their neighborhoods.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Houston burglary hot spots mapped
Dave Fehling of KHOU_Houston reports on the city's burglary trends. "Analyzing raw numbers from the last two years, a special mapping program found five hot spots." Further analysis of the data showed that the hot spots covered a higher concentration of apartment complexes, where it is easier for unfamiliar faces to move around unnoticed. The IRE and NICAR Database Library assisted with data analysis and mapping for this story.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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

Sex offenders loosely monitored in Delaware
Andrew Tangel and Mike Chalmers of The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal found that sex offenders in the state of Delaware have been inadequately monitored. By mapping "the addresses of more than 1,200 moderate- and high-risk sex offenders, 1,900 child care centers and 350 public and private schools", Tangel and Chalmers found hundreds of instances where sex offencers were living within 500 feet of day cares - but day care centers don't count as schools under Delaware's lax version of Megan's law. They also found that 40% of sex offenders do not keep their addresses up-to-date in the system. Included in this report are details on how this investigation was done.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

N.C. drinking water safety in doubt
In a three-part series, Pat Stith of The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer shows the "state's regulation of drinking water reveals disregard for safety of private wells, weak regulation of public water systems and widespread problems with lead testing." The series includes an interactive map and a sidebar about how the state closely followed Stith's investigation and began responding to problems before the stories were published. "Stith, along with reporters Catherine Clabby and Wade Rawlins and database editor David Raynor, examined a stack of paper records 8 feet high and acquired databases from the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the N.C. State Laboratory of Public Health and Wake County. The reporters also interviewed more than 100 people."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

