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High school coach recruits players, violates rules
Christine Willmsen and Michael Ko of The Seattle Times investigated the Chief Sealth High School girls basketball team’s head coach, Ray Willis, and found that the coach had violated numerous amateur athletic rules. Willis and his assistants, Amos Walters and Laura Fuller, have recruited players for more than three years, six of whom helped the…
Read MoreTaxpayer money goes to gifts, travel
Ryan J. Stanton of the Northwest Explorer, a weekly newspaper that covers the northern suburbs of the Tucson, Ariz., area, investigated how local officials are spending taxpayer money. For the five-part series, the paper reviewed town’s travel and training expenses, bank statements and receipts. It found “Marana public officials have charged close to $200,000 on…
Read MoreOfficial invests despite possible conflict of interest
Joni James of the St. Petersburg Times reviewed tax returns to show that Florida’s elected insurance commissioner, Tom Gallagher, invested millions of dollars in insurance-related stocks in his last year on the post. “And as a member of the Cabinet in 2004, Chief Financial Officer Gallagher voted to approve a natural gas pipeline for an…
Read MoreSchool district loans are unreasonable burden on taxpayers
Jeffrey Gaunt and Emily Krone of the Daily Herald , outside Chicago, analyzed 206 suburban school district loans to show many taxpayers repay those loans at rates higher than they would on their homes. The investigation found that, despite federal measures that keep government rates low, the district agreed that taxpayers will pay back $6.03…
Read MoreMaui’s sand could be gone in five years
Ilima Loomis of The Maui News reports that Maui’s sand is expected to run out. “The vast system of inland sand dunes that stretches across Wailuku has largely been covered by development, and what’s left is being mined — about 318,000 tons of the stuff dug out and used each year, 70 percent of it…
Read MoreHighway plan too costly to execute
Tim Darragh of The Morning Call investigated why the move to widen a local highway, Route 22, seemed highly unlikely, despite the backing of several powerful groups. “The widening plan has backers that include those who lobbied for and got construction of such landmark road projects as the completion of Route 33 from the Poconos…
Read MoreProblem officers responsible for using excessive force
Susan Sward, Bill Wallace and Elizabeth Fernandez, with contributions from Lois Jermyn, of the San Francisco Chronicle used city police logs to create a database tracking the use of force by officers, finding that, for years, the San Francisco Police Department has failed to control officers who repeatedly resort to force, hitting, choking, clubbing and…
Read MoreNFL players dying young because of weight-related ailments
Thomas Hargrove of the Scripps Howard News Service tracked the deaths of 3,850 pro football players to show that athletes of the National Football League are dying young at an alarming rate and many of the players are succumbing to ailments typically related to weight. The heaviest athletes are more than twice as likely to…
Read MoreMalpractice cases raise questions about hospital’s care
Rob Perez of The Honolulu Advertiser investigated the Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii to show that a number of families are seeking compensation for what they allege was substandard care, in a series that looks at medical malpractice at Tripler. “The cases have generated questions about the overall quality of care provided at the…
Read MoreDenver code enforcement cases on the rise
Daniel J. Chacón of the Rocky Mountain News used local data to show that code-enforcement cases in Denver increased more than 12 percent between 2004 and 2005 and by more than 20 percent in five of the city’s 11 council districts, according to data obtained under a Colorado Open Records Act request. “The number of…
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