Watchdog Reporting

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 6-13-2013

AP: NSA revelations spark privacy debate

The Associated Press reported Americans have made peace for more than a decade now with the uneasy knowledge that someone — government, business or both — might be watching. We knew that the technology was there. We knew that the law might allow it. As we stood under a security camera at a street corner, connected with friends online or talked on a smart phone equipped with GPS, we knew, too, it was conceivable that we might be monitored. Now, though, paranoid fantasies have come face to face with modern reality: The government IS collecting our phone records. The technological marvels of our age have opened the door to the National Security Agency's sweeping surveillance of Americans' calls. Torn between our desires for privacy and protection, we're now forced to decide what we really want. "I don't think that people routinely accept the idea that government should be able to do what it wants to do," said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "It's not just about privacy. It's about responsibility ... and you only get to evaluate that when government is more public about its conduct."

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765631684/NSA-revelations-force-question-What-do-we-want.html

AP: Texas non-profit donates shotguns to fight crime

The Associated Press reports the northwest Houston community of Oak Forest is the first neighborhood in the country being trained and equipped by the Armed Citizen Project, a Houston nonprofit that is giving away free shotguns to single women and residents of neighborhoods with high crime rates. While many cities have tried gun buy-backs and other tactics in the ongoing national debate on gun control, the nonprofit and its supporters say gun giveaways to responsible owners are actually a better way to deter crime. The organization, which plans to offer training classes in Dallas, San Antonio, and Tucson, Ariz., in the next few weeks, is working to expand its giveaways to 15 cities by the end of the year, including Chicago and New York. But others in Houston, while expressing support for Second Amendment rights, question whether more guns will result in more gun-related deaths rather than less crime.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/210698351.html

Miami Herald: Homestead mayor’s ties to downtown redeveloper probed

The Miami Herald reported that as Miami-Dade County’s real estate market went bust, vocational school maverick Ernesto A. Perez began looking south to scoop up properties in Homestead’s depressed downtown to open a new link in his chain of for-profit colleges. Perez would soon discover two eager allies: Mayor Steven Bateman and his wife, Donna, a real estate agent. Now, the mayor is under criminal investigation for allegedly pushing Perez’s project to build a university on city-owned land, for which he lobbied feverishly behind the scenes while publicly maintaining a discreet distance. Public records suggest Bateman badgered Homestead government staffers and manipulated the process in a bid to help Perez purchase the municipal properties in the historic-but-lifeless downtown area at a fraction of the appraised value — while steering Perez’s real estate transaction to his wife.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/08/3441091/homestead-mayors-ties-to-downtown.html

Dallas Morning News: Seventy Texas sites store potentially explosive chemical

The Dallas Morning News reports that in Texas, a state that imposes few restrictions on ammonium nitrate and even prohibits fire codes in many places where it is stored, businesses that handle the chemical are re-examining their practices. And local firefighters and emergency coordinators have moved quickly to shore up their own preparedness. Some 20,000 people live within a half mile of the more than 70 sites in Texas that reported having large stores of ammonium nitrate, a Dallas Morning Newsanalysis of state data found. In West, now the site of one of the worst chemical accidents in recent U.S. history, about 800 people lived within the half-mile area that sustained the heaviest damage. Fifteen people, including 12 volunteer firefighters and other first responders, died when about 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate exploded at the locally owned company. The blast injured more than 200 others and destroyed nearby apartments, houses and a nursing home.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/west-explosion/headlines/20130608-at-least-74-texas-sites-report-large-stores-of-potentially-explosive-ammonium-nitrate.ece?ssimg=1053984

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: DA spent forfeited funds on galas, meals

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has used thousands of dollars from a little-known stash of public money to buy things that did not have much to do with putting crooks behind bars, but that burnished his image, let him hobnob with power brokers and even upgraded his home. During the past five years, Howard spent $2,700 on wrought-iron security doors for his house. He bought $4,450 worth of tickets to the Bank of America Atlanta Football Classic. Some $6,000 went to a lawyers group that inducted him into its Hall of Fame. Tens of thousands more went to office parties, black-tie affairs, and donations to well-connected churches and nonprofits.All the while, Howard complained to county commissioners that any cuts to his office could force him to lay off prosecutors. Howard made these purchases with state civil forfeiture money, which is made up of funds seized because law enforcement thinks they are connected to drug dealing, racketeering or other crime. Often times, Howard’s office administrator requested the spending, which he and his underlings approved.

http://www.myajc.com/news/news/fulton-da-spent-forfeiture-funds-on-charity-galas-/nYDbD/?icmp=ajc_internallink_textlink_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajc_launch

Lexington Herald-Leader: Lawmaker linked to mines with safety issues

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports Kentucky State Rep. Keith Hall, chairman of the House committee on energy, holds the permits for Pike County coal mines with a repetitive pattern of safety and environmental violations. Since 2010, state inspectors have cited Hall's Beech Creek Coal Co. and other companies mining coal on his permits for dropping rocks on homes; mining outside of permitted areas; water pollution; failing to obey regulations on blasting, reclamation and maintaining slurry ponds; and allowing rocks, dirt and trees to slide down slopes. "It's a danger to everybody out here, I think. Every time you hear the blast, you wonder if something's about to come down on you," said Barbara Eldridge of the Phelps community.

Eldridge lives next to the largest of Beech Creek Coal's three surface mines near Phelps in sparsely populated eastern Pike County. That mine has produced more than 410,000 tons of coal in three years and, at its busiest, has employed 40 people. A year ago, a jagged slab of rock the size of a truck tire traveled 613 feet down from the mine and slammed into Eldridge's home, denting a wall and shattering a paved walkway.

http://www.kentucky.com/2013/06/09/2671688/state-lawmaker-holds-permit-for.html

Los Angeles Times: Tire rentals capitalize on poor

The Los Angeles Times reports growing numbers of Americans, socked by soaring tire prices and short on funds, are renting the rubber to keep their cars rolling. Rent-to-own tire shops are among the newest arrivals to a sprawling alternative financial sector focused on the nation's economic underclass. Like payday lenders, pawn shops and Buy Here Pay Hereused-car lots, tire rental businesses provide ready credit to consumers who can't get a loan anywhere else. But that access doesn't come cheap. Customers pay huge premiums for their tires, sometimes four times above retail. Those who miss payments may find their car on cinder blocks, stripped of their tires by dealers who aggressively repossess. Tire rental contracts are so ironclad that even a bankruptcy filing can't make them go away. Still, with payments as low as $14 a week, rent-to-own — long the province of sofa sets and flat-screen TVs — is proving irresistible for consumers desperate for safe transportation. It's also a booming business for specialized tire and wheel dealers that have become beneficiaries of a struggling U.S. economy. Fast-expanding chains with names like Rent-a-Wheel and EZ Rims 4 Rent that got their start selling high-end rims to car enthusiasts have discovered a lucrative market selling tires on time.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/08/business/la-fi-rent-a-tire-20130609

New York Times: How the U.S. uses technology to mine data quickly

The New York Times reports that when American analysts hunting terrorists sought new ways to comb through the troves of phone records, e-mails and other data piling up as digital communications exploded over the past decade, they turned to Silicon Valley computer experts who had developed complex equations to thwart Russian mobsters intent on credit card fraud. The partnership between the intelligence community and Palantir Technologies, a Palo Alto, Calif., company founded by a group of inventors from PayPal, is just one of many that the National Security Agencyand other agencies have forged as they have rushed to unlock the secrets of "Big Data.” Today, a revolution in software technology that allows for the highly automated and instantaneous analysis of enormous volumes of digital information has transformed the N.S.A., turning it into the virtual landlord of the digital assets of Americans and foreigners alike. The new technology has, for the first time, given America’s spies the ability to track the activities and movements of people almost anywhere in the world without actually watching them or listening to their conversations. New disclosures that the N.S.A. has secretly acquired the phone records of millions of Americans and access to e-mails, videos and other data of foreigners from nine United States Internet companies have provided a rare glimpse into the growing reach of the nation’s largest spy agency.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/us/revelations-give-look-at-spy-agencys-wider-reach.html?pagewanted=all

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Ticketing for texting up in New York

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports texting-while-driving tickets have soared in recent years, but only 44 percent have led to convictions so far, New York state records show.

A backlog of court cases, the ability to plead down the charges and the difficulty in proving a person was texting and driving have made convictions elusive in New York, law enforcement officials said. "One of the difficulties would be, if the text hasn’t been completed, it would be difficult to prove that a text was sent in the process of driving,” said Peter Kehoe, executive director of the state Sheriff’s Association. The conviction rate for talking on a cell phone was nearly double the rate of texting tickets, according to state Department of Motor Vehicles records analyzed by Gannett’s Albany Bureau. About 82 percent of tickets for talking on a cell phone led to convictions on the charge between 2001 and May 2013. The texting law took effect in 2009.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20130609/NEWS01/306090023

Tampa Tribune: Worst charities give little to help others

The Tampa Tribune and the Center for Investigative Reporting report the worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse behind a gas station in Holiday, Fla. Every year, Kids Wish Network raises millions of dollars in donations in the name of dying children and their families. Every year, it spends less than 3 cents on the dollar helping kids. Most of the rest gets diverted to enrich the charity's operators and the for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations. In the past decade alone, Kids Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate solicitors. An additional $4.8 million has gone to pay the charity's founder and his own consulting firms. No charity in the nation has siphoned more money away from the needy over a longer period of time. But Kids Wish is not an isolated case, a yearlong investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and The Center for Investigative Reporting has found. Using state and federal records, the Times and CIR identified nearly 6,000 charities that have chosen to pay for-profit companies to raise their donations.

Then reporters took an unprecedented look back to zero in on the 50 worst — based on the money they diverted to boiler room operators and other solicitors over a decade. These nonprofits adopt popular causes or mimic well-known charity names that fool donors. Then they rake in cash, year after year. The nation's 50 worst charities have paid their solicitors nearly $1 billion over the past 10 years that could have gone to charitable works.

http://www.tampabay.com/topics/specials/worst-charities1.page

Palm Beach Post: Profit and compensation dwarf fine for insurer

The Palm Beach Post reports two top executives alone pocketed compensation more than nine times bigger than a $1.26 million state fine over canceled policies against Florida’s largest private-sector insurer, whose parent company conducted its annual meeting last week at an oceanfront resort two states away. A reporter who is not a shareholder was not allowed inside Universal Insurance Holdings Inc.’s annual meeting in Hilton Head Island, S.C., but executives agreed to talk to The Palm Beach Post afterward. Universal has more than 66,000 customers in its largest market, Palm Beach County. "I want to make this clear: We’re not happy if people suffer or have issues,” said Sean Downes, president and CEO. "If people tell the truth, we pay claims.” Downes received $6.7 million in total compensation last year, documents presented to shareholders show. Outgoing president Bradley Meier got $5 million. Back in Florida, Ronald Ward said he is still living in a 29-foot trailer in his yard. He said Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co. refused to pay for a house fire that caused more than $90,000 of damage. Universal voided the policy because an agent failed to note in an application years before that he had been a co-signer on a delinquent credit account for his elderly father, he said — a debt that was resolved. Florida regulators fined the insurer a little more than a week ago for practices including one the state’s insurance consumer advocate has called "reprehensible.”

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/profit-paydwarf-finefor-insureruniversal/nYFwj/?icmp=pbp_internallink_textlink_apr2013_pbpstubtomypbp_launch

Press of Atlantic City: Aging water pipes will drive up N.J. water bills

The Press of Atlantic City reports an expensive problem is buried beneath South Jersey — the winding maze of pipes that delivers drinking water to faucets and taps is getting old. Very old, in some cases, and that age could prove costly to South Jersey water customers. Some industry officials, including the state Board of Public Utilities and a bipartisan collection of former state executives, have been indicating the state’s water infrastructure should be replaced. That would inevitably mean higher water bills, and in some parts of the country bills could triple in the next 25 years to handle replacement costs, the American Water Works Association said in a 2012 report. The average monthly water bill in New Jersey is currently about $45 a month, according to BPU data. "I expect water rates will have to rise significantly in order to fund all this infrastructure replacement,” said Gary Ziegler, director of the Wildwood Water Utility, which this year is replacing about three miles of mains among its 120 miles of pipe. "For the last 100 years, water was a real bargain. It’s still a bargain today, but when you think the residents of Wildwood are paying $50 or $60 every three months for water, just how much is your cable bill or electric bill?” In New Jersey, it’s estimated replacing drinking-water infrastructure will cost $7.9 billion over the next 20 years, the Environmental Protection Agency said in an April report to Congress.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/ocean/replacing-south-jersey-s-aging-water-pipes-could-drive-up/article_4de469da-d0bb-11e2-bb35-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm

Sunday News Journal: High rate of recidivism seen in Delaware prisons

The Sunday News Journal reported a six-month analysis of more than a decade’s worth of state criminal justice data found that nearly 60 percent of Delaware’s offenders face a new serious criminal charge within three years of their release. Most are charged in their first year out of prison. Violent offenders leaving prison are more likely to commit another violent crime, the newspaper’s analysis shows. And a tiny fraction of Delaware’s criminals – 10 percent – are responsible for half of the state’s serious crime, according to the analysis. Delaware spends about $267 million a year on corrections and has tried different strategies to keep people from coming back. Many offenders received second and third chances on probation. Repeat criminals warranted extra supervision. The state gave them counseling, job training, education, parenting classes and mentoring, as well as dozens of other programs. But for years, the state didn’t invest one penny to measure how effective its corrections system has been at keeping offenders from committing new crimes, a pattern known as recidivism. The last time the state looked at the problem was 2000. And that was only a one-time snapshot of prisoners returning after their release in the 1980s and early 1990s.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130609/NEWS02/306090044/Repeat-offenders

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 6-6-2013

Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Congressional travel rose in 2012, despite calls for trims

The (Sarasota, Fla.) Herald-Tribune Jeremy Wallace reported that, despite political calls to trim expenses, congressional travel increased in 2012 with House members taking 864 international trips to 95 different counties. Twenty lame duck members of Congress were the most egregious travelers, traveling to France, Monaco and Spain after it was clear they were not returning to Congress and even when their committee assignments offered no obvious need for international travel. Relying primarily on the Congressional Record, Wallace sifted through more than 2,000 travel records. The story has caught the attention of one member of Congress who in early June attempted to amend the Defense Department budget to require more reporting of congressional travel when military aircraft are used. The story included a searchable database of House members’ reported travel in 2012. http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130511/ARTICLE/130519944/2416/NEWS

Boston Globe: IRS raids taxi HQ after Globe report on exploitation

The Boston Globe reported that Internal Revenue Service agents executed a federal search warrant May 31 at the headquarters of Boston Cab, the largest taxi company in the city and the focus of a recent Globe Spotlight Team investigation that found widespread exploitation in the industry. The agents, accompanied by Boston and Cambridge police officers and agents from the US Secret Service and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General, descended on the Kilmarnock Street garage around 3 p.m.

Jessica Crocker, an IRS agent and spokeswoman for the agency’s Boston office, said the IRS was "conducting a court-authorized operation” but referred all other questions to the office of US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. A spokeswoman for Ortiz said that the US District Court search warrant was sealed and that prosecutors were not releasing any information. Boston Cab is owned by Edward J. Tutunjian, a Jordanian-born multimillionaire who entered the cab business in Boston in the 1960s and now owns 372 taxi medallions. The king of Boston’s taxi industry, he owns about one in five of the city’s 1,825 medallions, each worth approximately $600,000. A three-part Spotlight Team series in March and April documented that many taxi drivers pay Tutunjian’s staff small bribes to get keys to Boston Cab vehicles that they lease for about $100 per 12-hour shift. Drivers are pressured to buy gasoline at above-market prices from Tutunjian’s gas pump, and are often told to cover phantom shortfalls that they cannot dispute because they do not get receipts.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/2013/05/31/taxi/6ByQni2zssIwVcjVhfx5UO/story.html

Washington Post: Surging insurance costs smack coastal-state homeowners

The Washington Post reports rates for homeowner coverage from Cape Cod to the southern tip of Texas have risen sharply since 2003, pinching homeowners financially, forcing them to take greater risk by accepting higher deductibles and sparking outrage as insurance companies report profits higher in many coastal states than inland. Nationwide, the cost of homeowners insurance rose 36 percent from 2003 to 2010 — almost double the rate of inflation. Of the 15 states where rates increased by the largest percentages in that time, 14 border the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, according to an analysis of National Association of Insurance Commissioners figures by The Associated Press. All those states saw rates go up at least 44 percent. Rates in Florida rose 91 percent, most in the nation, while rates in Rhode Island went up 62 percent. Insurers say the increases are necessary to offset the risk they take in insuring millions of homeowners in harm’s way, but their increasingly angry customers question how they calculate rates and whether state officials in charge of balancing public and corporate interest are being too favorable toward the companies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/as-hurricane-season-begins-coastal-homeowners-feel-the-pinch-with-climbing-insurance-rates/2013/05/31/c79c124c-ca07-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html

Kansas City Star: More employees stand up for their health at work

The Kansas City Star reports workers across American offices are dumping their sit-down desk chairs in favor of standing desks, treadmill desks and big exercise, or stability, balls. Researchers say the small but growing trend is a very good thing. Regardless of body type, fitness level or overall state of health, it’s hard on human health to sit all day, repeated studies indicate. A human nutrition professor at Kansas State University recently used data from a long-term health study of Australian men to show a strong correlation between longer daily hours spent sitting and more chronic disease like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer. The more people sat, the greater their health risks, according to Richard Rosenkranz’s study. Another study found a link between colon cancer and long periods of sitting. The link is relevant to more than just couch potatoes. Desk-bound office workers, truck drivers and others who sit for many of their waking hours need to move around more, experts say.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/31/4267121/more-employees-stand-up-for-their.html

Los Angeles Times: Private university to cash in on taxpayer-owned Coliseum

The Los Angeles Times reports that about five years ago County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky denounced a proposal that the University of Southern California take control of the taxpayer-owned Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and its revenue. "Some people on the board of trustees of the University of Southern California thought they could bully the Coliseum Commission into giving away the facility to the university for 75 years for nothing," said Yaroslavsky, a longtime member of the stadium panel. "We were about to give away the naming rights, the parking revenue rights, the concession rights, all those things, to a private university.... I won't stand for it," he told a homeowners group. Yaroslavsky and the rest of the commission rejected USC's bid then. Now, however, the panel has agreed to give USC everything it wanted — and then some. And they have secured relatively little for the public in return. The commission has approved a new leaseto replace a 25-year agreement that was signed a few months after Yaroslavsky's address. The new document could win final approval next week, when a state board is scheduled to vote on it. But even some who believe USC would run the venue better than the trouble-plagued Coliseum Commission say the deal shortchanges taxpayers. Commission leaders carved out the new deal largely in secret, saying it was necessary to keep the 90-year-old Coliseum from going bankrupt and falling into disuse. And they did it in a hurry, retreating behind closed doors in the summer of 2011 to set a 75-day timetable for the handoff negotiations, according to commission records obtained by The Times.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/31/local/la-me-coliseum-lease-20130601

Columbus Dispatch: Many newly built state-funded schools too small

The Columbus Dispatch reports how after a decade of legal wrangling, Ohio was forced to fix up its aging school buildings. The state office overseeing the projects and allocating the funds also decided how big the schools should be. Local officials warned state officials that their numbers were low. A Columbus Dispatch analysis shows that many of the local officials were right. Their brand new buildings are too small, leaving teachers and students in some unusual "classrooms.” One out of three schools that opened this school year with funding from the Ohio School Facilities Commission is serving more students than the building is designed to hold, according to a Dispatchanalysis of state data. About half of the new buildings are hovering around 90 percent capacity — a measure experts say is too crowded to allow flexibility for students and programs. The worst case in the state is in Whitehall: The district’s three new elementary schools — two of which opened this school year — were designed to serve a total of 1,275 students. They exceeded that capacity by 250 students as of May 9.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/06/02/packing-them-in.html

Columbus Dispatch: Mental health system underfunded and overwhelmed

The Columbus Dispatch reports mental illness affects millions but all we do is talk about it after tragedies, and we don’t even do that very well. In the wake of numerous high-profile killings — especially December’s Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that took the lives of 20 first-graders — America’s political leaders promised a grieving nation an examination of both guns and mental health. But the discussion again has focused on a firefight over guns, with little real emphasis on the shortcomings of the nation’s underfunded, overwhelmed mental-health system. "There is no national discussion on mental health,” said Dr. John V. Campo, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Ohio State University. "Gun control isn’t the only issue. "The majority of violent people aren’t mentally ill,” Campo said. "Most mentally ill people aren’t violent. But serious mental illness is a risk factor for violence. Let’s not pretend it’s not. Sometimes you lose credibility when you refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room.”

So far, the newspaper says in this special report, Americans have gotten mostly lip service from government leaders, despite their assurances that "this time” they’re taking the problem seriously:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/topic/news/2013/mental-hell.html

Tennessean: Scientists take swat at bee loss

The Tennessean of Nashville reports the nation’s honeybees are dying off in record numbers and researchers, including at the University of Tennessee, are scrambling to figure out why. The stakes are high. As much as a third of the nation’s food supply relies on bees and other insects for pollination. In Tennessee, everything from blueberries and strawberries to pumpkins and watermelons need the bees. But since 2006, bees have been dying at alarming rates. About one in three honeybees died this past winter, a nearly 10-percentage-point spike compared with the winter of 2011-12, bee researchers reported in May. Figuring out why bees are dying off is a tough puzzle, said John Skinner, a University of Tennessee professor and bee researcher involved in the national effort to find answers. "It is probably one of the most exciting times in bee research. But at the same time, people want a quick answer and we simply cannot give that,” said Skinner. A study on bee health released in May by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggested a host of factors are contributing to the rising death toll. Those include parasites and disease, poor honeybee nutrition and a lack of genetic diversity among bee colonies. The report also suggested exposure to pesticides may play a role in killing bees, but noted that additional research is needed.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130601/NEWS01/306010047/UT-researchers-take-swat-honeybee-deaths

Wichita Eagle: High users could pay 500% more for water

The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle reports that now that city officials have grabbed attention with a proposed $1,000 fine for using too much water, they will be presenting an additional option to the Wichita City Council that will punish those who use the most water. Among the things the council also will be considering – in response to the drought that has greatly diminished the water supply from Cheney Reservoir – is a plan that calls for a 500 percent increase for the highest water users. That option was developed at the request of the city’s water advisory committee after it heard a public works proposal that called for a $1,000-per-month fine for anyone who exceeds 310 percent of their average winter water usage. The council will still consider the fine option, but the committee thought the penalty-based approach "too regressive on residential customers,” according to a city document.

http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/31/2827206/highest-users-could-see-500-percent.html

Wilmington News Journal: Official resigns after criminal record surfaces

The Wilmington (Del.) News Journal reports the man who oversaw Wilmington’s $86 million public works department since February once claimed fraudulent sickness benefits that led to a federal prison sentence almost two decades ago, according to court documents. Alfonso Ballard abruptly resigned as public works commissioner May 30, about a week after The News Journal raised questions about his record. The city offered no explanation for his departure in a two-sentence news release announcing the move and did not elaborate further. Ballard, 47, did not return multiple messages seeking comment. He had worked for the department for eight years before rising to the top job, according to a news release that announced his promotion to commissioner earlier this month. Coppadge said last week she was not aware of Ballard’s past offense. She said new employees had been subject to background checks, but was not sure what the process was for current employees. A federal indictment levied against Ballard on Aug. 9, 1994, states he claimed $7,799 in sickness benefits under the Railroad Sickness Insurance Act while he was working for Delmarva Power and Light Co. at the same time.

From November 1990 to January 1992, Ballard submitted other fraudulent claim forms to the Railroad Retirement Board, while he worked at Delmarva from June 25, 1990, to July 8, 1992, according to the indictment. A jury convicted Ballard on 22 counts of making false statements on Oct. 20, 1994, and he was sentenced to 16 months in prison and three years of supervised release. He reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, N.J., on Jan. 26, 1995, and ended up serving 14 months, according to the prison.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130601/NEWS02/306010030/Official-s-criminal-record-surfaces

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 5-30-2013

Tennessean: Group’s sex talk at school questioned

The Tennessean of Nashville reports a presenter told Hillsboro High freshmen and sophomores recently that having sex with eight partners would be the equivalent of drinking a whole classroom’s spit, The presentation says there’s a new sexually transmitted disease out there that will become the new AIDS. All medical textbooks say life begins at conception. For an hour, Joi Wasill, the founder of nonprofit Decisions, Choices and Options, and Sumner County School Board member Beth Cox provided a captive audience their take on STDs, abortion and adoption. It wasn’t completely accurate, a Vanderbilt University doctor said. But neither Tennessee state law nor the class curriculumprohibits what was said, and the nonprofit — with its strong Christian, Republican and pro-life ties — is on a list of approved presenters in Metro Nashville’s public schools. The content of Wasill’s presentation came to light after a Hillsboro student recorded it earlier this month. The presentation isn’t helpful, said Dr. Mary Romano, assistant professor in Vanderbilt’s Division of Adolescent Medicine. Its biggest problem is that it uses scare tactics. That never works with teens, whose developing brains too rarely allow reason to outweigh pleasure or believe anything bad will happen to them, she said. Other than that, the presentation relies on facts taken out of context. STDs make you sterile if they’re not treated. Drinking spit and having sex introduce you to different kinds of diseases. Most medical textbooks never broach the idea of when life begins, because that’s based on people’s opinions, Romano said.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130526/NEWS04/305260110/Hillsboro-High-sex-talk-from-group-questioned

Buffalo News: Troubled waters: The new threats to Lake Erie

In the first of a five-part series, the Buffalo (N.Y.) News reports the waters lapping up along the Lake Erie shoreline are no longer orange. The lake doesn’t smell as bad as it once did. And talk of "a dead lake” has been put in the distant past. The water even looks bluer, clearer – and more alive. But appearances can be deceiving. Lake Erie – the focus of cleanup efforts for four decades – is still, in many ways, simmering just below crisis. Instead of industrial slag, chemical pollutants and blazing rivers – infamous trademarks of Lake Erie during the Rust Belt’s heyday – that choked nearly all life out of the water, the lake remains under assault on several fronts: Sewage systems. Farms. Aquatic organisms from faraway places. Climate change. Phosphate discharges were eliminated 40 years ago, yet toxic blue-green algae rolls again across the western half of Lake Erie, creating a suffocating "dead zone” up to 100 miles across its center. Traces of various drugs and pharmaceuticals are showing up in the water nowadays – even caffeine. Asian carp knock at the lake’s front door – one was found in Scajaquada Creek in 2007 – threatening to invade its ecosystem. And more than a billion gallons of raw sewage overflow directly into these same waters from Buffalo and Erie County. Now, the 21st century cycle of environmental cleanup is grappling with a fresh round of threats.

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130525/CITYANDREGION/130529374/1109

Miami Herald: 116 shots by police that shook South Beach

The Miami Herald reports Raymond Herisse was 22 when he was killed on a South Beach street, in a frightening war-like moment that his family likens to being executed by a police firing squad. An avalanche of 116 shots were fired by police that early May morning, leaving Herisse slumped over his steering wheel, his left side riddled with bullet wounds. In all, he was shot 16 times. Two years and multiple lawsuits later, Miami Beach police have yet to produce evidence that Herisse did anything to deserve a death sentence. Four bystanders were also seriously wounded in the wild pre-dawn attack, which happened amid a throng of tourists visiting for the city’s annual Urban Beach Week. The criminal probe into whether the 12 police officers who participated in the shooting continues, amid concerns voiced in court that Miami Beach police covered up, altered or destroyed evidence to justify their use of deadly force. In fact, their account of what happened began to unravel almost from day one. An examination of the record by The Miami Herald has found a series of inconsistencies, contradictions and omissions in the police narrative of what happened.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/25/3417050/the-killing-of-raymond-herisse.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/25/3417050/the-killing-of-raymond-herisse.html

San Francisco Chronicle: Fed cash in by seizing assets

The San Francisco Chronicle reports a nationwide network of agents and attorneys is working around the clock to seize cash, stocks, real estate, vehicles and other valuables from people and businesses. In 2012, their average daily take was almost $13 million -- for a total of more than $4.7 billion. The vast money-harvesting machine they work for is the federal government.

Federal asset forfeiture is both an effective crime-fighting tool and a civil-liberties nightmare, a Hearst Newspapers investigation has found. It has retrieved millions of dollars stolen from victims of complex financial crimes. But it has also victimized innocent citizens who have lost their property without criminal charges or even a courtroom hearing. Fifteen federal agencies have the power to seize assets. Over the past dozen years, those agencies have taken more than $20 billion in cash, securities and other property from scruffy drug dealers, pinstriped Wall Street tycoons - and ordinary Americans who have not been accused of a crime, much less convicted.

Post-Crescent: One-quarter of Wisconsin’s ambulances flunk inspections

The Post-Crescent reports nearly one-quarter of ambulances in Wisconsin violated at least one state requirement during the last two years, even though inspections typically are announced to emergency providers a week in advance. A Gannett Wisconsin Media review found the inspections are conducted by a single State Patrol employee who is responsible for checking all ambulances in Wisconsin every two years by traveling from county to county. While the most common violations were easily fixed, more serious problems regularly go unchecked until the state inspection, the GWM review determined. State inspection reports obtained under Wisconsin’s open records law revealed violations in 23 percent of the ambulances. In 1,062 inspections performed during the last two years, seven ambulances were ordered to stay off the road until crews fixed violations revealed during inspections. One provider’s license was suspended after the company failed to fix the problems.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20130216/APC0198/302160090/Inspecting-ambulances-Wisconsin-one-man-job

Dayton (Ohio) Daily News: Ohio overpays millions to jobless

A Dayton Daily News analysis of state and federal unemployment compensation data found one in five claims filed by Montgomery County residents resulted in an overpayment in 2012, with fraud totalling just over $2 million. Last year, out-of-work Ohioans collected nearly $2.3 billion in state and federal unemployment compensation. There were over payments on more than 110,000 claims totalling $87.3 million, according to state data. One individual may have had multiple claims. In 2012, the state recovered about $43 million in overpayments, which included some from prior years. "The debts are never forgiven. We are always going to be trying to collect them,” Bruce Madson, assistant director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said. Unemployment, unlike other Job and Family Services programs, is a state operation with no county involvement, but Madson could not say why some counties had a higher percentage of claims with over payments than others. He did say the overpayment problem, overall, began during the recession when the state agency rushed to deliver timely benefits to tens of thousands of Ohioans who were out of work.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/local/state-overpays-millions-to-jobless/nWPmL/

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (2-14-13)

Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Expense claims by Arkansas legislators drop $1 million

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports the amount of money state lawmakers collected in per diem, mileage and expense reimbursements from the state was $1 million lower in 2012 than in 2010. The expense payments totaled $3.87 million last year when the Legislature met in a fiscal session, down from $4.87 million in 2010 when lawmakers convened their first-ever fiscal session, according to state records. Per diem (a daily allowance for lodging, meals and incidentals), mileage and expense payments are in addition to legislators’ salaries, which are $15,869 each except for the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore, who get $17,771 each.

Available online to subscribers only at:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/feb/10/expense-claims-dip-1-million-2010-20130210/?f=news-arkansas

The (Bergen) Record: N.J. could be hedging revenues, has $115 million in reserve

The (Bergen) Record reports New Jersey Gov. Christierepeatedly says he still believes in his forecast for widespread economic growth. He plays down his budget’s $426 million revenue shortfall. He recently admonished reporters for "writing the obit” for state finances. Yet despite the Republican governor’s public displays of confidence, state financial records obtained by The Record suggest the Christie administration is already taking steps to hedge against potential revenue gaps. And some of those budget fixes could hit programs that help the poor in New Jersey. The fiscal maneuvers can be found only in a component of the state budget that’s not part of the administration’s periodic budget updates. But financial data prepared by the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services indicate roughly $115 million in appropriated spending was in reserve accounts as of January. Moving funds into reserve is one way an administration can "freeze” spending to offset lagging revenues. It could also signal cuts that would eventually be made unless the revenue shortfall is made up. And if revenues never catch up to Christie’s economic growth forecast, it could also be a tip that these items would lose funding in future budgets. The 20 programs with funds in reserve affect 10 different departments, according to the financial data.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Trenton_could_be_hedging_revenues.html

Chicago Tribune: Anti-bacterial soap ingredient under scrutiny

The Chicago Tribune reports that if co-workers and family members are coming down with infections this winter, you may be tempted to turn to an anti-bacterial soap for protection. But some scientists are increasingly concerned that a common anti-bacterial ingredient called triclosan may harm people's health. Laboratory studies have found that it may disrupt hormones, interfere with muscle function and promote the growth of stronger bacteria — and other research suggests it is building up in the environment to the possible peril of wildlife. What's more, there is no evidence that hand-washing with soap containing triclosan or other anti-microbial ingredients offers any health advantages over regular soap and water, according to advisory committees for the American Medical Association and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Triclosan is what we call a stupid use of a chemical," said Dr. Sarah Janssen, a physician and senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. "It doesn't work, it's not safe and it is not being regulated." The nation's main trade association for soap manufacturers, the American Cleaning Institute, says triclosan is effective against certain infectious bacteria and the health concerns are overblown. Yet the FDA, which oversees the use of chemicals in food and drugs, has never completed a safety review and issued binding usage rules for triclosan.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-10/health/ct-met-triclosan--20130210_1_triclosan-plain-soap-allison-aiello

Houston Chronicle: More oil and gas workers killed on job than other professions

The Houston Chronicle reports oil and gas field services and drilling workers were killed on the job in Texas more than those in any other profession, according to its analysis of five years of fatal accidents investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Overall, workplace deaths have declined in Texas - but not in the oil patch where 197 perished on the job, an average of 39 per year, worker fatality statistics from 2007-2011 show. OSHA investigated at least 84 cases; dozens more died in job-related traffic accidents OSHA does not probe. The number of deaths might seem small with an estimated 110,000 to 140,000 drill and well supply workers employed at the state's booming oil and gas fields. Nationally, those fatalities are combined with mining in the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. Texas' death rates for mining/oil and gas - dominated by the state's oil patch fatalities - repeatedly topped those for agricultural, construction and other major industries, though some subcategories with far fewer workers, like roofing and logging, have higher reported fatality rates.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Workplace-deaths-drop-but-not-in-the-oil-4266141.php

Tampa Bay Times: Cashing in on kids who need tutoring in Florida

The Tampa Bay Times reports Florida’s mandated tutoring program for the state’s neediest children pays public money to people with criminal records and to cheaters and profiteers who operate virtually unchecked by state regulators. In a three-month investigation, The Tampa Bay Times examined invoice records from 59 school districts, conducted dozens of interviews and reviewed thousands of pages of complaint reports, audits and other documents. It found Florida school districts spent at least $7 million last year on tutoring companies run by people with criminal records; in more than 40 cases across the state, tutoring companies have faked student sign-up sheets or billed for tutoring that never happened; the program is riddled with conflicts of interest, and dozens of tutoring firms have broken federal rules by luring impoverished kids to sign up with promises of bicycles, gift cards and computers. Others have sent school administrators on golf outings or sponsored retreats for district officials who administer tutoring contracts.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/article1274614.ece

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Minnesota is a hotbed of cancer-causing radon gas

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports state health officials are alarmed that despite years of effort by their colleagues thousands of Minnesotans remain unaware of the health risks from radon, an odorless, colorless gas that is the nation’s second leading cause of lung cancer. More than 40 percent of Minnesota home radon tests conducted in the past 13 years show unsafe levels of the radioactive gas, according to a Star Tribune analysis of state records. Yet Minnesota has no mandatory radon testing of homes, schools or day care centers; no requirement that homeowners test for radon before selling a house; and weaker real estate disclosure rules than some leading states. Last month, the Minnesota Department of Health launched a new effort to reach the thousands of families who, could be caught unaware. Health officials have also begun reviewing state radon standards, particularly a 2009 building code change that was supposed to mitigate radon in new home construction. State researchers estimate that up to one-third of new homes may have unsafe radon levels, and they are conducting a study this year to see if the new construction standards are working.William Angell, a University of Minnesota professor who has studied radon policy, says that nearly three decades of public health efforts have suffered from chronic underfunding, and another group of researchers this year called for a new national strategy to combat the problem.

http://www.startribune.com/local/190554621.html

Orlando Sentinel: Arrests of school kids alarms advocates

The Orlando Sentinel reports thousands of Florida students are arrested in school each year and taken to jail for behavior that once warranted a trip to the principal's office — a trend that troubles juvenile-justice and civil-rights leaders who say children are being traumatized for noncriminal acts. More than 12,000 Florida students were arrested nearly 14,000 times last year, records from the Department of Juvenile Justice show. Though the number of school arrests has dropped significantly since the state eased its "zero tolerance" policies a few years ago, there are still far too many kids handcuffed and hauled away in front of their classmates, said Wansley Walters, secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. "The vast majority of children being arrested in schools are not committing criminal acts," Walters told the Orlando Sentinel.

Sixty-seven percent of the arrests last year were for misdemeanors such as disorderly conduct — a catchall, attorneys say, that has been used when children refused to take a cellphone out of a pocket or yelled in class. Fewer than 5 percent faced weapons charges. Most arrests, Walters says, stem from "bad behavior, not criminal behavior."

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-02-10/features/os-school-arrests-florida-prison-pipeline-20130209_1_school-arrests-disabled-students-juvenile-justice

Press of Atlantic City: N.J. fails to track whether student aid recipients graduate

The Press of Atlantic City reports nearly $1.4 billion in Tuition Aid Grants has been given out by New Jersey over the past five years to help low-income students pay for college, making it one of the most generous state financial-aid programs in the nation. Yet the state agency charged with managing the grant program and the colleges that receive the money do not keep any public data on how many of the students who receive the grants actually graduate. Officials at the state Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, or HESAA, which manages the TAG program, said there was a requirement that students make satisfactory progress to continue receiving the grant, and there is a limit to how many grants they can receive. But HESAA Executive Director Gabrielle Charette said there was no state requirement that HESAA track completion rates.

"The cap (on the number of grants a student can receive) provides an incentive to finish,” she said. National advocates for more college accountability question why there isn’t more data when billions of dollars are spent annually on federal Pell grants and state programs such as TAG. Groups such as the Lumina Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are supporting more research.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/education/watchdog-report-new-jersey-doesn-t-track-how-many-recipients/article_f34aef38-7306-11e2-b1c0-001a4bcf887a.html?mode=jqm

Wichita Eagle: Nineteen Kansas inmates convicted of murder paroled in past 3 years

The Wichita Eagle reported that 19 inmates serving life sentences for first-degree murder have been released from Kansas prisons over the past three years. The inmates, who range in age from 35 to 92, were convicted of killing 21 people between 1979 and 1995. Most were serving life sentences that made them parole-eligible after 15 years. They served an average of 23.8 years in custody. Corinne Radke, co-founder of the Wichita chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, was discouraged when she saw the list of paroled killers. "It’s too many, that’s all I can say,” she said. "I’m kind of surprised, I guess, that there weren’t more. "My reaction is just leave ’em in there.” Wichita lawyer Richard Ney, who has been representing first-degree murder defendants for three decades, defended the inmates’ release. "It was not the will of Kansans that these people be locked up forever,” he said. "First-degree murder does have the possibility of parole after a long sentence. Obviously these individuals have shown that they’ve been rehabilitated.

"The statistics will tell you that first-degree murder, and homicide in general, has one of the lowest recidivism rates of any crime.” The 19 paroled murderers were among 221 inmates with first-degree murder convictions who went before the Kansas Parole Board or the Prisoner Review Board from January 2010 through September 2012. The figures come from minutes of parole and review board hearings that were provided to The Wichita Eagle under a Kansas Open Records request.

http://www.kansas.com/2013/02/09/2670270/19-inmates-convicted-of-1st-degree.html#storylink=omni_popular

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF IMPACT JOURNALISM FROM PAST WEEK (2/7/2013)

AP: Multi-agency, anti-drug HQ opens in Chicago

The Associated Press reported a first-of-its-kind headquarters has opened in Chicago for 70 federal agents, police and prosecutors to work side-by-side, year-round to fight drug traffickers — a set-up meant to end inter-agency rivalry and miscommunication that can hamper investigations. The recent, fanfare-free opening of the Chicago Strike Force building comes as Mexican cartels now supply over 90 percent of the narcotics in Chicago, and as street gangs vying for turf to sell those drugs kill each other and bystanders caught in the crossfire.

Inter-agency and -department cooperation is hardly a novel concept, but typically takes the form of occasional meetings or temporary joint task forces on specific investigations, said Jack Riley, the head of Chicago's DEA office. "But you can't talk to your counterparts in once-a-week meetings — you have to talk as things are happening," said Riley, who took the lead in pushing for the facility. "When we get information here, it's not put in a pile and forgotten. It's acted on, now."

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ap-exclusive-new-hq-bids-end-agency-rivalry

Columbus Dispatch: ‘Test of Convictions’ Series on Flawed Evidence Retention

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported that the five men who were caged in prison cells for a combined 99 years for rapes and murders they didn’t commit stepped into the cramped elevator. They were meeting for the first time. As the doors closed, these members of an exclusive club smiled at one another and remembered when their lives were confined to cells only a little bigger than the elevator. DNA testing has given Robert McClendon, Joseph Fears, Ray Towler, David Ayers and Doug Prade their freedom, but not the time they lost.

"You can’t reclaim the life you had; you just try to fit into the new one as best you can,” McClendon said. "When people hear about our cases, I hope they don’t think of us. I hope they think of the other innocent people locked up in prison. DNA testing has helped a lot, but there is a lot more that can be done in the future to help the criminal-justice system.”

The five men were freed following The Dispatch series "Test of Convictions,” which exposed Ohio’s flawed evidence-retention and DNA-testing systems.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/02/03/freedom-gratitude-now-fill-lives-of-wrongly-convicted-ex-inmates.html

For the original series and follow-up stories…

http://www.dispatch.com/content/topic/special-reports/test-of-convictions-2.html

New York Times: Recession hits baby boomers hardest

The New York Times reports young graduates are in debt, out of work and on their parents’ couches. People in their 30s and 40s can’t afford to buy homes or have children. Retirees are earning near-zero interest on their savings. In the current listless economy, every generation has a claim to having been most injured. But the Labor Department’s latest jobs snapshot and other recent data reports present a strong case for crowning baby boomers as the greatest victims of the recession and its grim aftermath. These Americans in their 50s and early 60s — those near retirementage who do not yet have access to Medicareand Social Security— have lost the most earnings power of any age group, with their household incomes 10 percent below what they made when the recovery began three years ago, according to Sentier Research, a data analysis company. Their retirement savings and home values fell sharply at the worst possible time: just before they needed to cash out. They are supporting both aged parents and unemployed young-adult children, earning them the inauspicious nickname "Generation Squeeze.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/business/americans-closest-to-retirement-were-hardest-hit-by-recession.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Disability costs now 51 percent of Medicaid growth

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports physically and mentally disabled Arkansans receiving federal disability benefits drove the state’s ballooning Medicaid costs over the past five years. Arkansans up to age 64 who receive federal disability payments automatically qualify for Medicaid and are a high-cost, fast-growing segment of the state’s $5 billion program, according to the Arkansas Department of Human Services numbers. Since the beginning of 2007, the state’s monthly Medicaid rolls have grown by about 6 percent, and the number of working-age disabled people who qualify for Medicaid has grown at a rate more than three times that. Over the same period, costs related to disabled people, the majority of whom get Medicaid because that have qualified to get federal Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, have accounted for 51 percent of growth in Medicaid spending, according to the Department of Human Services.

Available online to subscribers only.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia’s investors more vulnerable

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Georgia is the home base of a rogues’ gallery of fraudsters who have plundered hundreds of millions of dollar from investors in recent months. Some were trusted investment advisers lining their pockets at clients’ expense. Others were posers touting unregistered securities. They didn’t have to worry much about the state poking into their books. At Atlanta Journal Constitution investigation found that Georgia all but dismantled securities enforcement in 2010. The secretary of state’s securities investigators, once known for their success in putting swindlers behind bars, were merged into the staff investigating complaints aboutair-conditioner repairmen, barber shops, cemeteries and elections - and were cross trained to handle it all. The legal staff devoted to securities dwindled to a single attorney. By 2011, the entire securities auditing staff was gone.

Available online to subscribers only.

Austin American-Statesman: Judges plead for crime lab funds as cases pile up

The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reports a mounting backlog of samples awaiting testing at the Austin Police Department crime lab is causing unprecedented delays in the resolution of criminal cases, preventing some from going forward for at least six months and stressing an already bustling county judicial system. Documents obtained by the American-Statesman show the number of cases awaiting testing has doubled in five years, and more than 1,100 samples in both felony and misdemeanor cases remain unanalyzed – a backlog that every judge in the county’s criminal courts deems unacceptable. Some cases involve relatively minor crimes from mid-2012 that now languish on court dockets. The problem is particularly acute for blood evidence in drunken driving cases, which is sitting on shelves an average of 200 days before it is assigned to an analyst, more than six times longer than three years ago. The backlog is partly the result of repeated decisions by the city of Austin not to add new scientists to the crime lab in its nine years of operation, despite requests from the police department and a growing reliance on forensic evidence to solve and prosecute crimes. Officials say the backlog is resulting in numerous hearings and trials being reset and is delaying the final outcome of cases.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/crime-lab-backlogs-weighing-down-court-system/nWDm6/

Denver Post: Audit of 911 calls shows pattern of errors

The Denver Post reported Denver's 911 emergency-communications operators and police dispatchers made mistakes that resulted in a failure rating in one of every five of their calls reviewed over the past two years. City performance audits, begun in 2011 as part of a performance-improvement initiative, allow 911 supervisors to address problems in the way calls are handled, city officials said. But they also reveal ongoing shortcomings. Call takers and dispatchers failed to verify or properly broadcast addresses in more than 400 of the 5,670 calls audited. In nearly 40 of the reviewed calls, they neglected to alert medical personnel when they were needed — even when panicked callers reported suicide attempts. They did not meet time standards more than 1,070 times and left callers waiting unnecessarily. They were rude during at least 120 of the audited 911 calls — at least one time using what a supervisor interpreted as "racially motivated statements" by trying to talk a Spanish-speaking caller out of reporting her incident.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22500950/denvers-911-call-performance-audits-reveal-problems

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: Athletes flock to Florida for illicit drugs

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports athletes' never-ending quest for a competitive edge, looseregulation of medical clinics and even the lack of a state income tax have combined to make South Florida an alluring destination for professional sports figures in search of banned drugs to boost on-field performance. Steroids, human growth hormone (HGH) and other performance-enhancing substances are illegal without a prescription, yet relatively easy to obtain in South Florida. Illicit drugs are readily available via supply routes originating in Latin America and at the anti-aging and wellness clinics that have sprouted here in the last decade, anti-doping experts tell the Sun Sentinel. More baseball players than ever are flocking here during the off-season, people close to the game say, seekingwarm weather, tax advantages and the area's many personal trainers and fitness facilities.That confluence of athletes and access has made South Florida a fertile ground for drug abuse in sports. "The ease of the drug thing here and the high-profile fitness community down here, that whole culture lends itself [to] athletes to do that type of thing," said former Miami Marlins head athletic trainer Larry Starr, now a visiting professor at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. "This is where you want to train. This is where you want to be." Growing concern among Major League Baseball officials that South Florida doctors, trainers and players had become a major source of performance-enhancing drugs spurred a probe last summer that now involves the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, sources told the Sun Sentinel.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-02-03/news/fl-mlb-drugs-from-southflorida-20130202_1_head-athletic-trainer-drugs-wellness-clinics

Indianapolis Star: Ethics questions arise over I-69 land deals

The Indianapolis Star reports Troy Woodruff, a top official at the Indiana Department of Transportation, had more than one interest in the sale of property along the proposed route for I-69 through Southern Indiana. Woodruff and his family owned land right in the freeway’s path but

never disclosed to state ethics officials his or his family's dealings with INDOT. Instead, they engaged in a series of deals that ultimately yielded an 83 percent gain on a piece of land Woodruff owned with his father and brother -- a scenario that an array of taxpayer advocates, government watchdogs and legal experts say raises concerns. Woodruff, a former state lawmaker who oversaw 500 employees at the INDOT district through which I-69 passed, said he didn't use his influence or political connections to enrich himself or his family. "I had no involvement whatsoever with property purchases on I-69," he said, "other than the parcel I owned with my brother and father." And he said an investigation already has happened. Woodruff said he stands behind a report. compiled in 2010 by the Inspector General, the state's top ethics policeman, who found no wrongdoing in a land sale he made with the state. The office of former Gov. Mitch Daniels concurred. An Indianapolis Star investigation into the family's land sales, however, reveals new information. The Star uncovered six land deals that put $1.8 million into the pockets of Woodruff's uncle and cousins, who then purchased land from Woodruff and his immediate family for more than market value. When confronted with The Star's findings, the IG said he would open a new investigation. But legal experts consulted by The Star questioned the vigor of the IG's first probe.

Read mopre:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130203/NEWS14/302020329/Star-Watch-INDOT-official-benefited-from-his-his-family-s-sales-land-along-69-route

Kansas City Star: Road-building binge leaves U.S. highway system crumbling

The Kansas City Star reports America’s highway system, once a symbol of freedom and mobility envied the world over, is crumbling physically and financially, the potentially disastrous consequence of a politically driven road-building binge. President Barack Obama, state transportation officials, civil engineers, road builders and business groups agree the country needs to invest trillions of dollars in its infrastructure, yet there’s little consensus on how to pay it or what the most pressing needs are. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the country needs $14 billion in additional federal funds each year just to maintain highways and $50 billion more to improve them. Federal government analysts, taxpayer advocates and transportation experts have warned for at least a decade that states were spending too much on building highways and too little on fixing them and that their maintenance costs would skyrocket if they didn’t change course. "We’ve engaged in a dangerous game of deferred maintenance,” said Brian Taylor, a professor of urban planning and the director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Five years after an interstate highway bridge collapsed in Minnesota, killing 13 people and injuring 145, the country still has a bridge repair backlog of $65 billion, according to the Federal Highway Administration. At a time when Congress is proposing significant budget cuts and tax increases have little support, states are canceling or scaling back highway projects. They are looking for private partners to help finance construction and are still coming up short. A McClatchy Newspapers analysis showed that there were a lot of hands on the wheel as the system veered off course:

Minneapolis Star: Sand mine rules melt under company pressure

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that when the biggest frac-sand mine in Trempealeau County opened in Wisconsin in 2011, even the dead were shown consideration. The county issued an operating permit that banned blasting during funeral services at a nearby cemetery. In deference to other community concerns, it also blocked the company from mining on evenings and weekends, required regular air monitoring, and mandated periodic home inspections to ensure that the industrial operation wouldn't damage property in this scenic community set against a backdrop of hills and coulees. In less than two years, those stipulations had disappeared after a new company bought the mine and sought to have it annexed to the city of Blair, which sits inside Preston Township. City officials adopted regulations more favorable to the mine and allowed it to operate around the clock, seven days a week. The maneuver stands as an example of the way mining companies are leveraging jobs and money to exert their will in the small communities of southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, where a sand rush has led to the permitting of more than 100 facilities in the past four years. It also shows how, in the absence of statewide oversight, local units of government are competing for sand mines at the expense of consistent standards.

http://www.startribune.com/local/east/189479651.html?refer=y

News and Record: High fines for nursing homes

The News and Record of Greensboro, N.C.,, reports state and federal regulators have imposed some of the state’s heftier fines on Triad nursing homes during the past several years, including a High Point facility hit with a pair of penalties totaling $372,970. The region is home to 11 skilled-nursing facilities where government inspectors found "serious deficiencies” in patient care or accommodations, according to information compiled from Medicare files by the ProPublica nonprofit journalism group. Unihealth Post-Acute Care of High Point racked up the biggest fines — a $223,795 assessment in March for patient neglect that was levied only 15 months after a similar penalty of $149,175. Unihealth’s fines ranked as North Carolina’s second highest in total dollar amount since 2009 and the 12th highest in the nation, according to ProPublica’s calculations. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services fined Unihealth in one case for failure to summon rescue workers and properly transport a quadriplegic injured in an accident that left her sprawled on the floor of a van. In the other, inadequate security measures enabled a young man to escape while he was recuperating from a car accident that left him mentally off-kilter.

http://www.news-record.com/home/673189-63/high-fines-for-nursing-homes

Orlando Sentinel: Universal’s tax breaks meant for "crime area.”

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reports the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in the summer of 2010 was like winning the lottery for Universal Orlando. In the first year alone, attendance jumped 20 percent to 11.2 million people. Sales soared 40 percent to more than $1 billion. Profit leapt sixfold to $150 million. And, for the resort's top executives, pay more than doubled, with nearly $6 million in bonuses awardedto five people. But Harry Potter helped win something else for Universal, too: a multimillion-dollar tax break for creating jobs in an "urban high-crime area.”

Records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show that Universal has claimed more than $2.3 million worth of state tax credits since mid-2010 based on jobs it added to accommodate the millions of travelers flocking to Wizarding World. Universal has been able to get the credits by tapping a 16-year-old state-incentive program designed to encourage businessesto expand in or move into crime-plagued communities across Florida. It is not Universal's first time dipping into this particular incentive pool. Records show the theme-park resort claimed more than $3.8 million in high-crime-area tax credits back in 2000-01 after the 1999 opening of its second theme park, Universal's Islands of Adventure. What's more, a joint venture among Universal, Loews Hotels & Resorts and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which operates three luxury hotels at Universal Orlando, has received an additional $2 million in tax credits — all issued from 2000 to 2002, shortly after the three hotels opened. According to data from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Universal and its hotel affiliate have together claimed 37 percent of all the tax-credit money awarded to date statewide through the high-crime-area program.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-02-02/business/os-universal-orlando-high-crime-tax-breaks-20130202_1_tax-credits-universal-orlando-universal-s-islands

San Antonio Express-News: Fracking chemical formulas still secret

The San Antonio Express-News reports it's been a year since the Texas oil and gas industry had to start disclosing the mix of water and chemicals it uses for hydraulic fracturing. But thanks to a loophole in state law that allows companies to withhold trade secrets, it's still largely unclear exactly which chemicals are being pumped thousands of feet underground. Of 12,410 instances of hydraulic fracturing in Texas between April 2011 and early December 2012, companies used terms such as "proprietary,” "secret” or "confidential” 10,120 times while reporting data on the FracFocus.org website, according to data collected through early December by the Houston-based Pivot Upstream Group and analyzed by the San Antonio Express-News.

