Four of five drug busts by Border Patrol involve U.S. citizens

There’s no argument that Mexico-based crime organizations dominate drug smuggling into the United States. But the public message that the Border Patrol has trumpeted for much of the last decade, mainly through press releases about its seizures, has emphasized Mexican drug couriers, or mules, as those largely responsible for transporting drugs.

It turns out that the Border Patrol catches more American citizens with drugs than it does Mexican couriers, according to an analysis of records obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports on a growing conflict between Montana's bar owners and craft brewers: "The draft bill is currently sitting in a pile of papers on a legislative staff attorney’s desk in Helena, but the rough outline has caused some upheaval among Montana’s craft brewing industry. It would combine two bills previously lobbied for by the Montana Tavern Association, which represents the retail end of the state distribution system, and build legal walls around the state brewers to keep them on the manufacturing side of the distribution system.

In an attempt to bust criminal operations in Milwaukee by purchasing drugs and guns from felons the ATF set up a storefront sting.

However, "the effort to date has not snared any major dealers or taken down a gang. Instead, it resulted in a string of mistakes and failures, including an ATF military-style machine gun landing on the streets of Milwaukee and the agency having $35,000 in merchandise stolen from its store, a Journal Sentinel investigation has found."

Welcome to IRE's roundup of the weekend's many enterprise stories -- the last one of 2012 -- from around the country. We'll highlight the document digging, field work and data analysis that made their way into centerpieces in print, broadcast and online from coast to coast. Did we miss something? Email tips to web@ire.org.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Do teachers’ absences affect student learning?
Seventy-three Western Pennsylvania public school districts paid nearly $25 million for substitute teachers to cover classes when full-time educators were not in the classroom during the last school year, according to records for 17,000 teachers reviewed by the Tribune-Review.

Bloomberg News
For-Profit Nursing Homes Lead in Overcharging While Care Suffers
“Thirty percent of claims sampled from for- profit homes were deemed improper, compared to just 12 percent from non-profits, according to data Bloomberg News obtained from the inspector general’s office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via a Freedom of Information Act request.”

The Miami Herald
How Florida limits care for disabled kids
“A private company boasts it has saved Florida tens of millions — by helping ration care for families with severely disabled children. Here’s how the process works.”

The Washington Post
Rising painkiller addiction shows damage from drugmakers’ role in shaping medical opinion
“A closer look at the opioid painkiller binge — retail prescriptions have roughly tripled in the past 20 years — shows that the rising sales and addictions were catalyzed by a massive effort by pharmaceutical companies to shape medical opinion and practice.”

The Los Angeles Times
Dying for Relief: Reckless doctors go unchecked
“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.”

The New York Times
Drone War Spurs Militants to Deadly Reprisals
“For several years now, militant enforcers have scoured the tribal belt in search of informers who help the C.I.A. find and kill the spy agency’s jihadist quarry. The militants’ technique — often more witch hunt than investigation — follows a well-established pattern.”

The Salt Lake Tribune
Driven by suicide, gun deaths are increasing in Utah
“Data from the Utah Department of Health show gun deaths from 2007 to 2011 were 23 percent higher than from 2001 to 2005.”

The New York Times
Ruthless Smuggling Rings Put Rhinos in the Cross Hairs
“Driven by a common belief in Asia that ground-up rhino horns can cure cancer and other ills, the trade has also been embraced by criminal syndicates that normally traffic drugs and guns, but have branched into the underground animal parts business because it is seen as “low risk, high profit,” American officials say.”

The Oregonian
Medical marijuana: A few high-volume doctors approve most patients
“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.”

“A closer look at the opioid painkiller binge — retail prescriptions have roughly tripled in the past 20 years — shows that the rising sales and addictions were catalyzed by a massive effort by pharmaceutical companies to shape medical opinion and practice.”

“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.”

“Last year, enough of the two leading painkillers -- oxycodone and hydrocodone -- was distributed in the state to provide 18 pills for every man, woman and child. That's up from two pills per person in 1997.”

