Credits

The national reporting for this series was done by reporters from 20 newspapers and the Scripps Howard News Service (SHNS), who are all part of the E.W. Scripps Co.

The presentation you are reading has been enhanced for the web. If you want to read the series in its uncut entirety, please find links to each story on our resources page.

Reporters contributing to this project are:


Lee Bowman -- SHNS in Washington
Adam Chrzan -- The Vero Beach (Fla.) Press Journal
Allyson Reynolds Dixon -- The San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times
Kristin Dizon -- The Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera
Liz Freeman -- The Naples (Fla.) Daily News
Loretta Fulton -- The Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News
Thom Gabrukiewicz -- The Redding (Calif.) Record-Searchlight
Tina Griego -- The (Denver) Rocky Mountain News
Thomas Hargrove -- SHNS
Maureen Hayden -- The Evansville Courier
Randy Kenner -- The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Tamara Koehler -- The Ventura County (Calif.) Star
Jessie Milligan -- The Albuquerque Tribune
Nick Patterson -- The Birmingham Post-Herald
Debi Pelletier -- The Stuart News
Laurie Petrie -- The Cincinnati Post
Mary Powers -- The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal
Jenny Strasburg -- The Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times
Naomi Snyder -- The Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail
Le Templar -- The Wichita Falls (Texas) Times Record News
Tommy West -- The Lewisville (Texas) Leader
Deborah Woolston -- The Bremerton (Wash.) Sun

The project was supervised by Henry A. Stokes, managing editor of The Commercial Appeal, and by Peter Copeland, managing editor for SHNS.

Stokes and Karanja Ajanaku, deputy metro editor at The Commercial Appeal, edited the national version.

Hank Wilson, of SHNS, coordinated photos and graphics.

Jef Dauber, art director at the Record-Searchlight, produced the artwork.

Bob Benz, director of online content for Scripps, coordinated the Internet presentation.
Herb Himes, director of online art for Scripps, designed this Web site.
Scripps web producer Garrett Lane and interns Lou Vesser and Brian Costello built this web site.