September 28th, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in Paper Trail
Sean P. Murphy of the Boston Globe used state data to show that “while the Romney administration has criticized excessive sick time payouts at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, another agency the governor controls, the Massachusetts Port Authority, has paid more than $6.2 million to departing employees for unused sick time over the past five years.” [...]
September 26th, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in DIY, Paper Trail, State Data
William Glaberson of the New York Times, with assistance from Jo Craven McGinty, has a three-part series on New York’s town courts, finding that “people have been sent to jail without a guilty plea or a trial, or tossed from their homes without a proper proceeding. In violation of the law, defendants have been refused [...]
September 21st, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in Paper Trail
Joe Rojas-Burke of the Oregonian used state records to find that a program to help pay for doctors in rural areas “is sending millions of dollars to specialists in places where doctors abound and residents have a choice of hospitals. Of more than 1,100 doctors who met the criteria to qualify for support in the [...]
September 20th, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in Paper Trail, State Data
Mike McAndrew of the Syracuse Post-Standard, with assistance from Jeff Rea and Michelle Breidenbach, used state records to find that utility company NRG Energy received a $22 million tax break from New York state, but the firm “did almost nothing to deserve it. The New Jersey company added one-half of one employee. It operated Upstate [...]
August 23rd, 2006 | by Derek Willis | published in Paper Trail
Kim Breen and Kathy A. Goolsby of the Dallas Morning News used local school records to find that “area educators used corporal punishment to discipline nearly 3,000 students last year, mostly in a half dozen small or high-minority districts. The Dallas school district became one of the last large urban districts in the country to [...]