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Prince George’s County officials abuse credit card privileges
Cheryl W. Thompson of The Washington Post reports that officials in Prince George’s County charged thousands of dollar in personal purchases to county-issued credit cards. ” The Washington Post reviewed billing statements and other documents covering credit-card use over the past four years for officials in Prince George’s, where there has been a move to…
Read MoreCardiologist given no-show contracts at New Jersey medical school
Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin of The Star-Ledger cover the details emerging from a “whistle blower lawsuit” against the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. In an effort to make their cardiac surgery program seem robust to avoid being shut down, UMDNJ “ paid at least nine local cardiologists in private practice salaries…
Read MoreBeyond Sago – a series on mine safety
Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette analyzed government reports and data and found that 9 out of every 10 coal mining deaths nationwide over the last 10 years could have been avoided if existing safety rules had been followed. Ward’s report, the first in a series of special investigative stories, appeared in Sunday’s…
Read MoreCollege coaches cash in
Jodi Upton and Steve Wieberg of USA Today have taken an extensive look at the contracts of NCAA Division 1-A football coaches. “Head coaches at the NCAA’s top-level schools are making an average of $950,000 this year, not counting benefits, incentives, subsidized housing or any of the perks they routinely receive. At least 42 of…
Read MoreClocking the Cops
Tisha Thompson of WMAR-Baltimore found that police officers in Baltimore continuously broke speed limits, sometimes by over 10mph, even in the absence of an emergency. The investigation revealed that in an emergency, fifty percent of the police cars drove at more than 10 mph over the speed limit.Armed with hidden cameras, the investigators also found…
Read MorePost-election mapping wrap-up
Cincinati Enquirer takes a county-by-county look at the Democratic shift in Ohio The Herald Tribune’s coverage of the 13th Congressional District recount and the vote breakdown by precinct The Fresno Bee covers the neck-in-neck race for sheriff with a map showing how the votes split
Read MoreViolent crime in Houston on the rise
Mark Greenblatt of KHOU-TV looks at a surge in violent crimes in Houston – an increase of 22% in the last 2 years. For the story, Greenblatt used Access, Excel, ArcGIS, and CrimeStat to first look for trends in rise in specific crimes, then mapped them out to find further trends. Included in the report…
Read More“Inquest for a Warrior”
The Associated Press has published a series, “Inquest for a Warrior”, which looks at the probe into the April 2004 death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. Startling findings in the Tillman probe Pat Tillman’s last day, reconstructed Penalties resulting from Tillman’s death Charges possible in Pat Tillman’s death Sources used by the AP in Tillman…
Read MoreCampaign finance at the local level
As the election nears, it’s nice to see a collection of state-level campaign finance stories, since most of the attention is on the federal races. Among the recent examples is a St. Louis Post-Dispatch piece on electric utility donations to state lawmakers and a story on gubernatorial donors related to the Trans-Texas Corridor in the…
Read MoreABC 15 investigators take a fresh look at the Bolles murder
ABC 15 investigator Abbie Boudreau looks at the murder of Don Bolles murder 30 years after his car was bombed. Bolles died 11 days later. With new evidence and questions about the killing of Don Bolles, ABC 15 calls into question whether an innocent man, Max Dunlap, was framed for one of Arizona’s most infamous…
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