CNS | Philip Merrill College of Journalism

CNS Record 2002

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The Washington-area sniper shootings hit close to home for students in the fall 2002 bureaus -- particularly close for Annapolis bureau reporter Ayesha Ahmad, who wrote a first-person story on the shock she felt when a man became a sniper victim on her street. Tamara El-Khoury wrote one of the first stories on the shootings, about the prayer book that stopped a sniper's bullet harmlessly at an Aspen Hill crafts store. And Catherine Matacic reported how gun-rights and gun-control groups had reached an unusual truce in their political battles while the search for the sniper continued.

Michele Krupa, in the Washington bureau, analyzed foster care data and found that scores of Maryland foster kids were returned to caregivers who had been accused of sexual abuse, some just days after the state deemed their households unsafe. The story, Foster Shuffle, was one of three finalists from CNS in the Investigative Reporters and Editors national Investigative Reporting Awards for students for that year.

Another IRE finalist was Annapolis bureau reporter Hanah Cho's investigative package on State Salaries. She found that the top salaries were soaring, with some doctors at the state's medical schools earning more than $600,000, and that women made up only 11 percent of the top-100 earners in the state.

Kathleen Johnston Jarboe, also in the Annapolis bureau, compared the growing list of injuries or deaths tied to amusement park rides that had passed all safety inspections. Her story, Killer Coasters, pointed out that perfectly functioning rides might not always be perfectly safe for all riders, and was named the third IRE finalist for CNS that year.

Kory Dodd broke the news that the federal government would impose an immediate ban the import of live northern snakeheads -- the so-called "frankenfish" -- after the voracious, non-native fish, which can walk short distances on land, were discovered in a Crofton, Md., pond.

Annapolis bureau reporter John O'Connor's reporting exposed the questionable campaign-to-campaign contributions used by slates of candidates and tracking the tremendous amount of out-of-state funding from Christian conservatives pouring into a like-minded state Senate candidate's coffers.

Phillip Caston tracked the influence of big-money spenders in Maryland campaigns, particularly Peter Angelos, owner of baseball's Baltimore Orioles.

Washington bureau reporter Chris Anderson was the first to report that Maryland prisons faced a looming hepatitis C epidemic that health and corrections officials said would be a bigger, and potentially more expensive, crisis than HIV and AIDS, but they did not have a policy to address it.

Liz Boch reported from the Washington bureau on Department of Defense admissions that it used soldiers and sailors for several tests of chemical and biological agents -- including "very nasty" nerve agents -- in the 1960s, including tests at the Edgewood Arsenal, which is now part of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County.

Krissah Williams determined through data analysis that the greatest determining factor in the number of executions in a given year in Maryland is the attitude of the governor toward capital punishment.

Etan Horowitz found out that community colleges -- once the domain of older students, part-time workers and locals seeking to get in to a four-year school -- were not just recruiting students, but traveling overseas to do it. The number of foreign students at U.S. community colleges was growing by 7 percent a year, he reported.

Hattie Brown chronicled the ups and downs of rookie teachers in short-staffed schools.

Annapolis bureau reporter Tim Keefe tapped into official Ocean City's anger over "June bugs" -- high school seniors flocking to the beach to celebrate graduation -- and their poor behavior.

Washington bureau reporter Stephen Chapman analyzed boating accident data and found that exactly half of the 246 boating operators who were involved in an accident between 1997 and 2000 had failed to take a required boating safety course.

Tom Kim rooted out problems other states had with takeovers of their nonprofit health care companies by Wellpoint Health of California, which was bidding to take over Maryland's CareFirst nonprofit. Kim also covered Maryland's historic Final Four victory that led to its basketball national championship.

Liz Babiarz reported that the state's hospices were woefully underused, despite national reports that praise Maryland for the quality of its hospices and training of their staff.

David Pittman analyzed state sentencing data to show that judges imposed sentences that fell outside recommended guidelines just under half the time in 2001, but that that was an improvement from previous years, when the rate was as high as 58 percent.

Kelley Benham looked at the struggle that average citizens face when they try to lobby insiders in the state legislature, and reported on the success that a group of grade-school lobbyists had in Annapolis.

Diana Mota Morgan's memorable lead on the demise of all four proposed state symbols said, "The cookie crumbled, the Patuxent River agate sank, walking took a hike and a new state song hit a sour note."