Revisiting Willow Island
The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette published a two-day package marking the 30th anniversary of the Willow Island Disaster, the largest construction accident in U.S. history. Fifty-one construction workers died on April 27, 1978, when a scaffold collapsed during construction of a coal-fired power plant along the Ohio River. The Gazette examines the disaster's causes, interviews survivors and discusses continuing workplace safety problems nationwide.
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"A Dangerous Business Revisted"
FRONTLINE revisits a January 2003 investigation of McWane, Inc., a pipe foundry company which proved to be "the most dangerous company in an inherently dangerous business." In A Dangerous Business Revisited, Lowell Bergman looks at what happened since the original investigation aired, including the Department of Justice's response which led to federal prosecutions at five McWane facilities. "The McWane investigations created a new template for protecting workers. By trying companies under environmental laws, which carry stiffer fines and prison terms, prosecutors were able to sidestep the lesser penalties set forth for OSHA violations." In the five years since the original broadcast, McWane, Inc. has made "a dramatic turnaround." The entire program can be viewed online.
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Whistle-blowers punished by system meant to protect them
A collaborative six-month investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting and Salon.com details the failings of whistleblower courts, which are intended to protect employees who speak out against corruption and abuses in government agencies. Instead, this forum is used to punish those who speak out for the public good. The investigation "found that federal whistle-blowers almost never receive legal protection after they take action. Instead, they often face agency managers and White House appointees intent upon silencing them rather than addressing the problems they raise...At whistleblower court, employees lose nearly 97 percent of the time."
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American Imports, Chinese Deaths
Over a 12-month period, investigative reporter Loretta Tofani traveled to China, examining worker conditions and "observed first-hand how Chinese workers routinely risk their health and sometimes their lives making products for export to the United States and other countries." Her series, printed in the Salt Lake Tribune, tells of workers using dangerous, outdated machines, sometimes resulting in serious injury. Also, the air in some factories has proven toxic, with workers exposed to benzene fumes and cadmium dust. The six-part series ends with an examination of who is to blame for these conditions, and what can be done.
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Diploma mills help firefighters boost pay
The Sacramento Bee's Andrew McIntosh reports that "16 Sacramento city firefighters together pocketed $50,000 in extra pay after using bachelor's degrees purchased from online diploma mills to obtain raises." In the end, 28 firefighters, including eight captains, tried to obtain a five percent education incentive raise with questionable academic credentials. New York City penalized a group of firefighters for similar practices, but McIntosh says firefighters "were allowed to keep the extra money and no firefighter was disciplined" after local unions intervened.
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Paychecks shrinking when inflation considered
David Knox of the Akron Beacon Journal takes an in-depth look at eroding income levels. The Beacon Journal examined more than 50 years of census data to consider " what happens when older workers retire, exchanging their big paychecks for smaller Social Security and pension checks? The logical answer is that they would be replaced by workers with markedly lower wages, resulting in an overall drop in purchasing power and the nation's standard of living."
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A look at Utah's mine safety records
Following the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster, Lee Davidson of the Deseret Morning News did a couple of quick-hit stories on mine safety in Utah. The stories detail repeated safety violations in Utah mines and those violations specific to the Crandall Canyon Mine, which were fewer than average for Utah mines.
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WARN Act riddled with loopholes
In a four-part series, James Drew and Steve Eder of The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade report that a 19-year-old federal law that requires companies to give notice to workers losing their jobs is so full of loopholes and flaws that employers repeatedly skirt it with little or no penalty. A Blade analysis of 226 lawsuits filed in federal courts since 1989 revealed that judges threw out more than half of the cases alleging violations of the Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act. In the majority of those decisions, judges cited loopholes in the law, ranging from companies that said they tried their best to give notice to employees to firms that claimed they couldn't predict bad financial times. A day after The Blade's series began, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown introduced a bill to overhaul the law.
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Sex and the CIA
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report reveals how female spy veterans of the CIA are taking legal action for being disciplined over “close and continuing relationships” with foreigners. Kaplan reports on the CIA's secret disciplinary hearings and internal investigations, detailing how top female spies lost their jobs after falling in love overseas — while men with foreign relationships, they say, escaped scot-free.
