Extra! Extra! » CAR

OneUnited bank was weakest to receive TARP support

Beth — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:55:34 +0000

A report on Bank Tracker, a project of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, shows that OneUnited Bank, the bank at the center of the allegations against Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., was the weakest TARP bank at the time of its rescue. “When then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced creation of the so-called “Capital Purchase Program” in October 2008, he said said it was directed at “healthy institutions.” Nevertheless OneUnited Bank of Boston received a $12.1 million capital injection from the Treasury Department on Dec. 19, 2008. The money has not been repaid, according to Treasury Department documents.”

Poor areas of Milwaukee have highest water usage

Beth — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:29:50 +0000

When it comes to using water, in Milwaukee the largest users do not have the largest homes or properties, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis by Ben Poston revealed. It’s the opposite: The biggest users are in the poorest census tracts in the city and are disproportionately minorities. Why? Those homes are more likely to have leaky pipes and poor quality fixtures in the home. The analysis was prompted by a push by the city to increase water rates by 25%.

Analysis finds mine safety violations focus on ventilation, fire, electricity

Beth — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:13:03 +0000

Citations for safety and health violations by operators of underground coal mines have increased by nearly a third since 2006, with federal mine inspectors focusing about equally on three main types of mining hazards. An NPR analysis of nearly 80,000 citations written last year found that an accumulation of combustible coal dust was the most frequently cited violation overall, accounting for more than one in 10 citations. The analysis found that three categories of problems — fire and coal dust issues; ventilation problems; and electrical issues — each made up about a quarter of the violations found by inspectors nationwide. At Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W.Va., federal inspectors spent 180 days last year enforcing safety and health standards. Still, they could not prevent the April 5 explosion that killed 29 miners.

Board members profit from part-time work

Beth — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:45:07 +0000

An accountant, a lawyer and two retired executives each collected more than $475,000 last year – and one topped $600,000 – doing part-time work for multiple Wisconsin companies, according to review of Securities and Exchange Commission data by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Cary Spivak. The men are members of corporate America’s most elite club: the board of directors. By creating a unique database of board members for the state’s 50 or so public companies, Spivak was able to identify trends and cross-connections between boards. The package included a searchable database of all the board members, their pay packages and the boards they sit on.

Convictions result from investigation into workforce grant scheme

Beth — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:12:52 +0000

The Charleston Gazette’s investigation of federal grant misuse at West Virginia’s state employment agency culminated with four criminal convictions in federal court and a prison sentence for one of the people involved. Gazette business reporter Eric Eyre used a hex editor to analyze the contents of a computer file, showing that the state official in charge of distributing federal grants at the employment agency had written – and later approved — a $100,000 grant application for her son’s marketing and publishing firm. The same official tried to steer an additional $1 million to her son’s company, but the newspaper’s reporting prompted the agency to scrap the project before the money was spent. The Gazette’s rolling investigation toppled three state officials and two local computer executives.

Site tracks candidates statements, claims in race for California governor

Beth — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:59:27 +0000

California Watch launched Politics Verbatim, a site that “collects and categorizes the promises, proposals, arguments and attacks” made by Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman in their race for governor of California. The site was launched with 300 documents and 1,000 excerpts that will be added to daily as the race progresses allowing voters to hold the candidates accountable in during the campaign.

Nearly half of Phoenix’s murders go unsolved

Beth — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:08:01 +0000

KNXV-Phoenix teamed up with colleagues at Scripps Howard News Service to review the FBI’s uniform crime report data for unsolved murder rates nationwide. Phoenix did not fare well in the analysis. A lack of time, resources and money resulted in a homicide clearance rate of just 54.6% over a 28 year period. As a result, killers walked free and justice has been denied for more than 2000 families. The story includes a searchable database that allows online readers to look up clearance rates nationwide.

Car registrations net millions for Washington state parks

Beth — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:22:43 +0000

A KIRO-Seattle investigation found that six months ago the Washington State Park Department started billing all vehicle owners in the state an automatic $5 donation for state parks. The donation is included in the total cost of registration although you can opt out of the payment. Since rolling the donation into the registration total, funds raised have gone from approximately $57,000 to about $1 million each month. Analysis of contributions by county showed “poor counties, less educated counties, and places with high non-English speaking populations are ‘donating’ at a disproportionately high rate.”

Little done to deter violations of Clean Air Act

Beth — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:05:00 +0000

Through analysis of Clean Air Act data kept by the Environmental Protection agency, The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Ind.) found government regulators have a list of more than 200 facilities in Indiana they say have broken air pollution laws in the past three years, yet little or nothing has been done to stop them. The majority of the Indiana companies that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says have violated the federal Clean Air Act since January 1, 2007 were still in violation three years later, and in more than a third of those cases, state and federal regulators have taken no action. Twelve of the 62 facilities with “high-priority violations” have been in violation for three years without any enforcement action whatsoever. The package includes a searchable database of every Clean Air Act permit holder in the state, showing inspections, violations and fines, and a direct link to the EPA data.

Pension obligations strain budgets throughout California

Beth — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:11:48 +0000

A collaboration by the five McClatchy newspapers in California examines how pension obligations are hurting local governments at a time of diminished resources throughout the state. “The initial logic of increasing retirement benefits to retain quality employees has been turned on its head: Paying for those benefits is forcing local governments to lay off employees – and cut programs.”