Telegraph scoop sells papers

The Daily Telegraph sold 900,000 additional copies in the first two weeks it ran serialized reports of Parliament members' expense records, The New York Times reported. Unconfirmed reports indicate that The Telegraph paid $145,000 for the reports.

British newspapers sometimes give away CDs or DVDs in the hope that readers enticed by free copies of “Batman 26” might cast a passing glance at the headlines, too.

One newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, has reversed that approach, to spectacular effect. Instead of giving away a disk, it acquired one (or more) of them containing the expense records of members of Parliament.

As The Telegraph splashes tales of taxpayer-financed duck islands and moat-cleaning across its front pages, there is talk of a political revolution along the Thames. Some of the conventional wisdom of the news business has gone belly up, too.

More here.

Reporter attributes Wash. roots to how she rocked Parliament

Nice bio from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Heather Brooke, who requested expense-accounts information on Parliament members five years ago. Her request set the stage for Tuesday's resignation of the speaker of the House of Commons and possibly criminal prosecutions of parliamentarians who abused their expense accounts.

If the British tabloids knew about the sex-advice column Heather Brooke wrote for the University of Washington Daily nearly two decades ago they might run with it as a salacious news item.

Something like "sex writer rocks Parliament."

But that information hasn't reached them, it seems, and Brooke has proven to an entire nation she is a journalist of another ilk. In doing so, the former Seattleite has shaken up the British parliamentary leadership and perhaps changed forever the relationship between the British press and the House of Commons.

More here.

British lawmakers expense cat food, horse manure, X-rated movies

The Daily Telegraph published examples of how British lawmakers are expensing absurd items such as horse manure, maid service, cat food, fertilizer, X-rate movies and repairs to a Chinese needlepoint rug. Rules state that British lawmakers should only file claims on public money for expenses related to parliamentary work. Itemized receipts for British lawmakers' claims on public money were long kept from the public until a FOI ruling ordered the release of about 2 million receipts in July. The Daily Telegraph obtained the records ahead of time.

It has all the makings of a Monty Python sketch - prim British lawmakers caught in a farce over expense claims for everything from X-rated movies to a bathtub plug.

But reality has come home to roost in the often absurd world of Her Majesty's Government.

Friday's leaked list of lawmaker expenses has leveled another blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's beleaguered government, which has been blamed for a litany of problems ranging from the Iraq war to the deepening recession.

More here.

Student Press Law Center Doing Some GREAT Sunshine Week Work...

If you haven't seen it, Sunshine Week is kickin' it this week...

Requesting financial records from a public school district can cause some staff to raise their eyebrows. But obtaining the records is often quite simple, and the information could make an informative high school newspaper story.

The Student Press Law Center called 15 public school districts across America asking for the superintendent's expense reimbursements for the 2006-07 school year. Our test was not designed to be scientific, but we chose school districts located in different areas, to see if there were noticeable differences. The population of these communities ranged from 14,000 to 1.5 million.

We sent formal request letters to all districts except Sioux Falls School District, in South Dakota, which faxed us the information immediately after our phone call.

The records we received by the time this article was printed showed that the size of the school district did not always correlate with their superintendent's reimbursements. Phoenix, with a population of 1.5 million, spent about $3,800 reimbursing its superintendent, while East Baton Rouge Parish School System, with a community population of about 429,000, spent more than $11,000. Sioux Falls spent the least amount at about $300. Laguna Beach spent the most, at $18,500, but $18,000 was for relocation expenses for a new superintendent. Overall, districts spent the most on travel reimbursements, meals and conferences.

Most district representatives, while acting respectful, acted as though this information had never been requested before. The most common questions asked were "What are you using this for?" and "Are you looking for anything in particular?" The answer we gave when asked why we needed the records was "We are doing some research at the office." We wanted to avoid being too specific because all we really wanted to know is if districts would comply.

More here.

See the whole test here.