N.J. Megan's Law deemed one of nation's weakest
A team or reporters and editors with the Gannett New Jersey newspapers and Gannett News Service examine loopholes in Megan's Law in a three-part series. The investigation found that New Jersey's law stands as one of the weakest in the nation in immediately warning residents when an offender moves into their neighborhood. "In New Jersey, it can take prosecutors and judges months to notify people if a notorious rapist has moved next door — if they warn you at all. " Monmouth and Ocean counties were home to 1,220 registered sex offenders in January, according to State Police information. The names and addresses of just 253 were posted on the state's Megan's Law Web site; most of the rest are known only to law enforcement. Because of the growing number of residency restrictions, an unknown number of sex offenders may be forced from their homes this year, thus making them shift from inner-city enclaves to suburban neighborhoods. The team who worked on this project includes James W. Prado Roberts, Robert Benincasa, Michelle Sahn, Alan Guenther, Abbott Koloff, Arielle Levin Becker, Ledyard King, Paul D'Ambrosio and Laura Rehrmann.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Booming housing industry slows in South Fla.
Matthew Haggman, Lisa Arthur and Tim Henderson of The Miami Herald analyzed home sales over the past five years and found South Florida has gone through the most explosive housing boom in its history. "The land rush has transformed just about every corner and corridor of the region, sending prices skyward since 2000 — more than 150 percent in Pompano Beach, more than 200 percent in Hallandale Beach and Sunny Isles Beach, and 250 percent in North Bay Village. " But it is predicted that South Florida's 5-year run of annual price jumps of anywhere from 12 percent to more than 20 percent is ending. Prices have wobbled in recent months, with sellers lowering their expectations. Houses are sitting longer on the market — the average time needed to sell a single-family home in Broward County has jumped from 34 days six months ago to 53 days.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Murderers go unpunished in Newark
Jonathan Schuppe and William Kleinknecht of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger analyzed homicides in Essex County between 1998 and 2003 and found killers went unpunished more often than they went to prison. In the cases in which a defendant was convicted, more than a quarter led to prison sentences of 10 years or less. "Essex County is New Jersey's homicide capital. One in three of the state's killings occur in Newark and surrounding towns. But while taking a life is the most serious criminal offense on the books, police and prosecutors have struggled to put murderers behind bars. " The Star-Ledger, in reviewing the cases and interviewing police, prosecutors, lawyers, community leaders and others during the past six months, found a series of glaring deficiencies in the criminal justice system. The story includes a sidebar about how this story was investigated.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Vulnerable live in Sacramento's flood zones
Phillip Reese of The Sacramento Bee used Census data and maps to report that “more than 150,000 of Sacramento County’s most vulnerable residents — the elderly, the poor and the disabled — live in areas prone to substantial flooding, and local officials acknowledge they don’t know whether they could quickly get them to safe ground.” Those individuals live in areas of the county that could see floods of at least two feet.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Proposal would push sex offenders out of half of Calif. urban areas
Jim Miller of The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise used geographic information system (GIS) software to study the impact of a proposal by Gov. Schwarzenegger and others to prohibit registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a park or school in California. The analysis shows that "At least half of California's urban areas would become off-limits to registered sex offenders" and they "could be confined to scattered urban islands or to lightly populated rural areas."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Multifamily housing hit hardest by Wilma
Brittany Wallman and Jeremy Milarsky of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed hurricane damage reports to show that in Broward County, “condos and apartments were hit the hardest, accounting for 55 percent of the buildings declared uninhabitable. Mobile homes made up 28 percent of seriously damaged structures. Houses fared the best. Only 42 were deemed uninhabitable, barely 1 percent of all severely damaged buildings.” Low-income areas had the most buildings declared unlivable.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Gulf Coast homeowner loans lagging
Leslie Eaton and Ron Nixon of The New York Times used federal data to show the pace of homeowner loans in the Gulf Coast is lagging. “The Small Business Administration, which runs the federal government’s main disaster recovery program for both businesses and homeowners, has processed only a third of the 276,000 home loan applications it has received. And it has rejected 82 percent of those it has reviewed, a higher percentage than in most previous disasters.” The loans that have been approved have been going to higher-income neighborhoods.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Trains carry dangerous cargo through neighborhoods
Phil Pitchford, Ben Goad, David Danelski, Mark Kawar and projects editor Cathy Armstrong of The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise examine the safety issues surrounding trains carrying hazardous cargo as they travel through populated areas. "Every day, trains hauling tons of hazardous chemicals roll past Inland homes, schools, hospitals and businesses." The newspaper says residents are "largely unprepared for a large-scale chemical spill along a rail line" while chances of such an incident are increasing. "More than 1.5 million Inland residents live close enough to railroad tracks to be at risk from a serious spill, according to a recent analysis using geographic information systems technology from Redlands-based ESRI." (Editor's Note: IRE and NICAR offer the Hazardous Materials Incident Report Subsystem, maintained by the Department of Transportation. It includes incident reports of unintentional releases of hazardous materials for all modes of transportation — air, highway, railway, and water.)
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Smoking bans not affecting businesses
Jason Hoppin and MaryJo Sylwester of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press analyzed Minnesota Department of Revenue data on taxable sales at establishments that sell alcohol to see if there was any evidence of widespread economic hardship due to smoking bans that were enacted in some areas of the Twin Cities on March 31. Because tax return information for individual businesses is not public, the reporters persuaded the Department of Revenue to provide summary data by ZIP code. They also created interactive maps using ArcIMS and ASP so readers could click on individual ZIP codes and see the data behind it.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Blacks excluded from juries in Louisville, Ky.
Jason Riley, Kay Stewart and Mark Schaver of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal , analyzed records of 34,000 residents summoned for jury duty in a year's time, to show that people who live in predominantly African-American areas of the county are less likely to serve on juries than those who live in mostly white areas. "The newspaper found that residents of the county's five ZIP codes with black majorities are being disproportionately eliminated in almost every stage of the selection process — from the moment they are called for service through the time lawyers decide whether to seat them on juries. " Black jurors are excluded by prosecutors and defense attorneys in criminal cases, as well as by lawyers for both sides in civil trials.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Maps show campaign contributions in Va.
With the Virginia governor's race just weeks away, the Virginia Public Access Project used mapping technology to create online dynamic maps of campaign contributions received by Virginia's statewide candidates. The map shades contributions by county and city, and links to detailed data on individual donors in those localities.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Mayoral candidates raise money far and wide
Gregory Korte of The Cincinnati Enquirer analyzed campaign finance reports and found that more than half the contributions in a mayoral race comes from outside Cincinnati. There have been fund-raising evemts for the race held in San Francisco, New York City, Denver and Washington, D.C. The analysis also reveals that one candidate relies on larger contributions from more individuals while the other receives donations from industry groups. Maps show where the candidates' contributions come from.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