In the Eagle Ford Shale, the South Texas field that has become one of the hottest oil and gas plays in the nation, the trade secret exemption was used 2,297 times in 3,100 fracturing events.

"I think it's a loophole big enough you can drive a frack truck through,” said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, referring to the army of trucks that arrive at a well site for a fracturing job.

As shale drilling boomed across the country — and in response to grass-roots concerns about potential environmental or health effects — the oil and gas industry launched FracFocus.org in the spring of 2011 as a national registry for companies to voluntarily report the composition of hydraulic fracturing fluids.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/energy/article/Exact-mix-of-fracking-fluids-remain-a-mystery-4246634.php

Columbus Dispatch: Debt soars as Ohio’s public universities borrow to improve

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reports that with interest rates low, most of Ohio’s colleges have gone on spending sprees to build the biggest and best academic buildings, dorms and recreation centers to attract better students. And if schools don’t find new resources to finance their "ever-increasing aspirations,” some higher-education experts warn, future generations of students will end up paying the price with even-higher tuition and room-and-board rates and special fees. It’s a national issue, but in Ohio, the total outstanding debt among the state’s 13 four-year public universities has nearly tripled over the past decade. In some cases, such as at Ohio State University, which has built the Cadillac of college recreational playgrounds and a grand student union, it has more than quadrupled.As schools have increased their borrowing, they’ve also started grappling with declining enrollment, state budget cuts and growing public doubts about the value of a degree. Last month, Moody’s Investment Services downgraded the outlook for the higher-education sector to negative because of such concerns.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/02/03/a-decade-long-building-boom-erected-on-a-mountain-of-debt.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 1/30/2013

AP IMPACT: Due to Great Recession, millions of jobs lost worldwide

The Associated Press, in a three-part series on the loss of middle-class jobs in the wake of the Great Recession, and the role of technology, reports the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over. And the situation is even worse than it appears. Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers. They're being obliterated by technology. Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-18/business/36492785_1_low-pay-jobs-middle-class-jobs-great-recession

AP: Rural Democrats could try to block gun control measures

The Associated Press reported that as the Senate prepares to begin debating new gun control measures, some of President Obama’s fellow Democrats are poised to frustrate his efforts to enact the most sweeping limits on weapons in decades. These Democrats from largely rural states with strong gun cultures view Obama’s proposals warily and have not committed to supporting them. The lawmakers’ concerns could stand in the way of strong legislation before a single Republican gets a chance to vote "no.” "There’s a core group of Democratic senators, most but not all from the West, who represent states with a higher-than-average rate of gun ownership but an equally strong desire to feel their kids are safe,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. "They’re having hard but good conversations with people back home to identify the middle-ground solutions that respect the Second Amendment but make it harder for dangerous people to get their hands on guns.” All eyes are on these dozen or so Democrats, some of whom face reelection in 2014. That includes Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Interest groups, lobbyists, lawmakers, crime victims and others with a stake in the outcome will be watching these senators closely for signals about what measures they might support. The answers will say a lot about what, if anything, Congress can pass in the wake of the shootings of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., last month.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Rural_Democrats_could_oppose_Obama_gun_control_measures.html

Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio EPA opens door for wastes of fracking

The Akron Beacon Journal asks whether Ohio landfills will soon start accepting large volumes of solidified briny waste from shale drilling in Ohio and other states? The state has not approved such shipments, but is poised — at least on paper — to open the door for drillers to use this new disposal option. That could result in tens of millions of gallons of drilling liquids being solidified and dumped in Ohio’s 40 landfills. The possibility is spelled out in a three-page advisory the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency released in September with major input from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The agencies would need to approve such requests from landfills. ODNR supervises drilling; the EPA manages landfills. A scenario of large quantities of solidified brine coming into the state worries environmentalists. "It’s bizarre that Ohio would be letting brine go into its landfills,” said activist Teresa Mills, a resident of Grove City in suburban Columbus. "It’s a big Pandora’s box, and it’s very troubling. ... It’s a nightmare waiting to happen.”

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/will-ohio-start-accepting-drilling-brine-at-40-landfills-1.368247

Albuquerque Journal: Medicaid pays for 71 percent of all births in New Mexico

The Albuquerque Journal reports Medicaid pays for about seven in 10 of all births in New Mexico.

Of the 27,795 babies born in New Mexico in 2010, 19,863 births – or 71 percent – were paid for by the state and federally funded health insurance program for the poor, according to a recent analysis by the state Legislative Finance Committee. "Being born on Medicaid is related to poverty,” said Peter Winograd, director of the Center for Education Policy Research at the University of New Mexico. And the large number of Medicaid births reflects a stew of problems in New Mexico, such as high rates of unemployment, drug use, school dropout and teen pregnancy, which remains the second highest in the nation, he said. "I think it’s a reflection of the demographic reality of New Mexico,” Winograd said. "Think about an uneducated population continuing to grow and what does that do for our economic viability.” The high number of Medicaid births "is unbelievably shocking and it’s a horrible indicator for the state of New Mexico,” said Paul Silverman, a director of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/01/27/news/medicaid-funds-70-of-births-in-nm.html

New York Times: Dozens of birth control lawsuits fill courtroom dockets

The New York Times reports Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites, in a flood of lawsuits, are challenging a provision in the new health care lawthat requires employers to cover birth controlin employee health plans — a high-stakes clash between religious freedom and health care access that appears headed to the Supreme Court. In recent months, federal courts have seen dozens of lawsuitsbrought not only by religious institutions like Catholic dioceses but also by private employers ranging from a pizza mogul to produce transporters who say the government is forcing them to violate core tenets of their faith. Some have been turned away by judges convinced that access to contraceptionis a vital health need and a compelling state interest. Others have been told that their beliefs appear to outweigh any state interest and that they may hold off complying with the law until their cases have been judged. New suitsare filed nearly weekly. "This is highly likely to end up at the Supreme Court,” said Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia and one of the country’s top scholars on church-state conflicts. "There are so many cases, and we are already getting strong disagreements among the circuit courts.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/health/religious-groups-and-employers-battle-contraception-mandate.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Austin American-Statesman: Patient-on-patient violence up at state hospital

The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reports patient-on-patient violence at Austin State Hospital has soared more than 170 percent over the past five years, one of the most dramatic increases in a system seeing an escalating number of such episodes at all of its inpatient psychiatric facilities.

According to an American-Statesman analysis, incidents of violence at all of the state-run hospitals have increased 22 percent since 2008, rising from 2,700 to 3,300 in fiscal 2012. Hospital staffers are also being injured by patients. Although the overall number of patient-inflicted injuries has hovered at about 2,000 over the past five years, workers’ compensation claims by hospital staffers have increased 40 percent, rising from 448 in 2008 to 629 in 2012. The vast majority of incidents at all 10 hospitals, 97 percent, required only first aid or no treatment at all. The Department of State Health Services, which oversees the hospitals, attributes the rising numbers to the fact that staffers are now reporting incidents more often and that hospitals are taking in sicker patients than in the past. The state couldn’t immediately provide statistics to support those assertions. But the average length of stay at the hospitals has increased from 47 days in 2008 to 58 last year, which is an indicator of the severity of illnesses that patients are experiencing, said department spokeswoman Carrie Williams.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/patient-violence-jumps-at-state-psychiatric-hospit/nT7GH/

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: Synthetic drugs a potent threat

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports that nowhere in the country have authorities done more to combat the spread of the laboratory-made drugs known as synthetic marijuana and bath salts than South Florida. But a Sun Sentinel investigation found that while poison control calls and drug arrests have dropped, the unprecedented community assault has yielded unsettling side effects — driving the illegal synthetic drug industry even further underground. On the illicit market, clandestine chemists tinker with their compounds to stay one step ahead of the law, drug dealers ply the ever-evolving wares over the Internet to anyone with a credit card and a mailing address, and area youth know which convenience stores still sell the stuff under the counter. In South Florida, where one of the nation's biggest manufacturers of synthetic marijuana built a bustling business in roadside warehouses, many teens and young adults are tripping out in ways surprising even to veteran emergency room doctors. And some are dying, destroyed by chemical concoctions doctors say have far worse effects on the mind and body than the marijuana and cocaine they are designed to mimic.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-01-26/health/fl-synthetic-drugs-crackdown-20130126_1_synthetic-marijuana-bath-salts-legal-marijuana

Indianapolis Star: Feds deny road construction funds over drunk driving laws

The Indianapolis Star reports federal officials are telling Indiana it can’t spend $40.4 million of highway funding to build or repair roads and bridges this year because the state has failed to comply with U.S. mandates to combat drunken driving. The money, which represents 5 percent of $807 million Indiana receives from Washington for highway and surface transportation programs this year, would instead have to be spent on programs against drunken driving or highway safety improvements because Indiana’s open-container law and its penalty for repeat drunken-driving offenders don’t pass muster. But Indiana’s open-container law hasn’t changed since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration certified Indiana was in compliance in 2005. "The issue here is that we were told we were in compliance,” said Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Will Wingfield. "I think it’s reasonable that, since we were previously found to be in compliance, that we be given the opportunity to rectify this before there are any repercussions.” Indiana is one of 14 states recently found to fall short of federal requirements to reduce drunken driving, after Congress updated federal highway spending programs last year. Nineteen states previously had been told their laws weren’t sufficient, potentially bringing the total of noncompliant states to 33 once final determinations are made on the 14 states. If upheld for all the states, a combined $539 million would be diverted from states’ construction funds to drunken-driving programs or highway safety improvement projects.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130126/NEWS05/130126025/Feds-say-state-can-t-spend-40-4M-highway-funding-because-of-its-drunken-driving-laws-

Portland Press Herald: Portland has more firefighters than other towns its size

The Portland Press Herald press reports an analysis by it and the Maine Sunday Telegram finds Portland employs more full-time firefighters than any other midsized city in New England. The city has 3.54 firefighters for every 1,000 residents, a rate higher than all 45 comparable cities in the region. On a per-capita basis, no other department even comes close. The next largest comparable department is in Taunton, Mass., with 2.72 firefighters per 1,000 residents. About half of the communities in Portland's size range -- 40,000 to 100,000 residents -- have fewer than 2 firefighters per 1,000 residents. Despite its large fire staff, Portland struggles to contain overtime costs that have approached or surpassed $2 million in each of the past two years. Among other factors potentially adding to the cost of the city's $16 million fire department is its 24-hour work shifts, a common practice in the industry that some chiefs say costs more money than it saves. Staffing in Maine's largest fire department, which accounts for 8 percent of the city's $200 million budget, has been a touchy political issue in Portland for years. And it is now the central focus of a top-down review of the department by a team of city consultants, a study that also coincides with the arrival of a new chief.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine/Is-the-Portland-Maine-fire-department-overstaffed_2013-01-27.html

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: State overtime in New York soared in 2012

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that overall overtime among state agencies grew 11 percent in 2012 compared with 2011, and five state employees earned more than $100,000 each in overtime alone last year, state records showed. Ten of the top 20 overtime earners provide psychiatric center services, raising questions about staffing levels and overworked employees at a time when attention to mental health treatment is high following mass shootings in Newtown, Conn. and Webster. Many of the rest of the top 20 overtime earners work in the state prison system. Overtime costs for state government rose about $52 million, to a total of nearly $521 million. The state paid out 13.2 million in overtime hours in 2012 — the most since 2008, records obtained by Gannett’s Albany Bureau from the state Comptroller’s Office said. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned the state about the increase in overtime costs. "State agency overtime jumped more than $50 million last year, reversing a downward trend,” DiNapoli said in a statement. "While often necessary, overtime is an expensive way to operate. Agencies need to do a better job of monitoring their overtime and reduce it whenever possible.”

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20130127/NEWS01/301270024/State-overtime-pay-audit

San Antonio Express-News: Jail absenteeism mishandled, driving up overtime costs

The San Antonio Express-News reports the Bexar County Jail's staffing crisis has been exacerbated by chronic absenteeism among a handful of jailers that was mishandled by former Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz, forcing more deputies to work extra shifts and causing a huge increase in overtime costs. Over a three-year period, just 2.7 percent of the jailers accounted for 12 percent of the department's 861,842 hours of absenteeism — or more than 21,500, 40-hour weeks — a San Antonio Express-News analysis of jail records shows. The newspaper found much of the absenteeism was recorded by jailers who serve in the military reserves or the National Guardand were activated for extended tours of duty. Among the 30 most-absent jailers, at least 24 were reservists who were put on extended duty. To compensate for their absence, the Sheriff's Office could "double-fill” their positions — permanently hiring a jailer to fill the vacancy left by a long-term military deployment. Under the program, when the deployed jailer returned from duty, the sheriff would transfer his or her substitute to fill another open position at the jail. But the jail filled only 12 of the positions left empty by extended duty, leaving the other 12 vacant, according to jail records. And those 12 positions racked up at more than 28,000 hours of absenteeism that the newspaper's analysis concluded likely was connected to the military deployments.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Failure-to-fill-spots-worsened-jail-staffing-4226625.php

Charlotte Observer: Lobbying loophole spurs ethics question

The Charlotte Observer reports that Harold Brubaker and Richard Stevens, formerly among the most influential men in the state legislature, are beginning new careers this year as lobbyists, arguing for the causes of corporations and interest groups before their former colleagues. To do so, they took advantage of a loophole in a state law that imposes a six-month cooling-off period between the time a lawmaker leaves office and when he or she can hang out a lobbying shingle. Brubaker and Stevens resigned before their terms ended so they could start lobbying almost immediately when the legislature convenes. That practice, in the view of some, renders the cooling-off period almost meaningless. And it provides well-heeled interest groups, who can afford the services of heavyweights such as Brubaker or Stevens, a major advantage in legislative debates. "The biggest problem is the perception of citizens that the system is rigged against them for somebody who has money and resources,” said Jane Pinsky, director of the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform. The revolving door has been a common practice in most state capitals, including Raleigh, where for decades some of the most influential lobbyists have been former lawmakers – Tom White, Sam Johnson, John Jordan, Zeb Alley and Al Adams, to name just a few. More recently, the lobbying ranks have included ex-legislators Chuck Neely, Tim McDowell, Connie Wilson, Steve Metcalf and Sandy Sands.

Read Me:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/01/26/3815119/nc-budget-chairs-change-seats.html

Post Crescent: Municipal salaries all over the Wisconsin map

The Post-Crescent reports it pays quite a lot to be a city administrator Burlington, a city of 10,000 in southeastern Wisconsin that raised Kevin Lahner’s base salary 13 percent to more than $133,000 in 2012. Not so much in neighboring Racine, where Thomas Friedel was paid $33,000 less despite overseeing a city nearly eight times larger. A Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team analysis of municipal salaries found many such disparities around the state, based on data from the 91 cities, towns and villages with populations of 10,000 or more. The first-of-its-kind database was gathered through public records requests filed with each entity and includes pay records for more than 24,000 local municipal employees. Gannett Wisconsin Media sought 2012 pay, as well as 2011 pay, benefits and overtime/extra pay, though not all municipalities provided all of the requested information. The result is a collection of more than 250,000 names, covering every Wisconsin public employee earning more than $25,000 in the most recent available fiscal year. The listing includes state and federal employees, as well as those who work in Wisconsin’s 72 counties; 91 cities, towns or villages with a population of 10,000 or more; 26 University of Wisconsin campuses; 16 technical colleges and 424 public school districts. Dale Knapp, research director for the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said inconsistency in pay levels isn’t wrong, as long as municipalities have done their homework.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20130126/APC019803/301260126/Municipal-salaries-vary-throughout-Wisconsin?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|FRONTPAGE

New York Times: Gun industry steps up outreach to youths

The New York Times reports the firearms industry,threatened by long-term declining participation in shooting sports, has poured millions of dollars into a broad campaign to ensure its future by getting guns into the hands of more, and younger, children. The industry’s strategies include giving firearms, ammunition and cash to youth groups; weakening state restrictions on hunting by young children; marketing an affordable military-style rifle for "junior shooters” and sponsoring semiautomatic-handgun competitions for youths; and developing a target-shooting video game that promotes brand-name weapons, with links to the Web sites of their makers.

The pages of Junior Shooters, an industry-supported magazine that seeks to get children involved in the recreational use of firearms, once featured a smiling 15-year-old girl clutching a semiautomatic rifle. At the end of an accompanying article that extolled target shooting with a Bushmaster AR-15 — an advertisement elsewhere in the magazine directed readers to a coupon for buying one — the author encouraged youngsters to share the article with a parent.

"Who knows?” it said. "Maybe you’ll find a Bushmaster AR-15 under your tree some frosty Christmas morning!”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/us/selling-a-new-generation-on-guns.html?pagewanted=all

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (Jan. 24, 2013)

AP: The Great Reset - Disappearing Jobs

An Associated Press analysis finds that five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over. And the situation is even worse than it appears. Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers. They're being obliterated by technology. Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines.

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2013/01/23/1232306?sac=fo.business

Austin (Texas) American-Statesman: Suicides spike again at Fort Hood

The Austin American-Statesman looked into suicides among troops stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. It found that by the age of 28, Sgt. Chad Williams had survived four deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and returned as the kind of battle-tested noncommissioned officer that Army officials call the backbone of the modern military force. … But within a year, the former combat engineer’s life would end with a self-inflicted gunshot on the black asphalt of a Copperas Cove movie theater parking lot. … The number of Fort Hood soldiers who killed themselves nearly doubled in 2012, jumping to 19 from 10 in 2011, and trending upwards even as the war in Iraq ended and troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan. That echoed overall military numbers: 2012 saw 349 service members kill themselves, The Associated Press reported last week, more than any previous year and outpacing battlefield deaths.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/suicides-spike-once-again-at-fort-hood/nT2yW/

Denver Post: Views on gun laws change since last fall

A new poll by the Denver Post has found that Coloradans, who have endured mass shootings at Columbine High School and at an Aurora movie theater last year, have long held a mix of ideas about guns that favor the rights of firearms owners, but those opinions have become more nuanced. While a majority of respondents expressed support for gun-owner rights, they expressed greater support for specific limitations that would strengthen gun laws. Proposals that would ban assault-style rifles, limit the number of cartridges allowed in ammunition magazines and require universal background checks on gun sales garnered more than 60 percent support from those polled. The findings of the poll come after President Barack Obama last week announced a plan to toughen gun-control laws nationally after highly reported mass shootings. A handful of his proposals are already in the works at the state level. The latest Post poll, conducted the day after Obama's announcement, found that overall support for the rights of gun owners shrank from an earlier Post poll in September — conducted shortly after the Aurora theater shootings. … At the time, 56 percent said it was more important to protect the right to own guns, while 39 percent said it was more important to control gun ownership. The September survey polled likely voters in anticipation of the presidential election. Last week's poll came after the election. Now, as the debate over gun control has intensified, response to this poll question narrowed to 50 percent who say it is more important to protect gun ownership to 45 percent who say it is more important to control gun ownership.

http://www.denverpost.com/frontpage/ci_22411498/poll-gun-legislation-coloradans-views-change-since-september#ixzz2IibmLKKK

Houston Chronicle: Watchdog raises questions about administrative fees at foundation

Records obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that a little-known foundation created to support Texas' $3 billion fight against cancer has operated with oversized overhead expenses, much of which were paid to a consulting firm run by a politically connected lobbyist. The donor-funded Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Foundation, intended principally to boost top administrative salaries at the state's cancer-fighting agency, has spent more than $800,000 on its own management, public relations and lobbying expenses during its three-year existence, the records show. Administrative fees consumed more than a third of the foundation's $1 million budget last year _ an outsized figure for an organization dedicated to fundraising, according to nationwide studies and experts. … Most administrative fees went to the consulting firm of Jennifer Stevens, an Austin-based lobbyist and fundraiser who serves as the foundation's executive director. Marc Palazzo, a "crisis management" consultant recently hired by the foundation board, declined to disclose contracts but said the firm received "less than 17 percent" of the foundation's $3.9 million in revenues _ or about $660,000.

Kansas City Star: Learning gap persists as minority student population rises

The Kansas City Star found by analyzing school data that districts are straining to boost the academic performance and graduation rates of a growing minority student population. Kansas and Missouri data, sorted by The Star, mark how overall white enrollment across 40 area school districts since 2004 has declined by 7,631 students, while the number of students of color has grown by 25,468. Districts have chipped away at performance gaps, the analysis also shows, but disparities persist. Minority students in area districts, on average, graduated at a rate 10 percentage points below white students in 2012. On state performance tests, the average area gaps showed white students 8.3 percentage points above Hispanic students and 16.5 percentage points above black students.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/20/4020900/as-the-number-of-minority-students.html#storylink=cpy

Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader: Gun rush amid talk of new federal laws

The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader looked at data on firearms background checks and at the stores that sell weapons. It found that shelves that once held semiautomatic rifles, boxes of ammunition and high-capacity magazines are barren. Concealed-carry training classes are filled to capacity. And shooters have hit the gun ranges to pop off dozens of practice rounds. In Kentucky, like other states with lenient gun laws and an entrenched gun culture, people are rushing to stock up on rifles, handguns, spare clips and ammunition. Prices are rising to meet the demand. "It's a scare. A big scare over a lot of political backwash," said Michael Newsome, a 19-year-old gun enthusiast who spent a recent night shooting rounds at a Lexington gun range. "But people are running out to buy this stuff, and companies are cashing in on it." As talk of stricter federal gun-control laws heated up, the FBI recorded about 40,000 more firearms background checks of Kentuckians in December than the previous month. It was the most drastic month-to-month increase in the state since July 2006, when authorities began using the background check system to verify eligibility of concealed-carry permit holders. Data was not available for January, but gun shop owners say things have been busy.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Ex-con suspected of Ponzi scheme

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has tracked the recent activity of an ex-convict suspected of bilking unsuspecting investors. It found, for example, that Phan Doan, a 62-year-old grandmother, met Todd Dyer when he came to her Lake Geneva nail salon nearly three years ago for a pedicure _ an encounter she says ultimately cost her $75,000. During the pedicure and in later meetings, Dyer, who called himself "Allen Todd," talked up an investment in Midwest Farmland Partners, a company he helped launch in 2008 while still on probation for a securities fraud conviction. … She had no idea that Dyer, 49, has been in the sights of securities regulators and law enforcement for two decades now. In addition to a 2004 securities fraud conviction in Illinois, he had been convicted in federal court in Milwaukee for running a Ponzi scheme that prosecutors called the second-largest consumer fraud in state history in 1999. He still owes $2.5 million in restitution from two separate cases, plus a $4 million civil judgment to the estate of a since-deceased Chicago schoolteacher he was convicted of defrauding in Illinois. Yet Dyer, a felon who openly acknowledges using a phony name in business dealings, continues coming up with new ways to attract investors _ a situation that highlights the glacial pace of white-collar investigations, flaws in the regulatory system and the willingness of people to invest without doing their homework.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/lake-geneva-felon-suspected-of-running-a-new-ponzi-scheme-7f8cmp0-187618671.html

New York Times: Big Senate gift to drug makers buried in bill

The New York Times discovers that just two weeks after pleading guilty in a major federal fraud case, Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology firm, scored a largely unnoticed coup on Capitol Hill: Lawmakers inserted a paragraph into the "fiscal cliff” bill that did not mention the company by name but strongly favored one of its drugs. The language buried in Section 632 of the law delays a set of Medicare price restraints on a class of drugs that includes Sensipar, a lucrative Amgen pill used by kidney dialysis patients.

The provision gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government controls. The news was so welcome that the company’s chief executive quickly relayed it to investment analysts. But it is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over that period. Amgen, which has a small army of 74 lobbyists in the capital, was the only company to argue aggressively for the delay, according to several Congressional aides of both parties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/us/medicare-pricing-delay-is-political-win-for-amgen-drug-maker.html?pagewanted=all

Orange County (Calif.) Register: A war on prostitution

The Orange County (Calif.) Register looks at the Santa Ana Police Department’s decade-long campaign against street prostitution. It starts by considering the case of a 21-year-old woman named Sarah Premer. Police first arrested Premer in the morning hours of June 9, 2010. She had been trying to engage in prostitution along the 3600 block of Harbor Boulevard, near well-trimmed business parks, a law school and a closed steakhouse. The official charge was loitering to commit prostitution, a misdemeanor in California. The officers handcuffed her, booked her at police headquarters and then, like most suspected prostitutes, released her with a promise to appear for a future court date. But before that date came, Premer was back in handcuffs. Santa Ana police arrested her two weeks later at the same place, at nearly the same time and for doing the same thing. She was booked and released for a second time, saving jail space for those accused of more serious crimes. In both instances, police arrested Premer as part of organized sweeps. Uniformed and undercover officers patrolled the boulevard and targeted anyone suspected of selling, buying or arranging sex. On Harbor, it can be like catching fish in a barrel. Premer’s third arrest was a little different though. The Police Department set up a more complex operation in July 2010 aimed at luring prostitutes along the boulevard. Court records show Premer took the bait and agreed to sell sex to an undercover officer. Police charged her with a harsher misdemeanor, agreeing to engage in prostitution, bringing the total number of charges to three in one summer. She potentially faced months in jail and thousands of dollars in fines. Though Premer’s case attracted no media attention at the time, it illustrates the enormous amount of resources that Santa Ana police have invested in arresting suspected prostitutes and why the strategy may not be working. Despite thousands of arrests, women like Premer continue returning to Harbor Boulevard. Santa Ana’s aggressive strategy isn’t unusual among law enforcement agencies, but the scale of its initiative has become extraordinary. County prosecutors have filed nearly 5,000 prostitution-related cases sent over by Santa Ana police since 2003.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/police-383818-prostitution-santa.html

Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel: Lines kept more than 200,000 from voting

The long Election Day lines around Florida may have turned away more than 200,000 frustrated would-be voters who gave up and went home before they cast ballots — or else saw the lines and elected not to join them. Analyzing data compiled by the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, Ohio State University professor Theodore Allen estimated last week that at least 201,000 voters likely gave up in frustration on Nov. 6, based on research Allen has been doing on voter behavior. His preliminary conclusion was based on the Sentinel's analysis of voter patterns and precinct-closing times in Florida's 25 largest counties, home to 86 percent of the state's 11.9 million registered voters. "My gut is telling me that the real number [of voters] deterred is likely higher," Allen said. "You make people wait longer, they are less likely to vote." Around the state, more than 2 million registered voters live in precincts that stayed open at least 90 minutes past the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time, according to Sentinel analysis of voting data obtained from county elections supervisors. Of those, 602,000 voters live in precincts that stayed open three extra hours or longer. And three of the five counties with the worst lines were in Central Florida. In Orange, Osceola and Volusia counties, as many as 48 percent of those who cast votes on Election Day live in precincts that closed at least 90 minutes late, the analysis showed.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-01-19/business/os-voter-lines-statewide-20130118_1_long-lines-sentinel-analysis-state-ken-detzner

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch: School district workers changed students’ grades

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch looked at school records and found that nearly 600 Columbus school district employees changed some 5,300 final grades from failing to passing during the school year that is the target of state and federal investigations for data rigging. And no one logged onto a computer and swapped an F for a D more often than Stanley K. Pyle, who was an assistant principal at Marion-Franklin High School during the 2010-11 school year, according to a Dispatch analysis of a district computer log that recorded grade changes. The log shows that Pyle is responsible for 495 switches, or 9 percent of all failing-to-passing changes made to final grades that school year. The district would not explain the unusual pattern, and Pyle did not respond to an email or phone call. District spokesman Jeff Warner said Pyle would have needed to make sure final grades were correct. … School employees made more than 311,000 grade changes overall during the school year in question. The district, which is Ohio’s largest, has about 50,000 students.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/01/20/grades-were-changed-too.html

The Post-Crescent: Corrections overtime drops after law change

The Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wis., found that policy changes after Act 10 cut overtime in the Wisconsin Department of Corrections by $10 million last year, a 25 percent drop for an agency that accounts for more than half of all overtime worked by state employees. The reduction — to $30 million in 2012 — is a significant reversal for an agency that veteran officers say has long relied on overtime for cost savings. "For the 18 years I’ve been working there, that place runs on overtime,” said Russ Holterman, correctional officer at Green Bay Correctional Institution. "It’s cheaper for them to pay overtime than it is to hire people and pay benefits. I don’t think you’ll ever get anyone in government to admit that, but that’s the way it works.” The lower cost does not directly indicate a reduction in overtime hours, though. Much of the savings comes from rule changes that allow extra shifts to be covered on regular time, or by lower-salaried employees. With more than 800 corrections positions unfilled, double shifts are still frequently required, which staffers say brings up the same safety concerns as before the cut in costs.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20130119/APC019803/301190082/Corrections-overtime-drops-10M-2012

The Press Democrat: How many guns do we buy?

The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., finds that nearly 10,000 guns were bought in Sonoma County in 2012 from firearms dealers. That's an average of 27 a day, or enough to provide one new handgun, rifle or shotgun for every 49 residents. The numbers are further evidence of a sustained explosion in gun sales on the North Coast, with Sonoma County leading the way with a 60 percent spike in just two years. The increase dwarfs the rate of the region's population growth and comes at a time of declining hunting licenses and a long-term drop in crime rates. Dealers sold 18,794 guns in 2012 in Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties. Over the past decade, 4.6 million guns were sold in California, including 125,869 in the four counties. Some studies show that while Americans now own an estimated 270 million firearms, the percentage of the population who say they own guns has dropped substantially. That has led some experts to say it not a matter of more people buying guns, but gun owners buying even more guns.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130119/ARTICLES/130119403

The Press of Atlantic City: State site missing public worker contracts

The Press of Atlantic City, N.J., has found that many local governments and school districts in New Jersey have not submitted their employee contracts to the state Public Employment Relations Commission, which posts the contracts on its website for easy public access. New Jersey municipal governments, public schools and other public agencies have been required for more than 40 years to send copies of all employee contracts to the PERC. The Press review this month found numerous local governments, public agencies and school boards missing current contracts. Some are just a year or two behind, while others have been missing for years.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/state-site-missing-public-worker-contracts/article_80e3331e-62a4-11e2-8dbe-001a4bcf887a.html

The Salt Lake Tribune: TSA haphazard about keeping data

After airport security blunders enabled the 9/11 terrorists to kill nearly 3,000 people, Congress created the Transportation Security Administration to protect against attack in U.S. skies. To help analyze its progress, TSA says it decided to track how many potential weapons travelers surrender at each U.S. airport. But The Salt Lake Tribune of Salt Lake City, Utah, found huge holes in that TSA data that raise questions about the information’s value in charting the effectiveness of airport security. For example, TSA stopped counting confiscated firearms for three years. In 2008, it quit counting eight of 13 major categories of banned items, including knives, ammunition and box cutters (the weapon used by 9/11 terrorists). The hit-and-miss data show TSA does not know how many total prohibited items are surrendered, so it cannot accurately track rates of such activity nationwide or at specific airports. "If TSA is continually changing the parameters of how they test, truly they have no idea of how they are doing," said Douglas Laird, head of an aviation-security consulting firm. He is the former security director of Northwest Airlines and a former Secret Service agent. But TSA says the data variations are not a big deal.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile/55629322-68/tsa-items-security-data.html.csp

The Star-Ledger: Livestrong’s vast reserve perhaps foreshadowed Armstrong backpedal

A review of foundation documents by The Star-Ledger of New Jersey found that as Lance Armstrong piled up denials in recent years, the charity he founded seems to have been bracing for his confession, building a war chest of about $100 million. The review of Livestrong’s 2011 Form 990 federal tax return — the most recent year available — shows the organization had $46,838,932 in revenues while all expenditures, including salaries and administrative costs, totaled $31,685,501. The $15 million difference was added to the group’s assets, which by the end of 2011 totaled more than $109 million, documents show. Accounting for some money Livestrong legally cannot touch, the usable assets — or money available to be steered to other charities — were about $91 million. A cash reserve of this size is unusual among nonprofit organizations and a telltale sign, watchdog groups and fundraisers say, that Livestrong saw a crisis coming. Concerned its close association with Armstrong could cripple its ability to attract donations, the agency has given itself a large cushion to absorb any fallout from the scandal, records suggest. A spokeswoman for Livestrong said the organization built up a large stockpile of cash to safeguard against a weak economy.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/livestrongs_assets_top_100_mil.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (Jan. 17, 2013)

AP: NRA believes Congress will block new weapons ban

The Associated Press reported that the powerful gun lobby is gauging enough support in Congress to block a law that would ban assault weapons, despite promises from the White House and senior lawmakers to make such a measure a reality. Senators plan to introduce a bill that would ban assault weapons and limit the size of ammunition magazines, like the one used in the December shooting massacre that killed 27 people, most of them children, in Newtown, Conn. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has promised to push for a renewal of expired legislation. The National Rifle Association has so far prevented passage of another assault weapons ban like the one that expired in 2004. But some lawmakers say the Newtown tragedy has transformed the country, and Americans are ready for stricter gun laws. President Barack Obama has made gun control a top priority. … Still, the NRA has faith that Congress would prevent a new weapons ban. … The NRA's deep pockets help bolster allies and punish lawmakers who buck them. The group spent at least $24 million in the 2012 elections -- $16.8 million through its political action committee and nearly $7.5 million through its affiliated Institute for Legislative Action. Separately, the NRA spent some $4.4 million through July 1 to lobby Congress.

http://www.ohio.com/news/politics/national/nra-says-congress-will-not-pass-weapons-ban-1.364696

AP: 1,500 fugitives sought in New Mexico

The Associated Press looked into parole violations in the state of New Mexico. Its story on so-called "absconders” starts with Daniel Golden Jr., an ex-convict who was hanging out at a birthday party in August when he suddenly became belligerent after someone changed the music. Authorities say he grabbed a 9mm handgun and fired several shots in the air before being arrested on a firearms charge. Upon his arrest, investigators soon discovered that Golden shouldn’t have been walking the streets in the first place, because he had violated the terms of his probation. … He’s not the only one in New Mexico. Around 1,500 ex-convicts accused of violating their parole or probation in New Mexico are on the run from authorities, and about a third of them are violent offenders, according to documents obtained by the AP. Golden’s case and others like it reveal an often-overlooked problem in the criminal justice system in New Mexico and around the country. Criminals are released on probation or parole, then violate the terms of the release.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/011413HidingFugitives2ndLd-Writethru#.UPVzbB3g3bg

AP: US judges seem wary of release of bin Laden photos

U.S. appeals court judges seemed skeptical in recent hearings about forcing the government to release photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden during and after a raid in which the terrorist leader was killed by U.S. commandos, The Associated Press reports. Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, is seeking the images through the Freedom of Information Act. The Defense Department said it didn't turn up anything responsive to the FOIA request, while the CIA found 52 responsive records. The intelligence agency withheld all of them, citing exemptions for classified materials and information specifically exempted by other laws.

Judicial Watch lawyer Michael Bekesha told the appeals court panel in arguments recently that the government didn't provide a specific enough basis for denying the request. But Judge Merrick Garland said the government cited specific concerns that the images could be used by the al-Qaida terrorist network for propaganda and to incite anti-American sentiment.

http://azstarnet.com/news/national/judges-wary-of-releasing-bin-laden-photos/article_5b47513e-d926-503a-99d1-27b4a4662775.html

Arizona Republic: Women screened for HPV with ‘a test you can’t trust’

The Arizona Republic has found that while more than 12,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year, hundreds more may go undiagnosed because of the widespread use of a screening test that the Food and Drug Administration has not approved for detecting the human papillomavirus, or HPV. HPV causes nearly all cervical cancers. Some of the largest national labs have for a decade routinely used test kits that contain a preservative, BD SurePath, that is approved for Pap tests but not HPV testing. The labs continue to use the tests despite a June 8 FDA warning that HPV tests using SurePath can produce false negatives and national guidelines that call for using only FDA-approved tests, an Arizona Republic investigation has found. The result: Women may be told they are free of HPV when, in fact, they aren’t. Such a misdiagnosis can allow the virus or cancer to become established and more difficult to treat.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20130112hpv-testing-false-negative.html

Austin (Texas) American-Statesman: Police reporting more use of force

The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman analyzed 3 1/2 years of internal police data and found that the city’s police report they are using physical force in more of their encounters with the public. The steady increase in the reported cases in which officers use a weapon or their hands to compel compliance has occurred even as the number of times police come into contact with the public has steadily fallen during the same period. Arrests, too, dropped 15 percent between 2009 and 2011. The result: Austin police’s reported incidence of force — the likelihood officers used some form of physical coercion during arrests — jumped more than 80 percent between 2009 and 2011, the paper’s analysis found. In 2011, Austin police reported using force in 1,686 incidents — an average of 4.5 times every day of the year. Many of those cases had more than one officer using force, occasionally on more than one person. A large number occurred downtown. The Statesman analyzed reports from the first three calendar years following a June 1, 2008, policy change.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/austin-police-departments-use-of-force-climbing/nTsbm/

Bergen Record: Marketers keep 80 percent of funds raised for state police league

The Bergen (N.J.) Record finds that the Police Athletic League of New Jersey has angered local PAL directors by conducting a telephone fundraising campaign in their backyards and sharing little if any of the money raised. The private companies hired by the state organization to make the calls have done quite well, however. According to the state PAL’s most recent tax return, of the $922,205 three companies raised for the organization in 2010, $730,568 — or nearly 80 percent — was kept by the firms. And the non-profit’s current contracts with two of the solicitors — on file with the Attorney General’s Office — show that they continue to keep 75 to 80 percent of donations collected. In addition, both firms have run afoul of charity regulators over concerns about their solicitation operations. For years, the local PAL groups have raised objections about the state chapter’s fundraising on their turf; among the most recent complaints are claims of solicitors indicating falsely that contributions go to local groups.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Marketers_keep_80_of_funds_raised_for_state_Police_Athletic_League.html

Chicago Tribune: The story behind the Tribune’s broken deal

The Chicago Tribune looks at its own recent past. At the end of 2007, real estate tycoon Sam Zell took control of Tribune Co. in a deal that promised to re-energize the media conglomerate, the paper says. But the company struggled under the huge debt burden the deal created, and less than a year later, it filed for bankruptcy. One of Chicago's most iconic companies — parent to the Chicago Tribune — was propelled into a protracted and in many ways unprecedented odyssey through Chapter 11 reorganization. On Dec. 31, after four years, Tribune Co. finally emerged from court protection under new ownership, but at a heavy cost. The company's value was diminished, its reputation was tarnished and its ability to respond to market opportunities during its long bankruptcy was constrained. Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy saga began as an era of superheated Wall Street deal-making fueled by cheap money was coming to an end. The company's tale is emblematic of the American financial crisis itself, in which a seemingly insatiable appetite for speculative risk using exotic investment instruments helped trigger an economic collapse of historic proportions. In a four-part series, reporters tell the story of Tribune Co.'s journey into and through bankruptcy, throwing a spotlight on the key decisions and missed opportunities that marked a perilous time in the history of the company, the media industry and the economy.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-13/business/ct-biz-trib-series-gecko-day1-20130113_1_bankruptcy-saga-long-bankruptcy-chicago-tribune

Houston Chronicle: Utility deregulation lacks a bright side for customers

A Hearst Newspapers investigation has found that over a decade of deregulation, the frequency and duration of outages have crept up, maintenance of aging infrastructure has been deferred, line workers have been laid off - and CEOs' salaries have risen an average of 150 percent nationwide. The results, published in the Houston (Texas) Chronicle were evident when Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast last month. For example, the tree-lined suburban town of Weston, Conn., knew all too well what to expect. It was the third major storm Weston had suffered in just over a year. Once again, hundred-year-old trees smashed into power lines, throwing the town into the surreal darkness of a lengthy power outage. Connecticut Light & Power lineman Keith Boczer was among the first on the scene, taking cover as trees were "falling all over the place." His crew was "minimal," and Boczer, 55, felt "handcuffed." He remembers when an outage like this one would be attacked by much larger crews. The number of CL&P linemen has shrunk 60 percent over the past three decades, while the number of people served by the utility has increased 40 percent. Charles Shivery's first full year as chairman of the board, CEO and president of Northeast Utilities, CL&P's parent company, was 2004. That year, his compensation totaled $1.9 million. In 2011, Shivery's compensation totaled $9,685,241 - a more than fivefold increase in seven years. … During a five-month investigation, Hearst Newspapers found four primary and interrelated factors - cited again and again in interviews, studies and other research - that drive investor-owned utilities' problems with reliability: aging infrastructure; a shrinking workforce that has curtailed both maintenance and response to storms; persistent failure to trim and remove trees near power lines; a culture change that has placed profits above reliability

San Jose Mercury News: Are citizens safer when ‘good guys’ have guns?

The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News has looked into guns used in self-defense. Its story starts with a noise waking Bijan Moeinzadeh in the middle of the night. He couldn’t tell the source, but his instincts immediately kicked in: He grabbed the .357 revolver from a lockbox in his bedroom and slipped it in his pocket. Inching toward the noise, he discovered a stranger riffling through belongings on his porch. The patio light and a shout scared off the intruder. The gun never left Moeinzadeh's pocket, but the Navy medic who recently returned from Afghanistan -- and who learned to shoot as a Boy Scout and often practices at a San Jose firing range -- said he felt safer for having it. … With the country embroiled in a polarizing debate over gun control after a series of mass shootings, many gun supporters passionately argue that arming the "good guys" makes us safer. But a pair of recent Bay Area cases where "good guys" drew guns to defend themselves shows how dangerous -- and unpredictable -- that can be. Just the act of drawing a gun, experts say, can turn a violent encounter into a deadly one. … Extensive and reliable statistics about gun violence are difficult to come by, experts say, in part because of pressure from the National Rifle Association in the mid-1990s that led to reductions in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which had been tracking gun violence data.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_22356496/gun-control-are-we-safer-when-good-guys?source=most_emailed

The Buffalo (N.Y.) News: Investigation shows why school official dismissed

The Buffalo (N.Y.) News fought to get an investigator’s report and revealed that a former Buffalo Public Schools administrator, Debbie Buckley, apparently misused funds that were intended to help impoverished students in the nation’s third-poorest city. In less than a year and a half, while Buckley ran the district’s grants department, she directed more than $330,000 of that anti-poverty money to benefit people and businesses close to her, including her son, her former step-sister and a floundering tutoring business that she had founded with her mother. And much of the money went for services that never were provided, investigators found. Although Buckley was fired seven months ago, the reasons why she was dismissed are coming to light only now because The Buffalo News fought for six months to obtain an investigator’s report that the district had marked confidential and refused to release. The district released the report only after The News filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court under the state’s Freedom of Information Law. The report and related documents provide a window into a school district administration that allowed a poorly trained individual to control huge sums of money with little scrutiny or supervision.

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130112/CITYANDREGION/130119666/1109

The Cincinnati Enquirer: Right-to-work law success hard to measure

Oklahoma’s "right-to-work” law is either a stunning success or an abject failure. It has created jobs and driven economic growth, as business leaders say, or it has lowered wages and hurt workers, as labor unions claim. It is the reason unemployment is low in Oklahoma, or it is preventing the state from doing even better. As Ohioans debate whether to embrace right-to-work, which bans mandatory union membership and dues, Oklahoma’s decade-long experiment is a testament to the challenges of measuring the law’s impact.

Although 24 states have now adopted right-to-work – historically pro-union Michigan is the latest – it’s still unclear whether the law has helped, hurt or done a little bit of both. "I found no convincing statistical evidence that right-to-work did anything,” said Mike Hicks, an economist at Ball State University who has studied similar laws nationwide. "It just didn’t really have an effect.” Other independent economists have reached similar conclusions. Sometimes their research includes caveats about slight changes in manufacturing jobs, wages or some other statistic, but most describe the law as a tough nut to crack. That’s because it’s almost impossible to separate the impact of the law from the many other factors that influence a particular state’s economy, from the climate to tax rates to natural resources.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130113/NEWS010801/301130054/IN-DEPTH-Right-work-s-success-hard-measure?nclick_check=1

Sacramento Bee: Minorities face surge in Alzheimer’s cases in California

The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee is looking into a rise in Alzheimer’s cases among minority communities. … Within two decades' time, Alzheimer’s Association research shows, the degenerative brain disease will boom in California's minority populations, with the number of African Americans with Alzheimer's expected to double by 2030 and the number of Latinos and Asian Americans expected to triple. In large part, that's the result of the state's changing demographic realities, as California's growing minority populations combine with the huge age wave of the baby boom generation. And experts say that minority groups can face unique challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of dementia. Values shared by many groups across ethnic lines – reverence for elders and respect for family – can stand in the way of seeking help. In some minority groups, the elderly are less likely to have easy access to health care. Language can prove a barrier to early, accurate diagnosis. As in the white community, so can fear and stigma. … More than 5.4 million people in the United States have Alzheimer's today, and that number is expected to increase to 14 million with the aging of the baby boom generation. Projected racial and ethnic disparities are pronounced across the nation: Although more than 80 percent of the Alzheimer's cases diagnosed in 2006 occurred in the white population, the American Medical Association says that number is expected to drop to 60 percent by 2050 – because of the proportional rise in the number of minority cases.

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/14/5112351/minorities-face-surge-in-alzheimers.html#storylink=cpy

Tulsa (Okla.) World: 61st and Pretoria neighborhood sees rising crime

In its "focus on crime” series, the Tulsa (Okla.) World finds that the neighborhood encompassing 61st and Peoria Avenue is seeing rising problems. More than a decade ago, it was renamed Riverwood. But crime and a downward economic spiral fought back against their hard-won progress. The new name never really stuck. In the wake of a brutal quadruple homicide that took the lives of four women in publicly financed apartments, locals are wondering: What happened to Riverwood, and how can we get it back? Four women — Rebeika Powell, 23; Kayetie Powell Melchor, 23; Misty Nunley, 33; and Julie Jackson, 55 — were found shot to death in the Fairmont Terrace apartments recently. Rebeika Powell’s 3-year-old son was found at the scene, uninjured. Police are still searching for the killer or killers. They have questioned several people but made no arrests, asking for the community’s help and patience as they do the difficult work.

Fairmont Terrace has been the scene of eight killings in the past two years, including the latest four. Killings have decreased citywide since 2009 but the homicide rate in the area of 61st and Peoria has remained steady and sometimes increased, as it did in 2011, a Tulsa World analysis shows. Those who’ve lived there long enough remember it as once placid and peaceful, with crime increasing after the oil bust hit local real estate hard in the 1980s. There were crime waves in the mid-90s, early 2000s and now since 2011.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20130112_296_0_ahrefh413316&allcom=1

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (1-9-2013)

Arizona Republic: Rigorous education at core of new standards

The Arizona Republic reports that more rigorous academic standards are coming to Arizona's public schools this year, but the transition, which some schools have already begun, will be difficult and expensive. Some districts are scrambling to find money to train teachers in the new Common Core Standards, and most say their teachers won't be fully versed by the fall. The consequences are severe. As the state is struggling to implement the standards, it is also doing away with the high-stakes AIMS graduation test and introducing tougher achievement exams in 2015. And student performance on those exams will be used to judge school, as well as teacher, performance. The changes, which are challenging the teachers who are preparing for them, are part of a national trend toward raising academic expectations in public schools. … The Arizona Republic surveyed 20 of Maricopa County's largest school districts about their readiness for Common Core. Together they employ about 25,000 of the county's 31,000 teachers.

Chicago Tribune: Small suburbs exploit tax loophole

The Chicago Tribune finds that in one suburb, weeds grow chest-high on dormant youth baseball diamonds and the village's water is drawn from wells so laced with a toxic chemical that the state had to drag in a new filtration system. They are the kinds of problems that could prompt a village to hike taxes, and Sauk Village did just that in recent years, raising them even higher than the tax-capped town is usually allowed. But the extra cash hasn't gone to the ballfields or to the water system.

Instead, the money is going to pay off a gleaming Village Hall — for which officials borrowed big to build, without seeking voter approval. "I don't think it was right," said longtime resident Edward Sullivan. "If anything has to do with my money, my taxes, my home — yes, I should have a right to vote on whether I want it or not." Sauk Village represents yet another cautionary tale of how Illinois' loose borrowing rules can sting taxpayers and leave a town mired in debt — even in places where residents might have expected traditional safeguards to protect them. Previous Tribune investigations have exposed how Illinois has no borrowing limits for many mostly bigger cities and villages, and how that has fostered risky gambles that have sent taxes skyrocketing.

But for many small towns such as Sauk Village, the oversight is supposed to be tighter. Officials are limited in how much they can raise property taxes and typically need voter approval for big borrowing. Yet, the latest Tribune investigation found these suburbs turning to another device — called alternate-revenue bonds — to let them borrow big. This device comes from a little-known chapter of Illinois law that lets towns borrow in a way that sidesteps voters and property tax caps.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-06/news/ct-met-risky-borrowing-20130106_1_property-taxes-tax-caps-hike-taxes

New York Times: Health insurers raise some rates by double digits

The New York Times reports that health insurance across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers. Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own. In California, Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers’ filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which was passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014. In other states, like Florida and Ohio, insurers have been able to raise rates by at least 20 percent for some policy holders. The rate increases can amount to several hundred dollars a month. The proposed increases compare with about 4 percent for families with employer-based policies. Under the health care law, regulators are now required to review any request for a rate increase of 10 percent or more; the requests are posted on a federal Web site,healthcare.gov, along with regulators’ evaluations. The review process not only reveals the sharp disparity in the rates themselves, it also demonstrates the striking difference between places like New York, one of the 37 states where legislatures have given regulators some authority to deny or roll back rates deemed excessive, and California, which is among the states that do not have that ability. New York, for example, recently used its sweeping powers to hold rate increases for 2013 in the individual and small group markets to under 10 percent. California can review rate requests for technical errors but cannot deny rate increases.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/business/despite-new-health-law-some-see-sharp-rise-in-premiums.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Portland Press Herald: Baby boomers with no place to call home

The Portland Press Herald reports of a rising wave of homeless older men in the community’s shelters. It found that Charles Jones sleeps every night in the Oxford Street Shelter’s "medical dorm,” so called because the room is reserved for up to 16 men in poor health. He’s 55 years old, the average age of the men in the room. They’re allowed inside the shelter a half-hour early, so they can avoid the long lines in sub-freezing temperatures, and they sleep on cots rather than the standard floor mats. Jones, who first became homeless five years ago after a bank foreclosed on his Belfast farm, suffers from degenerative disc disease and mental health problems that emerged after he lost the farm. He says he’s seeing more and more people in the shelter who, like him, also struggle with health issues. "It’s the older folks,” he says. "The older generation is growing.” The demographics at the shelter – increasing numbers of older men with physical and mental health problems – are indicative of a national trend that has implications for public policy, according to Dennis Culhane, a professor of social welfare policy at the University of Pennsylvania who has done extensive research on the demographics of the nation’s homeless population. The chronic homeless are aging, he says, but the data does not exactly mirror the overall aging of the nation. Rather, there is one group – men born between 1954 and 1966 – who are nearly twice as likely to stay in a homeless shelter than any other age group.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/baby-boomers_2013-01-06.html

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Disabled find parking spots hard to find

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has taken a look at the difficulty disabled people have in finding parking places. It is the sort of thing that infuriates drivers like Joseph Paris: parking spaces reserved for the handicapped taken by motorists who do not need them. "It’s everywhere,” said Paris, an 80-year-old former marathoner who lost the use of his legs 18 years ago. "I see people walking laps in the mall then getting in their car in a handicapped spot.” What exasperates Paris more than insensitive able-bodied drivers, though, is how often their actions appear to go unchecked. Quantifying the efficacy of enforcement, which in New York is typically left up to municipal police departments, is virtually impossible. Many municipalities track infractions, but there is still no telling how many motorists get away with breaking the law for every one who is cited. What is clear is that handicapped parking permits are a commodity. Families have been known to pass them down as heirlooms. And the annals of the Democrat and Chronicle’s police blotter are littered with references to stolen permits. Advocates for the disabled say the problem of handicapped parking accessibility has been made more acute by the aging population and the surging number of permits being handed out.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/A2/20130106/NEWS01/301060026/Rochester-handicapped-parking

The Ledger: Lakeland (Fla.) Police investigative methods questioned

The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., says that Ralph Harper spent Christmas in the hospital, a blood clot in his leg and a colostomy bag attached to his body. The man accused of shooting him, Bernardo Copeland Jr. of Lakeland, remains in the Polk County Jail on numerous charges, including attempted murder. Six other teens have also been charged in the shooting and armed robbery. Nearly two months before Harper was wounded, the 18-year-old Copeland was a suspect in another shooting, records show. Lakeland police handled the case but did not file charges until days after Harper was hospitalized, fighting for his life. It raises the question: If Lakeland police had acted sooner, would Harper have been shot? … In an examination of records spanning eight weeks, The Ledger has learned that even though Lakeland police knew the identity of the man accused of shooting 18-year-old Devin Reed in North Lakeland, they had not pursued the subject. Assistant Chief of Police Mike Link said detectives had trouble getting information from the victim and witnesses.

http://www.newschief.com/article/20130105/NEWS/130109628/1005/news02?Title=LPD-Investigative-Methods-Questioned-

The Portland Oregonian: Transit drivers’ fatigue causing crashes, prompting new rules

The Portland Oregon has looked into the lack of sleep that appears to be behind a number of transit crashes. It found, for example, that on Oct. 13, 2011, the MAX approaching North Portland's Expo Station was a runaway. Like a fist to the jaw, Light Rail Vehicle 417 crashed into a barrier at the end of the Yellow Line, sending metal, bolts and glass flying. Three weeks later, after an employee posted an unapproved security video of the wreck on YouTube, TriMet told the public that it was caused by, simply, "operator error." The error? Veteran light-rail operator Joel Maunu, who started his shift at 3:45 a.m., nodded off at the controls of the 100-ton train. "He thinks he fell asleep," a TriMet supervisor wrote in a report after interviewing Maunu, "and the crash woke him up." It’s one of at least 21 cases during a 3 1/2-year period when TriMet riders, supervisors and other motorists have reported operators falling asleep on the job, according to an investigation by The Oregonian. Reports of drowsy drivers, including three with multiple incidents, are just one sign that Oregon's largest transit agency is playing a game of chicken with fatigue. The newspaper's eight-month examination found that the budget-battered agency allows operators to manipulate work rules to log as many as 22 hours in a 24-hour period, filling open runs and fattening paychecks but crashing vehicles and terrifying riders along the way.

http://www.oregonlive.com/roadreport/index.ssf/2013/01/trimet_overtime_exhaustion_has.html

The Post-Crescent: Technical college teachers use ‘overage’ pay to boost compensation

The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis., says that technical college teachers use "overage” pay to boost their total compensation. For example, Terry Fleischman earns a base salary of $87,649 as an instructor at Fox Valley Technical College in Wisconsin, but last year he pushed his compensation to $163,581 by accumulating overage pay for additional teaching. Fleischman’s earnings in 2011-12 were second only to FVTC President Susan May, who had a salary of $200,910. Across Wisconsin, 67 instructors piled up more than $50,000 in overages, pushing the average pay for technical college instructors above that of the average University of Wisconsin professor, according to 2011-12 salary data from both systems obtained by Gannett Wisconsin Media through public records requests. The salary data, which includes the 29,000 UW employees and 7,800 technical college employees paid $25,000 or more, revealed full-time technical college instructorswere paid an average of $90,000 statewide in 2011-12, a figure that includes base pay and overages. Total pay among professors at the 13 UW universitiesaveraged $86,000 in 2011-12, when including full-time professors, assistant professors, associate professors and professors emeritus.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20130105/APC019803/301050198/Overages-send-technical-college-pay-soaring-past-UW-salaries

Washington Post: Expulsion rate higher for charter students

A study by The Washington Post finds that theDistrict of Columbia’s public charter schools have expelled students at a far higher rate than the city’s traditional public schools in recent years, according to school data, highlighting a key difference between two sectors that compete for the District’s students and taxpayer dollars. D.C. charter schools expelled 676 students in the past three years, while the city’s traditional public schools expelled 24, according to a Washington Post review of school data. During the 2011-12 school year, when charters enrolled 41 percent of the city’s students, they removed 227 children for discipline violations and had an expulsion rate of 72 per 10,000 students; the District school system removed three and had an expulsion rate of less than 1 per 10,000 students. The discrepancy underscores the freedom that charters — publicly funded schools that operate independently of the traditional school system — have from school system policies. That autonomy defines the charter movement and gives its schools considerable latitude to decide what student behavior they will — and won’t — tolerate. Parents and activists say some charters expel excessively and with little oversight, shedding disruptive students who then end up enrolling mid-year in the traditional school system, which is legally bound to take them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-charter-schools-expel-students-at-far-higher-rates-than-traditional-public-schools/2013/01/05/e155e4bc-44a9-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 1-3-2013

AP: Steroids loom in major-college football

The Associated Press reported that with steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams. Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive. An investigation by The Associated Press — based on dozens of interviews with players, testers, dealers and experts and an analysis of weight records for more than 61,000 players — revealed that while those running the multibillion-dollar sport believe the problem is under control, that is hardly the case.

