CONTENTS

THE IRE JOURNAL 18 EXPOSING HEALTH ISSUES TABLE OF CONTENTS 19 HEALTH INSPECTIONS Restaurant violations serve up MAY/JUNE 2001 graphic picture of food gone bad 4 Don’t forsake training By Rick Linsk of the St. Paul Pioneer Press By Brant Houston 20 MEDICAL ERRORS 5 NEWS BRIEFS AND MEMBER NEWS Series delves into nursing 6 WINNERS NAMED IN 2000 IRE AWARDS mistakes that lead to injuries – or even deaths By The IRE Journal Staff By Michael J. Berens 9 CHICAGO LINEUP of the Chicago Tribune By The IRE Journal Staff 22 OVERSEAS TESTING 10 PROPOSED BUDGET Drug firms avoid IRE takes conservative approach in forecasting U.S. watchdogs by conference, seminar fees using world’s most desperate By Brant Houston By Joe Stephens, Mary Pat Flaherty for The IRE Journal and Deborah Nelson 11 FOI COLUMN of TheWashington Post Fears over privacy lead to 10 more government secrecy 24 TRACKING THE HMO Red ink oozes as top executives profit By Charles Davis By Mitchell Schnurman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

14 LACK OF TRAINING, 27 BODY BROKERS EQUIPMENT LEAD From skin and bones to fat profits TO FATAL FIRES By Ronald Campbell IN DETROIT of The Orange County Register By Melvin Claxton and Charles Hurt of The 33 COPS AND MONEY Detroit News Probe of national forfeiture laws leads to scrutiny of police intent By Karen Dillon of The Kansas City Star

15 LEGAL CORNER ABOUT THE COVER Cameras in courtrooms: An in-depth look at poorly Revisiting the experiment By David Smallman run medical facilities, critical care mistakes, drug testing 16 KESSLER’S GOVERNMENT and body brokers. INSIDER BOOK HOLDS BUILT-IN DRAMA, FEWER CALORIES By Steve Weinberg of The IRE Journal Cover story, page 18

17 GUEST COLUMN Cover photo by, Business is everyone’s business Corbis By Diana Henriques

MAY/JUNE 2001 3 THE IRE JOURNAL FROM THE IRE OFFICES VOLUME 24 NUMBER 3 Don’t forsake training DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS & EDITOR Len Bruzzese ewsrooms across the U.S. have slashed – if not obliterated – MANAGING EDITOR Anita Bruzzese training budgets this year. We’ve been through this challenge N several times before in the 26-year history of IRE and each time ART DIRECTOR our members find a way to get to our seminars and conferences. Wendy Gray For many journalists, IRE is the one constant element of their careers and IRE becomes a second home. In a profession where a reporter or BRANT HOUSTON SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR editor will likely switch jobs four or five times, IRE has always been there with support Steve Weinberg and a ready network. CONTRIBUTING LEGAL EDITOR A centerpiece of IRE is the national conference. It has become the gathering place for David Smallman journalists to rejuvenate their passion for the pursuit of challenging stories. The conference provides a venue for journalists to offer each other advice on how to do the stories that matter EDITORIAL INTERN despite difficult financial times. And IRE events are where editors and reporters find out which Suzanne Bessette newsrooms continue to believe in public service and investigative reporting. This year’s national conference – in Chicago, June 14-17 – will have all of this and more. In addition to about 100 panels and workshops, we are making Sunday morning a time during IRE which participants can get more individual attention on their reporting, writing, editing IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR and careers. IRE and The Poynter Institute will offer workshops and one-on-ones on the Brant Houston so-called career day. The day will focus on the personal improvement each journalist can make with or without training budgets. BOARD OF DIRECTORS We know that some of our members will convince their organizations to steer the limited dollars left toward the IRE conference and its practical training. Others have to make personal CHAIRMAN Judy Miller, The Miami Herald sacrifices and investments to get to the conference. Because of this, we are keeping registration fees as low as possible (the lowest of all major journalism organizations) and at the same PRESIDENT level of the last five years. James Neff, author At the same time, we are working hard to ensure the conference will be the most worthwhile VICE PRESIDENT event this year for journalists, especially those who cover beat and daily stories. David Dietz, Bloomberg News

TREASURER Reporting Conference Shawn McIntosh, The Clarion-Ledger On the subject of conferences, the turnout for our reporting conference in March for journalism students, faculty and young professionals far exceeded our hopes. More than 350 SECRETARY Ed Delaney, Barnes and Thornburg enthusiastic participants turned out for a full day of panels and hands-on training in computer- assisted reporting at the Missouri School of Journalism where IRE is headquartered. Paul Adrian, KDFW - Dallas It had been a busy week already with the judging for the IRE Awards and an IRE board Rosemary Armao, Sarasota Herald-Tribune meeting, but the board and contest judges stayed on to serve as panelists. Diana Henriques, David Boardman, The Seattle Times the veteran investigative business reporter from The New York Times, gave a keynote speech Mark Lagerkvist, News 12 Long Island that convinced the audience that everyone should know business reporting. (See excerpts Rose Ciotta, The Philadelphia Inquirer of speech, page 17.) Stephen Miller, The New York Times A review of the conference, which received high praises, showed that at least 30 universities Joel Kaplan, Syracuse University and 18 states were represented. Drew Sullivan, Freelance Stuart Watson, WCNC-Charlotte Germans form association IRE volunteer Greg Reeves, whose regular job is computer-assisted reporting at The Kansas City Star, recently went to Germany for several days to share IRE’s experiences The IRE Journal (ISSN0164-7016) is pub- with journalists there. Greg, who had many years of traditional investigative reporting before lished six times a year by Investigative discovering databases, is fluent in German. Reporters and Editors, Inc. 138 Neff It turned out that the invitation to IRE was timed to coincide with the announcement Annex, Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, MO 65211, 573-882-2042. that a group of journalists there had formed an IRE-like organization known as “Netzwerk E-mail: [email protected]. Subscriptions are Recherche.” The group’s formal announcement specifically mentioned IRE and the intention $60 in the U.S., $70 for institutions and those to “improve and intensify contacts between journalists of different countries.” We look outside the U.S. Periodical postage paid at Columbia, MO. Postmaster: Please send forward to working with them. address changes to IRE. USPS #4516708 Brant Houston is executive director of IRE and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. He can be reached through e-mail at [email protected] or by calling 573-882-2042.

4 THE IRE JOURNAL I R E N E W S

Carnegie Corporation Newsroom math book MEMBER NEWS grants $250,000 to IRE is available from IRE The Carnegie Corporation of New York has IRE has sent to the printer the fourth volume in he 2001 duPont-Columbia Awards for inves- made a grant of $250,000 to IRE to support its its beat book series. “Numbers in the Newsroom: Ttigative reporting honored a number of Using Math and Statistics in News” was written by Campaign Finance Information Center and general IRE members. Stephen Smith of Minnesota training on campaign finance coverage. Sarah Cohen, former IRE training director and now The two-year grant will be used toward train- database editor with The Washington Post. Public Radio’s American RadioWorks accepted ing state and local news media on campaign Cohen offers a quick guide to making numbers the highest award, the Gold Baton, for his radio clear in daily reporting. The book includes sections finance issues. Activities will include providing documentary “Massacre at Cuska.” IRE members on fractions, percentages, rates, measuring change, resources and training at workshops, conferences also accepted three of the 11 Silver Baton awards: and through the World Wide Web. understanding averages, working with graphics and “With this grant, IRE can maintain and improve much more. Investigative reporter Anna Werner and producer The book costs $15 for IRE members and $20 upon its efforts to help journalists track the flow of David Raziq, for KHOU-TV’s (Houston) investiga- for non-members. Order online at www.ire.org or money into politics,” says Brant Houston, IRE’s tive series, “Deadly Tires;” Tom Grant for KXLY- call 573-882-3364. executive director. TV’s (Spokane) “Public Funds, Private Profit”; and The Campaign Finance Information Center Reporting Conference (CFIC) is dedicated to more in-depth coverage Laure Quinlivan, who reported and produced of campaigns by following the campaign money draws college students “The I-Team Stadium Investigation” for WCPO-TV trail. The CFIC teaches journalists the skills to An IRE Reporting Conference held March 31 drew (Cincinnati). Agnes Blum, formerly with the work with the data on their own. IRE was able to more than 350 people – most of them college students. Morning News (Wilmington, N.C.), is now with The start the CFIC with help from Joyce Foundation The University of Missouri School of Journalism acted grants. as co-host for the event, which was aimed at exposing Virginian-Pilot. Freelancer Jimmie Briggs was “The Joyce Foundation was and continues to young professionals, student journalists and others from awarded an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellow- small news organizations to some of the most talented be a crucial supporter of our efforts” Houston ship for this year. He will continue documentary says. “We are pleased that Carnegie sees the value reporters and editors in investigative reporting. of expanding this work.” About 30 speakers, including Pulitzer Prize research in Sri Lanka on child soldiers and the Carnegie Corporation of New York was created winners or finalists, IRE Award winners and other impact of war on children for his book. James top names served on panels or taught in hands-on by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote “the Bruggers, environment writer for The (Louisville) computer-assisted reporting classes. advancement and diffusion of knowledge and In a keynote address, Diana Henriques of The Courier-Journal has been elected president of the understanding.” As a grant-making foundation, the New York Times made a strong case for journalists Corporation seeks to carry out Carnegie’s vision Society of Environmental Journalists. Melvin understanding how nearly all stories involve a tie to Claxton and Charles Hurt of The Detroit News of philanthropy, which he said should aim “to do business. She urged the audience to learn business real and permanent good in this world.” The grant backgrounding techniques to make those connections. won the Scripps-Howard National Journalism was made under Carnegie’s “Civic Engagement A condensed version of that speech can be found in Award for Public Service Reporting for their for the 21st Century” program. this issue of the Journal. expose of mismanagement and negligence in Detroit’s Fire Department. Kristen DelGuzzi Departures and arrivals has moved from The Times-Picayune to The Plain Tom McGinty, training director for IRE and and a half to work at The Washington Post, where Dealer. Mary Flood, formerly with The Wall the National Institute for Computer-Assisted she won a Pulitzer Prize as part of team looking Street Journal, is now a legal affairs and investiga- Reporting (NICAR), and Jo Craven McGinty, into the high number of police shootings in tive reporter at the Houston Chronicle. Allison academic adviser to NICAR, are headed east to Washington, D.C. Gilbert has moved from WWOR-TV to WNBC-TV work at Newsday. The husband-wife team report Both will be sorely missed. to Long Island in June. Jeff Porter, computer-assisted reporting guru as an investigative producer. Mary Fran Glea- Tom spent two years racing across the country at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, will become son is now managing editor for features and to conduct more than 50 seminars in computer- IRE and NICAR’s database library administrator sports at the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., from assisted reporting for print and broadcast journal- beginning in June. Jeff will oversee analysis assistant managing editor at The Post-Standard ists. In the past few months, he also did data and other services provided by the database and Syracuse Herald-Journal. Dave Gulliver, analysis for major news organizations and worked library, as well as do some teaching at Missouri with the Associated Press to make census data and an occasional IRE seminar on the road. A formerly a database projects reporter with the available and understandable. veteran of newspapers and computer-assisted Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, has taken the same Tom will report to the Metro Desk at Newsday, reporting, Jeff recently wrote about investigating position with The Virginian-Pilot. Chris Hein- where his computer skills undoubtedly will catch nonprofits for The IRE Journal. baugh has left KOMO-TV (Seattle), and is now the attention of Long Island inhabitants. Tom On the subject of nonprofits, Barbara Hodges, with WFAA-TV (Dallas) covering city hall. Don came to IRE from The (Trenton) Times. an experienced fundraiser and manager of Holland is now assistant editor and continues his Jo, who will work on Newsday’s enterprise desk, nonprofits, has joined IRE as its development not only taught five computer-assisted reporting officer. Barbara, who holds a master’s degree in duties as city editor of the Daily Press (Victorville, courses a year as an assistant professor at the public administration, was most recently the Calif.). Elaine Norton Hooker will move from Missouri School of Journalism, but also served as executive director of a nonprofit human services CONTINUED ON PAGE 35 × NICAR’s academic adviser. This was Jo’s second center. She will help lead IRE’s endowment drive Send Member News items to Len Bruzzese at stint at IRE. She worked at IRE and NICAR, while and other fundraising. [email protected] and include a phone number for getting her graduate degree. She left for a year – Brant Houston verification.

MAY/JUNE 2001 5 FEATURES

• Ted Gup for his Doubleday book “The Book WINNERS of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA.” • Living on Earth from NPR for Ingrid Lobet’s “Beneath Native Land: Occidental Petroleum NAMED in South America.” • University of Missouri student Scott M. Finn writing for the Charleston Gazette about how IN 2000 IRE AWARDS campaign contributions, lobbyist spending and personal financial interests affect the West Virginia Legislature. The student certificate BY THE IRE JOURNAL STAFF comes with a $1,000 cash scholarship. The awards will be presented during a June 16 luncheon at the IRE National Conference in he Nation magazine and WTVF- its efforts by the state attorney general and Chicago. The conference, to be held June 14-17 Nashville have taken top honors in ultimately Congress. at the Chicago Hyatt-Regency, will feature many the 2000 IRE Awards. “The paper produced a remarkable series of of the winners speaking about the techniques T Winning the prestigious IRE stories that gave readers an incredible behind- they used to develop their stories. medals were Jamie Lincoln Kitman of The the-scenes look at the Olympics and its organiz- Nation and Phil Williams and Bryan Staples ers,” said the judges. The FOI Award comes of WTVF. with an IRE medal. 2000 IRE AWARDS The annual awards recognize outstanding The Tom Renner Award – for outstanding investigative work in print, broadcast, online crime reporting – was given to KCBS-Los WINNERS AND FINALISTS media and for work furthering freedom of Angeles, where Joel Grover and Jennifer Cobb NEWSPAPERS information. showed how corrupt doctors, nurses and street The Nation won in the magazine/specialty hustlers were defrauding the California Medicaid SMALL NEWSPAPERS (UNDER 100,000) publication division for “The Secret History program. Judges called the work gutsy, smart IRE CERTIFICATE “Stadium Naples,” Naples Daily News, Gina of Lead,” in which Kitman documents how and powerful. The Renner Award comes with an Edwards. American businesses produced and marketed IRE medal and a $1,000 prize. Relentless and dogged beat reports over four years leaded gasoline even though they knew there An IRE certificate was awarded for the first documented a web of corrupt dealings involving a time in the online category, which was introduced golf-stadium development, county grants, the PGA were safer alternatives. The contest judges tour and local commissioners. Ultimately, one of remarked on how the work read like classic last year. The Center for Public Integrity was the key subjects of these stories was indicted based turn-of-the-century muckraking. named for “Our Private Legislatures,” in which on the information developed in the newspaper. financial disclosure documents for legislators The stories show how digging on a breaking news “The research manifested here is nothing story can lead to important investigative disclosures. short of breathtaking,” the judges reported. from all 50 states were gathered and made The paper gave the reporter plenty of support WTVF won a medal in the television cat- available in a database. through space and prominent play throughout the egory for below top 20 markets. Williams and investigation. photographer Staples investigated the work Others certificate winners: FINALISTS of off-duty Nashville police officers and soon • 60 Minutes II for “First Casualty,” an investiga- • “An Empty Promise,” The National Law Journal, discovered unethical activities by high-ranking tion into the fate of a Navy pilot shot down in Elizabeth Amon. • “OMYA and World War II,” Rutland Herald, Bruce officers that eventually led to resignations and Operation Desert Storm. Edwards. changes in police regulations. The contest judges • Dateline NBC for “The Paper Chase,” an • “Officers Down,” Savannah Morning News, Paula called it “an outstand- examination of the insurance industry’s process Reed Ward. of reviewing patient records. • “Drug Pump’s Deadly Trail,” Tallahassee Democrat, Copies of all contest ing example of dogged Paige St. John. entries are available local reporting” despite • KHOU-Houston for “Treading on Danger?” from the IRE threats to Williams and The station led the charge in investigating Resource Center, his family. Firestone tires on Ford Explorers. MEDIUM NEWSPAPERS (100,000 THROUGH 250,000) 573-882-3364. “He went after one • The Orange County Register for “The Body IRE CERTIFICATE “Detroit Fire Department: Out of Service,” The of the most powerful Brokers,” which details the $500 million-a-year Detroit News, Melvin Claxton, Charles Hurt. institutions in any town and broke the blue line industry in donated body parts. The reporters documented irresponsibility and by getting police officers to talk about their • The Detroit News for “Detroit Fire Department: incompetence in the Detroit Fire Department, Out of Service,” in which fire department outlining myriad flaws – malfunctioning fire trucks, superiors,” they said. broken hydrants, closed stations – that contributed The Freedom of Information Award went to shortcomings are linked to deaths. to deaths. They reconstructed in detail one fire in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for seeking • Naples Daily News for “Stadium Naples,” which two children died because equipment was not for documenting corrupt dealings involving a in working order. The series put pressure on public Olympic organizing committee documents – officials to increase funding. The presentation was and not giving up. The paper was joined in golf-stadium development. clear and the writing was precise.