San Diego land inventory flawed
Brooke Williams and Danielle Cervantes of the San Diego Union-Tribune compiled data on the city's land holdings, finding that "the city's inventory of real estate assets, worth billions of dollars, is seriously flawed. A roster of 4,430 parcels the city supplied omits some property, and it also lists land the city has never owned, land it hopes to own and land it sold long ago." About 200 properties that were sold over the past 20 years are still on the list. San Diego is considering selling some of its property to improve the city's financial condition. A PDF graphic highlights the inventory's flaws.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Poorer and university neighborhoods supported tax
Lee Ann O'Neal and Ian Demsky of The Tennessean used spreadsheets and mapping software to analyze Nashville's failed Sept. 13 sales tax referendum. They found the greatest support for the half-cent sales tax increase was in poorer neighborhoods and the areas around Vanderbilt and Belmont universities. Themap identifies voting precincts and how they voted on the referendum.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Vulnerable in Fla. county could be left behind in hurricane
Matt Reed and John Kelly of Florida Today used Census data to identify neighborhoods in Brevard County that are "home to higher-than-average numbers of seniors, poor people and families without cars — people who may need help fleeing" a hurricane like Katrina. They found that thousands of seniors, poor people and families without cars might not be able to evacuate areas almost certain to flood. The county would provide free rides to them, but they must register beforehand, something many are not aware of or willing to do.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Mapping tornado sirens allows look at disaster planning
Sarah Okeson of the Peoria, Ill., Journal Star mapped tornado sirens and looked at how much of the county they cover, as well as geocoding the county's schools and nursing homes and looking for gaps in the coverage. "The National Weather Service thinks Peoria is adequately prepared for a tornado or other disaster." Okeson describes in a NICAR-L posting that "I went to all 80 of the county's tornado sirens with a GPS device and then put the locations on my computer and converted them to a shapefile. I drew buffers around the sirens and calculated how many people in the county weren't covered by comparing the siren coverage area to the census blocks."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Low-income residents less likely to appear for jury duty
Hurst Laviana of The Wichita Eagle used local court records to show that "less than half of the Sedgwick County residents summoned report to the courthouse in any given week. And low-income residents — many of them minorities — are far less likely to report for jury duty than residents of white middle-class neighborhoods." Poor address-keeping is a major cause for why some potential jurors either never get their notices or get them too late. The paper combined the juror information with Census data using mapping software.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Hate crimes down in New York
Jo Craven McGinty at The New York Times reported this weekend that hate crimes in the city are down 44 percent between 2000 and 2004. The crimes are broken down in graphics and maps. A member of New York's hate crimes unit credits people "just behaving better" in the city in the wake of a hate crime law put on the books in 2000.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Thousands of home permits issued for fire-prone areas
Jim Miller and Ben Goad of The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise use mapping software to plot thousands of new home permits issued since the 2003 Southern California fires and then compared the points to state maps showing fire threat. "In the 18 months after the firestorms of 2003, Inland cities and counties issued permits for more than 2,500 homes in areas the state identifies as facing 'very high' or 'extreme' fire danger." (Editor's note: IRE and NICAR offer resources for covering wildfires)
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Company builds silo within 300 feet of school
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette investigates a coal company, which has built and begun to build silos outside the companies permit area, within 300 feet of a school. The Gazette used color overlays of hard-copy mine maps produced by a local blueprint shop, so that maps dating back to 1982 could be easily compared to more recent digital mine maps. The paper followed up on Sunday, with a piece on the maps and data used in the investigation, and how complaints were ignored and boundary advances missed.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Developers have big plans for rural areas
John McCarthy of the Florida Today analyzed and mapped data from the Brevard County Property Appraiser's database to report on growth and development in Brevard County, Fla. McCarthy found that land developers in the county "plan to turn agricultural land in the far reaches of the county into upscale housing developments ..." The project includes a sidebar by Jeff Schweers about how the public can have its say on rezoning and other issues and the online version of the project includes a flyover three-dimensional map, produced by online enhancement coordinator Lee Nessel Daszuta. Assistant Managing Editor Matt Reed oversaw the project and Graphic Artist Tim Standish produced a map for the print edition based on a map McCarthy created with Arcview 9.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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