Red more:

http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/20/3108573/ap-impact-steroids-loom-in-major.html

AP: Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali

The Associated Press reported that deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic fighters are burrowing into the earth, erecting a formidable set of defenses to protect what has essentially become al-Qaida's new country. They have used the bulldozers, earth movers and Caterpillar machines left behind by fleeing construction crews to dig what residents and local officials describe as an elaborate network of tunnels, trenches, shafts and ramparts. In just one case, inside a cave large enough to drive trucks into, they have stored up to 100 drums of gasoline, guaranteeing their fuel supply in the face of a foreign intervention, according to experts. Northern Mali is now the biggest territory held by al-Qaida and its allies. And as the world hesitates, delaying a military intervention, the extremists who seized control of the area earlier this year are preparing for a war they boast will be worse than the decade-old struggle in Afghanistan. "Al-Qaida never owned Afghanistan," said former United Nations diplomat Robert Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held for 130 days by al-Qaida's local chapter, whose fighters now control the main cities in the north. "They do own northern Mali."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-impact-al-qaida-carves-out-own-country-mali

AP: Big Pharma cashes in on HGH abuse

A federal crackdown on illicit foreign supplies of human growth hormone has failed to stop rampant misuse, and instead has driven record sales of the drug by some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, an Associated Press investigation shows. The crackdown, which began in 2006, reduced the illegal flow of unregulated supplies from China, India and Mexico. But since then, Big Pharma has been satisfying the steady desires of U.S. users and abusers, including many who take the drug in the false hope of delaying the effects of aging. From 2005 to 2011, inflation-adjusted sales of HGH were up 69 percent, according to an AP analysis of pharmaceutical company data collected by the research firm IMS Health. Sales of the average prescription drug rose just 12 percent in that same period.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/ap-impact-big-pharma-cashes-hgh-abuse-18033716

Washington Post: Congress still lobbied by family members

The Washington Post reported that in 2007, in the wake of the biggest lobbying scandal in decades, Congress limited the ability of family members to lobby their relatives in the House or Senate. But it declined to ban the practice entirely. Since then, 56 relatives of lawmakers have been paid to influence Congress. More than 500 firms have spent more than $400 million on lobbying teams that include the relatives of members, according to a Washington Post analysis of disclosure forms. The Post analysis shows that the interests of lawmakers and their relatives have overlapped to varying degrees on bills before Congress. In the past six years, for example, 36 congressional relatives — including spouses, children, siblings, parents and in-laws — have been paid to influence 250 bills passing through their family members’ congressional committees or sponsored by the members.

All of this is legal under the rules Congress has written for itself. That lawmakers have relatives working as lobbyists has been widely reported over the years. Lawmakers have consistently said their relatives don’t lobby them directly. The 2007 overhaul prohibited spouses from direct lobbying but gave other relatives more leeway. For the first time since the changes, however, The Post examination reveals the extent to which relatives are still paid to work on issues before their family members.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-congress-relatives-lobby-for-bills-before-family-members/2012/12/29/a54adce2-4301-11e2-9648-a2c323a991d6_story.html

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Faulty figures mask human trafficking reality

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that an Atlanta police officer took the teen to the station because she looked so young. She was trembling when he found her. She wasn’t wearing much. The girl told investigators she was from Arkansas and her journey to the streets of Atlanta, Ga., began when she climbed into the car of a relative’s boyfriend. Mariece Sims and another man drove her to a Texas hotel room and raped her, she said. They left for Mississippi, where Sims told her to make money by having sex with men at a truck stop, court records said. In Atlanta, he told her to do it again. He hit the girl when she did not make enough or tried to escape. In the nine years since this girl walked the streets, the public has been told over and over again that hundreds of girls in metro Atlanta meet her same fate every night. It’s why this area is notorious as one of the nation’s worst human trafficking hubs. That reputation ignited a decade of efforts against what is described as modern-day slavery. But an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that the initiatives are based on facts and figures that, while preached as gospel and enshrined in legislation, are guesses or distortions.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/trafficking-victims-fall-through-cracks-of-program/nTjRf/

Austin (Texas) American-Statesman: The soaring cost of military drugs

The Austin American-Statesman reported that last year, the Pentagon spent more on pills, injections and vaccines than it did on Black Hawk helicopters, Abrams tanks, Hercules C-130 cargo planes and Patriot missiles — combined.

Some of the prescription drugs that have fueled the military’s skyrocketing pharmaceutical budget are the same ones that have medicated the civilian world over the past decade. Since 2002, the Department of Defense has spent more than $5 billion on Lipitor, Plavix, Advair, Nexium and Singulair. Rather than a reflection of the drugs needed to treat wounded troops, the top-selling prescriptions signal an increase in aging military retirees covered by the military’s health program, Tricare, with drugs for arthritis, osteoporosis and diabetes costing billions. The Department of Defense also spent more than $380 million on erectile dysfunction drugs and $238 million on testosterone therapy drugs over the decade. But the military drug purchases also paint a picture of a fighting force increasingly reliant on antidepressants, psychotropic drugs and powerful narcotic painkillers that critics call dangerous and that have been involved in a growing number of prescription drug overdoses. The details come from an unprecedented American-Statesman analysis of nearly every individual drug purchase made by the Department of Defense since 2002.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/national-govt-politics/the-soaring-cost-of-military-drugs/nThwF/

Sun Sentinel: Cops hitting the breaks after newspaper investigation

The trend is dramatic and definite: South Florida cops have slowed down big time.

The Sun Sentinel examined new SunPass data and found police speeding has dropped significantly since the newspaper published its "Above the Law" investigative series in February. The investigation found nearly 800 officers from a dozen agencies averaging 90 to 130 mph between highway tollbooths. Many of those lead-foot cops were speeding to and from work.

SunPass toll records for the same agencies from mid-February through October show an 84 percent drop in high-speed incidents over the same period last year, the Sun Sentinel has calculated.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-12-30/news/fl-speeding-cops-slow-down-20121230_1_sunpass-toll-records-police-officer-fausto-lopez-lead-foot-cops

Los Angeles Times: Unused tool could help state save lives.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the system, known as CURES, was created so physicians and pharmacists could check to see whether patients were obtaining drugs from multiple providers. Law enforcement officials and medical regulators could mine the data for a different purpose: To draw a bead on rogue doctors. But they don't, and that has allowed corrupt or negligent physicians to prescribe narcotics recklessly for years before authorities learned about their conduct through other means, a Times investigation found. … California Attorney General Kamala Harris' office keeps CURES off-limits to the public and the news media. But information from a commercial database containing the same kind of data illustrates how valuable CURES could be as an investigative tool. Private firms purchase prescription data from pharmacies and sell it to drug companies for use in marketing their products. The Times obtained a list from such a database ranking the most prolific prescribers of narcotic painkillers in the Los Angeles area for June 2008. Of the top 10 doctors on the list, six were eventually convicted of drug dealing or similar crimes or were sanctioned by medical regulators. One of them was a cocaine addict. Some had been prescribing narcotics in high volume for years before authorities caught up with them.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/prescription/la-prescription-drugs-part-4-20121230-dto,0,2804054.htmlstory

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio’s youngest inmates are its most dangerous

The Columbus Dispatch reported that the most violent prisons in Ohio aren’t the maximum-security facilities or those housing Death Row inmates. They’re those holding teenagers. There were more assaults than inmates last year at Ohio’s youth prisons, where the rate of assaults per inmate was 48 times greater than in adult lockups. An annual assessment filed this month by a court-appointed monitor said the conditions of the facilities are improving and that in certain areas, the state Department of Youth Services serves as a model for the nation. But several Department of Youth Services staff members who spoke with The Dispatch said there isn’t enough discipline in the youth prisons and talked of dangerous environments for both staff and teens. Ohio juvenile correctional facilities held about 680 youth in 2011. In that same year, there were 1,604 assaults, which includes intentionally striking another person, throwing any solid or liquid object at or connecting with another person, spitting at or on another person, and intentionally biting another person. Ohio adult prisons recorded 2,486 assaults last year. The population was 50,607 in July 2011.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/insight/2012/12/30/somebody-is-going-to-get-killed.html

The Portland Oregonian: Fast-track pot cards

The Portland Oregonian reported that for thousands of Oregonians, the path to a medical marijuana card starts at a clinic in Southeast Portland staffed by Dr. Thomas Orvald, an 80-year-old retired heart surgeon from Yakima. The Oregon Health Authority says a typical doctor is unlikely to see more than 450 medical marijuana patients at a time. In the past year, Orvald has signed off on 4,180. And he is not alone. The health authority says 37 doctors have exceededthe 450-patient threshold since 2005. These doctors signed statements asserting "primary responsibility for the care and treatment" of as many as 5,400 medical marijuana patients each.

The Oregonian's examination of high-volume marijuana doctors -- including interviews with physicians and clinic operators as well as a review of state documents, medical licensing reports, court records and caseload data -- paints a picture of a highly specialized industry.

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2012/12/medical_marijuana_a_few_high-v.html#incart_m-rpt-2

Akron Beacon Journal: Rural, suburban Ohioans requiring food aid

The Akron Beacon Journal reported that Ohioans living in rural and suburban counties are turning to the government for food assistance in record numbers — and demand has grown even after the Great Recession ended. The number of people receiving help skyrocketed 71 percent over the past five years in nonurban counties, areas that traditionally haven’t relied on welfare programs, according to a Beacon Journal analysis of Ohio Department of Job and Family Services data.

Twenty-two rural and suburban counties saw food assistance rolls — once known as food stamps and now called SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — more than double over that time.

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/more-rural-suburban-ohioans-turning-to-government-for-help-with-food-1.359892

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Child care scammers elude full restitution

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Shawn Nash owned a Maserati sedan worth about $40,000 when she was convicted last year of stealing more than $100,000 from the state's taxpayer-supported child care program. When determining how to collect the stolen money, prosecutors decided not to seize the car, or force Nash to sell it. It wouldn't be worth the trouble, they reasoned. There was a $15,000 bank lien on the car and the logistics of confiscating it, storing it and getting it to an auction were too big a hassle. So, Nash kept the Italian-made luxury vehicle when she was sentenced to prison. And, like most offenders who owe restitution, she'll pay 25% out of her prison fund every month to chip away at her debt. In her case, the payment is less than $24 per month, according to the Wisconsin state Department of Corrections. The state is seeking to recover more than $8 million from roughly 300 child care providers who were shut down amid a 2009 Journal Sentinel investigation exposing rampant fraud in the state's taxpayer-subsidized child care program known as Wisconsin Shares. But most Wisconsin taxpayers won't live to see the money repaid. The state's splintered collections system fails to recover assets and cash from unscrupulous child care providers, many of whom are skilled in financial crimes. The system - involving three different agencies - is filled with gaps, from lax payment plans to passive pursuit of properties.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/restitution-for-child-care-subsidy-fraud-slips-through-cracks-t080f5a-184580781.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 12-18-2012

AP: Is gun debate on the horizon?

The question surfaces each time a mass murder unfolds: Will this one change the political calculus in Washington against tougher gun control? The answer, after the Virginia Tech killings, the attempted assassination of Gabby Giffords, the Colorado movie-theater attack, the Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings, and more: No. But now? The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the bloodiest attack against youngsters in the nation's history, stands as a possible tipping point after Washington's decade-long aversion even to talking about stricter gun laws. So it seems in the stunned aftermath, judging from President Barack Obama's body language as much as his statement. "We have been through this too many times," said the famously composed president, this time moved to tears. "We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics." It remains to be seen whether Sandy Hook will break the usual cycle of universal shock fading into political reality.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/15/3103055/could-shooting-be-a-gun-control.html#storylink=cpy

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio community leaders defend mayor’s courts, ticket writing

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Ohio state legislators may have put an end to the mayor's court in Linndale and possibly to one of the most notorious speed traps in Northeast Ohio, but some of the controversial courts continue to thrive in Northeast Ohio. Mayor's courts in Bratenahl, Boston Heights, Highland Hills, North Randall and Woodmere handle far more traffic cases than there are residents in their communities, a practice that has long drawn criticism from judicial reformers. The late Supreme Court Justice Thomas Moyer had for years argued that the courts pose ethical problems because the mayors who often serve as judges have a financial interest in collecting fines to help balance their communities' budgets. Last week, the Ohio House agreed to drop eight courts in communities of less than 200 people, with Linndale the most well-known.

The legislative move, approved earlier by the Ohio Senate, is expected to be signed by Gov. John Kasich. But supporters say the courts are necessary -- not as a moneymaker, but as a way to alleviate an overburdened justice system.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/12/linndales_mayors_court_may_be.html

South Florida Sun Sentinel: After probe, cities stop cops from leaving work early

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that its "Short Shifted" investigation has prompted South Florida elected leaders to take action to make sure cops can no longer leave their cities early and still collect a full day's pay. One mayor went so far as to say it may be time to rethink take-home cars — a prized perk for police officers. Angry residents complained that some cops have gotten away with too much for too long, and change is overdue. A Davie councilman said he'll ask for weekly GPS reports on the locations of police cruisers in his town so he can personally make sure officers are where they should be. The mayor ofPembroke Pines said he'll examine a practice that lets cops save their breaks and go home early. In Plantation, where some officers were leaving the city before their shifts ended almost every day, the mayor ordered the police chief to evaluate the cost and benefits of take-home cars. A majority of the City Council said they would consider changes. The response follows a Sun Sentinel investigative series last week that found cops from Plantation to Miami skipping out of work early, an abuse that some residents said would get most people fired.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-12-15/news/fl-cops-leaving-early-reaction-20121215_1_police-officers-police-chief-howard-harrison-shifts

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Sobriety checkpoints could reduce drunk-driving deaths in Texas

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that safety advocates and law enforcers say scores of deaths might be avoided each year in Texas if they are allowed to set up roadblocks to check for drunken drivers. As deaths and arrests related to drunken driving continue to make headlines in North Texas and beyond, checkpoint advocates are calling on Texas lawmakers to legalize sobriety checkpoints and pass other measures to crack down on driving while intoxicated -- actions they say would help prevent Texas from continuing to lead the nation in drunken-driving deaths. In 2010, at least 10,228 people were killed nationwide in alcohol-impaired crashes, according to the most recent statistics. More than 1,200 were in Texas. "Research shows drunk-driving fatalities would decline by 20 percent if most agencies ran a sobriety checkpoint," said Bill Lewis, the public policy liaison for the Texas chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "That would go a long way toward reducing our leadership in drunk-driving fatalities." Sobriety checkpoints, allowed in 38 other states, have been outlawed in Texas since the state's top criminal court ruled in an Arlington case 18 years ago that they are unconstitutional unless they follow guidelines set by the Legislature, which has not set any guidelines.

The Houston Chronicle: City controller logs high-dollar travel on taxpayer dime

Records obtained by the Houston Chronicle indicate that the city controller, Ron Green, who is the Texas city’s top elected financial watchdog, has flown first class and frequented high-end hotels in New York and Chicago at taxpayer expense for more than two dozen publicly funded excursions, booking lodgings that cost as much as $460 per night and often exceeding maximum rates set by city policy. In alll, Green has billed for more than $35,000 in expenses for out-of-town trips in his first three years as the city's elected financial watchdog _ taking far more city-funded jaunts than Houston's better-known mayor.

In April, taxpayers picked up the tab for Green's three-night stay at The Pierre, a luxury hotel on Fifth Avenue along Central Park - a historic five-star place promoted as "far more rare and special than the rest" even in New York, a city "where exclusive luxuries are the norm." The public has paid top dollar for Green's airfare, too. Just one of his trips to the Big Apple cost $1,634 - one of four flights Green took that cost more than $1,000, expense reports show. Unlike other city employees who must seek special permission to stay in pricey hotels even in New York City, the city controller _ Houston's second most powerful elected official _ doesn't need approval from anyone else for the many trips he's taken since January 2010, more than 10 of which were related to municipal bond deals.

The Orlando Sentinel: Florida rivers are in crisis

The Orlando Sentinel, in a year-long investigation, found that Florida’s rivers are in trouble. The paper evaluated some of the state’s biggest and smallest, most urban and remote, cleanest and dirtiest, protected and abused rivers.

Of the 22 rivers studied, from Miami to Pensacola, nearly half are in decline because of pollution from lawns, street runoff, wastewater and agriculture, and because of shrinking flows caused by drought and rising demand for water by cities and industries.

Other rivers in the group, while either stable or improving, are profoundly impaired.

Taking care of rivers is difficult and expensive in a state of nearly 20 million residents and in an era of shrinking government budgets and assaults on environmental regulations. Fixing just two rivers, the Kissimmee and St. Johns, which both originate in Central Florida, has cost $2.5 billion so far. Floridians shell out an additional $1 billion a year to various river-related state agencies.

But the state has a compelling reason to protect its rivers: If Florida’s rivers are not healthy, then neither is its water.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2012/12/sentinel-report-floridas-rivers-sick-and-getting-sicker.html

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Food recalls up due to better testing

The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle finds that the number of food recalls has increasedin recent years, caused by a variety of factors including stricter food labeling standards, improved testing and more complex food production. When a recall happens, grocers have a system in place to notify customers. If the food threat is serious enough, this can include calling customers at home using shopper’s club data. The food industry is following a national trend of increased product recalls. There were 9,288 products recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year, including pet food and medicines, up from 4,670 in 2004. Food recalls alone increased from 1,728 to 1,853 from fiscal years 2009 to 2011, according to the FDA. Big recalls like the massive peanut butter recall this fall and the narrower spinach recalls last month get a lot of public attention and can contribute multiple recalls to the overall number.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20121216/NEWS01/312160027/FDA-food-recalls-Wegmans-Tops

Charlotte Observer and News & Observer: Bills higher from hospital doctors

The Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer of Raleigh report that an investigation has found that North Carolina patients are likely to pay more for routine health care if their doctors are employed by a hospital. It’s true for services ranging from heart tests to routine office visits. And it’s part of a national shift that experts say is raising costs but not quality. Hospitals are increasingly buying doctors’ practices, then sending bills for routine services that are significantly higher than those charged by independent doctors. By one count, the percentage of U.S. doctors employed by hospitals has doubled over the past decade. In Mecklenburg County, more than half of all physicians are employed by hospitals. As a result, the cost of many routine medical tests and services has soared, according to an analysis of Medicare data and insurance claims.

The same service performed in the same location by the same doctor can cost more than double what it did before the hospital acquired the practice.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/17/3728676/as-doctors-flock-to-hospitals.html

The Columbus Dispatch: Federal student loans ‘monsters of debt’ for borrowers

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reports that the decision to pay for college with federal loans has turned financially fatal for millions of Americans. Their credit scores have sunk. They’ve been unable to buy cars, rent apartments and, in some cases, land jobs. They are trapped by ballooning student-loan debt that has overshadowed many of them for decades. Without question, millions of people have chosen to ignore their student-debt obligations, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Yet a Dispatch investigation found that many want to pay but can’t dig out of mounting debt, such as a teacher who fell into serious financial trouble after a car crash, a Kent State graduate stuck with her ex-husband’s loans and a woman who quit truck-driving school after two days. Republicans and Democrats in Congress recognize problems with federal student-loan programs and have offered reforms in dozens of bills. Yet little has changed, except the size of a growing default rate. The most recent data show that 13.4 percent of borrowers who were to begin repayment in 2009 had defaulted by the end of 2011. But millions of others also are in default, and some have been there for years.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/12/16/constant.html

Kansas City Star: Investigation finds tenderizing process transfers E. coli

The Kansas City Star finds that people are getting sick from meat subjected to a widely used tenderizing process. For example, Margaret Lamkin doesn’t visit her grandchildren much anymore. She never flies. She avoids wearing dresses. And she worries about infections and odors. Three years ago, at age 87, Lamkin was forced to wear a colostomy bag for the rest of her life after a virulent meat-borne pathogen destroyed her large colon and nearly killed her. What made her so sick? A medium-rare steak she ate nine days earlier at an Applebee’s restaurant.

Lamkin, like most consumers today, didn’t know she had ordered a steak that had been run through a mechanical tenderizer. In a lawsuit, Lamkin said her steak came from National Steak Processors Inc., which claimed it got the contaminated meat from a U.S. plant run by Brazilian-based JBS — the biggest beef packer in the world. The Kansas City Star investigated what the industry calls "bladed” or "needled” beef and found the process exposes Americans to a higher risk of E. coli poisoning than cuts of meat that have not

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/08/3954258/big-beef-beefs-raw-edges.html

The Sacramento Bee: Title 1 schools improve yet ‘fail’

The Sacramento Bee reports that California Middle School in Sacramento's Land Park neighborhood has doubled the number of students scoring well on state achievement tests in six years. It has a new curriculum, committed teachers and a waiting list of parents hoping their children can attend. And, according to the federal government, it is failing. The school is in good company. Three-quarters, or 230, of the Sacramento region's Title I schools – schools that take federal money to help impoverished children succeed – have landed in "Program Improvement," a federal designation that exposes them to sanctions. Included are schools in Davis and Rocklin with composite test scoresnear the 90th percentile statewide. Over the past two months, those schools participated in what has become an annual rite of public humiliation: They sent letters to the parents of 132,000 students saying their children's schools don't meet federal standards.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/16/5057340/schools-improve-yet-fall-behind.html#storylink=cpy

The Tennessean: Tennessee pays millions for fixer-upper

The Tennessean reports that a group of politically connected businessmen earlier this year sold a long-vacant Knoxville office building in need of millions of dollars in repairs and upgrades to the state for $10 million, twice the price they paid for it five years earlier. The building, for Pellissippi State Community College, will cost an additional $16.6 million to make it suitable for a community college, according to a report commissioned by the college to assess the property before the purchase. A series of emails obtained by The Tennessean under open records laws shows that the top aide to Gov. Bill Haslam stepped in late last year to try to make the purchase a priority after being contacted by an intermediary for the Knoxville developer selling the 220,000-square-foot building.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20121217/PROMO/121217003/2275/RSS05

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 12-13-2012

Portland Press Herald: Fatal shootings of mentally ill

Five separate fatal shootings of mentally ill people by Maine police in 2011 prompted the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram to examine law enforcement's use of deadly force. Since 1990, police have fired on 101 people, many of them mentally ill, and in every case the state attorney general ruled that the shooting was justified. The newspaper sought to find out why so many mentally ill Mainers were being shot and whether the outcomes were avoidable. The investigation, involving hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of documents, revealed that Maine and the rest of the country have failed to employ methods or invest in training that could defuse life-threatening situations with mentally impaired people.
Read more:

http://www.pressherald.com/special/Maine_police_deadly_force_series_final.html

Star Ledger: "Civil war” tearing Edison, N.J. police department apart

The (Newark, N.J.) Star Ledger reports office politics at the Edison Police Department have become a black art: of backstabbing and dirty tricks, of spying on comrades and of trolling for dirt on civic officials and their relatives. Lawsuits have become a weapon and a way of life. A Star-Ledger investigation encompassing dozens of interviews and thousands of pages of documents — including legal papers, interoffice memos and internal affairs files — reveals an agency in the grip of a grinding civil war that has dragged on for more than three years, shattering morale, eroding the department’s integrity and saddling taxpayers with millions of dollars in legal fees and settlements. Among other events, the internal affairs division conducted investigations far outside the boundaries permitted by state guidelines, gathering intelligence and building dossiers on officers’ relatives and other civilians, including Mayor Antonia Ricigliano and her top adviser. At least 15 officers and supervisors — nearly 10 percent of the force — have filed suit against the chief, the mayor, the township or all three, claiming age discrimination, retaliation, harassment or political influence over promotions and demotions. Officers and commanders alike describe an atmosphere of treachery and intimidation. Chief Thomas Bryan, for one, contends disgruntled subordinates arranged for a "crack whore" to call his home and speak to his wife and children in a failed bid to sow turmoil and thwart his reform efforts.

http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2012/12/edison_police_lawsuit_intimida.html

Press Democrat: Heroin use on rise among younger set in Sonoma County

The Press Democrat reports heroin is making a comeback in Sonoma County, Calif., where a growing number of middle-class teens and young adults are using the highly addictive drug. Once cloaked in an aura of stigma, the dangerous drug is viewed by a new generation of young users as an inexpensive alternative to pricey or unavailable opiate-type prescription drugs such as OxyContin. The unexpected increase in young, middle-class heroin junkies has emerged in Sonoma County over the last year, according to police, defense lawyers, drug counselors and addicts. It is challenging the traditional stereotype of heroin addiction, which many still associate as a problem concentrated in poor, urban neighborhoods. "In a relatively short period of time there's been a dramatic shift in drug usage among our young kids,” said Mike Perry, a chief deputy public defender who works in the county's drug court. "It's shocking how many 20-year-olds we have who started off in Oxy and now are doing heroin,” Perry said. "We're seeing more middle-class kids get hooked.”

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20121208/ARTICLES/121209622/1350?Title=Heroin-use-in-county-on-the-rise

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Red light cameras generate millions in fines

The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle reports Rochester authorities began installing red light cameras two years ago, and today have the devices stationed at 31 of a state-authorized 50 locations. Tickets issued and fines collected had doubled last year’s totals by the end of October, the program’s anniversary date, records show. Gross revenues have surged to more than $300,000 monthly, so the city’s cut for the year should easily surpass $1.5 million. City budget estimates show that number doubling again in the year ahead. The most-ticketed ZIP codes, per capita, encompass some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods with the top five painting a continuous swath from 14619 northward to 14621. So many tickets have been issued that there is one for every three or four residents, regardless of age, records show. The Police Department rejects more than one in five violations each month before the ticket is ever issued, records show. Most often, the reason cited is "safe turn on red.” Here, as elsewhere in the nation, the cameras are promoted as a public safety measure. Initial reports show fewer injury accidents and fewer tickets at some intersections since cameras went in, but more at others. "I wish I could say ... that we are safer than before we had the cameras, but I can’t,” said City Councilman Adam McFadden, chairman of the Council’s Public Safety, Youth and Recreation Committee. What is clear, he said, is public sentiment. "They want them to go. I’ve heard that very strongly, that people feel as if they are living in a police state; that the cameras are disproportionately in neighborhoods of color.” Nationally, the controversy over red light cameras has played out at the ballot box and into the courtroom from New Jersey to Texas to California.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20121209/NEWS01/312090026/Rochester-red-light-cameras

Orlando Sentinel: Executives charged meals, limos to blood bank

The Orlando Sentinel reports top managers at South Florida's main blood bank charged meals with co-workers that featured alcohol and cost nearly $1,000, and one executive took limousine rides worth almost $1,400, according to expense-report receipts obtained by the newspaper. Four longtime administrators of the nonprofit agencyalso were paid nearly $812,000 in severance packages during the past 22 months by Community Blood Centers, now a division of OneBlood Inc., documents indicate. A fifth executive, Chief Financial OfficerSteve Erjavec, was fired last month. OneBlood spokeswoman Susan Forbes said in an email that most of the 12 credit-card purchases acquired by the Sentinel, and three of the four buyouts, occurred before the Orlando, South Florida and St. Petersburg blood banks officially consolidated in January.

Yet the spending occurred while officials of the three centers were discussing terms of the deal.

Forbes said an internal review of executive expenses, including the purchase of alcohol, is being conducted in the wake of Sentinel inquiries and that limo rides now are prohibited. In October, the Sentinel revealed that salaries at the massive blood bank have grown by more than $4 million and could go up 35 percent or more for high-level executives because of proposed pay and bonus plans.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-12-08/news/os-oneblood-expense-accounts-20121208_1_oneblood-blood-bank-community-blood-centers

Greensboro News and Record: Do you know where your money to charity goes?

The Greensboro News and Record reports professional charity solicitations are big business, raising more than $28 million annually in the past few years in North Carolina alone, often through telemarketing, but only about half of that money made it to the charities. For a number of charities using professional telemarketers in the Triad, the figure is often 30 percent or less. The rest goes to professional solicitors — partly to defray fundraising costs, partly for profit. "This has been a concern of ours for a while,” said Kevin Hinterberger, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Central North Carolina in Greensboro. "If it’s something (donors are) passionate about and only 30 percent of it winds up going to the organization ... I think that’s when folks feel cheated on their contribution.” Telemarketers are required to disclose these percentages to potential donors, but only if asked. The N.C. Secretary of State’s office compiles a lengthy annual report that lists percentages for charities and the professional solicitors they hire. Small charities often can’t handle their own fundraising and hire professionals, local organizers said.

http://www.news-record.com/news/410439-91/good-causes-questionable-fundraising

Los Angeles Times: Medical board fails to protect against reckless prescriptions

The Los Angeles Times reported that by the time the medical board stopped Dr. Carlos Estiandan from prescribing, more than four years after it began investigating, eight of his patients had died of overdoses or related causes, according to coroners' records. It was not an isolated case of futility by California's medical regulators. The Medical Board of California has repeatedly failed to protect patients from reckless prescribing by doctors, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. It is board policy to give such cases a high priority. But The Times' examination of board records and county coroners' files from 2005 through 2011 found that at least 30 patients in Southern California have died of drug overdoses or related causes while their doctors were under investigation for reckless prescribing. It also found the board seldom tries to suspend the prescribing privileges of doctors under investigation and even when the board sanctions doctors for abusing their prescribing powers, in most cases it allows them to continue practicing and prescribing. In 80% of the 190 cases of improper prescribing filed by the board since 2005, the offending physician was given a reprimand or placed on probation. In most of those cases, the doctor was allowed to continue writing prescriptions with few or no restrictions. Eight doctors disciplined for excessive prescribing later had patients die of overdoses or related causes. Prescriptions those doctors wrote caused or contributed to 19 deaths.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/prescription/la-prescription-drugs-day-2-20121205,0,6999657.htmlstory?main=true

Lexington Herald-Leader: Millions in fees paid for missed construction deadlines

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Kentucky's court system has paid a construction management company an extra $3.1 million in taxpayer money over the past seven years because the company did not complete construction of courthouses on time. Codell Construction collected so-called extended-service fees on 60 percent of the courthouse projects — 17 of 26 — that it has managed since 2006, according to documents from the Administrative Office of the Courts. The $3.1 million in those fees is about 16 percent of the roughly $19 million paid to Codell so far in overall fees for the 26 courthouses. Of the eight other courthouse projects managed by a company other than Codell since 2006, only one applied for and received extended-service fees. Bruce Stigger, a Louisville construction attorney, said the courts' rules were "incredibly favorable" to construction managers. An attorney for Codell told the Herald-Leader that construction delays were not caused by the company. The company was entitled to the extended-services fees under the state's courthouse construction rules. The rules on extended-service fees were changed in 2012 by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton after an extensive audit of Kentucky's controversial program to build 65 courthouses at a cost of about $880 million. However, the more stringent rules don't apply to the half-dozen current courthouse projects because no new projects have been approved since 2008.

http://www.kentucky.com/2012/12/09/2437267/watchdog-report-millions-in-extended.html

Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel: Cops head home early but get paid anyway

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that even in these tough times, some South Floridians have jobs that let them skip out of work, take long lunches, knock off early on Fridays and still collect a full day's pay. Who are they? Cops at local police departments, and taxpayers are footing the bill. Longer workdays have become the rule for many employees since the U.S. and local economy tanked. But the Sun Sentinel found the workplace has been kinder to some policemen and women: Paid to serve and protect, they regularly leave their beats and cities before their shifts are over. The story is told by the cops' SunPass toll records. Comparing them with police officers' time sheets, the newspaper found police from Plantation to Miami claiming they'd worked a full shift but heading home early. The practice has cost police departments untold thousands of dollars in unearned salaries, but the impact goes far beyond the dent in taxpayers' wallets. Whether police officers are vanishing with or without their commanders' knowledge, it's proof of a major management problem, law enforcement experts say. It also can be risky. Cops who skip out may endanger fellow officers who depend on them for backup in emergencies.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-12-08/news/fl-cops-leaving-early-20121208_1_police-protection-police-officers-police-work

Denver Post: Counties cling to control over flawed child-welfare system,

The Denver Post reported that Colorado counties have fiercely resisted relinquishing control of child-welfare departments, but when asked to answer questions about how to improve a system that is failing to save children from dying, they do not speak for themselves. In Colorado, each county is in charge of its child-welfare division while the state has minimal supervision, and previous attempts to shift that power balance have resulted in raucous battles. Yet when The Denver Post, following up on an eight-day investigation of the child-welfare system, sent a certified letter to each of 64 county human-services directors and each of 64 county commissioners' offices, none answered all of the questions. Meanwhile, three more children have been added to the list of those who died from abuse or neglect even after their families or caregivers were known to caseworkers, bringing the total since 2007 to 75 children. "Everybody is playing the game — we're going to hide behind the other systems so that nobody ever has to come out of the dark," said former state Rep. Debbie Stafford, an Aurora Democrat who recalled that counties "flexed their muscles and threw temper tantrums" the last time lawmakers considered regionalizing the child- welfare system. "It's a game of hide-and-seek, and it's going to be played over the bodies of dead and injured children." Most counties did not respond to The Post's certified letter. A handful deferred to a joint statement from Colorado Counties Inc., a lobbying group that represents them at the state Capitol.

http://www.denverpost.com/failedtodeath/ci_22154578/child-welfare-departments-colorado-quiet-how-improve-system

Chicago Tribune: Many towns borrowing big and taxpayers could get stuck with bill

The Chicago Tribune reported suburban Glenwood Mayor Kerry Durkin knows the dangers of gambling with taxpayer money. Taxpayers in the south suburb have long had to subsidize a golf course that officials bought more than a decade ago. And to try to lessen the losses, the town recently doubled down, borrowing big again to build a new clubhouse. That borrowing — coupled with plummeting property values — pushed Glenwood into a growing list of Chicago-area cities and villages with debt levels once barred by state laws meant to safeguard taxpayers. Though much public attention has focused on soaring state and national debt, the increase in local IOUs has sparked worries that the next generation in some communities will face crushing tax hikes. As some officials suggest tightening the rules on town borrowing, a Tribune analysisfound that by the end of last year, at least 52 towns in the Chicago area exceeded a limit that was in place until 1970: Taxpayer-backed debt couldn't be more than 5 percent of a community's property tax base.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-09/news/ct-met-debt-rates-20121209_1_municipal-debt-property-values-taxpayer-money

Boston Globe: Prison system for immigrants releases thousands, including killers

The Boston Globe reported its investigation of the vast and secretive U.S. prison system for immigrants, stymied when it tries to deport some criminals, has quietly released thousands, including killers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its sister agencies have emerged as the largest law enforcement network in the United States since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and they are increasingly dealing with criminals, but they play by very different rules than the local police, prosecutors, or even the FBI. A yearlong Globe investigation found the culture of secrecy can be deadly to Americans and foreigners alike: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, routinely releases dangerous detainees to the streets of America without warning the public. Over the past four years, immigration officials have largely without notice freed more than 8,500 detainees convicted of murder, rape, and other crimes, according to ICE’s own statistics, mainly because their home countries would not take them back. The Globe also found that the pattern of secrecy extends to the treatment of immigrants who end up behind bars, though they have no criminal records. Foreigners in immigration detention have fewer rights than ordinary criminal suspects and limited ability to get word to the outside world about their plight. Even their names are kept secret, purportedly for their own protection, and many never get a public hearing to make their case.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2012/12/08/secret-criminals-quietly-released-criminals-who-were-supposed-deported-with-deadly-consequences/gA2ALtmA9LMuKUVGnffvAI/story.html

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: County jail freed fugitives despite warrants on file

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports records show Phillips County Sheriff Ronnie White and his staff routinely released inmates from the county jail even though they were wanted in violent or drug-related crimes. Many of the fugitives were jailed and released numerous times when they should have been detained and forced to show up at their next court appearances, jail and court records show. They make up about a quarter of the 101 Phillips County fugitives wanted in the most serious of felony cases, the newspaper’s investigation found. The fugitives include men such as Marcus Lockhart, who beginning in late 2007 served 74 straight days in the Phillips County jail for not paying his child support. Throughout Lockhart‘s time in the jail, a fugitive warrant for his arrest in a cocaine-distribution case sat in a filing cabinet just a few hundred feet away in the sheriff’s office.

Available online to subscribers only at: arkansasonline.com

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT MPACT JOURNALISM (12-6-2012)

New York Times: Towns and states pay high price for corporate tax breaks

The New York Times reports the billions of dollars that towns across America gave General Motors did not matter in the end. When the automaker released a list of factories it was closing during bankruptcy three years ago, communities that had considered themselves G.M.’s business partners were among the targets. For years, mayors and governors anxious about local jobs had agreed to G.M.’s demands for cash rewards, free buildings, worker training and lucrative tax breaks. As late as 2007, the company was telling local officials that these sorts of incentives would "further G.M.’s strong relationship” with them and be a "win/win situation,” according to town council notes from one Michigan community. Yet at least 50 properties on the 2009 liquidation list were in towns and states that had awarded incentives, adding up to billions in taxpayer dollars, according to data compiled by The New York Times. Some officials, desperate to keep G.M., offered more. Ohio was proposing a $56 million deal to save its Moraine plant, and Wisconsin, fighting for its Janesville factory, offered $153 million. But their overtures were to no avail. G.M. walked away and, thanks to a federal bailout, is once again profitable. The towns have not been so fortunate, having spent scarce funds in exchange for thousands of jobs that no longer exist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/us/how-local-taxpayers-bankroll-corporations.html?pagewanted=all

Dallas Morning News: Parkland hospital making progress on 449 safety issues

The Dallas Morning News reports that after a year under virtual control of the federal government, Parkland Memorial Hospital is edging closer to implementing all499 safety mandates aimed at removing perils to patients. Ninety-one percent of measures are complete, and the rest are on track to be finished in the next two months. A system is set up to track doctor performance. Staffing has been boosted in troubled units such as the emergency room. Intensive new training, major renovations and revamped policies for hundreds of practices are nearly done. Now thecrucible looms: moving many ofthe reforms from checklist to reality. Parkland must prove that the measures actually work and are hard-wired into the organization.

Serious challenges remain, according to the October compliance report obtained by The Dallas Morning News. In the document, federally installed safety monitors warn that a reform mentality has yet to take hold throughout the staffing ranks. Barely half of hospital workers surveyed in October could articulate an understanding of the action plan for reforms issued last February, with a do-or-die inspection by regulators approaching early next year.

http://www.dallasnews.com/investigations/patient-safety/headlines/20121201-dallas-parkland-hospital-makes-progress-on-safety-but-big-challenges-lie-ahead.ece

Chicago Tribune: Some 25 percent of freshman at university are nonresidents

The Chicago Tribune reported that that when officials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced plans to enroll more undergraduates from outside the state six year ago the public outcry was so intense that the plan was scrapped within a week. But despite the university's pledge then to keep out-of-state enrollment to about 10 to 12 percent, there has been a rapid increase in students from other states and especially other countries. A full 25 percent of students in this fall's freshman class are nonresidents — a share expected to be the new normal for the state's flagship public university, officials told the Tribune. Although the proposed change in 2006 was met with complaints and calls for legislative hearings, families now may be more willing to accept that the cash-strapped university, facing a decline in state funding, is relying on the significantly higher tuition paid by students from across the country and abroad. The effect of that shift is clear on the Urbana-Champaign campus. Though today's undergraduate enrollment of 31,900 is 3,600 higher than a decade ago, there are 200 fewer students from Illinois. Meanwhile, the number of international students has soared. U. of I. enrolls 4,447 undergraduates from other countries — up from 649 in 2000.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-02/news/ct-met-u-of-i-enrollment-20121202_1_international-students-illinois-residents-illinois-students

Arizona Daily Star: Tucson school district has about 13,000 empty seats

The Arizona Daily Star reported the Tucson Unified School District has about 13,000 empty seats, more than the entire enrollment of most every other local district. Amphitheater and Marana school districts each has more than 12,000 students, Arizona Department of Education statistics show. Vail has about 10,000 students and Catalina Foothills has about 5,000. Only Sunnyside has more students than TUSD could accommodate. The district's drop in enrollment -- 17.4 percent since 2000 -- combined with a decline in funding from the state Legislature, have led officials to consider closing 14 schools to help fill a $17 million budget gap. District officials can't pinpoint specific reasons for the sharp drop in students, but they cite the poor economy, competition from charter schools and an aging population with fewer kids at home. Most of the schools that have been proposed for closure have seen enrollment decreases and many are below capacity, district documents show. The district has lost about 7,000 students since the 2007-08 school year, said Bryant Nodine, TUSD's Planning Service Program manager.

"When the housing industry went bust, a lot of jobs went out of town," Nodine said.

http://azstarnet.com/mobi/latest/article_8628cfbe-89ac-5701-ad0a-9712fadafd80.html

Boston Globe: DNA tests again show some fishy business in the fish business

The Boston Globe reports a year after its investigation found restaurants and stores across Massachusetts were routinely selling cheaper, lower-quality fish than they promised customers, a new round of DNA testing shows the vast majority are still mislabeling seafood. Ken’s Steak House in Framingham again served Pacific cod instead of a more expensive Atlantic species. Slices of fish sold as white tuna at Sea To You Sushi in Brookline were again actually escolar, an oily species nicknamed the "ex-lax’’ fish by some in the industry because it can cause digestion problems. H Mart, an Asian supermarket chain found to have sold mislabeled red snapper last year, this time was selling inexpensive freshwater Nile perch as pricier ocean grouper at its Burlington store. The results underscore an ongoing lack of regulation in the nation’s seafood trade — oversight so weak restaurants and suppliers know they will not face punishment for mislabeling fish. Over the past several months, the Globe collected 76 seafood samples from 58 of the restaurants and markets that sold mislabeled fish last year. DNA testing on those samples found 76 percent of them weren’t what was advertised. Some restaurant operators who repeatedly mislabeled fish blamed suppliers. Others said naming inconsistencies were the result of clerical errors. Several made only partial revisions to their menus. Some, like at Hearth ’n Kettle in Attleboro, corrected their menus, but waitstaff still wrongly described the fish as local. And a few said the issue was not a priority.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/12/01/dnasidebar/maoPlTvCRdnKmzKdmhHxpO/story.html?p1=News_links

The Record: New Jersey property taxes kept in check for second year

The Record of Bergen, N. J., reports the annual increase in property taxes — long bemoaned by most residents as an inexorable and painful fact of life in New Jersey — slowed to a trickle in 2012, a second year of historically low growth in the cost of local government. In Bergen and Passaiccounties, the overall amount demanded of property owners in tax bills that went out this summer and fall grew by less than 2 percent. There were some outliers, but the trend held true in the majority of the region’s 86 communities. Governor Christie’s office praised the trend, hailing it as a direct result of the 2 percent ceiling on annual tax increases that he proposed and the Legislature enacted in 2010. The numbers will no doubt play a prominent role in Christie’s bid for reelection. As a cornerstone of his first term, Christie successfully challenged the notion that the cost of government — and most notably, the salaries of unionized public employees — was beyond the control of elected officials. Officials throughout the region said they were able to comply with the law by tapping a mix of budget surpluses, one-time revenues, line-by-line cost-cutting and payroll reductions, all of which eased the burden of taxes that fund municipal and county services as well as public schools for 2012 and into 2013. But they warn that cuts in academic programs and municipal services loom over the next few years as they run out of other options for holding down increases in tax levies.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Property_taxes_kept_in_check_but_officials_warn_of_looming_cuts_in_services_education.html

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: Florida lags in horse doping regulations

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports it has found that Florida's failure to curb the illicit drugging of horses threatens the animals' health and the integrity of results in the state's horse-racing industry. The newspaper reported antiquated state laws, lenient penalties and a system that tolerates repeat offenders and sometimes leaves violators unpunished for years have caused Florida to fall behind in policing an industry that has come under pressure from U.S. congressional leaders to tighten rules on drugs and medications used on horses. Hard-core banned substances like stimulants and narcoticscan provide a competitive advantage and alter the outcomes of races that generate $500 million annually in wagers statewide. Common medications such as painkillers also may be misused in impermissible quantities to mask pain and heighten the risk of injury in weak or infirm horses. In its investigation, the Sun Sentinel found that Florida's lighter penalties for drugging horses appeared to encourage more violations and repeat offenders. And the state's procedures for handling positive tests seems ill-suited to accomplish the swift action critical to the credibility of a sport anti-doping system. Trainers accused of doping horses are not suspended until after their cases are fully adjudicated, a process that sometimes takes years.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-12-01/news/fl-horse-racing-drug-testing-20121201_1_tampa-bay-downs-horse-industry-richard-sams

Arizona Republic: Authorities unable to account for hundreds of sex offenders

The Arizona Republic reported that Arizona’s system of tracking and monitoring sex offenders is failing, with nearly a third of the state’s high-risk, registered offenders unaccounted for at some point during 2012. Some also are homeless and living on city sidewalks and vacant lots because they have nowhere to go but the streets when released from prison. Going home is often not an option because family and friends have shunned them. Finding even temporary housing is difficult because most employers won’t hire them, homeless shelters have banned them, and a patchwork of state and local laws restrict where they can live. Nonetheless, state law requires their registration to an address or "place of residence.” So authorities have created an unsettling situation: permitting clusters of homeless offenders to register to central Phoenix and Tucson street corners. An Arizona Republicanalysis of nearly 5,700 high-risk offender registrations found large concentrations of offenders in the central areas of Arizona’s two largest cities. About one-third of these high-risk offenders had an unverified address at some point during the seven months The Republicconducted its analysis, meaning authorities could not report precisely where they were and the state database did not contain the current address of the offender.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20121011arizona-sex-offenders-unaccounted.html?nclick_check=1

Orlando Sentinel: Husband of charter school’s principal got $460,000

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reports that the failed Orange County charter school that gave its principal a payout of $519,000 in taxpayer dollars after closing in June also paid her husband more than $460,000 during a five-year period. The newspaper says audits, paid for by the school, show the payments to Steven A. Young, which averaged more than $80,000 a year, were for performing "certain management services." The total included about $41,000 for services to be performed after the school closed, according to one of the audits. Young, husband of NorthStar High School Principal Kelly Young, helped establish the charter school 11 years ago and was its first board president. He resigned from the NorthStar board in August 2008, the same month he was arraigned on charges of soliciting prostitutes while on duty as an Orange County sheriff's commander. He was ultimately adjudicated guilty of three charges and lost his law-enforcement job. He is now a divorce attorney. The payments to Steven Young appear to violate state law prohibiting public officers and employees from doing business with family members, according to legal and charter-school experts. The law states that no employee or officer may purchase services "from any business entity of which the officer or employee or the officer's or employee's spouse or child is an officer, partner, director, or proprietor.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-12-01/features/os-northstar-charter-high-husband-20121201_1_charter-school-schools-use-public-money-state-auditor

San Francisco Chronicle: Arrests decline sharply in Oakland despite high crime rate

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Oakland police officers made 44 percent fewer arrests last year than they had just three years before, according to city records, a plunge in enforcement that extended from armed robbery cases to drug busts to minor crimes like public drunkenness. That's 6,410 fewer arrests - an average of 18 fewer per day - in a city that has the highest crime rate in the state and, this year, is grappling with a 23 percent spike in murders, muggings and other major offenses. The drop is so steep it has eased a backlog of cases in Alameda County Superior Court and may be contributing to a shrinking county jail population, officials said. The arrest figures, obtained under the state's Public Records Act, raise questions about the effectiveness and assertiveness of the Police Department, which is struggling under the weight of job cuts, low morale and the demands of federal court oversight. And there's no indication that the arrest totals for 2011 were an anomaly. Criminologists and law enforcement experts said that while they would expect arrests to fall somewhat along with manpower, the trend was troubling. Nationally, arrests were down 11 percent in the same period, the FBI said.

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Arrest-totals-down-sharply-in-Oakland-4084463.php

The Tennessean: Department of Children’s Service withholds details on 31 deaths

The Tennessean reports there is little known about the 31 Tennessee children who died in the first six months of this year after the Department of Children’s Services got involved in their cases. And that’s the problem. The dead included 23 babies, four toddlers, one 5-year-old and three teenagers. They died after suffering broken bones, drug exposure, asphyxia and drowning. One 2-year-old boy died in a Lincoln County home fire. A Lauderdale County newborn was drowned in a toilet. Some deaths remain unexplained. The Department of Children’s Services continues to withhold details about the children’s lives and deaths and what steps the state’s $650 million child protection agency took — or did not take — to protect them. DCS’ unwillingness to open the agency’s work to public scrutiny stands in contrast to a growing movement across the nation to increase accountability and transparency in child welfare agencies. It’s a movement that child welfare experts have pushed in recent years to prevent future tragedies. The state has denied multiple requests from The Tennessean to review the files involving child fatalities. The department said it had to weigh competing interests. "The disclosure process for fatalities and near fatalities requires sensitivity and balance,” DCS General Counsel Douglas Dimond wrote in response to the newspaper’s request. "A child and family’s right to privacy must be balanced against the public’s right to know.”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20121202/NEWS21/312020057/DCS-withholds-files-child-deaths?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 11-29-2012

AP IMPACT: Will NYC act to block future surges?

The Associated Press asks what if Sandy was not just a 100-year storm. Imagine one just as bad, or worse, every three years. Prominent planners and builders say now is the time to think big to shield the city's core: a 5-mile barrier blocking the entryway to New York Harbor, an archipelago of man-made islets guarding the tip of Manhattan, or something like CDM Smith engineer Larry Murphy's 1,700-foot barrier — complete with locks for passing boats and a walkway for pedestrians — at the mouth of the Arthur Kill waterway between the borough of Staten Island and New Jersey. Act now, before the next deluge, and they say it could even save money in the long run. These strategies aren't just pipe dreams. Not only do these technologies already exist, some of the concepts have been around for decades and have been deployed successfully in other countries and U.S. cities. So if the science and engineering are sound, the long-term cost would actually be a savings, and the frequency and severity of more killer floods is inevitable, what's the holdup? Political will.

http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/after-superstorm-sandy-developers-look-at-how-to-prevent-future-nyc-surges-1.4258733?qr=1

AP: Cursive writing survives in some states for now

The Associated Press reported the pen may not be as mighty as the keyboard these days, but California and a handful of states are not giving up on handwriting entirely. Bucking a growing trend of eliminating cursive from elementary school curriculums or making it optional, California is among the states keeping longhand as a third-grade staple. The state’s posture on penmanship is not likely to undercut its place at the leading edge of technology, but it has teachers and students divided over the value of learning flowing script and looping signatures in an age of touchpads and mobile devices. Some see it as a waste of time, an anachronism in a digitized society where even signatures are electronic, but others see it as necessary so kids can hone fine motor skills, reinforce literacy and develop their own unique stamp of identity.

