In 2004 the state passed the Nursing Home Quality Care Act to help nursing homes increase worker wages and staffing levels. As Christina Jewett began to report we discovered that some nursing homes were not spending the money as the bill had intended. To fully explain the story we would need to review the bill, how homes were funded, how they are funded now and how homes were (or were not) spending the money. We decided to use several multimedia elements to help untangle complex concepts, highlight important pieces of the puzzle and to allow users to go beyond our reporting. 

Graphics

Working with Orange County Register artist Scott Brown we created simple graphs to illustrate basic concepts. Actually seeing the slow rise of staffing levels against the much larger growth of income is much more effective than stating that direct care staffing only saw a five percent increase while net income had a 127 percent increase. The Register also created a flow chart to explain the six-part funding process.

Video

Jewett and I decided early on to highlight the story of one family and one nursing home. Although we talked to many families statewide, the Schreifels’ family allowed us to record them at home on several occasions. Harold Schreifels had died at the Homewood Care Center in San Jose. The state had cited the home, and the owner had used state funding from the law to reduce the citation. We were also able to speak with the Homewood Care Center’s owner, Jack Easterday, several days before he went to prison for payroll tax evasion.

Radio

While working on the video we also worked closely with California Watch/KQED radio reporter Michael Montgomery to pool video, audio and photo resources. Before the story ran in newspapers, KQED aired a California Report segment combining an interview with Jewett explaining the bill and quotes from key players.

Database

Jewett, our data analyst Agustin Armendariz and I decided that we wanted to provide both statewide context to the story and allow people to research individual homes in their area. We did not want to become another home ratings site. Instead we wanted to concentrate on whether homes were spending public funds in line with the goals of the 2004 law: to increase staffing and wages.

Over a period of three months we worked on designing the interface, deciding what were the indicators of success or failure and then actually coding out the database. To learn more about how we decided on our indicators and how we analyzed our data please read our methodology.

Armendariz used the python web framework Django to develop the database presented online. Leveraging the GIS features in Django, Armendariz mapped the homes, grouped them by county and prepped the data for presentation online. Meanwhile I worked on the interface design and with Jewett to decide what data we wanted to feature. With help from Chase Davis, our Money and Politics reporter and computer whiz, we created a way for readers to dig into the homes analyzed for the story using maps and charts to augment the numbers.

On the homepage, we wanted to focus on statewide numbers to give readers context for the story and for assessing individual homes. It was also a way to bring out our main metrics for assessing homes, staff levels and wages. We decided that users would probably tackle the data from two directions, finding homes in their area or finding those that fall on one end or another of the data. So on the homepage users can sort through color-coded homes, or through the sortable table. We then also included a sort by county feature so that people could go right to homes in their area.

All of our data comes from the state and is self-reported by the homes. We encourage users to contact us about anomalies and to contact a home directly if they have questions about specific reports. We hope that this database will give people another tool when determining the effectiveness of the 2004 law.

What we learned

From coding to distribution our team was constantly on the phone, e-mail and IM to communicate with each other, help each other with our pieces and provide general support. Because of our diverse backgrounds we were also able to get a little bit more creative about how to display the information. This project would have been impossible without everyone working together closely over a period of months.

Because Jewett and I worked closely together on the story from the beginning we were able to record the necessary interviews and gather the correct data for the multimedia pieces. We coordinated with KQED for audio interviews and photos, and later with the OC Register for graphics. Later, we both worked with all of our partners to answer questions about the story and multimedia, and to distribute all of our content.

Our database came out of work that Armendariz was already doing to help Jewett crunch the numbers. Without his and Davis’ help we never would have been able to piece, code and publish the database. This was my first large project with Django and many of us learned a lot more about Google’s chart and map APIs.

We all look forward to learning more and pushing the boundaries of investigative storytelling in the future.

While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration handed out its third largest fine in history, outside critics and an internal whistleblower are calling for more stringent regulations and for the agency to better police its own workers.

The Imperial Sugar explosion in February, which killed 13 workers, put OSHA in the spotlight. While OSHA announced an $8.7 million fine on Friday, Imperial Sugar said that it met OSHA regulations and will fight the fine, according to an article in the New York Times.

Critics, on the other hand, want OSHA to tighten rules and ramp up oversight. Safety violations are often grouped into the agency’s “general duty” clause, allowing inspectors to cite companies for unsafe practices that are not specifically regulated.

So while there were 44 violations issued for spark-producing electrical equipment, which is regulated, under the general duty clause there were only two, one at each plant, for faulty ventilation and two for failing to maintain dust collection systems.

“It’s basically an admission that their standards have gaps,” Mr. [Eric] Frumin said.

