How was your NICAR26?
Robert Cribb, Fred Vallance-Jones and Tamsin McMahon of The Toronto Star analyzed the aviation data and found that “more than 80,000 passengers have been put at risk over the last five years when airplanes they were travelling in came dangerously close together in Canadian skies.” Between 2001 and mid-2005, there were more than 800 incidents…
Read MoreMichael Mansur and Rick Montgomery of The Kansas City Star used Data Envelopment Analysis to analyze the budget and performance numbers from 18 area cities and rank how efficiently they provided eight municipal services. “Four cities tied in police services: Belton, Grandview, Liberty and Prairie Village. Three cities tied in fire and fire-and-ambulance services: Belton,…
Read MoreBrad Bumsted and Debra Erdley of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review compiled records from 2,300 receipts filed by Perzel’s chief of staff and found that House Speaker Perzel, Pennsylvania General Assembly’s top fundraiser, “used campaign cash to treat his chief of staff and both men’s sons to Super Bowl trips the past two years.” Campaign money also…
Read MoreScott Finn and Tara Tuckwiller of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette analyzed death certificates and found that “patients could die if they take the “usual adult dosage” on methadone’s package insert — information that comes with the prescription and was approved by the federal government.” Methadone, once given mostly to heroin addicts to ease their cravings,…
Read MoreAn analysis of more than 25,000 travel disclosure documents over a 5½-year period by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University’s Medill News Service found that “members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips — valued at almost $50 million — financed by private sponsors, many of them…
Read MoreMegan Boldt, MaryJo Sylwester, Meggen Lindsay and Doug Belden of St. Paul Pioneer Press analyzed three years of test scores from all 731 Minnesota elementary schools and found that 13 high-poverty schools were “doing better than predicted and seem to have found a way to overcome education’s biggest challenge — teaching high numbers of poor…
Read MoreFarmsubsidy.org has released new data on farm subsidy payments, with an analysis by Nils Mulvad, co-founder of farmsubsidy.org and director of the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting, analyzed new data on farm subsidy payments in Denmark in 2005 and found that “the new Single Farm Payment Scheme has dramatically increased the number of farm…
Read MoreRick Anderson of the Seattle Weekly reviewed state files and revealed Washington consumer complaints about funeral homes and cemeteries. Consumers were “being ‘penalized’ by funeral homes for buying coffins elsewhere.” There were “complaints about bodies buried in the wrong graves, cremated when they should have been planted, or occupying plots that have been resold” and…
Read MoreThe Arizona Republic has published a package of stories, photos and audio in remembrance of the 30th anniversary of the bombing that killed reporter Don Bolles. The bombing and Bolles’ death 11 days later was the catalyst for the Arizona Project, an important event that had a hand in shaping IRE’s early years. The present-day…
Read MoreNancy Martinez and Sarah Viren of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reviewed a database from the state Attorney General of in-custody deaths and found a lack of records of excessive force complaints and inconsistencies in the records that did exist. “No reports are sent outside the department unless someone dies, no agency collects comparable data on…
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