« Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 5 today (and 9 NFP) | Main | Ind. Decisions - Even more on "MySpace Postings Are Free Speech" »

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Law - More on yesterday's Pulitzer announcments

While reviewing the complete list of Pulitzer winners for journalism in the NY Times today, this item describing the Investigative Reporting award definately got my attention:

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING: BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE
The Birmingham News
Mr. Blackledge, 43, won for his work exposing extensive corruption and cronyism in Alabama’s network of 26 two-year colleges and training schools.

Mr. Blackledge’s reporting has led to the chancellor’s dismissal and to a move by the governor to ban the hiring of any state legislator by any of the colleges.

Read that last line again.

Here are some quotes about the series from Editor & Publisher:

Blackledge's investigation, which began back in April of 2005, included far more stories -- 50 -- than the 10 maximum that the Pulitzer contest allows.

And it is not over, Blackledge says -- in fact, now that the newspaper has assembled a huge database on Alabama community college contracts, personnel, accounts receivables and payrolls, it's likely to get even more interesting.

The Birmingham News series has made things hot for officials of the community colleges -- and for legislators.

One of the revelations of the investigation was that the state House majority leader had contracts in two separate campuses. Since the series, the chancellor of the system was fired. Relatives of chancellor and other college officials have lost their job. A federal investigation that, unknown to Blackledge, was looking into one college in the system before the News revelations has now apparently greatly broadened the scope of its probe.

This investigative system grew from some complaint at one obscure part of the sprawling two-year college system. "A number of folks in a small fire college approached me, concerned about some things they had seen," Blackledge said, "and I used that sort of as an entree into the broader issue."

Blackledge had wanted for some time to look into the two-year college system, which was created by former Gov. George Wallace, and was always the subject of rumors about corruption and nepotism.

The investigation combined shoe-leather journalism and dozens of interviews with computer-assisted reporting. The paper collected reams of data from campuses and "created a database that for the first time allowed us to look at every check, essentially, written" by the colleges. By analyzing that data, Blackledge found patterns of corruption and favoritism.

Here is a link to The Birmingham News page that announces the award and links to a number of the stories investigating the community college system.

This story, from Oct. 8, 2006, is headlined "Dozens of legislators paid by 2-year colleges." Here are some quotes:

Alabama's two-year college system has paid more than three dozen state lawmakers or their relatives in recent years, including several legislators who received paychecks from two different colleges, system records show.

One quarter of the 140 members of the current Legislature, elected since 2002, has financial ties to the system, the records show. There are 28 legislators who were on community college payrolls; five whose wives were on payrolls; two legislators whose businesses received work; one whose brother was on the payroll; and one legislator whose business and wife were paid, records show.

Most of those jobs or contracts went to legislators after they were elected, records show.

The payments, made since 2002, ranged from $162,930 a year to Rep. Yvonne Kennedy as president of Bishop State Community College in Mobile to $2,340 paid to Rep. Charles O. Newton for history classes he taught in 2003 at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Andalusia.

Some of the Legislature's most powerful lawmakers received money. They include House Speaker Seth Hammett, who received $122,242 in 2002 before he retired that year as president of Lurleen B. Wallace, and House Speaker Pro Tem Demetrius Newton, who received $1,100 a month for legal services last year from Lawson State Community College in Birmingham.

In some cases, the wives of powerful legislators received pay, records show. Johna Lindsey, the wife of House Education Budget Committee Chairman Richard Lindsey, receives more than $25,000 a year as an employee of Gadsden State Community College; and Susan Barron, wife of Senate President Lowell Barron until their divorce last year, receives $54,506 a year from Northeast Alabama Community College in Rainsville, records show.

Legislators defended the payments they received from the two-year college system, noting they need to earn a living. The lawmakers said they receive just over $30,000 a year in part-time salary and expenses from the Legislature.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 17, 2007 06:52 PM
Posted to General Law Related