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Michigan schools face economic time bomb
According to a report by Ron French of The Detroit News “Michigan’s school retirement system is riddled with loopholes and slipshod policies costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and driving the state’s public education system toward financial crisis.” In the 2006-07 school year, the cost of retirement benefits per student was $1,015 — more…
Read MoreCitizen Watchdog
Jennifer LeFleur, computer-assisted reporting editor for The Dallas Morning News writes a online column every other week that helps readers understand how they can access, and benefit from, public records. An archive of her past columns can be found here.
Read MoreSex offenders dwell near St. Louis area schools
Leisa Zigman of KSDK-St. Louis reports on sex offenders living near schools in the St. Louis metro area. KSDK’s investigation found that, despite stringent laws, more than 100 sex offenders were living within 1,000 feet of schools because of failure to enforce existing laws. “According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, from 2004 through 2006,…
Read MoreViolence increases in Milwaukee schools
A four-part series by Sarah Carr of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel indicates that violence in the Milwaukee Public Schools system is “intensifying.” The stories show that gun seizures have doubled, and a quarter of the 300 teachers attacked every year go on to file worker’s compensation claims against the district. A review of daily police…
Read MoreMedical research group’s conflicts of interest revealed
Reporters Susanne Rust and Cary Spivak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed conflicts of interest involving the Constella Group, a private health research company that performs hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work for the federal government while also representing major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies such as Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. The reporters analyzed federal…
Read MoreNFL arrests consistent with general population rates
Brent Schrotenboer of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports on an investigation into hundreds of news reports and public records since 2000 to compile an unofficial list of 308 arrests and citations involving NFL players for all offenses except speeding tickets. The paper “found that the league’s biggest problems with the law are in many ways…
Read MoreWasting Away: Superfund’s Toxic Legacy
The Center for Public Integrity has taken a look at the state of Superfund sites throughout the US. Twenty-seven years after the government developed a program to identify and clean up the worst of these sites, toxic waste remains a problem across the country. “A one-year investigation by the Center for Public Integrity reveals the…
Read MoreAdministration aids GOP through election fraud claims
Greg Gordon of McClatchy’s Washington, D.C., bureau, reports that the Bush administration tried to curb voter turnout in critical battleground states over the last six years, based on information from written documents and former department lawyers. As Democratic groups amped up voter registration, the administration increased claims of election fraud and created more stringent voter…
Read MoreOSHA decreases regulatory role under Bush
The New York Times‘s Stephen Labaton (with contributions by Ron Nixon) reports that, under the Bush Administration, OSHA has moved away from its regulatory role in workplace safety. Since George W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It has imposed only one major safety…
Read MoreSex and the CIA
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report reveals how female spy veterans of the CIA are taking legal action for being disciplined over
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