6 THE IRE JOURNAL FEATURES

FINALISTS IRE CERTIFICATE TOP 20 MARKETS • “Misery for Rent,” Lexington Herald-Leader, Mary “The Paper Chase,” Dateline NBC, John Larson, IRE CERTIFICATE Meehan, Tom Lasseter, Linda J. Johnson, Geoff Lynne Dale, Allan Maraynes, Neal Shapiro, “Treading on Danger?” KHOU-TV, David Mulvihill. Andy Lehren, Mable Chan. Raziq, Anna Werner, Chris Henao. • “North Carolina State University Public Safety When State Farm Insurance Co. wants to chal- By now everyone knows that Firestone tires Scandal,” The News & Observer, Dan Kane. lenge an insurance claim, it often sends out on Ford Explorers were defective and caused • “High School Basketball Investigation,” Press- patient records to sev- several deadly crashes. The company Telegram, Steve Irvine, Billy Witz, Fausto Ramos. eral companies through agreed to recall those tires, the second • “Asbestos: Forgotten Killer,” Seattle Post-Intelli- a little-known practice largest tire recall in U.S. history. It gencer, Andrew Schneider, Carol Smith. called “paper review.” Videostreamed excerpts is unlikely any of this would have Dateline’s investigation happened without the reporting of documented how these from television category KHOU in Houston. The results of companies used people LARGE NEWSPAPERS (OVER 250,000) winners can be found at KHOU’s investigation are spectacu- IRE CERTIFICATE with no medical training lar: the second largest tire recall in to write up reports that the IRE Web site, U.S. history, congressional hearings “The Body Brokers,” The Orange County routinely denied patient Register, Mark Katches, William Heisel, Ronald and new regulations. Were it not for claims. The reporters http://www.ire.org/ this piece, the failure of Firestone Campbell, Sharon Henry, Michael Goulding. did an outstanding job Despite a federal ban on profiting from the sale of broadcast/videostream.html tires on Ford Explorers likely would of penetrating the inner have remained sealed in court cases skin, bone and tissue obtained from dead people, a workings of an industry $500 million-a-year industry deals in donated body throughout the country. In the face which thrives on secrecy. of denials and threats from the two parts. This industry operated in the shadows, out of The judges were awed by sight and mind of the American public, until it was companies, the television station the depth and difficulty of the reporting and the expanded the scope of its inquiry internationally. revealed by the Register. Most impressive was the outstanding interviews of the company executives, paper’s documentation of the relationship between The reports sparked intense scrutiny of not only a who were caught cold by the superb, incisive defective product, but of the way complaints and not-for-profit tissue banks and their for-profit tissue- questioning. processing partners. Particularly shocking were the patterns of defects are quashed or ignored. revelations that skin desperately needed for burn victims was instead going to cosmetic purposes. The series has FINALISTS FINALISTS spawned reforms in California and nationally. • “Diamonds and Blood,” ABC News, John Quinones, • “What Some Car Dealers Don’t Want You to Know,” David Fitzpatrick, Thomas E. Goldstone, David KCBS-TV, Joel Grover, Jennifer Cobb. FINALISTS Ward, Jane Hartney. • “No Justice for Children: An Investigation of • “Dangerous Care: Nurses’ hidden role in medical • “Dangerous Drugs,” CBS News, Allyson Ross Taylor, the Family Court System, WFAA-TV, Valeri Wil- error,” Chicago Tribune, Michael Berens. Jim Murphy, Jim McGlinchy, Mark Katkov, Andy liams, Meridith Schucker, Lisa Hampshire, Jesus • “AIDS in the Priesthood,” The Kansas City Star, Triay, Sharyl Attkisson. Hernandez, WFAA Photo Staff. Judy Thomas. • “No Safe Haven,” CNN, Ken Shiffman, Daphne • “Who’s at the Wheel?” WMAQ-TV, Dave Savini, • “The New FDA: Partnership with Deadly Risk,” Los Algom, Linda Pattillo, David Timko, Lisa Satterfield, Michele Rubenstein, Bond Li, John Scott, Sharon Angeles Times, David Willman. Sarah Fogel, Roger Herr, Lisa Satterfield, Ira Raider, Pearson. • “Pension Cuts 101,” The Wall Street Journal, Ellen Claire Cibik. E. Schultz.

LOCAL CIRCULATION WEEKLIES Powerful Research Tools No winner FINALISTS For Investigative Reporting • “Vanished Teens Case Solved,” The Jewish Week, Eric Greenberg. • “Hunting Down a Slumlord,” New Times Inc., Michael Gougis. • “Snake Killer,” New Times Inc., Laura Laughlin. • “Plumb Jobs,” New Times Inc., Michael Gougis. The Next Generation of Online Research • “Cruel & Usual,” New Times Inc., Bruce Rushton. Investigative Reporters working in QuickInfo is a collection of highly both print and broadcast media turn to searchable regional and state-level TELEVISION FlatRateInfo.com and QuickInfo.net public records datasets. Subscribing to one or both gets you unlimited to find out more about the people, NETWORK/SYNDICATED searches at one low flat rate. IRE CERTIFICATE companies and institutions they need “First Casualty,” CBS; 60 Minutes II, Bob to know more about. Monthly, quarterly and annual subscrip- Simon, Draggan Mihailovich, Christine Spolar. tions are available. Within 12 hours of Operation Desert Storm, the U.S. FlatRateInfo provides access to suffered its first casualty, Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher. But as 60 Minutes II revealed, Speicher may national public records datasets and Call today to set up a FREE 2 day live not have died when his plane went down. Compiling also allows journalists to use its hands-on demo of both products! secret Pentagon documents, including satellite photos powerful National People Locator. and forensic reports, this report uncovered a series of missteps, some of which appear to be rooted in Call toll free today 1-888-259-6173 to set politics. The result was a breathtaking and well-told story about how the Department of Defense misled up your FREE 2 day demo! the American people and violated its most important military creed, to leave no soldier behind. FlatRateInfo.com and QuickInfo.net are Products of e-InfoData.com

MAY/JUNE 2001 7 FEATURES

BOOKS SPECIAL BELOW TOP 20 MARKETS IRE CERTIFICATE IRE MEDAL TOM RENNER AWARD “The Book of Honor: “California’s Billion Dollar Rip-Off,” KCBS-Los “Who’s Policing the Police,” WTVF-Nashville, Covert Lives and Classi- Phil Williams, Bryan Staples Angeles, Joel Grover, Jennifer Cobb. fied Deaths at the CIA,” The California Medicaid program – Medi-Cal – has Phil Williams began investigating how off- Doubleday, Ted Gup. duty Nashville police officers were getting been beset by fraud for years. But KCBS brought When Ted Gup was visiting the state’s residents face to face with the swindles, paid as security guards in the city’s most the Central Intelligence Agen- notorious strip zone. He soon discovered that showing how corrupt doctors, nurses and street cy’s headquarters in Langley, hustlers were defrauding the system and costing high-ranking police officers were ordering a Va., in 1991, he noticed a hands-off approach to the establishments at the taxpayers millions of dollars. Excellent use of large marble wall in the lobby. undercover video provided graphic proof of an behest of their owners. Williams and Staples It featured 69 black stars, went on to expose other unethical actions unabashed fraud. And the station did not let bureau- representing each of the CIA cracy off the hook, showing how obsolete computers by police. Despite threats to himself and his agents or employees who had died on assignment. More family, Williams persevered. It was a powerful made the fraud so easy. The undercover work was than half of those stars had no names attached. Nine years gutsy, smart and powerful. The series resulted in but even-handed series of reports. He went later, Gup’s book discloses the people behind the stars and after one of the most powerful institutions in immediate action by the governor and the closing of the stories of their deaths. Gup went after one of the most 12 of the 13 clinics that the reporters exposed. any town and broke the blue line by getting impenetrable institutions in the country, breaking more police officers to talk about their superiors. The than 50 years of silence by the agency. His painstaking story was nailed and resulted in the resignation FINALISTS research uncovered information even the victims’ fellow • “Capitalism in a Cold Climate,” Fortune Magazine, of a top-ranking police officer and a change agents didn’t know, and he presents it in an engaging, in the policy regulating off-duty employment Richard Behar. compelling fashion. Beyond the remarkably detailed • “Black Mass,” PublicAffairs, Dick Lehr, Gerard O’Neill. by police. An outstanding example of dogged portraits of individuals, Gup’s research presents a mosaic local reporting. of our nation’s covert actions overseas. FOI AWARD FINALISTS FINALISTS “Inside the ‘96 Olympics,” Atlanta Journal- • “The Informant,” Broadway Books, Kurt Eichenwald. Constitution, Melissa Turner. • “Marine Corps Toxic Water,” WITI-TV Fox 6, Following the disclosure of the Salt Lake City Olympics Bob Segall, Diane Carbonara. • “The Buying of the President 2000,” Charles Lewis, Center for Public Integrity. bribery scandal, the Journal-Constitution wanted to take • “Day Care Felons,” WKMG-TV, Tony Pipitone, a closer look at what happened during the ’96 Olympics Jim Crane, Darran Caudle, Brent Singleton. in Atlanta. But the Atlanta Olympics Committee denied RADIO the paper’s request for documents, saying those records IRE CERTIFICATE were private. The paper would not give up, and was OTHER MEDIA “Beneath Native Land: Occidental Petroleum joined in its efforts by the state attorney general and in South America,” Living on Earth from ultimately Congress. After finally receiving the hundreds MAGAZINE/SPECIALTY NPR, Ingrid Lobet. of boxes of documents, the paper produced a remarkable PUBLICATION The reporter went on an extraordinary journey into series of stories that gave readers an incredible behind- IRE MEDAL the heart of the South American jungle. She showed the-scenes look at the Olympics and its organizers. enterprise and daring as she exposed the effects of The effort also set an important precedent for news “The Secret History of Occidental Petroleum’s oil drilling on native lands. Lead,” The Nation, Jamie organizations seeking to look into Olympic organizing On a tight budget and journeying through the most committees in the future. Lincoln Kitman. horrendous conditions, the reporter uncovered water This reads like a classic contamination and environmental damage caused by a FINALISTS turn-of-the-century major U.S. oil company. • “BioWar,” CBS News, Eric Longabardi muckraking piece. The • “Government Inc.: You Move In. They Cash In,” author documents how FINALISTS The Orlando Sentinel, Robert Sargent Jr., Ramsey American businesses, • “Lethal Legacy,” The Canadian Broadcasting Corpora- Campbell, Jim Leusner, Sean Holton. including General tion, Kelly Ryan, Margaret McGee, Sandra Bartlett. • “Disregarding Your Right to Know,” The Press of Motors and Standard • “MCI Shirley Prison Allegations,” WBUR-FM, Jason Atlantic City, Michael Diamond, John Froonjian. Oil, produced and mar- Beaubien. • “Access Denied,” The Telegram, Tracy Barron, Ryan Cleary, keted leaded gasoline Barbara Sweet, Russell Wangersky, Robert Mills. even though they knew • “Dirty Dining,” Toronto Star, Robert Cribb. there were safer, though ONLINE more expensive, alternatives. And this story IRE CERTIFICATE reveals that after lead was finally banned “Our Private Legislatures – Public Service, STUDENT WORK (ALL MEDIA) in U.S. gasoline in 1986, the companies Personal Gain,” Center for Public Integrity, IRE CERTIFICATE continued to market leaded gas overseas. The Diane Renzulli, Meleah Rush, John Dunbar, “Cycle of Influence: How Campaign Contribu- research manifested here is nothing short of Alex Knott, Robert Moore, Ken Vogel. tions, Lobbyist Spending and Personal Financial breathtaking. The Center for Public Integrity decided to investigate Interests Affect the West Virginia Legislature,” conflicts of interests involving state legislatures in all 50 Charleston Gazette/University of Missouri, Scott FINALISTS states. To proceed, it obtained the financial disclosure M. Finn. documents of all state legislators and compiled them • “Caught Off Guard,” freelance for Boston Excellent storytelling about how lobbyists influence into a master database. The result: an eye-opening Magazine, Kate Yeomans. legislators in the state capital of West Virginia. project that disclosed that more than 20 percent of state • “Capitalism in a Cold Climate,” Fortune Maga- The reporter combined excellent computer-assisted legislators sat on committees charged with regulating the zine, Richard Behar. reporting skills with strong sourcing. He was able to legislators’ professional or business interests. This is the • “The Bingo Connection,” Mother Jones, Chris- show through many different windows how personal first comprehensive look at all state legislators in one place topher D. Cook. and business conflicts affect legislation in that state. and the interactive nature of the project allows voters to see • “Big Money and Politics: Who Gets Hurt,” As a contest screener said, “Finn has done a service for themselves how their lawmakers measure up. TIME Magazine, Donald L. Barlett, James B. for the readers of West Virginia.” Steele, Andrew Goldstein, Laura Karmatz, Daniel FINALISTS Levy. FINALISTS • “Playing with Fire: The Untold Story of Woodstock • “Lackmann Sustains Questionable Food Safety Standards,” ‘99,” MTVi News, Brian Hiatt, Chris Nelson. The Chronicle, Shawna VanNess, Elizabeth Foley. • “Money, Influence and Integrity in the 2000 Election Year,” • “Poor Disclosure,” University of Maryland/Capital The Public I, The Public I staff. News Service,” Chris Frates.

8 THE IRE JOURNAL FEATURES

CHICAGO LINEUP

BY THE IRE JOURNAL STAFF

he 2001 IRE National Conference IRE National Conference Friday, June 15 will cover just about every newsroom Preliminary Program How to register: (Check www.ire.org/chicago for • Highlights of the Year’s beat in the 100 panels, workshops and latest updates and speakers) Best Investigative Work • Register online at T roundtables planned. The conference, (print) www.ire.org set for June 14-17, will be held at the Hyatt Thursday, June 14 • The Death Penalty Optional Day on • Investigating the Phar- • Print form from Web Regency Chicago. Computer-Assisted Reporting maceutical Industry Here site and mail or fax James B. Stewart, award-winning jour- E = Everyone … A = Advanced and Abroad • The Environmental Beat nalist and author of • Census 1 – Understanding Race: The stories is Back Conference: “Blind Eye,” “Den of so far, the stories to come (E) • Broadcast Track – Hidden Camera: How, when, why Thieves” and “Blood • Census 2 – Current and Upcoming Releases: • Broadcast Track – Hot New Story Ideas IRE National The short form and the long form data (E) • Broadcast Track – The Vanishing TV Investigation Sport,” will be the • Census 3 – Using Census for Non-Census • Broadcast Track – You “Auto” Investigate Conference keynote speaker at Stories (E) • Print and Broadcast Working Together June 14-17, 2001 the annual awards • Census 4 – Effective Mapping of the Data (A) • The Gambling Jackpot: Investigations that pay off Chicago • Health Care: From caregivers to institutions (A) • How the Disabled are Ignored: Access, audits and luncheon on June 16. • Effective Intranets: Ones that work and the programs Hyatt Regency Stewart, who won a data for them (A) • When the Lights Go Out: Investigating utilities and • Editing CAR: Knowing what to expect and energy industries Pulitzer Prize while what to ask (E) • Drug Wars and Drug Labs: Methamphetamine and at The Wall Street Journal, is currently editor- • CAR for Broadcast: Best uses (E) legal drug abuse at-large for SmartMoney magazine. • School Data: Tests, budgets and drop-outs (A) • Worker Health and Safety: The latest perils • Crimes, Courts, and Jails: Tracking data (E) • Interviewing: The art and craft Many of the latest • Transportation Data: From highway to skyway (E) • Learning from Newsletters, Alternative Press IRE Award honor- • Data for Environmental Reporting (A) • Sports Investigations: Salaries, stadiums and scams Costs: • Using the Internet on the Fly ees will share their • Complex Data Worth Using (A) Registration: $150 • Teaching CAR: For university and the news- • Immigration: Smuggling and abuses winning techniques room (E) • Racial Disparity: From police arrests to health care (students, $100) through the panels • Building Your Own Database When the • Unsung Investigative Resources That Can Make Data’s Not There (E) Your Story Optional CAR Day: and through tipsheets • 33 CAR Story Ideas (E) • The Invisible Tax Story $50 (students, $35) and reprints offered • Community CAR: Applying it to the daily beat (E) • Investigating Childcare: From foster parents to daycare in the IRE reprint • Digging into Votes: Nuts and bolts lessons To attend, member- from Florida (E) • The Newest Legal Assaults on Investigative Reporting ship must be current. room. (The complete • Taking the Risk out of Stats: Lurking variables • Fast Track – Backgrounding the Person: Online list of IRE Award and pitfalls to avoid (E) and offline • The Power of Insurance Data (E) • Fast Track – The Nonprofit: Deciphering the documents winners can be found • Fast Track – How to Tell When a Business is in in this issue of the Journal.) Thursday special event: Financial Trouble Blues Bash • Fast Track – Covering the Local Health Industry: Doctors, hospitals, and HMOs • Fast Track – Emergency!: Quick list for transportation crashes CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 ×