The debate comes as 45 states move toward adopting national curriculum guidelines in 2014 for English and math that don’t include cursive handwriting, but require proficiency in computer keyboarding by the time pupils exit elementary school. Several states, including California, Georgia and Massachusetts, have added a cursive requirement to the national standards, while most others, such as Indiana, Illinois and Hawaii have left it as optional for school districts. Some states, like Utah, are still studying the issue.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/viewart/20121125/NEWS01/311250013/Penmanship-vs-technology

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Tobacco funds used to plug budget gaps

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that after the nationwide settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998, the state expected $4.8 billion over 25 years to reverse the ravages of lifetimes of cigarette smoking. It hasn’t entirely worked out that way. Annual payments have run far below expectations, driven down by declining cigarette sales. At the same time, state officials have treated much of the money collected so far as unrestricted booty, using it for purposes that sometimes strayed from the original intent, such as economic development, tourism promotion, and filling holes in the state budget. Georgia has collected about $2 billion from the tobacco companies to date, but the ultimate proceeds may total at least $1 billion less than first projected. Just 5 percent of the money — or $111 million — has gone toward curbing or preventing smoking, according to state budget records. That 13-year total, federal health officials say, is slightly less than Georgia should spend for an effective anti-tobacco program — every single year.

Available online to subscribers only

Denver Post: Rising threats raise homeowner insurance premiums

The Denver Post reported Colorado now ranks among the top 10 states for the highest share of homeowners insurance claims paid out due to catastrophes, alongside more traditional disaster magnets like Texas and Louisiana. That trend is translating into upward pressure on premiums and more stress on insurer finances, industry experts said. Average annual premiums paid by Colorado homeowners already are above the national average and rose to $893 in 2009 from $826 in 2007, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Since then, severe storms and wildfires have prompted major insurers in the state to raise rates. From 1997 to 2006, catastrophes triggered only 26 percent of the claims made on homeowners policies in the state, according to an analysis from the Insurance Research Council. But from 2007 to 2011, 41 percent of the claims paid out against homeowners policies in the state were due to large-scale events, the ninth highest share of any state.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_22061082/rising-threats-homes-lands-colorado-among-catastrophic-states

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Police say roads safer with texting ban

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports Arlington, Texas, last year became the first North Texas city to ban texting while driving in an effort to keep motorist focused on the road. The ordinance, which went into effect after Gov. Rick Perry vetoed a bill creating a statewide ban, makes it a Class C misdemeanor with a $200 fine for drivers to use their phones for anything other than calls. Since last Thanksgiving, when enforcement began, police have issued 49 citations to motorists seen looking at or handling their phones for an extended period, department officials said. Just as important, police said, is that far more have received verbal warnings as part of a public education campaign. "There has been a dialogue going on in the community between officers and citizens (that) we believe has led to safer roadways," said Arlington police spokesman Sgt. Christopher Cook. "We applaud our citizens who have made the right choice to put down the telephone and focus on driving." More than 13 percent -- 824 -- of the 6,094 wrecks reported in Arlington from May 2010 to May 2011 were caused by distracted drivers, according to city documents. Four percent of the 824 crashes involved cellphones. Statewide, statistics show that more than 81,000 crashes in 2011 involved some kind of distraction in the vehicle, driver inattention or cellphone use, and that 361 were fatal, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

Houston Chronicle: Problem of old tires just won’t go away

The Houston Chronicle reports that Americans discard 292 million tires every year, nearly one for every resident. More than 32 million tires were thrown away last year in Texas. Although it's illegal to dump tires, 14 million, many of them shredded, lie in heaps across Texas, according to the state Commission on Environmental Quality. Five million form a mountain in Odessa. Another 809,000 are piled alongside Genoa Red Bluff Road in southeast Houston. Relegating tires to landfills also is outlawed in most places, and has been for two decades, but several still-common practices amount to land-filling even if they go by other names. In Texas, one in 10 discarded tires still ends up in the landfill, albeit shredded, according to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality data for 2011. Add to that the fact that nearly a quarter of all tires in the state end up buried in "land reclamation" projects, mostly used for site leveling. These tire shreds will remain tire shreds. They do not biodegrade readily. A Chronicle analysis of public complaints shows that in the last five years, 1,200 people were upset enough about illegal piles of tires near their homes that they dialed up the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

They complain of hundreds of tires, or thousands. Often they worry that tires are collecting water - warm tubs for mosquito larvae, future carriers of West Nile virus. West Nile afflicts more people in Texas than in any other state.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Where-old-tires-go-to-die-or-not-4063947.php

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Flawed crime numbers festered for years

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Police Chief Edward Flynn swept into Milwaukee almost five years ago, promising to modernize the department with a data-driven approach, using timely information to analyze crime trends and deploy officers to hot spots. Since then, Flynn has publicly touted the city's falling crime numbers more than a dozen times, a downward trend that helped him become the first chief appointed to a second term in nearly three decades. Those numbers were deeply flawed and the department knew it. But it didn't bother to tell the public. And it failed to correct the problems - including violent assaults, rapes, robberies and burglaries that were misclassified as less serious offenses - until they were exposed this year by the Journal Sentinel. A review of more than 1,000 pages of internal emails from top command staff shows there were concerns for years about a failure to train people on crime reporting at all levels of the department and about a computer system so riddled with problems its results could not be trusted. Nevertheless, Flynn publicized a double-digit crime drop in the first six months of 2011 compared with the previous year, with no mention of the concerns about the accuracy of the numbers. In another email, the department's top systems analyst sought assurances from Flynn's chief of staff that he wouldn't be fired if the problems were discovered in an FBI audit. The analyst had repeatedly warned supervisors of concerns about the numbers in earlier emails. Interviews with more than a dozen department members, from beat cops to their supervisors, describe a culture throughout the department that pressures staff to keep crime numbers low, leading to downgraded incidents.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/flawed-milwaukee-crime-numbers-festered-for-years-ft6p3m8-180714841.html

Greensboro News Record: Town waffles on dilapidated housing

The Greensboro (N.C.) News Record reports Greensboro is waffling on blighted homes as anyone can see during a visit to Glenwood, where city inspectors have found homes with rotting walls, unsafe wiring and foundation damage. A porch roof leans on one house. Another has no front stairs. A third has lost much of its siding. Those houses have been in the sights of city inspectors for more than five years. Several have been under the threat of city demolition. There are stories of disrepair and dilapidation all over Glenwood and other neighborhoods. City officials have legal tools to deal with unsafe houses. They can fine people who fail to fix blighted property. They do not. They can knock buildings down. They rarely do. The city demolished only six properties in the past three years, Planning and Community Development Director Sue Schwartz said. Instead, owners sometimes are granted years to bring houses up to code, despite evidence that they are not cooperating. By law, city inspectors can give a property owner up to 270 days to do repair work. Sometimes it’s much longer. The Minimum Housing Standards Commission, which is responsible for hearing appeals of city-ordered demolitions, can give property owners limitless amounts of time. Other city officials have given extra time when a property owner asks, because officials would prefer that a property be fixed than have to knock down a house. That means neighbors live for years near houses with caved-in roofs or broken windows, places that draw vagrants, prostitutes or wildlife.

http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/11/24/article/greensboro_waffles_on_blighted_homes

Orange County Register: What’s a firing offense at schools?

The Orange County Register reports Orange County educators who've lost their teaching license in recent years are not all sexual predators and criminals. Some have also been accused of showing up at school intoxicated, threatening students with violence, showing graphic photos to students, and yanking, smacking and grabbing kids. Those are the findings of a review of five years of Orange County discipline cases in which public school educators resigned or were fired amid allegations of misconduct. O.C.'s bad teachers range from sex offenders to bullies: Thirty-six cases across 14 school districts offer a view of misconduct that includes well known case types to unexpected behaviors. At least 35 educators from 14 O.C. school districts have left their jobs under this cloud of suspicion since 2007, according to O.C. teacher disciplinary records released to the Register. Because each district has autonomy to decide how to handle all but its worst offenders, the range of possible actions is wide – some will aggressively move toward termination when presented with misconduct allegations; others will reach resignation settlements or do nothing. The process is not an exact science, experts say, meaning some problem teachers are squeezed out while others remain.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/educators-378448-school-others.html

Orlando Sentinel: Many religious schools in Florida get taxpayer money

The Orlando Sentinel reports voters turned down a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution on election day that critics said could have cleared the way for taxpayer-funded vouchers for religious schools. What many voters likely didn't know is that millions of tax dollars already are being funneled to those schools. More than four out of every five low-income students receiving a Florida Tax Credit Scholarshipare attending religious schools. The rapidly expanding state-scholarship program allows students to attend private schools at taxpayer expense, and 83 percent are choosing church schools. Schools run by Baptist, Lutheran, Seventh-day Adventist, Catholic, Jewish and Islamic religious organizations are among those accepting scholarship students in Central Florida and across the state. The scholarshipsare paid with money that certain businesses can contribute to the scholarship organization instead of paying state taxes. Participation in the program has exploded since it was set up by the Legislature in 2001, with about 50,000 students sharing the $229 million available for scholarships this year. Half of the state's more than 2.6 million students could qualify for the program based on low family income, and the State Board of Education estimates 100,000 students will be getting scholarships within five years.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-11-24/features/os-tax-credit-religious-schools-20121124_1_religious-schools-private-schools-schools-at-taxpayer-expense

Philadelphia Inquirer: Traffic court favoritism trumped justice for all

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the Philadelphia Traffic Court has been dogged by allegations of corruption, mismanagement and political interference since its founding in 1938 - not long after the dawn of mass automobile use. By the time the FBI started snooping around in September 2011, raiding Traffic Court offices and judges' homes, the court had an established, shadow ticket-fixing bureaucracy. Routine ticket-fixing involved all seven judges active at the time, and was so ingrained that patronage employees viewed political favors as "part of their job responsibilities." Those were the conclusions of a special investigative report commissioned by the state Supreme Court in the wake of the FBI raids. The Inquirer obtained a copy of the report, compiled by the consulting firm Chadwick Associates, after it was submitted. The 35-page document reads like a manual on Why Things Are Different in Philly, describing a culture of political favoritism so cynical that one court employee believed the system was fair, since anyone could ask a ward leader to intercede. The employee said that it was the violator's own fault if he or she didn't know enough to seek help from someone who was politically connected," the report said.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20121125_Report_details_Traffic_Court_awash_in_favoritism.html

Post-Crescent: Schools use obscure law to tax millions without vote

The Post-Crescent reports Wisconsin school districts are increasingly tapping a law that has allowed them to spend at least $134.5 million beyond revenue limits without going to a referendum, according to a Gannett Wisconsin Media review. The law, approved by the Legislature in 2009, lets districts raise local property taxes above limits set by the state — as long as the money pays for energy conservation projects. Use of the exemption took off this year because a 2011 amendment to the law allowed districts to borrow money for energy-saving projects and exceed their revenue limits to fund loan payments over multiple years. In the past, districts had to raise and spend the money in a single year. A review of data from the state Department of Public Instruction revealed that 32 districts used the law this year to fund at least $93.2 million worth of building-improvement projects — ranging from installing new heating and cooling systems to replacing computers and re-insulating buildings. Last year, 30 districts used the law to raise an extra $8.9 million. School officials said they used the exemption to catch up on a backlog of deferred maintenance and facilities improvements.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20121125/APC0101/311250242/1942/APC0406/New-funding-old-problems

Washington Post: Can drug research still be trusted?

The Washington Post reported the 17-page articlein the New England Journal of Medicine represented a coup for drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. The 2006 report described a trial that compared three diabetes drugs and concluded that Avandia, the company’s new drug, performed best. "We now have clear evidence from a large international study that the initial use of [Avandia] is more effective than standard therapies,” a senior vice president of GlaxoSmithKline, Lawson Macartney, said in a news release. What only careful readers of the article would have gleaned is the extent of the financial connections between the drugmaker and the research. The trial had been funded by GlaxoSmithKline, and each of the 11 authors had received money from the company. Four were employees and held company stock. The other seven were academic experts who had received grants or consultant fees from the firm.

Whether these ties altered the report on Avandia may be impossible for readers to know. But while sorting through the data from more than 4,000 patients, the investigators missed hints of a danger that, when fully realized four years later, would lead to Avandia’s virtual disappearance from the United States: The drug raised the risk of heart attacks. "If you looked closely at the data that was out there, you could see warning signs,” said Steven E. Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who issued one of the earliest warnings about the drug. "But they were overlooked.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-drug-industrys-influence-over-research-grows-so-does-the-potential-for-bias/2012/11/24/bb64d596-1264-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 11-21-2012

Arizona Republic: Insiders benefiting in Arizona charter school deals

The Arizona Republic reports board members and administrators from more than a dozen state-funded charter schools are profiting from their affiliations by doing business with schools they oversee. The deals, worth more than $70 million over the last five years, are legal, but critics of the arrangements say they can lead to conflicts of interest. Charter executives, on the other hand, say they are able to help the schools get better deals on services and goods ranging from air-conditioners to textbooks and thus save taxpayers money. The ArizonaRepublicreviewed thousands of pages of federal tax returns, audits, corporate filings, and records filed with the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools. The analysis looked at the 50 largest non-profit charter schools in the state as well as schools with assets of more than $10 million. For-profit schools were not analyzed because their tax records are not public. The Republic'sanalysis found at least 17 contracts or arrangements, totaling more than $70 million over five years and involving about 40 school sites, in which money from the non-profit charter school went to for-profit or non-profit companies run by board members, executives or their relatives.

Arizona has 535 charter schools that enrolled about 144,800 students this school year, or about 14 percent of students in public schools.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/10/16/20121016insiders-benefiting-charter-deals.html

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia’s rural students less prepared for college

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that its analysis of the uneven preparation for college provided by Georgia schools found that rural students are more likely to need remedial help in college and to score lower on the SAT, a predictor of college success. Most agree that money and location play a role in the disparities between Georgia schools. The AJC analysis specifically shows: About 5 percent of students took advanced placement exams in extremely rural areas, compared to more than 20 percent in large suburban districts; rural districts spend about $400 less than others per student and teachers don’t have the same opportunities for training and development. Teachers in smaller, poorer districts often face more demands and professional isolation, a barrier to improvement. College readiness is gaining fresh attention in part because of new policies making it harder for students to play catch-up after high school. Starting this past fall, students who need too much remedial help in reading, writing or math are not allowed to attend schools in the University System of Georgia. Students who need extensive remedial lessons are less likely to earn a degree.

Available online to subscribers only

Boston Globe: Safety chief has long list of driving violations

The Boston Globe reports Sheila Burgess, director of the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division, has a driving record that includes seven accidents, four speeding violations, two failures to stop for a police officer, one failure to stay in her lane, one driving without registration or license in possession, and one driving without wearing a seat belt. When she was nabbed for speeding in New Hampshire in 1999, she failed to show up at her hearing, records show. Until Nov. 1, her license was on nonrenewal status for failure to pay local excise taxes. There are 34 entries on her driving record, dating back to 1982. Her mission is to reduce accidents by promoting good driving practices. She oversees public campaigns on the dangers of speeding, texting while driving, driving while impaired, and failing to wear a seat belt, among other hazards.

Burgess’s most recent crash occurred on Aug. 24, as she was driving a state vehicle during work hours. At 1:16 on a sunny summer afternoon, her car veered off the road in the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton and slammed into a rock outcropping, a State Police report says. Burgess was appointed to her $87,000-a-year position in July 2007, without any background in public safety, transportation, or government administration. Her experience was in Democratic Party politics.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/11/18/state-highway-safety-chief-has-long-driving-record-recent-accident/4HPRt0xv2Bqu3rsonuY3sJ/story.html

Chicago Tribune: Scandals dog Northern Illinois University at critical transition

The Chicago Tribune asks readers to imagine recruiting for the soon-to-be-vacant president's office at scandal-ridden Northern Illinois University, the state’s third-largest public campus, where two high-ranking administrators recently resigned in disgrace, eight employees face felony theft charges and the campus police chief — once hailed a hero for his swift response to a 2008 shooting spree that left six people dead — has been placed on leave amid questions about concealed evidence in a rape case. The school’s budget currently includes more than $15,000 per week for suspended employees who are still being paid. Against that backdrop, NIU will seek a replacement for retiring President John Peters and recruit its next freshman class. For the DeKalb-based university that proudly vowed to move forward after the massacre four years ago, 2012 has marked a major step backward. What's more, the Tribune learned that suspended police Chief Donald Grady had asked the FBI about two months ago to help with the campus police investigation into the two university administrators who had resigned. That investigation — and the FBI's assistance — is now on hold, NIU acting police Chief Darren Mitchell said.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-17/news/ct-met-niu-turmoil-20121117_1_kathryn-buettner-chief-donald-grady-niu-officials

Dallas Morning News: Agency funded projects of Gov. Perry financial supporter

The Dallas Morning News reports how one night in December 2007, Dallas businessman David Shanahan and several of his family members gathered at a home in Highland Park with a special guest, Gov. Rick Perry, to talk about cancer. By the end of the next day, the governor had collected $50,000 for his campaign fund from Shanahan and several of his associates. Less than one week earlier, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst pulled in $40,000 from a similar group of donors that included Shanahan. This political gift-giving came just a month after Texas voters approved a 10-year, $3 billion program to fight cancer. Millions from that program later would flow to Shanahan’s firms. The state created a new agency, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, with the lofty goal of, in Perry’s words, "finding a cure for this indiscriminate killer.” CPRIT now faces accusations that its method for awarding grants has become compromised. Its chief scientist and dozens of others who evaluated proposals have quit amid concerns that politics has infected the agency. Some of those scientists have warned CPRIT about shifting money from university research toward Texas companies.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20121117-dmn-investigates-states-cancer-fighting-agency-funded-projects-of-perry-campaign-contributor.ece

Indianapolis Sunday Star: Ratepayers pay for costly coal deal

The Indianapolis Sunday Star reports residents of southwest Indiana long have grumbled about high electricity bills, and for good reason -- they pay the highest rates in the state. The provider of that electricity, Vectren Corp., has addressed those concerns by telling customers the high rates are a result of upgrades to its coal-fired power plants that dramatically reduce pollution. But The Indianapolis Star has found a second major reason for Vectren's high rates. At a time when coal prices were at record highs, Vectren locked into expensive, multiyear agreements to buy almost all of its coal supply from its own wholly-owned mining subsidiary, Vectren Fuels. And ratepayers paid the price. Experts say Vectren disregarded the common industry practice of staggering its coal purchases through shorter-term contracts to hedge against unusually high prices. Since that time in 2008, Vectren Fuels has sold coal to other Indiana utilities -- including Duke Energy, Indianapolis Power and Light, and Northern Indiana Public Service Company -- for much lower prices. On average, Vectren charged those utilities $44.35 a ton, but charged itself $68.48 a ton -- a difference of more than 50 percent, which translated to at least $136 million from January 2009 to June 2012.

Available online to subscribers only

Lexington Herald-Leader: Records detail last minutes of inmate’s life

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports one thing was clear: It was one hour and 16 minutes from the time assistance was requested for Fayette County jail inmate Jeffrey McKinney to the time he was pronounced dead at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital on May 22. That much was revealed in records obtained by the Herald-Leader from the Fayette County jail and police under the Kentucky Open Records Law. What remains unclear, however, is whether McKinney, 37, was having a seizure when corrections officers viewed him as combative and responded forcefully, or whether the behavior came after a seizure. In addition, there are conflicting reports about whether pepper spray was sprayed directly into a hood that had been placed over McKinney's head. Jail reports and memos provided the following account: McKinney, who had epilepsy, bit his tongue during a seizure and spit blood on a jail nurse. A corrections officer reported he was "unaware" whether McKinney's spitting was intentional. A specially designed hood was retrieved to keep McKinney from spitting on anyone else. McKinney would struggle some more, then call for help. He was handcuffed and shackled in a restraint chair, pressure points were applied, and pepper spray was sprayed in his face to calm him down. Then he was given a shot for anxiety. Moments later, McKinney stopped moving. Corrections officers removed the spit hood and discovered he had vomited and wasn't breathing.

http://www.kentucky.com/2012/11/18/2412580/release-of-jail-records-provides.html

Los Angeles Times: Police officer used Taser stun gun on handcuffed woman

The Los Angeles Times reported aLos Angeles police officer shocked a handcuffed woman with a Taser stun gun while joking with other officers at the scene, according to interviews and law enforcement records, adding to a series of controversial use-of-force incidents at the LAPD. Officer Jorge Santander then appeared to lie about the December 2010 incident repeatedly in written reports. The three other LAPD officers who witnessed Santander stun the woman all corroborated his version of events when first questioned and failed to tell supervisors that one officer had recorded a video of the encounter, the records show. The video shows Santander firing the Taser without warning and later displaying a Superman logo he wore on his chest beneath his uniform, according to the records. Off camera, another officer is heard laughing and singing. The details of the case were outlined in a memo written by a prosecutor in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office that was obtained by The Times. Police officials confirmed that Police Chief Charlie Beck is seeking to have Santander and the three others fired. All four have been suspended since shortly after the incident. This marks the fourth time in the last few months that cases have come to light in which LAPD officers are accused of using force on suspects who had been restrained.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/17/local/la-me-lapd-taser-20121118

Miami Herald: Why some in Florida spent hours in line to vote

The Miami Herald says its analysis of Election Day voting finds voters faced slow lines in at least 50 polling stations around Miami-Dade — far more than publicly acknowledged by county officials in the wake of the election. Such delays contributed to Florida’s renewed reputation as the state that couldn’t count straight, with the final results in the presidential race tabulated four days after every other state in the union. This time, the problems weren’t with hanging chads — the culprits in the notorious 2000 presidential election — unreliable counts, or fears about paperless electronic voting. Instead, the hang-up was primarily herding throngs of voters through their precincts as they faced an extraordinarily time-consuming ballot. Why so many delays in Miami-Dade? The reasons were numerous, but the longest waits came in large precincts with more than 1,000 voters, many of whom arrived after work. Put simply, the voter bottlenecks overwhelmed even the most well-equipped precincts. Other wild cards in the equation: the deployment and competence of poll workers hired for Election Day. Elections officials acknowledged there were voting delays, but maintained that they were limited to a few areas. In the days after the election, county officials said as few as a half-dozen of the county’s 541 polling locations suffered unreasonable delays. But records show that 51 voting sites stayed open at least four hours after the 7 p.m. voting deadline.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Advair boomed amid health risks

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports millions of people with asthma, including many children, have gone on the drug and Advair sales have exceeded $4 billion every year since 2007. Yet medical studies, independent doctors and court records indicate the drug can be dangerous, especially to children, and has been massively overused and often inappropriately prescribed.

Advair and other drugs that contain long-acting beta-agonists have been linked to 1,900 asthma deaths from 2004 through 2011, according to an estimate by AdverseEvents Inc., a private firm that analyzes incidents reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The incident reporting system is voluntary, so the estimate likely is low. In a different analysis in 2008, an FDA researcher estimated the drugs contributed to 14,000 asthma deaths from 1994 through 2007. Advair, approved in 2000, is by far the biggest seller. A Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found the growth in Advair sales followed new asthma treatment recommendations that were written largely by doctors who received money from GlaxoSmithKline and other companies that market the drugs. And the FDA sidestepped the concerns of some of its own doctors, who warned of the drugs' risks, especially among children and African-Americans, the investigation found. Those FDA doctors had urged that Advair and similar products not be prescribed to children and that other long-acting beta-agonists be taken off the market.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/advair-boomed-amid-health-risks-264ct6q-179834881.html

Mobile Register: Natural gas in Mobile costs over twice what it does in Biloxi

The Mobile (Ala.) Register reports people in Mobile pay more than twice as much for natural gas as people in Biloxi, Miss. Customers purchasing the same amount of gas would pay $103.46 in Mobile versus just $43.72 in Biloxi, according to information supplied by Mobile Gas Service Corp., and Centerpoint Energy, which serves Biloxi. The same is true when it comes to commercial customers. Mobile Gas charges its commercial customers more than twice as much as customers in Biloxi are charged. A commercial customer in Biloxi would be charged $971 for 165,400 cubic feet of gas, typical of the amount a small business relying on gas for its operations might use in a month. Mobile Gas would charge $2,173 for the same amount of gas. Over the course of a year, a Mobile business would spend $14,429 more on natural gas than the same business would spend in Biloxi. While Mobile Gas officials noted in a statement that their rates have decreased since last year, an AL.com analysis shows that both residential and commercial rates still remain higher than rates in states nearby. In 2006, the Press-Register compared residential and commercial rates among utilities in the surrounding states. In every case, Mobile Gas was higher. And in the case of Mississippi utilities, the company was more than twice as expensive as the utility serving Biloxi in 2006. Customers of Mobile Gas describe the increased cost they pay for buying gas from the company as an extra tax payable directly to Mobile Gas.

http://blog.al.com/live/2012/11/mobile_gas_charges_customers_m.html

Philadelphia Inquirer: Nonprofit mismanaged $1.5 million in state grants since 2006

A Philadelphia nonprofit with ties to State Rep. Dwight Evans mismanaged $1.5 million in state grants since 2006, raising questions about how the money was obtained and spent, according to a confidential state audit. At Evans' direction, the Urban Affairs Coalition put a Philadelphia pastor and his aide on its payroll, the auditors found, then used taxpayer funds to pay them $365,000 for work that auditors said they could not verify. The grants included $1 million that went to renovate a nursing home run by Leland Beloff, a former Philadelphia city councilman who was convicted in an extortion scheme in 1987 with mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo. The home, Harlee Manor, should have been ineligible because it is a for-profit venture, auditors found. They also cited e-mails showing a top aide to U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, who was a Beloff friend, sought status reports on the grants. The report, obtained by The Inquirer, was commissioned by the state Office of Inspector General Kenya Mann Faulkner and completed in May by the KPMG accounting firm.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-18/news/35172838_1_audit-report-grants-wams

Reno Gazette-Journal: ATF-U.S. Attorney rift leaves guns in wrong hands

A Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that more than three dozen people in Northern Nevada purchased firearms and kept them despite failing their background checks because the Reno office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives no longer has agents to retrieve those weapons. ATF agents are responsible for taking guns away from people who buy firearms but are later found to have something in their criminal history that prohibits them from owning a weapon. But when the Reno U.S. Attorney’s office told local ATF agents in a September 2011 letter that they would not prosecute their cases until unnamed "issues” were resolved, most of the agents transferred to new posts. In the past year in Nevada, at least 36 people either lied or gave inaccurate information when they filled out a form to purchase a gun, according to the Nevada Department of Public Safety, the agency in charge of conducting background checks. When the department discovered that bogus information, they followed normal procedures and sent letters to the Reno ATF office asking the agents to take back the firearms. Since no one at ATF acted on those requests, the guns are likely still on the street and none of the people who bought the guns have faced federal charges related to lying or providing the inaccurate information for their background check or being a felon in possession of a firearm.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20121118/NEWS/311180048/ATF-U-S-Attorney-rift-leaves-guns-wrong-hands-Northern-Nevada

San Antonio Express-News: Misdeeds at Lackland military base not just sexual

The San Antonio Express-News reports elite trainers at Joint Base San Antonio-Lacklandhave been busted in the past 10 years for DWI, assault, abusing trainees and for using heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy and marijuana. The offenses, disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request by the San Antonio Express-News, show a pattern of misconduct since 2002 in a training corps that has been reeling in the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal that has ensnared 25 boot-camp instructors, who are accused of victimizing 49 female recruits.

The Air Force documented 81 cases that were not sexual in nature over the past 10 years, with most of them handled in secret administrative procedures. They generally resulted in sentences that included reprimands, loss of rank and forfeiture of pay — though commanders sometimes suspended punishment. Nearly three dozen other cases involved sexual relationships, most of them consensual, underscoring a pattern in which military training instructors have become involved with their students, despite a code forbidding such contact.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Lackland-trainers-misdeeds-not-just-sexual-4047376.php

San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News: Big perks for board of supervisors president

The San Jose Mercury News reports how Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President George Shirakawa Jr., living the high life, teed off at the Revere Golf Club last fall -- just minutes from the Las Vegas strip -- and charged the $583 bill. When the burly, red-cheeked public official flew to the East Coast last year for a violence prevention forum, he upgraded to first class -- quadrupling his airfare to $2,605. Shirakawa enjoyed these perks even though he didn't have a penny to his name, according to bankruptcy court filings. The veteran county leader declared personal bankruptcy in March 2011, despite his $143,031 salary. And the lavish expenses? County taxpayers picked up the cost. Shirakawa may be broke, but the 50-year-old supervisor has a history of spending freely with taxpayer funds. And with lax county oversight, his constituents have no idea they've been paying as Shirakawa dines with his staff members and a who's who of San Jose leaders in what in many cases appears to be a violation of county policy and federal law. Over the past four years, Shirakawa has gone on a free-wheeling $36,717 spending spree with his county-issued "P-card," dining out at least 180 times -- often in some of the region's most exclusive restaurants.

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_22017895/san-jose-supervisor-george-shirakawa-racks-up-lavish

Burlington Free Press: What happened to collapsed economic development agency?

The Burlington Free Press reported that three years after an economic-development agency serving northern Vermont counties collapsed, the financial missteps that led to its failure remain shrouded in confusion and largely uninvestigated. Former employees and members of its large board say the Economic Development Council based in St. Albans operated with scant oversight from its board and from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration — the agency which provided the council with its grant money. The EDA, after repeated questions from the Free Press, acknowledges that it became "aware of possible financial irregularities” by the council in 2009, "suspended all open grants, mounted a still incomplete investigation by the Commerce Department’s inspector general, required audits of the council and its two subsidiaries and has now required the council to repay $231,500 "in unauthorized disbursements.” The council, formally known as the Economic Development Council of Northern Vermont, was intended to funnel primarily federal development money to worthwhile projects in economically depressed areas — in Vermont’s case, the state’s six northern counties. Similar organizations exist across the country.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012311180020

Columbus Dispatch: Caught speeding in a construction zone? Going to court pays off

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Ohio threatens motorists with doubled fines if they’re caught speeding through road-construction zones, and the state has handed out more than $400,000 in grants this year to police agencies statewide to beef up enforcement. But in Franklin County, that message can get diluted after officers tear the tickets off their pads. Nearly three in 10 motorists stopped for speeding in local highway construction zones since January 2011 paid less than the standard fine for their crimes, The Dispatchhas found. That’s because showing up in court almost always pays off. A review of more than 4,500 tickets issued in work zones around the I-71/670 interchange and on I-270 found that more than 93 percent of people who went to court instead of mailing a check or entering a credit-card number online walked away with reduced or dismissed fines. Court officials say such statistics are a real-world glimpse at how the judicial system operates, not only for construction-zone speeding tickets but for all kinds of minor traffic offenses. For example, prosecutors sometimes drop speeding charges in order to win guilty pleas on drunken-driving or other, more-serious crimes. Sometimes, they offer to reduce fines to avoid time-consuming trials. And other times, the police officers who write the tickets don’t show up in court, forcing prosecutors to dismiss tickets. Judges say they often juggle dozens of cases a day and rely on prosecutors to make the call.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/11/18/beating-the-system.html

Oklahoman: For-profit colleges raise concerns in Oklahoma City

The Oklahoman reports an influx of private for-profit colleges in Oklahoma City is leading to concerns by policymakers and higher education officials about tuition costs, recruiting tactics and the value of the degrees the institutions grant. Since 1995, 17 new college campuses have opened in the Oklahoma City metro area — an average of one new campus per year — bringing the total number of campuses in the area to 37. The new campuses include 10 for-profit colleges. The other seven are satellite locations where institutions that were already established offer off-site courses. Private, for-profit colleges and universities with small Oklahoma City campuses include multistate corporations such as the University of Phoenix and Vatterott College. Also known as proprietary colleges, such schools often operate out of storefronts. Spokesmen for these institutions say they are a valuable resource, offering flexibility in location and schedules that would otherwise be unavailable. However, despite their success in Oklahoma and nationwide, for-profit colleges have drawn criticism. In July, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, released a report that highlighted a series of failures at these schools, including a disproportionately high rate of student loan defaults.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-area-has-added-one-college-campus-per-year-since-1995/article/3729976

Sunday Oregonian: State police handwriting unit awash in turmoil

The Sunday Oregonian reports an Oregon State Police handwriting examiner committed a serious error in a killer-for-hire case last January, provoking so much finger-pointing that the future of the agency's document analysis unit is uncertain. State police officials, confronted by a whodunit under their own roof, suspended all work by the handwriting unit in March, saying little about why. But internal reviews obtained by The Oregonianthrough open-records filings detail allegations of bias, sloppy work and dishonesty. Out-of-state experts are now re-examining 35 criminal cases worked by the unit's two handwriting analysts, partly to ensure that no innocent people were convicted on faulty findings. Washington State Patrolofficials, who relied on the examiner who made the error to review at least 40 of their cases from 2009 to 2010, are waiting to see what the experts find. "The reputation that we've worked for could be tainted," said Thomas Barnes, who oversees the handwriting unit as director of the Portland Metro Forensic Laboratoryin Clackamas County. "We strive to do the best job we possibly can." The handwriting analysts -- Ron Emmons and Christina Kelley -- have handled about 80 cases a year, examining magnified images of paper documents, such as wills, suicide notes and bank robbery demands, to determine the likelihood they match a suspect's known writing.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/11/allegations_of_sloppy_work_bia.html

Post-Crescent: Money scarce for hundreds of Wisconsin’s aging bridges

The Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wis., reports that four years after an interstate bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 people and focusing attention on the condition of the nation’s transportation infrastructure, limited progress has been made in making repairs to spans in Wisconsin. Some 1,200 bridges in the state, nearly 1 in 10, were considered "structurally deficient” at the end of 2011, a Gannett Wisconsin Media review of the most recent Federal Highway Administration data found. In 2007, the year of the Interstate 35W bridge tragedy, the total was 1,300. Although Wisconsin has moved aggressively to repair or replace spans along major transit corridors like U.S. 41 and Interstate 43, authorities say the pool of money to fix bridges serving the next tier of roads — usually in rural or suburban areas — has not kept pace with needs. That can pose challenges for local officials. The Olde Oneida Street bridge spanning the Fox River is among several in the city deemed structurally deficient. Its rating in 2011 was 37.8 on a 100-point scale (with 100 being the best). The span, now approaching 70 years old, carries 14,000 vehicles a day.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20121118/APC0101/311180269/1016/APC0206/State-disrepair-Money-scarce-hundreds-state-s-aging-bridges

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 11-8-2012

Albuquerque Journal: Billions more needed to refurbish nuclear bombs

The Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal reports the National Nuclear Security Administration, already under fire for billions of dollars of cost overruns, has underestimated by billions more how much it will cost to refurbish the nation’s stockpile of B61 nuclear bombs, according to an independent cost assessment commissioned by the agency. Already juggling its budget to cope with existing problems, the agency will likely need to come up with another $1 billion per year for the next few years if the project is to go ahead as currently envisioned, according to a summary of the assessment obtained by the Journal. Among the biggest shortcomings is a significant underestimate of the amount of systems engineering work to be done at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. According to the independent assessment done by the Pentagon, NNSA has failed to explain how it will handle the need for additional staff to carry out the highly skilled work needed to redesign and build the refurbished bomb.

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/billions-more-needed-to-refurbish-b61-nuclear-bombs-1.195938

Austin American Statesman: Pharmacy scrutiny plummets in Texas

The Austin American-Statesman reports that in 2008 the Texas State Board of Pharmacy warned that there needed to be more testing of compounded drugs — prescription medications mixed and prepared by individual pharmacies, typically with much less oversight than government regulators demand of drug manufacturers. A year earlier, Texas legislators had for the first time given the agency $50,000 a year to pay for random testing, which it had begun. But "we believe that the agency should be conducting more tests,” the board’s administrators wrote in the request for their 2010-2011 budget. "Any problem with these products could have dramatic and potentially life-threatening effects on the patient.” Instead, thanks to budget cuts, over the past three years the number of pharmacies whose products the state tests for contamination, sterility and potency to ensure patient safety has plummeted. In 2010, the agency conducted tests on medications compounded at 65 Texas pharmacies. The following year, the number dropped to 30. By the end of fiscal year 2012, in August, the number had plunged to only 21 — less than a third from only two years earlier.

Money the agency spent on the testing program slid 72 percent over that time.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/as-pharmacies-face-scrutiny-states-oversight-drops/nSwJh/

Dallas Morning News: Dallas detective force dwindling

The Dallas Morning News reports stagnant police investigations are a symptom of severe understaffing of the department’s detective units, according to current and former Dallas officers. And the number of detectives in units that investigate the bulk of the city’s most violent crimes — such as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — has been slashed by 46 percent since 2010, according to a review by The Dallas Morning News. Where about 91 investigators once worked these cases, about 49 are now on the job. Police commanders defended the reductions, noting that the department is on pace to report the 11th consecutive year of declining violent crime, so fewer detectives are needed. Before declining a request for an extensive interview, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said during a brief phone, "It’s just so dramatic … Just half the murders that we used to work. The last nine years there’s been a dramatic drop in aggravated assaults, in sexual assaults. It’s fallen off the cliff. To say we don’t have staffing is just the opposite of what we’re seeing.” But The Dallas Morning Newshas reported in a series of stories that first began to appear in 2009 that the police department has changed the way some crimes are counted, sometimes in violation of FBI guidelines, with the result that comparisons of crime statistics across the years would be inaccurate.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/headlines/20121103-sharp-dallas-police-cuts-leave-fewer-detectives-working-violent-crimes.ece

Denver Post: Political compromise built prison no-one needs

The Denver Post reports Colorado has just shut down a brand new prison it didn't need thanks to a political compromise. Unless the state government finds someone else who can use it, Colorado taxpayers can expect to spend $208 million for an empty building. Finding someone else may not be easy. Colorado State Penitentiary II, also known as Centennial South, consists of 948 solitary-confinement cells. It has no dining room, no gym, no rooms where a group of prisoners could take classes or go to therapy or get vocational training. It's row after identical row of empty cells. From the beginning, critics of this project objected, correctly, that Colorado was putting people in solitary confinement at a rate that dwarfed the national average. Yet it was built, even though most legislators opposed the prison in 2003, according to a key player. Another bit of legislative ingenuity overcame that problem. The sponsors lumped the prison with a new University of Colorado medical campus and gained bipartisan support for two projects financed without a vote of the people. Separately, neither project would have passed, according to Republican Norma Anderson, the Senate majority leader and bill sponsor in 2003. "You couldn't get the votes for either one of them," said Anderson, now a former legislator living in Lakewood. Republicans wanted the prison, Democrats the hospitals, and "that's the only reason they were put together," she said. "It's very simple."

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21924289/colorado-spending-208-million-empty-solitary-confinement-prison

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: For cops, take-home cars a free ride

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports thousands of South Florida law enforcement officers are commuting to work at public expense and some are logging round trips of 100-plus miles daily. More than 4,250 officers in Broward and southern Palm Beach counties drive their department-issued cars home when they go off duty, the Sun Sentinel has determined. The newspaper examined take-home car policies at 18 agencies and made some startling discoveries: Letting cops commute in their marked units is supposed to deter crime where they live, but records show three-quarters of the officers with take-home vehicles live outside the jurisdictions they serve; hundreds of take-home vehicles are unmarked units with no apparent deterrent value against crooks; some local cops make 100-mile or more daily commutes in their cruisers, and don't pay a cent; gas and repairs are paid for by local taxpayers. What does it all cost? The agencies can't even say. The Sun Sentinel found none of the police departments surveyed collect the data necessary to calculate the price of its take-home program and whether it's a good or bad deal for the citizens who pay for it.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-11-04/news/fl-take-home-police-cars-main-20121104_1_cars-home-car-policies-vehicle-life

Indianapolis Star: Few in Indianapolis are recycling compared to other cities

The Indianapolis Star reported that after the city of Indianapolis pushed to improve its curbside recycling program last year, the number of users increased by 90 percent, an impressive figure until you consider another percentage: Even with that increase, just 10 percent of households participate in curbside recycling. That means Indianapolis, which has been striving since 2008 to become "the most sustainable city in the Midwest," has one of the most underused recycling programs in the nation for a city its size. For comparison, 85 percent of households in Milwaukee put out their recycling to be picked up. In Louisville, it's 35 percent. In Des Moines it's 65 percent. To significantly increase the rate of recycling, Indianapolis almost certainly will have to stop charging extra to use the service and roll the cost into all customers' bills. In fact, some cities go even further to create an incentive for residents to recycle. They charge more to those who fail to recycle.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20121103/LIFE/211030339/Just-1-10-Indianapolis-residents-recycle-Why-

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Domestic violence oversight lacking

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports Wisconsin's laws on how police must respond to domestic violence are among the most comprehensive in the country, but a Journal-Sentinel investigation has found no one has the authority to enforce them. And if the laws are ignored, there are no penalties. Under state statute, local police must arrest domestic violence suspects regardless of the victim's cooperation. Departments also must have written policies on how to investigate domestic violence. But nothing guarantees they follow through. The lack of oversight allows local departments to circumvent the laws, rendering them ineffective and putting victims - and the public - in jeopardy. That's what law enforcement experts and a dozen legislators say Brown Deer police did by not holding accountable Radcliffe Haughton, whose trail of domestic violence culminated in killing his estranged wife and two other women at Azana Salon & Spa in Brookfield before committing suicide last month.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/with-no-oversight-police-can-ignore-domestic-violence-laws-0s7egfm-177128581.html

Montgomery Advertiser: Republican senator raises $2 million for races in 11 states

The Montgomery Advertiser reports U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby is so eager to see Republicans take control of the Senate that he spent part of the summer raising about $2 million specifically for races in 11 key states. Shelby, R-Ala.,is chair of the Target State Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that showers its proceeds on state Republican parties to help their Senate candidates. The fund coordinated with the National Republican Senatorial Committee to pick states where Republican challengers or incumbents are in competitive races. The list of beneficiaries changed according to the shifting political landscape in each state. In May, for example, the Target State Victory Fund planned to send money to the Missouri state GOP, where Republican Rep. Todd Akin is challenging Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. After Akin made controversial remarks about "legitimate rape,” the fund dropped Missouri from the list. Indiana and New Mexico were added later in the summer. Other states that shared in the $2 million haul include Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin, according to documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission. Eleven state Republican parties received about $150,000 each from the fund. Donations to the fund were mostly in five-figure increments from wealthy business owners and lobbyists, political action committees affiliated with a particular company or industry, and the leadership PACs of other GOP senators.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20121104/NEWS02/311040023/1009

Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle: Parking ticket abuse by police rampant

The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle reports hundreds of parking violations issued over the last three years to personal vehicles of city employees, most of them police officers, were later voided as courtesies. A month-long investigation by the Democrat and Chroniclerevealed that the Police Department routinely violated its own policies by fixing tickets for officers and their friends and relatives for flimsy excuses or none at all. In many cases, the reasons given to justify the voids would likely be unacceptable to a Parking Violations Bureau hearing examiner, to whom the average motorist must appeal to dispute tickets. Take for example the justification on a voided ticket issued to retired Capt. Charles Price for parking in a no-standing zone on Alexander Street in March. The void was filed by a Police Department spokesman a week after the infraction and read, "Retired Capt. Price cannot see so well. Please extend courtesy.”

Presented with the Democrat and Chronicle’s findings last week, Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard acknowledged that the department’s ticket dismissal policy has been abused.

He added that the policy would be replaced, and that an internal review of hundreds of parking tickets in which officers had a hand in voiding was under way.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20121104/NEWS01/311040051/parking-ticket-abuse-Rochester-Police-Department

Portland Oregonian: Hospital charity less giving in Oregon despite tax breaks

The Portland Oregonian reports that in 2009, with the recession in full swing and the number of unemployed and uninsured way up, Legacy Health System ratcheted free care to the needy in the Portland area to a new high. Legacy wrote off $67 million in area patients' bills last year, a nearly 25 percent jump since 2009, more than 6 percent of revenue. That may not have been a smart business move, but "we have a mission" to help others, says Dave Eager, chief financial officer of the nonprofit. Other tax-exempt hospitals in the state did not follow suit, according to newly released state records. From 2009 to 2011, 31 of Oregon's tax-exempt hospitals cut free care to the poor as a percent of revenue. The numbers pushed Eager into the growing chorus across the country that says government should set minimum expectations on not-for-profit hospitals that enjoy lucrative tax breaks in exchange for community service, including Legacy itself. But how much is enough is complicated and looks to become more so under health reforms slated for 2014. The answer is particularly important for Oregon, where all but two of its 58 hospitals are tax-exempt.

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2012/11/hospital_charity_care_in_orego.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Foreclosures, vacancies hurt Atlanta’s recovery

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the breadth of Atlanta’s epic housing collapse unfolds block by block in a cluster of historic neighborhoods. It’s possible in some areas to walk down entire blocks and see nothing but boarded-up or fenced-off properties, the owners having long since abandoned them to weeds. Many of the now vacant and foreclosed properties, rehabbed before the housing market’s collapse in 2007, have been plundered for plumbing fixtures, wiring, doors and windows. The abandonment has attracted drug dealers, vagrants and prostitutes, who flout the law in full view of the law-abiding residents who remain. The blight in neighborhoods so close to downtown threatens to spread like a cancer and impede the region’s recovery, experts warn. Foreclosures have already wiped out $2 trillion in property values nationwide — with more than half of that loss in predominantly African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods, according to a five-year national study released last week.

Available online to subscribers only at: http://www.ajc.com/

Austin American Statesman: Police busting budget for payouts to workers

The Austin (Texas) American Statesman reports its analysis finds the city of Austin, thanks partly to an unusually generous benefit to police officers, has paid departing employees about $40 million in the past five years in unused sick or vacation time, an expense that consistently surpasses budget projections. The Austin Police Department, which pays departing officers up to 10 months’ worth of unused sick time, has spent the highest amount among all city departments for several years, totaling about $17 million since 2008. Last year, the department spent $4.5 million in so-called "terminal pay,” the highest amount in at least five years and more than $1 million more than it had budgeted. According to city records, 20 departing officers each received more than $100,000 in separation pay last year, including a former assistant police chief who got $134,040. The American-Statesman’s review of the expense comes a month after the city closed its books on last year’s budget, which ended Sept. 30. Police officials said they used money from vacant positions to close the gap, and that, overall, the department came in about $2.5 million under its $267 million annual budget.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/police-payouts-lead-way-as-city-spends-40-million-/nSp8P/

Boston Globe: Massachusetts schools report nearly 3,000 concussions

The Boston Globe reports nearly 3,000 Massachusetts students suffered a concussion or other head injury while playing sports during the last school year, according to the results of a first-of-its-kind survey completed by 164 schools. The reports from middle and high schools across Massachusetts, collected under a state law passed in 2010, highlight the extent of the problem at a time when medical experts and sports leagues, from Pop Warner to the NFL, are increasingly worried about the long-term effects of head injuries. Boston College High School, an all-boys private school in Dorchester with grades 7 through 12, reported the highest number, with 76 head injuries sustained last school year during "extracurricular athletic activities,’’ according to reports released to the Globe by the state Department of Public Health under a public records request. Lexington High School followed with 69 reported head injuries or concussions. The reports also show a wide variance in the number of head injuries reported at Massachusetts schools, either as a result of differing reporting standards at schools or confusion over the new law. About 525 schools, including some private institutions, missed the August reporting deadline. There is no penalty for not reporting on time.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/10/27/massachusetts-schools-report-thousands-head-injuries-sports/DmQBFp2fvUHlym4pg4XMUL/story.html

Denver Post: Electricity ”smart grid” for Boulder turns sour and runs up costs

The Denver Post reports the idea of a "smart grid" — a computerized system to control energy from power plant to the kitchen dishwasher — was sweeping the utility industry in 2007, and Xcel Energy planned to launch the world's biggest project. The company's SmartGridCity would manage power flows, allow more wind and solar on the grid, and enable consumers to control electricity consumption. Xcel chose Boulder for the ambitious plan. Five years later, few of the promises are fulfilled. Costs nearly tripled to $44.5 million, and Xcel wants its Colorado customers to foot the bill. Xcel executives say the project provided valuable lessons in managing power. The Denver Post reviewed thousands of pages of company documents and transcripts of testimony filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and interviewed Xcel executives to piece together a picture of what happened with SmartGridCity. "We think it has had a lot of successes — granted, they are successes most of our customers do not see," said Karen Hyde, vice president for rates and regulatory affairs at Xcel subsidiary Public Service Co. of Colorado. Critics call SmartGridCity poorly planned, poorly managed and a failed experiment. "You didn't have to spend $44 million to learn what Xcel did," said Tim Schoechle, a Boulder-based smart-grid analyst.

Houston Chronicle: "Motor voters” missing on Texas rolls

The Houston Chronicle reports its analysis of new voter registration data kept by the Texas secretary of state shows unexplained dips in so-called "motor voter" registrations, and the rates of voters who successfully registered via drivers' license offices in Texas’ fast-growing Harris and Fort Bend counties consistently lagged behind state averages from 2008-2012. The Secretary of State's Office has emailed an alert to all county voter registrars warning of interruptions in its system to electronically transfer registrations it gets daily from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The alert came after individual "motor voters" complained about issues with their attempts to register at DPS offices in Tarrant and Harris counties.

"From time to time we become aware that some DPS voter registration electronic files don't make it all the way to the voter registrar's office," the advisory says. The alert instructs officials how to help motor voters to investigate or resolve registration problems – before Election Day.

Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 - the "Motor Voter Act" as it's commonly known – all states dramatically expanded sites for voter registration to include drivers' license offices. But the process wasn't fully automated in Texas until May 2010 and remains prone to human errors and technical problems.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Motor-voters-missing-on-rolls-3987151.php

Miami Herald: Village police probed over fortune seized from drug gangs

The Miami Herald reports Bal Harbour’s police force has gone after drug gangs operating far outside the village’s borders, confiscating millions — and alarming the feds. In just one month, the village’s police helped reel in $3 million — and by the end of the year, they took more dollars from drug dealers than any police force in Florida. While small police departments rarely venture beyond their borders, Bal Harbour’s force has become a massive cash generator, infiltrating drug organizations across the country with no connection to the coastal village. Armed with a team of snitches and undercover cops, the vice unit makes few arrests, but seizes a fortune in cash every year. Now, the special unit is under federal investigation for its handling of millions in seized dollars, including hundreds of thousands paid to snitches, questionable expenses and missing financial records. In a rare move, agents have frozen millions that Bal Harbour helped confiscate under a program that allows police to seize the riches of criminals — and keep a cut of the proceeds. For the past year, the village has been forced to turn over reams of records in a grueling audit that’s now under review by U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors. Bal Harbour Police Chief Thomas Hunker, who was subpoenaed in March says his unit has never broken the law.

