Archive for September, 2006

Polk County supervisors play favorites with grant money

Friday, 09/29/06 Posted in Government (federal/state/local)

Bert Dalmer of the Des Moines Register has written about a grant program in Polk County, Iowa that "smacks of vote-buying, according to one government watchdog group...The money - $1.5 ... Read more..

SF Police spied on jounalists to find source of internal leak

Thursday, 09/28/06 Posted in First Amendment & FOIA, Justice (courts/crime/law)

A.C. Thompson of SF Weekly reports on a scandal within the San Franciso Police Department, "a cloak-and-dagger investigation that may have transgressed the department's own rules - and definitely torched ... Read more..

Quality cardiac care correlates with wealthier counties in US

Thursday, 09/28/06 Posted in CAR, Health

A story by Robert Benincasa and Jennifer Brooks of the Gannett News Service shows that the best cardiac care is typically found in higher-income counties. "Using data provided by ... Read more..

Dallas school credit card abuse includes misuse of federal grant funds

Wednesday, 09/27/06 Posted in Education, Government (federal/state/local)

In a follow-up to an earlier story on credit card abuse within the Dallas Independent School District, Kent Fischer and Molly Motley Blythe of The Dallas Morning News report ... Read more..

Federal Campaign Consultants

Wednesday, 09/27/06 Posted in Campaign Finance

The Center for Public Integrity used federal campaign data to show that "in the 2004 federal races, more than $1.78 billion flowed through a professional corps of consultants whose influence ... Read more..

US flight schools admitting foreign nationals without proper clearance

Tuesday, 09/26/06 Posted in Homeland Security

Brian Ross and Eric Longabardi report for ABC News that foreign student pilots are still finding their way into American flight schools despite strict regulations set in place following 9/11. ... Read more..

Abuse of law rampant in NY’s village and town courts

Monday, 09/25/06 Posted in Justice (courts/crime/law)

A series by William Glaberson of The New York Times exposes the gross abuse of power by "part-times justices" across the state of New York. The New York ... Read more..

Afgan detainee deaths concealed by US Special Forces

Monday, 09/25/06 Posted in Military

Kevin Sack and Craig Pyes, special to The Los Angeles Times, report on misconduct by U.S. Special Forces in Afganistan. On two separate occasions, the Special Forces team concealed ... Read more..

NY companies exploit loophole for massive tax breaks

Monday, 09/25/06 Posted in Business

Michelle Breidenbach of The (Syracuse, NY) Post-Standard shows how hundreds of New York companies pulled accounting gimmicks and exploited a loophole in the state law to collect millions of dollars ... Read more..

Records reveal extensive White House access to some of Abramoff’s cronies

Friday, 09/22/06 Posted in First Amendment & FOIA, Government (federal/state/local), Justice (courts/crime/law), Politics

Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press reports that recently released Secret Service visitor logs reveal extensive "inside access" to presidential aides by Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, both of whom ... Read more..