Propublica

This report was prepared in collaboration with ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom. T. Christian Miller, a senior reporter at ProPublica, conducted interviews and research in Jordan and in Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Reach him at t.christian.miller@propublica.org. Times special correspondent Ranya Kadri and freelance journalist Pratap Chatterjee contributed to this article. Kadri reported from Jordan, Chatterjee from Afghanistan. latimes.

We're stunned. It turns out that Democratic Party politicians acted like Democratic Party politicians. They tried to game California's redistricting process to protect and expand their majorities in the Legislature and the state's congressional delegation. They met secretly, they sent each other notes and they gave testimony without revealing their affiliations. They made the redistricting process so — and it hurts to say this — political. Actually, no, we're not stunned at all. We may be dismayed, but that's nothing new. The question isn't whether Democrats acted like Democrats or politicians acted like politicians, but whether their cynical, business-as-usual approach to decennial redistricting so undermined the reformed process as to make it illegitimate.

The state's Board of Registered Nursing has discovered that some 3,500 of its nurses have been punished for misconduct by other states — hundreds even had their licenses revoked — while maintaining clean licenses in California. As many as 2,000 of these nurses now will face discipline in California, officials estimate. That's more registered nurses than the state has sanctioned in the last four years combined. The board's discovery was prompted by a Times/ProPublica investigation last year that found hundreds of instances in which California nurses had been sanctioned elsewhere for sexual abuse, neglect, rampant drug use and criminality but could work freely in California.

Those birthed in the newspaper business during its heyday (circa 1975-2000) learned the trade during a time of fierce competition. Beat the other guy. Kick his butt. Make him eat your dust ? a.k.a., chase your scoop. That sort of zeal hasn't disappeared, especially on thoroughly covered turf like Hollywood, where the fight for dominance and bragging rights can be downright vicious. But elsewhere, the news business has turned from martial to missionary, shucking exclusivity for openness and sharing.

The nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for its detailed look at the actions of an overwhelmed staff at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina, underscoring the growing impact of nontraditional business models in the struggling newspaper industry. The majority of Pulitzers went to mainstream newspapers -- the Washington Post won four and the New York Times won three. ProPublica's investigative reporting win for a story by Sheri Fink was co-published by the New York Times Magazine.

Those birthed in the newspaper business during its heyday (circa 1975-2000) learned the trade during a time of fierce competition. Beat the other guy. Kick his butt. Make him eat your dust ? a.k.a., chase your scoop. That sort of zeal hasn't disappeared, especially on thoroughly covered turf like Hollywood, where the fight for dominance and bragging rights can be downright vicious. But elsewhere, the news business has turned from martial to missionary, shucking exclusivity for openness and sharing.

We're stunned. It turns out that Democratic Party politicians acted like Democratic Party politicians. They tried to game California's redistricting process to protect and expand their majorities in the Legislature and the state's congressional delegation. They met secretly, they sent each other notes and they gave testimony without revealing their affiliations. They made the redistricting process so — and it hurts to say this — political. Actually, no, we're not stunned at all. We may be dismayed, but that's nothing new. The question isn't whether Democrats acted like Democrats or politicians acted like politicians, but whether their cynical, business-as-usual approach to decennial redistricting so undermined the reformed process as to make it illegitimate.

T. Christian Miller, a reporter for the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica, has won the $35,000 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for a collaboration with the Los Angeles Times that called attention to the plight of civilian workers injured in Iraq. The articles, which Miller began reporting as a Times staff writer, focused on workers hired by Pentagon contractors to drive fuel trucks, cook, translate and perform other support services. More than 1,700 civilian workers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 37,000 injured.

The frantic knocking of home health nurse Orphia Wilson startled the boy's parents awake just after dawn. Their 3-year-old son, who suffered from chronic respiratory failure and muscular dystrophy, had stopped breathing. The boy's mother raced to his side and began performing CPR as Wilson stood by. It was too late. Jexier Otero-Cardona died at a Hartford, Conn., hospital the next day. In the months that followed Jexier's May 2005 death, Connecticut health officials discovered that Wilson had fallen asleep, then ignored -- or possibly turned off -- ventilator alarms that signaled the boy was not getting enough oxygen, state records show.

The board that oversees California nurses met Sunday for the first time since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced most of its members and pledged an overhaul of the troubled system that polices nurse misconduct. But the Board of Registered Nursing took no action to address major shortcomings in oversight that came to light this month in an investigation by The Times and the nonprofit news organization ProPublica. Some nurses worked while intoxicated, stole drugs from bedridden patients and falsified records to cover their tracks, the investigation found.

The state's Board of Registered Nursing has discovered that some 3,500 of its nurses have been punished for misconduct by other states — hundreds even had their licenses revoked — while maintaining clean licenses in California. As many as 2,000 of these nurses now will face discipline in California, officials estimate. That's more registered nurses than the state has sanctioned in the last four years combined. The board's discovery was prompted by a Times/ProPublica investigation last year that found hundreds of instances in which California nurses had been sanctioned elsewhere for sexual abuse, neglect, rampant drug use and criminality but could work freely in California.

The nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for its detailed look at the actions of an overwhelmed staff at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina, underscoring the growing impact of nontraditional business models in the struggling newspaper industry. The majority of Pulitzers went to mainstream newspapers -- the Washington Post won four and the New York Times won three. ProPublica's investigative reporting win for a story by Sheri Fink was co-published by the New York Times Magazine.

T. Christian Miller, a reporter for the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica, has won the $35,000 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for a collaboration with the Los Angeles Times that called attention to the plight of civilian workers injured in Iraq. The articles, which Miller began reporting as a Times staff writer, focused on workers hired by Pentagon contractors to drive fuel trucks, cook, translate and perform other support services. More than 1,700 civilian workers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 37,000 injured.

The frantic knocking of home health nurse Orphia Wilson startled the boy's parents awake just after dawn. Their 3-year-old son, who suffered from chronic respiratory failure and muscular dystrophy, had stopped breathing. The boy's mother raced to his side and began performing CPR as Wilson stood by. It was too late. Jexier Otero-Cardona died at a Hartford, Conn., hospital the next day. In the months that followed Jexier's May 2005 death, Connecticut health officials discovered that Wilson had fallen asleep, then ignored -- or possibly turned off -- ventilator alarms that signaled the boy was not getting enough oxygen, state records show.

The California Board of Registered Nursing has taken the following actions against nurses featured in an ongoing series of stories by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica and The Times: Suspended the license of Owen Jay Murphy Jr. in August. He had been accused of physically and verbally assaulting patients at three Southern California hospitals. The board had allowed him to continue practicing while it pursued allegations, but regulators changed course after a July article.

This report was prepared in collaboration with ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom. T. Christian Miller, a senior reporter at ProPublica, conducted interviews and research in Jordan and in Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Reach him at t.christian.miller@propublica.org. Times special correspondent Ranya Kadri and freelance journalist Pratap Chatterjee contributed to this article. Kadri reported from Jordan, Chatterjee from Afghanistan. latimes.

Despite the governor's pledge to better discipline errant health professionals there are signs that it will be difficult to enact sweeping changes as quickly or easily as the administration has suggested. At meetings in Sacramento on Monday and last week, regulators and state attorneys generally spoke of the need for reform but picked apart potential solutions presented to them. They offered no concrete time frames for having a workable system in place. Even officials within the same agency couldn't agree on solutions.