New York Times: Retailers relying more on part-time workers

The New York Times reports that while there have always been part-time workers, especially at restaurants and retailers, employers today rely on them far more than before as they seek to cut costs and align staffing to customer traffic. This trend has frustrated millions of Americans who want to work full-time, reducing their pay and benefits. "Over the past two decades, many major retailers went from a quotient of 70 to 80 percent full-time to at least 70 percent part-time across the industry,” said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the Strategic Resource Group, a retail consulting firm. No one has collected detailed data on part-time workers at the nation’s major retailers. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that the retail and wholesale sector, with a total of 18.6 million jobs, has cut a million full-time jobs since 2006, while adding more than 500,000 part-time jobs. Many retailers now use sophisticated software that tracks the flow of customers, allowing managers to assign just enough employees to handle the anticipated demand. The widening use of part-timers has been a bane to many workers, pushing many into poverty and forcing some onto food stamps and Medicaid. And with work schedules that change week to week, workers can find it hard to arrange child care, attend college or hold a second job, according to interviews with more than 40 part-time workers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/business/a-part-time-life-as-hours-shrink-and-shift-for-american-workers.html?pagewanted=all

Montgomery Advertiser: Arizona think tank drafts two Alabama amendments

The Montgomery Advertiser reports an Arizona institute drafted the model language for two state constitutional amendments on Alabama’s November ballot. The Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank devoted to advancing the ideas of former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, wrote the language for Amendment 6, aimed at blocking the Affordable Care Act, and Amendment 7, which would attempt to stave off any federal attempts to make it easier for workers to unionize in the state. "The common denominator is the desire to prevent bad things from coming from Washington,” said Clint Bolick, an attorney and director of the Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation. "The states have more in common with each other than an ever-growing federal government. When it comes to fighting the excesses of the federal government, states often work together.” The drafting of legislation by outside groups isn’t unusual, and both Democrats and Republicans have passed model legislation drawn up by lobbyists or outside groups. The state’s immigration law drew heavily from Arizona’s immigration law, written by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20121028/NEWS02/310280020/Ariz-think-tank-drafts-wording-2-Ala-amendments

Orange County Register: Consumer protections generous to doctors, dentists

The Orange County Register reports its investigation has found that flaws in the state's consumer protection system may be encouraging California's licensing boards to cut generous deals with doctors, dentists and other professionals accused of harming residents. An analysis of enforcement proceedings found that three of the state's key health care boards frequently settle for discipline that falls short of their minimum recommendations in cases where patients have been killed or permanently injured. In serious cases, the Register found that the state's dental and osteopathic boards settled for penalties below its own recommendations about one out of three times. The Medical Board of California, which regulates medical doctors, accepted such settlements two out of three times, the Register found. From July 2008 to June 2011, doctors negotiated settlements with the Medical Board of California in 62 of 76 cases in which patients had been killed or permanently injured. More than half of those 76 cases – 63 percent – were settled for penalties below the board’s own minimum recommendations. The state’s dental and osteopathic medical board accepted such settlements in about one out of three cases where patients died or suffered permanent harm. State officials defend these settlements as reasonable, and note that the law doesn’t require boards and bureaus to follow their own recommendations. They say the state’s consumer protection system works. Independent experts, however, say the Register’s analysis points to systemic weaknesses:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/boards-375814-board-cases.html

Charlotte Observer: Growing police camera network stirs concerns

The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reports Charlotte police, having beefed up their camera network in advance of September’s Democratic National Convention, now have access to more than 500 surveillance cameras perched on traffic lights, mounted on buildings and focused on sensitive areas across the city. But what they don’t have is a rule book giving officers clear guidance on how best to use their expanding power to watch the city’s streets and residents. A team of police officers, technicians and lawyers is literally writing it now, even as department leaders make plans to move the cameras to new corridors and crime-plagued communities. Civil liberties advocates and civil rights activists worry the cameras will invade the privacy of law-abiding residents and raise the risk of racial profiling in high-crime areas. Police say they have no plans to profile people by race or invade their privacy. They say the cameras simply expand their reach.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/10/27/3626197/expanding-police-camera-network.html

Idaho Statesman: The shadow costs of doctor buyouts

The Idaho Statesman reported bigger bills for medical procedures, including X-rays and simple checkups, have surprised many Idaho patients whose doctors have joined hospital systems. As hospital systems grow by absorbing the providers and centers around them, patients often spend more in out-of-pocket costs and higher insurance premiums. Patients also have fewer choices, say some competitors of the two largest systems in the state, St. Luke’s Health System and Saint Alphonsus Health System. With about one in six Idahoans skipping visits to the doctor because of cost, the price of a visit or a test can mean everything to a person’s health. Hospital systems have been acquiring private practices around the nation, partly because federal health care reforms put pressure on independent physicians. Doctors worry about Medicare paying them less, having to set up electronic medical records systems, getting left behind as the health industry adapts to reforms, and other issues. The federal government is cracking down on acquisitions that may limit competition and raise prices. But it also is dangling financial rewards in front of systems so that they become robust, well-oiled health care delivery machines. "All of these changes are part of a grand experiment to bring down health care costs in the U.S., and in our local market,” said Bill Bodnar, a former Idaho hospital executive who now consults with systems around the country as president of Boise-based The Leader’s Board.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/10/28/2326084/the-shadow-costs-of-doctor-buyouts.html

Palm Beach Post: Lawyer behind voting restrictions engineered 2000 felons purge

The Palm Beach Post reported the Republican attorney who engineered the 2000 Florida felons list, which African American leaders said purged thousands of eligible blacks from voter rolls in the state and helped swing that election to the GOP, also wrote the first draft of Florida’s controversial House Bill 1355 that has restricted early voting and voter registration campaigns in 2012. Emmett "Bucky” Mitchell IV, former senior attorney for the Florida Division of Elections, now in private practice in Tallahassee and serving as general counsel for the Florida GOP, testified in April in a federal voting rights lawsuit that he wrote the first draft of 1355. The Palm Beach Post uncovered the deposition while researching the origins of the law. Dierdre Macnab, president of the Florida League of Women Voters, reacted angrily when learning from The Post of Mitchell’s involvement in writing 1355, which took effect in 2011. "I’d be deeply concerned to think that members of a political party who are not elected officials, nor staff to legislators, are drawing up voter-suppression laws in back rooms,” Macnab said. That 2011 law reduced the number of early voting days from 14 to eight in Florida and threatened independent organizations that register voters — such as the League of Women Voters — with large fines if they did not meet tight schedules for filing registration applications they collect. That latter part of the law was overturned by federal courts this year, but registration groups say that by then their ability to sign up new voters had been curtailed for several months of this year’s presidential election campaign season.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/architect-of-felon-voter-purge-behind-floridas-new/nSp9t/

Wichita Eagle: Fluoride: Public good vs. freedom of choice

The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle reports that as Wichitans decide whether to add the cavity-fighting chemical fluoride to their city’s drinking water, the two sides in the campaign for the Nov. 6 election are pounding away at each other with rhetorical clubs labeled "public good” and "freedom of choice.” On one side are almost all the city’s doctors and dentists, dismayed by what they see as needless suffering in the patients who come to them with preventable dental decay. They gathered more than 11,000 signatures on an initiative petition that forced the City Council, which had avoided taking a stand on fluoride, to put it to a public vote. They’ve been met with an equally passionate campaign by fluoride foes who see it as a dangerous forced medication. They see fluoridation as a case of government overstepping its bounds and taking over what they believe should be a matter of personal choice. Both sides accuse the other of trying to deceive the public to win the election. The anti-fluoride troops say the dentists and doctors are either ignoring or hiding the real risks of fluoridation to facilitate sales of fluoride, a by-product of the industrial process for making phosphate fertilizer. The pro-fluoride side says 60 years of track record, 3,000 studies and the experience of three-fourths of Americans has proven fluoridation is an effective and safe way to strengthen everybody’s teeth. And they say the anti-fluoride group is either misunderstanding or willfully distorting science.

http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/27/2547407/fluoride-fight-has-long-roots.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (10-25-2012)

AP: Abortion is legal in America but state laws make it difficult to obtain one

The Associated Press reports it's legal to get an abortion in America, but in many places it is hard and getting harder. Just this year, 17 states set new limits on abortion; 24 did last year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights nonprofit whose numbers are widely respected. In several states with the most restrictive laws, the number of abortions has fallen slightly, pleasing abortion opponents who say the laws are working. In South Dakota, which has just one abortion clinic, lawmakers want to extend the required waiting period from two days to three for women seeking to end a pregnancy. Next door in North Dakota, there's only one clinic. The same is true in Mississippi, where a new law threatens that lone clinic's existence. There are hurdles even in states like Illinois, where abortion laws are more lenient and clinics relatively plentiful. Patients arriving for abortions at a Granite City, Ill., clinic can expect to find their photographs on an anti-abortion activist's website. And before her abortion in June, a Chicago woman says her own gynecologist refused to offer any advice, fearing that just mentioning abortion could endanger her job at a Catholic hospital.

Akron Beacon Journal: Neighbors rocked by cluster of oil and gas wells

The Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal reports the neighborhood on the township line between Windham and Nelson is the epicenter, the hottest hot spot, in Ohio’s Utica shale formation — with 14 new wells planned, permitted or already under construction. Some are only a few hundred feet apart. Half of the wells would produce oil and gas; the other half would be used for injection of briny wastewater. "Who would want to live with 14 wells? I’m not confident that a leaking well would be detected and corrected right away,” said Natalie Baker, 46, whose home shakes at night from the drilling. "Fourteen wells in one place is a nightmare.” And apparently, unprecedented in Ohio. Jeff Daniels, a geology professor and director of the Subsurface Energy Resource Center at Ohio State University, said he was unaware of any place in Ohio where there is such a concentration of production and injection wells. From all indications, the Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management will approve the entire cluster of wells, despite environmentalists’ protests and increasing neighborhood tensions. "We’re alarmed by what’s being allowed … and we have serious concerns about putting all these wells in one place,” said Gwen Fischer, a Portage County resident and member of Concerned Citizens Ohio. "

Arizona Republic: Hedge funds and other investors buying up homes in region

The Arizona Republic reports its analysis of recent sales data shows buying sprees by billion-dollar hedge funds and real-estate investment firms have investors owning nearly 20 percent, or one out of every five, of the region’s single-family houses and condominiums. That’s double the number of rentals considered normal in metro Phoenix in 2000, according to housing-market analysts. Although it is too soon to gauge the impact of such a large increase in rental properties, the jump in investor-owned properties has the potential to change the character of neighborhoods, influence the options available to other homebuyers and ultimately alter the trajectory of the region’s housing recovery. Since 2009, deep-pocketed buyers have snapped up tens of thousands of houses in all-cash deals, helping to stanch the bleeding in metro Phoenix’s real-estate market. Their purchases have driven up the region’s median home price 40 percent in the past year and significantly cut the supply of houses for sale. While real-estate analysts laud investors for buying when others wouldn’t, analysts also express concern about the potential impact of so many buying in such a short time.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Backer of governor gets a financial boost

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that land connected to Gov. Nathan Deal’s campaign chairman has increased in value substantially because of planned taxpayer-funded improvements as well as the decision by a commission headed by the governor to buy property on the site, state and local records show. The decision by the State Properties Commission to place the $13.6 million State Poultry Laboratory at the planned Gateway Industrial Centre near Gainesville, Deal’s hometown, could provide the linchpin tenant needed for such a development to succeed. Deal chairs the properties commission, and his campaign chairman, Philip Wilheit, is a partner in the 518-acre industrial park land. In addition to the state’s buying 10 acres of the site for $690,000, Hall County officials have agreed to front about $10 million in local taxpayer funds to improve the property. Both Wilheit and Deal say they did nothing wrong and believe the state got a good place for its lab at a good price. The minutes of the State Properties Commission meeting on Aug. 24 show that Deal presided over the session in which the commission approved the purchase of the poultry lab property. But as chairman he does not typically cast a vote on commission business and did not vote on this purchase, the commission said.

Available online to subscribers only at ajc.com

Chicago Tribune: State employees paid to stay home

A Chicago Tribune investigation finds the state of Illinois regularly pays employees not to work, even as it faces gaping budget gaps and service cutbacks. Between 2007 and September of this year, the 2,033 employees put on paid leave have cost the state $23 million, according to a Tribune analysis of state data. Paid administrative leave prevents an employee from going to work — typically, during an investigation into alleged wrongdoing — and is considered a serious sanction. But there is wide leeway for supervisors to impose such an action. In one instance, the paper found, a mental health technician was put on leave for allegedly driving her cartoo fast in her agency's parking lot. The state declined to provide specific reasons that these employees were placed on leave or details on their cases. But, using confidential documents and interviews, the Tribune learned that the process can be slowed by communication problems, staff shortages and lengthy investigations.

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Companies got cash but bosses back stimulus critics

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports numerous Ohio companies received federal stimulus money and then donated to politicians who opposed the stimulus. From a Cincinnati garbage hauler to some of Ohio's more prominent manufacturers, company executives lined up to get taxpayer money from the stimulus. Then they joined or rejoined the chorus of fiscal restraint, supporting candidates running on that platform including, in the case of some donors, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The stimulus is hated by Republicans in Congress, running for Congress and running for the White House, including nearly all GOP officeholders in Ohio. They say it is wasteful, and that it put the government in the improper role of picking winners and losers in what should be a free-market economy. Yet three years after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus, passed along partisan lines, many of these business beneficiaries are back solidly in the camp of fiscal conservatism, putting their own money into campaigns to oust or keep out the very Democrats who made the stimulus possible, a Plain Dealer examination has found.

Los Angeles Times: Boundaries hold up Los Angeles 911 responses

The Los Angeles Times reported Los Angeles residents are often kept waiting for city rescue crews when nearby L.A. County crews could have responded faster. A 30-year-old plan to link dispatch systems hasn't been implemented. Los Angeles' city and county fire agencies agreed in 1979 to link their dispatching operations to save lives and cut costs. But a Times analysis of more than 1 million LAFD responses over the last five years shows the agency rarely reaches across jurisdictional lines for county help. One result: 911 callers within a quarter mile of the city border are nearly 50% more likely to wait more than 10 minutes for rescue crews to arrive. According to national standards embraced by the LAFD, firefighters are supposed to arrive in under six minutes to almost all medical emergencies. In more than 70,000 medical calls, LAFD sent rescuers to locations where county firehouses were closer, the analysis found. More than 1,300 of those cases were cardiac arrests, where delays of seconds can be critical because irreversible brain damage can begin just four minutes after the heart stops beating.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Risky investments put funeral trust under water

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports records it has obtained show investments managed by the Wisconsin Funeral Trust – marketed to consumers as a safe place to invest cash earmarked to cover their funeral expenses – have had a shortfall of millions of dollars every year since 2008, one year after the fund's investment advisers called for putting money into the stock market and other riskier investments. The state last month persuaded a Dane County judge to place the Funeral Trust and the Wisconsin Funeral Directors Association into receivership, comparing the fund to a Ponzi scheme with a financial shortfall of more than $21.5 million. The newspaper has since determined that the fund has been underwater for at least six years. The 2007 call for a more aggressive investment strategy for the fund was made two weeks after an attorney for the Funeral Directors Association told the trade group it did not have to restrict investments to a small number of conservative options, according to financial records, memos and other documents provided to the newspaper by sources and in response to open records requests.

In fact, records show that the fund had been involved in risky investments, such as hedge funds and futures, well before the legal opinion was written in April 2007.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/funeral-trust-was-underwater-for-years-records-show-sn76sh2-175101711.html

Orlando Sentinel: Blood bank salary raises get scrutiny as revenue falls

The Orlando Sentinel reports OneBlood Inc. was born in part out of the excesses of its predecessor, Florida's Blood Centers, based in Orlando, which underwent a dramatic overhaul two years ago after stories in the Orlando Sentinel revealed large executive salaries and bonuses and that board members had long been doing business with the agency. But nine months into its existence, the new operation called OneBlood has yet to offer statewide price reductions for the blood it collects from donors for free. Salaries at the massive blood bank have grown by more than $4 million — and they could go up 35 percent or more for top executives because of new pay and bonus plans. At the same time, operating revenues have dropped by $7 million, driven by reduced consumption by hospitals and a glut of blood products nationwide that is depressing prices. Donations overall are flat. Among the largest nonprofits in America, OneBlood has 2,700 employees and brings in more than $360 million annually. It is the main supplier of blood to hospitals from Key Westto the Panhandle. The hospitals use various blood products to treat accident and cancervictims or for other illnesses, with the cost paid by insurance companies or out of the patients' pockets.

Buffalo News: Health insurance for retired public employees costly business

The Buffalo (N.Y.) News reports that while the national debate over expanding health care continues, the local debate is just as often over the large number of retired public employees getting government-sponsored health care for life. In some instances, governments have more retirees than current workers collecting free or discounted health insurance. Others have fewer retirees, but the bill for their retiree insurance nonetheless exceeds that of their current workforce. Some argue that retiree health care encourages higher-paid employees to retire earlier than they otherwise would, lowering the payroll burden on local governments. Others say it’s a good model that ensures people who devoted much of their lives to a job have adequate health care in retirement. But others cite skyrocketing costs that are crushing local governments and school districts. Elected officials represent a fraction of the government-funded insurance costs. Most of the money goes for the health policies of thousands of unionized government employees who served the public as teachers, police, firefighters and other civil servants.

Charlotte Observer: Hospitals suing fewer patients after newspaper investigation

The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reports new data shows the nonprofit system that owns Carolinas Medical Center and more than 30 other hospitals is suing significantly fewer patients than it did last year. The average number of lawsuits filed per month by Carolinas HealthCare System has dropped by more than 20 percent since last year, and more than 30 percent since 2010, according to state courts data. The change comes months after an investigation by the Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh, which showed that N.C. hospitals are suing thousands of patients to collect on bills. An in-depth look at some of the cases suggest most of those patients were uninsured and that a significant number of them should have qualified for free hospital care. The NAACP and other groups representing low-income families have called for an end to the controversial practice of suing patients, saying it puts additional hardship on some of the state’s most vulnerable people. When hospitals win such lawsuits, they often put liens on the homes of former patients – a practice that can make it difficult for those people to sell or refinance their houses. Carolinas HealthCare said it hasn’t changed its bill-collection policies. But it said the decline in legal actions might be the result of "more patients actively reaching out to us to address billing obligations rather than waiting until a legal action is filed.”

Commercial Appeal: Memphis officers beat DUI charges

The Commercial Appeal reports that when Memphis, Tenn., police arrested two of their own suspected of driving under the influence after crashes earlier this year, both off-duty officers refused tests for their blood-alcohol content. Not following the law may have paid off for officers Joma Harris, 43, and Roger Williams, 32. Prosecutors later dismissed misdemeanor charges of DUI, (failure to follow) duty upon striking a highway fixture, leaving the scene of an accident and violation of vehicle registration law against Harris. A DUI charge against Williams also was dropped. Both men pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor of reckless driving and received diversion, which will allow that charge to be erased after a year without further trouble. And both pleaded guilty to refusal to submit to an alcohol test, which is not a criminal offense but a civil one that carries a suspended driver's license as a penalty. While police and city officials stress that Memphis officers should be held to a higher standard than average citizens, a closer look at three officers' collisions with DUI charges this year seems to provide a road map for escaping the full consequences of the law.

Modesto Bee: School building costs can be startling

The Modesto (Calif.) Bee reports bond promoters typically skip the financial specifics when pitching the benefits of fixing up and building schools because of sticker shock. The actual repayment cost of school bonds can be staggering, and the debt can linger for generations. The Escalon Unified School District, for example, wants voters to approve a $19.5 million bond — Measure B on the Nov. 6 ballot. That loan would end up costing Escalon's property owners nearly $72.8 million, and they would be paying extra taxes for that debt for 42 years. The Ripon Unified School District wants voters to approve $25.2 million in bonds — Measure G on next month's ballot. It ultimately would cost Ripon landowners more than $70.8 million to repay, and that debt would last 36 years. How much the Sonora Union High School District's proposed $23 million Measure J bond actually would cost is a mystery. The Bee was not able to get that financial data from Sonora's superintendent or its bond adviser. The sketchy financial figures Sonora has made public don't add up, at least not unless Tuolumne County's property values rise substantially every year for the next several decades.

Washington Post: Record spending in Maryland on casino question

The Washington Post reported dueling out-of-state gambling companies and their allies have poured $56 million into the fight over whether to allow a Las Vegas-style casino in Maryland’s Prince George’s County, fueling an unprecedented advertising blitz in what has become one of the most visible races in the region. The money, which is being shelled out at a rate of $6 million a week, exceeds what the candidates spent in Maryland’s past two gubernatorial races combined. With two weeks to go, the spending has already eclipsed that of all but a handful of other recent ballot measures across the country. And it is unlike anything previously seen in Maryland politics. The fight over Question 7, as it will appear on Maryland’s Nov. 6 ballot, has included celebrity endorsers, including illusionist David Copperfield and "Golden Boy” fighter Oscar De La Hoya, who said in a recent robo-call that the proposed casino would be a "destination resort” that will create "thousands of jobs for hard-working people.” Those claims, funded in large part by the $21 million MGM Resorts has ponied up so far, have been met head-on with a nearly $30 million campaign by Penn National Gaming aimed at convincing voters that the promised jobs and money for education won’t materialize.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/maryland-gambling-issue-has-netted-56-million-from-companies-for-ad-blitz/2012/10/20/4e20eda0-1a3c-11e2-aa6f-3b636fecb829_story.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (10-18-2012)

AP: Partners at pharmacy linked to contaminated steroid under scrutiny

The Associated Press reported the pharmacy linked to the nation's deadly outbreak of meningitis is owned by two brothers-in-law who brought different but complementary skills to the venture: One's a pharmacist, the other a risk-taking businessman who made his mark recycling old computers, fishing rope and mattresses. Now the New England Compounding Center and its practices are under scrutiny as investigators try to determine how a steroid solution supplied by the pharmacy apparently became contaminated with a fungus. The drug has sickened more than 180 people in 12 states, killing 14. Most of the patients had received spinal injections of the steroid for back pain. NECC was founded in 1998 by Barry Cadden and Gregory Conigliaro as a compounding pharmacy, a laboratory that custom-mixes solution, creams and other medicines in dosages and forms that often are unavailable from pharmaceutical companies. Cadden, who is married to Conigliaro's sister, Lisa, had the medical know-how behind NECC, earning a pharmacy degree from the University of Rhode Island. In a 2002 newsletter, he wrote that compounding had rebounded, after falling off when pharmaceutical companies began manufacturing drugs in the 1950s and '60s, and could help patients with painful conditions that demand "novel approaches."

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765611345/Mass-pharmacy-founder-had-background-in-recycling.html

AP: Men buying sex now likely to end up identified on Internet or in newspaper

The Associated Press reported men who buy sex these days are now likely to end up with their faces splashed across the Internet or the morning newspaper. A Maine tourist town shaken up by authorities' promises to reveal the identities of dozens of clients of a fitness instructor accused of prostitution is just the latest place to enlist public shaming as a preventive measure.

Fresno, Calif., sponsors a website called "Operation Reveal" that features mug shots of suspected johns, while Oklahoma City has the vigilante-style "JohnTV." In Arlington, Texas, a highway billboard declares "This could be you" under the picture of four suspects. In Maine, the small-town scandal has literally put Kennebunk on the map — it's now part of a database tracking more than 870 municipalities that have launched initiatives targeting men who hire prostitutes. Interviews and surveys of officers at 200 police departments nationwide since 2008 found most consider targeting customers the best way to curb prostitution, because they fear publicity about the charges more than fines or even jail time. It continues a long-developing trend away from prosecuting the "supply" side — the prostitutes themselves — and targeting the demand.

http://www.officer.com/news/10814187/johns-to-be-revealed-maine-prostitution-case

New York Times: Personal data mined by campaigns to get out the vote

The New York Times reported strategists affiliated with the Obama and Romney campaigns say they have access to information about the personal lives of voters at a scale never before imagined. And they are using that data to try to influence voting habits — in effect, to train voters to go to the polls through subtle cues, rewards and threats in a manner akin to the marketing efforts of credit card companies and big-box retailers. In the weeks before Election Day, millions of voters will hear from callers with surprisingly detailed knowledge of their lives. These callers — friends of friends or long-lost work colleagues — will identify themselves as volunteers for the campaigns or independent political groups. The callers will be guided by scripts and call lists compiled by people — or computers — with access to details like whether voters may have visited pornography Web sites, have homes in foreclosure, are more prone to drink Michelob Ultra than Corona or have gay friends or enjoy expensive vacations. Even as campaigns embrace this ability to know so much more about voters, they recognize the risks associated with intruding into the lives of people who have long expected that the privacy of the voting booth extends to their homes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/us/politics/campaigns-mine-personal-lives-to-get-out-vote.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Arizona Republic: Investigation finds criminal misconduct by National Guard

The Arizona Republic reported a five-month investigation of Arizona National Guard conduct and culture has uncovered a systemic patchwork of criminal and ethical misconduct that critics say continues to fester in part because of leadership failures and lax discipline. According to interviews with military officers and records obtained by The Republic, Arizona Army National Guard members over the past decade engaged in misbehavior that included sexual abuse, enlistment improprieties, forgery, firearms violations, embezzlement and assaults. The wrongdoing, most of which has not been previously disclosed, was concentrated among military recruiters who often visit high schools in search of teenage recruits. National Guard investigators found that non-commissioned officers, known as NCOs, engaged in sexual misconduct, collected recruiting fees to which they were not entitled, forged Guard documents, and committed other offenses such as hunting the homeless with paintball guns. Investigators asserted that National Guard commanders failed to hold subordinates accountable, in part because many supervisors also engaged in unethical behavior. Many high-ranking officers contend an atmosphere of disdain for discipline persists.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/10/13/20121013national-guard-republic-special-report.html

Boston Globe: Housing chiefs, barely supervised, stray badly

A Boston Globe investigation finds housing directors face remarkably little accountability for their work managing housing for more than 300,000 elderly and low-income people in Massachusetts. Though the federal and state governments pump $1.2 billion a year into local housing budgets, oversight comes from local boards mainly chosen by mayors or in little-noticed elections. All too often, no one is sharply focused on how money — or time — is spent. In the worst cases, tenants pay the price for inattentive or indifferent management, enduring leaky roofs, bad heating, rodent infestation, and other hardships. "Housing authorities are off the books, as far as state and local scrutiny is concerned,” said Barbara Sard, a former senior policy adviser to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development now with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington. A scandal in Chelsea, where former housing director Michael E. McLaughlin is suspected of diverting millions from renovation funds to pay for his lavish salary and other perks, may be the most serious breach of trust in public housing since 2004, when Springfield housing director Raymond Asselin and four members of his family went to prison for running a $1 million system of bribes and kickbacks.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/10/13/from-chelsea-springfield-massachusetts-public-housing-chiefs-face-little-accountability/vnPrMpJxSdZbMEsK03aZWL/story.html

Chicago Tribune: City’s red-light camera vendor under scrutiny

The Chicago Tribune reported an Arizona firm, prompted by a Tribune investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in Chicago's red-light camera program, has disclosed it paid a $910 luxury hotel tab for the city official in charge of its contract and failed to tell City Hall about the ethics breach for two years. Lawyers for Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. said the firm disciplined the executive vice president involved and sent him to "anti-bribery" training after the incident, but did not report the violation to the Chicago Board of Ethics until this month, after the newspaper's inquiries. The company also acknowledged to the newspaper it did not disclose internal allegations about ties between the city official and a Redflex contractor who received more than $570,000 in commissions — $1,500 for each of the 384 cameras the company installed in Chicago. The company said an exhaustive probe by an outside law firm found no evidence of an inappropriate relationship, although neither man was questioned in the probe. Both men told the newspaper they've done nothing improper. The disclosures add to a growing list of questions about Redflex, including its relationship with John Bills, the man at City Hall who oversaw the company's biggest U.S. contract from its beginning in 2003. The Tribune previously disclosed that after retiring from the city last year, Bills went to work as a consultant for the Redflex-funded Traffic Safety Coalition.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-14/news/ct-met-chicago-red-light-cameras-1014-20121014_1_camera-program-red-light-camera-redflex-traffic-systems

Dallas Morning News: Cases of improper teacher-student relationships climbs

The Dallas Morning News reports Dallas Independent School District educators say they were simply mentoring students, helping them get into college and navigate life’s hurdles. One bought a student clothes and paid his cellphone bill. Another socialized with students and treated some to dinner. And yet another teacher had students over to his home, took professional portraits with one and posted photos online of himself hugging another. To school district investigators, they crossed a line and had inappropriate relationships with students — an accusation that is becoming more common in Texas school districts and is changing how teachers interact with kids. The cases are having a chilling effect on some teachers, who strive to mentor without appearing too involved. They avoid being alone with kids or communicating with them in the evening. They fear an innocent text or online message could be misinterpreted. Statewide, 156 cases of educators accused of having inappropriate relationships with students or minors were opened by the Texas Education Agency last fiscal year. That number has increased steadily from 86 in 2007-08, according to the agency. The numbers are derived from the most egregious cases, which school districts are required to report to the agency. The offense does not mean sexual contact or something criminal occurred. But it’s sometimes seen by child abuse experts as grooming a student for an eventual sexual relationship or, at the least, crossing ethical boundaries.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20121013-more-texas-teachers-accused-of-crossing-the-line-with-students.ece

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Who should pay for the Erie Canal?

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that as the state Thruway Authority ponders a steep toll hike on commercial trucks traveling by land, lawmakers and business lobbyists say it’s time for motorists to stop footing the bill for those traveling by water. New York’s historic canal system — featuring the Erie Canal, the world-renowned waterway — has again become a punching bag for critics of a potential rate increase. The Thruway, they say, shouldn’t be spending millions of dollars each year to subsidize the state Canal Corp. at a time when the authority is struggling to pay its bills. According to a consultant’s report, the Thruway Authority spends an average of $80 to $90 million each year on operating and construction costs for the 524-mile canal system, a once-vital method of transportation that now largely caters to recreational trips. A proposed 45 percent toll increase on large trucks is estimated to bring in the same amount — about $85 million annually. That far outpaces the $2 million in annual revenue brought in by the state’s four canals, which connect the Hudson River to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/CB/20121012/NEWS01/310120087/Tollpayers-taking-ride-Erie-Canal

San Jose Mercury News: Last state paychecks get even fatter

The San Jose Mercury News reports its analysis of the last three years of government salary data shows state employees are continuing to store up massive banks of vacation, instead of heading to Big Sur or hitting the slopes at Lake Tahoe. They're cashing in by retiring with whopping final paychecks worth, in some cases, more than $500,000 in unused time off.

From 2009 through 2011, cash-strapped California paid more than $800 million for days off state workers never used -- a problem that has grown by tens of millions of dollars in the four years since this newspaper first investigated the costly practice. It's an accounting liability that private companies work aggressively to avoid, but one that continues to pile up in Sacramento. And, ironically, the problem grew even worse in recent years when the state tried to save cash by forcing workers to take unpaid furlough days as an emergency budget fix. As a result, banks of unused vacation grew even larger. "Is the system broken? Obviously the system's broken," said Tim Malan, a supervising dentist at Avenal State Prison, who retired in 2009 with 247 days off still on the books, sweetening his final paycheck by an extra $317,000. Like Malan, more than 4,000 people retired from the state over the past three years with an extra $50,000 or more for unused vacation and comp time, the newspaper's analysis of pay data from 153 state departments shows. That's almost four employees cashing out at least that much money every day. An additional 16,302 state workers retired during the three-year period with payments from $10,000 to $50,000

http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_21767772?source=rss

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Driver has dodged prison for decades

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Ricky Weeden’s car plowed into another vehicle in 1983, killing two people and injuring a third, in what was the start of a trend. For the next three decades, Weeden drove recklessly. He was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving 11 times. But police, prosecutors and judges never kept him off the road for very long. Now authorities say he has killed a child. Authorities said Weeden kept driving after hitting two brothers as they crossed St. Charles Rock Road in Pagedale on Oct. 5. Traye-shon Williams, 4, died at the scene. Jay’Shard Conner, 10, was later released from St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Weeden, charged with murder and assault, is being held at the St. Louis County Jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bail. The record says the state revoked Weeden Sr.’s drivers license in 1993, but Weeden kept driving, without insurance, speeding, running stop lights, swerving out of his lane, throwing beer cans out of his car window, giving police chase. He was arrested by 21 police departments in St. Louis County, sometimes berating and threatening officers. His ex-wife said he was pepper sprayed so many times, he was losing his vision. In the last 30 years, he has been arrested about 150 times, almost always while driving in north St. Louis County. Six of his 11 DWI arrests resulted in convictions: four times on misdemeanors and two on felonies. He has served fewer than two years total in prison on the DWI charges. (He also has served time in prison on gun charges.)

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/arrests-dwis-and-now-dead--year-old/article_33623393-92e4-5976-8ab2-96d43e77aec0.html

Buffalo News: DWI ignition interlock law widely eluded

The Buffalo News reports that two years after New York mandated that anyone convicted of driving while intoxicated place an ignition interlock on their car, just three of every 10 people ordered to install one actually do so. Some 23,000 people around the state, including 1,300 in Erie County and more than 200 in Niagara, have not installed the device despite a court order, according to state figures. Convicted drivers are choosing to take their cars off the road, rather than pay the hundreds of dollars that an interlock costs for installation and monthly fees. By taking the car off the road, or transferring ownership to someone else, they also avoid the cost of maintaining a vehicle they might use rarely or not at all – depending on the status of their driver’s license. Thousands of drivers figure they will go without a car for six months – the typical duration for a court-ordered interlock. Or they will go without a car for even a year – the typical duration for the court-ordered restriction on their driver’s license. Afterward, those drivers will apply again for a license without an interlock order. To an extent, the law has served its purpose. Convicted drivers who do not install an interlock because they do not have a car are, in theory, off the road for six months to a year. Yet some of those same DWI convicts have been caught driving the interlock-free vehicle of an acquaintance. During 2011 and the first nine months of this year, 53 drivers in Erie County have been charged with driving without an interlock, a misdemeanor that can bring up to a year in jail. It’s happening all over the state.

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121013/CITYANDREGION/121019577/1010

Cincinnati Enquirer: The insidious rise of rudeness

The Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer reports incivility no longer is just about being annoyed over petulant politicians, road rage, violent behavior at sporting events, intrusive cellphone usage, online abuses or TV shows that move the taste meter ever lower. In a new Enquirer Poll, more than one in seven Greater Cincinnatians say they had experiences so bad over the past year that they actually ended a friendship. Nearly 40 percent have encountered incivility in their day-to-day lives, and about one in five has experienced uncivil conduct in the workplace. More than a quarter admit to having been uncivil themselves, either deliberately or unintentionally. Stark as those statistics are, several other poll findings are even more troubling. Two-thirds say they consider incivility to be "actually dangerous for our country.” And people believe things are getting worse, evidenced by more than half of those surveyed saying they believe incivility has increased over the past four years. The major causes, many believe, are the media, politicians and government. Just more than half (50.4 percent) blame the media – which encompasses everything from traditional news organizations to decidedly low-brow offerings like "Jersey Shore” – while slightly less than half (46 percent) point to politics and government.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121014/NEWS0106/310140037/Rude-rise?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Commercial Appeal: The rich reap savings from tax break intended for farmers

The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reports Phil Bredesen, Tennessee's former two-term governor, thought to be worth at least $100 million, lives in a rambling 12,000-square-foot home along Chickering Road, a narrow, winding country lane lined with elegant homes, tennis courts and swimming pools amid Nashville's real titans. Captains of industry, Powerhouse lawyers. Old money.

This is hardly farm country. But Bredesen and several neighbors are cashing in on a state law intended to protect farms, forests and open space from encroaching development. Because the former governor cuts hay on a portion of his $13-million, 89-acre estate, and grosses at least $1,500 a year in farm income, he saves $62,000 a year in local property taxes. Tennessee's so-called 'Greenbelt Law' was designed to prevent family farmers from being taxed off their land but The Commercial Appeal and its sister publication, the Knoxville New-Sentinel, found it's become a tax haven for many of the state's wealthiest residents. The newspapers found the law is so full of loopholes and so erratically enforced it's benefiting an array of Tennesseans unimagined when it passed in 1976: real estate developers who reap tax cuts by declaring future subdivisions as timber preserves; corporations that trim expansion costs by operating nominal farms; and wealthy hobby farmers who escape much of their property taxes by bailing hay on a corner of their estates or by running a few horses across their land. Those findings are revealed in a three-part series. Statewide, the farm discounts are costing local governments $191 million; Shelby County sits near the top of the list with $11.98 million in revenue lost each year.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/oct/14/cash-crop-tax-breaks-sprout-for-tennessee/

Palm Beach Post: CDC asked Florida to tell public about TB outbreak

The Palm Beach Post reports Florida’s TB outbreak, dubbed the worst in the nation in 20 years, flourished as state and federal health officials placed political concerns and protocols ahead of informing the general public, documents and interviews show. More than 4,000 emails among staff at the Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, show how a disease outbreak became secondary as Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s staff advanced his political priorities to downsize and privatize much of the department. The emails, which span 2009 to mid-2012, portray CDC staff as consistently deferential to the state, even as their concerns about Florida’s handling of a deadly TB outbreak grew. A key worry: A disease cluster, once confined to the homeless, apparently had affected two Jacksonville teens in 2011, an indication it might be reaching new communities. Also concerning to CDC epidemiologists, Florida appeared to have no plans to inform the public. In fact, months after the CDC recommended wording to warn the public, the outbreak remained undisclosed. The documents also reveal that Duval County health officials only selectively had followed the CDC’s advice after its first investigation of tuberculosis in 2008 and 2009, in part because public health spending had been cut aggressively by state legislators.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional/tb-surge-cdc-asked-state-to-tell-public/nSckf/

Newark Star Ledger: New Jersey tuition increases outpace inflation.

The Newark Star Ledger reports a survey shows students at New Jersey's four-year colleges and universities will have to dig a little deeper to pay their bills this fall as tuition and fees continue to climb faster than the rate of inflation on most campuses. Undergraduates will pay between 0.2 percent and 6.1 percent more during the 2012-2013 school year, according to the review of rates at two dozen public and private colleges and universities. Tuition and mandatory fees for in-state students at the state’s public colleges will range from $10,422 at New Jersey City University to $14,740 at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. At the state’s private colleges, tuition and fees range from $25,050 at Bloomfield College to $43,196 at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. Once room, board and books are added to the tuition bill, most students will pay thousands more.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/college_tuition_rising_in_nj_o.html

Tulsa World: Cost of governor’s trips raising some eyebrows

The Tulsa (Okla.) World reported Gov. Mary Fallin has been doing much travelling -- to energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens' Texas ranch to relax, to Arizona for college football bowl games and Ireland for her daughter's wedding. She flew to England to tout the state's aerospace industry, Detroit to lobby for compressed natural gas vehicles and Williamsburg, Va., where she was named the vice-chair of the National Governors Association. Since taking office 21 months ago, Gov. Mary Fallin has spent more than $273,000 on travel paid for by taxpayers, an analysis by The Oklahoman has found. During that time, Fallin logged 56 trips, more than half of which were unrelated to state business. Gov. Fallin's travel is drawing criticism from some who say it undermines her call for austerity in state government. Other critics say she needs to spend more time in Oklahoma tending to state business. When Gov. Mary Fallin travels by air, it's often aboard a multimillion-dollar state aircraft named Spirit of Oklahoma. Earlier this year, the interior of the 1990 Beechcraft King Air 350 underwent an $82,000 refurbishment that included new leather seat covers, lighting, wall and ceiling panels, carpet and veneer woodwork. Mechanics rebuilt the twin engines at a cost of about $1.2 million. It's the plane's first overhaul since shortly before the state bought the aircraft in 1997.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=20121014_16_A1_CUTLIN389931&PrintComments=1

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (10-11-2012)

Washington Post: U.S. nuclear arsenal set for costly overhaul

The Washington Post reports the U.S. nuclear arsenal is set to undergo the costliest overhaul in its history, even as the military faces spending cuts to its conventional arms programs at a time of fiscal crisis. For two decades, U.S. administrations have confronted the decrepit, neglected state of the aging nuclear weapons complex. Yet officials have repeatedly put off sinking huge sums into projects that receive little public recognition, driving up the costs even further.

Now, as the nation struggles to emerge from the worst recession of the postwar era and Congress faces an end-of-year deadline to avoid $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts to the federal budget over 10 years, the Obama administration is overseeing the gargantuan task of modernizing the nuclear arsenal to keep it safe and reliable.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-nuclear-arsenal-is-ready-for-overhaul/2012/09/15/428237de-f830-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_story.html

Austin American-Statesman: Trauma fees can stun some ER patients

The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported that when Mark Mitchell of Austin crashed his new bike in January and fainted, a bystander called 911 and paramedics with Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services encouraged Mitchell to go to the hospital. Fainting could indicate a brain injury; his left elbow also was bleeding. Mitchell agreed. Now, he’s sorry he did. The bill was more than $20,000 for the two-hour, 17-minute emergency room visit. It included a $14,248 "trauma activation fee,” which Mitchell called "totally outrageous considering the minimal medical (care) provided.” Since 2002, federal law has allowed trauma centers to bill the most seriously injured patients a fee — often above and beyond an ER fee — for activating on short notice trauma personnel, such as a surgeon and anesthesiologist. Central Texas hospitals impose some of the highest trauma fees in the state and those at Seton-run hospitals, including UMC Brackenridge, have risen sharply in recent years. Treating those with traumatic injuries is expensive — $67.3 billion a year, according to the Trauma Center Association of America, a hospital industry group. Paramedics didn’t categorize Mitchell as a trauma patient, but the ER physician determined his injuries were serious enough to consider him one, making him one of 35 million Americans treated annually for traumatic injuries.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/sky-high-trauma-fees-stun-some-er-patients/nSWTw/

Dallas Morning News: Crime fell as shoplifting reporting policy changed

The Dallas Morning News reports Dallas police are enthusiastically touting a 12 percent drop in overall crime this year, but the newspaper says it has found that nearly a third of that reduction is because of a new policy that makes it harder for store owners to report shoplifting cases under $50. Police Chief David Brown last week disputed that finding, saying the low numbers of reported retail thefts are the result of good police work, not the change in reporting policy. He said his department’s new crackdown on "fences” — people who buy and sell stolen goods — drove shoplifting lower. He said the new focus also has led to this year’s double-digit drops in burglaries and other types of theft. These reductions have caused the drop in the overall crime rate, which consists mostly of property crimes. The News looked specifically at shoplifting, and in those cases found otherwise. Among the findings: The drop in shoplifting cases occurred on the same day the new reporting policy took effect; the decrease occurred before the new focus on fencing operations was substantially under way; many small store managers say the new policy makes it unlikely they will report petty shoplifting cases; and more serious shoplifting offenses have dropped only slightly.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/headlines/20121006-changes-to-police-shoplifting-policy-spur-drop-in-crime-stats.ece

South Florida Sun Sentinel: County jails: Hotels for the homeless?

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported homeless people are sitting in Broward County’s jails for days and weeks for crimes like urinating in public, and taxpayers are picking up the check. At $118 a day, a hotel might be cheaper. A Sun Sentinel analysis of jail bookings from 2009 to June of this year found the homeless take up jail space routinely, making up about 5 percent of the jail bookings. Many remain behind bars because they can't afford the low bonds for minor crimes that allow most other arrested people to go home. About 800 people a year sit in Broward's jail for five days or more because they can't pay a bond of $100 or less, the Sun Sentinel found. Homeless people are racking up rap sheets "the size of paperback novels,'' complained County Commissioner Barbara Sharief, who's been pressing Broward Sheriff's Office to do something about it. With a jail system filling to the brim — the population was at about 93 percent of capacity Friday — Broward could be faced with relaxing its criteria for releasing suspects from jail. Or the county could be hit with court fines for overcrowding. Or it could spend millions to reopen a vacant jail.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-10-07/news/fl-homeless-in-jail-20121007_1_broward-jail-vacant-jail-jail-bookings

New York Times: Maker of deadly steroid had little oversight

The New York Times reported health officials believe the death of one of the first victims in a growing national outbreak of meningitis was caused by the very medicine that was supposed to help him, because it was contaminated with a fungus. The newspaper reported the rising toll — 7 dead, 57 ill and thousands potentially exposed — has cast a harsh light on the loose regulations that legal experts say allowed a company to sell 17,676 vials of an unsafe drug to pain clinics in 23 states. Federal health officials say that all patients injected with the steroid drug made by that company, the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., which has a troubled history, needed to be tracked down immediately and informed of the danger. How do such things happen? The answer, at least in part, is that some doctors and clinics have turned away from major drug manufacturers and have taken their business to so-called compounding pharmacies, like New England Compounding, which mix up batches of drugs on their own, often for much lower prices than major manufacturers charge — and with little of the federal oversight of drug safety and quality that is routine for the big companies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/scant-drug-maker-oversight-in-meningitis-outbreak.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Houston Chronicle: School district pays millions for unused time off

The Houston Chronicle reported the Houston Independent School District has paid millions of dollars to departing teachers and administrators in recent years thanks to generous rules that allow employees to cash in their unused time off. Employees who have left HISD since 2008 racked up $24 million worth of extra vacation, sick and personal days, with hundreds eligible for five-figure checks as the district struggled to balance its budget amid state funding cuts, a Houston Chronicle analysis found. A sweetened deal has enabled Superintendent Terry Grier to be paid for his unused days while still on the job, raising his income by $145,523 so far. HISD officials defend the payouts as attendance incentives that compensate for otherwise poor benefits, but its policies are more costly than those of several other large Texas districts. On the high end, a longtime central office administrator who retired two years ago received more than $181,000 for 314 accrued days.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/HISD-employees-cash-in-millions-for-unused-time-3925439.php

Los Angeles Times: Recycling fraud costing California millions

The Los Angeles Times reported that just over 8.5 billion recyclable cans were sold in California last year. The number redeemed for a nickel under California's recycling law: 8.3 billion. That's a return rate of nearly 100 percent. That kind of success isn't just impressive, it's unbelievable. But the recycling rate for certain plastic containers was even higher: 104 percent. California's generous recycling redemption program has led to rampant fraud. Crafty entrepreneurs are driving semi-trailers full of cans from Nevada or Arizona, which don't have deposit laws, across the border and transforming their cargo into truckfuls of nickels. In addition, recyclers inside the state are claiming redemptions for the same containers several times over, or for containers that never existed. The illicit trade is draining the state's $1.1-billion recycling fund. Government officials recently estimated the fraud at $40 million a year, and an industry expert said it could exceed $200 million. It's one reason the strapped fund paid out $100 million more in expenses last year than it took in from deposits and other sources.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-can-fraud-20121007,0,6241851.story

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Homeowners crippled by insurance policies

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on force-placed insurance, a little-known form of coverage generating billions of dollars in profits for insurers and banks -- but getting little scrutiny from state regulators. Billed as a policy of last resort, force-placed insurance is routinely imposed on homeowners by lenders when property is not covered against tornados, floods and other hazards. The coverage can cost 10 times as much as typical homeowners insurance despite offering less protection. Across the country, the high premiums are pushing hundreds of thousands of vulnerable homeowners closer to default as the costs are added to their monthly mortgage. When one financially struggling homeowner’s policy lapsed, the newspaper reported, she was pushed into a forced-placed policy at an annual cost of $4,185, well above the $1,655 she used to pay State Farm. "It's ridiculous," she said. Minnesota officials concede they have no idea whether those rates are reasonable. Unlike most states, Minnesota regulators allow insurance companies to set their own rates on force-placed insurance without requiring either state approval or public disclosure. That means regulators don't check whether insurers have padded the bills. In an interview, Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman said he was alarmed by the Star Tribune's findings and pledged to make force-placed insurance "a top priority."

http://www.startribune.com/local/172979991.html?refer=y

Mobile (Ala.) Register: Privatization of town services tricky issue

The Mobile (Ala.) Register reports that in Prichard, Ala., a South Carolina-based traffic enforcement company has offered to pay for police officers to issue tickets and split the fines with City Hall. In Warrior,Ala., a subsidiary of a Virginia-based debt collection company audits businesses for delinquent taxes, and splits the business licenses fees it recovers with the city.

And in Harpersville, Ala., an Atlanta-based private probation company has been blasted by a state judge for being a part of a "judicially sanctioned extortion racket." Among local governments, privatization and outsourcing are not new things. For decades, communities have turned to private companies to provide services such as garbage collection or to manage utilities such as water. But in recent years, cities and counties throughout Alabama have begun outsourcing of a different kind - one that delegates power and authority over citizens. Private companies have pitched these arrangements with promises of reduced expenses and larger, newer revenue streams, and for many local governments, those promises couldn't have come at a more opportune time. But with these arrangements come new questions about civil rights and due process. "If you get a Sheriff of Nottingham who his carrying out the law in an abusive way, you can vote him out of office," says Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union. "The public can't vote out a CEO of a company."

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/10/justice_inc_should_private_com.html

Charlotte Observer: Wells Fargo boosts lobbyists in state capitals

The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reports Wells Fargo has built up a significant lobbying presence in state capitals to manage the torrent of mortgage-related bills flooding legislatures. Five years ago, the San Francisco bank reported a limited state lobbying presence focused on the West Coast and Iowa. After becoming a national bank, Wells Fargo now has lobbyists bending state legislators’ ears everywhere from Denver to Baton Rouge, La. It has built its East Coast lobbying presence beyond that of Wachovia, the Charlotte bank Wells acquired in 2008. The bank also has spent more money on lobbying in states including California and Minnesota, courted city mayors, and sought more government business. The bank registered more than 150 lobbyists in 31 state capitals in 2012, according to an Observer review of state lobbyist registration rolls. That’s an increase from the 47 in 10 states it had five years ago – or 60 in 14 states if you add in Wachovia’s lobbyists.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/10/08/3584844/wells-fargo-increases-its-lobbying.html

Columbus Dispatch: Rogue debt collectors threaten consumers

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reports rogue debt collectors are chasing Americans for debts they paid long ago or never owed, and they are threatening consumers with ruined credit reputations if they don’t pay. They are pursuing innocent people who share a name or an old address with the real debtor. They are hounding victims of identity theft and credit-card fraud. They are illegally pressuring people to pay debts even without original documentation that proves they owe something. Thousands of state and federal complaints reveal a cry for help from consumers who say that their credit reports have been wrongly tarnished by debt collectors. Even one unpaid debt in collection on a credit report — no matter the amount — can harm a consumer with an otherwise pristine payment history. It can stifle refinancing a house, opening a credit-card account or buying a car. The 34-year-old federal law that governs debt collection is so broken that the industry itself has joined a chorus of government regulators, watchdogs and consumer advocates calling for reform.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/10/07/debt-deception.html

Palm Beach Post: Critics: Insurance savings a sham under new law

The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reports a Miami auto insurer that gave $100,000 to Gov. Rick Scott’s political committee seeks an 18.6 percent increase in personal injury protection rates, records show — a far cry from a targeted 10 percent reduction under a law Scott made one of his top 2012 priorities. Another company has seen a 26.3 percent hike in PIP rates approved, though the vast majority of requests are still pending. They include Geico’s bid to lower PIP rates 10 percent but raise other parts of the bill for an overall increase about 1 percent. Critics see all this as evidence consumer savings are mostly illusory under a law they say was really designed to boost industry profits by reducing the PIP benefits insurers must pay out. "They duped the public,” said Marlene Reiss, a Miami attorney who sues insurers for PIP benefits. "For them to say they were doing this to protect Florida consumers was a smokescreen. From the start, this was a gift to the insurance industry.” Florida requires drivers to carry $10,000 in PIP coverage, which essentially covers medical costs for a policy holder, even if he is at fault. United Automobile Insurance Co. of Miami, whose affiliate gave $100,000 to Scott’s Let’s Get to Work committee two days before the PIP law passed in March, argues it must contend with such expenses as the cost of fighting in court with lawyers. Already one lawsuit filed by a group of chiropractors, massage therapists and their patients has asked a Leon County circuit judge to invalidate the law.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/driver-savings-a-sham-under-pip-law-critics-say/nSWsL/

Newark Star-Ledger: Security lapses seen at Newark Airport

The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reports Screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport are properly executing standard pat-downs of passengers only 16.7 percent of the time and they identify and take appropriate action on prohibited items in only a quarter of all cases, according to a secret internal report. The revelations are contained in a document, obtained by The Star-Ledger, titled "PACE Airport Evaluation" and dated June 8. It was compiled by an undercover team of Transportation Security Administration employees from other airports who were asked to observe screeners at work at Newark Liberty. PACE is an acronym for Presence, Advisements, Communication and Execution, the four job performance headings that included a total of 47 individual procedures or skills observed by the visiting evaluation teams.

To some TSA watchdogs, such poor performance on standard procedures was startling coming a decade after the TSA was formed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Thomas McDonnell, a Pace Law School professor and author of "The United States, International Law and the Struggle against Terrorism," said the findings are unacceptable. A finding of the evaluation that was particularly shocking to McDonnell and other civil rights advocates was that in no cases — 0 percent — did screeners properly inform passengers of their right to opt out of a full-body scan in favor of a pat-down.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/secret_observers_find_shocking.html

Tampa Tribune: Budget tight but non-profit groups still get funding

The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune reports that now that the dust has settled on Tampa's 2013 city budget, it's hard to miss two competing figures. Mayor Bob Buckhorn pulled $8.7 million from the city's shrinking reserves to balance the budget at the same time he allocated $4.5 million in subsidies to nonprofit groups, including the aquarium and the zoo. Money is tight. Police, fire and other basic city services must justify every penny they spend. But this rigorous review does not apply to money that goes to subsidize nonprofit groups. Asked how nonprofit groups get on the list, Buckhorn said he didn't know.

"I don't think there's any official process," he said. "It's largely customary that some of these groups get funded." Palm Harbor's Two Red Roses Foundation is the latest nonprofit group to seek city funding. Buckhorn recently announced that the city has struck a deal with the foundation to create the American Craftsman Museum on the southern edge of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. To help with its endowment, the foundation wants at least $1 million a year in city money for its first five years. The request is the latest example in a line of nonprofit organizations approaching the mayor or city council for financial help rather than competing with other institutions for public support. Once a group is on the city's subsidy list, odds are it will stay there for years.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/oct/07/namaino1-subsidies-to-tampa-nonprofit-groups-endur-ar-524611/

Washington Post: How lawmakers handle their wealth

The Washington Post reports that if you could peer deeply into how the 535 members of Congress handle their money, you would see a diversity of investment strategies and results. The legislators range from the super-rich to the deep-in-debt, from inherited wealth to married wealth to no wealth at all. They are entrepreneurs and farmers, oilmen and ranchers, lawyers and real estate developers. The wealthiest one-third of lawmakers were largely immune from the Great Recession, taking the fewest financial hits and watching their investments quickly recover and rise to new heights. But more than 20 percent of the members of the current Congress — 121 lawmakers — appeared to be worse off in 2010 than they had been six years earlier, and 24 saw their reported wealth slide into negative territory. Those findings emerge from an ongoing examination of congressional finances by The Washington Post, which analyzed thousands of financial disclosure forms and public records for all members of Congress. Most members weathered the financial crisis better than the average American, who saw median household net worth drop 39 percent from 2007 to 2010. The median estimated wealth of members of the current Congress rose 5 percent during the same period, according to their reported assets and liabilities. The wealthiest one-third of Congress gained 14 percent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/capitol-assets-congresss-wealthiest-mostly-shielded-in-deep-recession/2012/10/06/5a70605c-102f-11e2-acc1-e927767f41cd_story.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (10-4-2012)

AP Analysis: Debts plans of presidential candidates don’t add up

The Associated Press analyzed the presidential candidates’ plans for cutting federal deficits and concluded Mitt Romney’s is too bold and the numbers don’t add up, while President Barack Obama’s is too timid and his numbers don’t add up, either. As the government closed the books Sunday with a $1.1 trillion deficit for the year, which required borrowing 32 cents for every dollar it spent, budget analysts have little confidence in either man’s plan to address the accumulating debt, now at about $16 trillion. The Republican nominee promises to balance the budget in eight years to 10 years, but he also offers a mix of budgetary contradictions: higher Pentagon spending, restoring cuts that Democrats made in Medicare and an absolute refusal to consider tax increases. To fulfill his promise, Romney would require cuts to other programs so deep — under one calculation requiring cutting many areas of the domestic budget by one-third within four years — that they could never get through Congress. In other words, it wouldn’t work.

