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Highway plan too costly to execute
Tim Darragh of The Morning Call investigated why the move to widen a local highway, Route 22, seemed highly unlikely, despite the backing of several powerful groups. “The widening plan has backers that include those who lobbied for and got construction of such landmark road projects as the completion of Route 33 from the Poconos…
Read MoreProblem officers responsible for using excessive force
Susan Sward, Bill Wallace and Elizabeth Fernandez, with contributions from Lois Jermyn, of the San Francisco Chronicle used city police logs to create a database tracking the use of force by officers, finding that, for years, the San Francisco Police Department has failed to control officers who repeatedly resort to force, hitting, choking, clubbing and…
Read MoreNFL players dying young because of weight-related ailments
Thomas Hargrove of the Scripps Howard News Service tracked the deaths of 3,850 pro football players to show that athletes of the National Football League are dying young at an alarming rate and many of the players are succumbing to ailments typically related to weight. The heaviest athletes are more than twice as likely to…
Read MoreMalpractice cases raise questions about hospital’s care
Rob Perez of The Honolulu Advertiser investigated the Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii to show that a number of families are seeking compensation for what they allege was substandard care, in a series that looks at medical malpractice at Tripler. “The cases have generated questions about the overall quality of care provided at the…
Read MoreDenver code enforcement cases on the rise
Daniel J. Chacón of the Rocky Mountain News used local data to show that code-enforcement cases in Denver increased more than 12 percent between 2004 and 2005 and by more than 20 percent in five of the city’s 11 council districts, according to data obtained under a Colorado Open Records Act request. “The number of…
Read MoreKansas City speeders plead to lower offenses
Michael Mansur of The Kansas City Star used computer-assisted analysis of court records to show the court repeatedly allows thousands of speeders and red-light runners to reduce dangerous moving violations to defective-equipment pleas. That means tickets for serious violations are pleaded down to offenses such as broken taillights, which means no points against a driver’s…
Read MoreFlorida law fails in treatment of sexual offenders
Jason Grotto of The Miami Herald analyzed more than 100,000 cases of sexual crimes, reviewed court cases, state records and documents and conducted dozens of interviews to show that seven years after the passage of the Jimmy Ryce Act, Florida’s program for screening, confining and treating the worst sexual offenders is failing. The four-part series…
Read MoreMurderers go unpunished in Newark
Jonathan Schuppe and William Kleinknecht of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger analyzed homicides in Essex County between 1998 and 2003 and found killers went unpunished more often than they went to prison. In the cases in which a defendant was convicted, more than a quarter led to prison sentences of 10 years or less. “Essex County…
Read MoreFood, tobacco giants share expertise
Patricia Callahan, Jeremy Manier and Delroy Alexander of the Chicago Tribune examined tobacco-lawsuit documents to show that America’s largest foodmaker and its biggest cigarette company have pooled expertise in search of more alluring foods and cigarettes since the dawn of their corporate pairing two decades ago. “Documents show Northfield-based Kraft collaborated on flavor issues with…
Read MoreCharities exploit vulnerable elderly
Jon Burstein of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reviewed more than 700 pages of court documents and sworn statements involving two companies, as well as more than 1,500 pages of financial records obtained by the Attorney General’s Office to show a pattern of telemarketers getting money from senior citizens who seem confused or hearing-impaired. The Global…
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