CONNECT WITH:

By Myron Levin, FairWarning 

Photo: Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association

Photo: Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association

Manufacturers of off-road vehicles have mounted fierce resistance to proposed federal rules aimed at reducing rollover crashes that have killed hundreds of riders. After failing to persuade the Consumer Product Safety Commission to shelve the rules, the companies have turned to Congress to run interference.

Powered by an aggressive social media campaign and political donations, a measure moving in the House and Senate would impose a two-year ban on regulating the popular trail machines known as recreational off-highway vehicles, or ROVs.

By Ryan Gabrielson, ProPublica hairevidence

With the introduction of DNA analysis three decades ago, criminal investigations and prosecutions gained a powerful tool to link suspects to crimes through biological evidence. This field has also exposed scores of wrongful convictions, and raised serious questions about the forensic science used in building cases.

This week, The Washington Post reported the first results from a sweeping study of the FBI forensic hair comparison unit, finding that 26 of 28 examiners in the unit gave flawed testimony in more than 200 cases during the 1980s and 1990s. Examiners overstated the accuracy of their analysis in ways that aided prosecutors.

×

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Email

First Name

Last Name