MAY/JUNE 2001 9 FEATURES

he proposed budget for the next fiscal PROPOSED BUDGET year, which begins July 1, 2001, main- tains our momentum with grant money, T while forecasting conservatively on IRE takes conservative approach fees because of the downturn in the economy. in forecasting conference, seminar fees We do not project significant growth in our membership this year and we foresee a drop in BY BRANT HOUSTON registration fees. We also believe that newsroom FOR THE IRE JOURNAL budget cuts will lead to lower attendance at Proposed IRE Budget for Fiscal Year 2002 our Missouri-based seminars and our national (July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002) conferences. At the same time, we are seeing an increase Combined All Programs Proposed Estimated in requests for data processing, analysis and FY 2002 FY 2001 Membership training from our database library and we have Revenue not seen a dramatic decrease in participation at Membership $70,000 $70,000 our on-the-road seminars and regional workshops Membership – student $5,000 $5,000 Membership – international $4,000 $3,000 and conferences. Renewals $105,000 $100,000 Renewals – student $1,000 $1,000 The board of directors is in the process of Renewals – international $4,000 $3,000 reviewing this budget and the final budget will Journal subscriptions $5,000 $4,000 Journal ads $40,000 $24,000 be presented at the June membership meeting Total Membership Revenue $234,000 $210,000 in Chicago. Membership Service expenses IRE Journal $85,000 $85,000 As you may have noticed, we have changed the Staff costs (membership) $68,000 $42,000 format of the budget so that it is easier to see how Postage and shipping $10,000 $11,000 Total Membership Service expense $163,000 $138,000 our different programs are supported. Revenues Net Membership Activity $71,000 $72,000 and expenses for each area are together now as Sales and Services much as possible and we have nearly completed Book sales $45,000 $45,000 Book costs $20,000 $24,000 the transfer of allocation of staff positions to the Net Book Activity $25,000 $21,000 appropriate programs. Resource Center Sales $25,000 $18,000 Therefore, there are increases in such areas Prior/current year contributions $40,000 $70,000 Resource Center expenses $80,000 $95,000 as member services where we placed both Net Resource Center Activity ($15,000) ($7,000) the membership coordinator and membership Web Services Revenue $15,000 $10,000 Prior/current year contributions released $20,000 $20,000 assistant’s salary and benefits and in the database Web Services expenses $55,000 $54,000 library where we placed the salary and benefits Net Web Services Activity ($20,000) ($24,000) of the new database library administrator. Database Library Revenue $105,000 $80,000 Prior/current year contributions released $15,000 $5,000 Over the past two years, we have added Database Library expenses $90,000 $45,000 Net Database Library Activity $30,000 $40,000 several positions that enhance the services we Uplink Subscription Revenue $17,000 $16,000 provide to members and potentially increase our Uplink expenses $12,000 $15,000 program revenues. Net Uplink Activity $5,000 $1,000 Last year, we added an assistant membership Royalty revenue $9,000 $9,000 coordinator because of the dramatic increase Other sales and services revenue $20,000 $20,000 Other sales and services expenses $5,000 $5,000 in members. (Membership has increased 50 Net Other Sales and Services Activity $15,000 $15,000 percent since late 1997.) This year we have filled Net sales and services activity $49,000 $55,000 the development officer post so that we have a Conferences and Seminars staff member devoted to our endowment drive National Conference and fundraising. Registrations and fees (IRE and NICAR) $135,000 $135,000 We also have hired a full-time database Optional CAR day $12,500 $12,500 Other revenues $20,000 $20,000 administrator to upgrade our database library Prior/current year contributions released $120,000 $120,000 Total National Conference Revenue $287,500 $287,500 and help handle the heavy workload of census Conference Expenses $180,000 $180,000 analysis. Finally, we will be splitting the position Net National Conference Activity $107,500 $107,500 of international coordinator with the Missouri Newsroom Seminars Registrations and fees $1,000 $1,000 School of Journalism to manage the increasing Seminar expenses – – Net Newsroom Seminar Activity $1,000 $1,000 demand for training and help internationally. On the Road Seminars Each of these hires will aid us in our future Registrations and fees $100,000 $120,000 projects and keep IRE and NICAR at the forefront Prior/current year contributions released – – Seminar expenses $60,000 $75,000 of training and services for journalists. Net On the Road Seminar Activity $40,000 $45,000 CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 ×

10 THE IRE JOURNAL FEATURES FOI REPORT Chicago lineup Fears over privacy lead to CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 • Fast Track – 20 Basic Documents and Databases in Your Community • Fast Track – A Primer on Elections: Candidates, more government secrecy campaigns and coverage • Fast Track – Staying Out of Trouble: A legal guide to the basics of sources, ethics and investigations hat do Dale Earnhardt, electronic court files may contain medical • Fast Track – Running a Project: Tips from great records and e-mail between Indiana records, personnel files, editors Wlegislators and their constituents have tax returns or proprietary • Fast Track – Investigating Religion • Fast Track – Turning an Investigation Into a Book in common? information. CHARLES DAVIS • Fast Track – Being a Freelance Investigative Privacy, of course. It seems that, in several Reporter • Fast Track – Basic Corporate Documents important areas, privacy concerns are threatening Easier Internet access to overwhelm access advocates’ arguments to the So, how do court records that have been Friday Special Events: presumed open for decades by courts all over the Showcase Panel: Budget Cuts, contrary. The practical result of this is that limits on Investigative Reporting and Credibility access to all sorts of data contained in government- country suddenly raise privacy concerns? Why are Evening Reception managed files are increasing. Citing personal significant rifts developing between public interest Saturday, June 16 privacy, lawmakers are sealing information that groups on the privacy-access debate? once was public. It’s the technology, I guess. • Investigations in the Food Chain: From factory to dinner plate This message dominated a recent meeting at The current furor over privacy didn’t just • When Healthcare Givers Fail Freedom Forum headquarters of FOI advocates. happen overnight. It began to grow with the rise • Deadly Tires: How we got the story, how we missed it We were there to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the personal computer, and the inevitable • Keeping Elections Honest • Broadcast Track – TV Investigations: The Chicago of the federal FOIA and the 250th birthday of recognition by the citizenry that networked com- legacy James Madison, drafter of the First Amendment. munications made it possible for government to • Broadcast Track – Visual Storytelling capture and collate more personal information • Broadcast Track – When I Am the “I-Team” The mood, however, was less than festive in • Broadcast Track – Spiked! Targeted! Fired! Washington. about individuals than ever before. • Investigating Business: Profiteering in low-income Ironically enough, right across town, several The democratizing power of the Internet to communities • How to Do Local Investigations with Limited of our group were testifying at hearings of the make information instantly available to us all Resources United States Judicial Conference regarding thrills some of us, but frightens others. As the • Statehouse Investigations: Lobbyists and special public access to electronic court records. An private sector has discovered that it, too, can obtain interests • Doing Investigations in Diverse Communities eight-member subcommittee of the United States information about us and use that information for • When Your Local Story Crosses Borders Judicial Conference took testimony from some of commercial purposes, the allure of privacy gained • International Roundtable the many organizations and individuals, including grassroots strength. • FOI and Open Record Laws: New barriers and new challenges IRE, that submitted comments. All these com- The idea that public information is somehow • Stirring It Up at City Hall ments are available at www.privacy.uscourts.gov, transformed into private information is given • Tips From Great Writers strength by the United States Supreme Court in a • Advanced Techniques for Local Government while you can look at just IRE’s testimony at Reporting www.ire.org/history/pr/courtrecords.html. 1989 case involving media access to “rap sheets” • Covering the Disadvantaged: Using the Census to The Subcommittee on Privacy and Electronic compiled by the FBI. The court said, in a hotly tell the story • Campaign Finance: Stories that matter Access to Case Files, created by the Court contested and novel interpretation of the FOIA, • The Insurance Industry: Frauds, denials and scams Administration and Case Management Committee that so long as the records sat in dusty courthouses • Covering the Law Better: Judges, lawyers and of the Judicial Conference of the United States, is scattered across the country, they were public reporters share • Fast Track – First Day in Court wrestling with issues of access and privacy. The records existing in “practical obscurity.” The • Fast Track – First Day on the School Beat federal judiciary’s Case Management/Electronic computer, they reasoned, raised privacy issues • Fast Track – First Day on the Crime Beat Case Files (CM/ECF) project, designed to replace because it made the records easier to obtain. • Fast Track – Using Census for the Local Beat • Fast Track – Understanding Real Estate Documents aging records systems in more than 200 bankruptcy, “Practical obscurity” pops up all over the and Property Taxes district and appellate courts by 2005, will let courts comments on the court records debate, usually by • Fast Track – The Student Investigation: Closed records and censorship file documents in electronic format and accept government attorneys from the Social Security • Fast Track – A Conversation with Studs Terkel filings over the Internet. Providing public access to Administration or the FBI. Court records, however, those files – long presumed to be open for public are not FOIA-related records: they are covered Saturday Special Event: Awards Luncheon inspection and copying unless sealed by court by a common law access right stretching back order – is a different issue, they say. The Judicial hundreds of years to our days as English colonists. Sunday, June 17 Conference’s own statement points out some of But watch how the terms are muddled, the doc- (A morning of small workshops and one-on-ones) the perceived problems with electronic access: trines intertwined by those who would cloak all • Advancing Your Career – Print governmental information with privacy. • Advancing Your Career – Broadcast bankruptcy debtors must divulge intimate details • How to be a Good Investigative Editor of their financial affairs. In some courts, case CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 × • The Future of Online: Is the love affair over? • Better Writing for Print Charles Davis is executive director of the Freedom of Information Center, an assistant professor at • Better Writing for Broadcast the Missouri School of Journalism and a member of IRE’s FOI Committee.

MAY/JUNE 2001 11 FEATURES Proposed IRE Budget for Fiscal Year 2002 (July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002) Combined All Programs Proposed Estimated Proposed Estimated FY 2002 FY 2001 FY 2002 FY 2001 Professional Services Conferences and Seminars (Continued) Consulting/Fundraising $35,000 $40,000 Accounting $10,000 $14,000 Bootcamps Legal $7,000 $10,000 Registrations and fees $50,000 $65,000 Total Professional Services $52,000 $64,000 Prior/current year contributions released $15,000 $15,000 Seminar expenses $15,000 $20,000 General office expenses Net Bootcamp Activity $50,000 $60,000 Telephone and fax $8,000 $9,000 Postage $3,000 $3,000 Regional Conferences/Workshops Office supplies $8,000 $10,000 Registrations and fees $45,000 $35,000 Photocopying $3,000 $3,000 Prior/current year contributions released – – Insurance $6,000 $6,000 Conference expenses $15,000 $12,000 Computer supplies $3,000 $3,000 Net Regional Conference Activity $30,000 $23,000 Equipment expense $10,000 $15,000 Other office expense $10,000 $12,000 Conference Fellowships Total General Office Expenses $51,000 $61,000 Conference Fellowships $15,000 $20,000 Fellowship expenses $15,000 $20,000 Net Fellowships – – Other expenses Publications/Dues $3,000 $3,000 Net Conferences and Seminar Activity $228,500 $236,500 Travel costs- board $15,000 $20,000 Travel costs- staff $2,000 $2,000 Grants and Contributions FOI conferences $2,000 $2,000 Temporarily restricted/unrestricted $410,000 $340,000 Equipment purchases $15,000 $25,000 Permanently restricted – – Staff Training $3,000 $3,000 Total Grant and Contributions $410,000 $340,000 Total Other Expenses $40,000 $55,000

Other Support and Revenues Total General and Administrative Expenses $574,000 $580,000 Award contest fees $28,000 $26,500 Award contest expenses $8,000 $9,000 Fund-raising expenses Net Award Contest Activity $20,000 $17,500 Commissions and other expenses $15,000 $35,000 Promotions $12,000 $12,000 Investment return $30,000 $30,000 Total Fund-raising expenses $27,000 $47,000

Net Other Support and Revenue $50,000 $47,500 Contribution to Endowment $125,000 $21,000 Depreciation $50,000 $50,000 Net Program Activity $808,500 $751,000 Reserves $25,000 $25,000 General and Adminstrative Expenses Total Expenses $801,000 $723,000 Salary and personnel costs $431,000 $400,000 Excess net program activity over expenses $7,500 $28,000

Salaries and Benefits As of July 1, 2001

Salary Benefits Total Contributions or Allocations

Executive Director $72,400 $12,300 $84,700 $27,000 – Journalism School Deputy Director $66,200 $15,300 $81,500 $14,200 – Journalism School Training Director $46,000 $9,200 $55,200 $59,400 – Seminars System Administrator $32,000 $6,400 $38,400 $20,000 – Grant Web Administrator $34,500 $6,900 $41,400 $41,400 – Web site Resource Center Director $24,000 $4,800 $28,800 $28,800 – Endowed Post Conference Coordinator $32,000 $6,400 $38,400 - Campaign Finance Director $46,000 $9,200 $55,200 $55,200 – Grant Finance Officer $29,400 $5,880 $35,280 - Admin. Asst. – Membership $19,200 $3,840 $23,040 $23,040 – Membership Admin. Asst. – Office $18,720 $3,744 $22,464 - Receptionist $15,360 $3,072 $18,432 - Membership Coordinator $35,000 $7,000 $42,000 $42,000 – Membership Development Officer $51,000 $10,200 $61,200 - Database Administrator $49,000 $9,800 $58,800 $58,800 – Database Library International Coordinator $15,000 $3,000 $18,000 -

Sub total $585,780 $117,036 $702,816 $369,840

Graduate Assistants $37,000 $3,000 $40,000 $14,000 – Journalism School Part-Time Help $25,000 Student help - Publications $15,000 $2,000 – Johnson Fund Student Web $10,000 Student Assistants $10,000 Temporary Help $2,000 Sub total $102,000 $385,840 – Subtotal of allocations Total $804,816 $418,976 – Net salaries and benefits Salary raise pool of 4% $12,000 Total General/Administrative $430,976

12 THE IRE JOURNAL FEATURES

FOI Report

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 Legislative action The movement for greater and greater personal privacy, whatever that entails, is about law but is grounded in emotion. Take the recent Dale Earnhardt flap. After The Orlando Sentinel reached an agreement with the widow, Florida legislators and Gov. Jeb Bush rushed to make it a felony to release autopsy photos except to state and federal agencies. No matter that Mr. Earnhardt’s privacy rights ended once he passed away. No matter the many, many important stories that have been told by autopsy photos. No matter the fact that an autopsy photo posted on the Florida Supreme Court’s Web site contributed to the state legislature’s decision to replace the electric chair with lethal injection. No, our political leaders love privacy. It’s the new new thing. It plays perfectly into an uncertain public’s fear of a technology-driven tomorrow. And, most importantly, it presents a scenario that must have savvy politicos thanking the stars: the public asks its government to keep what it knows about them under lock and key, where government – and only government – can know what is going on. Perhaps the best example of where all of this might be heading was another hot topic of conversation at FOI Day. Seems the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill in March – 93-1 – that protects Internet usage records and e-mail from public scrutiny or publication. The problems with this bill from an FOIA standpoint would require another column, but note that this is a shocking departure from current access law. For starters, at the federal level and in all 50 states, exemptions have always been made on the basis of subject matter. Indiana’s bill would extend a blanket provision based solely on the mode of transmission of a message. FOI Day ended on a positive note, however, as the participants celebrated the death (for now) of last year’s federal anti-leak legislation with a panel on secrets and whistleblowing and the protection of anonymity in journalism. An expert in the audience – none other than Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon Papers – brought the crowd to life with a rousing statement that served as a call to arms for beleaguered access advocates. The Pentagon Papers-inspired nostalgia helped remind us that some battles are worth fighting, and that if we continue to demand privacy, we might just get more than we bargained for.

MAY/JUNE 2001 13 FEATURES

a manageable universe of a couple of hundred LACK OF TRAINING, fires. For each fatal fire we attempted to answer three simple questions. Did the fire equipment EQUIPMENT work? Where there enough firefighters? Did the policies of the department hamper firefighters in any way? LEAD TO FATAL FIRES This simple approach allowed us to maintain the sharp focus needed in an investigation IN DETROIT of a large, complex organization like the fire BY MELVIN CLAXTON department. With a $150 million budget, 71 fire AND CHARLES HURT companies and 1,800 employees, the department OF THE DETROIT NEWS was clearly large and complex. From the very beginning, there were signifi- cant obstacles in getting the story. For decades, ince 1996, fires have killed at least 200 from letters, e-mails and phone calls – shocked fire officials have operated behind a wall of people in Detroit. Many of the victims and angered our readers. Not only was the fire secrecy, protected by a standing gag order that were children and the elderly, unable to department unprepared to handle fires, its failures forbids firefighters from speaking to the media. S reach safety on their own. could be directly linked to at least 21 fire fatalities It took months to convince many firefighters to Detroit’s older neighborhoods, notorious in the past four years. talk to us. Even then, most would only do so for their abundance of crumbling homes and The department’s problems were systemic off the record. abandoned buildings, have been especially hard and pervasive. Some problems had existed for In addition, record keeping in the department hit. In these communities, faulty electrical wiring, more than a decade but were never addressed. isn’t centralized and follows no standard format. poorly maintained furnaces and dangerous space In each of the 21 deaths we documented, fire We had to visit all 71 fire companies in the city, heaters have proven a highly combustible mix. department records showed that fire officials were reviewing logs and handwritten journals in each, But our investigation had nothing to do with aware of the equipment and manpower problems to determine staffing levels and the condition of the factors that make the city fire prone. To most that hampered firefighting efforts beforehand, fire trucks and equipment. of our readers – fed a steady diet of fire stories but did nothing. Even after glaring mistakes, Further complicating matters, fire trucks are in print and on television – that would have fire officials took no action to fix problems routinely switched between stations and renamed, been old news. and continued policies that placed the lives of making it difficult to trace the maintenance Instead, our nine-month investigation was residents and firefighters in peril. history of these rigs. It sometimes took visits narrowly focused on the department charged to as many as six firehouses to get maintenance with battling fires. Ours was a simple goal: Wall of secrecy records for a single fire truck. We wanted to know if Detroit firefighters were Because of the large number of fires – at At every turn, fire officials set up roadblocks. adequately equipped and trained to put out fires least 12,000 in 1999 alone – we decided very They repeatedly refused to produce documents and protect the city’s nearly 1 million residents early in our investigation to confine any detailed requested under the Freedom of Information Act, they serve. analysis of fatal blazes to those that occurred in claiming the documents didn’t exist or had been What we found surprised us and – judging the last four years. This allowed us to work with destroyed. Among these critical records were broadcast tapes – recordings of the conversations between firefighters and dispatchers during fires. The tapes typically are excellent sources of

The Detroit News Detroit The information about the problems encountered

by firefighters at the scene. Fire officials were able to produce tapes for only two of the fatal fires we looked at. They claimed the other tapes were destroyed after 90 days in keeping with Clarence Tabb Jr. Jr. Tabb Clarence department policy.

