“A Hearst Newspapers investigation has found dozens of cases over the past 20 years of local Boy Scout councils logging or selling prime woodlands to big timber interests, developers or others, turning quick money and often doing so instead of seeking ways to preserve such lands.”
Archive for January, 2009
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Interior Department’s plan may have hurt Grand Canyon wildlife
January 29th, 2009 
Beth Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post obtained memos from the Interior Department suggesting officials may have ignored the environmental risks of a plan to reduce water flow through the Grand Canyon at night when there is low demand for hydroelectric power.
Financial crisis strikes small community banks
January 28th, 2009 Beth An investigation by Jake Bernstein and A.C. Thompson of ProPublica explores how small community banks around the country are failing after years of profiting off commercial real estate and development loans.
Lobbyists spent $12.8 million courting Texas lawmakers
January 27th, 2009 Beth According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, lobbyists spent more than $12 million in the last four years wining and dining Texas lawmakers and other state workers, including trips to pricey resorts across the country.
Cashing in on kids
January 26th, 2009 Beth In a two-part series, Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found a trail of phony businesses and child-care providers who were tapping into taxpayer subsidies for child care in Wisconsin.
Documents reveal decisions that led to bank’s demise
January 23rd, 2009 Beth Less than a week after Washington state’s Bank of Clark County failed, The Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.) used public records and inside sources to uncover the decisions that sent this financial institution into what one insider called the bank’s “death spiral.”
Alt-weekly exposes mayor’s lie about sexual relationship
January 22nd, 2009 Meganm Willamette Week, the alt-weekly based in Portland, Ore., broke a story about Portland Mayor Sam Adams. After 16 months of reporting, Willamette Week compiled evidence that Adams had lied in 2007 about having sex with an 18-year-old legislative intern. In an interview last week, Adams again denied having sex with the young man but as [...]
Illinois gala for Obama supported by lobbyists he banned from donating to campaign
January 20th, 2009 admin Supporters from Barack Obama’s home state held a celebration this week that was paid for, in part, by the same lobbying firms the president-elect banned from donating to his campaign and inaugural committee, Bloomberg’s Jonathan D. Salant and Kate Andersen report. Seven firms that earned a total of at least $30 million in lobbying fees [...]
Official confirms detainee was tortured
January 15th, 2009 Meganm In an interview with The Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward, the official overseeing U.S. military commissions confirmed that treatment of a Guantanamo Bay detainee qualified as torture. “The public record of the Guantánamo interrogation of the detainee, Mohammed al-Qahtani, has long included what officials labeled abusive techniques, including exposure to extreme temperatures and isolation, but the [...]
Documents detail complaints that FDA managers are too lenient with industry
January 13th, 2009 admin Internal Food and Drug Administration documents indicate that an FDA official overruled agency scientists and approved the sale of an imaging device for breast cancer after receiving a phone call from a Connecticut congressman. The legislator’s call and its effect on what is supposed to be a science-based approval process is only one of many [...]
