Mike Chalmers of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., found a pattern of “denial and delay” among administrative law judges who have the power to grant or deny Social Security benefits to disabled workers in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The News Journal “analyzed four years of decisions by ALJ in every state, more than 1.7…
Read MoreBeth Reinhard and Marc Caputo of The Miami Herald report that Florida taxpayers foot the bill for the insurance premiums of Governor Charlie Crist and other high-ranking Florida officials. According to the article, 2,431 of the 27,479 government employees who receive this subsidy earn more than $100,000. The subsidy program costs about $45 million a…
Read MoreTapping into hundreds of pages of medical records, Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel told the story of Iraq vet James Weigl, who committed suicide soon after his return to Wisconsin. Kissinger’s reporting identified numerous mistakes and missed warning signs – by the Army and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee. For example,…
Read MoreA USA Today investigation found that the Pentagon has hired “at least 158 retired admirals and generals…to offer advice under an unusual arrangement. Most of the retired officers, one to four stars in rank, have been paid hundreds of dollars an hour by the military even as they worked for companies seeking Defense Department contracts.”…
Read MoreAn investigation by Times Herald-Record reporter Christine Young into the questionable handling by police and prosecutors of a 1987 New York City murder has led to the prison release of a man convicted of the crime. Lebrew Jones, who spent 22 years behind bars for a crime he maintained he did not commit, has been…
Read MoreA report by Sandy Hodson of The Augusta Chronicle shows that private probation companies profit while unfairly punishing those who cannot pay their court debts. “Someone who can afford to pay off fines assessed for traffic and other misdemeanor offenses can usually walk out of court a free person. Anyone who can’t pay might find…
Read MoreAn investigation by Blake Morrison and Peter Eisler of USA Today illustrates failures in food safety programs as schools unknowingly continued to receive food from suppliers with a history of tainted products. Del Rey Tortilleria of Chicago was linked to illness outbreaks at over a dozen schools between 2003 and 2007. “And in a 2006…
Read MoreThrough the Freedom of Information Act, CUNY graduate student Valerie Lapinski was able to obtain previously unreleased FBI file of Studs Terkel. The file revealed that the agency suspected Terkel was a Communist. “The 269-page paper trail spans 1945 to 1990 – covering everything from Terkel’s McCarthy-era blacklisting to his involvement with Paul Robeson and…
Read MoreUsing Oklahoma Lottery Commission sales data and U.S. Census Bureau data, the Tulsa World found that some of Tulsa County’s poorest areas spend the most money on lottery tickets per capita, according to a report by Gavin Off. An interactive map showing income vs. lottery spending can be found here.
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