The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
The Oregonian‘s Ryan Kost reports that Oregon lawmakers chose not to place limitations on how campaign money could be spent despite promised campaign finance ethics reforms. Two proposed laws limiting how campaign contributions could be spent were never passed, thus it remains legal to spend campaign monies on other things – from candy to airfare.…
Read MoreAndrea James and Daniel Lathrop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigated security problems with Boeing’s computer system which leaves it vulnerable to manipulation, theft and fraud. The issues relate to Boeing’s failure to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, “a wide-ranging law aimed at preventing stockholder rip-offs such as the Enron scandal from happening again.” For the…
Read MoreIn a four-part series, James Drew and Steve Eder of The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade report that a 19-year-old federal law that requires companies to give notice to workers losing their jobs is so full of loopholes and flaws that employers repeatedly skirt it with little or no penalty. A Blade analysis of 226 lawsuits filed…
Read MoreThe Pentagon failed in its efforts to protect troops in Iraq, according to an investigation by Peter Eisler, Blake Morrison and Tom Vanden Brook of USA TODAY. The Pentagon has known for years that Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles could save lives for soldiers on patrol and in combat, but ignored appeals for such…
Read MoreThe Project on Government Oversight unveiled a new version of its online Federal Contractor Misconduct Database. “The new database, which covers instances of misconduct from 1995 to the present, includes the source documents for each instance, drawing primarily from government documents,” noted a POGO press release. The site reports that the top 50 firms took…
Read MoreSarah Okeson of Florida Today looked into a new law that sets up enhanced penalty zones in which drivers who speed get higher fines. Reviewing more than 1 million crashes in Florida from 2002 to 2005, she found that the speed zones aren’t located in areas with the highest rates of speed-related crashes. The state…
Read MoreThe latest report on subprime lending woes comes from The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. Reporters Tim Darragh and Matt Birkbeck predict that the worst is yet to come in the region. With their home prices pumped up to record levels, Lehigh and Northampton counties ranked first and second among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties for growth…
Read MoreAll seven of the top horse trainers leading the national earnings list faced penalties for horses testing positive for ephedrine, bicarbonate loading or powerful painkillers in the past decade, a San Diego Union-Tribune investigation found. Reporter Brent Schrotenboer checked records for 20 successful trainers in Southern California; 12 had violations, including some in 2006. Trainers…
Read MoreNevada’s pension fund for state workers, legislators and judges holds investments in companies that have pushed to dump nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain— even though the state has fought to keep the shipments out. Steve Kanigher and Alex Richards of Las Vegas Sun discovered that the $23 billion portfolio, run by independent fund managers, holds…
Read MoreDenver Post reporter Miles Moffeit investigated the “the largely unnoticed months-long battle over DNA testing and evidence preservation” created by efforts to overturn the murder conviction of Tim Masters. The Post will follow up with a four-part series on the loss and destruction of DNA evidence by authorities nationwide and how it’s undermined justice for…
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