Milwaukee Police Department misreporting violent crime

"A Journal Sentinel investigation has found that even though the Milwaukee Police Department have been touting a fall in crime for four years, hundreds of beatings, stabbings and child abuse cases were missing from the count."

"More than 500 incidents since 2009 were misreported to the FBI as minor assaults and not included in the city's violent crime rate, the investigation found. That tally is based on a review of cases that resulted in charges - only about one-fifth of all reported crimes."

An Arizona Star investigation has found that "one in three Arizona schools last year had kindergarten classes with vaccination rates so low children were left vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks such as measles, mumps or pertussis."

It was discovered that "the worst offenders, by far, are charter and private schools, some with vaccination rates as low as 50 percent in Pima County and under 30 percent in Maricopa County. Rates need to be 80 percent to 95 percent, depending on the disease, to prevent the spread of infection."

In a three-part series for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Kate Golden and Amy Karon used the state’s open records law to receive Gov. Scott Walker’s official calendars.

"To analyze how Walker has used his time as the state’s chief executive, WCIJ reporters created a database of the more than 4,400 entries in Walker’s calendars from his first 13 months in office, through Jan. 31, 2012."

"Mistakes on credit reports can inflict widespread damage. And because there are insufficient rules on how credit-reporting agencies must correct them, Americans are left virtually powerless to erase the mistakes."

Jill Riepenhoff and Mike Wagner of The Columbus Dispatch "documented the plight of thousands who, through no fault of their own, have been denied the chance to buy a home or a car, take out a loan for college, rent an apartment, land a job, join the Armed Forces, receive medical care or even open a checking account."

"In the past five years, Massachusetts residents have been forced to witness an embarrassing parade of fallen public servants caught up in corrupt acts, handcuffed and led away."

However, according to a new analysis by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting "an overwhelming majority of public servants embroiled in criminal or ethical scandals since 2007 are people most in Massachusetts have never heard of. "

"Thousands of vacant homes across South Florida have deteriorated into eyesores that violate local health and safety laws, depress property values and spread blight. The owners of these homes: some of the world's biggest banks."

"In an extensive investigation of foreclosed homes plaguing neighborhoods, the Sun Sentinel found more than 10,300 property code violations lodged against banks in 10 South Florida cities since 2007."

"South Carolina’s House speaker is affiliated with a political action committee that has doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and private contracts to sitting state lawmakers."

"According to publicly filed data analyzed by The Post and Courier, the Speaker's PAC has channeled about a half-million dollars in the last four years to the S.C. House Republican Caucus, to the state Republican Party and to more than 130 mostly incumbent Republican candidates for legislative office."

Mac Cerullo, of The Daily Campus, reports that the "University of Connecticut sold fewer tickets to the 2011 Fiesta Bowl than any other public school that has appeared in the Bowl Championship Series over the past three years, according to bowl documents obtained."

Cerullo found that the school ended up absorbing nearly $3 million in unsold tickets. Analyzing data from the past three years, it was discovered "the only other school that absorbed more that $1 million in ticket sales during that period was West Virginia at the 2012 Orange Bowl. The Mountaineers absorbed $1.1 million"

"USA Today’s investigative team found the EPA failed to tell people about or take action on hundreds of former lead smelting sites they’d known about for years. Alison Young and Pete Eisler tested the soil around former plants in 13 states and found potentially dangerous levels of lead remain in people’s yards and in parks."

This multi-part look into long-forgotten lead factories includes nearly 370 site-related documents, using DocumentCloud; video interviews with parents whose children play in their lead contaminated back yards; an interactive map telling you where smelters once were in your area; tips on how to make your home and yard safer and much more.

Phillip Reese and Darrell Smith, of The Sacramento Bee, analyzed hospital discharge data from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to determine that, "The number of Northern California hospital stays resulting in charges of $1 million or more rose sevenfold in the past decade, from 430 in 2000 to almost 3,000 during 2010."

"Cumulatively, charges associated with Northern California million-dollar hospital stays in 2010 came to $5.2 billion. That's 7 percent of all hospital charges from two-tenths of one percent of all hospital patients."