Portfolio

ADFA’s decade of sex claims

Posted: June 18th, 2011 | Author: Edmund Tadros | Filed under: Freedom of information, My highlights | Tags: , , | No Comments »

By Edmund Tadros and Markus Mannheim

Australia’s military university has filed at least 29 formal reports of alleged sexual offences over the past decade, including claims a female cadet was king-hit and raped while unconscious.

But the records, obtained under freedom of information law, may represent a mere fraction of all reported assaults at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

One colonel warned the school’s commandant, Commodore Bruce Kafer, in April that its archives were ”patchy” about incidents before 2009 and could not be relied on as a full account of the academy’s troubled history.

Read more about ADFA at The Canberra Times.


Technology key to rebuilding Christchurch

Posted: June 17th, 2011 | Author: Edmund Tadros | Filed under: Technology | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

Christchurch resident Renea Mackie took these photos of her city four months after the massive earthquake that rocked the city in February. Photo: Renea Mackie.

The massive earthquake that destroyed large parts of New Zealand’s second biggest city struck at 12:51pm on an overcast Tuesday in February, as Grant Wells was eating a Chinese meal in a Christchurch food court.

“As soon as the shaking stopped, I got out of there as fast as I could,” the 43-year-old consultant says.

“I had to climb over a fridge that had fallen over as I left.

“Then there was about two hours of just utter, well, the world had turned upside down.

“Cell phones weren’t working, the streets were gridlocked.

“My car was on the fifth floor of a car park and I couldn’t get it out.”

The earthquake that hit the South Island province of Canterbury on February 22 killed 181 people and destroyed or badly damaged about 900 buildings in Christchurch city.

The government and residents are now using a mix of high- and low-tech methods to reimagine how a rebuilt Christchurch could look and to remember what they have lost.

Read more about the technology being used to rebuild Christchurch at smh.com.au.


Freedom-of-Information stories

Posted: April 2nd, 2011 | Author: Edmund Tadros | Filed under: My highlights | Comments Off

ADFA’s decade of sex claims

Australia’s military university has filed at least 29 formal reports of alleged sexual offences over the past decade, including claims a female cadet was king-hit and raped while unconscious.

But the records, obtained under freedom of information law, may represent a mere fraction of all reported assaults at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

APEC 2007 – Truth revealed by Freedom-of-Infomation

Activist ‘Paddy’ Gibson lands payout after APEC arrest 

POLICE made a secret payment to an activist wrongly arrested during the 2007 Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit and then used this payout as an excuse to stop an internal investigation into the arrest, documents released under Freedom of Information laws reveal.

NSW Police made the payment to activist Padriac “Paddy” Gibson after he launched a civil case over his illegal arrest and detention after the major anti-APEC rally in September, 2007.

The APEC wall that couldn’t keep The Chaser out cost $2m

THE steel and concrete fence that became a symbol of the 2007 Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit cost an amazing $2 million to hire for seven days, documents released under Freedom of Information laws reveal.

The “Great Wall of Sydney” – which left police and the NSW Government red-faced after it was breached by The Chaser comedy team during APEC – infuriated locals and tourists by caging off the Sydney Opera House and sections of the CBD.

Prison Guards rob and bully: FoI report

NSW Police, a big group of teenagers and the ensuing riot

Universities violate privacy laws

Bashings, robberies rife at city stations

Hidden truth of joyflight crash pilot


Business stories

Posted: April 2nd, 2011 | Author: Edmund Tadros | Filed under: My highlights | Comments Off
Workplace 

Qantas loses fight with Falun Gong flight attendant

QANTAS has been ordered to reinstate a flight attendant banned from international duties over her practise of Falun Gong.

Sheridan Genrich, of Sydney’s Lane Cove, was demoted to short-haul after she was threatened by authorities during a 2008 Beijing stopover and deported due to her spiritual belief.

Qantas passengers exposed to toxic air, alleges book

Law firms ban workplace gossip site Firm Spy

Casino stood by as clerk lost stolen millions

Retail
Costco pumps $140m into Aussie growth 

THE nation’s most powerful shopping centre owners are trying to stop the expansion of US discount warehouse chain Costco, claiming a planned multi-million dollar development is illegal.

In a raft of objections, the group – including Westfield, AMP and the Shopping Centre Council of Australia – says the proposed store breaches existing state planning laws, is “inappropriate” and that to create any exemptions would be “anti-competitive”.

Cult fashion label Ed Hardy collapsed owing $15 million

The IKEA ‘honey pot’ effect

Picture from news.com.au Edmund TadrosEconomics
Interactive economic charts 

news.com.au has a series of interactive economic charts using the amCharts tool that I helped to create (along with the talented designers).

The pictured interactive Australian dollar vs US dollar chart allows readers to zoom in and out and highlight key events during the Aussie’s 30 year journey.

More: unemployment, interest rates, inflation and GDP.

Other economic stories


Crime stories

Posted: April 2nd, 2011 | Author: Edmund Tadros | Filed under: My highlights | Comments Off

Front page of Sydney Morning Herald April 12, 2008. Story about murder of Jody Galante. Edmund TadrosThe murder of Jody Galante

Book: What the Mother Knew, the true story of the murder of Jody Galante

On January 7, 2006, pregnant mother-of-one Jody Galante was reported missing by her husband Mark.

A week later Jody’s body was found in bushland and Mark was later arrested over her murder.

 

Whistleblower Gillian Sneddon exposes child sex allegations about NSW minister Milton Orkopoulos

Crisis in care series

NSW prisons, a captive State: A Special Investigation

Rougher-than-usual justice

Dead at 19: killed by a drug cocktail in his cell

The high cost of being a police officer