Obama claims more than $4 trillion in deficit savings over the coming decade. But it you peel away accounting tricks and debatable claims on spending cuts, it’s more like $1.1 trillion. Republicans say it’s even less because of creative bookkeeping used to mask spending on Medicare reimbursements to doctors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/analysis-candidates-deficit-plans-dont-add-up-as-government-adds-11-trillion-in-debt/2012/10/01/e3e014e6-0ba1-11e2-97a7-45c05ef136b2_story.html

Arizona Republic: 400+ sex crime cases reopened in Maricopa County

The Arizona Republic reported the handling of sex-crimes investigations by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has been questioned since 2008, forcing the re-examination of more than 400 alleged assaults mostly reported between 2005 and 2008. But until now, only the victims of the alleged assaults and a few sheriff's investigators have been aware of the full impact of MCSO's failures in these investigations. An Arizona Republic investigation into the 400-plus reopened cases reveals the Sheriff's Office failed to adequately investigate reports of abuse and assault -- in some cases never interviewing a suspect or running a background check. Some cases were ignored -- the files were later found sitting in a drawer or in a deputy's garage. Those shortcomings, combined with lengthy delays in resolving cases, left alleged predators free to continue finding other victims, sometimes for years. The delays also may have led to some cases never being prosecuted. For example, a sheriff's detective took 21 months to follow up on a teenage boy's 2006 allegation of abuse in his home. By the time investigators took the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in 2011, prosecutors declined to proceed, citing no reasonable likelihood of a conviction.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/09/29/20120929sex-crime-mcso-failures.html

Atlanta Journal: High-stake school tests, low-level security

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that for more than 10 years, the nation has used standardized tests to tell whether public schools are doing their jobs. But widespread cheating in Atlanta and in districts across the country is distorting the results of those tests. There are no national standards on test security, and the federal government doesn’t intend to issue any. Instead, officials say, it’s up to the states and local districts to secure their tests. A new AJC investigation looks into how well that’s working. In some states, it isn’t. The stain of test cheating spread unchecked across 44 Atlanta schools before the state finally stepped in and cleaned it up. But across the country, oversight is such an afterthought that most states cannot guarantee the integrity of their tests, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found. Poor oversight means that cheating scandals in other states are inevitable. It also undermines a national education policy built on test scores, which the states and local districts use to fire teachers, close schools and direct billions of dollars in funding. The AJC surveyed the 50 state education departments and found that many states do not use basic test security measures designed to stop cheating on tests. And nearly half make almost no attempt to screen test results for irregularities. For example, a computer analysis of erasures on test papers can show whether wrong answers were changed to right answers. Georgia used this method to find massive cheating in Atlanta Public Schools in 2009. Many other states still don’t use it.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/more-cheating-scandals-inevitable-as-states-cant-e/nSPqj/

Austin American-Statesman: Many veterans die from drugs, suicide and car crashes

The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported war veteran may have survived the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, but many have not survived their homecoming. A six-month American-Statesman investigation, which paints the most complete picture yet of what happened to Texas’ Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who died after leaving the military, reveals that an alarmingly high percentage died from prescription drug overdoses, toxic drug combinations, suicide and single-vehicle crashes — a largely unseen pattern of early deaths that federal authorities are failing to adequately track and have been slow to respond to. The Statesman obtained autopsy results, toxicology reports, inquests and accident reports from more than 50 agencies throughout the state to analyze the causes of death for 266 Texas veterans who served in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and were receiving Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits when they died. The Statesman investigation, which relied on 345 fragmentary death records provided by the VA — as well as obituaries and interviews with veterans’ families — reveals a phenomenon that has mostly been hidden from public view.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local-military/texas-war-veteran-deaths-studied/nSPJs/

Bergen Record: Many Bergen bridges nearing end of line

The Bergen Record reports that New Jersey’s Bergen County has 195 bridges, 25 of which have been rated as "functionally obsolete,” meaning that they are candidates for replacement. And 65 others have been rated "structurally deficient,” signifying that major repairs are needed. But this year, the county will spend just $29 million on bridge repair and reconstruction — a figure that comes nowhere near addressing the amount of work that state inspectors say is needed to return the spans to a state of good repair. For instance, a recent major renovation of a swing-span bridge connecting Hackensack and Bogota cost nearly $20 million. Until money can be found, steps are being taken to extend the usable life of the bridges — officials just last week imposed a 15-ton weight limit on the East Anderson Avenue Bridge that links Hackensack and Teaneck, forcing NJ Transit to reroute about 400 buses daily. The fact that nearly half of Bergen County bridges are rated as needing repair or replacement is not surprising, said Andrew Herrmann, a New York engineer who is president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. His group did a national study in 2009 which found that one out of every four of the nation’s nearly 600,000 bridges were rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. But Herrmann said that percentage was much higher in the Northeast where bridges tend to be older and are exposed to colder weather with snow and ice.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Many_Bergen_County_bridges_nearing_end_of_lifespan.html

Boston Globe: How a state drug chemist dodged lab protocols

The Boston Globe reported how an incident detailed in a 100-page State Police report it obtained last week illustrates one of the many ways a state drug lab chemist was able to circumvent safeguards intended to ensure that drug evidence was properly handled and analyzed by workers in a now-closed lab formerly run by the state Department of Public Health. Forensics specialists interviewed by the Globe say the lab’s procedures appear to have been fairly standard, including having two chemists test every sample, but they were still not enough to prevent an ambitious chemist’s rampant breaches of lab protocol, apparently to boost her performance record. In the process, investigators say, Annie Dookhan has jeopardized the reliability of drug evidence used in 34,000 cases during her nine-year career. The 34-year-old chemist was arrested and charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and one of falsifying her academic record, in allegedly lying under oath about having a master’s degree in chemistry.

Dookhan was "dry-labbing” her screening tests. Put simply, she was skipping a critical first step, according to her admission to investigators, and instead often made a preliminary identification of drugs simply by how they looked and by the type of suspected drug that was checked off on a control card that accompanied the sample. Typical lab protocols require an initial screening test, called a color test, in which a chemist applies a specific liquid to each drug sample to determine its identity by the color it turns.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/09/30/how-chemist-drug-lab-scandal-circumvented-safeguards/A29LZnAw1eW4hvjn4xX7rL/story.html

Chicago Tribune: How clout keeps court cases secret

The Chicago Tribune reported that although state law requires that certain types of lawsuits must be sealed, its investigation has found that judges improperly removed others from public view, including cases involving a famous chef, millionaire businessmen and even other judges. The Tribune's review of cases found that judges regularly fail to give a reason in their written orders for sealing files; hide entire case files when they needed only to remove sensitive information such as Social Security numbers or home addresses; and that the sealing orders often remain secret despite state case law finding orders are public documents and "should not be kept under seal." Courts in the United States have a long tradition of openness, and experts say court secrecy fosters mistrust and can put public safety at risk. In Illinois, bills aimed at curtailing secrecy in the courts have failed multiple times in the Legislature since 1999, opposed by the health care, insurance and manufacturing industries. There is no way to know what is contained in Cook County's sealed files since they remain in locked rooms. But a review of dozens of previously sealed court files in the Law Division offers a glimpse, with instances of the well-connected and the well-known having their cases hidden from the public.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-30/news/ct-met-hidden-cases-20120930_1_cases-from-public-view-entire-case-files-court-secrecy

Detroit Free Press: Lax controls leave ex-cons free to kill

The Detroit Free Press investigation found that as the Michigan Department of Corrections searches for ways to manage its nearly $2-billion budget, it is releasing ex-cons into the community who are committing a growing number of violent crimes. The MDOC and the union that represents parole and probation agents blame each other for the problems, but while they debate the cause, the result is clear and disturbing: Convicts who should have been behind bars or closely monitored were left on the streets unchecked, attacking and killing innocent victims.

A seven-month Free Press investigation found the MDOC failed to properly supervise some of the most violent of the state's roughly 70,000 offenders under its watch. A total of 88 parolees and probationers were suspected, arrested or convicted in 95 murders between Jan. 1, 2010, and Aug. 31. The number nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011 -- from 21 to 38. And already in the first eight months of this year, 36 killings have been attributed to ex-cons under MDOC supervision, according to department critical incident reports.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120930/NEWS06/309300022/Lax-controls-leave-ex-cons-free-to-kill

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Full jail prompts call to release 500 inmates

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Broward County's jails are too full, and the consultant empowered to weigh in on the problem has proposed a controversial solution: Let 500 inmates out. This despite a drop in crime in recent years and a steady cut in the number of arrests, according to booking data analyzed by the Sun Sentinel. The unusual situation is the legacy of a lawsuit filed 36 years ago on behalf of inmates in crowded jails — and one that, to this day, gives the American Civil Liberties Union and a judge sway over the Broward sheriff's efforts to keep criminals off the streets. The court-appointed jail consultant in the case — Dr. James Austin — says the county is keeping inmates behind bars for too long, with taxpayers picking up the $118-a-day tab. To avoid spending millions to reopen a vacant jail or pay fines to the courts, he says Broward could release suspects more quickly, and relax criteria so more suspects could await trial from home. He also suggests the sheriff be allowed to release sentenced inmates into supervised programs, and to directly release suspects without bail.

All told, his ideas — which will be taken as a recommendation by the county, the courts and the sheriff — would help the county release 500 inmates from the 5,144-inmate system.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-09-29/news/fl-broward-jail-inmates-20120919_1_broward-jails-eric-balaban-jail-population

The Indianapolis Sunday Star: Ratepayers could be on hook for $1.1 billion

The Indianapolis Sunday Star reported a controversial deal obligating Indiana natural gas customers to pay for energy from a planned coal-gas plant in Rockport would add $1.1 billion to Hoosier energy bills over eight years, new estimates show. All residential ratepayers -- regardless of their provider -- would see their monthly gas bills increase an average of about $3.90 during that period, according to estimates from Vectren Corp., a critic of the coal gasification plant. That's about $375 per ratepayer over eight years. The plant's developer, Leucadia National Corp., called Vectren's estimates "absurd," and Gov. Mitch Daniels said through a spokeswoman that he continues to support the project. But independent energy industry analysts agree with Vectren. Under the terms of a deal orchestrated by the Daniels administration, ratepayers will almost certainly end up subsidizing the plant for five to 10 years, they say. It is less clear what would happen after that, and some argue the plant ultimately could end up benefiting ratepayers by the end of a 30-year deal. Debate over the project is likely to take on new vigor with the exit of Daniels, who has supported the plant even as falling natural gas prices raised questions about its viability.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120929/BUSINESS/209290338/Hoosiers-may-pay-1-1-billion-over-8-years-subsidize-coal-gas-plant

The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: Crash! Bikes vs. cars. Who’s at fault?

The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports that in the turf battle between bicyclists and motorists in South Hampton Roads, each side likes to point fingers at the other when they crash. Cyclists fault drivers for passing too closely and not respecting their right to use the road. Drivers in turn criticize cyclists for impeding traffic and failing to obey the rules. State data show they're almost equally to blame. Bicyclists and drivers reported collisions to police 774 times in the five cities from 2008 through the first six months of this year, according to a Virginian-Pilot analysis of data provided by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Police issued a summons in fewer than a third of those crashes - 180. About 58 percent of those tickets went to drivers, according to the data. Cyclists received the rest. In the crashes where a cyclist was to blame, it was most often because the person did not have the right of way, was on the wrong side of the road or blew through a stop light, according to the data. Those offenses are at the heart of some drivers' frustrations.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/09/bike-crashes-hampton-roads-whos-blame

Philadelphia Inquirer: Politicos guilty of corruption not paying their legal fees

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that back in 1996 Pennsylvania state legislators grew disgusted that politicians could get taxpayer-paid legal help with no obligation to pay the money back if they were found guilty of corruption. The result: a law that required convicted public officials to reimburse the treasury if they had lawyered up at public expense. In the last five years alone, prosecutors have convicted nearly 30 Harrisburg elected officials and staff. The cumulative legal bill for taxpayers - an estimated $15 million. But the payback requirement has gone unused in case after case. The sole exception occurred earlier this year when a county prosecutor in Western Pennsylvania invoked the law to force a convicted state senator to pay the state $110,000 for legal defense work. The responsibility for retrieving the money lies mainly with the state attorney general. Gov. Corbett, twice the state's top prosecutor, brought by far the most corruption cases in recent years. His successor, Attorney General Linda Kelly, has since 2011 pursued the cases Corbett left behind. A review by The Inquirer, based on court and legislative documents and interviews with prosecutors, defense lawyers, and officials in Harrisburg, shows how taxpayers have not been reimbursed despite the law's mandate. And even if the law had been aggressively applied, the review shows, loopholes mean millions of dollars would still have been left unrecoverable.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-09-30/news/34178692_1_taxpayer-money-top-prosecutor-state-attorney

Palm Beach Post: Need an ambulance? Dial 911 but check insurance first

The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported how Penny Farrow called 911 for an ambulance, which took her to a hospital, where she was treated for a heart problem. She began to feel better. Then she got the bill. The state’s largest health insurer, Florida Blue, said Palm Beach County Fire Rescue was an "out of network” provider under her plan. So she owed about $600. Few people calling 911 are in a position to ask about deductibles and fees, let alone shop around for a better deal. And for some consumers like Farrow, it’s more than an arcane public-policy puzzler in the modern health care world. It’s a punch to the pocketbook they never saw coming. "It is truly amazing that someone calling 911 in the middle of the night has to worry about whether the dispatcher is sending someone that is not in the network,” said Farrow, who lives in a suburb of Boynton Beach. "And how can Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, a huge provider in a huge county, not be in the network of a major company like Blue Cross/Blue Shield? No wonder Americans are furious at insurance companies. It is unconscionable.” Fire-rescue officials warn taxes might have to go up if they join insurer networks and have to negotiate prices.

The Affordable Care Act, the federal health care law, requires insurers to bill consumers for emergency-room services as if they were in network. But the requirement does not expressly cover everything — such as the ambulance ride before the patient gets to the emergency room, said Jeffrey Cohen, a Delray Beach attorney who is board-certified in health law. He says in some cases, industry changes are "driving co-pays and deductibles up.”

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/calling-911-for-an-ambulance-check-your-deductible/nSPzK/

Sunday Patriot News: Therapy for disabled children to cost families more

The Sunday Patriot News of Harrisburg, Pa., reported Sue Bledsoe’s six-year-old son, a non-verbal, severely autistic child, receives hours upon hours of intense and individualized therapy a month. Bledsoe and her husband get help from the state to pay for these services under Medicaid. Starting next month, they will be required to pay for a portion of those services — potentially hundreds of dollars a month. The state Department of Public Welfare says it is trying to save the state money and safeguard the services for others in the future. The cost-sharing plan being rolled out by the welfare department will inflict a huge burden on families, forcing them to choose between paying bills or supplementing their children’s services, parents and advocates say. "We are not going to be able to save for our daughter’s future for when she becomes an adult,” said Bledsoe, a mother of two from Lancaster. State medical assistance for services and therapies for children with intellectual disabilities cover only children under 18. Now, families new to medical assistance will pay up to 5 percent of their gross monthly income for services for intellectually disabled children. The rule applies to families whose income is 200 percent above the federal poverty line. For a family of four, that is approximately $46,000 a year. Families already enrolled in Medicaid will beginning paying the co-pay Nov. 1.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/09/pennsylvanias_cost-sharing_pla.html

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (9-28-2012)

AP IMPACT: Tragedy meant big money for New York minister

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the Rev. Carl Keyes was a little-known pastor of a small New York City congregation searching for members and money. When the twin towers fell, his fortunes changed. Donors poured $2.5 million into the minister’s charity to help 9/11 victims. More opportunities to raise relief money would come later, with at least another $2.3 million collected for efforts along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, in the poorest corners of West Virginia and Tennessee, and even in remote African villages. Tens of millions more flowed through his fingers from the sale of church properties. But Keyes, a one-time construction worker, did more than help the needy with the millions donated — he helped himself. According to financial records, internal correspondence and interviews with former employees conducted by The Associated Press, Keyes blurred the lines between his charities, his ministry and his personal finances while promoting himself as an international humanitarian.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ap-impact-nyc-minister-raises-millions-for-disasters-also-helps-himself-family-and-friends/2012/09/24/ac2d2a2c-062c-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html

AP: Decades of government dollars helped fuel gas boom

The Associated Press reported that it sounds like a free-market success story: a natural gas boom created by drilling company innovation, delivering a vast new source of cheap energy without the government subsidies that solar and wind power demand. "The free market has worked its magic,” the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, an industry group, claimed over the summer. The boom happened "away from the greedy grasp of Washington,” the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank, wrote in an essay this year. If bureaucrats "had known this was going on,” the essay went on, "surely Washington would have done something to slow it down, tax it more, or stop it altogether.” But those who helped pioneer the technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, recall a different path. Over three decades, from the shale fields of Texas and Wyoming to the Marcellus in the Northeast, the federal government contributed more than $100 million in research to develop fracking, and billions more in tax breaks. Now, those industry pioneers say their own effort shows that the government should back research into future sources of energy — for decades, if need be — to promote breakthroughs. For all its success now, many people in the oil and gas industry itself once thought shale gas was a waste of time.

http://www.chron.com/business/article/Decades-of-federal-dollars-helped-fuel-gas-boom-3887289.php

AP: Voting rules could hinder millions of Hispanic voters

The Associated Press reported that civil rights advocates warn the combined effects of voter roll purges, demands for proof of citizenship and photo identification requirements in several states may hinder at least 10 million Hispanic citizens who seek to vote this fall. Hispanic voters are considered pivotal to the presidential election this November, and are being heavily courted by both Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. If they turn out in large numbers, Hispanics could sway the outcome in several swing states. The report called for repeal of policies that wrongfully inhibit Hispanic voters, and asked that the Justice Department investigate and prosecute "any related voting rights violations.” There are three significant barriers to Hispanic voter participation, researchers said: citizenship-based voter purges, proof of citizenship requirements and photo identification laws. Sixteen states have either adopted or are pursuing citizenship-related purges of their voter rolls, the report said. Those states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Those states are home to nearly 5.5 million registered Latino voters, and 1.1 million naturalized citizens from Latin America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/study-voter-roll-purges-citizenship-proof-demands-photo-id-may-affect-10-million-hispanics/2012/09/23/2408569e-05cd-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html

Charlotte Observer and News and Observer: Hospitals inflating chemo drug prices

The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh have found that large nonprofit hospitals in North Carolina are dramatically inflating prices on chemotherapy drugs at a time when they are cornering more of the market on cancer care. An investigation by the newspapers found hospitals are routinely marking up prices on cancer drugs by two to 10 times over cost. Some markups are far higher. It’s happening as hospitals increasingly buy the practices of independent oncologists, then charge more – sometimes much more – for the same chemotherapy in the same office. Asked about the findings, hospital officials said they are relying on a longtime practice of charging more for some services to make up for losses in others. Hospitals have a name for this: cost-shifting. "The drug itself may just be the vehicle for charging for the services that are provided (elsewhere),” said Joe Piemont, president of Carolinas HealthCare System, the $7 billion chain that owns many of the region’s hospitals. "We make literally thousands of trades to have it balance.” The rising price of cancer treatment has financially devastated many families, while driving up insurance costs and causing some patients to put off needed treatments.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/09/22/3549634/prices-soar-as-hospitals-dominate.html

Bergen (NJ) Record: Critics question need for mostly empty police post

The Bergen (N.J.) Record reports when city officials opened the "HackensackPolice Department Community Resource Center — South” with a ribbon cutting and photo-op three years ago, they touted it as an answer to neighborhood concerns about rising street crimes, including the fatal stabbing of a 20-year-old Teaneckman outside a city recreation building a block away. But the office — which the city leases from a well-known local business for $750 a month — is almost always empty. And city records show there have been five residential burglaries within two blocks of the satellite station since January, including one in a building next door. "They haven’t had the manpower to man it, so it’s largely just sitting there with a sign on the outside,” said the Rev. Brian H. Laffler of the Church of St. Anthony on LodiStreet, a block away. "How effective is that? The city’s three police substations are within a few minutes’ drive of police headquarters on Central Avenue. Critics question the need for all three, but the Hudson Street station has attracted the most attention because it is the newest, the least used and the only one in a building the city doesn’t already own. It has also raised questions because the landlord, the real estate development firm Hobart Enterprises, has given generously to politicians who wield majority control of the City Council. Hobart has also successfully appealed the taxes on many of its city properties, receiving tens of thousands of dollars in refunds. City officials justified the decision to maintain the center by saying it is better than the alternative: a completely vacant building.

http://www.northjersey.com/hackensack/Hackensack_police_substation_mostly_empty.html

New York Times: Power, pollution and the Internet

The New York Times reports a yearlong investigation has revealed that the foundation of the global information industry is sharply at odds with its image of sleek efficiency and environmental friendliness. Today there are tens of thousands of data centers to support the overall explosion of digital information. Most data centers, by design, consume vast amounts of energy in an incongruously wasteful manner, interviews and documents show. Online companies typically run their facilities at maximum capacity around the clock, whatever the demand. As a result, data centers can waste 90 percent or more of the electricity they pull off the grid, The Times found. To guard against a power failure, they further rely on banks of generators that emit diesel exhaust. The pollution from data centers has increasingly been cited by the authorities for violating clean air regulations, documents show. In Silicon Valley, many data centers appear on the state government’s Toxic Air Contaminant Inventory, a roster of the area’s top stationary diesel polluters. Worldwide, the digital warehouses use about 30 billion watts of electricity, roughly equivalent to the output of 30 nuclear power plants, according to estimates industry experts compiled for The Times. Data centers in the United States account for one-quarter to one-third of that load, the estimates show.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast-amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www

Chicago Tribune: Red flag raised by police chief’s sales efforts

The Chicago Tribune reports that when the small southwest Chicago suburb of Justice was looking to install red-light cameras, village officials turned to their police chief to lead the effort.

Now Chief Robert Gedville not only oversees the contract that SafeSpeed won to put in two cameras, he's sending out email sales pitches promoting the firm to top officials of more than 50 Chicago suburbs. "I recently have been afforded the opportunity to act as a consultant for SafeSpeed LLC," said Gedville's email, which was sent to mayors, presidents and police chiefs in suburbs from Kenilworth to South Chicago Heights. "The village I serve is a client of SafeSpeed, and I am happy to promote their services." Justice Mayor Kris Wasowicz, who said he was unaware of the email blast until the Tribune informed him of it, called the revelation "very disturbing" and said he has asked the village attorney to open an inquiry.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-justice-police-chief-cameras-20120924,0,7317126.story

Detroit Free Press: Cleanup is coming but years of dumping poisons a town

The Detroit Free Press reports the dead robins that drop in Teri Kniffen's yard around the corner and the signs scattered in town bear the evidence of unseen hazards, an alphabet soup of toxicity. They are the result of Michigan Chemical -- the plant responsible for a shipping mix-up in 1973 that set off one of the largest agricultural disasters in U.S. history. Accidentally mixed into cattle feed, the flame-retardant polybrominated biphenyl, or PBB, led to the deaths of tens of thousands of cattle and other farm animals and it ended up on the dinner tables of nine out of 10 Michiganders. Michigan Chemical closed as a result of the catastrophe in 1977, but only after dumping tons of PBB, as well as the now-banned pesticide DDT and other toxins, at the site and at the nearby Gratiot County Landfill. Today, the plant's environmental footprint remains: DDT in dead birds; PBB in the Pine River; pCBSA, a by-product of DDT, in the drinking water.

"It's horrible. It's what we're left with," said Kniffen, a mother of two grown daughters whose front yard is littered each summer with robins poisoned by DDT. The birds are particularly susceptible because they eat worms from the toxin-laden grounds. This fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will launch a massive cleanup of the Superfund site -- the largest current project in the six-state Great Lakes region.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120924/NEWS01/309240082/Living-with-PBB-Years-of-dumping-poisons-a-town

Star-Telegram: Purge of voter rolls in Texas hits snag

The (Fort Worth, Texas) Star-Telegram reports that just months before the general election, the names of around 77,000 Texans landed on a statewide list that suggests they may be dead and should be removed from voter rolls. Voters statewide, including several dozen in Tarrant County, are letting election officials know they are alive and well and plan to vote Nov. 6. "There was a concern that the death records weren't being cross-checked by anyone against the voter registration rolls," said state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, one of several co-sponsors of the state law that prompted election officials to create the statewide list. "The objective is worthy: to make sure that when anyone passes away, their names are removed from voter rolls." Those plans to purge voting rolls before the election may be up in the air, however, since a state district judge last week temporarily blocked Texas' secretary of state from ordering counties to remove names of deceased Texans from their lists. A hearing on the case is set for early next month, but county election officials statewide have already sent thousands of letters to Texans to determine whether voters believed to be deceased actually are no longer alive. This and several other bills were adopted last year as Republicans said it was time to crack down on and prevent voter fraud. State leaders have said there have been around 50 voter fraud convictions in Texas in the past decade. Democrats say efforts to fight a small problem will end up discriminating against minority voters and making it harder for some Texans to make it to the polls.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/23/4282755/purge-of-voter-rolls-in-texas.html

Post-Crescent: Photo ID laws creating voting rights storm

The Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wis., reports that with just seven weeks to go before the Nov. 6 elections, Wisconsin is in the eye of an intensifying national battle over voting rights. The Badger State is one of 10 states — Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are the others — that have adopted laws that require voters to show a photo ID before they can cast a ballot. National and state civil rights and voting rights groups have challenged these laws in almost every state as being overly restrictive, and the ongoing legal battles in some cases could have an impact on the tight presidential campaign and close congressional races. In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has directed a lower court to review its earlier decision upholding that state’s ID law. In Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court is considering a request from Atty. Gen. J.B. Van Hollen to overturn lower court rulings that the state’s law is unconstitutional. And a three-judge federal panel in South Carolina will hear closing arguments on that state’s law. The unfolding drama that has some veteran civil rights leaders feeling a touch of deja vu. They liken the voter ID laws to poll taxes and other requirements used primarily in the Deep South to disenfranchise blacks before passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20120923/APC010402/309230374/Wisconsin-center-national-voting-rights-storm?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM 9-12-2012

AP IMPACT: Surprising methods heal wounded troops

The Associated Press reported scientists are growing ears, bone and skin in the lab, and doctors are planning more face transplants and other extreme plastic surgeries. Around the country, the most advanced medical tools that exist are now being deployed to help America's newest veterans and wounded troops. This story is the latest installment in a joint initiative by The Associated Press and Associated Press Media Editors taking a closer look at this latest generation of war veterans as they return to civilian life, and the effect this is having on them, their families and American society. Much of this comes from taxpayer-funded research. Four years ago, the federal government created AFIRM, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a network of top hospitals and universities, and gave $300 million in grants to spur new treatments using cell science and advanced plastic surgery. Now those who served are coming home, and projects that once had been languishing in labs are making strides and starting to move into clinics.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/scientists-growing-ears-bone-skin-heal-wounded-troops-article-1.1155785

Arizona Republic: Two large Arizona charities under scrutiny

The Arizona Republic reports that Food for the Hungry and the Breast Cancer Society, two of Arizona's 12 largest charities, report giving tens of millions of dollars in food, medicine and medical supplies to the world's poor and needy every year. But a Call 12 for Action investigation found that the charities engaged in questionable accounting practices and that the amount of donations they report could be misleading. Internal Revenue Service records and interviews show that Food for the Hungry claimed its donations of medicine were worth far more than the organization paid for them, and both charities took credit for donating millions of dollars' worth of vaccines, pills and medical supplies that they did not physically collect. The IRS, in an audit, this year accused Food for the Hungry of overvaluing goods "to mislead the public in order to raise more funds." The IRS fined Food for the Hungry $50,000 for misrepresenting the value of medicine it said it donated.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/09/08/20120908arizona-charities-scrutiny-call-12.html

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Lobbyist dollars buy fun in the sun for lawmakers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on a last hurrah of sorts. Records show lobbyists spent more than $80,000 this summer treating state lawmakers at resort conventions, mostly along the beaches of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The mix of sun, surf, a lot of golf and a little politics is a summer tradition for lawmakers and the lobbyists, who spend the first three months of each year writing and debating new laws at the Capitol. Then some of them spend parts of June, July and August at beach conventions. A few legislators made multiple visits: House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Bonaire, for example, was the guest of lobbyists at seven conventions in June alone — six of them at beach resorts. This, however, could be the last big summer for lobbyist-sponsored trips. Senate leaders want to cap lobbyist spending on lawmakers, and House Speaker David Ralston is proposing an outright ban on it. If either takes place, this summer could be the last one for large-scale lobbyist-funded trips to the beach.

Available online to subscribers only

Austin American-Statesman: County bonanza, legal or not, from game rooms

The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reports the money began pouring in soon after sparsely populated Duval County 90 miles west of Corpus Christi decided last summer to start charging an $800 licensing fee for each so-called, eight-liner amusement machine inside its borders. So far this year Duval County has collected just under $600,000 (about a quarter of it in cash), an amount equal to nearly 9 percent of its $7 million yearly budget. More is expected; over Labor Day weekend, a sprawling new room with hundreds of eight-liners opened just outside the county seat of San Diego. It could be the local government success story of the year: Confronted with a struggling economy and stagnant tax revenues, entrepreneurial officials in a county perhaps best known for its rich history of graft and political corruption uncover a lucrative new source of revenue. But there's a small catch. "Of course the machines are illegal, as I understand it," said Jo Ann Ehmann, the part-time bookkeeper for the tiny city of Gregory.

Just northeast of Corpus Christi, Gregory — population 2,000 — has collected about $800,000 in the 18 months since it started enforcing its $1,000-per-machine game room ordinance. The city's annual budget is about $1 million.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/game-rooms-legal-or-not-have-tacit-approval-2453835.html

Chicago Tribune: In Illinois, towns borrow and you pay

The Chicago Tribune reports an investigation has found that the inner-ring Chicago suburb of Bellwood — littered with vacant storefronts and crumbling factories — now has among the highest municipal tax rates in the county while still drowning in debt. Local officials boosted taxes while gambling tens of millions of borrowed dollars on failed real estate ventures tainted by insider dealings and allegations of misconduct. The borrowing and gambling was completely legal — at least in Illinois. Bellwood's fallout offers a cautionary example of how local politicians can amass enormous power unseen in many states — power that can be used to benefit the politically connected, nearly bankrupt towns and stick a generation with IOUs for which they had no direct say. That's because Illinois law allows even the smallest of towns to tax, spend and borrow like the biggest of cities. Municipal advocates insist that home-rule power has largely improved towns, but the Tribune found suburb after suburb has gone deep in the hole over projects ranging from buying a roller rink to building condos — ventures far beyond the basics of building roads and sewers.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-09/news/ct-met-debt-bellwood-option-b-main-20120909_1_tax-bill-property-tax-tax-rate

Dallas Morning News: A call for 911 staff help in Dallas

The Dallas Morning News reports Dallas leaders have repeatedly said they’re fixing a problem that reaches into every living room in the city: an inadequate and unreliable 911 system. In saying so, officials including Police Chief David Brown insist that recent high-profile problems — unanswered 911 calls as a house burned in July, a woman murdered while on the line with 911 in August — have nothing to do with staffing issues. But interviews with current and former 911 call center employees, as well as available city records, show that the call center has been chronically understaffed for years and experts say the patchwork solutions put in place by the Police Department have their own pitfalls. Exhausted 911 operators are scrambling to help callers who are greeted at peak times with recorded messages telling them to wait for the next available operator. Pleas to fill open positions have gone unheeded, and supervisors often order employees to work overtime. Dallas officials say the city is authorized to have 90 workers in the communications section, but there are 64 positions filled, plus seven more call takers in training.

The Dallas Morning News interviewed several current and former 911 call center employees who spoke on the condition that their names not be published because they work for or still have associations with the city. Most fear retaliation if their names are revealed.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20120908-dallas-911-call-takers-say-theyre-overworked-understaffed.ece

New York Times: Student debt a boon to collectors

The New York Times reported that many borrowers are struggling to pay off their student loans, and the debt collection industry is cashing in. As the number of people taking out government-backed student loans has exploded, so has the number who have fallen at least 12 months behind in making payments — about 5.9 million people nationwide, up about a third in the last five years. In all, nearly one in every six borrowers with a loan balance is in default. The amount of defaulted loans — $76 billion — is greater than the yearly tuition bill for all students at public two- and four-year colleges and universities, according to a survey of state education officials. In an attempt to recover money on the defaulted loans, the Education Department paid more than $1.4 billion last fiscal year to collection agencies and other groups to hunt down defaulters. Unlike private lenders, the federal government has extraordinary tools for collection that it has extended to the collection firms. Tax refunds may be seized and and other debtors have had their paychecks or Social Security payments garnished. Over all, the government recoups about 80 cents for every dollar that goes into default — an astounding rate, considering most lenders are lucky to recover 20 cents on the dollar on defaulted credit cards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/business/once-a-student-now-dogged-by-collection-agencies.html?pagewanted=all

Houston Chronicle: Probation agency’s troubles not recent

The Houston Chronicle reports pervasive problems - marked by chaotic record-keeping, rampant human error and ineffective oversight - run deeper at Harris County's probation department than courthouse insiders may have imagined, according to thousands of documents obtained by the newspaper. After a jarring court hearing last month cast doubt on the accuracy of the department's 300,000 annual drug tests, its director and two lieutenants have resigned, the District Attorney's Office and some judges have shunned all lab results, and state officials have launched an investigation. Among the problems identified from internal probation department records: Hundreds of probationers' test results were botched, with flawed files going uncorrected for weeks or even months; some people were jailed or hauled into court based on positive samples that were not theirs or because they were listed as having skipped test appointments they actually attended. » Scores of samples had to be destroyed because the forms establishing the legal chain of custody were missing or incomplete; one supervisor testified this chain "has more holes than Swiss cheese." » Many probationers had to revisit offices to be retested for myriad reasons, including plumbing problems at the facility, a lack of female workers to monitor women probationers or because the lab ran out of gloves to handle samples.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Harris-County-probation-department-drug-test-3850544.php

Orange County Register: University of California pay climbs higher

The Orange County Register reports spending on University of California salaries has climbed nearly 29 percent over the past six years, even as the public system grapples with ballooning retiree expenses that have created a long-term $24.6 billion shortfall. The 10-campus system paid $10.6 billion for 259,043 jobs last year, up from $8.2 billion in 2006, according to an Orange County Register analysis of the latest UC pay data. Staff numbers grew by about 6 percent over the same period, and student enrollment increased by about 10 percent. UC's retiree pension fund had a projected $10 billion unfunded liability as of last year, and its retiree health care fund had a $14.6 billion unfunded liability – two gaping deficits UC officials began to address in recent years. UC officials say the continuous year-over-year gains in payroll spending reflect more research activity and market pressure for more competitive compensation. Also, pay reductions and freezes that hit all UC employees from fiscal years 2008-09 to 2010-11 are no longer in effect. The growth in payroll comes despite sharp tuition increases and billions of dollars in state funding cuts over the past few years.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/pay-370630-percent-year.html

Burlington Free Press: University of Vermont faces huge maintenance backlog

The Burlington Free Press reported the University of Vermont has a backlog of more than 2,000 deferred-maintenance projects for its aging buildings and infrastructure. The estimated total cost: $250 million. How much is UVM spending specifically on deferred maintenance this year? About $4 million. Last year the figure dropped to less than $2 million, after UVM decided to forgo its annual state capital appropriation — normally reserved for deferred maintenance — so that the money could be used instead for statewide Irene relief. Annual spending of that magnitude hasn’t made made much of a dent in the profile of all the pending fixes on campus. Deferred maintenance is defined as nonessential repairs that are postponed until funds become available. Back in 2001, UVM retained a consultant to detail all the deferred-maintenance needs on university property. The result was a report identifying 2,245 projects, each costing more than $15,000, for a total cost of $250 million. Some of the projects that had big price tags — Ira Allen Chapel, for example, a 1920 building that needed a new roof as well as brick, window and other work amounting to about $3 million — have been done. Many have not, however, and the university confronts the same total cost estimate today. The current backlog: 2,184 projects.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120909/NEWS02/309090008/University-of-Vermont-s-constant-burden-deferred-maintenance

The Oregonian: State liquor laws have not aged well

The Oregonian reports Oregon is a state that has come to relish its freedom to produce and drink local, whether it's that newly opened bottle of A to Z pinot made in the Dundee Hills, a pint of pale ale brewed in Bend or a shot of whiskey handcrafted in Hillsboro. Yet it's also one of a dwindling number of states where the government exerts near dictatorial control over an alcohol system designed 80 years ago to prevent the likes of Al Capone from horning in on the trade.

Capone and his bootlegging cronies are long gone. But the Prohibition-era laws live on, backed by a cadre of lawyers, lobbyists and people with moneyed interests, not to mention a government that still views itself as an arbiter of morals and temperance -- and has a huge financial stake to protect. The result, say those is the business, is a tangle of outdated rules that are not only hard to follow but also can put a crimp in an industry that has helped define Oregon's homegrown culture. "It's archaic," mutters Bar Mingo owner Michael Cronan, who, under Oregon law, has to pay cash on delivery for every bottle of wine, beer and liquor he buys -- another holdover from the days of speakeasies and rumrunners. That's just not the modern way of doing business, he says.

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/09/pinot_politics_oregons_archaic.html

Sacramento Bee: Parks budget surplus baffled officials

The Sacramento Bee reported that budget officials at the California Department of Parks and Recreation repeatedly struggled to understand why every fiscal year ended with millions of dollars in surplus cash on hand. At least since 2009, budget reviews conducted by the department each January showed a multimillion-dollar surplus, according to hundreds of pages of witness testimony reviewed by The Bee. Budget officials turned over regularly at state parks headquarters amid what one called a "hostile work environment," and each seemed powerless to figure out why the mystery money kept piling up. The department's beleaguered deputy director of administration, Manuel Thomas Lopez, appeared angry and confused about the surpluses, according to staffers' testimony. One year, he ordered a budget manager demoted, saying he simply didn't believe her estimate of a $25 million surplus – even though she later was proved correct. The puzzle of the recurring surpluses goes to the heart of a scandal in which state parks was found in July to have hidden $54 million in two park operating funds. For reasons that remain under investigation, the parks department kept the money secret for years by reporting false balances to the state Department of Finance. So far, there are no indications the money was misused or embezzled. It was simply kept hidden, state officials said, even as the department carried out a plan last year to close 70 parks to achieve $22 million in state budget cuts.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/09/4801173/california-state-parks-budget.html

Wilmington News Journal: Inmate labor flaws exposed

The Wilmington (Del.) News Journal reported that interviews and documents it has obtained cast doubt on the credibility of a state investigation into the Department of Correction’s Sussex County day-labor program. State correction officials declared last month they found no "purposeful misconduct” when concluding their investigation of a prison work-release program that came under scrutiny when inmates were found working on a lawmaker’s family farm. Correction officials didn’t report some days when inmates were released and who supervised them on one-day assignments. At least one business identified as using the program said it hasn’t used inmate labor in decades. And two inmates said they never received pay for their work, despite claims by correction officials that prisoners wanted the work to earn money. Some current and former state officials said the program was widely used in Sussex County, statements at odds with the agency’s characterization of "irregular use.” What’s more, the state didn’t reveal in its report that a temporary employment agency used work-release prisoners as a source of labor for local businesses, including a Millsboro poultry plant. A plant official, who acknowledged using a temp agency, told The News Journal he didn’t know inmates were provided for the work.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120909/NEWS/309090040/INMATE-LABOR-FLAWS-EXPOSED?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM

Albuquerque Journal: Private owners block access to "landlocked” public lands

The Albuquerque Journal reports the untrammeled Sabinoso Wilderness in northeastern New Mexico, 16,030 acres of pristine woodlands nestled among high, narrow mesas surrounded by cliff-lined canyons, would be a hiker or a hunter’s wonderland but for one problem. You can’t get to it. The entire Sabinoso – even before it was declared a federal wilderness area in 2009 – is landlocked, surrounded by private land, which, so far, has failed to produce any owners willing to allow public access via a road or trail through their property. The National Landscape Conservation System includes wilderness study areas, national monuments, national conservation areas, wild and scenic rivers and national scenic and historic trails. Of the 72 such areas in New Mexico, only two – the Sabinoso Wilderness and the Cowboy Springs Wilderness Study Area, about 50 miles south of Lordsburg in southern New Mexico – have no public access. But there are dozens if not hundreds of "landlocked” public lands, administered by both federal and state agencies, across New Mexico, and it’s becoming more common, according to outdoorsmen and wildlife conservationists.

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/09/02/news/wonderlands-becoming-inaccessible.html

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Taxpayers lose millions on Georgia plant

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the weekend before Christmas 2008 Hosein Shapouri, a senior economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, was ordered to work. His bosses needed an analysis done quickly of a proposed wood-to-ethanol factory in mid-Georgia. The Bush administration was leaving office the following month, and USDA officials wanted the deal sealed by then, Shapouri surmised. In a blistering critique obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Shapouri labeled the proposed Range Fuels plant "a high risk venture” that should raise "a red flag.” Three weeks later, top USDA officials approved the guarantee anyway. Today, the Georgia plant’s failure is well-documented. The Soperton facility closed last year without producing a drop of usable ethanol. Taxpayers lost at least $75 million. But an in-depth analysis by the AJC reveals that taxpayer money for Range Fuels was approved despite repeated warnings and strong opposition by some of the federal officials who vetted the project. Other officials nonetheless favored giving Range access to as much as $162 million, including $6.2 million from the state of Georgia, according to documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.

http://www.ajc.com/news/business/warnings-ignored-in-range-fuels-debacle/nR2H8/

Denver Post: Changing budgets to better fight fires out West stifled

The Denver Post reports that architects of a federal program meant to better allocate money and manpower to fight wildfires met in rented office space in Boise, Idaho, in 2005 to examine the results of a test run. What it showed wasn't surprising: Some areas of the country needed more resources and some deserved less. The group prepared a briefing paper and color-coded chart to explain the findings to budget officers and decision-makers on Capitol Hill. Within short order, the model was dead — cast aside as flawed by agency officials and a scientific panel over the objections of its authors and an independent congressional investigator who say the U.S. Forest Service was unwilling to impose even modest budget changes. As a scaled-down version of the program nears fruition after 11 years and at least $46 million, regions that would have benefited from that test run have suffered fires of historic proportions this summer: from the largest fire in New Mexico history to infernos in the sagebrush country of southern Idaho and along the California-Oregon border. This has been a disastrous year of wildfires in the West. Six Colorado homeowners have died in three wildfires. Firefighters are battling or monitoring more than 50 large wildfires in 12 Western states, including the contained Waldo Canyon and High Park fires in Colorado.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21453227/wildfire-budgeting-tool-scrapped-after-agency-resources-threatened

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: School busing a costly proposition

The Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel reports that as long as the school buses ran on time and their children came home safely most parents in Broward Countynever thought twice about the school district's bus system. That was until the past two weeks when buses either failed to pick up students or arrived at stops late, leaving thousands of working parents scrambling to get their kids to school. The turmoil has put the Broward Schools Transportation Services, beset for years by allegations of nepotism and financial waste, under more public scrutiny than ever. Broward taxpayers pay disproportionately more for their school bus system than any other large school district in the state, a Sun Sentinel analysis has found. For the 2010-11 school year, the Broward School District's cost per bus mile was $5.19, well above the rest of the state's 10 largest school districts. The next highest was Hillsborough County at $4.22 per mile. If Broward's per-mile cost for the 2010-11 school year had been the same as the Palm Beach CountySchool District's cost of $3.39 per mile, taxpayers would have paid $31 million less. The Miami-Dade rate of $3.62 would have resulted in a $27 million savings.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-09-02/news/fl-school-bus-overview-20120901_1_broward-schools-transportation-services-school-bus-chester-tindall\

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: For-profit colleges cash in on veterans

The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reports for-profit universities such as the University of Phoenix, DeVry University, Strayer University, Ashford University and Kaplan University -- typically called "career colleges" -- have marketed themselves to veterans so successfully that they are taking in tens of millions of dollars annually in taxpayer money after the passage of the Post-9-11 GI Bill.

For-profit colleges account for 13 of the 15 universities that have received the most GI Bill money in the last three years. Critics in the veteran community and in some quarters of Congress and dozens of state attorneys general are wondering what the nation is getting in return for that staggering educational investment. "Their mission is not to educate," said Tom Tarantino, chief policy director for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a New York-based advocacy organization for young veterans. "Their mission is to make a profit. I've got no problem if they make money as long as they're producing graduates with a quality education. That's not the case." The industry has responded vigorously, saying the attacks are politically driven by opponents of for-profit education. For-profit colleges, advocates say, fill a need for nontraditional or working students to obtain a higher education and "a pathway to employment in high-demand occupations."

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/02/4223834/for-profit-schools-taking-in-millions.html#storylink=cpy

Houston Chronicle: Traffic ticket dismissals costing Houston millions

The Houston Chronicle reports about 22,000 traffic tickets were dismissed in a single month in Houston this summer - nearly half the number issued during that span, according to state data.

The substantial number of dismissals, which costs the city millions in lost revenue, is a result of an overburdened court system reliant on plea bargaining, according to police union officials and attorneys. Traffic tickets are rarely dismissed because of problems caused by Houston police officers who write up the infractions, said Houston Police Officers' Union president Ray Hunt. Instead, cases are dismissed by prosecutors who offer deals to violators, Hunt noted. "The courts do not have the manpower, or the prosecutors, or the jurors to handle the dockets over there," Hunt said. "The prosecutors are forced to make deals with the citizens, and dismiss some of the tickets and only charge them for others. If anybody questions the dismissals, it's not an issue of the officers writing bad tickets or officers not showing up. It's the prosecutors dismissing them because they have to dismiss them." In the last five years, 4.7 million traffic cases were filed and, during that same span, prosecutors dismissed 1.7 million tickets, according to the city's monthly reports to the state's Office of Court Administrationin Austin.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Ticket-dismissals-cost-Houston-thanks-to-plea-3834067.php

Kansas City Star: Police ticketing drops off sharply and revenue drops

The Kansas City Star reports that after police in Tulsa, Okla., switched to electronic ticketing in 2010, their officers wrote thousands more tickets and their city collected millions more in fines.

But one year after Kansas City police switched to e-ticketing, the number of traffic tickets written by officers has plummeted 25 percent, leaving an already cash-strapped city with about $1.5 million less in revenue. Kansas City police wrote nearly 38,000 fewer traffic citations through July this year compared with the same time frame last year, before the new system "went live” in late August. And the number of general ordinance violations that officers write for littering, trespassing, disorderly conduct and other violations are on track to drop even more drastically this year, by 35 percent, if current trends hold. The new, virtually paperless system that cost the city $6 million is believed to be the biggest digital transformation of a municipal court in the country. It was supposed to make officers’ jobs easier and the courthouse more efficient.

It appears to have succeeded at the courthouse, which eliminated paper and storage costs as well as 28 clerical and data-entry positions. Better tracking of court warrants and unpaid tickets has helped generate a higher percentage of collections, city officials say. But some of that efficiency may have come at the expense of police, who must now enter the same data into two different jail booking systems when they arrest someone. That double-booking and several technical issues with the system have made writing tickets more time-consuming for police.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/01/3792439/kc-police-ticketing-drops-off.html

Los Angeles Times: Ex-appraiser’s emails tell of gifts to university athletes

The Los Angeles Time reported akey figure in the ongoing corruption scandal at the Los Angeles County assessor's office said he gave cash and perks worth thousands of dollars to two USC athletes while they were still in school, actions that could violate college sports rules. The allegations are contained among hundreds of Scott Schenter's county work emails that suggest the former appraiser provided football star Joe McKnight with a car and an airline ticket, and basketball player Davon Jefferson with about $3,700 in cash. The Times obtained the emails from the assessor's office under the California Public Records Act. After The Times asked about the alleged payments, officials at USC said they immediately informed the NCAA about the claims. The NCAA prohibits student-athletes from accepting benefits from marketing representatives or agents or "extra benefits" based on their athletic ability. In general, gifts of cars, plane tickets and cash from someone who is not an established family friend would be violations, said NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn, who declined to speak specifically about Schenter. If the NCAA were to determine that players accepted improper gifts, their school could face discipline, she said, adding that the association has a four-year statute of limitations on rule violations. The college sports body imposes sanctions on universities ranging from public reprimands to bans on postseason play.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/01/local/la-me-assessor-usc-20120902

Maine Sunday Telegram: Corporate influence growing in education policy in Maine

A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found large portions of Maine’s digital education agenda are being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to capitalize on the changes, especially the nation’s two largest online education providers. K12 Inc. of Herndon, Va., and Connections Education, the Baltimore-based subsidiary of education publishing giant Pearson, are both seeking to expand online offerings and to open full-time virtual charter schools in Maine, with taxpayers paying the tuition for the students who use the services. At stake is the future of thousands of Maine school children who would enroll in the full-time virtual schools and, if the companies had their way, the future of tens of thousands more who would be legally required to take online courses at their public high schools in order to receive their diplomas. The two companies have at times acted directly, spending tens of thousands of dollars lobbying lawmakers in Augusta and nurturing the creation of the supposedly independent boards for the proposed virtual schools they would operate and largely control.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/virtual-schools-in-maine_2012-09-02.html

Columbus Dispatch: School truancy rates doubted in some districts

The Columbus Dispatch reports Ohio’s Cleveland school district wiped more than 1,700 students from its rolls in a single year for being chronic truants.

That school year, 2010-11, Cleveland school workers didn’t file a single truancy charge against students in juvenile court. Not one, even though state law requires districts to file charges before they wash their hands of students who don’t come to school. Either Cleveland didn’t follow the law meant to keep students from falling through the cracks, or those 1,732 students withdrawn for being truant weren’t chronic truants. There’s a statewide investigation into whether some districts, including Columbus, altered enrollment and attendance data. Officials haven’t said whether Cleveland schools are a target, too. State investigators are examining the reasons that schools withdrew students and whether the withdrawals were legitimate. Because some districts withdrew truant students and then immediately re-enrolled them, the truancy withdrawals have raised questions.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/topic/special-reports/2012/counting-kids-out.html

The Oklahoman: Resigning allows cops to conceal past

The Oklahoman reports 22 Oklahoma City police officers have left the department after facing internal investigations into alleged misconduct in the past five years. Despite this, only three officers formally have been terminated. The other 19 resigned or retired, a practice that offers some officers the chance to conceal their pasts as they move on with their lives. Capt. Dexter Nelson, a spokesman for the department, said the way an officer leaves — whether through resignation, retirement or termination — is "ultimately the officer's decision.” "The FOP, the police union, will get them an attorney … and they can get advice from counsel,” Nelson said. "But ultimately, again, whether or not they resign or let the investigation continue is up to them.” Nelson said the reason for the higher number of resignations is simple: Resigning can, at least in some instances, provide former police officers with some kind of protection as they move on with their lives.

http://newsok.com/resigning-offers-chance-to-conceal-past-for-some-who-leave-oklahoma-city-police-department/article/3706286

Palm Beach Post: Property insurance discounts rejected for 90,000

The Palm Beach Post reports Florida’s last-resort, state-run insurer Citizens and its contractors rejected more than 90,000 times reports from inspectors they hired to determine whether customers qualified for property-insurance discounts, an analysis of more than 225,000 inspection records shows. The Palm Beach Postsays this is the bottom line: approximately $50 million in higher bills for customers. The results have made homeowners furious. For some, annual premiums have doubled. Three out of four homeowners have lost credits for building features that harden homes against hurricanes, often raising bills far beyond the regular 10 percent annual rate increases Citizens is allowed by law. The massive campaign has affected about 250,000 homeowners, has raised premiums by more than $137 million and is ongoing.

Gov. Rick Scott has pushed Citizens to raise premiums, reduce coverage, shrink its risk exposure and help drive customers to private competitors.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/weather/hurricanes/90000-citizens-reports-for-for-property-insurance-/nR2df/

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM: 8-29-2012

Arkansas Democrat: Departing lawmakers take trips at taxpayers’ expense

The Arkansas Democrat reports legislative leaders OK’d requests from 17 lawmakers to take taxpayer-financed trips to out-of-state conferences this summer, though the legislators are not seeking re-election to the Legislature this year and their terms will end Dec. 31. At least three of the 17 later decided not to go to the conferences. The state’s cost for the total isn’t clear. Some lawmakers have yet to seek reimbursement from the state, according to state officials. Under a law enacted by the 2011 General Assembly, House Speaker Robert S. More Jr., D-Arkansas City, and Senate President Pro Tempore Paul Bookout, D-Jonesboro, have authority over lawmakers’ state-paid travel to national or regional conferences.

Available online to subscribers only at http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2012/aug/26/17-soon--exit-legislators-got-ok-state-pa-20120826/

Austin American-Statesmen: Overtime, Drug costs cited in EMS budget overrun

The Austin American-Statesman reports it has learned that for the first time in at least a dozen years, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services will close out the fiscal year having exceeded its spending budget, in part because of increased overtime expenses caused by nearly 50 vacant ambulance worker positions and other costs. EMS Chief of Staff James Shamard said the agency could end the year as much as $910,000 over its approximately $49.5 million budget. Shamard called the number a worst-case projection. In addition, for possibly the first time in the agency's history, EMS has asked Travis County — which annually funds part of the agency to send ambulances outside city limits — to pay an additional $229,000 to help cover the shortfall. The vacancies caused several ambulance stations in the city and the county to be staffed this year solely by personnel working overtime, driving up costs, officials said. The story is part of the newspaper’s continuing focus on public safety and taxpayer dollars. Previous reports included in-depth looks at gaps in ambulance and fire truck coverage, a staff shortage at Austin’s 911 call center and Travis County’s use of property tax overpayments.

http://www.statesman.com/news/statesman-investigates/austin-travis-county-ems-faces-first-spending-overrun-2442523.html

Chicago Tribune: Who tests the safety of new ingredients in food?

