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Florida police officers face few penalties when they cause crashes
“An investigation by the Orlando Sentinel found that police cars in Florida are crashing at the astonishing rate of 20 a day, resulting, over a five-year period, in thousands of injuries and more than 100 deaths. The findings led to a three-part series, “Collision With the Law,” which began Sunday, Feb. 12.” “Rene Stutzman and…
Read MoreA look at underage drinking in Ohio
In a three-part, eight-story series, The Post, found that underage drinkers on Ohio University’s campus were safer drinking at the bars than they were at a house party. It also broke down a three-year Ohio Liquor Control Commission oversight; allowing a bar to remain open for three-years under an intended suspension. The series also looks…
Read MoreCongress benefits widen pension gap
“Bloomberg BusniessWeek reports that almost 15,000 federal retirees, including former leaders of Congress, a university president and a banker, are receiving six-figure pensions from a system that faces a $674.2 billion shortfall. Charles R. Babcock and Frank Bass obtained data that shows about one of every 125 retired federal civilian workers collects more than $100,000…
Read MoreBeer tax money in UT not always used accordingly
“A review by The Salt Lake Tribune has found that perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars of Utah’s beer tax money have been diverted to other causes or rolled into everyday city or county activities in. In some cases, the recipients seemingly stretched the interpretation of the statute to justify how they spent the money.…
Read MoreAn in-depth look at Las Vegas police shootings
“In the wake of two controversial officer-involved shooting deaths in the summer of 2010, the Las Vegas Review-Journal analyzed two decades of shootings by officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The newspaper found an insular police department that is slow to weed out problem cops and slower still to adopt policies and procedures…
Read MorePresidential pardons have glaring racial disparities
“White criminals seeking presidential pardons over the past decade have been nearly four times as likely to succeed as minorities, a ProPublica examination, co-published with The Washington Post, has found. Blacks have had the poorest chance of receiving the president’s ultimate act of mercy, according to an analysis of previously unreleased records and related data.”
Read More“Racial gap” shows up in Milwaukee traffic stops
In a recent analysis of 46,000 traffic stops, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Ben Poston found that black resident drivers are “seven times as likely to be stopped by city police as a white resident driver.” Additionally, the study found that “Milwaukee police pulled over Hispanic city motorists nearly five times as often as white drivers.”…
Read MoreWho’s policing the police in Florida?
“In a multi-day project, Anthony Cormier and Matthew Doig of The Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigate why law enforcement agencies around Florida employ officers despite cases of serious misconduct in their past, involving everything from violence and perjury to drugs and sexual assault. Many more cases stay hidden because agencies fail to thoroughly investigate or report complaints.”…
Read MoreCA hospital has high rate of heart failure; may be linked to Medicare payments
“From 2008 through 2010, Chino Valley Medical Center in San Bernardino County claimed that 35.2 percent of its Medicare patients were suffering from acture heart failure. That’s six times the state average, according to a California Watch analysis of Medicare billing data. However, in 2006, before Medicare began making bonus payments to hospitals treating patients…
Read MoreIL governor wants to retain jobs; gives tax credits to big companies
“A Chicago Tribune analysis shows IL Governor Pat Quinn has pledged about half a billion dollars in tax credits over the next decade to create 5,709 jobs and retain 22,610 workers through the Economic Development for a Growing Economy program, or EDGE.” Quinn’s focus has shifted from job creation to job retention since he took…
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