Some of the best #MuckReads we read this week. Want to receive these by email? Sign up to get this briefing delivered to your inbox every weekend.
A veil of secrecy shields hospitals where outbreaks occur (Los Angeles Times)
Hospitals don't publicly report deadly infections. Legislators don't make them http://t.co/eIIgD6gmy8#muckreads@melodypetersen
— Margot Roosevelt (@margotroosevelt) April 19, 2015"Proponents of more openness argue the secrecy can prevent hospitals from learning from one another's mistakes. They say it also deprives patients of information they could use in choosing where to receive care. ... 'When you keep it secret, other hospitals are uninformed,' said Lisa McGiffert, a patient safety expert at Consumers Union. 'Public disclosure is absolutely essential.' "
How riding your bike can land you in trouble with the cops — if you're black (Tampa Bay Times)
Biking while black: http://t.co/L22lHmKk64#muckreads via @AlexandraZayaspic.twitter.com/uJtHjFo66v
— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) April 20, 2015Incidents included "the 56-year-old man who rode his bike through a stop sign while pulling a lawnmower. Police handcuffed him while verifying he had, indeed, borrowed the mower from a friend‚ ...The Times analyzed more than 10,000 bicycle tickets Tampa police issued in the past dozen years. The newspaper found that even though blacks make up about a quarter of the city's population, they received 79 percent of the bike tickets."
Texas Sends Poor Teens To Adult Jail For Skipping School (Buzzfeed News)
Meet the Texas judge who jailed 66 teenagers for missing school last year. http://t.co/l8Fm16U15j#MuckReadspic.twitter.com/0RBTg2vVDm
— Kendall Taggart (@KendallTTaggart) April 22, 2015"Many students have found themselves in a teen version of debtors' prison, locked up because their families did not or could not pay steep fines stemming from their original truancy charge. Moreover, there is evidence that some Texas judges are flouting a law intended to prevent young people from being jailed because their families can't afford the fines."
FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades (The Washington Post)
The FBI found 32 death penalty convictions that relied on the bureau's flawed forensics:
http://t.co/Y7Sjt6avPX
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) April 18, 2015"The cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison, the groups said under an agreement with the government to release results after the review of the first 200 convictions."
Blood on the tracks: The short life and mysterious death of Deion Fludd (Al Jazeera America)
My story on the short life & strange death of Deion, who always claimed that #myNYPD beat him http://t.co/DtuPh35Fj0pic.twitter.com/5eJh0TooZK
— Aaron Cantú (@aaronmiguel_) April 21, 2015"Police, traveling outside their designated areas of patrol, were committed to making arrests that night in order to avoid additional checkpoint duties. Fludd had already been arrested five times for infractions many teenagers commit without major consequences, including marijuana possession, fare evasion and fighting in school. One more arrest could have sent him to jail — and Fludd happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."
After 13 years of wariness, FDA approves five potentially harmful new diet drugs (Journal Sentinel)
.@US_FDA OK's potentially harmful diet drugs after pressure from big pharma, US Senate - http://t.co/9B8ksUlafm@fauber_mjs#muckreads
— John Diedrich (@john_diedrich) April 20, 2015"The agency approved the drugs despite the potential for serious side effects — including suicidal thinking, increased heart rate and cancer risk — and no proof the drugs improve the main health concern posed by obesity: heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems."
#MuckReads Local: Carl Heastie, New York Assembly Speaker, Benefited From His Mother's Embezzling (The New York Times)
