Groups that advocate open government have argued that it’s vital to know the names of White House visitors, who may have an outsized influence on policy matters. – Bill Dedman
Brand names are well known to business school professors, but only one professor is a brand name herself. Call her Professor Oprah. – Bill Dedman
The scientific effort to inform the public about landslide risks often runs head-on into powerful economic interests. – Bill Dedman
What are the odds that a nuclear emergency like the one at Fukushima Dai-ichi could happen in the central or eastern United States? They’d have to be astronomical, right? – Bill Dedman
After every massacre in a school, Americans grasp at quick cures. ‘Let’s install metal detectors and give guns to teachers’ Let’s crack down on troublemakers, weeding out kids who fit the profile of a gunman. Let’s buy bulletproof whiteboards for the students to scurry behind, or train kids to throw erasers or cans of soup at an attacker.’ – Bill Dedman
It may be no surprise that Pittsburgh has direct flights to London, Paris and Frankfurt, but consider this: many of the tourists here have come from Europe to the capital of culture in the Alleghenies. – Bill Dedman
Fans love Sosa for his exuberance, for the kisses he blows to his mother, wife and four children. He is Slammin’ Sammy, a fairy-tale figure rising from poverty in the Dominican Republic to the 55th floor above Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. – Bill Dedman
The Adversity Index was created by msnbc.com and Moody’s Analytics to track the economic fortunes of states and metro areas. Each month, the Adversity Index uses government data on employment, industrial production, housing starts and home prices to label each area as expanding, at risk of recession, in recession or recovering. – Bill Dedman
A foundation representing firefighters who die in the line of duty is calling for Congress to strip the Centers for Disease Control of its role investigating firefighter deaths. – Bill Dedman
More than 30 of America’s 100 nuclear power reactors have the same brand of General Electric reactors or containment system used in Fukushima. – Bill Dedman
Both CNN and NPR prohibit political activity by all journalists, no matter their assignment. – Bill Dedman
After Huguette Clark died in 2011 at age 104, 19 relatives challenged her will, claiming she was mentally ill and had been defrauded by her nurse, attorney and accountant. – Bill Dedman
Some parents believe that competition helps prepare children to succeed. Others fear that their children will not be able to handle failure. – Bill Dedman
State courts usually rule that correspondence between government officials, about government business, are public records, whether they use their government e-mail accounts or private ones. – Bill Dedman
MSNBC policy requires journalists to report any potential conflict of interest and to seek approval from the president of NBC News before making any political contribution. – Bill Dedman
Even with good maps, there’s no guarantee that the public will get the word about landslide hazards, or that state and local governments will take action to discourage or prevent building in dangerous areas. – Bill Dedman
In more than 500 instances, from the Gulf of Alaska to Bar Harbor, Maine, FEMA has remapped waterfront properties from the highest-risk flood zone, saving the owners as much as 97 percent on the premiums they pay into the financially strained National Flood Insurance Program. – Bill Dedman
After a plane or train crash, the National Transportation Safety Board dispatches its experts within two hours. The investigators in their familiar jackets take charge of the scene, secure evidence, follow leads. – Bill Dedman
Wal-Mart has always paid low wages, or, as Sam Walton put it, ‘as little as we could get by with at the time.’ – Bill Dedman
In Los Angeles, the Police Department buys a 40-foot refrigerated trailer truck every six months just to hold DNA evidence. – Bill Dedman
In Atlanta, with a large African-American population, Sosa is often considered a black man. In Miami and Los Angeles, with larger Hispanic populations, he is a Latino man, and the black label is rejected as robbing Hispanics of a hero. – Bill Dedman
There is no accurate or useful ‘profile’ of students who engage in targeted school violence. Some come from good homes, some from bad. Some have good grades, some bad. – Bill Dedman
It’s hard to say whether the general incidence of school violence of all types is increasing or not. – Bill Dedman
There’s a longstanding tradition that journalists don’t cheer in the press box. They have opinions, like anyone else, but they are expected to keep those opinions out of their work. – Bill Dedman
