Even as the biggest non-profit affordable housing agency in Tacoma, Wash. spiraled deeper into debt, forcing more than a dozen layoffs and property foreclosures, its executive director continued to be paid in full. In the latest development of his ongoing coverage into the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association’s meltdown, The News Tribune’s Lewis Kamb…
Read MoreMilwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Raquel Rutledge exposed flaws in Wisconsin’s taxpayer-financed child care system – and the case workers, supervisors and politicians responsible for costing taxpayers millions. In a two-part series, Rutledge looked at the case of a woman who collected nearly $3 million in taxpayer money while running a questionable operation. For a decade,…
Read MoreG.W. Schulz of California Watch found widespread waste and mismanagement of homeland security grants awarded to agencies throughout the state of California. Schulz reviewed thousands of pages of documents from state monitoring reports and found scores of problems and questionable purchases.
Read MoreLewis Kamb of The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) used IRS 990 forms, non-profit records and meeting minutes, and interviews to piece together the developing story about financial mismanagement at Tacoma’s largest private non-profit affordable housing agency. This story is the latest installment in a series about nepotism in hiring practices involving Washington state’s former Speaker…
Read MoreMany homeowners have struggled to obtain loan modifications through Litton Loan Servicing, according to a report by Mc Nelly Torres for ConsumerAffairs.com. Dozens of complaints against Litton have been filed with ConsumerAffairs.com. Months-long delays on promised modifications have left many customers vulnerable to or victims of foreclosure. Litton settled a class action suit last spring “alleging…
Read MoreThe Fresno (Calif.) Bee analyzed Fresno County Jail data and found one in five inmates released early over the past year was already back in jail. “Probation violations, drug possession and disorderly conduct were the most common charges, but some early-release inmates also have been arrested for violent crime such as robbery.”
Read MoreIn the most recent installments of its series on private school tuition tax credits, The Arizona Republic revealed that the system is so lax that publicly-funded charter schools have been able to tap into the tax credit intended for private schools. The Republic also found that a number of private school tuition organizations are failing…
Read MoreBy Jason Riley and R.G. Dunlop, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal It had been an open secret for years in Jefferson County’s courts — Kentucky’s largest court system — that many defendants in criminal and traffic cases were able to get their charges dismissed simply because the arresting officer didn’t show up for hearings. But when…
Read MoreCarolina Journal‘s Sarah Okeson reports that North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell is hoping to recover a potential $3.3 billion loss in the state’s pension portfolio by investing in junk bonds and commodities. “A new law, signed by Gov. Beverly Perdue in June, lets the state treasurer put up to 5 percent of the pension’s assets…
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