The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Medicare often pays hospitals to practice bad medicine
Gilbert M. Gaul of The Washington Post reports in a three-part series that Medicare policies often pay hospitals to practice medicine poorly. “In a four-year period, 106 heart patients at Palm Beach Gardens developed infections after surgery, according to lawsuits and government records.” In part-two of the series, the Post looks at the nonprofit that…
Read MoreAllegations pile up in Denver church scandal
Eric Gorski of The Denver Post uses church documents and interviews to investigate claims that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver was told “at least three times of child sex-abuse allegations against one of its priests but continued to allow him to serve and moved him from parish to parish for years.” The paper has…
Read MoreHousing bond falls short on promises
John Hill of The Sacramento Bee found that a $2.1 billion bond California voters approved to provide affordable housing hasn’t delivered. “With the pot more than half gone, a Bee investigation has found that what taxpayers are getting falls far short of those promises – a reality that takes on added importance as California officials…
Read MoreHate crimes down in New York
Jo Craven McGinty at The New York Times reported this weekend that hate crimes in the city are down 44 percent between 2000 and 2004. The crimes are broken down in graphics and maps. A member of New York’s hate crimes unit credits people “just behaving better” in the city in the wake of a…
Read MoreThousands of city employees tied to mayor’s re-election
Nearly four out of every 10 city employees in Chicago registered voters for groups that advocated for Mayor Richard Daley’s re-election, a Chicago Tribune investigation found. The Tribune compared city payroll data with the rosters of political groups that register voters in the city. “The analysis suggests extensive connections between city jobs and the mayor’s…
Read MoreHomicides on the rise in Milwaukee
John Diedrich and Bob Purvis at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detail a sharp rise in the number of murders in Milwaukee this year, finding that “through Friday, 72 people have been killed this year, compared to 49 at that time last year. In response, police last week beefed up patrols in the hottest parts of…
Read MoreCalif. donors use 527 groups to bypass regulations
Ronald Campbell of The Orange County Register analyzed California campaign finance data to find that the top 100 donors gave more than $150 million to candidates and political committees in 2003 and 2004. Donors also helped put California in the stem-cell business. “Some 26 wealthy couples and individuals contributed more than half the campaign money…
Read MoreLack of inspection data raises concerns for Utah school safety
Nate Carlisle and Jessica Ravitz The Salt Lake Tribune report on the state of fire inspections in public schools, following a fire that destroyed Wasatch Junior High School. The school was old and did not have modern fire safety features. “Yet state records show the last time inspectors examined the school was four years ago.”…
Read MoreNew homebuyers slammed by high prices, high taxes
Troy Anderson of the Los Angeles Daily News reports on soaring property tax revenues in Los Angeles city and county. “The revenues have been a boon for local governments, with homeowners paying $9.5 billion in property taxes in fiscal 2004-05, compared with $6.7 billion in 2000-01.” Property owners have been paying differing rates since the…
Read MoreFailed oversight helps surge in air ambulance crashes
Alan Levin and Robert Davis of USA Today reviewed hundreds of documents on air ambulance crashes and analyzed a database they created from the documents. They found that since “2000, 60 people have died in 84 crashes — more than double the number of crashes during the previous five years.” Despite this surge, air ambulance…
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