The Scoop

When it first appeared I was really excited to see Show Us The Data, which gave visitors a chance to list and vote for their “Most Requested Documents” that should be more readily available from the federal government. Sure enough, there were plenty of strong choices for the top 10 list. And then people starting [...]

Alison Young of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution used salary and bonus data for Centers for Disease Control employees to find that the “employees receiving the most frequent large cash awards and performance bonuses are not scientists, but mostly budget analysts, accountants, computer experts and other administrative managers.” The paper used FOIA to obtain the records for [...]

Fred Kelly of the Charlotte Observer used local data to show that “roughly four of every five Section 8 residents are clustered in 10 ZIP codes already burdened with crime and blight. At the same time, affluent communities, including vast stretches of south Charlotte and areas near Lake Norman, have virtually no Section 8 tenants.” [...]

Alan Trubow of the Austin American-Statesman obtained records through the Texas Public Information Act to find that “football coaches in the state’s largest high schools generally earn significantly larger salaries than the state’s teachers do, even many with graduate degrees and decades of experience.” At the largest schools, football coaches on average earn $30,000 more [...]

Andrea James of the Mobile Register used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain records on shipping incidents in Mobile Bay since 2000, finding “366 records of investigations, including those of at least 26 deaths and injuries. Those records support what experts describe as an increase nationally in accidents related to equipment failures such as [...]