Search results for:
Virginia Supreme Court: FOIA does not cover faculty emails, unpublished research
Faculty emails and unpublished university research can be deemed “proprietary” and withheld under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the Virginia Supreme Court announced last week. The law was called into question in 2011 when the American Tradition Institute and Virginia Del. Robert Marshall filed a request for emails of Michael Mann, a prominent climate…
Read MoreComplaints: A road map for killer investigations
By Hannah Schmidt Jill Riepenhoff, a projects reporter at The Columbus Dispatch, and Tisha Thompson, an investigative reporter for WRC-Washington D.C., use consumer and professional complaints to fuel their investigations. In these audio clips the two reporters offer advice on where to look for complaints and how to use them. In Columbus, Ohio, landlords allowing homes…
Read MoreDo universities play a role in student suicides?
By Nikhila Henry, The Times of India Photo from the The Struggle Committee for Justice for Mudasir Kamran Facebook page Can the dead talk? In rare cases they do. Mudassir Kamran, a 25-year-old Kashmiri student hanged himself in a single bed hostel room at English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, India on March 2, 2013.…
Read MoreMore than a third of Massachusetts board seats are vacant, expired
Massachusetts is facing a little noticed breakdown in democracy. More than one-third of seats on state boards and commissions are either vacant or occupied by people whose terms expired months or years ago, according to a Globe review last week. In all, the Globe counted 919 vacancies and 867 holdover members on nearly 700 boards…
Read MoreNew York State Police kept missing evidence scandal secret
The State Police kept secret an evidence-handling scandal that erupted in 2011 at a bustling barracks in Westchester County in which drugs and other evidence were lost, leading to botched prosecutions, the retirement of two senior investigators and the forced resignation of a trooper accused of lying to internal affairs investigators. The only person arrested…
Read MorePennsylvania health care system tried to study shall-gas drilling impact
A major Pennsylvania health-care system invited New York to participate in a long-term, extensive study of shale-gas drilling’s human impacts, but a partnership never materialized. The February 2013 invitation from a Geisinger Health System administrator was among thousands of pages of documents recently released by the state Department of Health regarding its ongoing review of…
Read MoreMilwaukee County jail guard stalked, videotaped female co-workers
When former Milwaukee County jail guard Aron Arvelo was charged recently with two felonies accusing him of secretly recording female co-workers, it wasn’t the first time he had run into trouble for harassing women. Just 2 1/2 years earlier, officials tried unsuccessfully to fire Arvelo after he was caught stalking a co-worker. But a five-member…
Read MoreAir Force pilot grounded for speaking out
The Air Force has spent tens of millions of dollars over the past two years correcting problems with its premier jet fighter – issues that Capt. Joshua Wilson helped expose by speaking up, both to his bosses and on national television. Since then, Wilson’s career as an F-22 Raptor pilot has stalled. A member of…
Read MoreMassachusetts Legislature passes fewer bills than most states
From January 2011 through last month, the Massachusetts Legislature enacted 945 bills – just 5 percent of nearly 17,600 proposed. Only New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota passed a smaller percentage of proposed legislation in that time, according to data compiled from the LexisNexis website Statenet.com.
Read MoreIowa City taxi drivers assault passengers
Earlier this year, three women reported that Iowa City drivers — two from unmarked cabs — made unwanted sexual advances, and police are investigating. The assaults show another form of danger haunting weekends in home to the University of Iowa when alcohol flows and carefree moments make students easy marks. Many city officials agree that…
Read More