Florida wetlands vanishing
In a two-part series, Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite of the St. Petersburg Times report on the destruction of Florida wetlands. The Times analyzed satellite imagery to determine the acres of wetlands lost to urban development. Their investigation uncovered that the federal agency primarily responsible for regulating wetland in Florida failed to keep records on how many acres they were allowing to be destroyed and doesn't track projects they were requiring to make up for the destruction. "... since the policy took effect in 1990, at least 84,000 acres of Florida wetlands have disappeared..." The Times found a system that creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the destruction. "The corps approves more permits to destroy wetlands in Florida than any other state, and allows a higher percentage of destruction in Florida than nationally." The series includes interactive graphics and a complete methodology on how the series was done and tracks how pressure from Congress is used.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Medium home value soars
William M. Hartnett of The Palm Beach Post analyzed ten years' of housing sales for Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, finding that median home prices have jumped dramatically during that period. In a special section published Sunday, the paper mapped neighborhoods according to median sale value and reported that water access costs more than it ever did. A number of other maps and photos also illustrate the data, and the paper provided an explainer of its work. Hartnett credited similar work by the St. Petersburg Times last year for inspiring the project.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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

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

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

Washington D.C. drives Baltimore housing boom
Jamie Smith Hopkins of The (Baltimore) Sun used data on home sales to find "clear signs that proximity to D.C. is driving the boom in Baltimore and its five surrounding counties, over and above what extraordinarily low mortgage interest rates have achieved nationwide. This region's fastest appreciation came in Howard, Anne Arundel and Carroll counties, which border the traditional edge of Washington's reach. Prices there jumped 75 percent combined during the past five years - compared with 41 percent nationally. Together, the average price in those counties rose to about $340,000 last year." The paper included a searchable database of area home sales from 1999 to 2004 and several charts detailing the growth in home prices.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

City shooting data shows race, location similarities
Nathan Gorenstein, Barbara Boyer and Rose Ciotta of the Philadelphia Inquirer summarized shootings in the city last year: "On average, more than four people a day were struck by bullets. About one in six died. On one day alone - Oct. 22 - 19 people were shot, one fatally. It's a toll of injury and death that falls most heavily on the same few neighborhoods year after year: North Philadelphia. West Philadelphia north of Market Street. The southwestern edge of South Philadelphia." During the past four years, half of all shooting victims were under 25, and most of those were African American males. An interactive graphic displaying shooting victims per square mile is included.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Crime data compares parolee data by ZIP code
Jeremy Finley of WSMV-Nashville compared prison parolee data to ZIP codes in the Nashville area, uncovering a trend that is populating felons together and trapping ZIP codes in a "cycle of violence." He found the highest number of felons living in the 37207 ZIP code. "There are more than 200 convicted criminals in this ZIP code including convicted murderers, rapists, and drug dealers." The report also provides data that lists the number of parolees by ZIP code in Davidson County.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Ohio drunk driver program flawed
Sheila McLaughlin of The Cincinnati Enquirer evaluated an Ohio program that requires drunk drivers to put special license plates on their vehicles, finding that "a year after Ohio started requiring the special tags, a sampling of more than 300 local cases and interviews with lawyers, judges, police officers and legislators indicate that the law is unevenly administered, enforced and monitored." Among the problems are that repeat offenders don't always get the plates and that police have no way to track who has them or should.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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

