Iowa drivers dodge high fines, license penalties

The Des Moines Register used data on driving-related offenses in Iowa to identify 78,000 people who owe at least $500 in fines. Reporter Lee Rood and data analyst Michael Corey found "The outstanding debt that all Iowans owe for everything from overdue speeding tickets to drunk driving fines to law enforcement surcharges is at a record high: $438.7 million." With stiff state penalties, the rate of sanctions against drivers' licenses have nearly doubled in 10 years. The online package also includes video and a searchable database of drivers who owe fines.

In a four-part series, Megan O'Matz and John Maines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examined Florida's concealed weapons law and found that licenses have been issued to hundreds of people who, due to their criminal histories, wouldn't stand a chance of getting them in most other states. Courts have found them responsible for assaults, burglaries, sexual battery, drug possession, child molestation - even homicide. The newspaper obtained a database of 443,425 names of licensees before the state passed a privacy law last July 1 closing the records.

Stephen Henderson, Supreme Court correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, evaluated the quality of defense lawyering in four states, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia in a three-part series based on in-depth review of 80 cases from 1997 to 2004. By failing to investigate their clients' histories, lawyers in these 73 cases fell far short of the 20-year-old professional standards set by the American Bar Association. Their performances also appear inconsistent with standards that the U.S. Supreme Court has mandated several times."

Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer expose an explicit email and Internet scandal within the Port of Seattle Police Department. The reporters used public records requests to obtain internal investigation documents and personnel records showing that nearly one-third of the Port's police force sent, received and exchanged racist, sexist and explicit emails over a 16-month period. Through other documents and interviews, the P-I discovered the inappropriate use of public computers and similar questionable actions by officers has remained unchecked and part of the department's culture for years.

Tony Plohetski of the Austin American-Statesman reports on short-comings in Texas estate laws which make it easy to
defraud the deceased. "State
probate laws don't ensure that a deceased person's assets actually get to heirs

Ian Demsky of Willamette Week in Portland, Ore., investigated the records of law enforcement and corrections officers in Oregon who had their licenses revoked. Since 2002, about one third of the revocations stemmed from sexual misconduct.

Jeremy Rogalski and 11 News Investigates of KHOU-Houston exposed an open secret of the Texas justice system: Texas prosecutors are not letting defense attorneys see basic documents, such as police reports, witness statements, and even DNA lab results, before trial. A Texas state law practically eliminates pretrial discovery often leaving defense attorneys unable to prepare for court. Rogalski found that this has resulted in at least one innocent man going to prison for 13 years.

In the on-going series "Your Court, Their Secrets" investigating closed court records, Cheryl Phillips, Maureen O'Hagan and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times uncovered conflicts of interest in sealed guardianship cases. "Only a small circle of lawyers practice in the guardianship field. Some say that to make a good living they cannot limit their practice to one side or the other: They must represent guardianship companies as well as the people subject to those companies' control." This leaves wards vulnerable to guardians who profit by working both sides of the system. This vulnerability is compounded by the fact that these court records are sealed. Since 1990, 398 guardianship files have been sealed in the state of Washington. The Times reviewed sealing orders for 376 of those files to find that 97% did not adhere to the proper legal standard for dealing a case: "A judge must find that "compelling circumstances" exist for secrecy; determine that they outweigh the public's right to open courts; and explain the reasoning in a written order."

Tisha Thompson of WMAR-Baltimore found that police officers in Baltimore continuously broke speed limits, sometimes by over 10mph, even in the absence of an emergency. The investigation revealed that in an emergency, fifty percent of the police cars drove at more than 10 mph over the speed limit.Armed with hidden cameras, the investigators also found that 8 out of 10 police vehicles without lights and sirens were breaking speed limits while driving in residential neighborhoods.

Mark Greenblatt of KHOU-TV looks at a surge in violent crimes in Houston - an increase of 22% in the last 2 years. For the story, Greenblatt used Access, Excel, ArcGIS, and CrimeStat to first look for trends in rise in specific crimes, then mapped them out to find further trends. Included in the report are interactive online tools that allow you to search violent crime incidents by neighborhood and zip code.