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Records reveal reporter's criminal past
Joshua Benton of The Dallas Morning News used court records to show that Elizabeth Albanese, who recently stepped down as leader of the Press Club of Dallas, has a criminal record under the name Lisa Albanese centered on allegations of theft. Former co-workers described a history of spinning lies. She also has a record of mental illness and delusional behavior. " The investigation revealed that Ms. Albanese invented medical conditions, a kidney transplant and at least one college degree. According to the records, she was also jailed for felony thefts, forgery and putting false documents into circulation." The Press Club currently is investigating the validity of judging in the group's Katie Awards, one of the state's most prestigious journalism honors, under her leadership.
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On-duty death benefits denied to firefighters, EMTs
Bill Dedman of MSNBC.com reports that more than three years after President Bush signed the Hometown Heroes Act of 2003, no benefits have been paid to families. The act promises federal benefits to the families of firefighters and EMTs who die of heart attacks or strokes on the job. "The U.S. Justice Department has denied all 34 claims that have been decided and has yet to act on more than 200 others, MSNBC.com has learned." Included is one widow's story of trying to collect the promised benefits. A Harvard study released March 22 states that the risk of heart attacks for firefighters on the scene are "up to 100 times the normal rate."
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Campus accidents increase as inspection rates fall
Jeffery Brainard of The Chronicle of Higher Education discovered an increase in accidents on campuses as proper inspections have declined. "Serious accidents in which workers were killed or hospitalized have became more common on college campuses, according to a Chronicle analysis of federal safety-inspection records...nearly 200 significant campus incidents were cited by government officials between 1996 and early 2006, up from the 140 serious injuries in the decade before." Included with the article are data on inspections and violations, colleges and their workplace fines, and information on how the data was analyzed.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) workplace inspection data is available from the IRE and NICAR Database Library.
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Flaws in firefighters' safety gear ignored for 5 years
Bill Dedman of MSNBC.com reports that the U.S. government took 5 years to react to warnings made in 2000 that firefighters' PASS alarms were failing to perform as intended. These units sound an alarm and flash lights if a firefighter has been motionless for 30 seconds. Documents made public under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that nine deaths occurred after the federal government blocked an investigation by its own expert into possible failures of PASS alarms and other firefighting equipment. The CDC, the federal agency responsible for investigating firefighter fatalities, finally called for higher testing standards for the devices in April 2005.
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Sago Anniversary
On the anniversary of the Sago Mine explosion, The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette continues to probe safety issues behind the blast that killed 12 miners. Ken Ward Jr. reports that "the Sago disaster might not have happened if regulators and the coal industry had heeded the warnings... from a series of other lightning-induced explosions in the U.S. and abroad dating back more than 30 years, federal and state investigators have learned."
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Mine safety
The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette and reporter Ken Ward Jr. continued an ongoing series on coal mine safety with a story about coal dust violations and an article that explains that investigators do not always pinpoint the cause of coal-mining disasters.
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Beyond Sago - a series on mine safety
Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette analyzed government reports and data and found that 9 out of every 10 coal mining deaths nationwide over the last 10 years could have been avoided if existing safety rules had been followed. Ward's report, the first in a series of special investigative stories, appeared in Sunday's Gazette-Mail.
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Mine deaths avoidable
Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette analyzed government reports and data and found that 9 out of every 10 coal mining deaths nationwide over the last 10 years could have been avoided if existing safety rules had been followed. Ward's report, the first in a series of special investigative stories, appeared in Sunday's Gazette-Mail.
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Faulty escape tunnel blamed for miners' deaths
The Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail's Ken Ward Jr. reports that a federal-state probe has found out why two coal miners died in a January fire at a Massey Energy mine in Logan County, W.Va. Contrary to federal law, the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine's primary escape tunnel was not totally blocked off from a conveyor belt that caught fire in the mine on Jan. 19. Based on sworn statements obtained by the Gazette-Mail, the story explains why miners Donald Bragg and Ellery Hatfield were not able to successfully evacuate the mine.
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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."
