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As drug industry’s influence over research grows, so does the potential for bias
“The billions that the drug companies invest in such experiments help fund the world’s quest for cures. But their aim is not just public health. That money is also part of a high-risk quest for profits, and over the past decade corporate interference has repeatedly muddled the nation’s drug science, sometimes with potentially lethal consequences.”
Read MoreNYC Lags in Granting Relief to Some Illegal Immigrants
“But so far in New York City, the drive to apply prosecutorial discretion to the docket of deportation cases has yielded strikingly few results. Out of a backlog of 42,875 cases, only 583 have been closed due to prosecutorial discretion, according to immigration court statistics compiled by Syracuse University’s TRAC database. That’s a rate of…
Read MoreAfter Dozens of Deaths, Inquiry Into Bed Rails
“Data compiled by the consumer agency from death certificates and hospital emergency room visits from 2003 through May 2012 shows that 150 mostly older adults died after they became trapped in bed rails. Over nearly the same time period, 36,000 mostly older adults — about 4,000 a year — were treated in emergency rooms with…
Read MorePotholes: Health indicators of the city streets
“The average amount of time it takes to resolve pothole complaints is on the rise on the streets of Pittsburgh, according to a PublicSource analysis of 25,000 pothole complaints from Pittsburgh’s 311 center between 2006 and 2012.”
Read MoreRecord-Keeping Failure Could Cost Oklahoma Counties
“Alex Cameron of the Oklahoma Impact Team at KWTV News 9 in Oklahoma City and KOTV News on 6 in Tulsa found that Oklahoma counties’ lax record-keeping could cost them millions of dollars in repaid disaster-assistance funds to FEMA. Twelve counties had serious issues with paperwork and couldn’t document how they spent money they received…
Read MoreManatee’s The Prep Academy’s financial woes surface again
“For the second time in only two years, teachers at a Manatee school run by Lamprecht say they are not getting paid. The Prep Academy has employed about a dozen teachers with an enrollment of about 50 students, the Bradenton Herald reports.”
Read MoreNew Jersey railway put trains in flood zone despite warnings, millions in damages result
New Jersey Transit placed much of its equipment in rail yards that forecasters predicted would flood after Hurricane Sandy, a move that damaged one third of its locomotives and a quarter of its passenger cars, according to a report from Reuters. The damage could cost tens of millions of dollars to repair, according to Reuters.
Read MoreHonduran murderer equipped and vetted by US
“The Associated Press uncovered this week that a Honduran military unit charged with murdering a 15 year old boy had been trained, equipped and vetted by the United States.” “The first story told the painful narrative of the victim’s father tracking the killers. The second story dug into the U.S. response to this and other…
Read MoreBurglaries misclassified as thefts in Milwaukee despite evidence
A new Journal Sentinel investigation found more than 900 cases that should have been classified as burglaries but were marked as thefts by Milwaukee police since 2006, showing Milwaukee’s crime data problems extend to property crimes. Reporters Ben Poston and John Diedrich found had the cases been properly coded, the tally of burglaries would have been 2.4% higher than reported…
Read MoreKCRA finds California parolees cutting off GPS monitors
A KCRA Investigation following missing parolees found a serious flaw in the state’s prison realignment plan. Sexual predators are supposed to be monitored by GPS under California’s Megan’s Law. But KCRA has obtained a wanted list of parolees who either cut off or never showed up to wear their GPS monitor. More than a thousand are…
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