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Jim Miller of The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise used geographic information system (GIS) software to study the impact of a proposal by Gov. Schwarzenegger and others to prohibit registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a park or school in California. The analysis shows that “At least half of California’s urban areas would become…
Read MoreSam Roe and Michael Hawthorne of the Chicago Tribune published a three-part series on the presence of mercury in fish sold in supermarkets. “In one of the nation’s most comprehensive studies of mercury in commercial fish, testing by the newspaper showed that a variety of popular seafood was so tainted that federal regulators could confiscate…
Read MoreEric Nalder, Lewis Kamb, Phuong Cat Le and Paul Shukovsky of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer continue their investigation into abuse, misconduct and disciplinary lapses in the King County Sheriff’s Department. The most recent stories examine the reasons for these failures in oversight — and reveal more cases of abuse, favoritism and retaliation against whistleblowers. The investigation,…
Read MoreBob Marshall of The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reports the Army Corps of Engineers knew about “engineering mistakes that led to the canal levee failures that flooded most of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina” but dismissed them. “Documents, obtained by The Times-Picayune and provided to forensic engineers studying the levee breaches, show project engineers made a…
Read MoreMark Scolforo of The Associated Press has a four-part series on Pennsylvania’s county prisons, finding that “many local jails are struggling to meet even minimum standards for safety, housing, food quality and medical care.” The AP obtained state inspection reports under Pennsylvania’s public records law; the jails “are not required to make public their annual…
Read MorePatrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times reports the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which supplies and promotes tap water to the city, spent $31,160 for bottled water. Citywide, city officials spent $88,900 on bottled water, “despite a 1995 directive by former Mayor Richard Riordan that said: The city’s tap water satisfies most…
Read MoreDavid E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report finds the U.S. government has been monitoring more than 100 “Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities” since 9/11 in search of a terrorist nuclear bomb. As part of the top-secret…
Read MoreIRE reminds Extra! Extra! readers that the postmark deadline for entering the IRE Awards is fast approaching — Jan. 9, 2006. The IRE Awards recognize the best investigative reporting across print, broadcast and online categories. Don’t let your best work go unnoticed! With recent newsroom cost-cutting efforts, it’s best not to count on someone else…
Read MoreFred Schulte of The (Baltimore) Sun used state records to show that “Maryland’s vow to safeguard patients has been undercut by breakdowns in the state system established to oversee doctors.” In a three-part series, Schulte writes that more than 120 doctors have been the subject of four or five malpractice claims and that the disciplinary…
Read MoreBrittany Wallman and Jeremy Milarsky of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed hurricane damage reports to show that in Broward County, “condos and apartments were hit the hardest, accounting for 55 percent of the buildings declared uninhabitable. Mobile homes made up 28 percent of seriously damaged structures. Houses fared the best. Only 42 were deemed uninhabitable,…
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