Fort Wayne series tracks federal spending in region

The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind. published the first section of a 12-part investigation into how federal dollars are spent the northeast region of the state. The Journal Gazette, using numbers from the Census Bureau and the Federal Procurement Data System, tracked the $5,618,386,731.89 the government spent on goods and services in 11 counties between Jan. 1, 2003, and Aug. 14 of this year. Among the findings was the sheer size of federal spending in the area - $5.6 billion in the last five years, of which $5 billion was on defense items.