Word: reporters
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...American children are considered to fall somewhere along the autism spectrum, according to the latest report released by the federal government. The new figure, which was released initially in October, comes from the most comprehensive set of data yet on the developmental health of eight-year-olds...
...detailed report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday, researchers combed through health and education records in 11 U.S. cities. In some sites, the rate of autism was as high as 12 cases per 1,000 children, but averaged across the country the final autism case rate was calculated at 9 per 1,000 children. That's compared to a national rate of 1 per 2,000 children prior to the 1980s, and 6 per 1,000 children as recently as the 1990s...
This year's annual report of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) shows how dramatically the issue has faded in recent years. Fewer death sentences were imposed in 2009 in the U.S. than in any year since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. In the 1980s and '90s, states consistently sent more than 300 prisoners per year to death row. The total this year, according to DPIC, will be 106. This continues a steady trend going back most of the decade, and it extends even to Texas, the leading death-penalty state, where juries reliably sent 30 or more convicted...
...both prosecutors and juries have embraced the option. Also, DPIC executive director Richard Dieter theorizes that in tough economic times, states are reluctant to take on the high costs of capital cases - the special sentencing hearings, the mandatory reviews and the nearly inevitable years of appeals. The DPIC report cites the example of California, where death sentences were up this year but none of the state's 690 death-row inmates were executed. The cash-strapped state is spending $137 million per year, according to one estimate, on its stymied death-penalty system and is making plans to build...
There are nuggets in the report to hearten both supporters and opponents of capital punishment. The number of executions was up, after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared away a group of legal challenges to lethal injection. Fifty-two inmates were put to death in 2009 - up from 37 in 2008, but far fewer than the 98 prisoners executed in 1999. As usual, Texas put more inmates to death than any other state, with 24 executions, followed by Alabama with six and Ohio with five...