The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Blog
“Taxpayers in Colorado’s largest school districts have spent more than $5.8 million during the past five years to subsidize the activities of local teachers unions. The expenses resulted from years of agreements that require tax money to pay for everything from full-time union leaders’ salaries and benefits to providing leave for some teachers to attend…
Read More“In the wake of two controversial officer-involved shooting deaths in the summer of 2010, the Las Vegas Review-Journal analyzed two decades of shootings by officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The newspaper found an insular police department that is slow to weed out problem cops and slower still to adopt policies and procedures…
Read MoreAn elderly couple was forced to move from their home after petroleum from an old gas station leaked into the ground and contaminated their well water. The couple was unaware of the Inland Protection Trust Fund, which was created by the state of Florida in 1986 “to respond to leaking petroleum storage tanks … which…
Read MoreIt was an unbelievable record for anyone, let alone a public employee. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that one Opa-Locka, Fla., officer had been: “Fired five times and arrested three, he was charged with stealing a car, trying to board an airplane with a loaded gun and driving with a suspended license.…(He) split a man’s lip…
Read MoreTired of government agencies that care more about protecting their data than the public? Frustrated by official websites that defiantly offer no easy way to download vital data sets? It’s time to fight back. Join IRE and Scraperwiki for a 12-hour data liberation marathon during the 2012 Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference in St. Louis on Feb.…
Read More‘The Dayton Daily News reports that the U.S. Veterans Affairs inspector general’s office has estimated $500 million worth of VA contracts through the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program go to ineligible businesses each year. After the VA beefed up its review process over whether firms actually are headed by disabled veterans, it found 1,800 companies…
Read More“After an exhaustive assessment by a McClatchy correspondent who was embedded with the unit and survived the ambush found that the Marines’ official accounts of Dakota Meyer’s, the latest Medal of Honor recipient, deeds were embellished. They’re marred by errors and inconsistencies, ascribe actions to Meyer that are unverified or didn’t happen and create precise,…
Read More“The Lens reports that the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office runs a lucrative program hiring out deputies for private security work frequently at far higher pay than their commissioned duties – but it’s not just the deputies who are bringing in a tidy sum. The program provides Sheriff Marlin Gusman with a regular supply of discretionary…
Read More“During the past six years, Minnesota has granted more than 15,000 waivers to people with criminal records seeking employment in nursing homes and other state-regulated care programs, state records show.“ However, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports that “under state law, people are automatically rejected for those jobs if background checks reveal they have committed any…
Read MoreAfter spending some time in the Delaware County jail, Edwina King was approached by other female inmates, they needed her help. “According to a federal civil rights suit, employees of the Delaware Country Sheriff’s Office were abusing the inmates, including rape, sodomy, sexual battery and blackmail. County officials recently settled the lawsuit for $13.5 million.”…
Read More