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Crime, Safety and Court Stories (RSS)

Thursday, August 07, 2008 5:46 AM

Death of a Runner

Lucas Sang was a hero to his neighbors near the Kenyan city of Eldoret, an Olympic runner known for his kindness and generosity. Yet when ethnic fighting engulfed Kenya after its tainted elections last December, Sang chose to lead a rampaging mob
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008 6:16 AM

After the Raid

On May 12 nearly one-third of the people in Postville, Iowa, were detained in a federal immigration raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant. The raid made headlines for a few days, but the repercussions continue. Nigel Duara of The Des Moines Register
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Monday, August 04, 2008 5:53 AM

Diploma Mill

Two years ago Bill Morlin of The Spokesman-Review broke a major story about a diploma mill ring based in Spokane. Morlin stayed on the story as a federal task force investigated the ring and eight members pleaded guilty to federal crimes. But Justice
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Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:33 AM

A Child Must Testify

"Jessica's Trial" by Eric Adler of The Kansas City Star is one of the finest courtroom dramas we've seen. The story begins two days before the trial when prosecutor Lori Fluegel takes 12-year-old Jessica into the empty courtroom to help her work up the
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Monday, July 28, 2008 5:00 AM

The Searchers

David Filkins of the Albany Times Union and Lane Degregory of the St. Petersburg Times have written excellent short narratives that place readers in the middle of searches for missing persons. Here's an excerpt from Filkins' "In Fog's Cloak, a Search
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008 6:22 AM

Where's the Sheriff?

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Maricopa County boasts that he's the "toughest sheriff in America." Two years ago he began a highly publicized crackdown on illegal immigration, and last month he announced that deputies had booked their 1,000th suspected
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Monday, July 14, 2008 6:43 AM

Gorilla Murder Mystery

"Who Murdered the Virunga Gorillas?" by writer Mark Jenkins and photographer Brent Stirton in the July edition of National Geographic is a fascinating tale of intrigue set in the majestic mountains of central Africa. While tracking down the killers of
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008 6:31 AM

They Watch Every Blip

"The Flight Watchmen" by Laura Blumenfeld of The Washington Post is a fine example of how to tell a larger story be tracking a few people through an ordinary day. The day starts slowly as Chan Browne, 44, makes a sandwich for his girlfriend's daughter's
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Monday, June 23, 2008 6:57 AM

Detainees

Two stories in the past week have taken us deep inside the war against terrorism to show us the people, places and techniques that the U.S. government has tried to keep hidden. In Sunday's New York Times, "Inside a 9/11 Mastermind's Interrogation" by
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008 6:27 AM

Juvenile Justice

The Long Beach Press-Telegram has produced an excellent series, "Kids and Crime: Inside Juvenile Justice." The sections, written by Wendy Thomas Russell, Greg Mellen, Tracy Manzer and Kevin Butler, cover local neighborhoods, schools, police, courts and
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008 6:13 AM

John Doe Steps Forward

In 1970, 13-year-old John Hunt was victimized by a serial pedophile, Dr. George Reardon, in Reardon's office at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. Hunt, now an assistant features editor at The Hartford Courant, tells what happened next in
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Friday, June 06, 2008 6:45 AM

Witness for the Prosecution

Ashley Harrell's "Snitch" in SF Weekly profiles Deanna Johnson, a woman who is determined to testify against a gang murderer even though she risks losing everything she has, including her son and her life. Harrell does an amazing job of describing
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Tuesday, June 03, 2008 6:29 AM

The Abandoned Man

"Nobody's Fault" in the North Coast Journal is a powerful and disturbing investigation into the death of James Lee Peters, a 25-year-old Native American who committed suicide in a California jail cell. Part of what makes this story impressive
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008 6:21 AM

Smugglers and Guards

As investigative reporting budgets shrink while multimedia storytelling expands, I wonder if we'll see more joint efforts like the one between PBS' Frontline World and The New York Times that ran yesterday. "Mexico: Crimes at the Border" by Lowell
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Monday, May 19, 2008 6:07 AM

Hidden Cameras

The use of hidden cameras for investigative reporting fell after ABC got smacked with a $2.47 billion lawsuit because it ran an undercover story in 1992 about the Food Lion grocery chain (an appeals court later reduced the award for damages to $2).
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