As many as 80% of children in some states who received a first dose of H1N1 vaccine haven’t received a booster dose that’s necessary to fully protect them from swine flu, according to a USA Today review of immunization registry data from 10 states. State health officials are worried growing public complacency could put these children at risk if a third wave of disease hits this winter. Because there are there are no national data on the second doses. USA Today sought data from the 14 states that the CDC says require all H1N1 doses be recorded in immunization registries; four didn’t provide data.

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A two-part report by The Denver Post examines how the federal and state bank regulatory system collapsed in the last decade, failing to catch fraud at New Frontier Bank, one of the costliest bank failures in the country in 2009. A graphic depicts the red flags at New Frontier Bank, comparing performance data with other peer banks.

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The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) used payroll records to show that two trainers at a police academy run by the sheriff have far more than doubled their pay through staggering amounts of overtime. The father of one of the trainers runs the academy. The marathon shifts have inflated the state pension the trainers will receive for decades.

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The Buffalo News analyzed loans and grants data to see how the city “spends the federal funds it receives to promote economic development and urban renewal.” The analysis showed that two-thirds of the almost $2 million in grant money went to Masten District where the mayor used to serve as councilman. Other regions in need of development, such as Grant Street, did not see much of the grant money. Overall, under Mayor Byron Brown, lending by the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. has dropped significantly. An interactive graphic shows how money has been distributed throughout the city.

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A series by the Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier exposed problems with Virginia’s mineral rights leasing program. Landowners have been forced to lease their mineral rights to private companies with the promise of royalties in return. “But instead of reaching the pockets of mineral owners, the money is funneled into an opaque state-run escrow fund, where it has accumulated with scant oversight for nearly 20 years. As of October, the fund held more than $24 million – and that isn’t everything it should hold.”  The state has failed to monitor the companies’ compliance with the escrow and the Herald Courier found that payments were often not made during periods when wells were producing gas.

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A nine-month investigation by the Center for Public Integrity looks at sexual assaults on college campuses. “According to a report funded by the Department of Justice, roughly one in five women who attend college will become the victim of a rape or an attempted rape by the time she graduates. But official data from the schools themselves doesn’t begin to reflect the scope of the problem.”

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Mike Chalmers of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., found a pattern of “denial and delay” among administrative law judges who have the power to grant or deny Social Security benefits to disabled workers in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The News Journal “analyzed four years of decisions by ALJ in every state, more than 1.7 million records that show a huge disparity in how disability cases are decided by hearing office and region.” The Social Security Administration refused to release information on complaints filed against the judges.

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Stephen Stock of WFOR reported that as many as 1,399 Florida farmers who have been dead at least three years nonetheless received $55,051,857 in aid. “Working with help from the Environmental Working Group’s database experts, the CBS4 I-Team matched Federal Farm Bill recipients with people, birth dates, addresses and social security numbers found on the Social Security Administration’s death index.” A searchable database accompanies the story.

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Using Oklahoma Lottery Commission sales data and U.S. Census Bureau data, the Tulsa World found that some of Tulsa County’s poorest areas spend the most money on lottery tickets per capita, according to a report by Gavin Off. An interactive map showing income vs. lottery spending can be found here.

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“A stimulus job report that says more than 10,000 jobs were saved or created in Wisconsin is rife with errors, double counting and inflated numbers based more on satisfying federal formulas than creating real jobs,” according to a report by Ben Poston of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One of the problems is linked to cases where jobs are funded by both federal grants and loans. In these instances, the number was reported twice therefore doubling the actual number jobs created.

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