Posts by hdcoadmin
Tobacco Underground series
A six-part investigative series by The Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) details the booming global trade in illegal cigarettes. Since 1999, the ICIJ has tracked the illegal tobacco trade, and found corporate collusion with the criminal networks diverting tobacco shipments to black markets around the world. Crackdowns starting in 2004…
Read MoreKnow Parking Here series
A project by CTV-British Columbia and ESRI Canada mapped parking ticket trends in Vancouver. Through a freedom of information request, CTV received digital copies of all the parking tickets issued during a two-week period and analysed the information to determine numerous trends including spikes in ticketing at certain points in the day and neighborhoods where…
Read MoreLAPD paying too much in overtime
Jason Kandel of the Los Angeles Daily News reports that overtime pay for Los Angeles police officers has increased almost 150 percent in the past decade. According to department records, the LAPD has spent more than its allotted overtime budget by an average of nearly $6 million a year since 2002-03. The report comes on…
Read MoreHidden wells, dirty water
An investigation by Leah Beth Ward of the Yakima Herald-Republic (Yakima, Wash.) reveals that evidence of area groundwater contamination has long been ignored. “A little noticed scientific study six years ago found that one in five of 195 wells tested outside five Lower Valley communities contained levels of nitrates above federal safety limits…Responsibility for keeping…
Read MoreRefugee programs struggle under increasing demand
The Salt Lake Tribune looked at the federal resettlement system that provides financial and social support for refugees relocating in Utah and throughout the U.S. The Tribune found the system quickly abandons refugees soon after their arrival. People coming from poor African nations and some parts of Asia, particularly those who have lived for a…
Read MorePrecision Journalism 101
Listen to Steve Doig, Knight Chair in Journalism at Arizona State University, and Philip Meyer, recently retired Knight Chair at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, discuss the past and future of precision journalism. They share examples of how social science techniques and advances in personal computing have given journalists the tools to…
Read MoreDNA exonerations highlight flaws in eyewitness identifications
The Dallas Morning News spent months looking at Dallas County’s 19 DNA exonerations as well as current felony cases in an investigation that highlights flaws in the witness identification process. Despite known problems with eyewitness testimony, police and prosecutors still rely upon it to secure convictions. “The fallibility of eyewitness testimony revealed by DNA exonerations…
Read MoreMissouri, Illinois lack meth clean-up laws
Christine Byers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has found that Missouri and Illinois have some of the highest numbers of known methamphetamine labs, yet both states fail to ensure that former labs get decontaminated when properties are seized. Additionally, there are no laws mandating that new residents are notified of potential contamination before moving into the…
Read MoreMistress paid off by Florida Congressman
West Palm Beach Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) has agreed to pay his mistress, Patricia Allen, $121,000 according to an investigative report by ABC News’ Emma Schwartz, Rhonda Schwartz and Vic Walter. In addition to the payment, Mahoney also offered Allen a job at the agency that handles his campaign advertising. Mahoney was elected following the…
Read MoreWater agency failed to disclose uranium contamination
Brian Joseph of the Orange County Register reports that the nation’s largest water district has known for eight years about uranium contamination at the site of a proposed groundwater storage project, but failed to disclosed this information to key officials or the public. “The top official at the water district says the contamination is isolated…
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