First Amendment & FOIA
Boy Scouts executives splurge on conference
Tony Saavedra and Teri Sforza of The Orange County Register report on internal travel records showing that executives of the Boy Scouts ran up a tab of over $27,000 at a four-day conference in Key West, Fla. held last January. The Orange County Boy Scouts chapter picked up most of the tab, although they were…
Read MoreMohamed Atta and 9/11: The Secret FAA Files
Eric Longabardi, reporting for “The Enterprise Report” at ERSNews.com, reports on the “secret FAA airmen files” of Mohamed Atta, the lead pilot in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The files, posted on the site, and additional exclusive materials provide details about the extensive flight training that helped Atta earn a commercial pilot’s license in the…
Read MoreSunshine Laws disregarded by council members
Beth Kormanik of The (Jacksonville, Fla.) Times-Union evaluated the daily calendars of city council members from June 1, 2005, to Dec. 1, 2006 and found dozens of meetings that violated Florida’s open meetings laws. “The computer-assisted analysis documented 307 scheduled meetings, excluding committee and full council meetings. Forty-seven calendar listings dealt with specific items of…
Read MoreCollateral Damage – Human Rights and Military Aid after 9/11
The Center for Public Integrity has published “one of the most comprehensive resources on U.S. military aid and assistance in the post-9/11 era. ‘Collateral Damage’ couples the reporting of 10 of the world’s leading investigative journalists on four continents with a powerful database combining U.S. military assistance, foreign lobbying expenditures, and human rights abuses into…
Read MoreCitizen Watchdog
Jennifer LeFleur, computer-assisted reporting editor for The Dallas Morning News writes a online column every other week that helps readers understand how they can access, and benefit from, public records. An archive of her past columns can be found here.
Read MoreUnethical deals in N.J. school district
John Froonjian of The Press in Atlantic City, N.J., dug into insurance contracts in the Pleasantville school district to uncover a web of insider deals and millions wasted in a struggling district that gets two-thirds of its funding from the state. The Press found that in Pleasantville, school board contracts, political fundraising and private jobs…
Read MoreToxic vapors threaten well-being of residents of Victor, NY
The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, N.Y., presents stories from a two-month investigation into toxic vapor releases related to toxins improperly disposed of near Victor, N.Y., more than 17 years ago.”State officials, drawing upon numerous visits and hundreds of water samples over the last 15 years, have mapped the damage: a mile-long plume of contaminated…
Read MoreAP found unauthorized classification of Caltrans contracts
An investigation by the Associated Press uncovered that the California Transportation Department classified nearly 300 contracts worth over $13 million – and many of them not competitively bid – as confidential without proper authority. The General Services Department grants the authority to classify contracts. “The agency was unaware Caltrans listed confidential contracts in its records…
Read MoreDrug abuse, crime on rise among paramedics
A special report by Andrew McIntosh of The Sacramento Bee reveals problems with paramedics and EMTs in the state of California. Substance abuse is on the rise among paramedics, including theft of morphine on hand to treat patients in the field. Additionally, lax oversight of the paramedic and EMT licensing systems have led to fired…
Read MoreVirginia vanity plates elicit complaints
Aaron Lee of the Lynchburg (Va.) News & Advance used FOIA to obtain complaints to the state department of motor vehicles about vanity license plates that had been issued to Virginia drivers, as well as subsequent correspondence between the DMV and the plate holders. The story reveals a host of complaints against many of the…
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