Blog
Joe 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,…
Read MoreLise Olsen of the Houston Chronicle reports that a witness now says he was influenced by police to identify Ruben Cantu, then 17, as the killer in an alleged murder-robbery. Cantu, who claimed to have been framed in the capital murder case, was executed in August 1993. “A dozen years after his execution, a Houston…
Read MoreA series of Lexington Herald-Leader reports from John Stamper and Bill Estep, with contributions from Linda J. Johnson, computer-assisted reporting coordinator, reporter Linda Blackford and news researcher Lu-Ann Farrar, examines Kentucky’s expensive efforts to recruit industries and failures in the program. “Instead, at a cost of $1.8 billion, Kentucky’s main economic-incentive programs have overburdened taxpayers…
Read MoreJim Davenport of The Associated Press wrote a series of reports detailing the costs of public records and abuse of executive sessions, as part of a statewide Freedom of Information audit completed by The Associated Press and the South Carolina Press Association. The investigation found that a quarter of elected officials in a statewide survey…
Read MoreBert Dalmer of The Des Moines Register analyzed land records to uncover an insider land deal that makes big-name developers rich but ends with taxpayers paying twice as much. The operators of a struggling scale-model air show sold 84 acres along Interstate Highway 35 at $15,000 an acre, though other land being sold in the…
Read MoreMc Nelly Torres of South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that, despite an engineer’s independent study showing workmanship and materials that did not meet standards in a hurricane-prone area, homeowners have been waiting 10 years for their homes to be fixed. Torres reviewed hundreds of records, including a grand jury report, two independent studies, and other construction-related…
Read MoreTawnell Hobbs and Kent Fischer of The Dallas Morning News reviewed district records to show that more than 2,300 school district employees are getting car stipends this year, at a total cost of nearly $3.7 million. This despite the fact that their job description does not include travel. "In a year when DISD cut some…
Read More