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In a five-month investigation, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., looked at court attendance among police officers. Reporters Jason Riley and R.G. Dunlop found, “More than 600 defendants facing such felony charges as drug dealing, robbery, burglary and assault were set free in 2007 because the Louisville Metro Police officers who arrested them failed to appear…

Tisha Thompson at WTTG-Washington, D.C., found more than one-third of federal judges are at least 70 years old, the age at which the majority of states require their judges to retire. One judge is more than 101 years old and still hearing a full case load. Thompson created an interactive Web site with state-by-state comparisons…

“A two month I-Team investigation into Office Depot and its lucrative contracts with local governments and schools, is prompting swift action by Missouri’s Attorney General,” reports Leisa Zigman of KDSK-St. Louis.  The investigation revealed deceptive pricing and over-charging on products outlined in the contracts.  Former Office Depot senior sales account manager David Sherwin stated, “The…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…