The Scoop » Broadcast

Houston Delinquent Landlords

Derek — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:47:08 +0000

Mark Greenblatt of KHOU-11 News in Houston used tax records to find that “local landlords who haven’t paid their property taxes in years, and yet the government vault is still open to them. Despite owing the government money, these property owners are still getting millions of dollars in public funding.” The county housing authority chief, when told of the practice, said, “That’s not good. That’s not a good feeling.”

Minimizing Denver Jet Noise

Derek — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:35:54 +0000

Tony Kovaleski and John Ferrugia of 7News-Denver tracked spending by the city of Brighton, which received more than $3 million to help residents minimize jet noise from Denver International Airport. “7NEWS investigation discovered that in several cases, contractors were overcharging residents and city leaders were neglecting to monitor the spending.” Some homeowners were charged hundreds or thousands for routine work such as adding screens to doors. “The city paid nearly $2,000 to cut down a tree at another house. Apparently the patch of dirt that replaced it helps cut down jet noise.”

Davidson County Ticket Fixes

Derek — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 17:04:21 +0000

Phil Williams of WTVF-NewsChannel5 in Nashville used local data to show that during the past two years in Davidson County, “almost 16,000 parking tickets were dismissed or, in court language, retired — and no one can say why.” Tennessee Titans QB Steve McNair and employees of a downtown Nashville Walgreens were among those who had tickets dismissed without explanation.

Washington Prison Medications

Derek — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 12:28:09 +0000

Chris Halsne of KIRO Eyewitness News in Seattle obtained painkiller distribution records for Washingtonâ€™s eight biggest prisons, finding that “in three years, taxpayers fed at least 329,000 Oxycodone pills to inmates. Prisoners have wolfed down a minimum 85-thousand doses of morphine. Add in narcotics like Percocet and Hydrocodone and taxpayers bought about 800,000 doses. The raw pills alone cost a half million dollars: distributing them cost millions more.”

Tampa Bay Elevators

Derek — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 13:15:52 +0000

Dave Bohman of the WTSP-TV in Tampa checked state records to find “838 elevators in the Bay area whose required annual inspection is more than a year overdue. We found elevators and escalators at the Citrus Park Plaza’s Regal 20 Cinemas with safety certificates expiring August 1, 2003. State records show the same expiration date for escalators at Baywalk in St. Petersburg.”

Congressional trip scrutiny affecting travel

Matt — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 18:58:48 +0000

Caught this on the radio yesterday: Marketplace and American Radio Works went back and looked at Congressional travel records and found that all the reporting done on the freebies has had an affect: Congress is sticking around Washington more, and taking fewer handout trips. The analysis was done by American RadioWorks with The Center for Public Integrity and the Medill News Service. You can search their data here.

Washington Outstanding Warrants

Derek — Mon, 30 May 2005 13:18:17 +0000

Chris Halsne of KIRO Team 7 analyzed Washington state’s 145,000 outstanding arrest warrants, finding that “only 18 percent of them allow officers to actually make unconditional arrests.” The rest involve contacting the originating police agency, which can allow the person detained to be let go. “A growing number of cities and counties (outside of King County’s jurisdiction) don’t want to pay for the cost of jail time or transportation of a criminal with a misdemeanor warrant. Instead, they routinely tell the deputy to let the criminal go right there on the spot.”

Washington Treatment Taxis

Derek — Wed, 11 May 2005 13:55:35 +0000

Chris Halsne of KIRO 7 Eyewitness News used public records to show that “Washington taxpayers spend $2.8 million each year for transportation of heroin addicts to treatment clinics that’s over and above the cost of serving up counseling and doses of methadone.” The money typically goes for taxi rides to clinics, although the state does not keep all receipts associated with the transportation program.

King County Brain Donations

Derek — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:45:19 +0000

Chris Halsne of KIRO7-TV in Seattle used Washington’s Open Records Act to uncover a program in which “the King County Medical Examiner’s Office has been harvesting brains from the corpses of mentally ill clients and quietly trading the tissue for money.” The transactions have generated more than $1 million from The Stanley Medical Research Institute, a Maryland company that studies mental disorders. “KIRO Team 7 Investigators contacted a half dozen families, which we confirmed had donated brains via King County. None knew of Stanley. None knew of money changing hands.”

Atlanta’s Ghost Scouts

Derek — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 14:29:22 +0000

Dale Russell of Atlanta’s Fox5 News found that Boy Scout rosters for the Atlanta area “appear to grossly overstate how many inner-city kids the Atlanta area Boy scouts serve. These records are used to convince people to donate money to the Boy Scouts.” While official rosters show nearly 9,000 scouts in Atlanta, school visits by the station yielded far fewer actually enrolled with the group. One high school is shown as having 77 scouts when there are actually none.