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“State officials are investigating construction and zoning permits Monroe officials granted to township Mayor Michael Gabbianelli and his son. A week after the Courier-Post reported apparent ethics violations, state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) officials said they’ll determine whether Monroe officials breached the state Uniform Construction Code (UCC) with various approvals for Michael Gabbianelli Jr.’s…
Read MoreThe killer, a 72-year-old prisoner named Edward Harold Bell, told the Houston Chronicle in interviews and letters this summer that he killed 11 girls here in the 1970s, naming four of them and describing the rest. Though Bell previously confessed to two of the same crimes in 1989 letters authorities kept secret, he’s never been…
Read More“In recent months Koch Industries Inc., the business conglomerate run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, has repeatedly told a U.S. Congressional committee and the news media that the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has “nothing to do with any of our businesses.” But Inside Climate News reports that the company has told…
Read MoreIn his bid for the president, Governor Rick Perry has attacked the Troubled Asset Relief Program numerous times; calling it an “unprecedented assault on free markets.” However, The Dallas Morning News reports that the very bank Perry designated for his campaign finances received more than $87 million in TARP money. That same bank, PlainsCapital, is…
Read MoreInvestigating private companies can stymie even the most dogged reporter. They aren’t subject to Sunshine requests and they don’t file paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But chances are, you can still find out a lot about most of them. Ames Alexander, a reporter for The Charlotte Observer, detailed some of these strategies at…
Read MoreTraining Director Doug Haddix has accepted a position at the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Reporting at Ohio State University. He has served as one of two IRE training directors for the past three years, helping plan conferences and leading dozens of training sessions. Haddix also edited The IRE Journal, IRE’s award-winning, quarterly magazine on…
Read MoreAt age 52, no one would think a mother and wife, with a roof over her head, would die from a drug overdose. However, after hurting her shoulder more than a decade ago, Myrtle Bailey died of a hydrocodone overdose. Unfortunately for her and many others, doctors are treating symptoms instead of actual problems. “Bailey…
Read MoreThere’s no doubt that every city should have a children’s hospital, but what about three? Gilbert Gaul with Kaiser Health News, in collaboration with McClatchy, takes a hard look at why Orlando and other cities are building multiple children’s hospital, and who’s behind the push. The leading independent children’s hospitals are nonprofits, but you wouldn’t know…
Read MoreIn 1978, Edward Harold Bell shot and killed a man in front of the victim’s mother. He was subsequently sent to prison for murder. However, it wasn’t the first time he had killed, he claims. Bell, now in his 70′s, has confessed to the string of murders that occurred in the Houston area from 1971…
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