“State senators may be violating a Texas Constitution ban on using taxpayer money for bonuses to government workers by approving temporary end-of-year raises to give staffers thousands of dollars in extra pay,” reported Matt Stiles of the Houston Chronicle.  An analysis of a state payroll database obtained through the Texas Public Information Act showed a pattern of temporary salary inflation at the end of the fiscal year in many Senate offices.  The bonuses totaled more than $650,000 in the past two years.

An investigation by D.L. Bennett, Cameron McWhirter, Heather Vogell and data analysts Megan Clarke and John Perry of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found that the apathy and negligence of workers at the Fulton County 911 call center endangered the lives of emergency workers and of those seeking emergency help. The reporters, who reviewed nearly five years of disciplinary records, found that negligent call center workers often misdirected crews, fell asleep on the job, did not show up for work and withheld information about dangerous situations. They also found that dispatchers often failed to meet their monthly standards of efficiency from records obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act.

Fulton County is the most populous county in Georgia; Atlanta is its county seat.

A series by Brad Branan of The Fresno Bee looks at problems with how the city of Fresno, Calif. regulates development. Despite a plan to curb urban sprawl, it continues to plague the area leading to some of the country’s worst air quality and the most concentrated poverty in the nation. Lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act have accused the city of “failing to fully consider air pollution, traffic, historic buildings and other factors when approving development.” Since 2005, the city has only won one of 10 actions filed against it.  Of the other nine actions, the city lost three and settled six of the cases.

The National Fire Protection Association says that firefighters should get to a site within 6 minutes, 90 percent of the time. Using state fire-run data, Doug Caruso, Martin Rozenman and Jim Woods of the Columbus Dispatch discovered that only two of 84 fire districts in central Ohio meet that national standard. Area firefighters say that the size of fire districts, staffing crunches, congested road conditions, and 911 calls from cell phones are causing the slower response times.

A special report by the Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) looks at Beargrass Creek, a polluted waterway that runs through Louisville, Kentucky, and finds that an $800 million sewage cleanup plan won’t be enough to solve its many problems. The report used computer-assisted techniques and multi-media presentations to help document and tell the story of this troubled, urban waterway that’s not safe for swimming or fishing.

An investigation by The New York Times has uncovered an epidemic of occupational disability claims among retirees of the Long Island Rail Road. “Virtually every career employee — as many as 97 percent in one recent year — applies for and gets disability payments soon after retirement, a computer analysis of federal records by The New York Times has found. Since 2000, those records show, about a quarter of a billion dollars in federal disability money has gone to former L.I.R.R. employees, including about 2,000 who retired during that time.”

In an effort to break up large-scale public housing projects riddled by crime, Section 8 vouchers have created the opportunity for low-income families to move into suburbs, according to a report by Gregory Korte of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The opportunity for a more stable community is not without its challenges, and many Section 8 tenants feel they were unprepared for the responsibilities suburban life. “That’s the fundamental flaw in Section 8, says Don Driehaus, housing authority chairman. Instead of a government-run social program, it’s now a loosely regulated service provided by more than 3,600 different landlords – some good, some bad and some criminal.” Critics of the program, including Driehaus, would like to see an end to the vouchers and a return to “more traditional public housing.”

The Boston Globe’s Farah Stockman reports that small Iraqi businesses in Dubai and across the United Arab Emirates are suffering as the UAE refuses to register Iranian work visas or open bank accounts for Iranian businesses. Although these measures are designed to place pressure on the Iranian government, many Iranian small-business owners in Dubai are being forced to file for bankruptcy or abandon their businesses.

According to a report by Gavin Off of the Tulsa World, Federal Railroad Administration data shows Oklahoma has recorded 1,042 train accidents from 2000 to 2007. About half involved collisions with vehicles, and most of those took place at crossings without gates or flashing lights.

Keegan Kyle, Grant Smith and Ben Poston of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analyzed more than 11,000 pothole fixes in the city of Milwaukee and found that the city repaired potholes at a slower rate in minority neighborhoods in the first half of the year. Using SPSS, the analysis found that minority areas on the north side were waiting significantly longer for repairs. Even major arterials in minority neighborhoods took longer to repair than problems in largely white residential neighborhoods. The reporters mapped all the pothole repairs from January through mid-July of this year and overlaid census tract data to find disparities.