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Dramatic improvements in test scores raise questions
Some Georgia schools made astonishing improvements when their failing students were re-tested, according to an analysis of testing data by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The highly unusual turnarounds raise questions about the integrity of the testing and the accuracy of the scores, experts said. The state is now investigating.
Read MoreFixing D.C.’s Schools: The Charter Experiment
A series by The Washington Post takes a hard look at charter schools in Washington, D.C. Approximately one-third of city’s children attend these independent, nonprofit schools. The investigation shows that much of the $1.6 billion in local and federal money spent on charter school over the past 12 years has gone to the purchase and…
Read MoreTacoma area voters split their tickets
Ian Demsky of The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. found that nearly a third of the voters in Pierce County cast their ballots for Democratic president-elect Barack Obama and Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The article includes maps of the areas that went for Obama and Rossi and the county’s results of both races.
Read MoreVolunteer firefighting companies riddled with problems
The News Journal’s three-part series on Delaware’s volunteer firefighters exposed slow response times, manpower shortages, archaic rules and lopsided funding formulas, as well as potential solutions and alternatives to the current system. The package includes an interactive map with operation and financial data on the 60 volunteer companies in the state.
Read MoreAviation accidents on the rise in U.S. Army
Over the past decade, there has been a marked increase in the number of Army aviation accidents, according to a report by Michael Fabey of Aviation Week. In the first year of the Bush administration’s “global war on terror,” fatalities increased by 875 percent — from 8 in 2000 to 78 in 2001. This trend…
Read MoreObama found support in Oklahoma’s urban precincts
Oklahoma voters gave Republican Sen. John McCain one of his largest margins of victory over Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election earlier this month. But an analysis of precinct results from across the state by The Oklahoman shows Obama claiming heavily populated urban areas and pockets of support in eastern Oklahoma. McCain outpolled Obama…
Read MoreUnapproved prescription drugs covered by Medicaid
An Associated Press analysis of federal drug data shows the U.S. government has spent over $200 million since 2004 on drugs that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In some instances, these unapproved medications have been linked to deaths. While Medicaid is not supposed to cover unapproved drugs, the FDA does…
Read MoreLawyers, doctors profiting from farm subsidies in Oklahoma
An investigation by Gavin Off of the Tulsa World revealed serious issues in the allocation of farm subsidy dollars. By cross-referencing the USDA’s farm subsidy data with the Federal Elections Committee database, Off found “more than 100 lawyers and dozens of doctors, teachers, car salesmen and insurance agents have received U.S. Department of Agriculture farm…
Read MoreOver 2,000 voters in Allen County, Ind. also registered in Florida
The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind. found that 2,172 voters in Indiana’s Allen County had names and birthdates identical to those in Florida. The newspaper performed its analysis cross-referencing the voter registration databases in Allen County with the Florida secretary of state’s election division. Duplicates were examined by hand. Middle names or initials that…
Read MoreDeceased voters cast ballots in Harris County, Tex.
An analysis by TexasWatchdog.com matched information from Harris County, Tex. voter rolls to Social Security death data and found ballots had been cast in the names of dead people more than 40 times since 2004. They also found more than 4,000 people currently on the voter rolls who, according to the Social Security death data,…
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