Washington Monthly reports that "over the past five years U.S. border agents have shot across the border at least ten times, killing a total of six Mexicans on Mexican soil." According to the report, border patrol shootings were a rarity before 2009, with only a handful occurring. But after an increase in border patrol agentst between 2006 and 2009, "a disturbing pattern of excessive use of force has emerged."

Today, Reuters released two articles about Google and the company’s tax structure in the UK:

From 2006 to 2011, Google generated $18 billion in revenues from the UK and paid just $16 million in taxes. Google defends its low tax bills by saying it does not have a British tax presence, because its sales to the UK are made by staff in Ireland. A Reuters examination of Google’s activities raises questions about that. Our reporting reveals many employee roles located in Britain that actually target, negotiate and close sales of Google’s advertising products to its customers. Also ...

Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze | ICIJ
“A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over. The secret records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists lay bare the names behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and other offshore hideaways.”

A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood | The New York Times
"The C.I.A.’s covert drone war in Pakistan began ...

Dozens of journalists working for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism sorted through millions of leaked records that "lay bare the names behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and other offshore hideaways." 

International Consortium of Investigative Journalism reports that key findings include: 

• Government officials and their families and associates in Azerbaijan, Russia, Canada, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and other countries have embraced the use of covert companies and bank accounts.
• The mega-rich use complex offshore structures to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not ...

According to documents obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting, applicants who have sought sensitive law enforcement jobs in recent years with the U.S. Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, admitted to a host of astonishing crimes during the application process, including rape, kidnapping.

"The records – official summaries of more than 200 polygraph admissions – raise alarms about the thousands of employees Customs and Border Protection has hired over the past six years before it began mandatory polygraph tests for all applicants six months ago," according to CIR. "The required polygraphs come at the tail end ...

VG of Norway reports that more than half of kindergartens in Norway have broken the law in the last three years. VG journalists sent hundreds of FOIA requests and analyzed roughly 31,000 pages of audit reports. They found a total of 6,400 violations during that span, including careless hygiene, poor security and failure to meet staffing requirements.

See the full report here. Using DocumentCloud, VG also created a database of the reports.

Haiti Grassroots Watch reports: "The population of Cadouche, a small village about 12 kilometers south of Cap-Haitian in Haiti’s North department, is nervous about three new mining exploitation permits granted last December in an opaque and secretive process."

Residents of the area, who told Haiti Grassroots Watch they are concerned the mining will poison their environment, say no members of the government or the company approached them to hear complaints or ask for agreement in the mining plan.

Yahoo! Inc. has taken advantage of Dutch laws to quietly funnel millions of dollars to island subsidiaries, Bloomberg News reports, which has cut its worldwide tax bill. The computer maker Dell has used the law to avoid roughly $4 billion in income taxes since 2004. Bloomberg reports that the arrangements demonstrate how the Netherlands have become one of the most important tax havens for multinational companies, and that Dutch parliament is debating the fairness of the country's tax system.

"Wal-Mart de Mexico was an aggressive and creative corrupter, offering large payoffs to get what the law otherwise prohibited, an examination, starting back in April 2012, by The New York Times found."

"The Times has now picked up where Wal-Mart’s internal investigation was cut off, traveling to dozens of towns and cities in Mexico and gathering tens of thousands of documents."

The Kansas City Star
Beef's Raw Edges 
"The Kansas City Star, in a yearlong investigation, found that the beef industry is increasingly relying on a mechanical process to tenderize meat, exposing Americans to higher risk of E. coli poisoning. The industry then resists labeling such products, leaving consumers in the dark. The result: Beef in America is plentiful and affordable, spun out in enormous quantities at high speeds, but it's a bonanza with hidden dangers. Industry officials contend beef is safer than it's ever been."

The Los Angeles Times
Dying For Relief: Reckless prescribing, patients endangered
"By ...