Photos: Photos: Quantifying the problem While our series illustrated many of the fire department’s problems through anecdotal accounts, the project was heavily dependent on Detroit’s retired ladder trucks are left at the fire department’s vehicle The Detroit Fire Department places the lives of numbers and statistical analysis. graveyard where they are cannibalized for parts. The trucks do not city residents and firefighters in peril everyday After spending months gathering data from have working aerials and some cannot even start. because of broken trucks, poor equipment, short staffing and hydrants like this one that every fire company in the city, we worked with do not work.

14 THE IRE JOURNAL FEATURES a newsroom researcher to create databases in Microsoft Access. LEGAL CORNER These computer files allowed us to analyze attendance records, maintenance reports and fire Cameras in courtrooms: truck response times. We used this information to determine whether the condition of the fire Revisiting the experiment trucks, the number of firefighters and the state of the equipment dispatched to fatal fires met National Fire Protection Association standards eality shows, such as Survivor, have debunks assertions that – the benchmark for fire fighting across the grabbed big ratings, but reality journal- the presence of cameras country. Rism has fared badly in the courts. Not in courtrooms neces- We utilized a wide variety of fire department DAVID SMALLMAN long ago, a federal district judge in New York sarily creates adverse records in creating our databases and putting held that requiring a criminal suspect to make consequences for litigants and the judicial this story together. a “perp walk” before TV cameras violated system as a whole. Among the records we used: his Fourth Amendment rights. Last year, the • Dispatch tickets. We used these records to U.S. Supreme Court effectively chilled the Audio-visual access determine which rigs were sent to fires, the time practice of “ride-alongs” when it ruled privacy In February 2001, a study prepared by they were dispatched and the time they arrived at and other tort claims could be brought against a special committee of the New York Bar Asso- the scene. By comparing this information with reporters who accompanied law enforcement ciation found that “33 states permit camera cov- maintenance records and firehouse journals, we officers seeking evidence that Montana ranch- erage at the trial level of civil and criminal cases were able to determine the condition of each fire ers might be poisoning bald eagles. without requiring consent of the parties and truck at the time it was dispatched. Even more troubling, it seemed in the witnesses.” The report, which is available on the • Run books. The run books kept in firehouses list aftermath of the O.J. Simpson trial that the Web at www.nysba.org/media/cameras.html, every run made by trucks stationed there. This presence of cameras in courtrooms would noted that the rules governing access varied information was used to confirm the accuracy be curtailed or prohibited, notwithstanding significantly from state to state, but categorized of dispatch tickets. We reviewed the run books traditional presumptions of public access that some of the important approaches as follows: of every truck in the city. disfavor secret proceedings and permit any • A few states permit cameras without judicial • Maintenance sheets. These weekly reports show citizen to view most cases from the bleacher review, but the overwhelming majority permit what preventative maintenance or repairs were seats. access only upon application by the media done on trucks and what repairs are needed. For example, a vote to extend the pilot under prescribed procedures. These sheets, along with maintenance logs program that would have allowed cameras • Courts that permit coverage are typically at firehouses, were vital in confirming the in all federal courts failed in 1996 when the required to consider the impact of electronic condition of fire trucks. They also provided the Federal Judicial Council overrode staff recom- media upon the proceedings, including the dates when the repair shop and fire officials mendations and voted not to permit cameras. right to a fair trial or the “fair administration were informed of problems. Last year, in the wake of newfound concerns of justice” and upon the participants, includ- • Out-of-service reports. These reports, produced about privacy, the Judicial Conference again ing the parties and witnesses. daily by the fire department’s communications voiced opposition to allowing cameras in • Where access is permitted, nearly every division, show which fire trucks are out of service federal courts. But that testimony, which state expressly permits the court to exercise on a given day. We compared this information occurred prior to the 2000 presidential election discretion to bar filming or broadcast under with maintenance records to determine the ballot debacle, nevertheless acknowledged circumstances in which an objector can problems that grounded the fire trucks, when broad support in state courts to permit cameras. demonstrate good cause, which is usually the problems were first reported and how long it Now, even stalwart critics of audio-visual defined to include prejudice to the parties or took the fire department to fix them. coverage of judicial proceedings are reconsider- a harmful impact upon the individual being • Daily attendance records. These records were ing old prejudices. Many witnessed first hand filmed. used to determine the number of firefighters on the positive effect upon public acceptance of • Various states restrict filming of 1) voir dire duty each day, the number out sick or injured controversial results when a national television and jurors generally; 2) matters otherwise and the number detailed to headquarters to do audience could watch both sides grapple with closed to the public; 3) informants or under- clerical work. We found that on some days, when tough issues and difficult decisions. “Seeing” cover agents; 4) conferences between clients companies had to be closed for low manpower, the messy business of justice in action was and attorneys; and 5) conferences between fire officials were still sending firefighters to “believing” that the system worked. counsel and the presiding judge held at the headquarters to do clerical work. Similar benefits from televised coverage bench or in chambers. Department failings of the Diallo trial in New York also have • Some states prohibit coverage of all underage renewed calls to allow cameras back into witnesses in any type of proceeding. Our investigation revealed a fire department New York courtrooms and led to a report that CONTINUED ON PAGE 32 riddled with problems. We found that fire officials × repeatedly and knowingly sent broken equipment David B. Smallman practices media law in New York. He is First Amendment Counsel to IRE and NICAR, a member of IRE’s FOI Committee, and is the Journal’s contributing legal editor. CONTINUED ON PAGE 32 ×

MAY/JUNE 2001 15 FEATURES

the amount people actually ate – for example, KESSLER’S GOVERNMENT the calorie content of ‘light’ cheesecake was based on a serving size of half a slice. We were INSIDER determined to close this loophole by requiring serving sizes to reflect the amount customarily consumed.” BOOK At that point in the book, Kessler does some- thing he does well throughout – he introduces HOLDS BUILT-IN DRAMA, FDA regulators playing a key role in each decision, FEWER CALORIES humanizing them so they become memorable individuals rather than faceless, interchangeable A QUESTION OF INTENT: bureaucrats. Jerry Mande from the FDA policy A Great American Battle With a Deadly Industry, BY STEVE WEINBERG office takes center stage in Kessler’s account by David Kessler, Public OF THE IRE JOURNAL of the food labeling controversy. Kessler’s Affairs, 492 pages, $27.50 humanization of Mande opens like this: “If it had read part of this book while traveling discuss other FDA initiatives, such as honest food not been for red M&Ms, Jerry might never have between my home in Missouri and New labeling, are gripping, too. Second, Kessler’s come to the FDA.” York City. As I reached the climax of Food intelligence and humanity leap off the pages. He “In the 1970s, as an undergraduate at the I and Drug Administration Comissioner is never self-important, and rarely deluded. Rather University of Connecticut studying nutrition David Kessler’s battle with other parts of the than rely solely on his memory – the norm in and biochemistry, Jerry read that the agency government and with private industry to label books of this type – Kessler did lots of reporting had banned a red dye that gave M&Ms and food accurately in terms of nutrition, a flight as he strove for accuracy and balance. Third, many other red foods their distinctive color. attendant handed me a small package of snack the writing is clear, jargon-free, and sometimes That set him thinking about regulatory priorities, mix. On the back, within a thin black border, downright compelling. The book is a policy and wondering why the FDA focused more on is information headed Nutrition Facts. Eating procedural that in places rises to the level of cancer-causing trace additives, such as the dye, the contents of the .45 ounce bag would mean policy thriller. He even gives credit where credit than on the macro-nutrients that dominated daily consuming 60 calories, 30 from fat. I would is due – including to journalists who advanced diets and had a far greater impact on health,” receive 5 percent of my daily value of sodium, no the story during his tenure. Kessler writes. iron, no calcium, not vitamin A or C. Although a Mande and other FDA staff members began compulsive overeater, I put the package aside. Educated choices working on the regulations. They knew, however, If Kessler had never run the FDA, consumers The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of that they would butt up against not only influential might never have been able to make accurate 1990 required all food products to list amounts of food producers, but also another government determinations about nutrition food product by fat, saturated fat, protein, sodium, carbohydrates agency – the much larger U.S. Agriculture food product. His book explains precisely how and fiber, then place those amounts in the context Department. The USDA regulated meat and he and his FDA colleagues prevailed, losing out of a daily diet. meat products. only to the restaurant industry, which won an The FDA had the task of developing regula- Kessler hoped that one label could be applied exemption for meals served. tions to translate the law into action. Kessler to all packaged foods. “For too long, the two The food labeling victory came before the understood the importance of the task he inherited; agencies had been divided by absurd territorial FDA tobacco wars. Perhaps its most significant as a doctor, he was acutely aware that diet disputes,” Kessler says. “Pizza toppings was one long-term impact on Kessler was to demonstrate accounts for the second biggest cause of prevent- example – cheese and tomatoes came under FDA that he could succeed by working inside the able death in the United States – after tobacco. labeling rules, but if pepperoni was added, the system, even when the odds looked bad. He did not want to dictate behavior, because USDA took charge. It was time for the federal Kessler, a Republican appointee in the admin- he understood that such an attempt would be government to speak with one voice.” istration of George W. Bush’s father, became FDA hopeless. He did, however, hope to provide Finding one voice seemed unlikely. The commissioner during 1990. Bill Clinton kept on information so accurate and so prominently that USDA, influenced by the influential meat indus- Kessler, a physician/lawyer, despite differing lots of consumers would find it simple to make try, wanted the per-serving percentage of fat political affiliations. During his six years running educated choices. and other nutrients to be based on a daily intake the FDA, Kessler, now dean of the Yale University But there were obstacles. “Somehow,” Kes- of 2,350 calories. Kessler, supported by much medical school, led the campaign to rein in sler says, “we had to find a way to fit added of the less politically influential public health the tobacco industry on public health grounds. information on thousands of different types of community, wanted 2,000 calories to be the His report of those six years is one of the food packages, from pasta to peanuts, on hard standard. best federal government insider books ever packs, clear packs, candy wrappers, boxes of The turning point came from an unlikely published. Why? First, the topic is interesting. Cheerios and cans of Coke.” Another challenge source: A McDonald’s restaurant in New Jersey. The battle between the tobacco industry and the involved serving sizes. “It had been widespread Kessler was driving his children to a family FDA contains built-in drama. industry practice,” Kessler says, “to minimize vacation near the ocean when they clamored to Furthermore, the portions of the book that serving sizes so that they bore little relation to stop for fast food. While his daughter and son ate

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Chicken McNuggets that day in August 1992, GUEST COLUMN Kessler, himself consuming French fries, started reading the tray liner. “I was surprised to see that, against a back- Business is everyone’s business ground photograph of fresh vegetables, McDon- ald’s had set out its own case for a healthy, balanced diet. In small type at the bottom, I o you expect to cover business in the ambitious businessman spotted this statement: ‘Based on nutritional future? If you say no, you’re dead with his hat in the ring for guidelines by the National Research Council. Fat D wrong. You will be covering business governor was the CEO of recommendation based on a total daily intake of whether you want to or not – and for the sake a public company, whose 2,000 calories.’” Kessler collected several tray of your readers and your reputation, you had track record could have DIANA HENRIQUES liners to take to his office. better want to. been easily checked by Eventually, Kessler showed the tray liner to Why? Consider a few of these real life looking at the public annual reports it filed with his political superior, Louis Sullivan, Health examples, that for fun, I will the Securities and Exchange and Human Services Department secretary. say all ran on one day in one Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt Commission. A reporter who The next day, Sullivan was supposed to attend metropolitan newspaper: from the keynote address given checked would have found during the IRE Reporting Conference a White House showdown with Ed Madigan, • From the regional news desk, that this guy’s company had held March 31 at the Missouri School Agriculture Department secretary. With the there’s a state capital story of Journalism. The complete text can a lackluster track record and meeting proceeding poorly from Sullivan’s about a little-known entre- be found at www.ire.org/training/ occasional operating losses – standpoint, he produced the McDonald’s tray preneur who has stepped 2001studentconf/speech.html. not the best recommendation. liner, commenting that if the dominant company into the Republican primary The day the South African in the fast-food industry supported a 2,000-calorie for governor. The usual party sources don’t constitution was unveiled, the foreign currency benchmark, why was the USDA acting in such know much about him, but he’s promising to put markets reacted strongly and badly. The local an intransigent manner? the state on a more businesslike footing. currency plummeted against other world cur- “Madigan was taken completely by surprise,” • On the foreign desk, there’s big news from rencies. Clearly, the folks with money at risk Kessler says. “The President [George Bush] sat South Africa, which has unveiled a new post- in South Africa were not as optimistic as the staring at the liner for a minute or two, studying apartheid constitution. The local political politicians were. A call to currency traders at the detail.” Two days later, Bush ruled in favor reaction is very positive. big Johannesburg banks would have enriched of the FDA approach. • In the features section, there are several stories, the story. including one about an anti-scalding device And that anti-scald device? Well, the company Timely discussion that can be installed in the bathroom to keep that was pushing it had a dubious past, as a simple Such controversies made it difficult for kids from getting into hot water; a piece about Nexis search of business headlines would have Kessler to focus on how to find a way a promising drug therapy for severe shock; shown. Its prior claim to fame was an eyeglass that tobacco products could be regulated and a sweetly written story about a successful frame that supposedly could “remember” its by a health-oriented government agency. summer cheerleading camp. shape after being bent or twisted. Exaggerated Just when a draining policy controversy • On the national desk, there’s a Washington piece claims made for that earlier product had resulted like nutrition labeling would get resolved about a grassroots fundraising operation set up in a criminal cases against people involved in more or less, a life-and-death crisis needing by Newt Gingrich, which has gotten a lot of promoting the company’s stock, so maybe we Kessler’s immediate attention would arise. money from a Pennsylvania entrepreneur who should have been a little more skeptical about There are heart-stopping sections of the book supports Gingrich’s “Contract With America.” the current product. explaining how the FDA tries to deal with • And finally, there’s a breaking story about an That promising drug therapy we featured was deadly food poisoning outbreaks and homicidal unfamiliar multi-millionaire who has stepped real – but the company promoting it was engaged product tampering. forward at the 11th hour to rescue a failing New in a fierce marketing battle with another company Most of the book is devoted to facing down York tabloid. He’s got the money to turn the making a competing drug. The FDA had not the tobacco industry. Much of that saga has paper around and save a lot of jobs, he says. yet decided which drug was more effective, so been oft-told. But Kessler’s account is worth Nobody’s ever heard of him, but if he can save we were unwittingly taking sides in a bitter reading, partly because of the new details the newspaper, it’s big news. commercial dispute. that do emerge, partly because he addresses In each of these cases a higher level of busi- And while school spirit may have been alive seemingly abstract political, legal and ethical ness literacy by a lot of non-business reporters and well at the cheerleading camp, it wasn’t issues so impressively within the context of would have deepened and broadened information doing much for the camp’s bottom line. As the controversy. provided to readers. For example, the politically CONTINUED ON PAGE 31 × Steve Weinberg is senior contributing editor to Diana Henriques is a veteran investigative business reporter for The New York Times where she The IRE Journal, a professor at the Missouri specializes in financial fraud, white-collar crime and corporate governance issues. She is a winner School of Journalism and a former executive of the Gerald R. Loeb Award for Business Journalism. She was formerly a feature reporter for director of IRE. Barron’s, and is author of “Fidelity’s World: The Secret Life and Public Power of the Mutual Fund Giant” and, more recently, “The White Sharks of Wall Street: Thomas Mellon Evans and the Original Corporate Raiders.”