The Washington Post
Review of FBI forensics does not extend to federally trained state, local examiners
The Washington Post reports that thousands of criminal cases at the state and local level may have relied on exaggerated testimony or false forensic evidence to convict defendants of murder, rape and other felonies, according to former FBI agents.

The Journal News
The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood
“In the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and amid renewed nationwide calls for stronger gun control, some Lower Hudson Valley residents would like lawmakers to expand the amount of information the public can find out about gun owners. About 44,000 people in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam — one out of every 23 adults — are licensed to own a handgun.”

The Seattle Times
Prosecutors here cracking down on felons with guns
"Felons prosecuted for firearms face long prison sentences under federal law, and U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan is using the law to crack down on career criminals in Western Washington. Cases referred for felons-with-guns charges have increased 45 percent here in the past three years."

The San Francisco Chronicle
Gun sales booming in Nevada
"State officials said 2,383 firearms transactions were recorded statewide last weekend, Friday through Sunday. It's unknown how many of those were assault weapons, like the kind used in the Connecticut shooting, because new laws - backed by Nevada's influential gun lobby - prohibit the state from collecting specific details on gun purchases."

The Tampa Bay Times
Gaps in gun laws a boon for felons in Florida, experts say
"Permissive in some respects, Florida firearms laws unequivocally aim to prevent gun ownership by convicted felons. But that prohibition is faltering."

The Sacramento Bee
Evaluation of UC Davis Medical Center's handling of neurosurgeons is scathing
“Investigators found hospital staff repeatedly failed to intervene or raise questions about three highly unusual surgeries on brain cancer patients, according to a Bee analysis of the findings, released earlier this month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In its 92-page report, the federal watchdog agency detailed the secrecy and inaction that enveloped the ‘non-standard, experimental treatments.’”

The Asbury Park Press
How greed and politics nearly destroyed the coast
Countless homes and businesses could have been saved by better dune and flood protection - if not for the people, and government, that fought against them.

The Austin American Statesman
Management positions, salary increase at DPS while state trooper pay raises languish
For the past 10 years, the State Auditor’s Office has recommended that pay for state law enforcement officers be increased to compete with cities such as Austin, where the mid-range pay for a police officer is $74,705 per year compared to $61,793 for a state trooper. While trooper pay is capped at that level even after 20 years of service, veteran police officers can earn up to $95,464, according to the auditor.

Newsday
Where LIPA's money went: Billions spent to get power; not enough spent to protect it
“No matter how hot it got on summer's hottest day, with all of the Island's air conditioners at full blast, the Long Island Power Authority wanted to have more than enough electricity to deliver to its customers. And it did just that -- even if it meant spending billions of ratepayer dollars on questionable deals, Newsday has found.”

The Boston Globe
The story behind Mitt Romney’s loss in the presidential campaign to President Obama
“A reconstruction by the Globe of how the campaign unfolded shows that Romney’s problems went deeper than is widely understood. His campaign made a series of costly financial, strategic, and political mistakes that, in retrospect, all but assured the candidate’s defeat, given the revolutionary turnout tactics and tactical smarts of President Obama’s operation.”

The Arizona Republic
Saving Arizona’s Children: A system still in crisis
State leaders set out last year to reform the agency tasked with protecting Arizona's most vulnerable citizens. Twelve months later, Child Protective Services remains overwhelmed by children in need and the toll of budget cuts.

Los Angeles Times
Pot farms wreaking havoc on Northern California environment
“Burgeoning marijuana growing operations are sucking millions of gallons of water from coho salmon lifelines and taking other environmental tolls, scientists say.”

"Doctors with financial ties to drug companies have heavily influenced treatment guidelines recommending the most lucrative drugs in American medicine, an analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today has found."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Wrong-Way River
“Biologists predict the number of unwanted organisms moving on the Chicago canal will only grow until the waterway is somehow plugged. And it is much more than a Great Lakes problem because biological pollution travels both directions on this invasive species superhighway.”

