Search results for "court records" ...
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Bankruptcy Maze
The story shows how navigating the complex system of bankruptcy court records can uncover tantalizing details.
Tags: bankruptcy; assets; court records; trustee
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AT&T case threatens records access
Charles Davis discusses a recent Supreme Court review of a Circuit court opinion that "corporate entities have a right to personal privacy" to basically save them from embarrassment. It's an attempt by corporations to refrain from disclosing documents that might show up in federal records. While it's likely that the public interest would "outweigh" the company privacy issue, it has the potential to bog down an already slow judicial and FOIA system.
Tags: FOIA; Supreme Court; Circuit Court; Harry Potter; privacy; Gulf; exemption 7(c)
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Foster Care Rx: Medicaid data, court records show growth of off-label psych meds
The author explains the reporting that went into the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle's two day package that highlighted a significant increase in the prescription of psychotropic drugs to the area's foster children. Craig explains what data was used for the story and how it was acquired and analyzed.
Tags: children; psychology; psychiatry; medicine; health care; state government; county government; child protective services
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Life or Death: AJC reviewed 1,315 cases to show impact of race, geography on death penalty
The authors describe how they approached a two-year long investigation to determine if Georgia's death penalty was being eforced fairly. They found that the state failed to meet the bar it had set for fairness in capital cases, and the death penalty remained arbitrary; often the death penalty was determined by local community values. The authors discuss the records they used and the analysis they did to find the story.
Tags: state government; crime; courts; public records; Furman v. Georgia
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Following the Trail: Stories shed light on a rural prostitution ring
Muller describes a narrative investigation done by The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) into a rural prostitution ring. The project began after a discussion with reporter Zack Kurcharski who had covered some related court cases, and indicated that the story was so involved that it wasn't clear who all was involved. Included in the story are recommendations for other small papers taking on similarly large projects
Tags: prostitution; enterprise reporting; investigative reporting; investigative narrative; human trafficking; kidnapping; Fruit of the Poisonous Tree; court records; trial transcripts; discovery materials
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On Trial: Defense attorneys hampered by Texas law allowing prosecutors to withhold evidence
This article discusses how KHOU investigated Texas laws that prevent defense attorneys from seeing all relevant documents before a trial. The reporters found that many times defense attorneys were denied access to their defendents' criminal records, police reports and other evidence.
Tags: courts; crime; state government; lawyers
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Gunshine State: criminals licensed by state to carry guns legally due to legal loophole
The authors found that Florida laws allowed criminals who had their convinctions formally withheld were qualified to carry weapons legally three years after the completion of their sentences. They found that thousands of known criminals in the state were legally carrying guns. The reporters also discuss how they found and negotiated for the data they needed for the story.
Tags: weapons; concealed weapons; gun licenses; permits; state government; public records; crime and courts
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Rented Risks: U-Haul skipped safety inspections, violated its own towing policies
The authors used court documents and accident data, as well as a database from U-Haul, to expose that many accidents were related to lapses in U-Haul's safety standards. The negligence occurs because the company often does not meet its self-imposed safety and certification regulations.
Tags: transportation; accidents; driving; court records; data negotiation
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Urban Blight: Investors buy, abandon properties as part of profit plan, data shows
The authors explain how they used court records, inspection data, and data they collected themselves by driving around dilapidated neighborhoods to break a story about a local development company that was promising to rehabilitate old houses and never coming through. The authors found that CM Development was profiting from letting poperties stay vacant and in disrepair, at the expense of local neighborhoods. The authors also discuss their tactics for getting the executives from CM development to open up about their business plan.
Tags: blight; cities; development; city government; inspection; FOIA; business reporting; real estate; mortgages
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Shaky Ground: Modern Data Gathering Used To Probe Arcane Property Law
The Baltimore Sun's Fred Schulte details the Sun's series on "ground rents," a system dating back to 1632. While most purchases of property also include the land a home is on, many parts of Baltimore still follow the 400-year-old idea of a homeowner still having to pay a small rent to the person who actually owns the land. If a payment is missed, the law dictates that the landowner can "go to court to seize the home, sell it and keep every cent of the proceeds." As Schulte writes, "business reporter June Armey and I found that in the past six years, nearly 4,000 lawsuits have been filed against Baltimore property owners over ground rents as small as $24." Schulte tells of how the reporters searched "court files, online property deeds, corporate records and federal civil and bankruptcy court cases" in the course of thge investigation, sifting through a lot of dirty data (misspelled street names, missing ZIP codes, etc.).
Tags: Ground rent; 1632; Baltimore real estate; property seizure