The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Blog
Charles Duhigg of The New York Times reports on states’ negligence in enforcing clean water laws. In West Virginia, tests found tap water containing “arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.” When companies disclosed that they were pumping illegal…
Read MoreBy Doug Haddix IRE training director There’s nothing wrong – and everything right – with rehearsing interviews, especially those that must be done by phone, according to Manny Garcia, executive editor of El Nuevo Herald in Miami, Fla. Sometimes, a reporter has only a minute or two to make a pitch by phone, given obstacles…
Read MoreRandy Ludlow of The Columbus Dispatch revealed “a loophole in an Ohio policy allowed thousands of undocumented immigrants to register cars and get license plates even though many did not have valid Social Security numbers or car insurance.” He reported that Ohio officials delayed a crackdown on illegal immigrants registering their vehicles with fraudulent power-of-attorney…
Read MoreEven as the biggest non-profit affordable housing agency in Tacoma, Wash. spiraled deeper into debt, forcing more than a dozen layoffs and property foreclosures, its executive director continued to be paid in full. In the latest development of his ongoing coverage into the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association’s meltdown, The News Tribune’s Lewis Kamb…
Read MoreMilwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Raquel Rutledge exposed flaws in Wisconsin’s taxpayer-financed child care system – and the case workers, supervisors and politicians responsible for costing taxpayers millions. In a two-part series, Rutledge looked at the case of a woman who collected nearly $3 million in taxpayer money while running a questionable operation. For a decade,…
Read MoreG.W. Schulz of California Watch found widespread waste and mismanagement of homeland security grants awarded to agencies throughout the state of California. Schulz reviewed thousands of pages of documents from state monitoring reports and found scores of problems and questionable purchases.
Read MoreLewis Kamb of The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) used IRS 990 forms, non-profit records and meeting minutes, and interviews to piece together the developing story about financial mismanagement at Tacoma’s largest private non-profit affordable housing agency. This story is the latest installment in a series about nepotism in hiring practices involving Washington state’s former Speaker…
Read MoreMany homeowners have struggled to obtain loan modifications through Litton Loan Servicing, according to a report by Mc Nelly Torres for ConsumerAffairs.com. Dozens of complaints against Litton have been filed with ConsumerAffairs.com. Months-long delays on promised modifications have left many customers vulnerable to or victims of foreclosure. Litton settled a class action suit last spring “alleging…
Read MoreThe Fresno (Calif.) Bee analyzed Fresno County Jail data and found one in five inmates released early over the past year was already back in jail. “Probation violations, drug possession and disorderly conduct were the most common charges, but some early-release inmates also have been arrested for violent crime such as robbery.”
Read MoreIn the most recent installments of its series on private school tuition tax credits, The Arizona Republic revealed that the system is so lax that publicly-funded charter schools have been able to tap into the tax credit intended for private schools. The Republic also found that a number of private school tuition organizations are failing…
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