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The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients

Sunshine Week: File better, smarter public records requests

By Alena Rehberger | March 19, 2014

[View the story “Free the data: How to get government agencies to give up the goods” on Storify]

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Sunshine Week: Tips for using FOIA Machine

By Alena Rehberger | March 18, 2014

[View the story “Tips for using FOIA Machine” on Storify]

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Fraud victims spend millions on attorneys and accountants trying to recoup losses

By Alena Rehberger | March 17, 2014

Being a fraud victim can be financially and emotionally devastating — then you get sucked into the U.S. legal system. For some investors, the experience can be maddening as they watch lawyers and accountants eat up $380 an hour and more in fees and expenses paid from recovered investor money as cases drag on. But…

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Oil shipped by rail through Northwestern U.S. unusually volatile

By Alena Rehberger | March 17, 2014

Oil moving through Oregon has contained six times more propane – the same stuff in backyard gas grills – than comparable types of crude. Despite the risks, the oil isn’t required to go through simple steps to stabilize it when it’s extracted from the ground. Producers can flare off the propane and other gases in…

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Oklahoma veteran center doctors have records, substance abuse problems

By Alena Rehberger | March 17, 2014

Veterans centers in Oklahoma routinely hire doctors and other licensed medical personnel with a record of problems to treat the state’s sickest, most vulnerable veterans. Officials with the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs say money is the culprit, claiming it’s difficult to find suitable applicants with clean records to work at the state’s seven veterans…

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$163 million spent on injured public safety employees in three New York counties

By Alena Rehberger | March 17, 2014

Police officers and firefighters who file injury claims in the Lower Hudson Valley often collect tax-free salaries for years while local municipalities and the state wrangle over who ultimately picks up the tab. More than 15 percent of the state’s first responders end up retiring on a state-funded disability pension. That number is even higher…

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New York state offices ignore Freedom of Information Laws

By Alena Rehberger | March 17, 2014

Part of New York’s Freedom of Information Law requires each state agency to maintain up-to-date “subject matter lists” — indexes of all records maintained by the agency — and to post them on the Internet. But a study of 86 New York state agencies by the Press & Sun-Bulletin found 9 in 10 were not…

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Baltimore defendants can spend weeks in jail before given the opportunity to post bail

By Alena Rehberger | March 17, 2014

Shykill Brewer, who was arrested on a misdemeanor drug charge days before Christmas, is among dozens of Baltimore suspects who have been detained for days with no chance at release, after being charged directly by prosecutors instead of by police. Officials say the unusual strategy is key to taking down major criminal organizations, but they…

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Alabama State audit shrouded in secrecy and confusion

By Alena Rehberger | March 17, 2014

As the cost of a forensic audit of Alabama State University nears $1 million, the investigation into the potential fraud it has uncovered is shrouded in secrecy and confusion.

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Colorado cracking down on parolees after murder of prison chief

By Alena Rehberger | March 17, 2014

One year after a parolee killed state prisons director Tom Clements, life behind bars — and beyond — is far different for Colorado convicts. After years of declining prison populations — reductions that Clements had trumpeted — the number of inmates has risen in the past year as a direct result of his slaying.

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