Business Archives

Ford leaves behind toxic legacy in N.J.

October 14, 2005

"Toxic Legacy" is a five-part series by reporters at The Record exploring the environmental and health impacts of paint sludge and other industrial waste dumped a generation ago in watersheds and other environmentally sensitive areas by the Ford Motor Co. For 25 years, ending in 1980, the automaker operated a massive assembly plant in Bergen…

City approved slipshod repairs on homes

October 10, 2005

Mike McGraw and Michael Mansur of The Kansas City Star report that an investigation by The Kansas City Star revealed that the taxpayer-supported home maintenance program overseen by the city’s former housing agency approved of shoddy repair work on homes leading to leaky roofs, sagging ceilings, buckling and poorly repaired foundations and dangerous furnaces and…

Hatch leads in money from alcohol interests

October 6, 2005

Lee Davidson at Salt Lake City's The Deseret Morning News reported that Orrin Hatch, despite being a former Mormon bishop teetotaler, has received more from alcohol interests than any other U.S. Senator this year — and he’s among the top five in money from tobacco interests. The Deseret Morning News also searched Federal Election Commission…

Candidate helped defeat ban on gambling

October 6, 2005

Jim Galloway and Alan Judd of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution report that Ralph Reed, who has vocally condemned gambling as a "cancer on the American body politic," quietly worked five years ago to kill a proposed ban on Internet wagering on behalf of eLottery Inc., a Connecticut-based company in the online gambling industry. The defeated legislation…

Data reveals no-bid contracts for hurricane clean up

September 30, 2005

Eric Lipton and Ron Nixon of The New York Times used federal contract data covering hurricane response to show that “more than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency alone were awarded without bidding or with limited competition … provoking concerns among auditors and government officials about…

Getty museum had clues it was buying looted pieces

September 28, 2005

Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino of the Los Angeles Times report the J. Paul Getty Museum, the world’s richest art institution, knew as early as 1985 that “three of their principal suppliers were selling objects that probably had been looted and that the museum continued to buy from them anyway.” The Times obtained Getty documents…

Nonprofits mislead about destination of donations

September 22, 2005

Kelby Hartson Carr of The Times in Munster, Ind., looks into the accuracy of IRS 990 forms filed by nonprofit organizations. After an examination of all 990s filed for “fiscal year 2003 by nonprofit agencies based in Lake County, Porter County and Chicago’s south suburbs,” the paper found that 70 percent that raised public donations…

Lax oversight contributes to high foreclosure rate

September 22, 2005

Geoff Dutton and Jill Riepenhoff of The Columbus Dispatch investigated Ohio’s high foreclosure rate, “a problem fueled by a weak economy, aggressive mortgage brokers, financial overreaching and tepid state oversight.”. The newspaper analyzed Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, obtained U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development audit reports of homebuilders through the federal Freedom of…

San Diego land inventory flawed

September 21, 2005

Brooke Williams and Danielle Cervantes of the San Diego Union-Tribune compiled data on the city’s land holdings, finding that “the city’s inventory of real estate assets, worth billions of dollars, is seriously flawed. A roster of 4,430 parcels the city supplied omits some property, and it also lists land the city has never owned, land…

Funds for workers could drive agencies to bankruptcy