November 5th, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in Fed Data
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette, who pretty much owns the mine safety beat, has a story showing that “mine disasters like Sago get headlines. But far more coal miners die … alone, crushed by heavy equipment, ground up by runaway machinery, buried beneath collapsed mine roofs … Only 13 percent of the more [...]
October 12th, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in Fed Data
Farah Stockman, Michael Kranish, Peter S. Canellos and Kevin Baron of the Boston Globe have a four-part series on foreign aid spending by the United States, finding that “President Bush has almost doubled the percentage of US foreign-aid dollars going to faith-based groups such as Food for the Hungry, according to a Globe survey of [...]
October 11th, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in Fed Data
Jean Guccione and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times used federal data to find that “most New Orleans-area property owners seeking government aid for hurricane damage are showing a strong preference for restoring their old neighborhoods rather than take the money to seek new horizons.” About 2 percent of the people who individuals approved [...]
October 10th, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in DIY, Fed Data
Diana B. Henriques of the New York Times, with contributions by Andrew Lehren and Donna Anderson, examined federal laws passed since 1989 to find “more than 200 special arrangements, protections or exemptions for religious groups or their adherents were tucked into Congressional legislation, covering topics ranging from pensions to immigration to land use.” The paper [...]
October 5th, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in Fed Data
Sarah Rabil of the Daily Tar Heel analyzed state SAT averages, finding that “the percentage of students taking the SAT in a given state dramatically affects a state’s average score. Poverty levels also are an indicator of a state’s average performance on the test, the analysis shows. After taking out the effect that poverty and [...]