The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
Post-9/11 laws blurring the line of terrorism
“The Sept. 11 attacks prompted almost every nation to adopt or toughen anti-terror laws. Until now, no one followed up to see who was impacted. In an unprecedented 9-month investigation, journalists in more than 100 countries found that at least 35,000 people have been convicted on terror charges since 2001, from bombers to bloggers.AP National…
Read MoreLouisiana government contractor may be overbilling for thousands of dollars more
Fox 8‘s, Lee Zurik investigates one Louisiana government contractor that appears to be over-charging FEMA and local Sheriff’s department. Benetech, and it’s owner Aaron Bennett, have made millions of public dollars since Katrina by overcharging for their employees. One former employee of Benetech, Joddie Crenshaw, agreed to be interviewed by Zurik, and stated that for…
Read MoreKBR’s umbrella contract with the government raises questions
As U.S. troops moved into Afghanistan in the months following 9/11, there were few facilities in place that would offer them support. As Sharon Weinberger of The Center for Public Integrity reports, “the military needed someone to do everything from housing troops to rebuilding airfields. The solution was a contract called the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LOGCAP,…
Read MoreAfter spending millions on a publicly funded power plant, company has little to show
In a two-part series, the Duluth News Tribune found that despite receiving $42 million in state and federal funding over 10 years, a proposed “clean coal” plant has yet to move a shovelful of dirt. And despite receiving all of its backing from the public trough, the company’s spending records, including its officers’ paychecks, were…
Read MoreTowing Services Division continues to rack up high overtime payouts
Since 2007, the city of St. Louis has worked to cut overtime costs. Many departments have been successful, though one stands out as continuing to rack up high overtime payouts: the Towing Services Division. Reporter David Hunn of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, writes that the foremen “in the towing division serve as examples of how the…
Read MoreWilkes-Barre mayor used used summer jobs program to hire family, friends
Citizens Voice reporter, Andrew Staub, uses DocumentCloud to publish documents showing Mayor Tom Leighton has been hiring his kids and relatives for summer jobs. Over the past 8 years, Leighton hired his children for over a dozen different positions. However, it’s not just his children he’s hiring, but also affluent children from his neighborhood. “The hires have clouded…
Read MoreCMS reports over 600 pages of neglect at Dallas County public hospital
Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital, which offers care to much of the poor community in the Dallas County area, have been targeted by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. They found countless incidents of deficiencies in the hospital, including “patients lost in hallways, buckled over in pain. Children discharged without medical screening or stabilizing…
Read MoreDetroit’s Human Services Department spends $200k+ on new furnishings instead of feeding and clothing low-income families
Steve Neavling and Jim Schaefer of the Detroit Free Press uncover, that despite a third of Detroit’s population living below the federal poverty line, their Human Services Department spent “$182,000 in furniture purchases destined for the department offices at 5031 Grandy, near Warren and Mt. Elliott.” City officials said the purchases were especially egregious because…
Read MoreClerical errors in the Social Security Administration report thousands of living people as dead
The Social Security Administration each month falsely reports that nearly 1,200 living Americans have died. These clerical errors, found in a federal database ominously titled the “Death Master File,” might be darkly humorous — evoking Mark Twain’s famous quip that death reports can be greatly exaggerated — were not the consequences so severe. Thomas Hargrove…
Read MoreAfter several reports of abuse, HI long-term care facilities goes unsanctioned
“In a state where nursing homes are rarely sanctioned, federal regulators did not penalize one of Hawaii’s premium institutions for its failure to protect defenseless elderly women from a sexually abusive caregiver. They also didn’t sanction a nursing home even after a nurse’s failure to follow physician orders resulted in the puncturing of a man’s…
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