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Mining disaster might have been prevented
Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette found that Sago Mine officials knew of a buildup of explosive methane behind mine seals where a Jan. 2 blast is believed to have occurred, in a two-day series of stories about the explosion. Twelve miners died in the explosion, making it the worst coal mining disaster in West Virginia in nearly 40 years. By examining transcripts of investigative interviews, Ward found that one mine official lied about having received safety training and another said his safety test notebook 'disappeared' after the explosion." The methane concentrations were not yet high enough to be ignited, and the general industry practice is to ignore mine areas that have been sealed." Mine safety experts now say the Sago test results appear to have been a warning that — if heeded — might have helped prevent the mining disaster. The paper has posted the transcripts online.
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LA Fire Department faces costly lawsuits
Dan Laidman and Jason Kandel of the Los Angeles Daily News used records from the City Attorney's Office to show that, despite a decade of efforts to end harassment and discrimination within the Los Angeles Fire Department, the agency still faces frequent costly lawsuits. The number has ebbed and flowed over the years, but rose sharply from three in 2002-03 to 13 in 2004-05. "While many cases are pending, liability payouts have already topped $1 million in the past five fiscal years. The Supreme Court has refused to hear the city's appeal in another Fire Department labor case that could leave Los Angeles on the hook for more than $2 million. " Late last month, a heterosexual male firefighter filed a claim against the department alleging sexual harassment and discrimination. Between 2003 and 2005, the claim says, the 20-year veteran was abused by a supervisor who made sexually suggestive gestures and inappropriate remarks about the firefighter's wife, and threatened to fire him if he complained.
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Program for disabled exploited
Jeff Kosseff, Bryan Denson and Les Zaitz of The Oregonian used hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of documents and visits to more than a dozen charities in seven states to show that a program created to benefit Americans with severe disabilities is being exploited at the cost of the people it was supposed to help. The program was started so federal agencies could reserve contracts for small nonprofit workshops that hired epileptics, paraplegics and the mentally retarded to make simple products such as mousetraps, blackboards and first-aid kits, thus helping the disabled gain a paycheck. "More than three decades later, the nonprofits increasingly are hiring workers who are mildly disabled, if at all, with aching backs, substance-abuse problems and other maladies common in the American workplace." This new class of federally subsidized worker is getting the highest-paid jobs, while many of the most severely disabled toil for pennies an hour. Their bosses are benefiting handsomely, with at least a dozen earning $350,000 or more a year, and average pay and benefits for some top executives have grown more than three times faster than their workers' pay.
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Former narcotics officers sick, dying
Producer Nishi Gupta and reporter Debbie Dujanovic of KSL-Salt Lake City follow up on a series of reports investigating the rate of disease and death in former narcotics officers who were exposed to chemicals in the meth labs they raided. In a recent follow-up report they document a total of 84 officers exposed to chemicals inside meth labs who are sick or have died. After these stories aired, the Utah legislature passed a bill that funds a two-year study to look into a connection between meth labs and officer health. They "discovered 24 of the 42 are suffering with chronic health problems or have died. Ten under the age of 50 have or have had cancer. That's 177 times the rate of cancer for that age group." The initial series of reports, titled "Something Killing Cops," includes the initial piece, a look at what research groups and experts say, and a report on the financial stress these illnesses pose.
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Brake plant workers suffer serious work-related health effects
Randy Ludlow of the The Columbus Dispatch reports that nearly five years after more than a quarter of TRW brake plant's 400 workers contracted respiratory illnesses, dozens remain disabled and out of work. Federal investigators concluded the outbreak was workplace-related but did not determine the exact cause. Ludlow reveals that TRW Automotive, a $10 billion conglomerate with headquarters in Livonia, Mich., couldn't have violated Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards because there aren't any. "Disregarding alarms sounded by its own advisory committee and the occupational arm of the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Labor has declined for years to regulate worker exposure to metalworking fluids. " Ludlow also tells the story of an ill worker who took his own life (Editor's note: For other workplace stories, IRE and NICAR offer data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, detailing inspection results, worker accidents, hazardous substance injuries and workplace violations.)
