Archive for February 2009
Gregg had stake in aid for base
President Barack Obama’s former nominee to become commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, steered taxpayer money to his home state’s redevelopment of a former Air Force base even as he and his brother engaged in real estate deals there, an Associated Press investigation found. Gregg has collected at least $240,017 to $651,801 from his investments there,…
Read MoreMap campers get rolling
Journalists who attended IRE and NICAR’s Mapping Boot Camp in January have wasted little time in putting their new skills to work. In early February, after a 3.0-magnitude earthquake rattled northern New Jersey, Bob Rebach of The Record in Bergen County, N.J., used GIS to map the locations of the region’s earthquakes since 1990. Rebach,…
Read MoreIt’s back: FAA enforcement actions
After several years of negotiations, the NICAR Database Library has updated its copy of the FAA Enforcement Information System. This useful database documents cases where airlines, airports and pilots are accused of breaking FAA Regulations — examples include drug-test failures and alcohol abuse on the job. Only two months into 2009, there have already been…
Read MoreDonations increasingly go to telemarketers in California
If you give to a charity over the phone, there’s a growing likelihood that most of your donation will go to the telemarketer instead, according to an investigation by The Sacramento Bee. More than a third of California charity telemarketing campaigns sent less than 20 cents on the dollar to the charities during 2007, the…
Read MoreArmy charity holding onto millions of dollars
The biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been stockpiling tens of millions of dollars meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet, an Associated Press investigation shows. Between 2003 and 2007, Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own…
Read MoreInvestigating EPA’s chemical oversight program
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires chemical manufacturers to produce any documentation they may come across that indicates their product could cause “substantial risk” to people or the environment. The companies have 30 days to notify the government once they become aware of this kind of information. This information could come in the form of…
Read MoreJoe Mahr: Towing tales from St. Louis
A private towing company now under federal investigation used a specially created unit of off-duty St. Louis police officers to tow cars during the city’s major Mardi Gras festival. Officers repeatedly towed cars parked outside of a towaway zone set up for the festival each of the past two years. The towing company failed to…
Read MoreCourt documents never made public
A Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.) investigation into filing practices in Monroe County state courts revealed that documents critical to the outcome of countless civil lawsuits have never been made public because they were never filed with the court as required by state rules. The investigation prompted the New York State Office of Court Administration to…
Read MoreTeachers supported Prop 8 while their union opposed the measure
A report by NPR’s Robert Benincasa shows that California’s teachers’ union was giving money to oppose Proposition 8 while members of the union were making donations to support the ban on gay marriage. “Teachers, aides and counselors in California public school systems gave about $2 to support the marriage ban for every $1 they gave…
Read MoreHome Wreckers: How Banks are Worsening the Foreclosure Crisis
BusinessWeek‘s Brian Grow, Keith Epstein and Robert Berner detail efforts by the banking industry and its lobbyists in Washington to delay, dilute and obstruct attempts to rescue homeowners. The story describes how those efforts continue, and tracks campaign contributions by financial institutions and large lobbying expenditures by TARP recipients.
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