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Mark Pitsch of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal used Kentucky’s Open Records Act to obtain emails showing that “less than three months before the state hiring investigation began, Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s deputy chief of staff and the transportation personnel director confided to each other in e-mails that laws may have been broken.” The state’s Attorney General,…
Read MorePat Stith of The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, with assistance from database editor David Raynor and news researcher Brooke Cain, reports that “the state Department of Transportation has ignored a series of increases in truck weights approved by the legislature and failed to protect more than 1,000 bridges that are not strong enough to…
Read MoreDavid Milstead of the Rocky Mountain News used documents and recordings to find that the benefits offered by Colorado’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association to its employees have been generous. “In total, leave payouts have cost PERA more than $2 million since 2000. The benefits don
Read MorePamela Hamilton of the Associated Press used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records showing that “one in five educators sanctioned by the state for bad behavior in South Carolina in the past three years had been accused of sexual misconduct such as molesting or having sex with students or other children.” Nearly…
Read MoreBrad Branan of the Tucson Citizen used databases from two courts to analyze about 33,000 drunken-driving cases filed from 1999 to last year. He found that “thousands of motorists are charged with drunken driving each year in metro Tucson, giving the area one of the highest DUI arrest rates in the country. But nearly half…
Read MoreRick Hepp of The (Newark) Star-Ledger analyzed state and federal spending on homeland security in New Jersey, finding that politics can make a big difference: Somerset County towns in the past three years “have received more than $2.7 million in federal Homeland Security grants designed for ‘first responders,’ but only $235,000 from New Jersey.” The…
Read MoreBob Fernandez and Alletta Emeno of The Philadelphia Inquirer analyzed real estate data from the region to find that a rising tide of prices is lifting many boats: “the gains are broad-based and remarkably even, with the median gain ranging from 13 percent in Bucks and Camden Counties to 17 percent in Philadelphia and Gloucester…
Read MoreAn analysis by The Center for Public Integrity found that lobbyists and their employers in 42 states reported spending nearly $953 million in 2004 attempting to influence state legislators and executive branch officials. That figure is up from the $904 million reported in 2003. “It seems likely that state lobby expenditures will exceed the $1…
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