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Nation's mine rescue system falling short
Ken Ward Jr. reports in the Charleston, W.Va., Sunday Gazette-Mail "the nation's miners face a mounting risk because of a rescue system that is growing ever short on personnel and is in major need of reforms." From 2000 to 2002, the number of safety teams approved by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration dropped by 10 percent. A team of reporters, including Tara Tuckwiller, Scott Finn, Eric Eyre and Dave Gustafson, have contributed to the series of stories. Other stories include a history of the safety violations at the Sago Mine, an analysis of data that indicates lightning strikes may have played a role in the accident, and a story questioning whether the mine had adequate state environmental permits.
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UFW strays far from Chavez's legacy
Miriam Pawel of the Los Angeles Times examines the current state of United Farm Workers to find that Cesar "Chavez's heirs run a web of tax-exempt organizations that exploit his legacy and invoke the harsh lives of farmworkers to raise millions of dollars in public and private money." Pawel's reporting finds there is little to link the UFW with the impoverished farmworkers for whom Chavez crusaded. "The UFW is the linchpin of the Farm Worker Movement, a network of a dozen tax-exempt organizations that do business with one another, enrich friends and family, and focus on projects far from the fields: They build affordable housing in San Francisco and Albuquerque, own a top-ranked radio station in Phoenix, run a political campaign in support of an Indian casino and lobby for gay marriage."
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Some Colo. mines incur more violations than Sago
Katy Human and Jeff Roberts of The Denver Post examined mine safety records for Colorado and found that its "eight underground coal mines paid fines totaling almost $500,000 for hundreds of safety violations in the past two years." One mine was cited 350 times last year for a total of nearly $50,000. In comparision, the Sago Mine in West Virginia, a more productive mine, was cited 208 times and fined about $24,000 during the same time. The report does say that Colorado's mines are "safer than the national average for several years when measured in terms of injuries, according to federal figures."
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Ill. mine fined more than $500,000 last year
Jeffrey Tomich, with contributions from Jaimi Dowdell, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used federal data to show that “Illinois’ largest coal mine was fined almost as much for safety violations last year as the rest of the state’s mines combined.” The Galatia mine, owned by the American Coal Co., was fined more than $500,000 by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
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Mine agency more lenient since 2001
Seth Borenstein, Linda J. Johnson and Lee Mueller of Knight Ridder Newspapers used federal data to find that “since the Bush administration took office in 2001, it has been more lenient toward mining companies facing serious safety violations, issuing fewer and smaller major fines and collecting less than half of the money that violators owed.” The Mine Safety and Health Administration has a smaller budget and has won fewer convictions or guilty pleas.
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OSHA fines minimal, despite serious safety violations
Mike Casey of The Kansas City Star examined OSHA's inspection database for the metropolitan area of Kansas City, Mo., to show that low fines for workplace deaths or injuries are common even when OSHA cites employers for a serious violation. The investigation found that in 80 such fatal and injury accidents, half of the fines Kansas City area employers paid were $3,000 or less. "Regulators and OSHA lawyers reduced employers' initial fines by nearly 60 percent. Adjusted for inflation, fines last year averaged less than they were in 1972." The paper also found that in three accidents that killed five area workers, OSHA changed its most serious citations from willful violations to "unclassified" — removing the word "willful" in describing the violations — and then significantly reduced the fines. Nationwide, fines were even lower in the last decade. Half of the fines employers paid were $2,500 or less in fatal and injury accidents involving at least one serious violation. (Editor's Note: For those interested in pursuing similar stories, IRE and NICAR have databases from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration available for journalists.)
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'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."
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Farm insurance fraud on the rise
John Burnett, on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, reports a series on the growing incidence of crop insurance fraud among American farmers. Burnett looks at how some farmers commit felonies by inventing or overstating their crop losses, how the agricultural insurance companies let the problem get out of hand through their inattentiveness, and the political connections of the companies that built the fraud-prone program. "Once reliant on the honor system, the U.S. Department of Agriculture now looks over the farmer's shoulder to make sure he's not cheating the system. " Data analysts identified about 2,000 farmers every year with questionable insurance claims.
