Social issues
Bureaucratic failings put childrens’ lives at risk
In their continuing series on child welfare in Wisconsin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Gina Barton and Crocker Stephenson focused on the case of Will Robert Johnson who died at five months of age. After reviewing hundreds of pages of documents about the case — many of which are not public and were obtained from outside…
Read MoreSocial service agency failed to protect children
After facing roadblocks from the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, reporters Gina Barton and Crocker Stephenson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gathered thousands of pages of public records to create their own database of deaths within the system. They found that 22 children had died despite the bureau having clear warning signs that they…
Read MoreMillions await disability benefits due to backlog
An enormous backlog of disability claims have left millions waiting for their benefits leading to “splintered families, foreclosed homes and suicides,” reports Clark Kauffman of The Des Moines Register. “During the past year, the number of people waiting to have their claims processed has increased more than 30 percent, from 556,000 to more than 736,000…Nationally,…
Read MoreChildren die as bureaucracy stalls in LA County
“For at least 18 years, Los Angeles County has repeatedly received urgent and sometimes gruesome reminders that its agencies don’t share vital information about potentially abused or neglected children, according to a Times investigation. There have been numerous calls for reform—but little action. In the passing years, an unknown number of children have been harmed…
Read MoreSeries exposes conditions of aging mentally retarded workers
Clark Kauffman of the Des Moines Register follows up on the newspaper’s initial, exclusive stories about mentally retarded processing plant workers who spent 40 years living in an aging Iowa bunkhouse run by a Texas labor broker. The latest installment, “The Last Bunkhouse,” focuses on a licensed care facility on a rural Texas farm where…
Read MoreOhio children die despite state oversight
An investigation by Randy Ludlow of The Columbus Dispatch uncovered that more than one-third of the Ohio children who died from abuse and neglect from 2002 to 2007 died on the watch of county children services agencies. The story revealed that caseworkers regularly made fatal mistakes by leaving imperiled children in abusive homes. The package…
Read MoreDisabled patient was repeatedly victim of abuse
An investigation by Ruth Teichroeb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer explored the case of a profoundly developmentally disabled woman who was raped and impregnated in her own home. A nursing assistant was charged with rape. The investigation found that it was the second time in two years a male nursing assistant was suspected of sexually assaulting…
Read MoreRefugee programs struggle under increasing demand
The Salt Lake Tribune looked at the federal resettlement system that provides financial and social support for refugees relocating in Utah and throughout the U.S. The Tribune found the system quickly abandons refugees soon after their arrival. People coming from poor African nations and some parts of Asia, particularly those who have lived for a…
Read MoreAmerican Divide: The Immigration Crackdown
The Columbus Dispatch, in a four-part investigative series, explores the consequences in communities across the nation as states pass anti-immigration laws. The newspaper teamed with its Spanish-language weekly newspaper to produce the series, American Divide/The Immigration Crackdown. The report is available in both English and Spanish.
Read MoreHomeless used for fraud at three California hospitals
An FBI raid at three Southern California hospitals uncovered “a massive scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded healthcare programs of millions of dollars by recruiting homeless patients for unnecessary medical services,” according to a report in The Los Angeles Times. The chief executive at one hospital faces criminal charges, while executives from two other facilities have been…
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