The Scoop

Bill Robinson of The State reviewed five years of South Carolina school crime data to find that “of the most serious crimes in schools, possessing an illegal weapon was the most prevalent, accounting for almost two-thirds of serious crimes.” Hampering the analysis was flawed reporting by the schools. Overall crime declined in 2005, but experts [...]

Adam Liptak and Janet Roberts of the New York Times used Ohio campaign finance data and state Supreme Court records from Lexis-Nexis to show that “justices routinely sat on cases after receiving campaign contributions from the parties involved or from groups that filed supporting briefs. On average, they voted in favor of contributors 70 percent [...]

Bill Robinson of The State used South Carolina school test data to show that “seventy-four school systems experienced declines on either – or both – the math or English/language arts sections of PACT between 2001 and 2006 … A computer analysis by The State newspaper of performance by some 50,000 students – most of whom [...]

David Hunt of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review used federal and state data to find “a decrease in teenage suicide cases nationwide, but not in Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania’s numbers for the most part have held steady, but some counties’ numbers are outpacing those recorded a decade ago.” The paper used data from the Centers for Disease Control [...]

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 [...]