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CEO salaries soar at disabled workers' expense
Jeff Kosseff and Bryan Denson of The Oregonian found that executive pay has soared at nonprofits that often give disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage. "In Texas, one of the biggest nonprofits paid $4.6 million to a management firm founded by its CEO. In Baltimore, another charity's top executive earned more than $700,000 in cash and benefits. And a Tennessee nonprofit boosted its CEO's pay and benefits eightfold over four years to $500,000. " The newspaper found more than 100 executives earning six-figure pay and benefits at the 50 most active nonprofits in the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program during 2003. This when eight of the biggest charities in the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program paid 1,644 subminimum wage workers a median rate of $1.93 an hour, according to Department of Labor records analyzed by the newspaper.
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Funds for workers could drive agencies to bankruptcy
Troy Anderson of the Los Angeles Daily News found that "California's largest public agencies face setting an extra $108 billion aside in the coming years to pay for promised retiree pensions, health care and workers' compensation claims." Experts say the estimate is conservative and that some public agencies might face bankruptcy in the future.
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Chlorine plant is top mercury polluter
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette used EPA data and records to show that a chlorine-producing plant in Natrium is West Virginia's single-largest air polluter, emitting more than 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air every year. Although much of the focus on mercury pollution centers on coal plants, chlorine producers are responsible for more mercury emissions. "Nationally, the average coal-fired power plant reported 84 pounds of mercury emissions in 2003. The average chlorine plant reported more than 1,074 pounds. Of the 100 power plants with the most mercury emissions, the average total air discharges was 484 pounds - less than half the average from a chlorine plant."
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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.
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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."
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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."
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Power for Jobs program flawed
Mike McAndrew of The (Syracuse) Post-Standard investigates the "Power for Jobs" program, finding that more than a third of the businesses receiving state-subsidized electrical power in the program failed to deliver the jobs they promised. Cooper Crouse-Hinds was awarded 5,000 kilowatts of subsidized power; in return they agreed to retain all of its jobs and to create 45 new ones. But the company has continued to save between $200,000 and $250,000 over the past six years.
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High benefit payouts hurt Oregon schools
Betsy Hammond of The (Portland) Oregonian analyzed state education data to find that "for each teacher, secretary, principal, janitor and other worker, Oregon schools paid an average of $18,300 for health insurance and retirement pay in 2002-03. That was 55 percent more than schools across the nation." Matching the national rate of benefits would save about $500 million a year.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Calif. budget crunch doesn't affect best-paid workers
Todd Wallack of the San Francisco Chronicle uses state employee data to analyze California's highest paid workers. "Close to 2,000 state employees earned more than $132,000 last year, up from 1,021 in calendar year 2002 and 1,194 in 2003, according to data from the state controller's office." The story includes a chart and a sortable list of California's 2,000 highest paid employees.
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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."
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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."
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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."
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Confusing stats help mask plant deaths
Lise Olsen of the Houston Chronicle continues the Chronicle's investigation into the 1995 explosion at the BP oil refinery. Olson used OSHA data to uncover why few deaths had been attributed to refineries in the past. "Increasingly, the accuracy of government safety statistics is undermined by the changing work force. These days, up to half of refinery workers are contractors, who generally get some of the most dangerous jobs." Olson also reports on how BP is the fatality leader in their industry in the United States. "BP leads the U.S. refining industry in deaths over the last decade, with 22 fatalities since 1995 — more than a quarter of those killed in refineries nationwide ..." The paper included this explainer on how they did the story.
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Top 10 businesses top $1 billion in St. Petersburg
Helen Huntley of the St. Petersburg Times analyzed the cities top 10 companies finding that, for the first time ever, all 10 are more than $1 billion in revenue. "Eight of the 10 increased revenues by double digits last year. Their average return on equity was 20 percent." The story includes graphics that provide details ranging from most valuable company to fastest growing company.
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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.
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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."
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Immigrant women adapting, are as likely to work as U.S. women
Peggy O'Crowley and Carrie Stetler of The (Newark) Star-Ledger, with assistance from Robert Gebeloff, used Census data to show that "immigrant women, who comprise one of four mothers in New Jersey, are less likely to work outside the home — at least when they first arrive. After 10 years, though, they are as apt to hold jobs as native-born women." The rates varied for different ethnicities, although some immigrants who traditionally stayed at home in their homelands do work in New Jersey.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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."
