Children failed by Los Angeles County child welfare system

A report by Kim Christensen and Garrett Therolf of The Los Angeles Times reveals that the Los Angeles County child welfare system is riddled with problems. In many cases, children died with little notice by the system or the public. "At least 268 children who had passed through the child welfare system died from January 2008 through early August 2009, according to internal county records obtained by The Times. They show that 213 were by unnatural or undetermined causes, including 76 homicides, 35 accidents and 16 suicides."

After facing roadblocks from the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, reporters Gina Barton and Crocker Stephenson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gathered thousands of pages of public records to create their own database of deaths within the system. They found that 22 children had died despite the bureau having clear warning signs that they were at risk.  They also found that many of the highly-touted agency reforms were window dressing and a bill aimed at providing more transparency would allow the bureau to avoid releasing key information.

An investigation by The Hartford (Conn.) Courant shows that more than 500 of the 3,856 state employees who participated in the state's Retirement Incentive Program are receiving bi-weekly paychecks in addition to their pension.  The retirement incentive was intended to cut annual salary costs, but the state has rehired over 500 retirees for "temporary" work.  "And pay records obtained from the state comptroller show that 400 of them — who get a total of $1.8 million a month in pension payments — also received more than $600,000 in the regular two-week payroll of Sept. 11, a rate of $1.2 million a month."

Charles Duhigg of The New York Times reports on states' negligence in enforcing clean water laws. In West Virginia, tests found tap water containing "arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system." When companies disclosed that they were pumping illegal concentrations of chemicals into the ground, state regulators failed to fine or punish them for violating pollution laws. The problem is not limited to West Virginia.  A review of water pollution records by The Times shows that violation of the Clean Water Act have increased steadily nationwide.

Even as the biggest non-profit affordable housing agency in Tacoma, Wash. spiraled deeper into debt, forcing more than a dozen layoffs and property foreclosures, its executive director continued to be paid in full. In the latest development of his ongoing coverage into the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association’s meltdown, The News Tribune’s Lewis Kamb details the rapid rise in the director’s pay over the years against the backdrop of an out-of-touch board of directors.

Hazardous lending practices approved by the directors of Cape Fear Bank appear to have contributed to the bank's failure, according to a report by Stella M. Hopkins of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. John Davie Waggett, a successful pharmacist, tried his hand at real estate development securing over $18 million in loans. The largest lender was Cape Fear, and Waggett served on its board of directors. "The Observer's examination of board meeting minutes, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, indicates the directors often approved loans exceeding regulatory guidelines. For example, banks are generally not supposed to lend 100 percent of a property's value. That may have happened in at least one of Waggett's Cape Fear loans."

Hearst Newspapers reveals widespread failure ten years after a federal report implored the medical industry to cut in half the annual death toll from medical errors and hospital-caused infections, estimated at 200,000. Among the failures: the federal government doesn’t even tally the nation’s leading category of accidental deaths. Some states tried but most failed. Hospital discharge data, court records, medical disciplinary documents and hundreds of interviews reveal chaos and continued tragedy. Lead reporters Cathleen Crowley and Eric Nalder, editors Phil Bronstein, David McCumber and Bob Port were joined by 30 others from Hearst Newspapers, Hearst Television and Columbia University for this investigation.

A Los Angeles Times analysis of fire inspection reports "show that personnel from the department's Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety have been falling behind in their efforts to flag hazards such as inoperable sprinkler systems, illegally stored hazardous materials and broken or missing fire extinguishers. In some parts of the city, inspectors were surveying fewer than a third of their assigned buildings, according to the records."

The San Diego Union-Tribune found that "San Diego's payroll ballooned by $41 million last year, fueled by unpublicized payouts, labor settlements and costly benefits."  Analysis of spending data  "helps put into perspective the $43 million in wage and benefit reductions that will take effect July 1 to address a budget gap. [Mayor Jerry] Sanders portrays the 6 percent reductions as historic and difficult, yet the savings are about the same as last year's growth in payroll." The story is the first in a three-part series that also includes an online payroll database.

"The air across Iowa is so polluted that the state is perilously close to violating new federal limits aimed at protecting human health. Yet Iowans have no way of knowing what chemicals they are breathing because of a limited - and often inaccurate - system of monitoring pollution statewide, a Des Moines Register investigation found." An interactive map included with the package shows the top emitters of pollutants across the state.