Posts by hdcoadmin
C. diff bacteria cause of tens of thousands of deaths; could be stopped
“A USA TODAY investigation finds that an infection called C. diff is wreaking havoc in the nation’s hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities, infecting a half million Americans a year and killing about 30,000.” “The death toll is twice government estimates and nearly equal to the 32,000 U.S. deaths each year from auto accidents.”
Read MoreMillions of pounds of herbicide being sprayed on Oregon’s forests
In collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Atlantic and Living On Earth, Ingrid Lobet reports that “herbicides have become a crucial tool for Oregon’s $13 billion timber industry.” However, “in spite of precautions, lab results suggest that harmful chemicals are finding their way into residents’ bloodstreams.”
Read More“Churning” is more common than thought, report finds
Ken Bensinger and Elizabeth Frank of the Los Angeles Times have found that “from mid-2008 to this April, 862 licensed used-car dealers in California — about 1 in 8 — sold at least one vehicle three or more times“, a practice that is known as churning. Bensinger and Frank used DocumentCloud to display their findings.
Read MoreWill other states follow CA and suspend sunshine laws to save money?
OMB Watch reports that “the California legislature, as part of its Budget Act of 2012 (passed in June), suspended the state’s open meetings law for the next three years in an effort to cut state expenditures.“
Read MoreBehind the story: Who Can Vote?
By Leonard Downie Jr. Weil Family Professor of Journalism, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication The News21 national investigation of voting rights in the U. S., which was launched August 12 on its own website, votingrights.news21.com, and in news media around the country, began early this year with a video-conferenced spring semester…
Read MoreAP Style Guide For US Elections
“The Associated Press has compiled a list of U.S. political terms, phrases and definitions to assist in coverage of the 2012 national elections. The guidance encompasses the Democratic and Republican conventions to nominate presidential candidates; terminology for presidential races; campaign rhetoric; and elections for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Many of the…
Read MoreExhaustive search finds little evidence of voter fraud
Despite calls for strict voter ID laws, an in-depth study of American election fraud reveals that the rate is infinitesimal. Since 2000, News21 found 10 cases of in-person voter fraud, which only photo ID laws would prevent. That would be about one case for every 15 million eligilbe voters. News21 is a national program based…
Read MorePANDA Project Turns 1.0
If you were at NICAR 2012 in February you may remember a man in a PANDA suit wandering the conference halls, flanked by a small group of news developers. At that time the PANDA Project was still a young project. We demoed our first beta release and helped folks install it using our very first…
Read MoreIRE, Google create new grant program for data journalism projects
A new fund that will provide crucial support for journalists working on data projects will be launched this fall. Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) will award grants thanks to a $50,000 donation from Google Ideas. IRE Executive Director Mark Horvit said the fund will allow more news organizations to do in-depth reporting. “Digging into data…
Read MoreMissouri Supreme Court inconsistent with lawsuit cap
“The Springfield News-Leader reports that the Missouri Supreme Court recently threw out a $350,000 cap on losses such as pain and suffering in malpractice cases. But a wrongful death case decided just months early by the high court upheld the cap in wrongful death cases.” “Attorneys said the pair of rulings apparently means it may…
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