local-reporting

Teenage boys who take the bus to school have a greater chance of being bullied than those who use other types of transportation, according to a recent study that also suggests girls generally are more likely to be bullied than boys.

A wealth of data is released every week in the United States by organizations of all kinds, from federal, state and local agencies to companies, educational institutions and other nonprofits.

Many large federal datasets contain highly granular statistics that can serve as a launching point for local stories — for example, the location of alternative-fuel stations (graphic at left), campus crimes or payments to doctors by pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Section 287(g) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, enacted in 1996, authorizes the federal government to work with state and local law-enforcement agencies to enforce national immigration laws. This can include screening detainees for immigration status and transferring potential deportees to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement custody.

Neighborhood Watch programs became popular in the 1970s and 1980s; by 2000, roughly 40% of the U.S. residential population was covered by such citizen crime-watching programs. These neighborhood associations typically involve recruiting residents to participate in community meetings and various surveillance tasks around properties and common areas; a block captain and coordinator may take leadership roles and serve as liaisons to the local police.