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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."
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Teacher pay rising faster than inflation
Kurt Rogahn of The (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette found that teacher pay "is increasing at rates better than inflation, despite warnings from the state's leading teacher organization that Iowa's average teacher pay hasn't kept pace with inflation." One researcher says the numbers show pay has gone up quite a bit, though the averages say it hasn't. "A Gazette analysis shows that though average teacher pay rose 16 percent between 1996-97 and this school year in the two Technology Corridor counties, base salaries for beginning teachers rose an average of 26 percent." Inflation over the same period was 21 percent. Rogahn points out that most news stories focus on average pay, a measure that can be misleading. (Extra! Extra! readers get special access to the story for one month by entering username "ire" and password "sherlock8" — both without the quotes.)
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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."
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Google staff contributions favor Democrats
Jim Hopkins from USA Today looked into campaign contributions by employees for Google Inc. and found that most of the money donated by employees is going to the Democrats. "Google employees gave $207,650 to federal candidates for last year's elections, up from just $250 in 2000 when it was still a start-up." Neither party has been able to woo over Google, Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. "Their company shares are worth $7.2 billion each. Yet federal campaign finance data do not show a single contribution from either one last year."
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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."
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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."
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King Center deteriorating, faces financial crisis
Ernie Suggs and Mae Gentry of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution dug into the finances of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which said it could not afford many millions of dollars for necessary repairs, to show how it had gotten into such a financial hole. They found that "Martin Luther King III, who took over as the center's CEO in January 2004, was paid a salary of $150,000 last year," while his younger brother "Dexter King, the center's chief operating officer and chairman of the board, is paid the same salary he was paid previously when he was CEO. Tax records show the center paid Dexter King $179,933 when he was CEO in 2003, plus $8,708 in benefits and deferred compensation."
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Questionable accounting caused by high work demand
Mike Hudson and E. Scott Reckard, writing in the Los Angeles Times, found that the public profile of mortgage lender Ameriquest differs vastly from accounts detailed by former employees and in various public records. "Ameriquest customers filed more complaints with the Federal Trade Commission from 2000 through 2004 than did those of two of its biggest competitors combined," and more then two dozen former workers said Ameriquest engaged in improper business tactics, including forging documents and qualifying borrowers for loans they could not afford. "Nearly one in nine mortgages made by Ameriquest last year was a refinance of an existing company loan less than 24 months old." The company denies any wrongdoing.
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Faulty overtime rules lead to unusually high pay for firefighters
Timothy McNulty of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found that 42 of the top 50 highest paid city employees in Pittsburgh were firefighters. McNulty used city payroll information and found problems with the city's overtime rules. "Under the union contract, there are minimum requirements for staffing firefighter shifts and the city's 35 fire stations. When shifts are short of workers, others are called back to fill in, which results in the overtime payments." The top-six employees were paid over $120,000 with the highest paid official, fire Battalion Chief Michael J. Mullen, making $135,893 last year
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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.
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State wastes millions paying workers never hired
Pam Kelley and Eric Frazier of the Charlotte Observer have a three-part series on group homes that found that "North Carolina has wasted tens of millions of dollars since 2001, paying group homes for workers who were never hired, a six-month Observer investigation shows. That mistake made the group home business in North Carolina so lucrative that hundreds of new homes opened, so many that the state couldn't regulate them." The state raised the rate of reimbursement to group homes in 2001, costing taxpayers another $81 million through July 2004. The money was supposed to go to hire more workers, but many facilities didn't increase staffing. The series also focuses on group home violations and weak state oversight.
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Transportation fatalities overlooked for migrant workers in Florida
Mike Schneider of the Associated Press checked federal and state records, finding "transportation-related accidents to be the leading cause of work-related deaths for Florida's farmworkers, responsible for 83 fatalities and more than 400 injuries since 1992. Only California, which has more farm laborers, has had more such deaths over the past decade." AP used state citations of farmworker vehicles in its story and found that transportation violations are punished less severely than other types of problems.