The Chicago Tribune reports grocery shoppers might take comfort in the belief that the ingredients in food are deemed safe by the government. They might also believe that some federal agency must, at least, be notified when a new substance enters the U.S. food supply. But that's not the case. Over the past 15 years, the vast majority of new ingredients added to U.S. food never received a safety determination from the government. And since 1958, at least 1,000 legally entered the food supply without the knowledge of government officials, according to the Pew Health Group. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration acknowledges that since 1997, it has largely transferred the responsibilities for pre-market safety determinations on ingredients — including flavorings, preservatives, texturizers and binders — from its own scientists to food manufacturers. The agency characterizes the move as a "pragmatic means to protect health and avoid wasteful use of government and industry resources" at a time when government funding for FDA staffing in this sector is scarce. But in recent years, a range of experts, advocates and groups, including Pew, the Government Accountability Office and the American Heart Association, have expressed concern about what they see as a lack of oversight and a potential public health threat.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-25/health/ct-met-food-ingredients-20120825_1_food-ingredients-pew-health-group-fda

Miami Herald: Insurance execs raise rates, spend big on themselves

The Miami Herald reports a Herald/Time investigation has found Citizens Property Insurance executives spent lavishly on themselves even as they pleaded poverty and raised rates by unprecedented amounts to its 1.4 million customers. Traveling executives often stayed in luxury hotels costing as much as $600 a night even when less expensive accommodations were available nearby. Free of spending caps imposed on rank-and-file employees, executives dined at swank restaurants and repeatedly spent more than $50 per person on such fare as rack of venison, sea bass and dungeness crab. Citizens spent tens of thousands of dollars on travel just in Florida, including trips to board meetings held in four-star hotels. Citizens’ chief financial officer broke company rules at least five times by using corporate credit cards to pay for alcoholic beverages and personal expenses. Just how much have Citizens’ top executives spent on travel and meals in the past three years? Even company accountants aren’t sure. The company’s high travel costs came to light this spring when the Herald/Times reported that Tom Grady, Citizens interim president, spent nearly $13,000 on travel in just three months. He lost the permanent job, leaving the company in June with bills for a car service, business-class airfare and upscale hotel stays.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/25/2967691/higher-premiums-for-customers.html

San Francisco Chronicle: Oil refineries are risky business

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that while a crusading oil patch lawyer calls the American refinery industry an "under-regulated cesspool," a member of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is more polite, describing a mismatch between well-heeled oil companies and under-qualified government regulators. Reid Porter, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, sees it the opposite way: "This is already one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country."

In fact, a Chronicle investigation launched after the Aug. 6 fire that destroyed part of Chevron's Richmond plant and sent thousands of residents to hospital emergency rooms found that refinery oversight is riddled with gaps. Porter's industry group plays a major role in what critics say is a self-regulating system for refineries. In the past three years, the industry has been accused of blocking or watering down federal efforts to require refineries to reveal safety incidents that threaten their operations and the nation's fuel supply. Safety experts say such reporting sheds light on accumulating problems that can lead to refinery disasters.

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Oil-refineries-a-risky-business-3815770.php

Cincinnati Enquirer: Aging voting machines concern Ohio officials

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports an Ohio state auditor’s report in late 2011 offered Butler County officials a choice that seemed a sure-fire Election Day win: get rid of problem-plagued voting machines, replace them with a more reliable system and save about $905,000 a year in the process. The only problem: Butler County couldn’t afford it. Butler County’s challenge is one that many counties across Ohio and the nation will face over the next few years as election officials begin replacing electronic voting machines bought in the wake of the 2000 Bush-Gore "hanging chad” debacle in Florida. Many of those machines, most bought in the mid-2000s with billions of federal dollars allocated in the hope of avoiding "another Florida” in presidential elections, are nearing the end of their service lives. And this time no level of government – local, state or national – appears to have the money for the replacement program many experts say will soon be necessary. Compared to other problems with Ohio elections – most notably the routine disqualification, often for minor missteps by voters or poll workers, of thousands of provisional ballots cast when there are questions over an individual’s registration – voting machines pose a less predictable threat.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120825/NEWS0106/308250098/Voting-machines-worryofficials?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio whittles thousands off welfare rolls

The Columbus Dispatch reports Ohio’s state welfare rolls continue to nosedive — plunging by a third in the past year and a half — to the lowest number of Ohioans receiving a monthly assistance check in at least five decades. About 75,000 have left the tax-funded safety-net program since January 2011. But it’s not a sign that times are significantly better in the Buckeye State. Most have been kicked off as the state cracks down on those failing to meet federal requirements that they be working or training for a job to get help."Right now, Ohio is the star of caseload decline for no good reason,” said Liz Schott, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Ohio is among 11 states that failed to meet work requirements for 2007, and one of three currently at risk of a multimillion-dollar penalty if they do not meet the goals. But none has slashed their rolls to the extent Ohio has. In the 15 years since sweeping welfare-to-work requirements were enacted, Ohio has never been at the national forefront of caseload reduction, instead placing emphasis on trying to move recipients to self-sufficiency. But the state’s aggressive approach to dodging millions in federal penalties has raised concern about the fallout on vulnerable families.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/08/26/state-whittles-thousands-off-welfare-rolls.html

The Oregonian: Dark days for solar panel plant, local jobs and taxpayer investments

The Oregonian reports that Oregon officials saw green energy as an economic beacon five years ago. They lined up hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks and, for a while, watched the industry grow. The showpiece of that push is SolarWorld, the German company that transformed an empty semiconductor plant in Hillsboro into a state-of-the-art solar panel factory. Spurred by the promise of more than $100 million in state and local tax incentives, SolarWorld invested about $600 million in the site, turning it into one of the largest solar plants in the U.S. and creating at least 1,000 jobs. Now all that is in jeopardy. An investigation by The Oregonian involving dozens of interviews and hundreds of pages of documents indicates SolarWorld is on increasingly shaky ground. The company's revenues and employment are sliding, and its share price is in a tailspin. Former employees in Hillsboro, including managers, depict an operation that is not only under intense pressure to cut costs but also has failed to fulfill expectations. Most troubling, several industry analysts say SolarWorld's technology no longer justifies its higher panel prices. Some question whether the company can survive.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/08/dark_days_for_solarworld.html

Post-Crescent: Virtual school students trail traditional students

The Post-Crescent reports that enrollment in Wisconsin’s online schools has doubled in the last five years, but students who have chosen class without a classroom often struggle to complete their degrees and repeat grades four times as often as their brick-and-mortar counterparts. According to a Gannett Wisconsin Media analysis, standardized test results also show that virtual school students trail traditional students in every subject but reading and are far less likely than their peers to take the ACT or Advanced Placement tests. But virtual schools have more than four times the turnover of traditional schools and teach students who often bring a history of academic struggles. Virtual charter schools — those that allow students around the state to enroll full time in online classes — have operated in Wisconsin for 10 years, growing from four schools with 265 students in 2002-03 to 25 schools with nearly 5,000 students in 2011-12. Three more virtual schools will open for the 2012-13 school year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The schools, which operate independently and are overseen by local school boards, enroll about 0.5 percent of the students in the state.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20120826/APC019802/308260086/Virtual-charter-schools-Wisconsin-not-making-grade?nclick_check=1

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM

AP: Without fixes, Social Security deficit likely to be staggering

The Associated Press reported that as millions of baby boomers flood Social Security with applications for benefits, the program’s $2.7 trillion surplus is starting to look small. For nearly three decades Social Security produced big surpluses, collecting more in taxes from workers than it paid in benefits to retirees. The surpluses also helped mask the size of the budget deficit being generated by the rest of the federal government. Those days are over. Since 2010, Social Security has been paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes, adding to the urgency for Congress to address the program’s long-term finances. The Social Security trustees project the surplus will be gone in 2033. Unless Congress acts, Social Security would only collect enough tax revenue each year to pay about 75 percent of benefits, triggering an automatic reduction.

Lawmakers from both political parties say they want to avoid such a dramatic benefit cut for people who have retired and might not have the means to make up the lost income. Still, that scenario is more than two decades away, which is why many in Congress are willing to put off changes.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/08/10/social-security-surplus-dwarfed-future-deficit/8DnaKpY55ZYR6saaPfrNIP/story.html

Seattle Times: Law denies health care benefits to other-than-honorably discharged vets

The Seattle Times reports more than 20,000 men and women have exited the Army and Marines during the past four years with other-than-honorable discharges and that hamstrings their access to VA health care and may strip them of disability benefits. Some were booted out of the military before they deployed, others served in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, then struggled upon their return with drug abuse, unauthorized leaves and other misconduct that placed them among the most troubled members of the generation of veterans who fought in the long wars launched after 9/11. In one example, Jarrid Starks, ended his military career this spring with a weeklong stay at Madigan Army Medical Center under psychiatric care. Then, he was escorted to the front gate of Joint Base Lewis-McChord carrying a brown paper bag packed with a 90-day supply for six prescription drugs that included antipsychotics, antidepressants, pain pills and beta-blockers. Amid a surge in suicides among recent veterans, politicians have increased VA budgets by billions of dollars to help expand and improve the treatment of PTSD, traumatic brain injuries and other conditions. But federal law draws a sharp dividing line between honorably discharged veterans, who are offered access to veterans health-care and disability compensation, and those whose misdeeds may put those benefits at risk.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018894574_vets12m.html

Arizona Daily Star: Arizona border deaths at historic highs even as crossings plunge

The Arizona Daily Star of Tucson reports historically low numbers of people are crossing the border illegally from Mexico into Southern Arizona this year, but they're still dying at historically high rates. In the 10 months through July 31, remains of 161 suspected illegal immigrants have been found in Southern Arizona from New Mexico to the Yuma County line. That puts this year's death toll on pace to end up at about the annual average for the last decade - 197 - even though that period includes years when there were three to four times as many attempted crossings. That means the rate of border deaths so far this year - the number of deaths per 100,000 apprehensions - is at about the record high set last year, 154. Illegally crossing the border into Arizona is riskier than it's ever been. Experts point to a few factors keeping the death rate up. With the border harder to cross, "smugglers will guide illegal aliens through more remote, harsh terrain to avoid detection by law enforcement, which increases risk of death," U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Brent Cagen said in a written response to questions.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/border-deaths-at-historic-highs-even-as-crossings-plunge/article_90dd06a4-63cd-5ca2-b40a-f499909bf7ae.html

Arizona Republic: Mobile dental clinics for disadvantaged youths drawing scrutiny

The Arizona Republic reports a company operating under the kid-friendly name Big Smiles promises access to valuable dental care for disadvantaged youths and dispatches dentists to dozens of Arizona schools after getting the schools' permission. Once there, they take X-rays, perform root canals or fit crowns on low-income students. Representatives of the company that operates the Big Smiles chain, ReachOut Healthcare America of Phoenix, say the chain performs a valuable service, providing dental care for underserved children enrolled in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program. The children may not have a regular dentist or may live in rural areas with limited access to care. But critics say Big Smiles' business model is designed to collect millions of dollars annually from the state's Medicaid coffers by performing numerous, and sometimes unnecessary, X-rays or procedures with the aim of collecting the maximum payout from each of its young patients. ReachOut Healthcare's dental practice was paid $12.5 million from AHCCCS over the past two years, according to records obtained by The Arizona Republic. And some parents have accused the company of performing procedures without their permission.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/20120810mobile-dental-clinics-scrutiny.html

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: School dropout problem bigger than reported

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Georgia’s dropout problem is twice as bad as school officials previously calculated. Using data for the Class of 2011, obtained through an open records request, at AJC found that 30,751 students left high school without a diploma, nearly double the 15,590 initially reported. The discrepancy came to light because this year the federal government made all states use a new, more rigorous method to calculate graduation rates. Under the new formula, the state’s graduation rate plunged from 80.9 percent to 67.4 percent, one of the nation’s lowest. Part of the reason for the decline is that the new formula defines a graduate as someone who earns a diploma in four years, though thousands of students take five years or longer. But the AJC’s analysis shows--for the first time--how much of the discrepancy stemmed from a failure to accurately measure how many students drop out

Available online to subscribers only

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Grand juries reject most acquaintance rape cases

The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reports an investigation has found that over the last four years, Tarrant County grand juries have rejected more than half the acquaintance rape cases presented to them by prosecutors. Some no-bills came in cases like one in Arlington, where police had obtained incriminating photographs. In others, alleged rapists had confessed. In one no-billed case, Fort Worth detectives had obtained photographs and a confession. A few years ago, one grand jury rejected every case in which the victim had been drinking, a Fort Worth detective said. Stubborn myths about non-stranger rape, by far the most common form of sexual assault, probably contribute to the dismal numbers, local authorities and national experts say. Many in the general public, including potential jurors and grand jurors, still think of acquaintance rape as "drunk sex" or "date rape." The crime is generally regarded as less serious than stranger rape, and the rapists less sinister and less guilty. Much of the onus for acquaintance rape remains on the victim and her behavior. But because grand juries are notoriously sympathetic to the state, the presentation of the cases by Tarrant County prosecutors and other aspects of the system have also been called into question. Sex crimes detectives say prosecutors almost never call them to testify about their cases before grand juries.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/08/19/4190561/rape-unpunished-in-tarrant-county.html

Indianapolis Star: Serious employee health concerns reported at plant

The Indianapolis Star reports there are serious concerns about the health of employees at Sensient Flavors, a food and beverage flavor manufacturer on Indianapolis' Southwest side. Some workers were exposed to more than 400 times the generally recognized safe level for a chemical associated with a life-threatening lung condition, according to documents obtained by the newspaper. The chemical, diacetyl, generally is used in butter flavorings for microwave popcorn and other foods. In other cases, workers were exposed to 10 times the permissible limit on hydrogen sulfide, a heavy gas that can cause shock, convulsions, inability to breathe, coma and even death. The high levels of exposure at the plant are documented in safety orders recently issued by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The company has known for at least three years that nearly a third of its 100-plus production workers had abnormally restrictive lung function and that at least 17 percent had higher-than-usual rates of lung function decline. Those findings were spelled out for the company in a 2009 letter from a federal health agency. Sensient has filed at least three lawsuits against state and federal health and safety agencies to prevent them from inspecting conditions at the facility. When inspectors have gained access, the company altered its production schedule, withheld information about the chemicals it uses and intimidated its employees, according to sworn statements of IOSHA officials filed in the courts and their reports of what workers told them.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120818/BUSINESS/208120308/Star-Watch-Official-says-plant-workers-dangerous-territory-

Miami Herald: Nearly one in 10 missing a month of school

The Miami Herald reports a new school year begins in South Florida with the reality that hundreds of thousands of Florida students — almost one in 10 — miss a month or more of school every year, according to state figures. "Sometimes they’re absent for reasons that can be fixed,” said Laurel Thompson, Broward’s director of student services. The reasons for chronic absenteeism, defined by Florida as 21 or more days missed per year, run the gamut from serious illness to avoiding a bully to just having trouble getting there. A report issued earlier this year by Johns Hopkins University researchers found better attendance to be a painfully obvious — yet somehow routinely overlooked — way of boosting graduation rates, student achievement, and even standardized test scores. "Being in school leads to succeeding in school,” the report states. "Achievement, especially in math, is very sensitive to attendance, and absence of even two weeks during one school year matters.” The problem tends to snowball over time. Students can miss six months or even a year’s worth of school over five years, the study found. Schools with the highest concentration of poor students tend to struggle the most with no-shows. Chronic absenteeism hits the youngest and the oldest students the most: students in kindergarten through second grade and then rising again among middle and high school students.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/18/2957580/schools-fighting-absenteeism-to.html

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: FBI crime audits are shallow and infrequent

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the FBI's crime reporting program is considered the final word on crime trends in the United States, but the agency rarely audits police agencies providing the information and when it does its reviews are too cursory to identify deep flaws. In each of the past five years, FBI auditors have reviewed crime statistics at less than 1 percent of the roughly 17,000 departments that report data, a Journal Sentinel examination of FBI records has found. In all, they've audited as many as 652 police agencies during that time, or less than 4 percent of the total.

And a Journal Sentinel survey of police departments in the 30 largest U.S. cities found that nearly two-thirds have not been audited in the past five years. Of those, six departments - including Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Seattle - have never been reviewed by the FBI since the auditing program began 15 years ago. That lack of scrutiny allows cases of undercounting of crimes, such as in Milwaukee where thousands of violent assaults were not included in the crime rate since 2006, to go unnoticed and gives the public a false sense of the true level of crime, criminal justice experts said.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/fbi-crimereporting-audits-are-shallow-infrequent-cg5uvel-166665516.html

Minneapolis Star: Heavy use of medications for pain by football players causing alarm

The Minneapolis Star reports that while the national debate over football's safety intensifies, the unrelenting pressure that players feel to perform is drawing new scrutiny. And the extensive use of the medications they commonly take to fight through all the pain is raising new alarm. The National Football League Players Association is pressuring the league to make changes to the game and its culture. Too many players, the union contends, are drifting toward drug misuse and abuse to stay on the field. It also wants players to be better educated by team doctors and trainers on the potential consequences of the painkilling drugs they often receive in the locker room. "We cannot kid ourselves, though," said DeMaurice Smith, NFLPA executive director. "The structure of the NFL calendar, for years, has perpetuated the use of these painkillers. The system of practices and games has required players to use these medicines to perform."

For many players, the pain often calls for pregame injections of Toradol, a legal non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug that is non-narcotic and non-addictive, yet has several potentially serious side effects. Narcotics, like Vicodin or Oxycodone, also are sometimes required. Ambien is occasionally prescribed to aid sleep and help take the edge off. And over-the-counter medicine such as Tylenol, Aleve and Advil are used regularly. Adolpho Birch, NFL senior vice president of law and labor policy, said the league has great confidence in the talent and ethics of the medical staffs of all 32 clubs, warning not to blame team doctors and trainers for addiction problems players may develop.

http://m.startribune.com/news/?id=166658046

New York Times: After Tobacco, lawyers set sights on food industry

The New York Times reported that ever since they took in hundreds of millions of dollars from the tobacco industry, lawyers have been searching for big paydays in business, scoring more modest wins against car companies, drug makers, brokerage firms and insurers. Now, they have found the next target: food manufacturers. More than a dozen lawyers who took on the tobacco companies have filed 25 cases against industry players like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani that stock pantry shelves and refrigerators across America.

The suits, filed over the last four months, assert that food makers are misleading consumers and violating federal regulations by wrongly labeling products and ingredients. While there has been a barrage of litigation against the industry in recent years, the tobacco lawyers are moving particularly aggressively. They are, for example, asking a federal court in California to halt ConAgra’s sales of Pam cooking spray, Swiss Miss cocoa products and some Hunt’s canned tomatoes."It’s a crime — and that makes it a crime to sell it,” said Mr. Barrett, citing what he contends is the mislabeling of those products. "That means these products should be taken off the shelves.” The food companies counter that the suits are without merit, another example of litigation gone wild and driven largely by the lawyers’ financial motivations. Mr. Barrett said his group could seek damages amounting to four years of sales of mislabeled products — which could total many billions of dollars.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/business/lawyers-of-big-tobacco-lawsuits-take-aim-at-food-industry.html?pagewanted=all

Orange County Register: Disability retirements for police and firefighters costly

The Orange County Register of California reports that disability retirement is intended for public safety workers with dangerous jobs who become permanently incapacitated by illness or injury. However, over the years, it has also become an escape hatch for unwanted police officers and firefighters and a way to pad the pensions of those at the end of their careers, an Orange County Register investigation has found. Medical retirements come with hefty tax breaks at a time when government is struggling with falling revenues and huge pension liabilities. Under the California Public Employees Retirement System, which covers most city police and firefighters, a disabled retiree gets at least half of his or her pension tax-free – sometimes more. Critics of the system – including some frustrated city officials – say that many police officers and firefighters spend their careers claiming every injury or illness, so they can later make a case for a disability pension.

"You end up with officers at the end of their careers, looking at disability retirement and the benefits, and there are doctors who will facilitate that," said John D.R. Clark, Garden Grove human resources director. Public safety unions say the disability laws are necessary to protect employees in dangerous professions.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/disability-368870-police-retirement.html

Press Democrat: Employee perks pay off in retirement in Sonoma County

The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., reports how Sonoma County Supervisor Mike Kerns, shortly before he retired in early 2011, had been making an annual salary of $134,097.But the county pension that he now receives is based on a much higher figure, his final earnings of $174,857. The 30 percent boost came from Kerns cashing out $12,850 in accrued administrative leave and the inclusion of nearly $28,000 in other non-salary pay and benefits the county owed him. Kerns worked 12 years for the county, so his annual pension of $53,542 is not one of the six-figure payments that has fueled public outrage over county retirement benefits. But like the top earners getting those pensions and hundreds of other former county employees, Kerns benefited from a system that allows workers to increase their retirement checks by including a wide range of pay and benefits outside of salary. County pension costs are up more than 400 percent since 2000 and the average annual compensation on which pensions are computed has risen 75 percent during that time to nearly $92,000 for workers retiring in 2011.

The Board of Supervisors, in charge of setting benefits for a retirement system they acknowledge is unsustainable, has made no changes despite public outcry that bloated pensions are compromising essential public services.

http://www.petaluma360.com/article/20120820/COMMUNITY/120829980/1362/community?Title=Sonoma-County-employee-perks-pay-off-in-retirement

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (8-16-2012)

Miami Herald: Florida’s state property insurance company hikes rates despite caps

The state-run insurer, Citizen’s Property Insurance Corp., is using a massive home inspection program — along with dozens of coverage cutbacks and policy changes — in an aggressive campaign to bolster its bottom line and reduce its level of risk. The campaign — which has intensified at the urging of Gov. Rick Scott — has already cost homeowners hundreds of millions of dollars. And the pocketbook impact could easily reach the billions as more and more homeowners are affected. For Patricia Temple, a 79-year-old retired librarian who lives alone on a fixed income, the premium hike is taking a large bite out of her limited budget. Her insurance premium jumped from $4,882 to $7,028. She’s not alone. Temple is one of hundreds of thousands of Floridians who have already been slammed by Citizens’ reinspections and other cost-hiking measures. As the state-run insurer intensifies its plans to raise rates and reduce what it covers, the impact on Florida’s fragile housing market and broader economy is being felt across the state. A Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau series will look at the effect of Citizens’ reinspections and price hikes on homeowners, and the rocky relationship between Citizens’ board of directors and the Legislature.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/11/2947408/citizens-insurance-a-storm-over.html

Arkansas Democrat: House candidate agrees state tax liens are public’s business

The Arkansas Democrat reports a Republican running for a state house seat in the November election has a state tax lien against him for $4,220.84, and he initially said that it’s "really no one else’s business.” But Daniel Linnet, who is vying with Ashdown Democrat Fonda Hawthorne for the House District 4 seat, later changed his mind about whether the lien is the public’s business. A lien is a legal claim or hold on a piece of property as security for the payment of a debt. It has the same force as a judgment issued by a circuit court. Linnett is one of five people who are either state lawmakers or legislative candidates with liens against them. The others are state Senate Republican Whip Michael Lamoureux; Senate Democratic Whip Joyce Elliott; state Legislative Council Co-Chairman Tommy Baker, a Democratic House member; and state House candidate Eddie Armstrong, a Democrat. The liens range from $1,100 to $4,220. Baker also has a federal tax lien for more than $32,000 against him.

Available online to subscribers only

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Spending by Beltway at taxpayer expense under scrutiny

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the wine bottle holder sent by Beltline staffers to their boss’s fiancee last year came with a congratulatory note on her upcoming wedding. What is did not say was who picked up the tab for the $106.22 gift. Atlanta taxpayers. That was far from all. Beltline employees, working to ring Atlanta, with 22 miles of parks, rails and transit rang up thousands of dollars in credit card expenses with a questionable link to redevelopment work between April 2010 and May 2011, according to a review by the newspaper. Taxpayers paid for elaborate staff retreats, stays at pricey hotels and expensive meals at some of the city’s finest restaurants. They covered a nearly $500 bills for kegs of beer and a $2,100 tab for food and Turner Field. And they footed the bill for Beltline chief executive Brian Leary’s parking ticket, his dry cleaning bill and his pre-dinner booze at a swank restaurant.

Available online to subscribers only

Austin American-Statesman: Rehab programs helping reduce prison population

The Austin American-Statesman reports the prison system in Texas posted its lowest head count in five years in July. Instead of 156,500 prisoners behind bars in Texas' 111 state prisons a year ago, the lockups now hold just over 154,000 — a drop of about 2,500, according to state statistics. Texas, which historically has had one of the highest incarceration rates per capita of the 50 states, is now in fourth place, down from second two years ago. Whether the declining prison population is the start of a long-term decrease or a short-lived dip is a matter of debate that will be settled only by time. Still, experts say, prison population declines are occurring in other states, too. Instead of sending more and more lawbreakers to prison, judges in Texas and other states are increasingly sentencing them to alternative treatment and rehabilitation programs that have proven more effective — and that cost much less. For taxpayers, that could mean safer communities and fewer expensive prisons to operate. For criminals, that could mean more effective programs to help them escape drug and other addictions and become law-abiding citizens again. A decrease in crime rates, changes in demographics and an aging state population also have a role in emptying Texas' prison beds, experts say.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/texas-prison-population-shrinks-as-rehabilitation-programs-take-2434526.html

Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel: Growing number of retirees still paying off mortgage

The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel reports more south Florida baby boomers are retiring while still paying mortgages — and some expect to make house payments into their 90s, mortgage brokers and financial planners say. It's part of a trend: Many current and future retirees are opting not to follow the traditional golden rule of paying off their home before their last day at work so they will have less expenses in retirement. "It's a very hot topic," said Howard Dvorkin, founder of the Fort Lauderdale-based Consolidated Credit Counseling Services that is now seeing more seniors grappling with large debt loads, including mortgages. In the past two decades, seniors have increasingly retired while still making house payments, Dvorkin said. Twenty percent of Floridians own their homes without loans, according to the U.S. Census. Seniors usually are the ones who own their homes outright, because they have had more time to pay off mortgages. However, some of those mortgage-paying retirees are well-off and want to keep their money in better-paying investments, financial planners say.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-08-11/news/fl-good-retirement-debt-20120808_1_high-credit-scores-mortgage-brokers-senior-mortgage-banker

Houston Chronicle: State workers collect millions in overtime

The Houston Chronicle reports furniture movers, food stamp specialists, scores of psychiatric assistants and Gov. Rick Perry's security troopers are among the top earners of $122 million in overtime paid last year to public employees in Texas. In some cases - though a small fraction considering the size of the Texas payroll - employees earned more overtime pay than they did from their set salaries, a Houston Chronicle analysis shows. At the top of the list is a Department of Public Safety sergeant, also a member of Perry's security detail, who earned $65,136.43 in overtime in addition to his $64,401.96 annual salary. Of the 56,948 state employees who received overtime, 1,988 earned more than $10,000 extra and nearly 40 earned more than their salaries in overtime. But it is the Texas Health and Human Services Commission that paid the most in overtime to staffers. Officials say the $27.8 million bill was primarily due to a backlog of Medicaid and food stamp applications caused by the stagnant economy. Overtime accounted for about 6 percent of last year's payroll.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Analysis-shows-some-state-workers-made-more-in-OT-3781742.php

Los Angeles Times: Metal recycling plants booming and poorly regulated

The Los Angeles Times reports the number of metal recycling operations in California has grown rapidly, fueled by rising world prices for metals, and far outstripping the ability of regulators to contend with the health and safety risks they pose. The newspaper’s investigation found that though they commonly handle hazardous materials and sometimes sit in residential neighborhoods, the firms are subject to inconsistent oversight by a patchwork of agencies. Many are rarely if ever inspected. In some cases, authorities are ill-prepared to handle emergencies. Firefighters at a United Alloys blaze in south Los Angeles unwittingly aimed their water hoses at burning titanium, causing an explosion, according to a federal safety report. In the last three years, at least 23 fires and explosions have occurred at scrap metal facilities in California, according to fire officials, fire department records and media accounts. At least five people have died in workplace accidents and at least 35 have suffered serious injuries, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Two of the deaths occurred on the same day in June in separate Central Valley accidents. Over the same three-year period, at least 20 other people, including firefighters and nearby residents, have required medical treatment for burns, poisonous gas exposure or smoke inhalation caused by accidents, interviews and records show.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/11/local/la-me-recycle-20120812

New York Times: U.S. officers say racial profiling rife at Boston’s Logan Airport

The New York Times reports more than 30 federal officers in an airport program intended to spot telltale mannerisms of potential terrorists say the operation has become a magnet for racial profiling, targeting not only Middle Easterners but also blacks, Hispanics and other minorities. In interviews and internal complaints, officers from the Transportation Security Administration’s "behavior detection” program at Logan International Airport in Boston asserted that passengers who fit certain profiles — Hispanics traveling to Miami, for instance, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward — are much more likely to be stopped, searched and questioned for "suspicious” behavior. "They just pull aside anyone who they don’t like the way they look — if they are black and have expensive clothes or jewelry, or if they are Hispanic,” said one white officer, who along with four others spoke with The New York Times on the condition of anonymity. The T.S.A. says it has opened an investigation into the claims. While the Obama administration has attacked the use of racial and ethnic profiling in Arizona and elsewhere, the claims by the Boston officers now put the agency and the administration in the awkward position of defending themselves against charges of profiling in a program billed as a model for airports nationwide.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/us/racial-profiling-at-boston-airport-officials-say.html?pagewanted=all

Maine Sunday Telegram: Lobstermen earnings lowest in 30 years

The Maine Sunday Telegram reports lobstermen this summer are getting paid as little as $2 to $2.50 a pound for their catch -- the lowest level in 30 years -- but the price escalates to $17 a pound or higher by the time a customer orders a lobster in a restaurant. The economics of the lobster industry have come into focus as Canadian lobstermen set up blockades to prevent Maine lobster from being shipped to New Brunswick processors. At the heart of the matter are the low prices that lobsters have commanded this year. With processors in New Brunswick paying less for Maine-caught lobsters, Canadian lobstermen say they can't compete -- and that the situation is threatening their livelihoods. As much as lobstermen complain that they get too low a price at the docks, dealers complain that the quality of lobsters this year is bad because of the warmer water temperatures -- which softens shells -- and that too much supply is ending up in processing plants, which pay less than the live market. Maine, which landed 105 million pounds last year, is the nation's largest lobster producer. The state catches 75 percent to 80 percent of the American lobsters -- Homarus americanus -- caught in the U.S., according to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine.

http://www.kjonline.com/news/protests-bring-lobster-economics-into-focus_2012-08-12.html

Reno Gazette-Journal: Parking meters glitches costing Reno more than $300,000

The Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal reports the digital parking kiosks in downtown Reno have been plagued by malfunctioning technology since their installation started last August, resulting in a significant increase in dismissed parking tickets and a drop in revenue to city coffers over the past fiscal year, according to city records obtained by the newspaper. Since Reno-based Curb System started installing the digital parking kiosks a year ago, customers have encountered blank screens, unresponsive keypads and, occasionally, a Microsoft Windows desktop when trying to pay for a parking spot at the kiosks, which accept credit card payments. Meanwhile, the company has not completed a network of sensors to alert parking enforcement officers when a car is in an unpaid parking spot, a key to enforcing downtown parking rules.As a result of the new system’s bugs, Reno barely covered its share of parking enforcement costs last fiscal year, according to financial records obtained by the RGJ.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20120812/NEWS/308120043/Glitches-in-Reno-s-new-parking-meters-have-cost-the-city-more-than-300-000-in-lost-revenue

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: About 40 percent in summer school fail to finish

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports thousands of city high school students attend summer school classes each year in search, administrators boast, of the extra push they need to make it to graduation. But for many teens, the district’s summer school programs provide little help finishing high school. Despite the large number of students enrolling in summer classes — between 3,700 and 4,000 in recent years — district data show that roughly 40 percent don’t complete the program. Most students who take the Regents exams in August do not pass.

And while the program does help about 100 additional students graduate on time every August, that number represents a small fraction of those enrolled who should be earning a diploma.

Oversight of the program is so lax that it took the City School District more than a month to provide basic data such as attendance rates — how many students actually show up for class. District officials said they had to generate a special report because no one had ever reviewed the information. Even then, school officials admitted the figures they provided were unreliable — some schools showed an unlikely 99.9 percent attendance rate — because of a computer system glitch.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120812/NEWS01/308120007/rescuing-rochesters-children-summer-school?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CRescuing%20Rochester%27s%20Children%7Cp&nclick_check=1

Columbus Dispatch: Did schools administrators delete student data to get bonuses?

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reports city school administrators might have handed themselves cash by falsifying student data, thanks to a district program that rewards employees with bonuses for boosting state report-card numbers. Some Columbus school administrators who records show deleted hundreds of student absences — and in some cases thousands — also received monetary bonuses for boosting their schools’ academic performance those same years, records show. The district’s "gainsharing” program rewards principals, teachers and others for demonstrating gains in "graduation rates, student attendance, achievement test scores” and other criteria, according to the Columbus teachers union contract. In past years, schools have split a pot of money that totaled nearly $1.9 million, with bonuses ranging from $75 for part-time workers to $3,000 for principals. A Dispatch investigation has found that district officials deleted and changed millions of student records over the past several years, potentially boosting the performance of the district and individual schools on state report cards.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/08/12/some-who-deleted-data-got-bonuses.html

The News Tribune: Jail overtime costs skyrocket

The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., reports that corrections deputies and other workers at the Pierce County Jail are racking up overtime at a pace that could put them more than $1.8 million over budget this year – more than double the overrun that elected leaders were told about less than two weeks ago. To help pay the bill, the county might have to redirect money from vacant patrol deputy positions. Sheriff’s Department leaders attribute the high overtime costs to guarding more inmates with mental-health problems, staff shortages due to corrections deputies on disability and military leave, and the uncertainty caused by potential budget cuts. The News Tribune obtained corrections overtime costs as of July 22 through a public records request last week. The projection far exceeds the estimated $800,000 overrun that Pierce County Council members were told about at a six-month budget report July 31.Gary Robinson, the county’s budget and finance director, gave the report to the council on July 31. Just to get to that $800,000 figure, the Sheriff’s Department proposed diverting some money from 18 vacant corrections positions and making other cost cuts, Robinson said.

Overtime spending for corrections is not a new problem for the Sheriff’s Department. The corrections bureau has overspent its overtime budget in each of the past five years, according to records.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/08/11/2252159/pierce-county-jail-ot-costs-soar.html

The Oklahoman: State lags in providing mental records for gun checks

The Oklahoman reports that Oklahoma consistently lags behind other states in supplying mental health records to the national database used for background checks, according to a 2011 report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national gun control advocacy group.Though federal law attempts to motivate states to submit these records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), Oklahoma has only sent three mental health records since 2009, according to Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Texas, by comparison, has sent nearly 200,000. An estimated 3 million Americans have been committed involuntarily to mental health facilities, but the federal database contains the names of about half of them. Delynn Fudge, federal grants division director for the Oklahoma District Attorney’s Council, says the state meets federal record-sharing standards in nine of the 10 categories of people prohibited from owning a firearm. The release of mental health records, though, explicitly is barred by state law, she said, and so it will take legislative action to circumvent that. "There’s a need to make sure that the Department of Mental Health can transfer information to the courts,” Fudge said. "And then there’s the issue of the courts. ... They don’t have an integrated court management system. So we have several areas of blockage, and we’re trying to address those barriers and move forward.”

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120812_16_A18_OKLAHO731234

Sacramento Bee: "Select” panels cost millions but rarely meet or report

The Sacramento Bee reports California's Senate Select Committee on International Business Trade is staffed with three employees whose combined salaries cost taxpayers more than $170,000 a year. It hasn't met even once in the past two years, however, and the only member is its chairman, Democratic Sen. Ron Calderon of Montebello. The trade panel is one of more than two dozen Senate study committees whose staff costs exceed $5 million annually. The committees are created to tackle key issues – renewable energy, college admissions, economic competitiveness – but Senate leaders acknowledge their rules do not set performance standards or require work to be documented. No breakdown of staffing or spending for each committee is posted. In practice, dozens of employees assigned to work with the committees end up serving largely as personal staff for the legislators – all members of the Democratic majority – who chair the panels. They work as press secretaries, legislative consultants or other personal office aides.The Assembly spends far less on select committees, less than $500,000 annually, but it has its own system for bolstering Democratic office staff through other committee funds: Its policy committees bankroll dozens of personal aides for the panels' chairmen, The Bee reported last year.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/12/4717551/california-legislatures-select.html

Tulsa World: E-ticket numbers (and revenue) soaring

The Tulsa (Okla.) World reports that since the launch of an electronic ticket system in 2010, Tulsa Police have been issuing more tickets, resulting in a financial bonanza in additional municipal court revenues. A Tulsa World analysis of the citations show annual revenues from fines have increased 45 percent, from $8.2 million to $11.9 million, since the e-ticket system implementation. The analysis of electronic data representing over 400,000 citations found that TPD is on pace this year to write about one-third more tickets than it did three years ago. City officials credit the electronic citation devices, which the city began using in 2010, as the reason for the increase. About eight out of 10 tickets written by Tulsa police officers fall into five categories: speeding tickets, no valid driver's license, no proof of insurance, failure to wear a seatbelt and expired license tag. The rapid increase in ticket writing has resulted in more than 82,903 citations being issued in 2011, with the department on pace to write nearly 86,000 this year.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120812_11_A1_CUTLIN820137

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (8-9-2012)

Anchorage Daily News: Texting loophole may skirt public disclosure

The Anchorage Daily News reports a former official in Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell's administration says the governor's office sees text messages as a way to communicate about sensitive issues while avoiding public disclosure through the open records law. Parnell's aides deny that is their intent. But it's clear text messages sent by state officials on state cellphones represent a big loophole in Alaska's open records law, under which texts appear to fall under the same disclosure rules as emails and paper documents but are not retained by government in the same manner. The governor's spokeswoman says texts are not saved and the public has no right to see them, even as Parnell officials text while his administration takes on controversial issues such as trying to cut taxes on the oil companies by billions of dollars.

http://www.adn.com/2012/08/04/2572339/ex-parnell-official-says-governors.html#storylink=cpy

Arizona Daily Star:Top 1,000 city salaries trump area’s average pay

The Arizona Daily Star reports a review of last year’s salaries in Tucson and Pima County showed the 1,000th highest-paid employee earned $72,411, which is $37,000 more than the average Tucsonan. Pima County paid its 1,000th top earner $63,258, about $28,000 more than the average resident pulls down. Collectively, those top 1,000 city paychecks clock in at $89.4 million, excluding benefits and pensions. For the county, it was $85.3 million. Tucson pays 192 employees $100,000 or more and spent $22.1 million total on those salaries, or roughly $2 million more than what the city is asking taxpayers to approve for a road repair bond in this November's bond election. In comparison to similar communities in the region, the Star's analysis shows Tucson trends toward the high side in how much it pays its top workers. Only Mesa showed a higher figure for its 1,000th salaried employee, at nearly $78,000.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nVfvhtilEI-UfxjL2P7wjgJMduA8XEbPBMIInatXpvM/edit

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Efforts to speed poultry slaughter lines controversial

Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that just one third of a second is all a federal inspector will have to examine slaughtered chickens for contaminants and disease under new rules proposed by the federal government. The proposal would speed up production lines as much as 25 percent. It would also pull most federal inspectors off the lines and replace them with plant workers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says its proposal is a win-win-win that modernizes food inspection while saving money for taxpayers and the poultry industry. The nation’s most recognized food safety and consumption groups, however, say the plan would leave gaping holes in oversight that will endanger the nation’s food supply, not to mention create a conflict of interest for poultry plants.

Available online to subscribers only

Austin American-Statesman: Waco claims office for veterans has nation’s longest wait

Austin American-Statesman reports the Department of Veterans Affairs’ claims processing center in Waco, which serves Central Texas veterans, has the nation's longest average wait time for claims processing: roughly 393 days, according to the VA's most recent numbers. That's 139 days longer than the national average and more than three times as long as the nation's fastest claims processing center in St. Paul, Minn. During the claims process, VA officials evaluate medical, service and financial records before determining a disability percentage, or rating. And over the past 12 months, nearly 1 of every 5 claims processed in Waco has been plagued by errors, which can range from incorrect paperwork to failure to locate records or order medical tests, according to agency numbers. Inaccurate claims often lead veterans into appeals that can last for years. A disability rating can unlock a host of federal and state programs for veterans, from low-interest loans to hiring preferences for federal jobs to free tolls on Houston roads. Perhaps most importantly, some veterans can't access free medical care until their claim is approved. The two VA claims offices in Texas — Waco and Houston — are among the busiest in the nation, each completing more claims than all but a handful of other regional offices. Local VA officials say that the Waco and Houston offices are simply feeling the same pressures driving the backlog nationally: a sour economy, aging Vietnam and World War II veterans, an influx of younger veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and new rules that make it easier to file claims.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/central-texas-veterans-face-nations-longest-wait-for-2428253.html?printArticle=y

Bergen Record: Superfund cuts mean N.J. groundwater could remain contaminated

The Bergen Record reports proposed cuts to the federal Superfund program may delay the long-term cleanup of cancer-causing chromium that has spread underneath a neighborhood of hundreds of homes and businesses in Garfield, N.J. President Obama’s plan to cut $37 million from the Superfund program as well as the strong potential for even more cuts in the future would force federal environmental officials to postpone the start of remediation projects at toxic sites nationwide. These are the sites that are funded exclusively by taxpayers, which includes the Garfield site, where cancer-causing chromium has been spreading under a neighborhood of 3,700 residents for almost three decades. As the U.S. continues to struggle with its history of industrial pollution, Garfield finds itself in the middle of a debate in Congress over who should pay for the cleanup of the worst toxic sites in the nation. Once seen as a surefire way to rid New Jersey of its record number of Superfund sites, the program has been stymied over the years by a dwindling amount of funding leading to cleanups that move at a glacial pace.

http://www.northjersey.com/garfield/Superfund_cuts_could_delay_Garfield_cleanup.html

Chicago Tribune: Tiny suburb spawns powerful political machine in Chicago suburb

The Chicago Tribune in conjunction with Northwestern University's Medill Watchdog has documented how officials of the Chicago suburb of Rosemont pay out government cash to friends and family while extending their power across Illinois. It is a story of big building and big contracts fostered by big borrowing — one that stretches back decades and continues today as Rosemont launches yet another round of taxpayer-backed expansion. With every cab ride to and from a Chicago airport, 25 cents of the fare goes to the tiny suburb renowned for insider dealing and outsize clout. Those coins add up to millions a year for Rosemont and help fuel a political machine that thrives under Illinois' mix of lax borrowing, spending and ethics rules. Rosemont's massive Allstate Arena, plush Akoo Theatre and cavernous Donald E. Stephens Convention Center have long raked in cash from visitors, while officials, in turn, unabashedly paid out multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts to the family and friends of the town's ruling family: the Stephenses. Even a cleaning firm owned by the mayor's brother gets about $4 million a year. Rosemont contractors, meanwhile, keep the Stephenses powerful by pouring money into political funds controlled by the family — nearly $2 million in the last five years. The campaign cash frequently ends up with top state politicians and in the pockets of family members.

In Illinois, all of this is as legal as the tax that lawmakers levied on cab riders to aid Rosemont.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-05/news/ct-met-debt-rosemont-0805-20120805_1_bradley-stephens-rosemont-akoo-theatre

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Cheap county bail raises eyebrows in Forth Worth

The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reports more than 8,800 criminal defendants in Tarrant County have walked out of jail in 2 1/2 years on a cut-rate bond that county officials say is reserved for the likes of the homemaker, the family man and the working stiff. These defendants are unlikely to flee or pose a danger to others, the county says. So instead of lingering in jail until their court dates, the suspects are released on a personal bond that is a fraction of what they would have paid a bondsman. It can cost as little as $20. Tarrant County Pretrial Services, which runs the program, says that only those who commit minor offenses are eligible. Although the program costs $1.2 million a year, mostly for personnel costs, pretrial release saves taxpayer money because fewer people are housed in jail, the county says. But a Star-Telegram investigation found that some suspects accused of felonies have been released under the program. Also approved for release have been defendants with criminal histories and those who have broken previous promises to appear in court, records show.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/08/04/4154843/some-tarrant-felony-defendants.html

Lexington Herald-Leader: Ex-official’s travel, other expenses for two years: $55,010

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the former head of the state agencies that oversee student financial aid in Kentucky spent $55,010 on travel and entertainment in 2010 and 2011, including $42,000 for 30 out-of-state trips, according to a review by the Lexington Herald-Leader. While travelling in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C., Edward Cunningham often treated dinner guests to meals that cost more than $100 a person, according to expense reports requested by the newspaper in February under the Kentucky Open Records Act. Cunningham abruptly retired from his post as chief executive of the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority and the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corp. after a board meeting April 17. Cunningham, who had led the closely related agencies since July 2006, gave no explanation for his departure in a resignation letter and could not be reached for comment by the newspaper. Board members and agency officials said questions about Cunningham's expenses were not behind his decision to retire and have defended most of the spending, which they said was aimed at bringing more money to the organizations at a time of upheaval in its business model. Diana Barber, a lawyer for the organizations, said all of Cunningham's expenses were vetted by an internal auditor, the finance committee of their governing board and an external auditor.

http://www.kentucky.com/2012/08/05/2285645/former-head-of-kentucky-student.html

The Los Angeles Times: Boy Scouts’ abuse "barrier” often porous

The Los Angeles Times reported that for nearly a century, the Boy Scouts of America has relied on a confidential blacklist known as the "perversion files" as a crucial line of defense against sexual predators. Scouting officials say they've used the files to prevent hundreds of men who had been expelled for alleged sexual abuse from returning to the ranks. They've fought hard in court to keep the records from public view, saying confidentiality was needed to protect victims, witnesses and anyone falsely accused. That barrier, however, has been breached repeatedly. A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files dating from 1970 to 1991 found more than 125 cases across the country in which men allegedly continued to molest Scouts after the organization was first presented with detailed allegations of abusive behavior. Predators slipped back into the program by falsifying personal information or skirting the registration process. Others were able to jump from troop to troop around the country thanks to clerical errors, computer glitches or the Scouts' failure to check the blacklist.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-boyscouts-20120805-m,0,5822319.story

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Electroshock therapy rebounds at Minneapolis medical center

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports electroconvulsive therapy, once branded a barbaric relic of primitive psychotherapy, has made a major comeback and is being administered to patients thousands of times a year at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. Doctors at HCMC administered ECT 2,206 times in 2011, twice the number of procedures they employed as recently as 2009. Many of those sessions have taken place with judicial approval to treat patients under civil commitment by the county's Mental Health Court. Psychiatrists say unequivocally that the treatment -- which became infamous as the "electroshock'' depicted in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' and other films -- saves lives. Advocates say the side effects -- headaches and some memory loss -- are a small price to pay for a success rate that can be as high as 70 to 80 percent for cases of uncomplicated but severe depression that fail to respond to other treatment. Critics contend ECT is still dangerous, under-researched and capable of causing significant memory loss.

http://m.startribune.com/news/?id=165018866

The Virginian-Pilot: Five-year backlog of police review cases unveiled

The Virginian-Pilot reports a mid-level staffer in Norfolk’s Human Resources Department assigned last summer to manage a citizen panel tasked with reviewing complaints about police officers made a shocking discovery: a box full of complaints going back five years that nobody had reviewed. Some hadn't even been opened. Bonnie Hall reported the finding to her boss in March. But the problem wasn't addressed, according to a five-page memo Hall wrote in June, which The Virginian-Pilot obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Investigation Review Panel was established in 1991 as an appeal process for those unhappy with findings by the Police Department's internal investigation division about complaints against officers. The panel is supposed to be composed of city residents and managed by Human Resources, independent of the police. A confluence of events this summer led to the bizarre realization that the panel hadn't met in seven years. At least 67 unanswered complaints had piled up. Pressure started building on Human Resources in February, when a Marine Corps lawyer named Butch Bracknell inquired about being appointed to the panel. Despite numerous calls and emails to the department, he never heard back. An anonymous city employee used the city's waste, fraud and abuse hotline to tip off City Auditor Lyndon Remias to the department's lack of response to Bracknell, and Remias began to investigate.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/08/persistence-hotline-tip-revealed-backlog-va-beach

Orange County Register: Schools in disrepair as state promises unfulfilled

The Orange County Register reports that eight years after California settled a landmark lawsuit promising hundreds of millions of dollars to repair shoddy school facilities, more than 700 schools still are waiting for their share of funds as students take classes on dilapidated campuses with health and safety hazards. California has funded less than half of the $800 million required by the Emergency Repair Program, which grew out of a class-action lawsuit against the state that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to settle. Since then, schools in 39 counties have waited as long as four years for the money to fix leaking roofs, crumbling pavement and clogged sewer lines.As their projects languish without funding, schools are watching buildings deteriorate and hairline fissures split into cracks wide enough to swallow pennies. They're scraping by with temporary fixes, diverting money from their classrooms and delaying other critical facility repairs. In Orange County, 29 schools, most in the Santa Ana Unified School District, are waiting for nearly $74.5 million in emergency repair funding that the state has approved but not yet paid. The state owes 15 schools more than $1 million each, including nearly $17.6 million to Saddleback High.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/program-367014-state-million.html

Columbus Dispatch: Many misbehaving Ohio students with disabilities isolated

The Columbus Dispatch reports some Ohio children with disabilities are regularly isolated in cell-like rooms, closets or old offices when they behave badly. The rooms are supposed to be used to calm or restrain children who become violent. But an investigation by The Dispatch and StateImpact Ohio, which is a collaboration of NPR and Ohio public-radio stations, found that they’re being misused. The Dispatch and StateImpact Ohio requested records from 100 districts and charter schools across the state selected to represent a variety of school types and found that 39 set aside rooms to isolate children. Only a handful had rules about how long students should be in them or why, leaving the decision to school employees. Some teachers say that seclusion rooms are effective tools when used properly. No law governs seclusion rooms, and the Ohio Department of Education has provided little guidance and virtually no oversight to schools. The department has no idea which districts have seclusion rooms because it has not asked. It does not know how often vulnerable children are locked alone in rooms and does not intend to tell schools to stop doing it. Sometimes, even parents don’t know when it happens to their children.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/topic/special-reports/2012/seclusion-rooms.html

Tennessean: Opposing Islam in Tennessee seems a battle with no end

The Tennessean reports that Rutherford County has been in the middle of a perfect storm over Islam for more than two years. And while furor over the "Ground Zero” mosque in New York has faded, the dispute over the new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro — which began around the same time — has only grown more intense. Fueled by fears that Muslims are gaining influence while Christians are losing clout, activists have battled to block construction of the Murfreesboro mosque. They’ve argued over the minutia of county zoning laws and whether Islam is a religion.

Mosque opponents say they are fighting for the soul of America. With the mosque set to open this month, some residents have raised new concerns by protesting requests for accommodations for Muslim students to pray in local schools. Dozens of critics of Islam showed up at a recent Rutherford County school board meeting to voice their disapproval. And they plan to oppose any attempts by local Muslims to influence life in Rutherford County.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/D4/20120805/NEWS01/308050041

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM (8-2-2012)

Arizona Daily Star: Rio Nuevo solves mystery of missing millions

The Arizona Daily Star reports that Rio Nuevo may have found its missing millions: Some downtown businesses weren't coding their tax filings properly, so state sales tax revenue owed to the revitalization effort wasn't getting there. No one with Rio Nuevo, the city or the state would venture a guess how much could be at stake, but it could easily be millions - and it's unclear when or how much of it will be recovered. A recent audit of one business turned up $2.2 million. And a limited survey of a stretch of East Broadway turned up five more whose tax payments weren't reaching Rio Nuevo's coffers.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/rio-nuevo-solves-mystery-of-missing-millions/article_393f4664-b3f3-5ee8-b4be-434aa1c74c27.html

Austin American-Statesman: Still no free tolls for disabled veterans in Central Texas

The Austin American-Statesman reports that in the three years since the Texas Legislature passed a bill giving the state's toll road agencies the authority to grant free rides to disabled veterans, the two agencies that manage pay-to-ride roads in Central Texas have yet to implement the toll discount and don't have any immediate plans to do so. Statewide, only toll authorities in the Houston area have adopted the 2009 law. The inaction has angered veterans groups and legislators. Some toll officials in the state worry the veteran toll discount would open a Pandora's box of toll discounts for other groups. Others say it could be too expensive, despite the experience of Harris County toll officials. The area's largest toll road authority — the Texas Department of Transportation, which operates Texas 45 North and Southeast, Loop 1 and Texas 130 — says that granting free tolls for disabled veterans could negatively affect annual revenues by up to 10 percent, based on a 2009 analysis of disabled veteran and Purple Heart plates in Travis and Williamson counties.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/despite-2009-law-still-no-free-tolls-for-2424102.html

Dallas Morning News: Funding of Dallas employee retirement parties raises questions

Early this year, Dallas City Hall officials asked that money be refunded to half a dozen city contractors after it became clear that a city employee had solicited donations for a retirement party. But that party was not unique. Months earlier, city contractors had chipped in $12,439 toward a retirement party for a top water department official, Charles Stringer, according to city records obtained by The Dallas Morning News. In addition to a $5,100 catering bill, the tab included gifts — lots of them: $2,500 in tickets to a Dallas Cowboys game; a $2,000 ride in a vintage World War II fighter plane; a $700 camera; an $800 handgun; $100 in Texas Rangers tickets; a $700 race car ride. An itemized accounting of the contractors’ contributions was included in emails between a vendor and city officials. The total cost of the party is not clear. Stringer’s colleagues also appear to have contributed. City employees worked for weeks to plan the event, but it’s unclear exactly how the contractor donations came about. Water department director Jody Puckett said she couldn’t remember the details.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20120728-city-vendor-funding-of-dallas-employee-retirement-parties-raises-ethics-questions.ece

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: 'Oxy Express' gives birth to drug-addicted babies

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports that Florida's pill epidemic has spread to a new generation of innocents — newborns hooked on prescription drugs. The trend has even startled Attorney General Pam Bondi, who called it "the next crack baby epidemic." The fallout is wide-reaching. Thousands of babies each year are struggling through withdrawal. An already-strapped child welfare system is seeing its caseload swell. Area rehab centers are adding new beds to meet demand. And neonatal nurses, the ones on the front lines of a new war on addiction, are steeling themselves through the months-long care of jittery, screaming, inconsolable infants.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-07-28/news/fl-painkiller-addicted-babies-20120717-1_1_crack-baby-epidemic-prescription-drug-abuse-pill-mills

Indianapolis Star: Big campaign donors can remain a big secret

The Indianapolis Star reports that a $1 million check given to U.S. Rep. Mike Pence's campaign for governor this spring is fueling questions about influence over Indiana elections. And not just because of the check's size -- although the donation was the first single contribution to an Indiana gubernatorial candidate to reach seven figures in nearly a decade. The issue: a loophole between federal and state election laws makes it impossible to pinpoint exactly who supplied the money. That shroud of secrecy raises the possibility that corporations could skirt a $5,000 contribution limit set by Indiana law, campaign finance experts say. In fact, one Indiana gambling company -- barred by state law from giving directly to a candidate at all -- is staying involved in politics by instead donating to federal political organizations, including the Republican Governors Association. That is the group behind the super PAC -- now called RGA Right Direction -- that sent the check to Pence.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120728/NEWS05/207280348/Big-campaign-donors-can-remain-big-secret

Miami Herald: Property-tax cheats facing crackdown

The Miami Herald reports that for years — decades, really — Miami-Dade homeowners have been ducking property taxes by illegally claiming homestead exemptions, usually with impunity.

