CNS | Philip Merrill College of Journalism

CNS Record 1999

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Computer-assisted reporting by Keri Mattox showed that rural roads are three times as deadly as urban-area highways in Maryland. Keri also showed in spring 1999 that while the state was trimming government workers, the number of bureaucrats actually increased while frontline workers like firefighters were sharply cut.

Beth Perretta profiled a onetime abortion clinic bomber in Bowie, who lost a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in spring 1999 in connection with a anti-abortion Web site. Beth also showed that economically depressed Dorchester County was on the rebound, through a computer analysis of five years of state sales tax records.

Nora Koch reported in fall 1999 that Maryland was one of only a handful of states that let first cousins marry, talking to court clerks around the state for stories of out-of-state couples who came here to exploit the little-known law. The General Assembly voted in spring 2000 to outlaw such marriages.

Amy Jeter profiled U.S. Attorney Lynn Battaglia in spring 1999 to go with a computer-assisted story showing that while Battaglia has one of the harshest sentencing records in the nation, she also prosecutes relatively few cases.

Amanda Jones' analysis of Clinton Legal Defense Fund donors in spring 1999 found that the top two givers in the state were two retired brothers from the Easton Shore town of Oxford, who she profiled. She also wrote about the skyrocketing number of home-schoolers in Maryland.

A.C. Benson wrote about efforts to relicense the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, the first plant in the country to seek renewal under new - and environmentalists say loose - federal regulations in spring 1999.

Kristin Vaughan analyzed state daycare data in spring 1999 to show that there are more than five infants or toddlers for every one licensed day care slot for children in that age group in the state.

Maria Burnham, in spring 1999, spotted a trend of net losses of Maryland population to its border states, largely attributable to the difference in tax burdens between the states.

Natalie Hopkinson produced a computer-assisted analysis in spring 1999 of violent crime in small-town Maryland as well as a story on how conservative Christianity informed one key legislator's lawmaking.

Stephanie Doster produced a computer-assisted analysis of Eastern Shore cancer rates and a moving sidebar in spring 1999. She also turned a routine feature into a scoop when she learned during a tour of the Fish and Wildlife Service that federal agents had seized ivory former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry on his return from an African trade mission.

Liza Porteus was first to report in spring 1999 that tobacco settlement checks to Maryland and other states were being held up, that Internet cigarette sales were skirting the state's sales tax, and on the demands farmers were making for a share of the tobacco money.

Bridget Gutierrez, in spring 1999, was the first to report a Maryland first -- that the state would institute a tax on cigars, in addition to the cigarette tax that everyone else was writing about.

Melinda Deslatte's computer analysis of Federal Aviation Administration data showed which airports and which airlines have the best records for on-time arrivals to major East Coast cities. And her spring 1999 trend piece showed the increase of female motorcyclists and state efforts to accommodate them with a special class.

Childs Walker revealed in spring 1999 that recruiting by high school basketball programs is becoming more and more like high-pressure collegiate programs, and he tracked Hagerstown's efforts to keep its minor league baseball team.

Lisa Ramirez's spring 1999 reporting on efforts to reform managed care led to a moving story on a patient advocate who came to the avocation through pain of her own battle with breast cancer.

Students in the spring 1999 Washington bureau collaborated on an eight-part series on "The Road West," highlighting historic sites across Maryland along Route 40, which the state had nominated for National Road status.