MAY/JUNE 2001 17 FEATURES PAGE 19 HEALTH INSPECTIONS Restaurant violations serve up graphic picture of food gone bad PAGE 24 By Rick Linsk of the St. Paul Pioneer Press TRACKING THE HMO Red ink oozes as top executives profit By Mitchell Schnurman PAGE 20 of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram MEDICAL ERRORS Series delves into nursing mistakes that lead to injuries – or even deaths

By Michael J. Berens PAGE 27 of the Chicago Tribune BODY BROKERS From skin and bones to fat profits PAGE 22 By Ronald Campbell OVERSEAS TESTING of The Orange County Register Drug firms avoid U.S. watchdogs by using world’s most desperate By Joe Stephens, Mary Pat Flaherty and Deborah Nelson of The Washington Post

As health care costs continue to skyrocket, public and private groups struggle to come up with solu- tions.tions. ButBut investigationsinvestigations byby journalistsjournalists showshow thatthat therethere areare manymany moremore problemsproblems thanthan justjust expensiveexpensive drugs or treatments. Greedy HMO officials, critical mistakes by nurses, the buying and selling of human body parts and using the poor for human 18 experiments all add up to some bad medicine.THE IRE JOURNAL C O V E R S T O R Y

HEALTH INSPECTIONS fundamental questions. We wondered whether wanted to do. area restaurants were generally following or The six databases had several differ- Restaurant violations serve up failing the rules; whether the government’s ent formats. Some were missing records. graphic picture of food gone bad system of overseeing restaurants was work- Others were littered with duplicate ing; and whether the average consumer had records. One county had only entered By Rick Linsk any way to distinguish between the safe and about half of all restaurant visits into the of the St. Paul Pioneer Press unsafe, the clean and unclean. computer system: the “bad” inspections, We expected to be finished by the end of leaving the better visits documented only t took a strong stomach to successfully pull off 1999. But slow-moving government bureaucracies, in hundreds of paper files. St. Paul’s data I our “Restaurant Reservations” series late last dirty data, and other factors would confound our came from an ancient computer system (finally year, not to mention oodles of computer-assisted timetable. replaced in the middle of our project) with reporting resources and considerable tenacity. some confusing twists. Among them, taking First, a disclosure: We didn’t invent this wheel. Getting the records violations by restaurants long since out of business Restaurant inspections are a longtime staple of From the outset, we faced an obstacle: Fragmen- and attributing them to the building’s current investigative reporting. Television stations in the tation of oversight. Across the nation, restaurants are occupant. St. Paul also was unable to give us a Twin Cities and other cities, sometimes aided by inspected by a patchwork of state, county and local list of restaurants issued tickets, something other hidden cameras, have reported filthy or unsafe government health agencies. In Minnesota, ultimate agencies were able to do. practices. Newspapers in Toronto, San Jose, responsibility rests with the state Department of Most of our tasks had to be multiplied by six. Charlotte and St. Louis, among others, also have Health, but the department delegates its powers For instance, six sets of queries for the worst examined restaurants. Our series built on the to dozens of counties and cities. In the end, we and best restaurants; six sets of phone calls to techniques of our predecessors, and in some ways studied restaurant inspections by MDH and five officials to request paper records, confirm our went further. local agencies in the Twin Cities that were willing findings, ask about “good guys,” and other needs; The editors and reporters central to the project? and able to give us computerized records. and six different sets of preparation materials for Projects editor Jeff Kummer, food editor Kathie Some government agencies resisted our request interviews with officials, etc. Jenkins, restaurant beat reporter Gita Sitaramiah for inspection data and only relented after official In total, we found Twin Cities restaurants had and I began in mid-summer 1999 with several requests, meetings, and follow-up phone calls and violated food-safety rules more than 130,000 e-mails. Even then, some took times from 1995 to mid-1999, including more weeks or months to provide the than 20,000 violations that government agencies records. classify as “critical” because they can make diners The most notorious agency sick. We also obtained a state database of food- was the state Department of borne illness outbreaks, many of which had never Health, which oversees food estab- come to light before. As for enforcement, we The St. Paul Pioneer Press Pioneer Paul St. The

lishments in Dakota County and pieced together agencies’ records (sloppy in most most of outstate Minnesota. MDH cases), and found penalties against violators were failed to provide complete inspec- rare, even when they were proven to have made tion data for six months, and only people sick. after the Pioneer Press noticed that Richard Marshall Marshall Richard a computer file initially provided Narrowing the cases by the department was incomplete. We looked closer at restaurants the data identi- Photos: Photos: The department also took two fied as chronic violators, including one that had months to provide computer records about food- cockroaches detected in 10 straight inspections borne outbreaks, and only after “sanitizing” the over nearly two years. Conveniently, the St. Paul records of information that could identify victims. database had a field called “NOTICE” that helped In one county, officials gave us the computer identify repeat violations. Another establishment, data from inspectors’ portable computers, but said hauled before the City Council for a rare public their contract with a software vendor prevented lashing, had been the subject of a rising tide them from providing any background on how to of complaints for three years. Reporters made read the data. surprise visits to a number of establishments with a photographer and a food-safety expert, Analyzing the data and at times saw alarming conditions, such as a TOP: Jo Harris became ill after eating a chicken sandwich, As the old saying goes, be careful what you 95-degree hamburger, boxes of veal on a storage topped with lettuce laced with chicken blood. The ask for, because you just might get it. That’s how room floor, and raw meat stored above cooked lettuce was chopped on the same cutting board used we felt after the various agencies’ data arrived. noodles. to prepare the chicken. The reason: Regulatory agencies use computers We also dug into the records of restaurants ABOVE: In a restaurant basement, boxes of veal were left to help keep track of inspection schedules and that had major outbreaks, including one where a on the basement floor to defrost prior to cooking. compliance, not sift trends from the data as we CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 ×

MAY/JUNE 2001 19 C O V E R S T O R Y

Not surprisingly, the American did not hear the alarms. Even MEDICAL ERRORS Hospital Association and dozens worse, some nurses turned off Series delves into nursing mistakes of healthcare heavyweights are the alarms. By cross-matching seeking to limit public access to these events with other public that lead to injuries – or even deaths details involving medical errors. records, I was able to determine But as outlined in a September which cases were linked to lack By Michael J. Berens Chicago Tribune investigative of nurse staffing. of the Chicago Tribune series – “Dangerous Care: Nurses’ • Dozens of disoriented and Hidden Role in Medical Error”– groggy patients have died after here is a place where accidental deaths and overwhelmed and under-trained nurses kill their heads were trapped in bed rails, or T injuries are never reported to authorities, no and injure thousands of patients every year strangled while in post-surgical restraints and matter how egregious the circumstances. as hospitals sacrifice safety for an improved were undiscovered for an hour or more. It’s a place where negligent and incompetent bottom line. Reviewing this data, as well as other FDA employees can quietly make deadly mistakes Only 14 states track medical errors. Only databases, is an exercise in addiction. I found but never receive an hour of additional training two states provide full public access. In myself wanting to read every record. However, or punishment. most states, hospitals are while this data is a good Details on how the Chicago Tribune And it’s a place where people with raging not required to inform pointer to trends and drug addictions sometimes roam without anyone of an accidental used the electronic data mentioned events, it is neither con- restriction, literally handed the keys to storage death or injury – not here are available in the December clusive nor reliable. The lockers filled with drugs, then entrusted with even victims’ families. 2000 edition of Uplink, the newsletter records typically contain countless lives. At the heart of my of the National Institute for Computer- no identifiers other than This is the hidden world of U.S. hospitals. reporting was the cre- Assisted Reporting (www.nicar.org/ date. As the nation this year grapples with the ation of a custom data- datalibrary/uplink.html). I had lots of incom- issue of medical errors, reporters are likely to base compiled from a plete cases for my confront significant barriers to information. dozen state and federal sources, from databases custom database. Now I needed verifiable at the Food and Drug Administration to files details. from the Health Care Financing Administration to disciplinary records from every state. Troll the experts These public records can be used to unlock Invariably, no matter how remote the subject, countless more stories. somebody is devoted to researching or tracking the issue. The key is finding those people. Hello MAUDE Early into my research, I latched onto The FDA tracks reports of adverse events an organization called the Institute for Safe involving medical devices in a database called Medication Practices in Pennsylvania. Founder Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experi- Dr. Michael Cohen has written an invaluable ence (MAUDE). The data – available from the reference book, “Medical Errors.” The non- FDA Web site – is used to spot machine-related profit group also publishes monthly bulletins, problems. I used it to track human errors. which are valuable for tracking dates and Each of the more than one million circumstances linked to specific types of medi- computerized records contains large cal errors. text fields, mini-narratives of each Another must-see healthcare source is ECRI, event. The database represents an a nonprofit research laboratory located in suburban Philadelphia. The world-renowned Chicago Tribune Chicago island of buried journalistic treasure, spanning cases involving defibrilla- organization studies and tests everything from tors to pacemakers, sutures to skin syringes to baby warmers. Their technical grafts. Tens of thousands of reports publications are brimming with details and involved nurses, including: exhaustive investigative analysis. They even

Stephanie Sinclair Sinclair Stephanie • Thousands of patients have been have a mock operating room where they recreate accidentally overdosed after nurses medical errors.

Photos: Photos: typed in the wrong dosage amount I learned about a silent killer called free-flow, on an infusion pump keypad. For which is an uncontrolled gush of medication TOP: Relatives decorate the grave of a 2-year-old boy who example, 9.1 milliliters was entered as 91. through an infusion pump. About 150,000 died at the hands of a Chicago nurse. Nurses called it death by decimal. pumps still in use do not have a fail-safe ABOVE: The Department of Professional Regulations • Hundreds of patients have died even though mechanism found in newer pumps. In the hands recently charged this nurse with gross negligence resulting in the death of a patient. Here she readies the they were connected to life-saving machinery of unsuspecting or distracted nurses, dozens crib for a newborn. that sounded a warning alarm. Nurses often have been killed and hundreds injured.

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Semantics and numbers A central theme in the series was that cost-conscious hospitals nationally are eliminating or supplanting the role of registered nurses. Initially, there was a hurdle: the American Hospital Association said it wasn’t true – and they had a Bible-size book of numbers to prove it. The Chicago Tribune Chicago The When in doubt, investigate how the numbers are counted. I discovered that hospitals counted administrators who never worked with patients, from bookkeepers to attorneys. Also counted were nurses assigned to remote nursing homes and nurses assigned to home health care divisions. Yet, some national media organizations have used the AHA-supplied numbers, divided Sinclair Stephanie by hospital beds and incorrectly published a nurse-to-bed ratio. In reality, there often is Photo: Photo: one nurse for every eight beds on a general medical/surgical unit. Some hospitals had 20 patients for every nurse. Shirley Keck weeps while trying to communicate with The AHA later acknowledged that they really don’t know how many nurses are assigned daughter Becky Hartman in Keck’s home. Keck cannot speak and has to use a chart with the alphabet drawn on it to patient care in hospitals. to spell out words. Hartman and her four other sisters trade It took 10 months to unravel and reassemble a myriad of electronic and paper sources. But in off caring for their mother in her Wichita home. In early the end, it was the Tribune’s numbers of deaths and injuries – each case assembled from small July, Wesley Medical Center settled a case where Keck, 63, claimed she was left unattended in her hospital room for pieces – that provided the most powerful punch, and provided the clues that led to the names several hours while she suffered a stroke. Consequently, she and details behind one of the hospital industry’s most closely guarded secrets. cannot move any part of her body except her left arm and head requiring her to need care 24 hours a day.

My custom database was like a giant jigsaw charge or punishment. In exchange for speedy Passionate responses puzzle. Each day I added more pieces that led “consent agreements,” states purged any men- The Tribune series continues to ignite a me to specific victims and places. tion that patients had suffered horrible deaths firestorm of reaction. Following the series, the or injuries. Many records were worded to make nation’s largest healthcare regulator, the Joint Examining oversight the incidents appear minor. Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare The Chicago-based National Council of State • State investigators often never pull a medical Organizations, announced a national crackdown Boards of Nursing computerizes disciplinary file or interview any patients. This means that on the use of infusion pumps. The Tribune actions filed against nurses in all states and nobody really knows how many patients were reported that 150,000 pumps lack a basic safety U.S. territories. But the private, nonprofit group possibly harmed. feature that could prevent sudden, often lethal refuses to share the information publicly. • In many states, nurses suspected of patient gushes of medicines. Nurses have accidentally I learned, however, that the council periodi- harm continue to practice for years before killed and injured hundreds of patients with cally sends a copy of the complete database disciplinary action is taken. Dozens of nurses such pumps. to each state. With prodding from Tribune simply move to other states. In all, the newspaper has registered more attorneys, a reluctant Illinois licensing agency Besides disciplinary records, I used a variety than 2,500 responses – including telephone turned over the database under a state FOIA of legal databases, such as Lexis/Nexis, to calls, e-mails and letters – that ranged from request. track hundreds of nursing malpractice cases. strong praise, equally passionate criticism and, Each record contains the nurse’s name and I obtained suits from 42 states, hunted down in two messages, fairly specific death threats by date of violation. I filed dozens of FOIAs litigants and continued to fill in blanks or create nurses who felt the stories undermined public nationally for the complete disciplinary files, new entries on my custom database. confidence in nursing. which detailed death and injuries caused by The Health Care Financing Administration Citing Tribune findings that raised serious negligence and incompetence. In one case, a reports provided scores of details that could be questions about hospital management and patient nurse consumed crack cocaine at a hospital coupled with other records, such as disciplinary care, the Illinois governor convened a large but was never suspended. A known, convicted files, lawsuits and death records that led to task force of healthcare professionals to recom- child molester was allowed to work even while patient identities. mend legislative changes and new licensing on probation, and dozens of nurses convicted That was how I found 2-year-old Miguel and disciplinary strategies to better protect the of felony crimes – from drug trafficking and Fernandez of Chicago, who received a fatal public. money laundering to welfare fraud, theft and overdose of sedatives from a newly graduated Additionally, many large nursing organiza- burglary – continued to commit more infractions nurse who was left alone to perform a medical tions have embraced the findings in the series by with impunity. procedure without training. distributing thousands of copies of the project to Discipline files showed many trends, includ- And that’s how I uncovered Deedra Tolson, nurses, many who continue to rally for recogni- ing: 38, who bled to death because of a shortage of tion of a nursing crisis deliberately hidden from • Dozens of understaffed state nursing boards nurses and, at the same hospital, Shirley Keck, public view. agreed to withhold key, embarrassing details 61, whose pleas for help went unanswered until Michael J. Berens is a reporter on the Chicago from public files if a nurse does not contest a she suffered permanent brain damage. Tribune project team.

MAY/JUNE 2001 21 C O V E R S T O R Y

continents, examining cut the time and red tape required OVERSEAS TESTING medical experiments in a to bring a drug to market in the Drug firms avoid U.S. watchdogs by using dozen countries in Latin United States. Each day’s delay in America, Asia, Africa the rigorous testing process could world’s most desperate and Europe. The result mean $1.3 million in unrealized was a six-day series profits. By Joe Stephens, Mary Pat Flaherty and Deborah Nelson in December called What follows are some observa- of The Washington Post “The Body Hunters” tions by each of us from our experi- ences in pursuing this massive n early 2000, The Washington Post began looking (http:washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/issues/ undertaking. I into why American pharmaceutical companies bodyhunters). were conducting medical tests on people in some With scant public notice, the series explained, Joe Stephens: intriguing places: Hungary, Nigeria, rural China. American drug companies were enlisting thousands Early in our reporting, I learned that Pfizer Inc., Just what were those companies doing there, far of test subjects in some of the world’s most desperate now the world’s largest drug maker, had tested away from the watchful gaze of American regulators corners, sometimes without informing subjects an unapproved antibiotic amid a vast meningitis and medical watchdog groups? of risks or properly asking for their consent. epidemic, using impoverished and desperately ill The three of us joined forces to find out. We Destitute children with deadly diseases were given Nigerian children. Little else was public. formed the core of a team that eventually grew to unapproved medicines. Drugs deemed too risky Clearly, we needed to talk to the Nigerian include nine foreign correspondents and investiga- to be tested in the United States were tested on doctor Pfizer had hired to conduct the study in a tive reporters working in concert with a small people elsewhere. sub-Saharan epidemic camp. army of editors, graphic artists, photographers Money was the driving force. Drug companies Just calling the doctor seemed like a bad idea. and researchers. needed an ever-increasing pool of human subjects, Phone connections were dreadful. At the same time, Over 11 months, the team spread across five and testing offshore allowed them to slash costs and pre-arranging an in-person interview would give The Washington Post Washington The

Lois Raimondo Raimondo Lois Photo: Photo:

Sister Rosa soothes children during naptime at Baan Mitratorn, an orphanage for HIV-infected children in Chiangmai, northern Thailand. HIV/AIDS infection is greatest in Thailand’s northern regions, where drugs and prostitution are big business proliferating across country borders. Some healthcare workers estimate northern HIV-infection rates at one in forty.

22 THE IRE JOURNAL C O V E R S T O R Y

him time to reconsider meeting me, or prepare WEB SITES AND DATABASES evasive answers or consult with an American public By Joe Stephens, Mary Pat Flaherty relations specialist. and Deborah Nelson My solution: show up on the doctor’s doorstep The FDA takes months to respond to FOI unannounced with a smile and a list of questions.