Rail safety in question
Scott Dodd, Bruce Henderson and Heather Vogell of The Charlotte Observer examine railroad safety, finding that "in the Charlotte region, nearly 800,000 people live within a mile of a major rail line," an increase of 90,000 in the past 10 years. "Yet emergency planners don't know how much hazardous material passes daily through uptown Charlotte and the region's small towns. Federal, state and local agencies told the Observer they don't keep track, and the railroads won't provide that information for security reasons." Nearly 400 schools are located within a mile of train routes, and thus within the evacuation zone for accidents involving chemical materials.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Working poor face tough challenges
Heath Foster, Paul Nyhan and Phoung Cat Le of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have a series on the working poor in King and Snohomish counties, concluding that "nearly half a million people in King and Snohomish counties, about a quarter of them children, are surviving at no more than twice the federal poverty level – less than $38,000 a year for a family of four. They account for a fifth of our region's population. And for the most part, they are not poor because they are unemployed. About 61 percent of them – or nearly 300,000 people – live in families where at least one adult is working full time." One sidebar lists the resources the P-I used to report the project.The series, which includes extensive graphics, made use of 14 years' worth of Census PUMS data.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Fire response times on the rise
Bill Dedman investigated nationwide fire department response times, staffing, and civilian and firefighter fatalities for The Boston Globe and found that while firefighters are being laid off and fire stations are closing, firefighters are taking longer to respond to fire alarms. Among the resources Dedman used was a database called the National Fire Incident Reporting System, maintained by the U.S. Fire Administration. The online presentation includes a ranking of fire departments, supporting documents and spreadsheets.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Sex offenders living near schools
Robin Erb of The (Toledo) Blade used Ohio's sexual offender registry to show that "one in four of Lucas County's more than 600 registered sex offenders live within 1,000 feet of a school," a violation of state law. The paper used mapping software to plot the residences of sex offenders and their distance from schools in the Toledo area. "The problem is this: While laying out the new rule, lawmakers never gave sheriff's deputies the power to enforce it. It only allows neighbors or school boards to go to court and ask a judge to order an offender living within that proximity to move."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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

D.C. donors trade easements for tax breaks
Joe Stephens of The Washington Post, with contributions from Sarah Cohen and Alice Crites, has a two-part series on the practice of donating historic facade easements to nonprofits in turn for a tax break for the homeowner. "Such tax deductions are increasingly common although the District already bars unapproved and historically inaccurate changes in the facades of homes in the city's many historic districts. As a result, easement donors largely are agreeing not to change something that they cannot change anyway." The paper identified about 900 residences with such easements in Washington, with the average assessed value of the property at more than $1 million. The Web presentation includes an interactive map.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Businesses use farming to avoid taxes
Paula Lavigne, Kevin Krause and Ed Housewright of The Dallas Morning News used property tax data to show that "on thousands of acres of North Texas land, big business and other private interests have found a way to save millions of dollars with agricultural side operations. For these savvy corporations and land speculators, every munching cow and hay bale spells annual savings, thanks to property tax breaks originally intended to help farmers." Dallas, Denton, Tarrant and Collin counties lose millions in annual tax revenue, particularly taxes for public schools. A map shows the proliferation of these land parcels.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Drugs a major force in homicide rate
Laura Bauer of The Courier-Journal looked at the soaring homicide rate in Louisville, Ky. "As Louisville's homicide numbers close in on a seven-year high and police leaders struggle to explain the increase in violence, drugs have emerged as a driving force in the killings. Of the 60 homicides, police say 30 were related to drug use or trafficking." CAR director Mark Schaver analysed data to create a map showing where homicides in the area are concentrated.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Growth changes political face of region
Jim Sanders, Pamela Martineau and Jennifer K. Morita of The Sacramento Bee looked at voter registration figures and election results for the Sacramento region and found that "the explosive growth there and throughout the capital region is altering the political balance of power, ringing the Democratic bastions of Sacramento, Davis and West Sacramento with suburbs that are increasingly Republican." The two-day series includes a look-up function that allows readers to enter an address and see a map, registration, voting and demographic numbers for their Census tract. The stories included GIS-generated maps showing presidential voting patterns in the region.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Boating, booze a dangerous mix
Natalya Shulyakovskaya of The Orange County Register reports that deaths and injuries from alcohol-related boating accidents are on the rise. The analysis of U.S. Coast Guard data shows that "boating accidents that involve alcohol increased by one-third from 1995 to 2003. On the Colorado River, they doubled." The story includes maps of where alcohol-related deaths and injuries have occurred and spots where boaters can buy alcohol, as well as sidebars about how the story was reported and how the data was analyzed.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

