The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Posts by hdcoadmin
Prop. 13 loophole gives edge to big players
“Change of ownership, key to reassessment, is cut-and-dried for homeowners but not businesses. It means a loss of tens of millions of dollars a year in tax revenue,” according to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times.
Read MoreMany Texas plants lack safety inspections despite risks
“Twenty-two percent of plants in Texas that regulators say pose a risk of explosion or toxic release have never have been inspected for emergency preparedness, federal data shows. Another 10 percent were inspected, but not by federal, state or even local governments. Instead, those facilities reported inspections by their own contractors, insurance companies or employees,…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Texas plants lack safety inspections, pensions strain AZ state budget, high-risk health providers stay in business
Many Texas plants lack safety inspections despite risks | Dallas Morning News “Twenty-two percent of plants in Texas that regulators say pose a risk of explosion or toxic release have never have been inspected for emergency preparedness, federal data shows. Another 10 percent were inspected, but not by federal, state or even local governments. Instead,…
Read MoreRising Arizona public safety pensions strain budget
“The cost of funding retirement for Arizona’s first responders has risen 500 percent during the past decade, inflated by enhanced benefits and battered by investment losses, forcing some communities to curb their hiring of police officers and firefighters, The Arizona Republic has found.” Read The Republic’s full investigation here.
Read MoreSons of well-known reporters are latest deaths in violence against Mexican journalists
Two men were killed by gunmen in Chihuahua, Mexico, Saturday morning who are both sons of different well-known Mexican journalists, Reuters reported. A spokesman told Reuters that the deaths of the two men were unrelated to their parents’ professions. The incident prefaced another later that weekend in which authorities found seven people dead in a…
Read MoreBig costs and lack of oversight for southern California transit agency
Investigative Newsource in San Diego reports on the North County Transit District, which was overhauled and largely outsourced four years ago with significant consequences. Newsource reports that the “the turnover among upper management at North County Transit District has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and has, at times, put riders at risk.”
Read MoreOakland police quick to fire, slow to investigate questionable shootings
Oakland police have been questioned for years by court-appointed watchdogs for questionable shootings and a failure to investigate them, The Bay Area News Group reports. A review by the news group finds that police can’t account for all shootings since 2000 and that an alarming pattern has persisted in the face of warnings. The news…
Read MoreObama’s choice for Federal Housing Finance Agency head under fire
The Center for Public Integrity reports that “Rep. Mel Watt, the North Carolina Democrat whom President Barack Obama has appointed to oversee mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has received more campaign money from financial interests than any other industry or special interest.” “Since he entered Congress in 1992, Watt has received $1.33 million…
Read MoreBehind the Story: NICAR data leads to OSHA investigation
In October, the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting sent an email over its listserv announcing that updated data were available from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Ron Shawgo of the Journal Gazette of Indiana then realized the paper had never examined OSHA data for Indiana. So he requested the data. Through his analysis, he…
Read MoreNY opens millions of records on state data portal
New York State this week announced the addition of millions of records to the state’s data transparency website, open.ny.gov, which launched during Sunshine Week of 2011. New York’s is one of 39 state open data sites, according to data.gov. At least 39 county and city governments have similar portals. The records span multiple state agencies…
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