For example, many safety violations aren’t on OSHA’s list of regulations, so inspectors have to cite them as general violations.

Large explosions and other tragedies briefly spotlight draw attention to workplace safety. But job-related health issues, as opposed to accidents, account for 80 percent of all workplace problems, Adam Finkel, OSHA’s former director of health standards, notes.

In 2002, Finkel leaked documents showing that OSHA was not testing its own inspectors for beryllium exposure. Finkel was transferred to a non-supervisor position within OSHA later that year. OSHA did not start testing inspectors until 2004. A year ago, a federal judge ordered OSHA to release the inspection data after Finkel filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Alternet reports:

The results were "a big eye-opener" for Finkel. Of OSHA's 989 inspectors in March 2005, 271 were tested, and 10 – or 3.7 percent ¬– were confirmed positive for sensitization. Based on information from Newman, the beryllium expert, Finkel had expected only 1 to 2 percent would be positive. As of March 2008, the numbers had increased only slightly, to 11 confirmed positives out of 301 tests.

What do those results mean for the hundreds of other OSHA inspectors -- not to mention 1,000 or more retirees? "I don't know if it's the tip of the iceberg or the whole iceberg," Finkel says. So he went back into the ring with OSHA, filing a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how much beryllium the inspectors were exposed to. Then he went a step further, requesting records from all inspections where OSHA took samples for air contaminants.

>>Learn more about whistleblowers in the CIR and Salon report The War on Whistleblowers.

Last year, the Emmys created a category for online documentaries and multimedia projects. Nominees include major media organizations and user-generated content. The reports span the relocation of trailer home dwellers in California to NATO soldiers in Afghanistan on a humanitarian mission.

The Washington Post received the most nominations. "A Nation Divided" examines how three different American towns deal with losses in the Iraq war. Reporter Travis Fox returns to New Orleans in "After the Destruction." Iraqi and Vietnam veterans speak about their experiences in "Living with PTSD." "OnBeing" lets normal people in Washington, D.C. speak about pet peeves and life.

FRONTLINE/World followed the British NATO commander in "Afghanistan: The Other War." Photojournalist Mimi Chakarova examines prostitution in Dubai, while Victoria Gamburg went to Russia to look at Moscow’s version of Sex and the City.

The San Jose Mercury News follows a community of trailer home residents as they are dislocated in "Uprooted" and a health care reform campaign in Sacramento for “Into the 25th Hour.”

A New York Times reporter follows a homeless man through the process of moving from a cave in the Bronx to an apartment in Little Italy in “Life in Transition.”

MediaStorm and The Los Angeles Times follow a marine home after serving in Iraq in the "Marlboro Marine." MediaStorm was also nominated for an audio slideshow: "Crisis Guide: Darfur."

Current TV's Christof Putzel received two nominations for "Mogadishu Madness", a story about the new self-proclaimed government in Somalia, and "From Russia With Hate", about a growing anti-immigrant Neo-Nazi movement.

>> View these projects and the complete list of broadband Emmy nominations.

A year-long-investigation by The Sacramento Bee examines the past criminal histories of soldiers and Marines. The Bee linked 70 military personnel with “questionable backgrounds” who were involved with criminal incidents in the military or back home. The Bee is one of the first news organizations to examine military personnel’s past histories in connection with recent incidents.

A number of those incidents were identified for the first time through military records; even in some well-publicized incidents, The Bee uncovered criminal records not previously made public.

Though dozens of these soldiers would not have qualified for law enforcement jobs in this country, the military sent them to Iraq, where troops often function as police officers.

The New York Times wrote about how the number of waivers the Army granted to new recruits with criminal backgrounds grew by 65 percent in 2007. More recently the Times looked at 121 veterans who committed or are charged with a killing in the War Torn series.

The word "transportation" was spoken aloud by members of Congress 122 times on July 7. "Energy" was the most commonly used word during the entire first week of June, the same week the national average price of gas hit $4. Capitol Words, a project from the Sunlight Foundation, gives viewers a snapshot of what members of Congress are talking about using a database that searches the Congressional Record and tallies how often words are used.

The Sunlight Foundation also provides other useful reporting tools: Fortune 535 tracks the net worth of members of Congress since 1995, though it also points out there is no clear way to find out how much they are really making under current laws. For example, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family's net worth could be between $86 million and negative $9 million, according to her disclosures. The Foundation's Visualizing Earmarks feature illustrates earmark spending by agency, by type of organization, and by state—in 2005, Alaska received far more earmarked money per capita than any other state.

Two years ago the Sunlight Foundation began compiling more than eight sources on Congressional bills, resolutions, staff, reports and more. Their searchable databases create easy ways for regular people to track the movements of Congress.