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Racial Diversity in adoptions on the rise
Lynette Clemetson and Ron Nixon of The New York Times looked at federal records and data maintained by Cornell University to identify a rise in interracial adoptions. “In 2004, 26 percent of black children adopted from foster care, about 4,200, were adopted transracially, nearly all by whites. That is up from roughly 14 percent, or…
Read More“Adult interference” inflates NJ test scores
The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Frank Kummer and Melanie Burney expose the findings of a New Jersey Department of Education report on irregular test scores in the region. While avoiding the use of the word cheating, the report found that “adult interference” was the likely culprit of unusually high test scores in the Camden area. The Department…
Read MoreACS Data Spawns Slew of Stories
Following the release of the American Community Survey data by the Census Bureau, Mary Jo Sylwester of the St. Paul Pioneer Press compiled a list of stories utilizing the data set. Some of these include: Impact of immigrants on churches, St. Paul Pioneer Press A third of the households in Wisconsin are individuals living alone,…
Read MoreHospital profits from nonprofit tax loopholes
Tim Darragh and Ann Wlazelek, of The Morning Call, report on the Lehigh Valley (PA) Hospital which posted a record surplus – $ 76 million – in 2005. “Such boomtown prosperity at a nonprofit institution is allowed under the tax code as long as the hospital provides a substantial “community benefit” each year in exchange…
Read MoreBlack students leaving Birmingham (Ala.) schools
Jeff Hansen and Marie Leech of The Birmingham News report on black flight from Birmingham’s public schools and its impact on suburban school districts. In the past five years, Birmingham schools have lost 20 percent of their students. Nine of every 10 of those 7,300 children who left the city were black.
Read MoreWar Crimes in Vietnam went unpunished
A report by Nick Turse and Deborah Nelson for the Los Angeles Times shows recently declassified documents regarding war crimes committed during the Vietnam War establish that hundreds of soldiers went unpunished for crimes against Vietnamese civilians. “The records describe recurrent attacks on ordinary Vietnamese
Read MoreCity officials in Iowa generously compensated
“City managers and administrators in the Des Moines area and other large Iowa cities tend to be paid well above the national average – some by more than nearly double the national average,” reported Jason Clayworth and Melissa Walker of the Des Moines Register. By looking at the compensation packages given to city government officials,…
Read MoreValero seeks millions from TX counties
L.A. Lorek of the San Antonio Express-News reports that counties in Texas may end up paying Valero – the nation’s largest independent refiner – millions of dollars due to inflated property assessments. Valero contends that “most of its Bexar properties
Read MoreFlorida plans for potential Cuban exodus
Kevin Begos, of the Tampa Tribune, reports that Florida has a plan in place to handle the potential influx of Cuban immigrants into the state. The Tribune obtained the state’s Mass Migration Response plan through a public records request. Plans include “setting up long-term detention sites across the country” to help defray the logistical stress…
Read MoreBehind the mask of the Mo. execution doctor
Jeremy Kohler, of the St. Lousi Post-Dispatch, uncovered the identity of the doctor responsible supervising Missouri’s lethal injection procedure. Banned from practicing in two hospitals in the state, charged with malpractice over 20 times and having received a public reprimand in 2003 by the state Board of Healing Arts, Alan R. Doerhoff has overseen lethal…
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