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Hazardous lending practices approved by the directors of Cape Fear Bank appear to have contributed to the bank’s failure, according to a report by Stella M. Hopkins of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. John Davie Waggett, a successful pharmacist, tried his hand at real estate development securing over $18 million in loans. The largest lender was…
Read MoreA story by Heather Vogell of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raises questions about whether Atlanta is doing enough to probe allegations of cheating on state tests at its schools. Vogell used the state’s Open Records Law to obtain more than 2,400 pages of internal investigations into testing misconduct at six large metro school districts.
Read MoreStars and Stripes (Washington, D.C.) reporter Kevin Baron reports that less than a week after the paper first revealed that the Pentagon was routinely profiling journalists, the Army decided to cancel the program. “The U.S. military is canceling its contract with a controversial private firm that was producing background profiles of journalists seeking to cover…
Read MoreHearst Newspapers reveals widespread failure ten years after a federal report implored the medical industry to cut in half the annual death toll from medical errors and hospital-caused infections, estimated at 200,000. Among the failures: the federal government doesn’t even tally the nation’s leading category of accidental deaths. Some states tried but most failed. Hospital…
Read MoreNow is the time for college and university students to take advantage of the special student rate that allows you to join IRE and take advantage of all of the member-only resources we offer. For only $25 a year, you’ll get access to more than 3,000 tip sheets that can give you a quick roadmap…
Read MoreAn investigation by Sheri Fink of ProPublica reveals “what really happened to some of the patients who died at New Orleans’ Memorial Medical Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.” Among her findings, Fink reports that more patients than had been previously reported were given lethal injections, and some of those patients were near death…
Read MoreBy Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, ProPublica In examining the California Board of Registered Nursing, we found widespread problems. Most troubling, perhaps, is that the board took more than three years, on average, to investigate and discipline errant nurses. When we compared the board’s performance to its peers in other large states, we found that…
Read MoreReporters Meg Kissinger and Susanne Rust of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviewed thousands of pages of public records, from IRS documents to financial disclosure filings, to get inside the chemical industry’s push to fight a ban on bisphenol A, a chemical used in hard, clear plastics, including baby bottles. Their analysis showed the industry has…
Read MoreMatt Dixon of The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.) reports that budget cuts and strict state regulations have prevented the clean-up of thousands of underground petroleum leaks throughout Florida. Analysis of discharge data maintained by the Florida Department of Environment Protection shows more than 17,000 uncleaned leaks dating back to the mid-1980s.
Read MoreAs part of its ongoing series on water pollution in America, The New York Times looks at the impact of atrazine, a popular weed killer, on our water supply . Recent research indicates that exposure to low concentrations of atrazine may be linked to low birth weights, birth defects and menstrual problems. The Times investigation…
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