Posts by hdcoadmin
Traffic stop study raises racial profiling questions
Karisa King and Kelly Guckian of the San Antonio Express-News analyzed 12 months’ of traffic and pedestrian police stops, finding that “blacks were more than three times as likely as whites to face certain types of police searches. Yet police found contraband in the searches at about the same rate for both races, a finding…
Read MoreOhio drunk driver program flawed
Sheila McLaughlin of The Cincinnati Enquirer evaluated an Ohio program that requires drunk drivers to put special license plates on their vehicles, finding that “a year after Ohio started requiring the special tags, a sampling of more than 300 local cases and interviews with lawyers, judges, police officers and legislators indicate that the law is…
Read MoreProblems with judiciary system plague city
Jerry Mitchell of The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger reports that the Hinds County judicial system “at times resembles an elephant balancing on toothpicks. A yearlong investigation by The Clarion-Ledger has uncovered many long-term problems that have not been addressed.” The county had fewer prosecutors and fewer indictments in 2004 than similar-sized cities. “Between 1998 and 2003, the…
Read MoreLand deals raise nepotism concerns
J.M. Kalil of the Las Vegas Review-Journal used local property records to find that the grandson of a former Las Vegas mayor has been able to quickly profit from land deals that may have involved inaccurate appraisals. Scott Gragson “has obtained a total of 104 parcels in 20 land exchanges with the county. In each…
Read MorePoor districts failing despite recent education reforms
Mc Nelly Torres from the San Antonio Express-News investigated the progress of a Texas public school reform legislation dubbed “Robin Hood”. She focused on the Edgewood School District, where the high school has an hispanic population of 97 percent. She found that the “total revenue per student was $8,729 last year, compared with $4,315 in…
Read MorePoliticians benefit from cheaper tickets
Dave McKinney of the Chicago Sun-Times obtained a list of state politicians who have the opportunity to purchase tickets to the top-ranked University of Illinois basketball team’s games at face value. “As demand for Illini tickets has rocketed off the charts, the university has dispersed more than 2,000 tickets to its trustees, dozens of state…
Read MoreComplaints high for Florida repair shop
Jim Schoettler of The Florida Times-Union used state records to show that auto repair shops in Northeast Florida were the subject of nearly 600 complaints since 1999. “Hundreds more are fielded by local agencies and the courts, while countless others are reported to the shops. No one knows how many people who suspect they’ve been…
Read MorePrison health care company faces harsh criticism
Paul von Zielbauer of The New York Times spent a year investigating Prison Health Services, a private company that provides medical care in many of New York’s state prisons. “A yearlong examination of Prison Health by The New York Times reveals repeated instances of medical care that has been flawed and sometimes lethal. The company’s…
Read MoreTeen driving fatalities data shows an alarming trend
Jayne O’Donnell from USA Today investigated teenage driving accidents across the United States and found an alarming trend. Nearly three-fourths of teenage accidents occurred when males were behind the wheel with 16-year-olds being the riskiest of them all. “Their rate of involvement in fatal crashes was nearly five times that of drivers ages 20 and…
Read MoreNew schools planned on contaminated sites
Jason Method and James W. Prado Roberts of the Asbury Park Press looked at New Jersey’s $6 billion school construction program and found that the state authority had purchased at least 22 environmentally contaminated or possibly contaminated sites, including one radioactive Superfund site and another historic steel cable plant full of lead, beryllium, arsenic and…
Read More