NASCAR plans draw opposition from area residents
Scott Morris and Scott North of The (Everett, Wash.) Herald used mapping software, Census data and county records to show that a proposed NASCAR racetrack will have plenty of neighbors. "More than 17,000 people live within a roughly two-mile area around the track site. That's more than 6,000 homes, U.S. Census records show." Snohomish County has approved more than 800 permits for new construction in the area since 1995. "Those numbers explain why opposition to the track has been strong. Snohomish County Citizens Against a Racetrack, or SCAR, gathered more than 1,000 signatures opposing the track earlier this year, mostly from Marysville and Arlington."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

City residents must go farther for cheap groceries
Sharon Smith and Joan Concilio of the York Daily Record used Census data and mapping software to pinpoint the location of grocery stores in the area, finding that "when it comes to supermarkets, 1.2 grocery stores exist for each of the county's 10,000 residents. In York, the rate of grocery stores per 10,000 residents is 0.24." The city has many more convenience stores than does the county, meaning that many city residents have to travel further to shop, especially for cheaper prices. Concilio wrote a detailed explanation of the paper's methodology.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Tenn. tornado sirens leave gaps in coverage
Ian Demsky of The Tennessean plotted the locations of tornado sirens in the Nashville area, finding that the alarms "don't reach many parts of Davidson County, leaving gaps that people might not realize exist." The paper examined areas within a mile of the 70 sirens, which are supposed to carry between a half-mile and a mile and a half. "A map of the siren locations shows that the county's central area has the greatest concentration, and areas such as Bellevue and Joelton have less coverage."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Complaints against police come from minority communities
Julie Wallace and David Knox of the Akron Beacon Journal mapped the locations of incidents that generated complaints against the police in 2003, finding that "neighborhoods that have the largest proportion of minority residents generated significantly more complaints than did other neighborhoods." No mostly white areas accounted for more than 6 percent of the total complaints about police stops. Police officials said that the areas with the most complaints also tended to have more crime and a greater police presence.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Bush fundraisers get jobs in administration
Thomas B. Edsall, Sarah Cohen and James V. Grimaldi of The Washington Post have a two-part series on the top fundraisers for President Bush's campaign, known as Pioneers and Rangers. "Of the 246 fundraisers identified by The Post as Pioneers in the 2000 campaign, 104 — or slightly more than 40 percent — ended up in a job or an appointment. A study by The Washington Post, partly using information compiled by Texans for Public Justice, which is planning to release a separate study of the Pioneers this week, found that 23 Pioneers were named as ambassadors and three were named to the Cabinet: Donald L. Evans at the Commerce Department, Elaine L. Chao at Labor and Tom Ridge at Homeland Security. At least 37 Pioneers were named to postelection transition teams, which helped place political appointees into key regulatory positions affecting industry." About a fifth of the 2000 Pioneers work as lobbyists, and about half are top corporate executives. The paper posted a graphic depicting the "spheres of influence" around Bush's candidacy. The second story examines Richard T. Farmer, CEO of Cintas and a top giver to GOP candidates and committees, and the laundry industry's role in a regulatory action that saved it millions.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

10-year anti-crime effort not paying off
Janet Roberts, Charles Laszewski and Lisa Donovan of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tracked the efforts of police to curb crime in the city's Frogtown district, mapping street crimes and compiling a database of court outcomes as cops embarked on an ambitious anti-crime program. "In the five years before Operation Sunrise, Frogtown had more police calls about drug-related street crimes than any other St. Paul neighborhood, a Pioneer Press computer analysis of police records shows. Despite continued police attention over the last 10 years and investment of more than $40 million in public money, nearly all of it in housing, the neighborhood still has one of the densest clusters of drug-related crime in all of St. Paul." The paper generated interactive maps of crime hotspots and other graphics. (Free registration required.)
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

