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NY boat operators without training increase risk
John Ferro of the Poughkeepsie Journal analyzed the Coast Guard’s recreational boating accident database and found that “the rate of boating accidents in New York involving operators who never received any kind of formal safety training has consistently exceeded the national average.” In 2004, the rate was 57 percent, the highest since 1996. New York’s…
Read MoreAbuse and neglect at Mo. mental health facilities
Carolyn Tuft and Joe Mahr of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviewed thousands of paper and electronic records from the Department of Mental Health and found that “mentally retarded and mentally ill people in Missouri have been sexually assaulted, beaten, injured and left to die by abusive and neglectful caregivers in a system that for years…
Read MoreRating communities’ performance
Michael Mansur and Rick Montgomery of The Kansas City Star used Data Envelopment Analysis to analyze the budget and performance numbers from 18 area cities and rank how efficiently they provided eight municipal services. “Four cities tied in police services: Belton, Grandview, Liberty and Prairie Village. Three cities tied in fire and fire-and-ambulance services: Belton,…
Read MorePlanes dangerously close in Canadian skies
Robert Cribb, Fred Vallance-Jones and Tamsin McMahon of The Toronto Star analyzed the aviation data and found that “more than 80,000 passengers have been put at risk over the last five years when airplanes they were travelling in came dangerously close together in Canadian skies.” Between 2001 and mid-2005, there were more than 800 incidents…
Read MorePolice break into six-figure club
Thomas J. Dolan of The Buffalo News analyzed police contracts and 2005 payrolls for seven towns and the City of Buffalo and found that “47 officers from Buffalo and the near suburbs broke the $100,000 mark in 2005, the last year for which complete figures were available. And nearly three dozen more are poised to…
Read MoreSome Minn. schools doing well at teaching poor students
Megan Boldt, MaryJo Sylwester, Meggen Lindsay and Doug Belden of St. Paul Pioneer Press analyzed three years of test scores from all 731 Minnesota elementary schools and found that 13 high-poverty schools were “doing better than predicted and seem to have found a way to overcome education’s biggest challenge — teaching high numbers of poor…
Read MoreCongressional travel adds up to $50 million
An analysis of more than 25,000 travel disclosure documents over a 5½-year period by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University’s Medill News Service found that “members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips — valued at almost $50 million — financed by private sponsors, many of them…
Read MoreFarm subsidy payments in Denmark go up
Farmsubsidy.org has released new data on farm subsidy payments, with an analysis by Nils Mulvad, co-founder of farmsubsidy.org and director of the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting, analyzed new data on farm subsidy payments in Denmark in 2005 and found that “the new Single Farm Payment Scheme has dramatically increased the number of farm…
Read MoreMotorcycle fatalities on rise; helmet laws repealed
Thomas Hargrove of Scripps Howard News Service studied records provided by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and found “deaths in U.S. motorcycle crashes have nearly doubled in a decade, mounting to 4,000 annually, as more states have repealed mandatory helmet safety laws.” The analysis of 2004 federal accident data showed that “the per capita…
Read MoreTracking of excessive force inconsistent in Texas
Nancy Martinez and Sarah Viren of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reviewed a database from the state Attorney General of in-custody deaths and found a lack of records of excessive force complaints and inconsistencies in the records that did exist. “No reports are sent outside the department unless someone dies, no agency collects comparable data on…
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