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Chicago recycling program success exagerated
Laurie Cohen and Dan Mihalopoulos of the Chicago Tribune, along with Gary Washburn, used city records to show that “less paper, plastic, metals and other recyclables were salvaged from Chicago’s household garbage in the last two years than at any time since the program’s earliest years.” The paper’s investigation found that the city “has quietly…
Read MoreState officials overspending, despite fiscal crisis
Louis Hansen and David Gulliver of The Virginian-Pilot obtained spending records from Virginia’s Department of Game & Inland Fisheries showing that “officials regularly traveled to conventions, bought expensive sporting goods and routinely exceeded limits on their state-issued charge cards … Oversight of the department’s use of charge cards appeared lax: 19 different employees exceeded their…
Read MoreLegislators double salaries with expense checks
Bonna de la Cruz of The (Nashville) Tennessean analyzed state data to find that “twenty-seven Midstate lawmakers double their salaries or better by collecting state expense checks whether they incur the expenses or not. The expense checks – which are taxed by the IRS as income because they are not linked to any documented cost…
Read MoreFines not paid by out-of-state violators
Gregory Korte of The Cincinnati Enquirer analyzed nearly 100,000 parking tickets issued in Cincinnati last year, finding that “Kentucky violators rarely pay anything at all, because the office responsible for collecting fines doesn’t trace out-of-state license plates. That resulted in an out-of-state collection rate of just 2.5 percent, compared to 87.9 percent overall.” Fines for…
Read MorePACs make up large chunk of campaign contributions
Jennifer Talhelm of The (Columbia) State reviewed campaign contributions to South Carolina state lawmakers during the final six months of 2004, finding that “36 cents of every dollar … given to House and Senate lawmakers in the last two reporting periods of 2004 was tied to businesses, PACs or other special interest groups. During that…
Read MoreExpunged records raise concern over judicial fairness
Steve Myers of the Mobile Register reveals the existence of hundreds of court cases where convictions were removed from the public record. “The practice of expunging records came to the forefront recently due to the case of Mobile County school board President David Thomas, who was arrested for drunken driving in 1998. Before he was…
Read MoreFlaws found in Head Start program
Susan Vinella of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer used state reports to show that “Ohio’s largest Head Start agency has repeatedly failed to enroll the number of children it has been paid to serve and has erroneously reported children eligible for the program.” The paper also found that top officials at the Council for Economic Opportunities…
Read MorePolice response times longer in certain areas
Paul Goodsell and Lynn Safranek of the Omaha World-Herald examined 911 calls between 2000 and 2004 to find that “police took longest to respond to west Omaha calls. East of I-680, it took an average of 6 minutes and 31 seconds last year for the first officer to arrive on the highest priority calls. West…
Read MoreProblem cops keep badges through troubled system
Ron Menchaca and Glenn Smith of the Charleston Post and Courier investigated South Carolina’s agency that oversees law enforcement, finding “endemic failures in the state’s system for tracking police officers that allow problem cops to keep their badges despite histories of misconduct and even criminal behavior… Until three years ago, the state turned a blind…
Read MoreInvestigation uncovers reasons for Devil Ray’s failures
Marc Topkin, Damian Cristodero and Louis Hau of the St. Petersburg Times examines the ten-year history of Tampa Bay’s major league baseball franchise, finding that the Devil Rays’ lack of success can be attributed to a number of factors: * Major League Baseball put the new owners in a financial hole before the team ever…
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