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LDC papers shed light on Wiesner charges
Robert Wiesner stood to receive tens of thousands of dollars through a major county public safety project by working for a contractor that he helped to hire, the state Attorney General’s Office claims in newly available court documents. Wiesner, one of four defendants in a wide-ranging bid-rigging criminal case, is the former security director of…
Read MoreGrowing evidence points to systemic troubles in VA healthcare system
The Phoenix VA Health Care System is under a federal Justice Department investigation for reports that it maintained a secret waiting list to conceal the extent of its patient delays, in part because of complaints such as Laird’s. But there are now clear signs that veterans’ health centers across the U.S. are juggling appointments and…
Read MoreKillers and pain: Painkiller law sends users to heroin
They started turning up in emergency rooms early last November. One after another and then another. By the time the torrent subsided in February, some 280 people had overdosed in Dutchess County from what many believed was heroin but was often street drugs laced with an exponentially stronger narcotic called fentanyl. The overdoses and deaths…
Read MoreNo Jurisdiction, No Problem: Local Police Make Up Their Own Rules
The Richmond Public Housing Police Department’s web page claimed that “the department provides city-wide law enforcement authority which enables officers to make arrests on and off RRHA property.” But who granted the public housing police, authority to make arrests off public housing property? An investigation by WRIC-Richmond discovered the answer to that is – no…
Read MoreRepeat drunk drivers still able to get plea deals
Eleven years of data analyzed by the Columbus Dispatch showed that those charged multiple times with operating a vehicle while impaired were able to get their charges reduced through a plea deal almost as often as those who had no recent drunk driving charges. Some say repeat offenders know how to beat the system. Drivers can…
Read MoreStudents without legal representation jailed in Knox County, Tenn.
In Knox County, Tennessee some students are ending up in jail even though they haven’t committed any crimes. Federal and state laws are supposed to keep juveniles who have committed status offenses – like truancy or running away – out of jail. An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity has found evidence that Knox…
Read MoreThe cost of not caring: Inside a mental health system drowning from neglect
States have been reducing hospital beds for decades, because of insurance pressures as well as a desire to provide more care outside institutions, USA TODAY reports. Tight budgets during the recession forced some of the most devastating cuts in recent memory, says Robert Glover, executive director of the National Association of State Mental Health Program…
Read MoreDrunk behind the wheel again: For one man, 12 DUI arrests
“Despite a series of laws over the years that criminalized drunken driving for repeat offenders and made prison time mandatory, James R. Fisher has been arrested 12 times for driving under the influence since 1991,” The Wilmington News Journal reported. “The 55-year-old’s latest arrest, number 12, came in March, about a year after his release…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Segregated schools, the long wait for death certificates, new details in botched Okla. execution
Drunk behind the wheel again: For one man, 12 DUI arrests | The News Journal (Wilmington, DE) Despite a series of laws over the years that criminalized drunken driving for repeat offenders and made prison time mandatory, James R. Fisher has been arrested 12 times for driving under the influence since 1991. The 55-year-old’s latest arrest,…
Read MoreLargely invisible tank cleaning industry awash in risk
“If rivers, rails and roads are the arteries of America’s surging petrochemicals industry, tank and barge cleaners are its kidneys, purifying containers so they can return to refineries and to energy and chemical companies across the nation to be refilled,” the Houston Chronicle reported. “But government health and safety experts don’t know much about these…
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