The Scoop

Bob Mahlberg of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune analyzed local government financial disclosure forms to find that “hundreds of public officials from top state leaders to small-town mayors make critical government decisions about roads, schools and growth while also managing their personal land deals and investments — with the potential that they may profit personally.” The combined [...]

Paul Jacobs of the San Jose Mercury News spent six months digging into the financial ties between researchers at Stanford and commercial firms, finding that “potential conflicts occur throughout the school’s ranks. More than a third of the school’s administrators, department heads and other leaders — at least 26 out of 67 reviewed by the [...]

When it comes to CAR stories, few reporters are as imaginative as Elliot Jaspin of Cox News Service. Jaspin used Census data and other records to show that “beginning in 1864 and continuing for approximately 60 years, whites across the United States conducted a series of racial expulsions, driving thousands of blacks from their homes [...]

Joel Moroney of the Fort Myers News-Press used local records to find that “ending Lee County’s fractured and redundant system of 22 fire departments could offer taxpayers a potential savings of up to $100 million a year.” The county spends more than two neighboring counties combined on fire services, in part because it relies on [...]

Jonathan Saltzman and Yvonne Abraham of the Boston Globe used state data to show that “while Republican lawmakers in Massachusetts have called for a crackdown on companies that hire undocumented workers, the state has provided millions of dollars to contractors who employed those workers.” The paper examined records from nine state work sites, finding that [...]