First, however, came months of preparation. Post Washington The

requests and then makes few records public for investigational new drugs. But the agency Web I spent weeks reading medical abstracts, review- site and other Internet resources contain useful ing FDA hearing transcripts and meeting with information. Here are some of our favorites: medical specialists. I also obtained an inch-thick • Clinical trial listings: www.centerwatch.com/, Pfizer medical report on the experiment and the Raimondo Lois www.clinicalstudies.com, http://clinicaltrials.gov deaths of 11 children who participated. • NIH-funded research abstracts: The trip remained a gamble, however. What if Photo: www-commons.cit.nih.gov/crisp/ the doctor refused to see me? Or, worse still, what • Published studies: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ if he was not in town? entrez/query.fcgi As luck would have it, I quickly located him, AIDS continues to ravage Thailand, with one out of every • Drug Information Association: www.diahome.org/, 60 people testing positive for the disease. Ninety-seven • FDA (regulations, new drug reviews and and he invited me into his office. He verified the percent of those infected receive no drug treatment approvals, inspections database, database authenticity of key documents that I carried with for their disease. At Whistle Home, a Bangkok shelter me and said that the children and their illiterate for homeless HIV-positive women and abandoned HIV- of domestic and foreign doctors conducting infected babies, new family units get formed. clinical trials): www.fda.gov parents had difficulty understanding what was • NIH (regulations, research grant information): going on. When I showed him documents detailing from the perspective of participants – but all we knew www.nih.gov the treatment of an underweight 10-year-old girl – about the people who took part were raw numbers. • Office of Human Research Protections (inves- who died after taking Pfizer’s unapproved antibiotic Without prep work and the good graces of local tigations of human subject protection viola- for three days – the doctor responded: “To be very, people who felt the trial participants had been too long tions): http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/ very honest, in retrospect, maybe we should have regarded only as blind numbers, we couldn’t have As for databases, most are now available on the done something about that … Why we didn’t do found the men and women we sought. FDA Web site. We found these helpful: that, I don’t know.” Here are some practices that proved useful: Later, Pfizer would disagree strongly, saying Reading carefully. We gathered every medical • The FDA’s Investigational Human Drug Clinical journal article, grant document and general press Investigator Inspection List shows which domes- there was no reason to believe the antibiotic did not tic and foreign clinical trial sites the agency has work and that some children with meningitis would account about both of the studies we were focusing inspected and whether it found problems. The die no matter what treatment was provided. They on. We read every footnote and notation to find detailed inspection reports must be obtained said the experiment was ethical and saved lives. out not only about the main authors, but ancillary through FOIA. It’s on the Web site. They would not allow me to speak with anyone still contributors and experts who might talk freely about at Pfizer who worked on the experiment. the work. Likewise, we gathered letters to the editors • The Bioresearch Monitoring Information System I eventually sent Pfizer a list of more than 60 on the studies from foreign researchers and accounts File is a list of all doctors conducting clinical trials that are known to the FDA. The file is fairly written questions. They responded with 26 pages in the Thai press – again to develop a list of likely complete for domestic trials, because doctors are of dense medical arguments. After my story was interview subjects once we were on the ground. That required to register with the agency. However, published, Pfizer posted the list of questions on their work ultimately paid off in leads among medical registration is voluntary for doctors conducting Web page, along with their 26-page response. experts and social workers who were helpful in trials overseas for U.S. companies. The FDA adds In the days since, Nigerian newspapers have narrowing the hunt for those relatively small pools their names to the database if the foreign clinical written almost 100 articles examining the experi- of addicts and women. trial is used to support a new drug application. ment and the Nigerian government has launched a Planning ahead. We interviewed as many of • The Adverse Event Reporting System and its formal investigation. those sources ahead of time as we could, often by predecessor database. This is an index to reported e-mail, to give them a heads up about what we were reactions to drugs that are already in the market Mary Pat Flaherty: looking for and to get a feel for who was likely to be and allowed us to track the post-marketing One of the missions in this series was to find truly helpful and knowledgeable. record of drugs tested overseas. Health practi- two groups of people who were disenfranchised in Sharing information. Items that hadn’t seemed tioners who suspect a drug caused a particular their own country – heroin addicts and HIV infected of much use here were of great value once we were side effect file the reports. The index lists the pregnant women – who were fiercely protected by in the host country because they offered clues that suspected drug and the side effect. We had to both the private and public U.S. medical researchers weren’t apparent to us but were obvious to people send an FOI request to get the full report. who had enrolled these people in clinical drug trials. there on how to track test subjects. Those helpful • We also built a database of applications to In each instance, half of the group in the medical sources also simply appreciated seeing much of the State Department for approval to conduct tests received a placebo; it was those people we the medical journal information we had gathered federally funded clinical trials at overseas sites. wanted to reach to get their impressions of getting since their libraries and Internet access often were These records are maintained by the Fogarty no care, or of being withheld proven care to further so limited. International Center at NIH. a test of a new medical theory or new drug. Relying on the basics. How would you try to find

We knew the studies we wanted to report on – CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 ×

MAY/JUNE 2001 23 C O V E R S T O R Y

and add staff, offices, computer five chapters and several sidebars. TRACKING THE HMO systems and perks. The board of It generated scores of letters, trustees, made up of prominent local e-mails and calls from readers, Red ink oozes as top executives profit executives, ministers and leaders of employees and members of the some of Fort Worth’s oldest family- health plan. Nearly all praised the By Mitchell Schnurman owned companies, never made the coverage for exposing the details of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tough moves to stem the tide. of an institution that touched As a result, the Harris health hundreds of thousands of lives. e had tracked the rise and fall of the local plan lost $300 million before being sold to a Several former employees said W company, documenting its troubles and California company in a distress sale. The hospital the article confirmed their suspicions: “My thanks shifting strategies. system gave up its independence to merge with a go out to you for exposing what so many of us And when the end came, we prepared for a smaller, richer group in Dallas. have known about for so long – the appalling post-mortem, figuring this was one more tale of The ensuing turmoil affected thousands of amounts of money wasted within the Harris an organization overwhelmed by an unforgiving patients and doctors, and hundreds of Harris system,” a former Harris manager wrote. economy. employees. The new HMO, PacifiCare, cut Two reporters from the Star-Telegram spent But the first interview pointed to much more. more than half the work force, raised members’ more than six months working on the articles. We A longtime executive described a culture where premiums and got tough on enforcing existing interviewed about 75 people, primarily current excess was the norm, executive decisions were contracts. and former employees and trustees, and reviewed driven by ambition and ego, and the people with Many residents had to change health plans or hundreds of pages of documents, with an assist real power were never held accountable. choose new doctors. And to unload the money- from a third reporter. That sounded like plenty of companies gone losing HMO, the Harris hospitals had to agree to Harris operated dozens of companies, some bust, except that this was the Harris Methodist give PacifiCare discounted services for two years, nonprofit, some for-profit, some in partnership Health System, a nonprofit organization that touted prolonging the failed legacy of Harris’ venture with doctors and others. Assessing its financial its ethics, its commitment to the community and into managed care. reports was often a complicated, time-consuming its religious roots. The special report, “Why Harris Fell,” process. Harris was one of the largest health care explained how all this happened, and why. It Despite the complexity and volume of data, providers in Texas. It had seven hospitals, nearly detailed for the first time the depth of the financial no errors have been found in the story, and no 400,000 members in its HMO and insurance problems, the executive-suite maneuvering that led corrections have been demanded. In fact, in the plans, and a Fort Worth history that went back to the merger, and the way that management lived final week of fact-checking, the health system had 70 years. high while forcing cuts in doctors’ pay. to concede that our compiled numbers were right, It revealed that three former board chairmen despite claiming other results earlier. Red ink flows moved from their unpaid oversight roles to the Harris’ financial troubles surfaced in the Harris payroll. A fourth board member was CEO The slippery slope mid-1990s, when its health maintenance organiza- of an engineering company that did at least 17 Like most investigative stories, this one tion began to lose money, and the problems projects for Harris in the ‘90s, and that relationship emerged through a combination of shoe-leather escalated through the decade. Management blamed was never disclosed publicly. reporting, and the study of confidential and public the decline on broader trends, including govern- The article ran last August and was divided into documents. It took longer than we expected, in ment cutbacks, intense competition and rising medical costs. The Fort Worth Star- Telegram’s story pro- vided another explana- tion: The executives at Harris, apparently driven by ambition, set the com- pany on a faltering course and refused to retreat in the face of trouble. The board, meanwhile, sat idle as the red ink flowed. The executives hatched a growth plan that envi- sioned a statewide network, and then they spent mil- The Star-Telegram used this graphic to show how management actions led to dismal results at the Harris Methodist Health Plan. It brought together elements of the best reporting, the analyses about cause-and-effect, and the financial results that often were difficult to obtain. The graphic provides lions to win market share, a blueprint for what happened at Harris and why.

24 THE IRE JOURNAL C O V E R S T O R Y

CHECKING OUT DOCTORS By Thomas Maier of Newsday

1. What are the promises made by 3. Who oversees the quality of doctors HMOs about the quality of their doc- in the managed care system and how tors? do I check to see if they’re doing a When managed care swept through good job? America a decade ago, many insurers prom- Despite all the information they give ised to raise health care quality while lower- customers, managed care firms never men- ing costs. Go back to the clips and find out tion state disciplinary actions or any mal- what these insurers said when they came to practice cases against the doctors in their part because some key Harris officials – including your town and examine what happened. network. Yet in New York alone, Newsday the former CEO – declined to be interviewed. Today, the promises of quality and offer- found 132 doctors disciplined for serious That forced us to go to great lengths to confirm ing good doctors can be found in the – sometimes fatal – wrongdoing were what seemed like simple facts. found in the directories of the state’s top Many interviews were conducted strictly on thick, paperback directories of providers background; we could not name some sources online with their Web sites. For example, commercial HMOs without any warning because they still work for Harris and its succes- www.aetnaushc.com is the Web site for about them. sor company, or because they were bound by Aetna U.S. Healthcare, one of the nation’s Ironically, many of those who are respon- confidentiality agreements. largest managed care firms. The search sible for overseeing HMO physicians are In some cases, the interviews were conducted aware of these problems but never tell under the ground rules that we would contact these engine attached to this site allows you to sources – and get their approval – before using look up the names of its approved doctors the public. You might start by asking to any quotes. That can be a slippery slope, but no in their HMO networks – along with the interview the medical directors of your one backed down from a quote, probably because doctor’s address, specialty, whether accept- area’s top HMOs, to learn of their screening the story provided so much context. ing new patients, hospital affiliation, board procedures and then ask them about some There were no direct quotes from anonymous certification, second language spoken, etc. of the specific doctors that you found by sources, and nearly every point in the story was attributed, often with detailed explanations that comparing the lists of state-disciplined let readers know whether the speakers had an 2. How do I check on the quality of doctors and those found in the insurer’s ax to grind. individual doctors? approved list of providers. One of the biggest hurdles was the former Quality can be in the eye of the beholder, You can, for example, check out other CEO’s refusal to speak, either to answer basic but if a doctor has been disciplined for national groups to find out about a doctor, questions or to defend himself against accusations. such as the American Board of Medical Spe- He was still employed as a consultant by the professional misconduct by your state’s successor company and had received a lucrative oversight board, it may raise questions about cialties at www.abms.org/newsearch.asp. severance package. a doctor’s competency. Some doctors get And the National Practitioner Data We were able to illuminate his style and in trouble for failing to pay student loans Bank, run by the federal government, col- strategy by recounting anecdotes and insights or criminal tax code violations, but the vast lects all information about doctors at confirmed by several inside sources. www.npdb.com. While this information is Many of the sources were distressed by what majority of sanctions in New York and many occurred at Harris, so we often heard candid, other states involve medical wrongdoing not available to the public, those in managed remarkable stories. Some comments were simple such as botched surgery, sexual misconduct, care firms, hospitals and doctors can see it. venting against colleagues, and some were no dispensing drugs illegally, working while Thomas Maier wrote about Newsday’s inves- more than informed speculation. But others impaired, and other serious misconduct. tigation of the New York physician database proved true, and invaluable to the story. Check out www.docboard.org, the Web site – exposing incompetent doctors operating in We learned, for example, that the HMO’s of the Association of State Medical Board HMOs – in the January-February 2000 issue problems were so severe that it was dragging of The IRE Journal. The January-February down the entire hospital system. That, our sources Executive Directors, which hyperlinks to 2000 issue of Uplink provides a more in- said, led to the decision to merge with a smaller more than a dozen state medical disciplinary depth look at the computer-assisted tech- hospital network in Dallas. boards that list state-disciplined physicians. niques used. Top officials at both hospitals publicly contested

MAY/JUNE 2001 25 C O V E R S T O R Y this point, and we ran their comments. But the story ultimately gave more weight to our sources, because KEY DOCUMENTS AID SEARCH documents supported that view. By Mitchell Schnurman A report for bond holders, which was part of the merger, showed that the Harris system’s When reporting for “Why Harris Fell,” • We had several older 990 Forms and older cash flow fell by two-thirds in three years, as the we made several reporting break- annual reports in files at the newspaper. HMO problems mounted. The fine print within throughs. Among them: These provided the names and salaries the same report used words such as “merged into” of the company’s 64 officers and vice presi- and “control’’ to describe the merger, suggesting • We obtained a new issue bond prospec- dents, and the names and tenures of trust- that it was not a combination of equals, as the tus, published two years earlier, by asking ees, including those who later joined the executives wanted to paint it. It also showed that a bond analyst for the name of the under- payroll. the Dallas hospital would provide four of six writing firm. We contacted a Merrill Lynch senior executives, including the CEO. executive, who sent the prospectus. The • We obtained many internal documents, Time and again, similar scenes played out in document explained the merger involv- including contracts between hospitals and our reporting. Employees told us that the company ing Harris, provided audited financial HMOs, board minutes and memos. These was top-heavy, laden with too many high-paid results, and gave key details about the revealed discounts given by Harris hospitals executives. An IRS 990 Form from 1994, which management team and control. to an HMO, the amount spent on country a reporter happened to have on file, showed that club activities and disagreements over plans • We obtained audited financial reports Harris had 64 officers and vice presidents, with to export managed care. These documents provided to bond holders by searching nearly all earning six-figure salaries. were provided by unidentified sources. We asked state regulators to provide Harris’ for the documents on the Bloomberg • HMO financial reports to state regulators, HMO financial filings for 1990 through 1999. News system. We used the new issue dating back a decade, showed vital trends: They revealed a surge in marketing spending offering to find the CUSIP numbers, the build-up in Harris’ marketing expenses, and a category called “other,” confirming the which allowed us to access the reports. cuts in monthly premiums, surges in mem- sources’ view that Harris was bent on growing We considered these financials much bership. And the reports let us compare at any cost. more reliable than the results on the 990 Harris with its competitors. We also used similar filings from competitors Forms. to evaluate management’s contention that Harris • The audited financial reports’ fine print • The players’ Web sites yielded surprising was simply responding to the market. In fact, the revealed key details. A footnote, for exam- details. This resource seems so obvious monthly premium numbers showed that Harris – ple, explained how much money was lost that it’s easy to neglect. One Harris trustee the biggest player in the market – was undercutting by the health plan and the sale of the refused to say what work his engineering its major competitors, not matching them. HMO. We consulted experts in health- company had done for Harris while he We assumed that 990 Forms, which all non- care accounting, who said they had never was on the executive committee. But his profits must file with the Internal Revenue Service, seen such an approach, but they believed firm’s Web site provided the answer: It had would be the key documents. They were helpful our conclusions were correct. Ultimately, completed 17 projects for Harris. but limited. With its hospitals and various other the company confirmed the numbers. • 990 Forms, which nonprofit organizations properties, Harris’ expenses were often spread among dozens of units. • We obtained a confidential sales docu- must file with the IRS, included some impor- The bond reports, which presented audited ment that was used in the sale of the tant details, such as reporting of potential financial results, proved to be pivotal. They health plan. Produced by Merrill Lynch, conflicts of interest. Harris did not report showed cash flows, losses, expenses and more for this report provided key facts about that trustees’ companies were doing work the entire system. And when Harris’ successor the HMO’s growth, employment, losses, for the organization, which was certainly organization put the HMO on the block, it began customers and motivations for selling the worth noting in the story. breaking out the health plan’s results in footnotes business. This was provided by unnamed • Older 990s should be requested early. Non- and other fine print. sources. profits must provide the past three years of Ultimately, that was essential to tallying the • We obtained copies of Harris’ confidential 990s when asked, but older versions must costs of the HMO venture. And to debunking budget reports, prepared for the board be requested, in writing, from the IRS. They the idea that the sale of the HMO had brought in of trustees. These showed management’s were limited to the mid-’90s and later, and $117 million, as claimed in a press release. growth strategy, and its plans to contain took more than a month to arrive. The audited numbers showed that the health costs and produce a profit. The actual • Depositions from various lawsuits provided plan, even after accounting for the sale, lost $130 results were not close to the projec- million in its final year. some insight, but they were not the gold tions. These reports were provided by mine we had expected. Interviews with unidentified sources. Mitchell Schnurman is a senior business reporter employees were much more fruitful. for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

26 THE IRE JOURNAL C O V E R S T O R Y

initials on a form authorizing the harvesting of his daughter’s bone. • The Food and Drug Administra- tion, the federal government’s watchdog on the industry, doesn’t know how many tissue banks The Orange County Register County Orange The exist. Six years after it began g g regulating the field, the FDA did not yet have a consistent set of standards for tissue banks.

