A Chicago Tribune investigation has found that the flame retardants that are packed into couches, chairs and many other products are not working as promised. Furthermore, two powerful industries--Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers have waged a deceptive campaign that led to the proliferation of these chemicals.

Sam Roe, Patricia Callahan and Michael Hawthorne utilized DocumentCloud to provide proof of the deception and its' widespread effect.

"Mistakes on credit reports can inflict widespread damage. And because there are insufficient rules on how credit-reporting agencies must correct them, Americans are left virtually powerless to erase the mistakes."

Jill Riepenhoff and Mike Wagner of The Columbus Dispatch "documented the plight of thousands who, through no fault of their own, have been denied the chance to buy a home or a car, take out a loan for college, rent an apartment, land a job, join the Armed Forces, receive medical care or even open a checking account."

A New York Times investigation into Wal-Mart has revealed that top Wal-Mart executives may be focusing more on damage control when they should be rooting out wrongdoing.

"In 2005, after a senior Wal-Mart lawyer learned that the company’s largest foreign subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico, had orchestrated a campaign of bribery to win market dominance, Wal-Mart dispatched investigators to Mexico City, and within days they unearthed evidence of widespread bribery." A lead investigator wrote of the findings: “There is reasonable suspicion to believe that Mexican and USA laws have been violated.” However, Wal-Mart's leaders shut-down the investigation. And only ...

"Reuters Enterprise team published, “Special Report: Chesapeake CEO took $1.1 billion in shrouded personal loans,” an investigation into how previously undisclosed loans to Chesapeake Energy Corp’s co-founder Aubrey McClendon could put the company’s CEO and shareholders at odds."

The Seattle Times takes a look, in a four-part series, at how Amazon.com, "one of the Internet's most-recognized name brands" compares to other big companies in the Seattle area when it comes to local charitable givings.

"Last year, amid a troubled economy, United Way of King County said it received record donations from some of the area's largest companies.
Microsoft made a corporate donation of $4 million. Boeing gave $3.1 million. Nordstrom, nearly $320,000. And Amazon.com? Zero."

"A Dayton Daily News examination has found that federal agencies have awarded tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts to businesses operating in Ohio that claimed to be owned and controlled by military veterans with service-related disabilities, only to conclude the companies lied to the government when they said a disabled veteran was in charge."

Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles Time, reports that "energy companies across California are injecting a mysterious mix of chemicals into the ground to tap oil deposits while frustrating attempts to regulate the controversial process, known as hydraulic fracturing."

"So far, nine states require energy companies to disclose what they put into the ground but the Brown administration, which has been trying to ease regulation of the energy industry, has yet to draw up any rules on the extraction method."

The Bay Citizen reports that the Internet banking giant, ING Direct USA, may be trying to bypass regulation by opening "cafes" instead of branches. By not offering deposits at the cafe, ING does not have to follow regulation that requires banks to lend money to low- and moderate-income borrowers in metropolitan areas.

ING claims the cafes are a marketing tool, and denies trying ot skirt the law.

'The Dayton Daily News reports that the U.S. Veterans Affairs inspector general’s office has estimated $500 million worth of VA contracts through the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program go to ineligible businesses each year.

After the VA beefed up its review process over whether firms actually are headed by disabled veterans, it found 1,800 companies were not eligible. Of the 1,800, 70 were referred for criminal prosecution, according to a Nov. 30 report by the Government Accountability Office."