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“The Pinellas County Resource Recovery Facility is one of the nation’s largest waste-to-energy trash incinerators. The plant’s boilers consume 3,000 tons of garbage every day, creating saleable energy that allows the county facility to turn a $20 million annual profit.” However, in an investigation done by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, partnered with the…
Read MoreWe have rebuilt our IRE Awards categories to better reflect changes in our industry that have had great impact on the ways in which news is gathered and presented. Over the past few years, technology has continually offered new ways to gather and present investigative work, while economic cutbacks have squeezed resources and helped encourage…
Read More“The Internal Revenue Service — citing data it is making public for the first time at the request of Scripps Howard News Service — estimates that tax filers improperly submitted 350,000 returns on dead Americans this tax season, improperly seeking $1.25 billion in refunds. Parents who recently lost a child are increasingly targeted by these…
Read More“The number of vacant homes and rentals has exploded 52 percent in Pima County in the past 10 years, thwarting a housing market recovery and driving even some middle- and upper-income neighborhoods into decline. An Arizona Daily Star analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows the spike in unoccupied homes and apartments has pushed Pima…
Read More“Chicago Tribune reporters found eight Chicago-area fugitives during an 18-day trip to Mexico — five wanted for murder, two for raping or molesting children and one for shooting a man. Growing numbers of criminal suspects flee the U.S. each year to evade trial for murder, rape and other serious felonies. Breakdowns in the criminal justice…
Read MoreAfter a five-month Boston Globe investigation into the mislabeling of fish, it was found that many upscale restaurants, grocery stores and seafood markets advertise one type of fish but sell you another. The Globe hired a laboratory in Canada to conduct DNA testing on fish samples purchased from 134 shops across the Boston region. “Analyses…
Read More“While private employers are consolidating sick and vacation time and limiting the amount of leave workers can collect, governments continue to be more generous with such benefits, said Jeffrey Keefe, a Rutgers University professor.” The Virginian-Post reports that “since January 2010, South Hampton Roads cities collectively paid more than $7.7 million in such payments to…
Read More“Cotter Corp.’s uranium mill near Cañon City, CO has the state’s backing to permanently dispose of radioactive waste in its tailings ponds, despite state and independent reports over a 30-year period showing the ponds’ liners leak.” However, the Denver Post reports that in “a 2004 internal state health department memo, it went so far as…
Read MoreThe Gazette reports that “a former University of Iowa student leader believed to have fled the country after criminal charges in the early 1990s has been linked to murder and corruption in Mexico. Juan Jose Rojas-Cardona — known as Pepe in West Liberty, where he spent his youth — is accused in a U.S. Consulate…
Read More“At least 93 Milwaukee police officers – ranking from street cop to captain – have been disciplined for violating the laws and ordinances they were sworn to uphold, a Journal Sentinel investigation found. Their offenses range from sexual assault and domestic violence to drunken driving and shoplifting, according to internal affairs records. All still work…
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