The Morning Call
Amazon warehouse workers fight for unemployment benefits
“Its relationship with Amazon has made Integrity Staffing Solutions the biggest temporary-employment firm in the Lehigh Valley and one of the fastest-growing agencies of its kind in the country. Part of its role is fighting to keep its workers from collecting unemployment benefits after they have lost a job at Amazon.”

The Atlantic
In Southern Towns, 'Segregation Academies' Are Still Going Strong
“In the 1960s and '70s, towns across the South created inexpensive private schools to keep white students from having to mix with black. Many remain open, the communities around them as divided as ever.”

The Indianapolis Star
The China Letter
“Now the one person who knew the whole truth was dead, leaving a trail of documents and stories on two continents. They provide a few answers. But they raise plenty of questions, not least of which is why a state agency hired a highly persuasive but not particularly accomplished interpreter for the delicate task of luring international investment and jobs to Indiana.”

The Orange County Register
Universities with connections win most stem cell money
Repeated independent reviews of the agency, including one by the Institute of Medicine released this month, have found that its board is rife with conflicts of interest. In fact, of the $1.7 billion that the agency has awarded so far, about 90 percent has gone to research institutions with ties to people sitting on the board, according to an analysis by David Jensen at the California Stem Cell Report, which closely follows the agency's operations.

PublicSource
Shale drillers eager to move wastewater on barges
The shale gas drilling industry wants to move its wastewater by barge on rivers and lakes across the country. But the U.S. Coast Guard, which regulates the nation’s waterways, must first decide whether it’s safe.

Bloomberg
BP’s U.S. Suspension Allows Airport-Fuel Exception for Pentagon
“BP Plc (BP/)’s temporary ban from new U.S. government work now includes a bit of wiggle room for the Defense Department.

ProPublica
Karl Rove’s Dark Money Group Promised IRS It Would Spend ‘Limited’ Money on Elections
“In a confidential 2010 filing, Crossroads GPS — the dark money group that spent more than $70 million from anonymous donors on the 2012 election — told the Internal Revenue Service that its efforts would focus on public education, research and shaping legislation and policy.”

The Dallas Morning News
The Burden of Lead: West Dallas deals with contamination decades later
“The low-income neighborhood of older wood-frame homes in West Dallas is a far cry from the suburb of newly built brick houses in Frisco 30 miles to the north. But the two North Texas communities share a bond: Both were contaminated by industrial lead for nearly half a century.”

The Statesman Journal
When politicians gamble on developers with taxpayer money, who ends up paying?
“Public agencies often use tax-based resources to partner with private developers. Those deals can help transform blighted areas, but they also can become costly projects with dubious results. In a two-day series, the Statesman Journal explores local examples of how public-private partnerships have worked.”

The Columbus Dispatch
Federal student loans become constant burden
“But millions of others also are in default, and some have been there for years. To gauge the lingering consequences, The Dispatch collected and analyzed a random sample of 394 cases from the nearly 16,000 lawsuits that the U.S. government has filed against defaulted student-loan debtors since 2007.”

The Pioneer Press
Hooked on Opiates: More legal use leads to more addiction, crimes, deaths
“Last year, enough of the two leading painkillers -- oxycodone and hydrocodone -- was distributed in the state to provide 18 pills for every man, woman and child. That's up from two pills per person in 1997.”

Doctors face quandary of relieving pain, without feeding addiction
A growing number of health care groups in the Twin Cities are investing in strategies to make sure doctors don't serve as unwitting spigots of medications for addicts. But there's also concern that increased regulation could prompt physicians to stop prescribing medications to patients with legitimate pain-control needs.

The Charlotte Observer and the (Raleigh) News & Observer
Prognosis: Profits, The rising fortunes of Charlotte hospitals haven't always helped patients
"In the latest installment of their ongoing investigation into nonprofit hospitals, the Charlotte Observer and News & Observer of Raleigh reported Sunday that N.C. patients are likely to pay more for routine health care if their doctors are employed by a hospital."
You can find Charlotte's stories here and Raleigh's stories here.