City pays private attorneys millions

Steve Neavling of The Bay City Times has a six-part series on Bay County government spending on private attorneys. "Between 2001 and 2004, the county paid private lawyers nearly $1.13 million — more than twice the amount spent by each of four other Michigan counties with similar populations. And that does not include the more than $470,000 Bay County spent on attorneys to defend lawsuits." The paper used county billing records to show that the staffer who oversees legal work "routinely turns to outside lawyers, who charge up to $140 an hour to handle lawsuits, bankruptcy cases, property transfers and union negotiations." With a graphic showing how much outside firms were paid.

Naush Boghossian and Lisa M. Sodders of the Los Angeles Daily News use data from the Los Angeles Unified School District police to investigate an increase in hate crimes in the district. "Hate crimes in Los Angeles' public schools have surged more than 300 percent over the past decade..." They found that almost all of the reported hate crimes were racially motivated.

Jason Method and James W. Prado Roberts of the Asbury Park Press raised questions in the airplane death seven years ago of a pilot who was about to buy Marlboro Airport, now the center of a massive political bribery scandal. The NTSB ruled the 1998 crash death of Lino A. Fasio an accident due to a probable bird strike, but five experts who reviewed the report and new photographs of the wreckage for the Press said there is no evidence to support the government's claim. "There have been six known fatal accidents involving birds in civil aviation in the United States in the last 15 years. But in every case - except Fasio's - investigators found solid evidence of birds or bird remains." The series includes 14 chapters, ranging from a bird theory to sabotage claims.

Suzanne Hoholik of The Columbus Dispatch used state data to show that a 2002 Ohio law intended to direct accident victims to trauma hospitals was working as intended: "More injured people are being taken to trauma centers, and fewer are dying in small, rural hospitals. Trauma experts believe as many as 900 lives a year are being saved statewide." The paper found that "the number of injured patients transferred from community hospitals to trauma centers increased 22 percent from 2001 to 2004."

David Tarrant and Paula Lavigne of The Dallas Morning News investigated allegations of racial profiling by campus police at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, finding that "police search minorities more often than Anglos after traffic stops." In addition, there have been complaints about pedestrian stops, which campus police do not keep records on. "In 2004, blacks made up 34 percent of all stops by campus police but were six times more likely to be searched following a stop than whites. Hispanics made up 14 percent of all stops but were nearly five times more likely to be searched after a stop than Anglos."

Jason Kandel of the Los Angeles Daily News used documents obtained under a California Public Records Act to show that 13 Los Angeles city firefighters were disciplined for inappropriate behavior last year and nine others remain under investigation. "Last year, seven firefighters were disciplined for horseplay or hazing; two for creating a hostile work environment; one for ethnic or sexual harassment, and three for other types of inappropriate conduct. " As many as 22 firefighters, with cases pending, could be disciplined for similar behavior in 2004.

Marcus Stern of the San Diego Union-Tribune investigates a defense contractor's relationship with U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and how the contractor "took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of the congressman's Del Mar house while the congressman, a member of the influential defense appropriations subcommittee, was supporting the contractor's efforts to get tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon."

Susan Schulman, Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck of The Buffalo News uses public records to investigate gun dealers in a four-day series. The investigation found that while street gun dealers go to jail, licensed gun merchants get a free pass. "Gun shows are a prime source of crime weapons in many states...Despite those concerns, the U.S. Justice Department shies away from gun shows and rarely prosecutes any of the 68,500 dealers licensed to sell firearms in the United States." The series includes an analysis of where the guns are exported from.

Mark J. Konkol, Scott Fornek, Fran Spielman and Art Golab of the Chicago Sun-Times used local payroll and voter registration data to show the clout of Chicago's Hispanic Democratic Organization: "1,173 men and women are certified to register people to vote on HDO's behalf. And 482 of those HDO deputy registrars — or 41 percent — also have city jobs." More than 50 of them earn more than $74,000 a year from the city.

Brad Schrade of the Tennessean asked state officials to provide documentation on their response to claims of sexual harassment, identified by Gov. Phil Bredesen as a problem. "When Bredesen's office becomes involved in a complaint, as it did when the governor's top lobbyist was demoted last month, notes are purposely not taken or are shredded, or case documents are not released. When other state departments handle cases, reports are generally kept on file as public records, according to a Tennessean review of available state documents. Indeed, state harassment investigators are trained to take notes and document the facts of a case."