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Superintendents' pay outpaces teachers' pay
Amy Hetzner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analyzed state data to find that "pay for most school superintendents in metropolitan Milwaukee has risen faster than average teacher salaries in their districts over the last decade, despite a state law that links pay for the two." A Wisconsin law says that superintendents be given a 3.8 percent raise or the same increase given to teachers in the previous year. "Since the law was enacted in 1993, the Legislature has approved enough loopholes that the law can be largely ignored. There also is apparently no oversight other than local school boards and their voters."
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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.
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Pension loopholes affect local taxpayers
Chris Christoff and Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press studied area public employee pensions, finding some "have paid off big to those helped by generous retirement rules or, in some cases, political connections... In other cases, the cost of public pensions has resulted in local tax increases or potential burdens for future taxpayers." While most government workers' pensions are steady if unspectacular, some used loopholes or connections to boost their payouts. A sheriff too young to retire with a full pension "got himself demoted for one day - with no pay cut - to lieutenant in the Sheriff's Department, where he had worked for 25 years. It allowed him to retire immediately with a $72,800-a-year pension. He continues to collect the pension on top of his $128,000 salary as sheriff."
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Construction workers falling to deaths
Barbara Clements and David Wickert of The (Tacoma) News Tribune investigate deaths of construction workers and find that three workers die every day in the United States, with about a third of those from falls. A review of Washington state data shows that such workers are more likely to fall to his death than any other cause. Clements and Wickert review the reasons.
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OT adds up for sheriff's office
Larry Hannan of the Naples Daily News used overtime pay data to show that "a building supervisor with the Collier County Sheriff's Office made more money in a year than Sheriff Don Hunter." The employee's $72,863 in overtime easily exceeded his base salary of $58,295, while another officer earned more than $60,000 in overtime during fiscal 2004. "The sheriff said he doesn't put any limits on the amount of overtime people can work as long as they are trained to do the job. If someone wants to work 100 hours in a week, and the time is available, they are allowed to do it provided their supervisors say they can do the job." The paper provided a spreadsheet listing the salaries and overtime payments for more than 1,200 sheriff's employees.
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City employees also working for unions
Douglas Feiden of the New York Daily News used city payroll data to show that "[m]ore than 400 municipal workers have been officially 'released' by the city with pay to work for at least 60 different unions full time or part time." The practice, called union release time, enables many top union officials that work for the city to earn six-figure incomes. "Cops and firefighters, doctors and nurses, teachers and sanitation workers are among those pocketing full pay and benefits — while performing little or no city work." The paper put the bill at $23 million a year in salary and benefits.
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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.
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One in three collect "enhanced" pensions in Calif.
John Hill and Dorothy Korber of The Sacramento Bee have a two-day series on California's enhanced retirement system, which is used by nearly one in three state employees that works in a "public safety" area. "In the 1960s, only about one in 20 state workers received enhanced retirements for their role in keeping the peace. Today, it's close to one in three. The state paid out $587 million for the public safety categories in 2001-02, the most recent year statistics are available. That's nearly as much as it paid that year for the 230,000 workers not involved in public safety." A second story looks at disability pension for public-safety workers: "Two out of three retirees in the California Highway Patrol are on these medical pensions. Among local police and fire retirees in the state pension system, it's nearly one out of two."
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Blacks hold disproportionate number of low-paying jobs
Tanya Fogg Young of The (Columbia, S.C.) State used Census data to show that while African-Americans make up a third of South Carolina's population, "they hold more than 40 percent of low-paying food preparation and housekeeping jobs, and they account for 7 percent of S.C. lawyers and 4 percent of real estate brokers, two higher-paying professions." Some professions saw large increases in black representation during the 1990s, but the wage gap between blacks and whites remained wide. "The per-capita income of blacks — at $11,776 — is 53 percent of the $22,095 income of whites, according to Census 2000. In 1990, black per-capita income was 48 percent of S.C. whites' income."
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Ore. retirees pensions similar to salaries
Dave Hogan of The Oregonian used state pension data to show that a record wave of state government retirees in 2003 mostly got pensions close to their full salaries. "On average, employees with 30 or more years on the job retired at age 56 with 87 percent of their pay," a level the paper said was "well more than typical pensions." The state legislature made sweeping changes to retirement rules last year that take effect July 1, baring a court challenge. The paper analyzed records from 12,000 retirements last year.
