Twice Betrayed | San Antonio Express-News
“A seven-month San Antonio Express-News investigation into the pervasive and long-standing problem of sex assaults in the military shows victims who report the incidents often are retaliated against and discharged on false claims that they have mental disorders. Offenders, meanwhile, are rarely punished, and most are allowed to stay in the armed forces.”

Data breaches persist despite heightened security | Chicago Tribune
“Despite rising awareness of cybersecurity, the number of incidents in which secure information is released into potentially untrustworthy environments remains nearly as high as ever by some measures worldwide and in Illinois.”

Chronic Lyme ...

"KCRA obtained video of hundreds, possibly thousands of mercury-containing fluorescent bulbs and PCB containing ballasts stored outside, in the open air behind a Sacramento contractor’s facility.  State law explicitly states that all these materials must be in a container to prevent leakage and breakage, yet a former employee says the company ran out of space and told employees to put them outside.  Just days after KCRA’s calls the county and state opened investigations and the company cleaned up the materials.  Yet concern still exists that with all the sales of energy efficient equipment and materials more and more ...

"More than 60 people who hold active Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) permits to buy handguns have been convicted of felonies, some involving guns, an Observer data analysis shows."

"Five were convicted of robbery with a dangerous weapon, three of manslaughter, two of firing into occupied property and one of second-degree murder. Others were convicted of assaults that left victims badly injured or of using weapons to attack government officials."

A Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of more than 38,000 contributions to California Assembly Democrats in the 2011-12 campaign shows a link between donations to Speaker John A. Pérez's targeted races and a lawmaker’s prospects for important legislative assignments.

Among CIR's findings is that mega-donors to Pérez’s targets – three lawmakers who gave more than $250,000 – obtained positions of power.

The Texas Observer reports that the s tate health department left approximately $2.3 million of its family planning funds unspent while clinics across the state closed because of lack of money. As a result, tens of thousands of women lost access to reproductive care. The unspent funds happened at a time when, according to previous Observer reporting, "146 family-planning clinics lost funds, and more than 60 clinics closed as a result following budget cuts instituted by the Texas Legislature in 2011."

KWTV in Oklahoma City and at News on 6 in Tulsa, Okla., examined a loophole in state law that allows teachers who have sexual relationships with students to be shuffled from district to district. The state Department of Education doesn’t track such allegations, and many times districts, teachers, parents and law enforcement keep the matter quiet to avoid humiliation.

"An East Tennessee grandmother said she tried in vain to get the Department of Children’s Services to intervene when she feared her newborn grandson was living in an unsafe environment. DCS already had opened an investigation in March 2012 after the baby was born with symptoms of drug withdrawal. He also was born prematurely with a severe birth defect: the infant’s intestines were outside his body, but he underwent surgery before going home. By June, he was dead at just 9 weeks old. The grandmother’s call for help is not noted in DCS records," according to an ...

"As the nation hurtled from one fiscal crisis to the next last year, Democrats and Republicans argued bitterly over the best solution - tax increases or spending cuts. But members of the U.S. House did agree on one thing: There was enough money for them to travel the globe at taxpayers' expense. At least 172 House members - 14 from Florida - spent more than $1.5 million in 2012, visiting more than 90 countries and every continent but Antarctica, a Herald-Tribune investigation has found," according to an investigation by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.