The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
Pete Thamel and Duff Wilson of The New York Times used academic transcripts and documents obtained through a freedom of information request to show that University High, a correspondence school which has no classes and no educational accreditation, offered students little more than a speedy academic makeover. "Athletes who graduated from University High acknowledged that…
Read MoreDavid E. Kaplan, with Bay Fang and Soni Sangwan, of U.S. News & World Report found that Dawood Ibrahim, a world-class mobster and engineer of the 1993 multiple bomb blasts in Bombay, is on Washington’s radar screen for lending his smuggling routes to al Qaeda and supporting jihadists in Pakistan, based on interviews with counterterrorism…
Read MoreDan Keating and David S. Fallis, with contributions from Bobbye Pratt, of The Washington Post used District of Columbia purchasing records to show that of $2.5 billion in purchases last year, the city spent roughly $425 million in unauthorized payments and no-bid contracts. "District officials routinely violate city spending laws by avoiding competitive bidding, masking…
Read MoreSteve Neavling, formerly of The Bay City Times, reviewed records to show that Bay County paid more than $350,000 to citizens and politicians for serving on its boards in the past four-and-a-half years. Many of these meeting lasted less than 15 minutes and dozens lasted less than five minutes. "A bulk of the per-diem payments…
Read MoreFlorida Today and WKMG-Orlando used data from a 3-axis accelerometer and data collection device to test the effects of Central Florida’s G-forces on theme park rides. They also examined figures on estimates of injuries and deaths involving fixed-site rides and found that state and U.S. agencies only inspect and regulate mobile amusement rides, the kind…
Read MoreLee Rood of The Des Moines Register found scores of students are paying little or nothing to live in low-income projects in college towns in every region. Loopholes enable students — including scholarship athletes who already receive housing money — easily qualify for apartments in the Section 8 program. "Last year, during a probe into…
Read MoreEditor and Publisher reports that The Associated Press leads news organizations in using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents from the Pentagon. A log of such requests from 2000 to early 2005 was compiled by a San Francisco-based activist. The AP filed 73 such requests, followed by the Los Angeles Times with 42…
Read MoreTanya Schevitz and Todd Wallack of the San Francisco Chronicle examine how much the University of California system really pays its administrators. “In addition to salaries and overtime, payroll records obtained by The Chronicle show that employees received a total of $871 million in bonuses, administrative stipends, relocation packages and other forms of cash compensation…
Read MoreJoe Mahr and Phillip O’Connor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch find that “repeated recommendations from all levels of government in an eight-state region of the central United States have been largely ignored on how to best brace for an event that scientists expect to kill thousands and cause widespread chaos.” The Post-Dispatch reviewed studies, reports,…
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