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Escalator safety issues spotlighted
A story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution details escalator injuries throughout the metro area. Every week in metro Atlanta people are badly injured riding escalators. They fall and crack their heads, or get their clothing or luggage tangled in the machinery. And in the worst cases, they suffer amputating injuries. Injuries associated with children wearing Crocs-like…
Read MoreJournalists threatened as Mexico’s drug war grows
William Booth of The Washington Post reports that journalists are finding themselves at increased risk as violence escalates in Mexico’s drug war. On November 13, Armando Rodríguez, a reporter for El Diario in Ciudad Juarez, was murdered in front of his home. Earlier in the month, the decapitated head of a drug dealer was placed…
Read MoreSome hospitals fail to contain MRSA outbreaks
The Seattle Times published the first part of a series revealing failures by Washington hospitals to control the spread of drug-resistant staph infections known as MRSA. Washington state hospitals are not obligated to track infection rates, but The Times analysis of millions of documents “revealed 672 previously undisclosed deaths attributable to the infection.” State and…
Read MoreHealth care system allows immigrants to fall through the cracks
Deborah Sontag of The New York Times continued the paper’s “Getting Tough” series with an examination of some hospitals’ practice of repatriating immigrant patients to their native countries without consent. The article offers several vignettes of the difficulties patients and hospitals face in such situations, including the story of Antonio Torres, a nineteen year-old legal…
Read MoreEarly voting data online
The Monitor in McAllen, Texas, has already posted a searchable database of who has voted so far during the early voting period of the general election, using data released daily by the Hidalgo County elections department. Users can find out who voted, where they voted and the date they voted. Staff writer Ryan Holeywell noted,…
Read MoreRoad repairs slower in minority neighborhoods
Keegan Kyle, Grant Smith and Ben Poston of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analyzed more than 11,000 pothole fixes in the city of Milwaukee and found that the city repaired potholes at a slower rate in minority neighborhoods in the first half of the year. Using SPSS, the analysis found that minority areas on the north…
Read MoreWater “dead zones” doubling each decade
A recent study shows that the number of “dead zones” in bodies of water across the globe has doubled every decade since the 1960s, reports Joel Achenbach of The Washington Post. Fertilizer in agriculture run-off and air pollution are two factors that are causing hypoxia in coastal waters. “A few hypoxic ecosystems have improved in…
Read MoreGun lobby mole revealed
A Mother Jones investigation by James Ridgeway, Daniel Schulman and David Corn reveals that an NRA spy had infiltrated anti-gun groups for the past several years. The investigation shows that Mary Lou Sapone, a freelance spy for the NRA, spent years posing as gun control activist Mary McFate. McFate had penetrated the highest ranks of…
Read MoreRenters caught in middle of foreclosure crisis
A report by Dina ElBoghdady of The Washington Post reveals that renters are becoming unwitting victims of the mortgage crisis as property owners lose houses to foreclosure. “Several localities around the country, as well as some members of Congress, are pushing to give renters more time before the new owners, usually banks, can evict them.…
Read MoreCompany receives subcontract despite link to bridge collapse
A company under investigation for its role the Minneapolis bridge collapse has received a substantial subcontract as part of the reconstruction project, reports Brian Bakst of the Associated Press. “Progressive Contractors Inc. will make nearly $3.6 million for paving and barrier work on the Mississippi River bridge project, according to records reviewed by the Associated…
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