Supreme Court struck down portion of campaign finance law

Adam Liptak of The New York Times reports that the "millionaire's amendment" was struck down by the Supreme Court in a 5-to-4 decision on Thursday. "The law at issue in Thursday’s decision imposed special rules in races with candidates who finance their own campaigns. Those candidates are required to disclose more information, and their opponents are allowed to raise more money." The majority decision called into question the constitutionality of allowing different contribution levels for candidates running against one another.

John O'Brien of The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) investigated a fatal friendly fire shooting by state police. For more than a year, top officials kept a lid on details about the killing of Trooper David Brinkerhoff. They avoided a grand jury and kept the trooper's widow in the dark. The story reveals for the first time publicly the details of the shooting, including the name of the trooper who fired the shot.

A four-part series by NPR's John Burnett explored the impact of drug asset seizures on law enforcement culture in the U.S. "While drug-related asset forfeitures have expanded police budgets, critics say the flow of money distorts law enforcement — that some cops have become more interested in seizing money than drugs, more interested in working southbound than northbound lanes." (Parts one, two, three and four.) Burnett reflects on how the nature of his investigation changed as he was reporting on the story.

A secret police video obtained by The Chauncey Bailey Project raises questions about the involvement of Yusuf Bey IV in the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey. In the video, Bey IV "describes Bailey's shooting in detail...then, laughing, he denies he was there, and boasts that his friendship with the case's lead detective protected him from charges." Devaughndre Broussard was charged with the murder of Bailey, but his trial has not yet been scheduled. Documents reviewed by The Chauncey Bailey Project call into question the accuracy of "summation of evidence" used by the lead detective in charging Broussard, and it does not appear that the police raised questions about the inconsistencies between the statements of Bey IV and Broussard.

A report by Tom Lasseter of McClatchy Newspapers reveals that the U.S has wrongly imprisoned dozens of men "in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments." The report comes after an 8-month investigation spanning 11 countries on three continents. "Of the 66 detainees whom McClatchy interviewed, the evidence indicates that 34 of them, about 52 percent, had connections with militant groups or activities. At least 23 of those 34, however, were Taliban foot soldiers, conscripts, low-level volunteers or adventure-seekers who knew nothing about global terrorism. Only seven of the 66 were in positions to have had any ties to al Qaida's leadership, and it isn't clear that any of them knew any terrorists of consequence." Included in the report is a database containing information on the 66 detainees interviewed in the investigation.

The Columbus Dispatch, in its ongoing coverage of inmate DNA testing, reported that half of the 30 cases highlighted by the newspaper in January as prime candidates for testing have been approved, and evidence is headed to the lab. These fifteen tests are more than have been done in the entire 5-year history of Ohio’s inmate DNA testing program. Most of the inmates had previously been rejected for testing. Others had been approved years earlier, but testing had never been completed.

An investigative narrative by Justin Fenton of The Baltimore Sun explores the life and crimes of Cindy McKay who "was convicted in April 2008 of secretly stealing thousands of dollars from her boyfriend and stabbing him to death before his body was found burning along an Anne Arundel County road." A career criminal, McKay stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from employers and family over the course of more than 20 years. Two of McKay's sons were also implicated in the 2006 murder of her boyfriend. Included in the series is a map detailing her exploits throughout the mid-Atlantic region. [Parts one, two, and three of the series.]

A two-week series by The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, explores a human trafficking and prostitution ring that flourished in the small towns of eastern Iowa. "By poring over hundreds of court records and reports, and through more than two dozen interviews, The Gazette has pieced together over the last year and a half the story of how Robert Sallis and Betty Thompson were able in late 2004 and 2005 to operate a prostitution business right under the noses of police."

Brendan Smith of the Washington City Paper reports on two suicides in the Washington D.C. jail that revealed widespread misconduct and inadequate mental-health monitoring by corrections personnel. For ten months, the Director of the Department of Corrections fought a FOIA request for the reports from the internal-affairs investigations into the suicides. The reports showed that numerous personnel made false statements in an effort to cover-up wrongdoings by the DOC and Unity Health Care, the company contracted to provide psychiatric assessment and care within the jail.

Dan Eggen and Josh White of The Washington Post report on the recently declassified 2003 Justice Department memo that was responsible for creating the "legal foundation for the Defense Department's use of aggressive interrogation practices" in the run up to the war in Iraq. The memo suggested that presidential power was nearly unlimited during a time of war and should override laws forbidding torture. The Post provides links to pdfs of the 81-page memo (part 1 & 2).