Last year The Lens reported that board members of Lusher Charter School privately discussed how to respond to a union drive and set up private meetings. Both appeared to violate state law. The school district appears to have taken school officials at their word that they did nothing wrong.
We reviewed 33 notices sent by prosecutors since 2015. They had the court clerk’s name on them and told people they were “notified … to testify.” DA Warren Montgomery said they were misleading, but he doesn’t believe they were misused. A legal expert called them a sham.
In 2012 and 2014, the state ethics board charged Paulette Bruno and Doris Roché-Hicks with breaking state law because five family members worked at charter schools they run. Years later, the charges remain unresolved.
The DA's office is sending notices labeled “subpoena” to witnesses, threatening jail time if the person ignores them. But they're not real subpoenas. An assistant district attorney says they’re meant to persuade people who may ignore a simple letter.
When the mayor announced a major expansion of the city's traffic cameras, he said safety was the reason. But the city hasn’t studied whether the existing cameras have reduced wrecks. Studies around the country aren't conclusive.
The employee who supervised the last five traditional public schools in the city just quit her job to become CEO of ExCEED, a group that wants to turn them into charters. Four of the people who used to work for her, and still work for the district, are named in its application.
Native Americans are losing their ability to live off the land as it has crumbled into the Gulf of Mexico. Some of them are trying to figure out how to survive on what's left. A multimedia collaboration between the Food & Environment Reporting Network, Gravy, and The Lens.
The state says everything is fine, but we found potential problems with 27 deputies.
A state investigation found that ReNEW had inflated how much extra attention it would provide certain students, and then didn’t provide the extra help to students who needed it. The state made the charter network find those students and provide the help now.
Across the country, efforts to reform bail have run headlong into opposition from the bail bond industry. The bondsmen, it turns out, have considerable political muscle. Injustice Watch reports from New Orleans, Maryland and New Mexico.