There are people like Joseph and Sheron Barnes, who according to county records rented out a house at 1132 NE 84th Street and listed it as their permanent residence. And there are others like the heirs of Willadean Allen, who records say left the lucrative homestead status on her home at 8605 SW 56th St. for 17 years after she died, chalking up tax savings year after year.

Still others double dipped, like Maria Eugenia Escagedo, also known as Maria Fleites, who records show claimed homestead on 13180 Old Cutler Rd. and on a second home, too. But these days, gambling on getting caught is a fool’s game.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/28/2918219/property-tax-cheats-facing-crackdown.html#storylink=cpy

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Lenders' mistakes cost homeowners on flood insurance

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that thousands of homeowners in Minnesota and across the country are being pressured to buy flood insurance by their mortgage lenders, despite evidence showing that many of these homes are well outside danger zones. Though the federal government's new flood maps are more accurate than ever, state and local officials say lenders and their agents are making obvious mistakes in their interpretation of flood risk. Chisago County officials said they have intervened this year on behalf of 20 property owners who were wrongly classified as living in high-risk zones where flood insurance would be mandatory. Officials in Stearns and Washington counties also have taken steps to correct the record for dozens of homeowners who face minimal, if any, risk of flooding. In many cases, lenders are giving homeowners just 45 days to buy flood insurance or threatening to obtain it for them, often at exorbitant prices. Some homeowners have been told their premiums could run as high as $6,400 a year.

http://www.startribune.com/local/164151636.html?refer=y

Mobile Register: Levels of deadly bacteria more than 100 times higher during the BP spill

Although the Gulf’s oyster harvest was off by about 40 percent due to fishing closures stemming from the BP oil spill, 2010 ranks as one of the deadliest years on record for illnesses caused by eating oysters tainted with Vibrio vulnificus. A new analysis by the Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register of scientific papers suggests that the deadly bacteria was hundreds of times more abundant in the Gulf in the months during and after the BP oil spill than in previous years. The newspaper shared its findings with scientists and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Agency officials agreed that the bacteria levels in Gulf seawater and sediments were elevated during and after the spill and said that may have translated into an increased risk of infection for people eating oysters.

http://blog.al.com/live/2012/07/levels_of_deadly_bacteria_more.html

New York Times: Doctor Shortage Likely to Worsen With Health Law

The New York Times reports that in the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now. Temetry Lindsey, chief executive of Inland Health Services, seeks to hire more doctors. Other places around the country, including the Mississippi Delta, Detroit and suburban Phoenix, face similar problems. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. And that number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand for care. Even without the health care law, the shortfall of doctors in 2025 would still exceed 100,000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/health/policy/too-few-doctors-in-many-us-communities.html

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: Looming Navy shuffle to make big waves in region

One of every five Navy ships in Hampton Roads is slated to be relocated or decommissioned in the next five years, changes that will leave the region with 5,400 fewer sailors, a Virginian-Pilot analysis has found. The Navy’s plans call for 17 of the 71 ships homeported here to be gone by 2017, along with more than 8,300 sailors assigned to them. The vessels include an aircraft carrier, a half-dozen destroyers, four frigates, four amphibious vessels, a cruiser and a submarine. Additionally, about 440 sailors assigned to two fighter squadrons will transfer from Oceana Naval Air Station to California. Countering some of the losses, three ships and about 3,400 sailors are slated to move to Hampton Roads. Several ship and squadron transfers have been announced or noted in public documents, but thefigures compiled by The Pilot, which the Navy acknowledged are accurate, show the cumulative impact of the departures: The military’s footprint in Hampton Roads will noticeably shrink, and the local economy will feel the pinch.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/07/looming-navy-shuffle-make-big-waves-region

Orange County Register: High housing payments the new 'American nightmare'

The Orange County Register reports that during the past decade millions of Californians have begun paying a much larger share of their income for housing. The map shows the counties where households with mortgages were paying half or more of their income for housing in 2010. Click on a county to see the percentage of households paying a given range of income in 2000 and in 2010. No information is available for seven lightly populated counties. The data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 census and 2008-2010 American Community Survey.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/percent-365633-loan-income.html

Orlando Sentinel: Oxycodone crackdown drives addicts to other drugs

For years, oxycodone reigned as the prescription drug of choice for dealers and abusers in Florida. The painkiller was so widely prescribed in the Sunshine State that just two years ago, 90 of the top 100 oxycodone-buying physicians in the nation were from Florida. But a major crackdown by law enforcement, a new prescription-drug-monitoring database, legislation and other factors have caused a significant reduction in the amount of oxycodone available in Florida. Authorities say Central Florida physicians are prescribing less oxycodone now than in the past, partly because they're now being tracked by the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Some local pharmacists also are reluctant to fill prescriptions they think might be suspect. That means abusers are turning to other drugs, such as the painkiller hydromorphone, investigators say.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-28/health/os-oxycodone-drug-shift-dilaudid-20120728_1_oxycodone-prescription-drugs-dilaudid-pills

Philadelphia Inquirer: PSSA-cheating reforms yield lower scores across Pa.

After authorities imposed unprecedented security measures on the 2012 statewide exams, test scores tumbled across Pennsylvania, The Philadelphia Inquirer has learned. At some schools, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Ronald Tomalis said, the drops are "noticeable" - 25 percent or more. In some school systems, investigators have found evidence of outright doctoring of previous years' tests - and systemic fraud that took place across multiple grades and subjects. In Philadelphia and elsewhere, some educators have already confessed to cheating, and investigators have found violations ranging from "overcoaching" to pausing a test to reteach material covered in the exam, according to people familiar with the investigations. A "significant" number of administrators at 53 city public schools under investigation - some after admitting to cheating - have agreed to cooperate with investigators, sources said. The sources declined to name them.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-30/news/32924357_1_erasure-patterns-education-ronald-tomalis-pssa-results

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: What should colleges contribute for services?

For Henrietta firefighters, calls to Rochester Institute of Technology are nothing out of the ordinary: 13 percent of the fire district’s calls last year came from the campus — 473 in total.

But even though RIT owns about $380 million of property in the district, the college contributed only $35,000 to Henrietta Fire District’s 2011 budget — less than one percent of the $6.8 million total. That’s because most of RIT’s property, like almost all real estate owned by colleges and universities in the Rochester area, is tax exempt. A Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle review of such exemptions for local colleges found that, while the New York Constitution and state law entitle institutions of higher learning to be exempt from property tax, the value of property off the tax rolls in the area is considerable and can be a source of conflict between colleges and the communities.

http://her.democratandchronicle.com/print/article/20120729/NEWS01/307290026/RIT-UR-Hobart-taxes

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland's financial time bomb: pensions

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that it was 1976 when the city of Oakland realized it had a major problem on its hands: A pension created 25 years earlier to benefit police officers, firefighters and their widows was proving too costly toafford. So the city closed the plan to new employees and later passed a parcel tax to pay for the pension. Yet today, that pension remains the source of one of Oakland's biggestheadaches. The result of the borrowing is that the pension, known as the Police and Fire Retirement System, has cost Oakland taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more than it should have. In 2010, City Auditor Courtney Ruby found Oakland spent $250 million more on the pension than it would have if the city had simply paid into the pension - and that was just for one of its bonddeals.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-s-financial-time-bomb-pensions-3743946.php

San Jose Mercury News: State's 'special' funds flush with cash

The San Jose Mercury News reports that as California uses one arm of state government to ax services and ask for new taxes, a seldom-watched arm is raking in cash hand over fist. A review by this newspaper found that the state's 500-plus "special funds," like the ones at the center of this month's hidden-money parks scandal, have nearly tripled their spending since 2000 as highly scrutinized general fund spending has barely budged. California now spends nearly $40 billion on special fund programs, more than every state except New York and Texas spends on its entire general fund. The special fund money pays for an amazing array of services, from major priorities such as mental health, hospital construction and highway repairs to obscure things like bingo halls, acupuncture and midwifery. Fees like the cost to enter a state park or the 5-cent recycling fee on a soda can -- not your taxes -- fuel the state's special funds. Yet more and more, the state is borrowing billions of dollars from these special accounts to balance the general budget used to fund such things as education and prisons.

http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_21183013

Cincinnati Enquirer: Will Ohio count your vote?

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that each election year, Ohio residents cast thousands of ballots that are not counted. Despite efforts to simplify the state’s voting to avoid widespread discarding of ballots, it could happen again in November’s presidential race. The Enquirer, during a weeks-long examination of the state’s electoral procedures, found that voting – America’s most precious right and the foundation for all others – is a fragile civic exercise for many Ohioans.

A confusing maze of state laws, administrative directives and court rulings on voting procedures, errors – by voters and poll workers alike – and other factors cause large numbers of ballots to end up in the electoral trash can every year, particularly in urban counties.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120728/NEWS/307290025/Will-Ohio-count-your-vote-

Columbus Dispatch: ‘Strip-mall casinos’

The Columbus Dispatch reported that in a state where gambling is exploding — with four 24-hour casinos, "racinos” at seven horse-race tracks, Keno, Powerball and the state lottery — one form of gambling remains completely unregulated and untracked. Ohio has at least 772 Internet sweepstakes cafes, mysterious businesses that some call "strip-mall casinos.” They have no rules, required payouts or oversight. The only thing cafe owners must do is file an affidavit of operation with the state.

There is a moratorium on new Internet cafes but only until June 30, 2013. In most cases, no one knows where the money to start cafes comes from or where the profits go. Owners and operators do not have to undergo background checks. Unlike slot machines and video-lottery terminals, which are inspected by the state and must, by law, pay at least 85 percent of the money bet back to customers, there are no inspections or required payouts for Internet terminals.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/07/29/strip-mall-casinos.html

Columbus Dispatch: Schools’ timing suspect

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Columbus City Schools mysteriously withdrew students during the 2009-10 school year who came to school every day. They had perfect attendance, but somehow, at the same time, they were not in school, computer records show. ”It’s about excluding low test scores,” suspects Keith Finn, a former district data analyst. Finn, who analyzed the records for the district’s internal auditor, retired in January before he could check how the kids performed on state achievement tests. Finn speculates those students’ test scores weren’t very good and they were withdrawn only to remove their scores from the data system.

That not only would make the school look as if it were doing a better job of teaching but also could have helped staff members qualify for bonuses for boosting student performance.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/07/29/schools-timing-suspect.html

Idaho Statesman: Car-bike crashes have increased in the Treasure Valley since 2007

The Idaho Statesman reported that if you are going to ride a bike on city streets in Ada County, you may want to avoid Fairview Avenue and the arterial streets around it. Recently compiled statistics from the Idaho Department of Transportation show those intersections are the most common places for car vs. bike crashes in Ada County during the past five years. Those arterials are not designed for bike traffic — which means drivers and cyclists who have to share those streets need to understand traffic laws and work to be aware of each other. ITD reports say the total number of car-vs.-bike crashes in Ada County in 2007 was 143. The number in 2011? 179.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/07/29/2206856/car-bike-crashes-rise-since-2007.html#storylink=cpy

Post-Crescent: Econ 101: Make sense of complex statistics

The Appleton (Wis.) Post-Crescent reports that conflicting statistics about job growth and unemployment — bandied about throughout a marathon state election cycle and likely to continue in the months leading up to Election Day in November — make monitoring the economy sometimes feel like reading fortunes from tea leaves. As a rule of thumb, people should pay most attention to leading indicators, such as consumer confidence levels, which provide hints about where the economy is headed. Less weight should be given to lagging indicators, such as foreclosure filings or consumer price index changes, which measure what already has occurred.

Experts also suggest keeping an eye on multiple indicators instead of leaning heavily on a single measure, a common pitfall with jobs and unemployment trends.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20120728/APC0101/307280225/Econ-101-Make-sense-complex-statistics

Tulsa World: School administrator perks include upscaleSUVs

A review of auto allowances and use of district-owned vehicles for Tulsa-area school administrators shows that they can be expensive, taxpayer-funded "perks” in some cases. A Tulsa World examination of public records requested under the Oklahoma Open Records Act found only two superintendents with no vehicle or travel allowance, while on the other end of the spectrum, four Union Public Schools administrators get full use of district-owned Acura vehicles as part of their benefits package. The newspaper surveyed Tulsa County school districts because most superintendents did not report auto allowances as part of their compensation packages to the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Even so, the average total compensation reported to the state among Tulsa County school district superintendents for 2011-12 was $155,066. Union Associate Superintendent Kirt Hartzler and Chief Financial Officer Debra Jacoby received new 2012 Acura MDX model SUVs in January, at a cost each of just over $52,000 and nearly $30,000 respectively, records show. Superintendent Cathy Burden drives a 2010 Acura RL sedan purchased by the district for $45,000, while Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Kathy Dodd drives a 2007 Acura MDX bought for just over $33,000, according to district records. Ed Payton, immediate past president of the Union school board, explained that the board voted to purchase Acuras rather than less expensive vehicles as a way to attract and retain the best leaders.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20120728_298_0_Arvefa587612&allcom=1

The Tennessean: Voter ID law still an issue for some

The Tennessean reports that large rural pockets of Tennessee do not have offices where people can obtain photo IDs from the state, a recent study says, despite officials’ pledges to keep the state’s new ID requirement from turning away legitimate voters. That means the new law affects rural white voters as well as minorities, contradicting a common assumption made by members of both major political parties. For some, particularly the poor and elderly, time and distance could be bigger deterrents than the cost of the ID cards themselves. Even when fees are waived, getting the cards can mean long rides to driver service centers in neighboring counties, often at the inconvenience of friends and relatives. The hurdles can be cleared. According to records maintained by the Tennessee Department of Safety, at least 3,300 people have crossed county lines to obtain a photo ID card from the state since July 1, 2011. But there’s no way to count those who weren’t as determined as Blount and gave up on the prospect of voting.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/D4/20120729/NEWS03/307290038

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM: July 26, 2012

AP IMPACT: Gas line safety valves resisted

The bulldozer was clearing land outside a day care center in Hapeville, Ga., when it broke open a buried 1-inch pipeline. The escaping gas ignited into a fireball that killed nine people, including seven children settling down for their afternoon naps.

That was 1968. Since then, there have been at least 270 similar accidents across the country that could have been prevented or made less dangerous by a valve that cuts off leaking gas and costs as little as $10-$15 for homes and small businesses and $200-$300 for larger buildings, an Associated Press investigation found.

Yet nearly 90 percent of the nation's gas service lines aren't fitted with the valves. Despite persistent government recommendations, the gas industry has argued that they are unreliable and cost too much to install — $207 million over 50 years in one industry-commissioned study, more than $1 billion in another estimate.

In the meantime, the accidents continued: Since Hapeville, at least 67 people have been killed and more than 350 hurt in accidents where the valves could have helped but weren't installed. Six people were killed in a Minnesota store blast in 1972. A 25-story Manhattan building was destroyed in 1974, injuring 70 people. Four people died and six buildings were leveled in an explosion in 1998 in St. Cloud, Minn.

"There were lives lost that did not need to be lost," said Robert Hall, deputy director of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for investigating pipeline accidents.

The NTSB recommended the valves 16 times, but only in 2009, under pressure from Congress, was a rule approved — to make the devices mandatory only on lines leading to new, single-family homes. Now, regulators are considering expanding that to new or replaced pipelines serving millions of multifamily homes and commercial buildings. And the utilities are objecting.

"NTSB has made excess flow valves some kind of holy war where they think everything should have a valve on it," said Don Stursma, an official at the Iowa Utilities Board who sits on an advisory board to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Pipeline agency officials say they will decide whether to push ahead with the new rules sometime next year.

The valves are designed to trip automatically when there is a break in a service line, the narrow-diameter pipes that serve individual homes and businesses. A sudden rush of escaping gas pushes a small, spring-loaded stopper inside the valve, plugging the line.

Without them, gas can leak unchecked into a building or house, pooling until an ignition source — turning on the stove, a pilot light in the water heater, even an electrical spark from a cellphone — triggers an explosion or fire.

The most complete government records, covering 2004 to the present, showed 187 accidents that potentially could have been avoided or mitigated, according to the AP's review.

That includes 148 cases the U.S. Transportation Department said could have been averted or diminished if valves were in place. The department released details on those accidents in response to a public records request from the AP. Applying the agency's criteria, the AP found 39 more. Another 84 cases were identified by NTSB investigators or mentioned in Transportation Department studies.

There are more than 66 million natural gas service lines in the U.S., but only about one in 10 had excess flow valves, according to the government's most recent data. Almost 46 million new service lines have been installed since 1970 — about 39 million without excess flow valves. That's about 39 million "missed opportunities," as Hall put it.

The federal pipeline safety agency, which sets pipeline rules, announced last year that it was considering requiring the valves for multifamily dwellings and commercial buildings. The agency believes the 2009 mandate for safety valves on single-family homes "only partially addressed" the NTSB's recommendations, agency spokeswoman Jeannie Layson said in a written statement.

Before the agency decides whether to go ahead with new rules, officials want to survey companies about how much it might cost them to place excess flow valves on service lines for buildings along with new, single-family homes, Layson said.

Manufacturers and utilities say the cost per valve could be as low as $10-$15 for homes, retail businesses and restaurants. For larger buildings, such as large commercial or small industrial businesses and institutional buildings such as libraries, the cost can climb to $200-$300, according to GasBreaker Inc., a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer.

Government and industry estimates on overall costs have varied greatly:

— In 1974, consultants to the Transportation Department said installing valves on new lines was not only economically and technically feasible, but would improve public safety. They recommended more study, however.

— In 1991, an industry-commissioned study put the price tag at $207 million over 50 years to outfit new and renewed lines, an estimate that included the price of the device, its installation and the potential cost of digging up pipes to repair bad valves.

— In 1995, when Congress was debating whether to mandate the valves, an industry executive estimated the cost would top $1 billion. The proposal was dropped.

All sides in the debate agree that installing the valves retroactively would be too expensive. But NTSB's Hall said industry resistance has blocked the valves' installation even on new service lines where costs would be largely limited to the price of the device.

The American Gas Association and several other industry groups warn there are still too many unknowns, including how the valves would function in large-scale settings where demand for gas could jump in different seasons.

The association said a federal pipeline safety agency study "grossly understates the economic, technical, and operational complexities" of broadening the valves' use to large-volume customers such as hotels, restaurants and hospitals.

The association would support valves on certain larger customers that draw a fixed amount of natural gas, vice president Christina Sames wrote. She cautioned against a broader mandate, saying that schools, hospitals, restaurants and some apartments that can draw varying amounts of gas are "critical" customers where an inadvertent trip of a valve would threaten safety or hurt business.

Hall said excluding such customers would leave unprotected those places more likely to have large concentrations of people, raising the potential for greater damage in an accident.

The dispute over valves for service lines comes amid a broader debate over pipeline safety sparked by a 2010 explosion in San Bruno, Calif. that killed eight people and a blast last year in Allentown, Pa., that killed five. Those accidents also triggered calls for emergency shut-off valves, but they involved larger pipelines not covered in the government's proposed service line rules.

Individual utilities said they should be trusted to decide when and where to install the service line valves. A device manufacturer, however, said some utilities' reluctance stems from a lack of experience with the devices.

"We have sold millions of these and, if these problems were a reality, we as a manufacturer would be called to task on them," GasBreaker CEO John McGowan Jr. said.

San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Co., one of the nation's largest gas companies, has installed excess flow valves on fewer than 3 percent of its 3.4 million service lines, government data from 2011 shows.

Anthony Earley, PG&E's CEO, said he objects to widespread use of valves because customers can be inconvenienced if gas is shut off in response to a false trigger. "Once you trip a gas valve and shut off gas, you can't just turn the gas back on," he said.

The company plans to install additional valves on new or replaced lines for single-family homes in the coming years.

Steve Miner, a manager of operations at Vermont Gas Services, said the valves are impractical at schools or hospitals because they can limit gas flow, possibly "starving" large boilers or furnaces that need a steady flow to run properly. Beyond those cases, Miner said, he would have "no problem" with expanding the mandates.

"I think they are the best thing out there," Miner said. "I'm the one who has to go on these emergency calls and it's a nice feeling when you know the (excess flow valve) is on that service."

So the debate continues, and so do the questions of those who lost loved ones.

When a crew of cable installers in St. Cloud, Minn., struck a downtown gas line in 1998, the pipe leaked for 39 minutes until something ignited the gas. A pizzeria, apartment units, a law office and a bar were destroyed. Among the dead was Robert Jacobs, a gas company worker and father of two.

"I would think putting those valves on lines going to apartments or businesses would be very important, but the companies say it's too expensive," said his wife of 23 years, Jean Jacobs. "But how do you put a price tag on a life?"

Bergen Record: N.J. prescription database a powerful but flawed weapon in drug war

A young woman from the Shore showed up at two Glen Rock drug stores on the same day in May, handed over a prescription for 120 oxycodone pills and offered to pay cash for the powerful painkillers. One pharmacist — a man who runs a family-owned shop that’s been a fixture on Main Street for years — refused to fill it. The other — who works for CVS, the state’s largest retail drug chain — gave her the drugs. The difference: One checked the state’s 6-month-old computerized database that monitors prescriptions for controlled dangerous substances and discovered the woman had filled an identical prescription for oxycodone — which has a street value of up to $30 a pill — a week earlier in Freehold. The other didn’t have access to the database. The story illustrates the potential of the New Jersey Prescription Monitoring Program to keep illicit prescription drugs off the street, an important law-enforcement and public-health goal in a state where admissions to addiction treatment programs for such drugs have nearly tripled since 2005. But it also shows some of the program’s start-up problems: spotty use by pharmacies, including the state’s largest retail chain; an inability to track prescriptions across state lines; and the ease with which so-called patients can use fake names and evade detection.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/NJ_prescription_database_a_powerful_but_flawed_weapon_in_drug_war.html?page=all

Dallas Morning News: Secrecy cloaks placement agents’ role in Texas public pension

The Dallas Morning News reports that when a Dallas-based investment firm wanted business from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, it turned to Alfred Jackson. The move worked. For landing a $100 million investment deal with TRS, L&B Realty Advisors paid more than $400,000 to Jackson’s firm. Yet the CEO of L&B says he doesn’t know what Jackson did to nail down that deal. Jackson, a politically connected Houston investment manager, wouldn’t provide details. And the chief investment officer of TRS says he played no role at all. That’s how the shadowy world of pension fund placement agents can go. These investment middlemen are hired by private firms to solicit public capital. Also known as "third-party marketers,” placement agents can help pension systems evaluate investment managers, especially smaller firms that can’t afford to employ marketing staffs. But placement agents also can earn huge commissions solely because of their political connections and ensnare some pension systems in corruption.

http://www.dallasnews.com/investigations/headlines/20120721-secrecy-cloaks-placement-agents-role-in-texas-public-pension-fund-investments.ece

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: Citizens revokes hurricane-proofing discounts

The Sun-Sentinel reports that Citizens Property Insurance's push to inspect homes and revoke discounts for hurricane-resistant features has drawn fire and questions. Premiums went up for nearly three-fourths of the 225,502 homeowners who have had the inspections. About 7 percent had decreases, and there was no change for 18 percent. The average inspection resulted in a $598 increase. State-backed Citizens is the largest property insurer in Florida with 1.4 million policies. Citizens found many forms used to verify discounts weren't filled out correctly and it appeared some customers were getting discounts they didn't deserve. Some people think Citizens is using the inspections as a back-door way to raise premiums more than 10 percent a year – a cap set by state law. Citizens estimates premiums increased by $137 million based on inspections done so far. The insurer has spent $35 million on the inspections.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/fl-citizens-inspections-20120721,0,5666207.story

Albuquerque Journal: Too Much Party Time

According to records obtained by the Albuquerque Journal, UNM’s Lobo Village, an upscale apartment-style complex that opened last year just west of University Arena in southeast Albuquerque, is the school’s only alcohol-legal dorm, and some students say partying there is too much. UNM police alone have responded to incidents at the village about 100 times since last August.

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/07/22/news/too-much-party-time.html (subscription required)

Arizona Daily Star: Problem-riddled nonprofit charity Giving Tree folds

The Arizona Daily Star reports that The Giving Tree, a problem-plagued Tucson charity for the homeless, is shutting down. The 14-year-old nonprofit tried to rebuild after a 2009 Arizona Daily Star investigation found that it served expired and potentially unsafe food to needy kids, charged clients hundreds of dollars a month to live in overcrowded rental homes and at least twice made a public display of giving kids gifts at holiday parties, only to take them back later. The revelations led to the loss of most of The Giving Tree's financial support and preceded the retirement and departure of longtime director Libby Wright. A new board tried to start over, but in its revamped form the charity lost so much money that two of its homes are headed for foreclosure. The charity has also been sued for nonpayment of rent at one of its thrift stores and the staff was locked out of its headquarters last week.

http://azstarnet.com/mobi/latest/article_0a290608-6ab6-550e-918a-c52d2ab66542.html

Arizona Daily Star: Weapons stashes share dark purpose

The Arizona Daily Star reports that across Southern Arizona's borderlands, workers, residents or visitors occasionally come across weapons that apparently have been stashed or ditched by criminals. In two cases this year, people in areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management have found stashed, plastic-wrapped rifles. And in a fourth incident this year, a young border-crosser said the two guides of his large group stashed plastic bags of weapons in a cave southwest of Tucson. Inside, the 17-year-old told a Pima County Sheriff's investigator, were guns like the kind you see in action movies - and grenades. Each incident may have its own explanation, but there are common reasons for the stashes, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. "They'll put them in a strategic place, and when they're going to rip somebody off or going to protect a load, they go retrieve them," Estrada said.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/weapons-stashes-share-dark-purpose/article_3bf3b972-de7f-5979-9f09-3e6fb41e74ab.html

Arkansas Democrat: Filing for expenses dwindles since suit

The Arkansas Democrat reports that nearly four months ago, a lawsuit challenging the Legislature’s system of reimbursing lawmakers for expenses was settled. Since then, the amounts paid have dwindled, largely because fewer than half of the members of the House of Representatives have asked for office-expense reimbursements.

http://m.arkansasonline.com/news/2012/jul/22/filing-expenses-dwindles-suit-20120722/?latest

Portland Press Herald: Gender gap still apparent on payday

The Portland Press reports that women who work full time in Maine earn about 22 percent less than men who work full time, according to the latest data on the state's work force. In 2010, women in food preparation and serving jobs earned 82 percent of what a man made. Men tend to earn a lot more than women in occupations such as manufacturing and sales, and a little more in health care support and administrative support, according to the data. The wage gap is only about half as big now as it was in the 1970s, the result of women gradually catching up to men's salaries and hourly wages, economists say. But it hasn't gone away. The lingering income gap is no surprise to many working women. It may be news to a lot of men, however. A poll conducted for the Press Herald in late June found that 66 percent of women said they believe women are paid less than men for the same work. Most men -- 53 percent -- on the other hand said that they either did not believe women are paid less or weren't sure.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/gender-gap-still-apparent-on-payday_2012-07-22.html

Portland Press Herald: OUI conviction rates vary widely across Maine

Conviction rates for charges of operating under the influence vary widely from county to county in Maine, with the 10-year average ranging from a low of 37 percent in York County to a high of 83 percent in Hancock and Penobscot counties, according to an analysis by The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. Scarborough police Sgt. Tom Chard conducts a sobriety test after stopping a motorist during an operating-under-the-influence detail on Route 1. The driver passed the test. Average conviction rates on OUI charges range from 37 percent in York County to 83 percent in Hancock and Penobscot counties. The contrast is even starker in individual years. Ninety-four percent of OUI charges resolved in Hancock County in 2010 were convictions, compared with 32 percent in York County that same year. The newspapers analyzed 10 years of data provided by the state Administrative Office of the Courts. The analysis compared the number of dispositions -- that is, charges that were resolved through conviction, acquittal, dismissal or other means -- to the number of convictions by year and over the period of 2002 to 2011. It was not clear whether any organization tracks national conviction rates for impaired driving, so it's difficult to assess how Maine stacks up against other states.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/oui-convictions-vary-across-maine_2012-07-22.html

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Who is accountable for vacant homes in the suburbs?

The first summer after his next-door neighbor turned his house keys over to the bank, hopped on a motorcycle and rode down Island Cottage Road for the last time, Richard Coleman figured he’d just do a little extra yard work now and again to keep up the lawn for a few weeks until new neighbors moved in.

But that summer stretched into two. This year, it’s up to three. And Coleman’s patience wore out long ago. The house next to Coleman’s is just one of potentially hundreds of vacant homes peppered throughout Monroe County’s suburbs that have been abandoned or are empty for one reason or another, whether caught up in legal limbo after a death in a family or while the slow process of foreclosure grinds onward. It’s impossible to say how many vacant suburban properties here are vexing neighbors and frustrating public officials, as suburban municipalities don’t track all of their empty houses. Still, those properties are taking a toll on overall neighborhood property values and on municipal budgets, because when no one else takes responsibility for a property’s upkeep, it’s the taxpayers who foot the bill for lawn-cutting and debris removal, at least in the short term.

http://her.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120722/NEWS01/307220027/Vacant-homes-Rochester?odyssey=nav|head

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Thruway toll hike for truckers affects us all

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports that New York state Thruway lanes carry about 25 million commercial vehicles a year — vehicles that would pay 45 percent more in tolls if the authority that runs the superhighway has its way. Among those thousands of vehicles is a truck owned by Doan Family Farms in Hamlin. Jim Doan says he uses the Thruway about 10 times a month to haul up to 8 million honey bees to farms where they pollinate squash, pumpkins and cucumbers. The Doan farm also hauls honey produced by the bees. Doan and other commercial users of the Thruway said the proposed toll increase would increase their business costs. That, in turn, would likely mean consumers up and down the Thruway would have to dig deeper into their wallets to pay for goods and services. Thruway Authority officials say they have no choice but to increase tolls to pay for increased costs — a view that has skeptics inside and outside state government.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120722/NEWS01/307220029/Thruway-toll-hikes?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

Indianapolis Star: Money for natural disaster relief instead spent elsewhere

The Indianapolis Star reports that fhe federal government shelled out hundreds of millions of tax dollars to help Indiana recover from the severe storms, flooding and tornadoes of 2008. The money helped repair homes, bridges and roads; paid for disaster-related medical and moving expenses; and provided loans to damaged businesses. Columbus Regional Hospital, which was shut down for months after it was devastated by floodwaters, received $46 million for repairs. But here is how about $13 million in disaster funds are being spent:
» $6.7 million for a 60,000-square-foot, two-story conference center and business incubator in Daviess County.
» $1.7 million to the city of New Albany for improvements to an industrial park.
» $2.1 million to the town of Syracuse and others to develop a technology and industrial park.
» $2.4 million to White County for an industrial park near Wolcott.
None of these grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration had any direct connection to the damage caused by the storms and were for long-planned projects. Instead, they're supposed to promote general, long-term economic recovery. But it will be years before it will be known if the projects worked and delivered the promised number of jobs.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120721/NEWS05/207210337/Millions-intended-natural-disaster-relief-instead-spent-technology-industrial-parks?odyssey=nav|head

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY): Reviews of child abuse deaths not always completed

A Herald-Leader analysis of 41 child fatalities in 2009 and 2010 found at least six cases where the cabinet did not do an internal review even though there were previous reports involving the family before the child died. The reviews are supposed to examine the cabinet's actions in a case to see if there were missteps, and to identify needed improvements and training that could prevent future deaths.

http://www.kentucky.com/2012/07/22/2266544/watchdog-report-reviews-of-child.html#storylink=cpy

Tampa Bay Times: Killers freed with 'stand your ground' law have history of violence

The Tampa Bay Times reports that state legislators sold "stand your ground" as a legal protection for law-abiding Floridians who were forced, through no fault of their own, to defend their family and property.

But the day Moorer killed his ex-wife's boyfriend in 2008 capped two years of violent behavior that had landed Moorer in jail multiple times and left his wife living in fear. Still, prosecutors set Moorer free, saying Florida's "stand your ground" law prevented them from pursuing murder charges. A Tampa Bay Times analysis of "stand your ground" cases found that it has been people like Moorer — those with records of crime and violence — who have benefited most from the controversial legislation.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/many-killers-who-go-free-with-florida-stand-your-ground-law-have-history/1241378

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: Files shed light, but questions in no-show case linger

A three-month Norfolk police investigation conducted in 2010 into the case of a public employee who was paid for 12 years despite not showing up for work ended without concluding that a crime had occurred. But police uncovered a number of failures to stop the payments by administrators, other employees and an accounting firm hired to audit the agency, according to a copy of the investigation records obtained by The Virginian-Pilot. City officials declined to release the files, which include more than 300 pages of interviews, documents, emails and a narrative written by police detectives. The files were obtained from an official who asked not to be identified because no one was authorized to release the documents. The police investigation records shed new light on several aspects of the case.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/07/files-shed-light-questions-noshow-case-linger

Sacramento Bee: 2 neurosurgeons accused of experimental surgery are banned

A prominent UC Davis neurosurgeon was banned from performing medical research on humans after he and an underling were accused of experimenting on dying brain cancer patients without university permission, The Bee has learned. Dr. J. Paul Muizelaar, who earns more than $800,000 a year as chairman of the department of neurological surgery, was ordered last fall to "immediately cease and desist" from any research involving human subjects, according to documents obtained by The Bee. Also banned was the colleague, Dr. Rudolph J. Schrot, an assistant professor and neurosurgeon who has worked under Muizelaar the past 13 years. The university has admitted to the federal government that the surgeons' actions amounted to "serious and continuing noncompliance" with federal regulations.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/22/v-mobile/4648415/2-uc-davis-neurosurgeons-accused.html

Tulsa World (OK): State has already given $2.45 million to Oklahoma Youth Expo

The Tulsa World reports that The Oklahoma Youth Expo - beneficiary of a planned $2 million state Agriculture Department donation that has brought controversy - has previously received $2.45 million from the department since 2002, state records show. But tax forms filed by the charity earlier this year show expenses for the Oklahoma Youth Exposition Inc. were $693,866 higher than revenues in the year that ended May 31, 2011. It was the second time in three years that expenses substantially outpaced revenue for the event, billed as the largest junior livestock show in the world, according to the expo's reports to the IRS. The Legislature's general appropriation bill - the $6.8 billion spending measure that makes up the vast majority of the state budget for the year that began July 1 - included a $2 million increase for the Agriculture Department. While the bill didn't specify how the increased funding would be used, legislative leaders and a spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin have said there was an informal agreement that the money would go to the expo.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120722_16_A1_CUTLIN213786

Charlotte Observer: Traffic accidents involving pedestrians on the rise in Charlotte

The Charlotte Observer reports that traffic crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists have risen since 2005 in Charlotte due to distracted drivers, jaywalkers and miles of busy city roads without crosswalks and sidewalks. The increase happened even as pedestrian and bicycle fatalities nationally dropped or remained flat over the last decade. The city also says the overall number of wrecks on city-maintained roads has declined in recent years. An Observer analysis of N.C. Department of Transportation data identified 12 hot spots for pedestrian-involved accidents. The highest concentration of pedestrian-involved accidents happens uptown. Most other problem areas are in low-income communities, where residents are more reliant on walking and public transportation.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/21/3396856/walking-into.html#storylink=cpy

The Cincinnati Enquirer: High cost for the wrong health care

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that ninety-eight times in two years, the 41-year-old man visited the emergency room at University Hospital. Diagnosed with asthma, diabetes and hypertension, he didn’t have a primary care doctor and racked up charges of $898,581 at the ER. During those same two years, a 38-year-old woman with sickle cell disease visited 72 times. Her total charges: $1.3 million. These are "superusers,” a tiny sliver of patients that showcases the inefficiencies of the $2.6 trillion American health-care system. They are a symptom of the problem: The top 1 percent of high-cost users swallowed nearly 20 percent of all of that spending, according to the National Institute for Health Care Management. Without a doctor to manage their illness, they chose the place where they knew they could get care, even without insurance, since the hospital eats the cost and ultimately passes it on to those with insurance.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120721/NEWS/307210098

Columbus Dispatch: 2.8 million school absences erased

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Columbus City Schools officials wiped 2.8 million student absence days off the district’s computers during the past 51/2 school years, with some key officials responsible for tens of thousands of deletions. The officials routinely erased more recorded student absences than they reported to the state — in some years, substantially more — according to district data tables The Di sp atch obtained by filing a public-records request. The district’s data deletion peaked during the 2009-10 school year, when officials deleted 627,446 absences. That was far more than the 449,168 absences the district reported to the Ohio Department of Education, a number that met the state standard for attendance. But in June of that year, just before they reported numbers to the state, district officials erased almost 102,000 absence days. If those absences had remained, the district would have failed to meet the state standard.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/07/22/2-8-million-school-absences-erased.html

The Portland Oregonian: Pension pay gets padded by benefit boosters

An analysis by The Oregonian of pension and pay records from public employers around the state shows that PERS' standard benefit formula can be milked to deliver benefits that far outstrip the Legislature's intent, taxpayers' expectations and employers' contributions. In other circles, it's called pension spiking. And in Oregon, it comes in myriad forms.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/07/oregon_pers_pension_pay_gets_p.html

The Post-Crescent (WI): Companies insulated from stiff penalties in worker deaths

A Gannett Wisconsin Media review of 240 workplace fatalities in Wisconsin over 11 years shows the Occupational Safety and Health Administration imposes tiny fines on companies whose employees are killed on the job, and often negotiates even smaller penalties than originally issued.Workers’ families are often shocked by the outcome of the investigation, which by law isn’t designed to assign blame or impose huge punitive fines. Families also are stunned to realize they have no right to sue employers, even those with serious safety violations.

When fines were levied, nearly two-thirds were reduced through settlements. Ultimately, the median penalty in the 184 worker death cases that resulted in fines was just $4,200, according to the analysis of incidents from 2000 to 2010.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20120722/APC0101/307220165/0/usatodayarticle/Companies-insulated-from-stiff-fines-worker-deaths

WATCHDOG REPORTING: SUMMARY OF RECENT IMPACT JOURNALISM: July 19, 2012

AP IMPACT: Building costs rise at US nuclear sites

America's first new nuclear plants in more than a decade are costing billions more to build and sometimes taking longer to deliver than planned, problems that could chill the industry's hopes for a jumpstart to a new U.S. nuclear age.

Licensing delay charges, soaring construction expenses and installation glitches as mundane as misshapen metal bars have driven up the costs of three plants in Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina, from hundreds of millions to as much as $2 billion, according to an Associated Press analysis of public records and regulatory filings.

Those problems, along with jangled nerves from last year's meltdown in Japan and the lure of cheap natural gas, could discourage utilities from sinking cash into new reactors, experts said. The building slowdown would be another blow to the so-called nuclear renaissance, a drive over the past decade to build 30 new reactors to meet the country's growing power needs. Industry watchers now say that only a handful will be built this decade.

The rising construction costs hit an industry already under financial pressure, after meltdowns last year at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant after a tsunami in Japan. NRG Energy wrote off a $481 million investment in two planned reactors in Texas shortly after the accident, citing uncertainties after the Japanese disaster. Other utilities still seeking to build have said they expect the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will adopt new safety rules in response to the accident; they cannot predict the exact costs.

"People are looking at these things very carefully," said Richard Lester, head of the department of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Inexpensive gas alone, he said, "is casting a pretty long shadow over the prospects" for construction of new nuclear plants.

The AP's review of pending projects found:

— Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia, initially estimated to cost $14 billion, has run into over $800 million in extra charges related to licensing delays. A state monitor has said bluntly that co-owner Southern Co. can't stick to its budget. The plant, whose first reactor was supposed to be operational by April 2016, is now delayed seven months.

— The long-mothballed Watts Bar power plant in eastern Tennessee, initially budgeted at $2.5 billion, will cost up to $2 billion more , the Tennessee Valley Authority concluded this spring. The utility said its initial budget underestimated how much work was needed to finish the plant and wasted money by not completing more design work before starting construction. The project had been targeted to finish in 2012, but has been postponed until 2015.

— Plant Summer in South Carolina, expected to cost around $10.5 billion, has seen costs jump by $670 million; but with lower interest rates and cheaper-than-expected labor; the owners assert the project is still on or under budget. A deadline to put the first new reactor online has been delayed from 2016 to 2017; the second reactor is now eight months ahead of schedule, targeted for early 2018.

Southern Co. and others in the nuclear business say cost overruns are expected in projects this complex, and that they are balanced out by other savings over the life of the plant. Southern Co. expects Plant Vogtle will cost $2 billion less to operate over its 60-year lifetime than initially projected because of anticipated tax breaks and historically low interest rates.

Regulators have been trying to make it easier to build, encouraging the use of off-the-shelf reactor designs that get approval in advance. New construction techniques are supposed to require less in-the-field assembly, making building quicker and reducing human error. Interest rates and labor costs have been down after a bruising recession.

But the economy is also working against progress on new construction. The next company in line to build, Progress Energy, has pushed back construction plans for two reactors in Florida because of the economy, low demand and extremely cheap natural gas. It expects its first new reactor to be finished in 2024.

The plants burning natural gas are far cheaper to build than nuclear power plants. But utility executives say they need a diversified mix of power plants, including nuclear, because relying too heavily on a single fuel like natural gas backfires if prices go up.

Industry leaders say the soaring costs could threaten projects that are worth the investment, and send the wrong message to the public.

An earlier push to expand the reach of nuclear power in the 1970s was thwarted by a number of obstacles: Electric companies overestimated demand and designed plants they didn't need. They had trouble managing massive construction workforces. Utilities designed nuclear plants as they built, leading to mistakes and slowdowns. Interest rates skyrocketed and the 1979 meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania forced plant operators to meet new rules at additional costs.

To win approval to build at Plant Vogtle, Southern Co. had to promise it would build its plant on budget, particularly as state officials remembered the massive cost overruns that occurred when it built the plant's two existing reactors, said Robert Baker, a former utility regulator who has criticized the project.

The utility has been authorized to spend just over $6.1 billion as its share of the estimated $14 billion project, which was tracking under budget at the end of last year.

Southern Co. is about seven months behind schedule, mostly because of the federal approval process for the reactor, according to company executives and filings. Southern Co. also faced delays in getting an important license allowing it to start building the guts of the plant.

Another, less exotic problem at Vogtle: At one point, workers built metal bars straight rather than curved, as regulators had directed, so Southern Co. had to rip them out and replace them. Crews in South Carolina, watching the progress at Vogtle, have halted the construction of those bars.

Plant Vogtle's designers and builders — Westinghouse Electric Co. and The Shaw Group Inc. — want Southern Co. to pay an additional $400 million for the licensing delays, according to a May report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power, which owns nearly half the new plant, denies responsibility for those costs and is negotiating on behalf of all the owners. Financial information divulged by three companies who own 98 percent of the project show $838 million in potential charges.

It is unclear how much this could cost the utility's 2.4 million customers. Southern Co. earlier estimated typical residential customers would see a $10 increase in their monthly bills when both reactors are producing power in 2018. Utility regulators ultimately set the rates.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Inefficiency holds back Chicago-Milwaukee metroplex

For all its sprawl and global impact, the greater London area is astonishingly efficient: A mere 34 government entities look after all the public safety, services, transportation, zoning and schools. Greater Toronto has only 28. Paris, by contrast, ranks among the most fragmented and duplicative of the world's metro areas, presiding over 1,400 units of government in its city and suburbs. But when it comes to overlap, unnecessary taxpayer spending and political fragmentation, the Chicago-Milwaukee metroplex is in a league of its own. The two adjoining metro regions are conjoined by common industries, highways and shoreline but splintered into a profusion of 2,155 separate entities of government.

http://m.jsonline.com/topstories/162474476.htm

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Child-care providers have two sets of rules

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Deborah Stenseng had an unusual way of comforting infants in her home day care. When they got fussy or wouldn't take a bottle, the Duluth woman opened her shirt and had them suckle on her breast, even though she wasn't lactating or breast-feeding children of her own. Worse, Stenseng deceived some parents about the practice and defied others who asked her not to do it with their children, regulators later concluded. Eventually, a complaint reached St. Louis County authorities, who shut down Stenseng's day care in January and revoked her license in April. "Serious personal boundaries ... were crossed," licensing officials concluded. Though extreme, Stenseng's case reflects an inherent problem in licensed family child care -- a problem that may be linked to a recent increase in child care deaths in Minnesota. Operating with minimal training, spotty inspections and inconsistent rule enforcement from one county to another, home-based providers can engage in practices that range from inappropriate to dangerous as they care single-handedly for as many as a dozen children.

http://www.startribune.com/local/162479246.html

Arkansas Democrat: Medicaid fund soon to run dry

The Arkansas Democrat reports that the Arkansas Medicaid Program Trust Fund, created during a crisis in the state program in the early 1990s, has about $225 million right now.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2012/jul/15/medicaid-fund-soon-run-dry-20120715/?f=news-arkansas (Subscription required)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Faulty credit reports can cause serious problems

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that dead men tell no tales, but credit bureaus apparently do. That’s what Bonnie Brickles found out after Atlanta-based Equifax somehow concluded she had died. With grandkids in tow, Brickles, 59, said she was denied credit at a furniture store last year because Equifax had labeled her as deceased. In February, Brickles was blocked again when she tried to buy a new car. She’s not the only one struggling to recover from erroneous credit reports. After conducting a year-long investigation, reporters at the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio found that possibly millions of folks’ credit reports contain errors, and that the nation’s three largest credit reporting firms — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — often don’t fix them, even after repeated requests.

http://www.ajc.com/news/subscribers/faulty-credit-reports-can-1477824.html

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Campus jobs rise in recession

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the University System of Georgia has added more than 5,000 employees since the start of the Great Recession, pumping up its payroll while the rest of state government eliminated 10,000 jobs. The hiring spree unfolded during the past five years even as the state was cutting nearly $300 million from University System funding. The result: Some schools increased staff by 30 to 45 percent while students endured even larger increases in tuition and fees. Colleges say they needed to hire faculty and staff to keep pace with increasing enrollment. Cody Skinner, a sophomore computer science major at Kennesaw State, said the school doesn't seem to be offering more, despite a 37.5 percent increase in faculty and staff since 2008. Tuition and fees have jumped 76 percent since then, but he still has trouble getting the classes he needs.

http://www.ajc.com/news/campus-jobs-rise-in-1478321.html

Austin American-Statesman: Manor mayor's role in failed development raises questions

Mayor Jeff Turner said it was in late 2005 or early 2006 long before the building boom here. A Russian businessman named Vitaly Zaretsky walked into City Hall and pitched him an idea for a major development on the outskirts of town. In the months that followed, city leaders discussed the project, the City Council approved it, and on May 3, 2006, Turner, a Manor native in his sixth year as mayor, signed what was then an ambitious agreement between the city and Zaretsky to develop a 281-acre project called Sky Village. At the time he signed the agreement, which obligated the city to annex the land and committed city taxpayers to as much as $7.2 million in development costs, Turner had become a business partner with Zaretsky, an arrangement for which he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to consult on the developer's other Austin-area projects. After a review of documents Turner provided the newspaper and interviews with officials from that time, the American-Statesman has found that city records contain no indication that he clearly disclosed his business relationship with Zaretsky to the public or Manor officials before the council approved the Sky Village project.

http://www.statesman.com/news/statesman-investigates/manor-mayors-role-in-failed-development-raises-questions-2416682.html

Bergen Record: North Jersey drinking water going to waste as system leaks lose 25%

The Bergen Record reports that at a time when towns are being fined for excessive water use and utilities are battling over the rights to pump water out of the Passaic River system, North Jersey’s largest water supplier — saddled with miles of leaky, aging pipes — routinely loses track of 25 percent of the water it treats before a drop ever reaches customers. And other suppliers lose even more. Last year alone, United Water could not account for 26 percent of the water it treated and pumped. But United Water isn’t the only supplier with losses significantly above the industry standard of 15 percent. In 2011, Ho-Ho-Kus couldn’t account for 33 percent of the water it pumped and treated — one of every three gallons — according to state documents. Across the nation, water utilities lose billions of gallons of drinking water each year because of their aging infrastructure.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/North_Jersey_drinking_water_going_to_waste_as_system_leaks_lose_25.html

Chicago Sun-Times: City paid $18 million in disability to cops, some with other jobs

It was nearly 20 years ago when a 37-year-old Chicago cop named Charles T. Siedlecki slipped and fell while chasing a group of teenagers in Beverly, injuring his left shoulder. Siedlecki went on disability and never returned to work for the Chicago Police Department. Since then, his disability payments have risen to $51,672 a year. In all, he has collected more than $715,000 in disability pay — all of it tax-free. It isn’t that Siedlecki can’t work. He can, and he has, though not as a cop. Siedlecki, 57, is one of 347 Chicago cops on disability, records show. Their disability checks cost $18 million a year — money that comes out of the cash-strapped police pension plan that’s subsidized by taxpayers. It’s called disability leave, but few ever come back to work for the police department once they go on disability. Many of those whose injuries were less severe have gone on to new careers while on disability. They include cops turned lawyers, small-business owners, a car salesman and a construction worker, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/13688828-761/city-paid-18-million-in-disability-to-cops-some-with-other-jobs.html

Indianapolis Star: Cyberschools multiply but scores fall short

During the 2008-09 school year, 370 students in Indiana were enrolled in K-12 schools that offered all or at least some of their classes over the Internet. Last school year, it was more than 4,000 -- a number that is expected to double or even triple over the next couple of years. The explosion in online education reflects both a national trend and the desire by top education officials in Indiana to provide more school choices. But is it a good thing? An Indianapolis Star examination of the issue found that Indiana lacks accountability measures found in some other states -- a scenario some fear will lead to a proliferation of underperforming virtual schools.
The Star also found that while it is difficult to definitively assess the performance of online schools in Indiana because they are so new, a look at state test scores reveals there already may be good reason for concern.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120714/NEWS04/207140350/Star-Watch-Cyberschools-multiply-scores-fall-short

The Buffalo News: Getting away with jobbing the system

The Buffalo News reports that tens of thousands of people cheat New York State out of an estimated $150 million every year through unemployment insurance fraud. Among those who have cheated the state are prison inmates, people who were on overseas vacations when they applied for benefits and people who had "off the books" jobs but claimed to be jobless. In order to cheat the system, people commit two felony crimes - grand larceny and offering a false instrument with intent to defraud, each punishable by up to four years in prison. Yet the vast majority of those caught, about 97 percent, are not criminally charged. Only a handful of people - about 3 percent, according to statistics The Buffalo News obtained from the state - get criminally prosecuted.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article948943.ece

Burlington Free Press: The highest-paid 150 public officials

The Burlington Free Press reports that Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn is Vermont’s top cop, but 24 of his department’s subordinates made more m

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Austin American-Statesman: Still no free tolls for disabled veterans in Central Texas

Dallas Morning News: Funding of Dallas employee retirement parties raises questions

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: 'Oxy Express' gives birth to drug-addicted babies

Indianapolis Star: Big campaign donors can remain a big secret

Miami Herald: Property-tax cheats facing crackdown

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Lenders' mistakes cost homeowners on flood insurance

Mobile Register: Levels of deadly bacteria more than 100 times higher during the BP spill

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: Looming Navy shuffle to make big waves in region

Orange County Register: High housing payments the new 'American nightmare'

Orlando Sentinel: Oxycodone crackdown drives addicts to other drugs

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland's financial time bomb: pensions

Cincinnati Enquirer: Will Ohio count your vote?

Columbus Dispatch: ‘Strip-mall casinos’

Columbus Dispatch: Schools’ timing suspect

Idaho Statesman: Car-bike crashes have increased in the Treasure Valley since 2007

Post-Crescent: Econ 101: Make sense of complex statistics

Dallas Morning News: Secrecy cloaks placement agents’ role in Texas public pension

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: Citizens revokes hurricane-proofing discounts

Albuquerque Journal: Too Much Party Time

Portland Press Herald: Gender gap still apparent on payday

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Who is accountable for vacant homes in the suburbs?

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Thruway toll hike for truckers affects us all

Indianapolis Star: Money for natural disaster relief instead spent elsewhere

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY): Reviews of child abuse deaths not always completed

Tampa Bay Times: Killers freed with 'stand your ground' law have history of violence

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: Files shed light, but questions in no-show case linger

Sacramento Bee: 2 neurosurgeons accused of experimental surgery are banned

Charlotte Observer: Traffic accidents involving pedestrians on the rise in Charlotte

The Cincinnati Enquirer: High cost for the wrong health care

Columbus Dispatch: 2.8 million school absences erased

The Portland Oregonian: Pension pay gets padded by benefit boosters

Arkansas Democrat: Medicaid fund soon to run dry

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Faulty credit reports can cause serious problems

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Campus jobs rise in recession

Austin American-Statesman: Manor mayor's role in failed development raises questions

Bergen Record: North Jersey drinking water going to waste as system leaks lose 25%

Chicago Sun-Times: City paid $18 million in disability to cops, some with other jobs

Indianapolis Star: Cyberschools multiply but scores fall short

The Buffalo News: Getting away with jobbing the system

Burlington Free Press: The highest-paid 150 public officials