Posts by hdcoadmin
Review finds housing nonprofit misspent nearly $2 million
A Tacoma, WA affordable housing nonprofit misspent nearly $2 million in state funds meant to build a lavish business center in central Tacoma, an accountant’s review for the state’s commerce department has found. Lewis Kamb of The News Tribune reports about the review’s findings, prompted by his ongoing coverage of mismanagement allegations and financial turmoil…
Read MoreLocal parties in California avoid campaign contribution limits
Politicians and their supporters in California have routinely funneled money through county-level political party committees around the state, avoiding strict limits on campaign giving and hiding the source of millions in donations, a California Watch analysis shows. By using county parties as middlemen, both Democrat and Republican donors can contribute far more money than the…
Read MoreDisabled workers paid cents-per-hour for work at state-run homes
Clark Kauffman of the Des Moines Register reports that more than 300 mentally retarded wards of the state are being paid less than the minimum wage for work performed at two state-run homes for the disabled. Seventy-four of the workers are paid an average hourly wage of 60 cents or less, and some of the…
Read MoreQuestions about results, conflict-of-interest surround early-childhood initiative
The Fresno Bee published a two-part series on accountability problems with Fresno County First 5, an early childhood initiative approved by voters in 1998. The first story found that, despite promises made to voters and millions of dollars spent on evaluations, First 5 hasn’t produced a complete evaluation of its results, raising questions about the…
Read MoreLax regulators allow nurses to lose licenses in one state, keep them in others
Nurses with troubled records can cross state lines and work without restriction, an investigation by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica and The Los Angeles Times found. Using public databases and state disciplinary reports, reporters found hundreds of cases in which registered nurses held clear licenses in some states after they’d been sanctioned in others, often…
Read MoreRegulations crippling commercial fishing industry
A Life at Sea/A Life at Risk, a six-part series by The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.), examined the crushing impact of federal and state fishing regulations on New Jersey’s $1 billion a year commercial fishing industry. “The regulations use size limits, gear restrictions, seasons, quotas and other methods to reduce the catch. A new…
Read MoreTop subprime lender willingly pushed through fraudulent loans
The Huffington Post Investigative Fund exposes how lending practices at Washington Mutual’s subprime lender, Long Beach Mortgage, allowed fraud to run rampant. Former employees say efforts to stop fraudulent loan applications were commonly overridden and lavish commissions encouraged bad lending.
Read MoreLoopholes lead to large salaries for charity CEOs
A Charlotte (N.C.) Observer investigation showed how loopholes and understaffed regulators allow charities to pay almost any salary to their executives. The newspaper also revealed how many nonprofit CEOs are reaping the rewards. One nonprofit set up to help people in debt paid its chief executive more than $5 million – nearly everything it had.
Read MoreIRE offers webinar on stimulus
Join Sarah Cohen of Duke University and Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica in a one-hour webinar that will help you understand how to follow stimulus dollars from Congress to your town and discover useful tools to make it all easier. You’ll learn how to make sense of stimulus data, find out what is available and be…
Read MoreStimulus loans scarce for minority-owned businesses
Aaron Glantz of New American Media reports that analysis of data from the federal government’s Small Business Association (SBA) revealed racial inequities in small business loans given out as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While race is not recorded by Recovery.gov, data from the SBA found that 91 percent of the 4,497…
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