Michael Gouldin Michael • Although the FDA and the industry claim a near-perfect safety record for tissue products,

Photo: Photo: they aren’t looking very hard. We documented the case of a Colorado woman who died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (aka “Mad Cow Disease”), probably because of a tissue implant. Our series prompted the enactment of two laws in the California Legislature in 2000 as well as two reports by the inspector general of This sign is part of a nationwide campaign to increase donations. the U.S. Health and Human Services Depart- ment, FDA’s parent. In addition, the main tissue industry association urged its members BODY BROKERS Among our findings: • Nonprofit tissue banks work hand- RESOURCES From skin and bones to fat profits in-glove with for-profit processors, often through exclusive contracts. Looking for more information on Nonprofits are the industry’s public health care and medical practices? By Ronald Campbell face. For-profits work behind the Check out these Web sites: of The Orange County Register scenes, turning human tissue into gold. • Joint Commission on Accreditation of ne afternoon in September 1999 the medi- • Tissue from a single donated human body Healthcare Organizations, O cal school at the University of California can generate products worth a combined www.jcaho.org Irvine made an odd announcement: The school $222,000. • National Committee for Quality Assur- was firing the head of its willed-body program • Not one tissue bank tells families that their ance, www.ncqa.org for selling donated spines out the back door. gifts will reap profits for others. • Consumer Coalition for Quality Health This wonderfully macabre story attracted • Some of the for-profits trade on Wall Street a few weeks of media frenzy. By then, The and pay top dollar to their executives. As Care, www.consumers.org Register and its competitors knew a great deal reporter Mark Katches wrote in a story about • Consumers Union, about Christopher Brown, the young mortician one such company when it went public: www.consumersunion.org/health/health.htm who had run the UCI program. We knew a lot “You can now own a piece of a company that • People’s Medical Society, about the people who had willed their bodies ultimately wants a piece of you.” www.peoplesmed.org to science. We knew how critical donated • The profit motive ensures plenty of cadaver • Public Citizen Health Research Group, bodies were to medical education. skin for processors while creating a shortage www.citizen.org What we didn’t know was why anyone of skin for burn centers. Among the uses for • American Association of Health Plans, would pay cash for 80-year-old spines. scarce skin: vanity surgery to enhance lips www.aahp.org Answering that question took six months and penises. • American Hospital Association, of reporting, writing and rewriting. In April • The pressure to get more bodies is so strong 2000, we published “The Body Brokers,” a that tissue bank employees and researchers www.aha.org five-part series describing how donated skin occasionally take body parts without asking. • American Medical Association, and bone had become the raw material for a A Red Cross employee in Arizona, who www.ama-assn.org $500 million industry. was later fired, forged a grieving father’s

MAY/JUNE 2001 27 C O V E R S T O R Y

to make more complete disclosures to donors database to get quarterly, annual and proxy RESOURCES and conducted a survey of members that statements for those companies. The SEC confirmed there was a shortage of skin for forms in turn led us to competitors and yet National Council for burn victims. more SEC documents. State Boards of Nursing Then we entered highlights from the Maintains a national database of Not so hidden story 990s and SEC documents into a series of nurse disciplinary action and tracks In retrospect, perhaps the most surprising spreadsheets. aspect of this often- It was tedious work. state licensing issues surprising story is that But the payoff was www.ncsbn.org For more details on the no one had done it computer-assisted report- profound. The 990s before. Ads begging and SEC statements Portal to state board of for organ and tissue ing elements of this story, allowed us to docu- nursing organizations donors are every- see the May/June issue of ment the rapid growth www.ncsbn.org/files/boards/ where. Stories about Uplink, a newsletter from the of the industry as well boardswebsites.asp organ donors and National Institute for Com- as the pay awarded recipients are com- to its top executives. puter-Assisted Reporting. American Hospital Directory monplace. Yet again When we reported that Offers a free, online database built from and again, we found the founder of a small ourselves the first reporters ever to visit this Los Angeles tissue bank was far and away the Medicare claims data, cost reports, and tissue bank, the first to see that product being nation’s best-paid nonprofit tissue banker, we other public use files obtained from the made, the first to ask detailed questions about had the facts to prove it. federal Health Care Financing Adminis- the industry’s finances and operations. The documents also gave us an exception- tration. The directory also includes AHA This story was hidden in plain sight. ally detailed list of the tissue industry’s play- Annual Survey Data. But finding it wasn’t easy. It took the ers. When reporter Bill Heisel surveyed the www.ahd.com combined efforts of three reporters (five nation’s burn centers to document a shortage initially), a graphic artist, a photographer of cadaver skin, he found that some burn FDA databases and two editors. It also required a collective centers didn’t even know that nearby tissue Links to U.S. Food and Drug gut check. None of us wanted to discourage banks were collecting and selling skin. Administration data donations of vital organs, which are perpetu- ally in short supply. We suspected – correctly, Donors in the dark www.fda.gov/cdrh/databases.html as it turned out – that we would be accused In January 2000, when we went on the road of doing just that. to visit tissue banks and processors around the Portal site to U.S. Our strategy was to cast the widest pos- country, documents already had answered our healthcare organizations sible net – finding and reading every docu- basic questions. That allowed us to concentrate www.jcaho.org/links/hca_lnk.html ment available on the trade, interviewing on broader issues – why nonprofits and for- every executive who would talk, visiting profits were working so closely together, how ECRI every tissue bank or processor that would let the partnership made money and above all why An invaluable nonprofit health us in the front door and tracking down dozens no one wanted to tell donors. services research agency. of donor families. Documents and interviews The answer the industry gave to that last led to more documents and interviews. question was a paradox. First, they told us, www.ecri.org Eventually we would interview more than the donors didn’t care or didn’t want to know 300 people and review several thousand about profits. Second, if we told them, they Institute for Safe pages of documents. might care and stop donating. And no one Medication Practices I cannot overemphasize the value of get- wanted that. Nonprofit research group that ting – and reading – every document. Although the industry plainly was worried publishes warnings about specific Early in our research we combed through about us – the American Association of Tissue types of medical errors. the Internal Revenue Service database of Banks sent its members an alert that we were www.ismp.org nonprofits, identifying every group with investigating – most executives were quite open “tissue” or “bone” or “skin” or “eye” in the and proud of their accomplishments. Their Chicago Tribune series name. That query produced about 100 names. cooperation made possible some stunning work We then asked the IRS for every Form 990 by photographer Michael Goulding and graphic Web link to three-day series those groups had filed in the preceding five artist Sharon Henry. www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ years. The Freedom of Information Act proved article/0,2669,2-46844,FF.html The 990s tipped us to several partnerships less valuable than we had hoped. I filed the first with for-profits. We used the SEC EDGAR of seven FOIA requests to the FDA in early

28 THE IRE JOURNAL C O V E R S T O R Y The Orange County Register County Orange The g g Michael Gouldin Michael Photo: Photo:

Vidal Herrera performs a private autopsy at McAulay & Wallace Mortuary in Fullerton, Calif. He conducts autopsies and charges fees for body parts.

November 1999. Responses to my principal Perhaps the most surprisingly productive I was sure it was impossible. It took about request, for reports from nearly 200 tissue bank resource for us was the Web. I don’t mean an hour. inspections, dribbled in for 15 months. authoritative sites like EDGAR. I mean the Step 1: I visited a university-sponsored site Part of the blame rests on the sheer number wild-and-woolly Web, America’s gossip fence. about CJD. Step 2: I linked to a memorial site, of FOIAs the FDA processes – 25,000 a Somewhere, perhaps, there is a Yellow Pages containing hundreds of brief tributes to CJD year. But only part of the blame. The FDA listing for skeleton suppliers. I don’t know of victims. Step 3: About a hundred entries down aggressively deletes what it thinks is sensitive any. But I do know about two Web sites that the list, I began shaking – here was a woman business data. FOIA officers made scores sell skeletons. And three sites that sell cadaver who had died in the right place, Denver, at of deletions from virtually every document skin for cosmetic surgery. And lots of great sites the right time, September 1996, at the right they sent me, blacking out donor ID numbers, where licensed plastic surgeons display before age, 39. Her name was Karen Kae Bissell. names of business partners, even brand names and after shots of lips, the “after” representing The next night I interviewed her mother. Mrs. of lab equipment. the happy results of a close encounter with skin Bissell said she had not even known that Still, the FOIA requests ultimately bore from a dead body. her daughter had received a tissue implant fruit. The inspection reports showed that most The Web also made possible one of the most until medical investigators scoured Karen’s tissue banks had been inspected only once in poignant stories in our series. In early January records. six years, if that often. Banks that were cited 2000, I found a three-year-old SEC filing about for severe deficiencies seldom got follow-up the death of a Colorado woman from Creutzfeldt- Ronald Campbell is a reporter for The visits. The reports documented instances Jakob Disease, probably as the result of a tissue Orange County Register and a specialist in computer-assisted reporting. The Register’s where tissue banks rejected other banks’ tests implant. My editor, Tracy Wood, insisted that I series and follow-ups are available online at and ignored FDA-sanctioned recalls. track the unidentified woman’s family down. www.ocregister.com/health/body/index.shtml.

MAY/JUNE 2001 29 C O V E R S T O R Y

Health inspections Overseas testing for pursuing the story simultaneously a half-world CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 away from each other. worker made salads after handling bacteria-laden people taking part in AIDS testing in the U.S.? You’d Pomfret joined one of my sources in Anhui to raw chicken. blanket grassroots groups. In Thailand, that meant interview rural participants and medical workers, Fleshing out the victims’ stories wasn’t easy. locating and attending group meetings (usually at who poured out their anger and frustration with The most public people were those relative night and once in a newly planted field with a water researchers. He had to move quickly, because it few who filed lawsuits. Even in some of those buffalo) to ask for help in finding the narrow set of didn’t take long in rural areas for word of a U.S. cases, though, plaintiffs said they couldn’t tell test subjects, and going to medical centers on the reporter’s presence to reach local police, who were their stories because of settlement agreements, days they held HIV and prenatal clinics. duty-bound to stop him. advice from attorneys, or fear of retribution Being up front. I asked patients to sign my Harvard’s collaborators in China soon inter- by restaurants. notebook after I’d told them I was a reporter and rogated every villager and medical staffer who Beyond the lawsuits, access was problematic why I wanted to talk to them, making sure they talked to him. In subsequent e-mails, the lead because Minnesota public-records access laws understood the newspapers locally might run a Harvard researcher and his Chinese collaborators exempt information gathered in an official health version of our story and that they would circulate reported that all had retracted their complaints. investigation. Agencies also resisted giving us worldwide on the Internet. By having them sign, I We would later include both the initial statements complaint records, or deleted the names from felt I was going an extra step to reinforce who I was and the retractions in the story – along with the the records. Finally, there’s the embarrassment and that they were taking part in an interview. circumstances surrounding the retractions. factor: Who, if they don’t have to, wants to talk Of course, that all worked great until the day Meanwhile, I developed the story stateside. Using to a total stranger about having diarrhea? an addict whom I’d interviewed asked at the end online SEC documents and company and university of our conversation to be paid for his interview. He press releases, I determined that Millennium, then Telling the stories grew indignant when I said we did not do that, so he a scrappy startup, paid $3.5 million to Harvard and Our stories divided logically into an overview, grabbed my notebook and took off – with me chasing its Chinese collaborators to collect Anhui DNA, a look at enforcement, an examination of him. Luckily I had a stride advantage and caught up and then used its access to the DNA to raise $53 outbreak trends, how things look from the with him on the street where we tugged back and million from investors. We could now draw a direct industry’s point of view, and possible solutions. forth at the notebook until the translator helped me line from the veins of impoverished Anhui residents We accompanied the main stories with case negotiate its return. I gave him the page with his name that Pomfret interviewed to the millions detailed in studies, such as one on particular outbreaks, on it, and he gave me back three days of work that for records that I’d dug up here. using interviews and public records to retrace a brief moment seemed destined to be lost. I soon began receiving calls from people I had investigations and keep readers hooked. interviewed here, informing me they had been Other advice for this or other health and Deborah Nelson: contacted by Harvard representatives and warned safety-related stories: John Pomfret and I looked at genetic research against talking to me. Harvard officials demanded that • Carefully documenting, for instance in a being carried out in Anhui Province, China, by federal regulators retrieve research grant records that spreadsheet, all your requests for information: Harvard and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, its I had obtained through an FOI request. (I declined, when, to whom, how officials responded, and corporate sponsor. agreeing only to provide the agency with a copy of where things stand. It gets harder to keep track Because poverty and geography had kept the what it had given me.) It struck me that the tactics as the weeks and months go by, and multiple people isolated over the last 2,000 years, the DNA weren’t all that different than those used on our requests pile up. in the blood of Anhui residents was unusually pure sources in China. But here, the attempts to influence • In locating victims, considering such public and, thus, easier to analyze for clues to disease that the information I received were little more than an records sources as lawsuits, food-borne illness might lead to blockbuster treatments. aggravating nuisance. In rural China, the people were complaints, death certificates, hospital discharge We documented how tens of millions of dollars visited by local officials who had ultimate control records, even letters to the editor. were raised by Harvard and Millennium by drawing over important aspects of their lives. • Thinking early, and if possible deciding early, blood and mining the DNA of thousands of poor, how to document and illustrate your findings often illiterate Chinese with no chance of benefiting Joe Stephens has been with the Washington Post’s regarding specific restaurants. We began by from any discoveries. The participants told of being investigative unit as a reporter since June 1999. Mary Pat Flaherty has been with the Post since 1993 and looking at bests and worsts, but had concerns lured with promises of free, desperately needed won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories about about whether the data would be accurate, medical care and with a form of political coercion black marketing in human organs and abuses in timely and complete enough. Late in the game, that they called “thought work.” the transplant system. Deborah Nelson is the metro we shifted gears and wound up publishing Several researchers with concerns about the investigations editor at the paper and co-authored inspection results for the most popular restau- studies provided essential details for tracking a series of stories on gene therapy that won this rants (as measured by the Zagat Survey). down and documenting problems in remote, rural year’s American Association for the Advancement locations. But I couldn’t get into China to check out of Science journalism award. Also assisting in the Rick Linsk is a reporter on the investigative team their allegations, because of tight restrictions on the series: John Pomfret, China correspondent; Karen of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He was part of entry of journalists. So I persuaded our busy China DeYoung, associate editor on the foreign desk; Sharon the award-winning team in 1999 that exposed correspondent, John Pomfret, to work with me. We Lafraniere, Moscow correspondent; and Douglas academic fraud in the men’s basketball program Struck, Tokyo correspondent. at the University of Minnesota. met in Hong Kong, where we mapped out a strategy

30 THE IRE JOURNAL Guest column

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 story – to persuade unsophisticated folks to public court records would have shown, the invest in some speculative, half-baked idea. company that owned the camp had filed for So you need to know about business to avoid bankruptcy. being used as an unwitting shill for the less The Gingrich supporter, it turns out, ran a respectable players in the marketplace. public company with a long record of run-ins But there’s another rather more important with the FDA over the safety and effectiveness reason to become fluent in business: America’s of its medical devices. That, and not political democratic balance of power depends on it. ideology, might actually have explained the Let me explain why. Although business has businessman’s support for Gingrich’s deregula- been a very powerful force in American society tory platform. for at least the past 100 years, for much of that As for the tycoon who was going to rescue time, the influence of business was balanced the local tabloid, he was actually under inves- by other hefty cultural and political forces. By tigation at the time for securities fraud, and 1900, much of the economy was controlled by wound up going to prison. The first sign that he the titans who we now call “robber barons.” was not honest? The footnotes of his company’s But their power was somewhat constrained annual report, which no one had checked on by a strong reform movement in government deadline. They showed that he had already and by the first generation of really influential broken promises he’d made to his company’s investigative reporters. (Yes, it’s true: Muckrak- bondholders – not a good sign that he could ing journalism was born to examine and expose be trusted. And once accountants checked his the operations of big business. IRE is the heir books, it began to look like all the money he to that rich tradition, thank goodness.) said was available to save the paper was either American business emerged from World bogus or stolen. War II more powerful than ever – but it was I offer these examples to show you that there counterbalanced by labor and government, are three very good reasons for non-business and later by robust consumer advocacy and reporters to become fluent in the language and environmental protection movements. concepts of business: 1) to protect your own But over the past 20 years, business has credibility, and that of your employer; 2) to quietly survived most of its natural predators. distinguish yourself from the less-accomplished It has entered the bloodstream of the nation. reporters who have not mastered this critical Businessmen were the 20th century’s heroes, knowledge; and 3) to do the job that journalism from J.P. Morgan to Bill Gates. is supposed to do in a democratic society, which is to hold power accountable for how it affects Standing alone the rest of us. I don’t mean to suggest that business is And make no mistake about it – there is no bad. It isn’t. Business has produced some element of modern society more powerful than extraordinary products that have made our business, except maybe – just maybe – us. lives easier and healthier and a lot more comfortable. Influential business But business is enormously powerful. And But first things first: You need business the old rule about how power can be corrupting literacy to protect your own credibility. A hasn’t been repealed. Since business has story on television or in a major magazine or outlasted most of the other forces that once newspaper is like money in the bank to people curbed its power, the muckraker is left standing promoting a new product or pushing a new pretty much alone in the field. If we don’t keep service. They use our stories to push their stocks business under intelligent scrutiny and hold it and they use our credibility to bolster their accountable for how it uses the power it has, own. And the easiest way for them to do that, then almost no one else will – because almost unfortunately, is to make a detour around the no one else can. business beat reporters and approach another So business isn’t a miracle worker, but it o section of the paper that is less familiar with isn’t a demonic empire either. Our task is to put J B the business world. The story runs, reprints it into perspective, interpreting its mysteries to center are ordered (or pirated) and brokers all over the public, and holding it accountable for the America use copies of the story – perhaps your way it affects the rest of us.

