Florida Today did some digging and found a story that may be waiting for you, too:
Out of 562 fatal wrecks in Brevard County [Fla.] from 2000-2006, 39 drivers have been charged with vehicular homicide or DUI manslaughter. Like [Christine] Joines, more than one-third of them had driving offenses on their records that experts consider high-risk. Consider:
- Ten of the 39 didn't have a valid license to be on the road at the time they allegedly caused fatal wrecks.
- At least five of the drivers had prior convictions for DUI.
- Seven of the drivers had been convicted of at least five traffic violations each in the three years before the fatal accident.
Those numbers fit broader state and national trends.
Statewide, drivers with similar records were involved in 3,654 fatal accidents from 2000 to 2005 -- about one fourth of all such accidents during this time -- killing 4,160 people, according to statistics from the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. About 40 percent of those killed, or 1,740 people, were the high-risk drivers themselves. About 13 people died each week in a crash involving a high-risk driver.
Palm Bay [Fla.] Police Chief William Berger is exasperated.
"When you have these types of violations, that should send a red flag to the system," Berger said. "The system is not working. It's only when a death occurs that there appears to be any meaningful intervention."
Judges often hand down tough sentences once someone is killed, but until then most problem drivers face little jail time, an examination of court records shows.
Criminologists who have studied fatal wrecks said death often follows a clear pattern of behavior by the driver.
About one-quarter of people charged in vehicular homicides are people who use their driving to vent their anger, said Raymond Michalowski, a professor in the
Department of Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
Florida Today also included a number of multimedia elements in the investigation including chilling 911 calls, a video story on an accident victim and an interview with a local police chief.
The Farm Bill -- Not Just About FarmingWhile they are home on Easter Break, members of Congress
are getting an earful about the 2007 Farm Bill.
This year, Congress will rewrite the bill, a step that must be taken once every five years. And one that affects more than just farmers. It also funds school-lunch programs, food-stamp programs, conservation programs, trade and development in rural America. In short, it is one of those huge under-covered pieces of legislation that in some way affects all of us.
You can see the USDA's Farm Bill proposals here. I believe that many newsrooms would benefit from assigning a reporter full time to this beat for the rest of the year. It is
that important.
To get you started,
read this primer on American agriculture policies.
Here are some other resources:
Check in at these places to see how much money is flowing to elected officials from:
- Agriculture-services companies such as chemical companies, machinery companies and various agriculture co-ops, farm federations and societies.
(To read these sites, make sure you click on the "top contributors" and "top recipients" tabs on the upper left side of the page.)
Ag Department Sees Metros as Rural
The Washington Post points out:Although Cape Cod is only a short trip from Boston and Providence, R.I., and is home to some of the wealthiest beach towns in the United States, to the
[U.S.] Agriculture Department it meets the definition of rural America. That means it qualifies for aid originally intended for farmland and backwoods areas that were isolated and poor, struggling to keep their heads above water.
"Provincetown is many things to many people, and to USDA we're rural," said Keith A. Bergman, the town manager. "We'll take it."
He isn't alone.
On Martha's Vineyard, the USDA guaranteed a $4.5 million loan for the popular Black Dog Tavern. The loan, which has since been repaid, was to refinance the tavern's mortgage and expand Black Dog's retail clothing stores. On Nantucket, where the population swells to the size of a small city in summer months, the Agriculture Department provides rental subsidies for families priced out of the local market.
All told, the USDA has handed out more than $70 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees since 2001 as part of its sprawling but little-known Rural Development program. More than half of that money has gone to metropolitan regions or communities within easy commuting distance of a midsize city, including beach resorts and suburban developments, a
Washington Post investigation found.
More than three times as much money went to metropolitan areas with populations of 50,000 or more ($30.3 billion) as to poor or shrinking rural counties ($8.6 billion). Recreational or retirement communities alone got $8.8 billion.
Al's Morning MultimediaHere is a wonderful collection of multimedia coverage from "Harvesting Cash,"
The Washington Post's series on the 2007 Farm Bil.
It will help you think about
creative ways to cover the 2007 Farm Bill. What? You mean it doesn't have to be story after story about Congressman Bob talking to farmers and Kiwanis Clubs?
In the past five years alone, the U.S. government has handed out more than $95 billion in agricultural subsidies. Post reporters criss-crossed the country in 2006, identifying more than $15 billion in wasteful, unnecessary and redundant spending. The paper found how the feds send $1.3 billion to people who do not farm. No drought is required to get drought aid and you will find out how some farmers get money they neither needed nor wanted.
Here are some great explanatory graphics:
- A Changing Farm Program -- Federal farm programs began during the Great Depression, when one-quarter of the U.S. population lived on farms. The programs guaranteed prices by effectively allowing farmers to sell some crops to the federal government when markets were poor. Farmers who participated in the programs were required to limit their production. This graphic shows how the farm programs evolved.
Injured Twice -- Women in WarThis story from The New York Times will take a while to plow through -- and it is worth the time.
It is an examination of the cost of war, especially on women soldiers.
The story says not only is there statistical reason to believe that women in combat are more susceptible to post-traumatic stress syndrome, but women who have experienced sexual assaults also frequently suffer PTSD. The Iraq War is producing a significant number of women who have experienced both combat and sexual attacks.
The story reports:
A 2003 report financed by the
Department of Defense revealed that nearly one-third of a nationwide sample of female veterans seeking health care through the V.A. said they experienced rape or attempted rape during their service. Of that group, 37 percent said they were raped multiple times, and 14 percent reported they were gang-raped. Perhaps even more tellingly, a small study financed by the V.A. following the gulf war suggests that rates of both sexual harassment and assault rise during wartime. The researchers who carried out this study also looked at the prevalence of PTSD symptoms -- including flashbacks, nightmares, emotional numbing and round-the-clock anxiety - and found that women who endured sexual assault were more likely to develop PTSD than those who were exposed to combat.
Patricia Resick, director of the Women's Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD at the Boston V.A. facility, says she worries that the conflict in Iraq is leaving large numbers of women potentially vulnerable to this "double whammy" of military sexual trauma and combat exposure. "Many of these women," she says, "will have both."
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
