Posts by hdcoadmin
Detroit’s Human Services Department spends $200k+ on new furnishings instead of feeding and clothing low-income families
Steve Neavling and Jim Schaefer of the Detroit Free Press uncover, that despite a third of Detroit’s population living below the federal poverty line, their Human Services Department spent “$182,000 in furniture purchases destined for the department offices at 5031 Grandy, near Warren and Mt. Elliott.” City officials said the purchases were especially egregious because…
Read MoreColorado farmers face losing water rights during nine-year legal struggle
In 2002, farmers in two Colorado counties experienced a devastating drought but because of shares held in a “century-old irrigation company,” were told they would be able to “keep their coveted their irrigation water.” However, nine years later, the farmers are still facing dry land and looming financial ruin. In this investigation by theDenver Post, reporters…
Read MoreCalifornia schools struggle with restraint training programs
Restraint training for teachers who deal with unruly students has become a bigger need than ever in some California counties, reports the Bay Citizen. Negative “behavioral episodes in California schools more than doubled to 21,076 between the 2005-6 and 2009-10 school years, according to California Department of Education figures.” Instances of the restraint or seclusion…
Read MorePart three in five part series: KUOW News in Seattle investigates violence in the ER
In today’s story on dangers in the workplace, John Ryan covers hospitals and emergency rooms. “Most of us face little risk of being assaulted while we’re on the job. But if you’re a cop, a convenience store clerk or a cab driver, your line of work can quickly turn violent. The same is true for…
Read MoreClerical errors in the Social Security Administration report thousands of living people as dead
The Social Security Administration each month falsely reports that nearly 1,200 living Americans have died. These clerical errors, found in a federal database ominously titled the “Death Master File,” might be darkly humorous — evoking Mark Twain’s famous quip that death reports can be greatly exaggerated — were not the consequences so severe. Thomas Hargrove…
Read MoreKUOW News-Seattle investigates workplace safety in 5 part series
John Ryan takes a closer look at some of the more dangerous jobs in the country with an eye for safety laws and regulations. http://www.kuow.org/specials/danger-at-work.php Today, KUOW highlights a day in the life of a lineworker, one of the most dangerous jobs, right up there with commercial fishing. Ryan talks with workers who ‘free-climb’, or…
Read MoreFL schools closing the gaping divide amongst low and high-income students
Sharona Coutts and Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica lay out, flawlessly, data previously unreleased by the federal government that shows “Florida leads the nation in the percentage of high-school students enrolled in high-level classes—Advanced Placement and advanced math. That holds true across rich and poor districts.” LaFleur, Coutts, Al Shaw, and Jeff Larson also put together a…
Read MoreAfter several reports of abuse, HI long-term care facilities goes unsanctioned
“In a state where nursing homes are rarely sanctioned, federal regulators did not penalize one of Hawaii’s premium institutions for its failure to protect defenseless elderly women from a sexually abusive caregiver. They also didn’t sanction a nursing home even after a nurse’s failure to follow physician orders resulted in the puncturing of a man’s…
Read MoreReports in AZ prove the ATF gun strategy a failure.
“Reporter Lori Jane Gliha and photographer Matt Anzur at KNXV-TV in Phoenix spent months digging into local ties to the controversial ATF “Fast and Furious” case that was run out of the Phoenix ATF office. After the ATF denied Gliha’s Freedom of Information Act request for gun trace records, she began investigating the old fashioned…
Read MoreFDA’s failure to respond causes millions to be exposed to deadly bacterium.
The story of tainted medical wipes and other disposable medical supplies in our hospitals first caught the media’s attention when a child from Houston, TX apparently died from the bacterium Bacillus cereus, a cousin to Bacillus antracis, or anthrax. However, with deeper investigations done, it turns out the FDA was aware that the plant, owned…
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