MAY/JUNE 2001 31 FEATURES

Fire department • The fire department is so short-staffed that Legal Corner CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 firefighters who cook must take the rig and CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 and too few firefighters to put out blazes and other members of their crew grocery shopping • Six states require the consent of the parties rescue people, sometimes with tragic results. with them. There are so few firefighters in and/or witnesses to the presence of cameras In addition to the 21 deaths we were able to some stations that if the cook leaves, there are at the trial level (Alabama, Arkansas, Loui- link to faulty equipment or bad decisions by fire usually not enough firefighters left to operate siana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Texas); officials, we found dozens of other cases where the truck if it is called to an emergency. Maryland permits non-governmental parties there was significant property loss because of • Firefighters sometimes miss fire calls because to object to the presence of cameras; and the department’s failings. for more than a decade the fire department two other states require consent of a broad The full impact of the fire department’s hasn’t had an alarm system that rings bells and category of witnesses. shortcomings was most clearly seen at an flashes lights to alert them to emergencies. • The majority of states permitting access apartment building fire last year. Four people Firefighters have rigged their own systems also have promulgated technical standards died and a 7-year-old girl was left paralyzed using falling pipes, baby monitors and pizza which prescribe the absence of distracting in that fire when an aerial ladder that hadn’t pans. light or sound, microphones, wires and worked in weeks was sent to rescue them. • The building that houses the fire department’s equipment; a single or limited number In another incident, four children died when training academy is so rundown that the city’s of still cameras, audio systems and televi- the fire company just blocks from the scene public works department assumed it was sion cameras; requirements for pooling; was temporarily closed and fire trucks had abandoned and approved it for demolition. proper attire; location of all equipment to travel four times the distance to try and • The fire department has operated fire trucks and personnel in areas designated by the save them. that couldn’t go faster than 20 mph, leaked court; and a prohibition on movement The scope of the Detroit Fire Department’s diesel and couldn’t carry water. Even the within the courtroom. (See, for example, problems was sweeping. Among our findings: truck’s manufacturers chastised the city for .) • The city lists more than 2,000 of its 34,000 poorly maintaining the vehicles, accusing fire • Only two states, Mississippi and South fire hydrants – the primary source of water officials of operating “death traps.” Dakota, exclude cameras from the court for battling fires – as out of service. But the • On any given day, between five and 11 of entirely, as does the District of Columbia as actual number of broken hydrants could be far the city’s 24 aerial ladders don’t work. These part of the Federal system. greater. That’s because the firefighters who ladders are the department’s main pieces of inspect the hydrants only do visual checks. equipment for rescuing people from fires in Revisiting the experiment They rarely, if ever, turn hydrants on to see multi-story buildings. From 1987 to 1997, the State of New York if they work. And because broken hydrants • For 260 days in the first 10 months of last permitted cameras in court on an experimental are rarely marked, firefighters waste precious year, the fire department had at least one of its basis, but the experiment ended and another time searching for working ones. 71 companies closed because of mechanical law prohibiting coverage of trials again problems with trucks. became applicable. A spate of trial court rul- The response from city leaders to our series ings in recent years, however, have questioned was immediate. Just hours after the first install- the constitutionality of Section 52 of the ment of the four-part series was published, New York Civil Rights Law, which imposed the mayor’s office held a press conference and “an absolute ban on audio/visual coverage The Detroit News Detroit The announced a major overhaul of the department. in the courtroom.” This, in turn, has led to The mayor also promised fire officials an open recommendations that the public again be checkbook to solve their problems. Since then, allowed to see what happens in courtrooms, he has added $3.5 million to the department’s even when they cannot themselves be physi-

Clarence Tabb Jr. Jr. Tabb Clarence budget to buy new fire trucks. cally present. The latest decision, issued on We are staying with the story to see if fire March 5, 2001, unequivocally stated: “it is

Photo: Photo: and city officials make good on their promises. time to allow cameras in the courtroom given If they don’t, we will be the first to tell our the advancements in technology and the ever- readers. changing ways society gets its news.” It remains to be seen, however, whether a Melvin Claxton has been an investigative reporter with The Detroit News since 1998. Before that, presumption in favor of audio-visual cover- he was an investigative reporter with the Chicago age in New York courtrooms will result. It Tribune and Virgin Islands Daily News. Charles is apparent, however, that the outcome of Hurt has been a city desk reporter at the News legislative maneuvers in New York will be as Daree Shannon survived, but was left paralyzed, since 1995. Their fire department series won a closely watched by consumers of broadcast after jumping from her eighth-floor window to 2000 IRE Award last month. Their joint project news as the trials the media are currently escape a blaze in April 2000. The fire claimed the on school bonds last year won APME’s latest lives of her mother, Norfessia, and her younger forced to cover from the courthouse steps. sister Au-Jane. FOI award.

32 THE IRE JOURNAL FEATURES

The second question wasn’t as easy to answer COPS AND MONEY because of law enforcement’s inherent tendency toward secrecy. We requested lists of names of people who had property seized and DAG-71 Probe of national forfeiture laws reports of cases from Missouri law enforcement leads to scrutiny of police intent agencies. DAG-71 reports are applications to BY KAREN DILLON the federal government, asking that a portion OF THE KANSAS CITY STAR of the seized money be returned to local law enforcement. Each of the reports carries a synopsis n 1999, U.S. Attorney Stephen Hill held a property they seize to a federal agency. Instead, a of how the money was seized. press conference to denounce my stories judge must decide what happens to the seizure. The records were slow in coming. But eventu- about how Missouri police were breaking So we asked: Why are police breaking the ally, 200 trickled in. By spending that time I state law in the way they handle drug law? How often are they doing it? Missouri law checking a number of county school funds and money and property they seize. requires a court to decide if drug money can be going through lists of court orders, I found that Hill asked not only representatives from most forfeited. After that, the law requires the proceeds little or no forfeited money had gone to county media outlets in the Kansas City area to attend but to be used for public education. education funds in the Missouri. issued a special invitation to my editor. More than But if a law enforcement agency gives the At the same time, law enforcement agencies a dozen of Hill’s legal team also came. money to a federal agency, the agency keeps 20 in those same counties had received millions Using large blowups of my stories, Hill percent or more for processing and returns the rest of dollars back from the federal government in proceeded to attack them. to the police agency. forfeited funds, according to U.S. Department It became part of a tough disinformation That money, once it is federalized, is over and of Justice records. campaign by law enforcement officials across the above the agency’s operating budget, and police Law enforcement officials were adamant that state and eventually across the country to confuse officials are free to spend the money with no they should get this money. Why shouldn’t they be the issue and try to prove I was wrong. oversight from their governing bodies. CONTINUED ON PAGE 34 × But I wasn’t. REFORM The Missouri case By Karen Dillon of The Kansas City Star Endurance was just one lesson I learned during This is the breakdown of reform forfeiture movement in the states since the past two years of writing about law enforcement The Kansas City Star published a two-day series in May. and drug forfeiture laws in “To Protect and Collect.” Others included how important it is to know your research both forward and backward and how WA invaluable the Internet has become. The story began in 1998 after a colleague came OR NY across a low-profile federal circuit court opinion NJ IA that said the Missouri Highway Patrol and the NE Drug Enforcement Administration “successfully NV UT VA MD conspired to violate the constitution of Missouri,” CA KS MO NC state law and a state Supreme Court decision in a TN suspected drug case. AZ NM AR The case involved a seizure of more than GA $800,000 after a trooper stopped a man on Interstate 70 for a traffic violation and searched his vehicle. Troopers called the cash the fruits of the drug trade even though no drugs were found. They contacted a federal agent to take the money and then sent the driver on his way. They could not charge him with a crime because no drugs were LAWS PASSED LEGISLATION BEING DISCUSSED NO OFFICIAL ACTION BUT found. OR BILLS FILED REPORTERS DOING STORIES That case would typify the hundreds of cases Utah Washington Nevada North Carolina I would eventually find involving millions of Oregon New Mexico Arkansas Arizona dollars. Kansas Iowa A major problem occurred, however, when Nebraska Tennessee the troopers gave the money to a federal agent. Missouri Maryland New York Virginia Missouri law is very clear: Law enforcement New Jersey Georgia agencies are prohibited from handing off cash and California

MAY/JUNE 2001 33 FEATURES

Forfeitures government to get drug money back. Lessons learned CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33 The analysis of forfeiture law led us to a Standing up to angry, upset or concerned law able to keep the money? For the same reason that critical finding – that laws in 35 states require a enforcement officials, who do not want to lose most law enforcement agencies are not allowed to court order before police can hand off money to millions of dollars, is probably one of the hardest keep the proceeds from traffic fines, legal experts a federal agency. At the very least without that situations a reporter can face. To handle those types explained. order, police officials are evading the laws they of interviews the reporter must know the issue Many lawmakers do not want police agencies had been sworn to uphold. inside and out. to benefit from fighting crime. The belief is that the Using law review articles and legal experts That is one of the major lessons here. That’s why more they seize, the more they want, experts said. across the country, I found little known federal it was so important for me to take the laws from That has led to abuses we have seen proliferating district and appellate court rulings as well as state 50 states, read and reread them, again and again. across the country such as racial profiling and circuit and supreme court rulings that backed up No state has the same forfeiture law. But there are illegal searches and seizures. that interpretation. similarities such as states that require a conviction; In fact one court ruling said, “ A local police other states allow police to seize property without The national picture department may not take seized property and any criminal charges ever being filed; eight states When the Missouri stories were published, just pass it on as it pleases to the FBI in flagrant require forfeited money to go to education. lawmakers were quick to act by filing bills trying to disregard of state laws.” Another said, “… the It was the same with court cases. I had to know stop the flow of money to the Justice Department – actions of the federal and state agents … would each from beginning to end, how the case started, even as law enforcement officials loudly criticized have constituted illicit money laundering if what the attorneys argued and how the judge ruled our findings. perpetrated by private parties.” But police officials and why. Immediately we asked, “what’s going on in in most of those states said they seldom or never It takes patience. It takes a lot of time. And other states?” I quickly expanded the investigation got court orders to transfer seized money to a it’s information that you have to have and know and began reading legal books, court opinions and federal agency. but can’t share with friends and co-workers; most law review articles on forfeiture, relying heavily It was difficult to get information from the don’t care about the technical ins and outs of state on Black’s Law Dictionary. It became clear that Justice Department. I was given only an hour forfeiture laws. without the Internet this story probably would interview with three attorneys and a spokesman. Reporters also should get to know their local never have been done or would have taken forever. They refused to answer written questions and college law librarians. They are there – via your tax Rather than calling each state legislature and declined follow-up interviews. Even today, two dollars – to give the public advice on finding cases asking for a copy of the most current forfeiture years later, FOI requests have not been answered. and government files such as microfiche containing statute, I was able to access the forfeiture laws and Some police agencies refused to provide police testimony from a congressional subcommittee state constitutions of all 50 states on the Internet, reports. Some were reluctant to answer questions. meeting more than a decade ago. If the documents print and file them. Others answered with the mindset that the money are not available at the local campus, librarians Then it was a matter of spending untold hours belonged to the agency. They said some state laws can order them. reading each several times, looking for comparisons are just wrong, especially those that didn’t let Hill’s press conference succeeded only in that between the laws. I created a searchable text them keep drug money. it appeared to confuse the local media. And his database to better analyze them. “There was once a state law that said black interpretation of the law also has been called into It was important to know the laws well enough people and white people should go to different question – most recently when a state appellate court to be able to discuss them in-depth with police, schools,” one police official said. “Just because ruled that police, indeed, were breaking the law, prosecutors and defense attorneys in the more there is a state law doesn’t necessarily mean that agreeing with many Missouri lawmakers. than 35 states I contacted. The interviews were the state law is correct.” A groundswell for reform has been enormous also a hurdle. I often found myself having to The investigation revealed that police agencies and is continuing. In more than a dozen states, explain the laws to them before I could begin in every one of more than two dozen states lawmakers are discussing reform, drafting bills asking questions. checked by the newspaper have used federal and filing bills. Voter initiatives placed on state I filed dozens of freedom of information law enforcement to circumvent their own laws ballots in Utah and Oregon in November passed requests with police departments around the and keep hundreds of millions of dollars for overwhelmingly, blocking the easy flow of forfeiture country and the Justice Department asking for themselves. money back to police. cases and forfeiture studies. The Internet again was After the two-day series was published in May On the federal level, Attorney General John helpful because it allowed me to search newspaper 2000, I e-mailed and snail-mailed the articles to Ashcroft has promised to work to try to fix the libraries around the country for cases. more than 150 people who don’t have access to problem. One congressman has pledged to fight The Justice Department had statistics showing our newspaper but had interest in the issue. The for a law that would require the money to be spent how much money is seized by police and returned Internet again saved enormous time. according to state laws. to each state annually dating back to 1986. I built The stories have had great impact around the Karen Dillon, who has worked at The Kansas City a searchable text database with those numbers country. Interested readers circulated the stories Star since 1991, has been a projects reporter for that involved hundreds of millions of dollars. That by e-mail and posted them on listservs and Web four years. “To Protect and Collect” has won this helped pinpoint the states whose law enforcement sites and sent them to their favorite federal and year’s Goldsmith Award for investigative reporting agencies were heavily depending on the federal state lawmakers. on government.

34 THE IRE JOURNAL MEMBER NEWS IRE SERVICES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND EDITORS, INC. is a grassroots nonprofit organization chief of the AP’s Portland bureau to chief of the dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting within the field of Hartford, Conn., bureau. University of Arizona journalism. IRE was formed in 1975 with the intent of creating a networking tool and a professor James W. Johnson has co-authored a forum in which journalists from across the country could raise questions and exchange biography of former Arizona congressman Morris ideas. IRE provides educational services to reporters, editors and others interested in Udall entitled “Mo: The Life and Times of Morris investigative reporting and works to maintain high professional standards. K. Udall.” Richard Leonard, formerly executive editor of the Courier News (Bridgewater, N.J.) Programs and Services: IRE RESOURCE CENTER – A rich reserve of print and broadcast stories, tipsheets and guides to help is now Gannett’s director of news recruiting in you start and complete the best work of your career. This unique library is the starting point of Arlington, Va. Ann Marie Lipinski, formerly the any piece you’re working on. You can search through abstracts of more than 17,000 investigative Chicago Tribune’s vice president and executive reporting stories through our Web site. editor, is now senior vice president and editor. She Contact: Pat Coleman, [email protected], 573-882-3364 was part of the Tribune team that won the 1988 DATABASE LIBRARY – Administered by IRE and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. At The Reporting. The library has copies of many government databases, and makes them available to news Buffalo News, Stanford Lipsey has moved organizations at or below actual cost. Analysis services are available on these databases, as is help in from president to publisher and Margaret deciphering records you obtain yourself. Sullivan is now vice president as well as Contact: Mary Jo Sylwester, [email protected], 573-884-7711 editor. Consumer reporter Elizabeth Man- CAMPAIGN FINANCE INFORMATION CENTER – Administered by IRE and the National Institute for resa, formerly with KYTV-NBC (Springfield, Computer-Assisted Reporting. It’s dedicated to helping journalists uncover the campaign money Mo.) is now with WJLA-ABC (Washington, D.C.) trail. State campaign finance data is collected from across the nation, cleaned and made available Paul Maryniak has moved from managing to journalists. A search engine allows reporters to track political cash flow across several states editor of The (Mesa, Ariz.) Tribune to East in federal and state races. Valley bureau chief for The Arizona Republic. Contact: Ron Nixon, [email protected], 573-882-2042 Shawn McIntosh has moved from managing ON-THE-ROAD TRAINING – As a top promoter of journalism education, IRE offers loads of training editor to executive editor of The Clarion-Ledger opportunities throughout the year. Possibilities range from national conferences and regional in Jackson, Miss. Julia Mead, formerly the workshops to weeklong bootcamps and on-site newsroom training. Costs are on a sliding scale and news editor of The Southampton (NY) Press, is fellowships are available to many of the events. now a reporter for The New York Law Journal. Contact: Tom McGinty, [email protected], 573-882-3320 Kent Miller of the Army Times is one of four Publications recipients of the John E. (Jack) Heselden THE IRE JOURNAL – Published six times a year. Contains journalist profiles, how-to stories, reviews, Fellowship, awarded by the American Press investigative ideas and backgrounding tips. The Journal also provides members with the latest news Institute. Carol Nunnelley is on leave on upcoming events and training opportunities from IRE and NICAR. from her position as managing editor of The Contact: Len Bruzzese, [email protected], 573-882-2042 Birmingham News, to serve as director of UPLINK – Monthly newsletter by IRE and NICAR on computer-assisted reporting. Often, Uplink the Associated Press Managing Editors associa- stories are written after reporters have had particular success using data to investigate stories. The tion’s National Credibility Roundtables Project. columns include valuable information on advanced database techniques as well as success stories Neil Reisner is now the executive editor of the written by newly trained CAR reporters. Miami Daily Business Review’s Broward County edi- Contact: Mary Jo Sylwester, [email protected], 573-884-7711 tion. Charles Springston, formerly a freelancer, REPORTER.ORG – A collection of Web-based resources for journalists, journalism educators and is now the focus editor at the Washington Business others. Discounted Web hosting and services such as mailing list management and site development Journal. Mike Trautmann, formerly with the are provided to other nonprofit journalism organizations. Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., is now with The Contact: Ted Peterson, [email protected], 573-884-7321 (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Laura Washington editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter, For information on: ADVERTISING – Teri Keifer, [email protected], 573-884-2175 has been inducted into the Chicago Journalism MEMBERSHIP AND SUBSCRIPTIONS – John Green, [email protected], 573-882-2772 Hall of Fame by the International Press Club CONFERENCES AND BOOT CAMPS – Ev Ruch-Graham, [email protected], 573-882-8969 of Chicago. Anderson Williams, formerly LIST SERVES – Ted Peterson, [email protected], 573-884-7321 with WBRC-TV in Birmingham, is now the exec- utive producer of the consumer and investiga- Mailing Address: tive unit with WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio. IRE, 138 Neff Annex, Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, Mo. 65211

MAY/JUNE 2001 35