Our friends at the New York World have just published a great story about how a lack of funding threatens the ability of medical students to become doctors. It’s focused on New York, but there’s plenty of reporting in the story to show how this is a national problem:
“Medical schools have increased enrollment in anticipation of rising demand for doctors. A shortfall of funding for residencies could strand many future doctors-to-be: they’ll earn medical degrees, but without enough residency positions to go around. And a doctor cannot obtain a license to practice without completing a residency. Funding for medical residencies, most of which comes from Congress via Medicare, remains frozen at 1990s levels, and is only getting scarcer.” To read the rest of the story, go to the New York World. Continue Reading →
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Maine one of 16 states to push ethics reform, one year after getting an “F”
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A lot has happened since the State Integrity Investigation, a first-ever analysis of transparency and accountability in all 50 states, was published a year ago. (The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting provided the research that went into Maine’s grade.) Here’s a report from the Center for Public Integrity, which spearheaded the investigation:
“The project — a collaboration of the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International, with cooperation from the Investigative News Network — has been quoted, praised, assailed or otherwise cited by hundreds of news outlets, good-government groups and legislators. The project was also a finalist for the prestigious Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting awarded by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Clearly, the idea of measuring accountability and transparency in state government has touched a reformist nerve — and our package is continuing to resonate across the country.” To read the rest of the story, ‘State Integrity Investigation’ has blockbuster first year,” click here. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Cool Stuff We Like, Ethics, conflict of interest, ethics, transparency
Pew on news media in America: Grim state of affairs
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The good folk at the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism have issued their annual report on the state of the news media in America. Bottom line: “In 2012, a continued erosion of news reporting resources converged with growing opportunities for those in politics, government agencies, companies and others to take their messages directly to the public.” In other words, government and the private sector are telling you the news they want you to know, not necessarily the news you need to hear. And the U.S. news media, severely depleted after more than a decade of decline, doesn’t have the resources to get the real story anymore, say the Pew researchers. “This adds up to a news industry that is more undermanned and unprepared to uncover stories, dig deep into emerging ones or to question information put into its hands. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Cool Stuff We Like
What you don’t know can hurt you
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Distinguished journalist Geneva Overholser has just published a provocative and in-depth discussion of the rush to make public information about guns private in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings. Here’s an excerpt:
Citizens who are reassured by this stampede to withhold information should consider: Secrecy is almost always the first instinct of politicians. That previous lawmakers have made a determination that the name and address of any handgun permit holder in New York State “shall be a public record” is evidence of an uncommonly enlightened understanding that certain kinds of information should be in the public domain. Why today’s readiness to deny that it is in the public interestfor such information to be available? We seem to be in one of those recurring periods in our society when concerns about privacy regularly trump an allegiance to informed self-governance. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Cool Stuff We Like
The real harm of discrimination must be exposed
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The Sun Journal editorialized about our series on state employee discrimination suits. Here’s an excerpt:
“A Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting investigation, published Dec. 19, revealed the disgraceful behavior and the costly settlement agreements in state government based on its review of public records detailing the accusations and resulting compensation. For instance, taxpayers spent $20,000 to settle a claim made by a state prison worker who was subjected to regular sexual harassment, including being referred to as “Genitalia” instead of her real name, and being asked about her favorite sexual positions. No one should have to endure that degradation, never mind at work and certainly not from fellow corrections officers who most certainly know better.” Continue Reading →
Filed under: Cool Stuff We Like
Finally, a study that looks at whether campaign cash actually influences policy
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Clayton Peoples, a lab fellow at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, specializes in campaign finance and corruption, a subject that most investigative reporters love. He’s done important work looking at actual data linking campaign contributors’ influence over legislation — the kind of influence that many people intuitively believe exists, but an influence that has also suffered from a lack of empirical, fact-based documentation. Take a look at Peoples’ latest blog post, “What Can $6 Billion Buy?” where he concludes: “It is not especially surprising that an analysis of all the bills over an extended period reveals consistent contributor influence. As a lawmaker interviewed by Schram in his 1995 book Speaking Freely put it, “(People) will often look for…the grand-slam example of influence of these interests. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Cool Stuff We Like, Elections, Ethics, Money
Tax policy, economic growth and deficit solutions: Research roundup
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We’re wonks about the state budget, and love reading about tax policy. If you’re like us, here’s a link to a new roundup of research about taxes, brought to us by our friends at Journalists’ Resource, run by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/budget/tax-policy-research-roundup Continue Reading →