Taking a look at how foreign-trained doctors impact a community

In a three-part series The Bakersfield Californian examines Kern County, California's high number of foreign-trained doctors and the impact it has on patient care.

Using the training she learned at an IRE Boot Camp, Christine Bedell, along with her colleague Kellie Schmitt, were able to make their own database to look at how many foreign-trained doctors were board-certified and how that effects their community.

"An investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity found federal regulators and the mining industry are failing to protect miners from the excessive toxic coal mine dust that causes black lung. The disease is now being diagnosed in younger miners and evolving more quickly to complicated stages."

"The report also reveals widespread and persistent gaming of the system that's designed to measure and control the coal mine dust that causes the deadly disease."

"The Texas Tribune analyzed 86 overturned convictions in Texas, finding that in nearly one quarter of those cases courts ruled that prosecutors made mistakes that often contributed to the wrong outcome."

"In a multi-part series Brandi Grissom explores the causes and consequences of prosecutorial errors and whether reforms might prevent future wrongful convictions."

"After a sheriff's deputy shot and killed a local community college football player during a struggle at a burglary scene Feb. 23, The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., compared recent years' football rosters at College of the Desert to county court databases."

"Reporters Keith Matheny and Kate McGinty found far more criminal activity by players than was previously known, including a player stabbing his teammate and five players robbing a sixth during a drug deal. California's leading community college running back last year played in violation of state law after a robbery conviction, the investigation found."

"A Houston Chronicle/Hearst series on disabled veterans ripoffs nationwide found convicted thieves, inveterate gamblers, the bankrupt and the mentally ill were repeatedly handed control of disabled veterans’ assets and estates by the VA – and then stole from them."

"The findings of this investigation of more than 100 prosecutions and decades of audits of this program already has generated strong reaction from Congress, including calls for legislative action and reforms from U.S. Senators and key House committee members."

"Echoing the findings of a Journal Sentinel investigation last month, Ben Poston reports that more than 5,300 violent assaults have been misreported since 2006, according to Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn whom told a Common Council committee Thursday."

"An internal department audit shows that 20% of aggravated assaults were underreported as lesser offenses that didn't get counted in the city's violent crime rate during that time."

In a three-part series, the Star Tribune has found that a billion-dollar federal tutoring program is rife with fraud and mismanagement.

The program, officially known as Supplemental Educational Services, is one of the lesser known and little scrutinized portions of No Child Left Behind. The investigation found that it has been lightly regulated by the feds and most states, which has allowed predatory and incompetent vendors to victimize the poorest students at America’s worst schools.

Click here to read part two of the story and here to read part three.

The Daily Business Review takes a closer look at the 2012 presidential election and the role lawyers have played in fundraising.

They combed through FEC and OpenSecrets.org records to compile a story, with numerous charts with breakdowns on lawyers helping President Obama and Mitt Romney and the percentage of their funds that come from lawyers. They also attended fundraisers to get an inside view of how they work.

"In light of the Trayvon Martin case, the Tampa Bay Times spent two months identifying and analyzing self-defense cases in which defendants invoked Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law."

The paper collected photos of victims and defendants and built  nearly 200 case studies into an interactive database. The Times used public records to identify victim and defendant race in each case and analyze its impact. The upcoming Sunday story, already published online, found that the law “is being invoked with unexpected frequency, in ways no one imagined, to free killers and violent attackers whose self-defense claims seem questionable at best.”

An Arizona Star investigation has found that "one in three Arizona schools last year had kindergarten classes with vaccination rates so low children were left vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks such as measles, mumps or pertussis."

It was discovered that "the worst offenders, by far, are charter and private schools, some with vaccination rates as low as 50 percent in Pima County and under 30 percent in Maricopa County. Rates need to be 80 percent to 95 percent, depending on the disease, to prevent the spread of infection."