More states up for grab in presidential election
Adam Nagourney and Matthew Ericson of The New York Times used Federal Election Commission data to identify where President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are spending the most money. The story shows that more states than usual are in play in this presidential campaign. "In addition to the 16 most competitive states, those won by less than six percentage points in the last election, the parties are focusing on a number of other states that they think may also be up for grabs." Graphics for the story include maps of the country identifying the significance of each state based on electoral votes and what states are up for grabs.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Lifesaving incidents represent sliver of Taser uses
David Migoya of The Denver Post used police and court records to find that Denver police don't often use their Taser stun guns in life-threatening situations. "More often, Denver police have used Tasers to force people to obey their orders, to shortcut physical confrontations and, in several cases, to avoid having to run after a suspect." Most people charged with crimes after being tased faced misdemea nor charges or a ticket, and at least 16 people where tased while already wearing handcuffs. Included is an interactive map of Taser incidents.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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

Skyrocketing Tampa home prices changing region
Matt Waite and a host of St. Petersburg Times reporters analyzed home sales in five Florida counties from 1998 to mid-2003, finding that "the price of a home in the Tampa Bay area has soared in recent years, far outpacing inflation, the stock market and personal incomes, mushrooming into an economic force that is reshaping the region neighborhood by neighborhood." The paper ran 25 stories Sunday based on the analysis, which relied heavily on GIS software to make neighborhood comparisons.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Data shows unsolved murders in LA's urban core
Jill Leovy and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times used city police and coroner data from 1988-2002 to find that neighborhoods south of the Santa Monica Freeway have seen some 2,400 unsolved homicides during the past 15 years. "Nowhere in the San Fernando Valley or the Westside is there a similar concentration of killings, let alone unsolved ones. South Bureau, for example, has more than three times the number of unsolved homicides as the LAPD's Valley Bureau, even though it covers only one-fourth the area." The report includes a database of unsolved murders, searchable by zip code or proximity to local elementary schools.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Working-class neighborhoods affected by questionable home deals
Ken Alltucker of The Cincinnati Enquirer has an investigation of a property-flipping scheme that targets low-income buyers who end up losing their overpriced new homes to foreclosure. "At a time of historic low interest rates and strong homeownership nationally, questionable home deals here are helping cause record foreclosures." Foreclosures in Hamilton County have increased 66 percent between 1999 and 2002. "African-American communities were hit hardest, accounting for 13 of 15 communities with the highest loan default rates." A second story focuses on the impact of foreclosures in two Price Hill neighborhoods.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Shuttle debris could have caused disaster on the ground
John Kelly and Todd Halvorson of Florida Today analyzed the debris trail from the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia, finding that "NASA narrowly skirted what could have been an unprecedented disaster on the ground: Raining debris on thousands of people and homes in suburban Dallas-Fort Worth." Had the craft disintegrated even a minute earlier, the paper's review of field maps and flight trajectory data showed, "nearly three times as many people and homes would have been exposed to falling wreckage." NASA has never studied re-entry debris patterns for the shuttle, even though it does so for unmanned space vehicles.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Mapping shows most Boise residents have access to parks
Joe Kolman and Emily Simnitt of The Idaho Statesman used mapping software to find that 80 percent of Boiseans live within walking distance of a developed park. The city has increased parkland in the past 10 years by charging impact fees on new development as well as using general tax dollars to pay for parks but continuing to acquire parkland to meet future needs will likely be a difficult task. Kolman suggests that the subject is a "good idea for anyone who covers local government and wants to do an enterpriser using mapping and Census."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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

Little accountability for Tucscon ambulances
Rhonda Bodfield and Enric Volante of the Arizona Daily Star reviewed nearly 100,000 ambulance calls in Pima County to find that many response times exceeded the eight-minute "gold standard" favored by researchers. "Some states set and enforce an optimum response target, but not Arizona, where ambulance service providers essentially set their own goals then relax them if they miss." The three-part series also focuses on Rural/Metro Corp., the dominant ambulance company in the area. The story includes a sidebar on how they did the story.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post