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Boston workers cash in $12 million worth of sick time
Ric Kahn of The Boston Globe, with assistance from Matt Carroll, Meredith Goldstein, Douglas Belkin, and Emily Shartin, reviewed municipal records to find that "from July 2002 through June 2003, the last fiscal year, 159 cities and towns in Greater Boston paid out at least $29.4 million in sick-time buybacks." Boston led the way with $12.6 million in cashed-in unused sick days, but other cities and towns paid out more than half a million or more. "Of 904 Boston retirees, only 69 did not get sick-time buybacks." A chart divided into geographical areas shows how much each government spent.
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Wages in one region of SF Bay Area falling behind
George Avalos of Contra Costa Times analyzed data from researchers at Saint Mary's College and California's Employment Development Department to find that wages in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay region are significantly lower than in other parts of the area, even though pay in the East Bay is about 54 percent higher compared with the country as a whole. "The average annual wage in the East Bay in 2003 was about 11 percent below the wages in the San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin region and 15 percent less than wages in Santa Clara County." Economists say one reason for the disparity is the East Bay has a more diverse economy.
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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.
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San Francisco payroll grows to $2 billion
Ilene Lelchuk of the San Francisco Chronicle analyzed city payroll data to find that "between fiscal years 1996 and 2003, which ended last June 30, San Francisco's payroll costs ballooned from $1.3 billion to $2 billion as a result of more hiring and higher wages and overtime spending." The number of employees earning six figures almost tripled in the past three years, and overtime pay grew despite the addition of thousands of new workers. The largest number of new workers came in public works and transportation.
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Retired workers rehired to help with turnover
Dave Hogan and Janie Har of The Oregonian reviewed state government records to find that "one-third of the 3,000 state employees who retired last year immediately returned to their jobs temporarily — usually for six months or less — to help their agencies cope with the sudden turnover." The rehired workers get mostly similar salaries and pensions but few benefits. In 2002, public employees that retired after 30 years received an average of 79 percent of their salary as a pension.
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Questions raised about internal affairs' OT
Mark Gillispie of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer analyzed police overtime records to find that members of the Cleveland police Internal Affairs department were among the biggest recipients of overtime pay — something they are charged with policing themselves. The head of Internal Affairs through last fall, Lt. Robert Klimak, "averaged more than $43,000 a year in overtime, which helped make him the highest-paid police officer in the city" during the past few years. "During Klimak's watch, Internal Affairs was one of the biggest overtime users in the department. And an examination of police records raises questions about the validity of claims submitted by Klimak and some of his subordinates."
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Mexican workers in U.S. more likely to die than Americans
Justin Pritchard of The Associated Press analyzed federal workplace safety data to find that "the jobs that lure Mexican workers to the United States are killing them in a worsening epidemic that is now claiming a victim a day. Though Mexicans often take the most hazardous jobs, they are more likely than others to be killed even when doing similarly risky work. The death rates are greatest in several Southern and Western states, where a Mexican worker is four times more likely to die than the average U.S.-born worker." The AP also explains how it did the story. Workplace safety data from OSHA is available from IRE and NICAR.
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Pay, benefits for Calif. employees rising fast
Troy Anderson of the Los Angeles Daily News reviewed spending on public employees at the state and local levels in California, finding that "the cost of salaries and benefits for public employees has soared far faster than inflation in the last five years — three times as fast in the case of the Los Angeles Unified School District." In some cases, spending on benefits alone increased 186 percent.
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Contract expenses outpace benefit costs in Alabama
Brett J. Blackledge of The Birmingham News reports that while Alabama officials talk about ways to control rising benefit costs for state employees, "the 88 percent increase in contract expenses is greater than the growth in any other state government expense." Alabama spent $611 million last year on contracts with lawyers, consultants and other service providers. Benefit expenses have increased 38 percent since 1997, the paper found after a review of government spending between fiscal years 1997 and 2003.
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Administration doubles; nursing and health inspector jobs unfilled
Tom Wilemon and Beth Musgrave of The (Biloxi, Miss.) Sun-Herald used state payroll data to find that Mississippi's D