Posts by hdcoadmin
The shadowy side of offshore industry
“A worldwide investigation aimed at stripping away the anonymity that binds together one of the most shadowy aspects of Britain’s financial industry.” “In a unique collaboration, the Guardian and BBC Panorama have sifted through many gigabytes of data, obtained by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, to find information that helped identify more than…
Read MoreReview of FBI forensics does not extend to federally trained state, local examiners
The Washington Post reports that thousands of criminal cases at the state and local level may have relied on exaggerated testimony or false forensic evidence to convict defendants of murder, rape and other felonies, according to former FBI agents.
Read MoreOutrageous cost estimates for open records requests
This past week, journalists on the NICAR Listserv began discussing the most outrageous price quotes they’d received for open records requests. Canadian journalist David Weisz started the thread as research for a presentation he was giving to the Information Resource Management Association of Canada on the state of data journalism. “Having filed ATI requests myself and hearing the horror…
Read MoreFederal judge’s financial conflict of interest went unnoticed for years
“A federal judge has issued three key rulings over a four-year period that favored companies in which he owned stock, a California Watch analysis has found.” “Measures are in place to prevent judges from violating federal conflict-of-interest laws. But Judge Manuel Real, a 46-year veteran of the bench appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, appears…
Read MoreManatee’s The Prep Academy’s financial woes surface again
“For the second time in only two years, teachers at a Manatee school run by Lamprecht say they are not getting paid. The Prep Academy has employed about a dozen teachers with an enrollment of about 50 students, the Bradenton Herald reports.”
Read MoreRecord-Keeping Failure Could Cost Oklahoma Counties
“Alex Cameron of the Oklahoma Impact Team at KWTV News 9 in Oklahoma City and KOTV News on 6 in Tulsa found that Oklahoma counties’ lax record-keeping could cost them millions of dollars in repaid disaster-assistance funds to FEMA. Twelve counties had serious issues with paperwork and couldn’t document how they spent money they received…
Read MorePotholes: Health indicators of the city streets
“The average amount of time it takes to resolve pothole complaints is on the rise on the streets of Pittsburgh, according to a PublicSource analysis of 25,000 pothole complaints from Pittsburgh’s 311 center between 2006 and 2012.”
Read MoreAfter Dozens of Deaths, Inquiry Into Bed Rails
“Data compiled by the consumer agency from death certificates and hospital emergency room visits from 2003 through May 2012 shows that 150 mostly older adults died after they became trapped in bed rails. Over nearly the same time period, 36,000 mostly older adults — about 4,000 a year — were treated in emergency rooms with…
Read MoreNYC Lags in Granting Relief to Some Illegal Immigrants
“But so far in New York City, the drive to apply prosecutorial discretion to the docket of deportation cases has yielded strikingly few results. Out of a backlog of 42,875 cases, only 583 have been closed due to prosecutorial discretion, according to immigration court statistics compiled by Syracuse University’s TRAC database. That’s a rate of…
Read MoreAs drug industry’s influence over research grows, so does the potential for bias
“The billions that the drug companies invest in such experiments help fund the world’s quest for cures. But their aim is not just public health. That money is also part of a high-risk quest for profits, and over the past decade corporate interference has repeatedly muddled the nation’s drug science, sometimes with potentially lethal consequences.”
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