Many benefitted from McNichol's reporting

Amy Ellis Nutt of The Star-Ledger in Newark writes about Bloomberg News reporter Dunstan McNichol, who died suddenly at his home Tuesday at the age of 54.

Nutt writes, “Readers may not remember the byline, but anyone who drives a car, has a child in school or ever needed workman’s compensation, still reaps the benefits of his reporting. It was McNichol who, with a series of relentless scoops, exposed the misbegotten auto inspection system in 1998 when inspection lines stretched for blocks. It was McNichol who in 2006 brought down the School Construction Corporation by exposing billions of dollars of waste and fraud. And it was McNichol, who in 2008, ripped the lid off the New Jersey workmen’s compensation system, showing how it routinely failed the people who needed it most.

“He routinely exposed problems and scandals with the state’s pension system long before it became a front-burner issue in Trenton, including major pieces showing how politicians padded their pensions. He took aim at many of Trenton’s powerful, breaking stories showing how former state Sen. Wayne Bryant, now in prison, held no-show jobs that padded his pension and used his power to benefit himself and his friends.

“He deciphered complicated subjects, such as financial swap deals gone bad, showing how state government blunders cost taxpayers millions.

“While plowing through thousands of documents researching a story, McNichol discovered a $75,000 payment by the state’s health care university to a top fund-raiser to McGreevey — and then showed there was no evidence the guy had ever worked for his money.”

Read more here.