"Trusting your child with someone else is one of the hardest things that a parent has to do—and in the United States, it’s harder still, because American day care is a mess. About 8.2 million kids—about 40 percent of children under five—spend at least part of their week in the care of somebody other than a parent." Read the full invesitgation from the New Republic here.
"Crisscrossing Michigan are more than 3,100 miles of old wrought- and cast-iron natural-gas pipelines -- the type federal regulators consider the most at risk of corrosion, cracking and catastrophic rupturing. The state's two largest utilities have replaced less than 15% of these pipelines -- 542 miles -- in the past decade," according to an investigation by the Detroit Free Press.
The Chicago Tribune
F in attendance for city schools
A Chicago Tribune investigation analyzed internal student-level attendance data from the Chicago Public Schools and found that nearly 32,000 K-8 grade students — or roughly 1 in 8 — missed four weeks or more of class during the 2010-11 year, while the cash-strapped district does little to stem a devastating problem. To assess the total number of missed classroom days per student, the Tribune analyzed both excused and unexcused absences, as well as gaps in enrollment. The paper found striking racial disparities in elementary attendance. Youth with learning and emotional disabilities also ...
"The Lansing (Mich.) State Journal spent more than two months gathering and reviewing public records to determine how city leaders in East Lansing handled construction of a downtown mixed-use building, not far from Michigan State University, after a portion of the unfinished building collapsed and it was discovered that the developer had started construction without a building permit and added an unauthorized fifth story."
Several senior engineers cited design problems that could bring the treatment plant's operations to a halt before much of the waste is treated."
"In Kansas, for example, lawmakers gave TransCanada a 10-year tax exemption, which means the state won't receive any property tax revenue from the pipeline. Meanwhile, each of the other five states—Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas—would earn between $14 million and $63 million a year, according to U.S. State Department estimates."
"The World Trade Center Transportation Hub is behind schedule and hundreds of millions over budget.
The dual pressure of time and cost-overruns might help explain why the Port Authority has decided to eliminate the fireproofing of the huge above-ground steel structure that 200,000 people will pass under every day." The Transit Hub contract reads that the structure "should exclude the cost of fireproofing or intumescent coating from the structural steel."
However, the head of the Port Authority told ABC 7 Eyewitness News "Of course!" after being asked, "So, it's going to be fireproofed?"
The technician, Duane Wiles, also failed to verify that his testing gauge was operating properly, as required by Caltrans to ensure the gauge's accuracy, before he examined parts of the Bay Bridge tower foundation."