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Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records on two logging contractors shut down for repeated environmental violations. Department of Environmental Protection records “showed that the agency cited Yeager [airport contractors] last month for two violations of its stormwater control permit on the slide repair work.”…
Read MoreJeff Zeleny, Mike Dorning and Michael Tackett of the Chicago Tribune reviewed travel records for Illinois’ congressional delegation, finding that “at least 835 trips taken by either Illinois Congress members or their staff highlight the uneasy intersection between private dollars and public policy that raises questions about whether a special interest group is trying to…
Read MoreKimball Payne and Bob Evans of the Hampton Daily Press uses a large number of documents, maps and thousands of e-mails to investigate a federal highway project that is projected to be completed two years past the original completion date and have an added cost of twice what the Virginia Department of Transportation had projected.…
Read MoreDanny Robbins of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram used the Texas Public Information Act to show that “the Texas A&M University and University of Texas at Austin athletic departments have routinely purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of dietary supplements labeled as containing ingredients that make them impermissible for distribution to student-athletes under National Collegiate…
Read MoreEric Eyre and Scott Finn of the Charleston Gazette obtained flight records showing that West Virginia homeland security chief Neal Sharp “flew on the state plane or helicopter to attend meetings, scout disaster training sites and inspect emergency equipment” nineteen times in 19 months and chartered five additional private flights, prompting a state investigation. “All…
Read MoreGregory S. Reeves of The Kansas City Star used Jackson County real estate data to show that “an old problem – over-valuing homes under $50,000 – may have gotten worse with the new property tax appraisals … and homes that sold for $600,000 and up remain under-appraised by 25 percent.” Most houses, the paper found,…
Read MoreChristian Lowe of the Marine Corps Times used the Freedom of Information Act to show that “the Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that government experts urged the Corps to reject after tests revealed critical, life-threatening flaws in the vests.” The Marines obtained about 19,000 pieces of armor from Point Blank Body…
Read MoreBill Moushey and Nathan Crabbe of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in conjunction with the Innocence Institute at Point Park University, investigated potential wrongful convictions in Pennsylvania, finding that “police failed to follow the steps that can help prevent false identifications.” Many police agencies in the state either were not aware of federal guidelines for eyewitness identifications…
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