The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
U.S. has approved billions in business with blacklisted countries
Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has allowed American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by Jo Becker of The New York Times has found. Nearly 10,000 licenses for deals involving such countries…
Read MoreAs deportations from county jails increase, some avoid criminal prosecutions
As the number of deportations from county jails increases across the country and in central Ohio, local authorities are struggling to deal with the fallout, a year-long examination by the The Columbus Dispatch found. In a communication mixup, ICE agents deported a witness in a murder trial before he could testify. The accused, a US…
Read MoreGun stores remain open due to ineffective laws
Hobbled by Congress, federal watchdogs rarely revoke the licenses of lawbreaking gun dealers. And when they do, stores can easily beat the system by having a relative, friend or employee pull a fresh license – something that routinely happens across the country, a Journal Sentinel investigation by reporters John Diedrich and Ben Poston has found.…
Read MoreSafety of crib bumpers called into question
An investigation by Ellen Gabler of the Chicago Tribune has prompted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to review the safety of crib bumpers, which are popular baby products sold in stores throughout the country. The Tribune found that while the safety commission acknowledged it has gotten more than two dozen reports of infant deaths…
Read MoreState Department fails to address student visa abuses
A six-month Associated Press investigation uncovered massive problems with a popular State Department program designed to foster cultural understanding. Reporters Bert Mohr, Mitch Weiss and Mike Baker found that foreign students pay recruiters thousands to help find employment, then don’t get work or wind up making little or no money at menial jobs. Labor recruiters…
Read MoreState inspectors overwhelmed by fracking infractions
An investigation by Isaac Wolf, national reporter for Scripps Howard News Service, found that fracking, a widespread method of extracting natural gas by shooting chemical-laced water underground, is a growing threat to water supplies in 28 states, according to scientists, landowners and environmentalists. Plus, Wolf reported, overwhelmed, understaffed state inspectors aren’t keeping up with the exploding number of…
Read MoreTracing the guns used to kill cops
In The Washington Post‘s continuing investigation, The Hidden Life of Guns, reporter Cheryl W. Thompson offers the first comprehensive analysis of how cop-killers got their guns. “Legal purchase was the leading source of weapons used to kill police officers. In 107 slayings, the killers acquired their firearms legally. In 170 deaths, The Post could not…
Read MoreSatellite monitoring of sex offenders under attack
In a two-part story on North Caroina’s satellite-based monitoring of sex offenders program, the Winston-Salem Journal newspaper found that technological limitations create a system that some say does nothing more than create a false feeling of security. Additionally, legal challenges may reduce the number of offenders who will have to enroll. The Journal built an…
Read MoreFelons, including sex offenders, ran camp for homeless kids
A Palm Beach Post investigation showed that Palm Beach County government officials paid a convicted child molester, thieves, drug dealers and other people with criminal records nearly half a million dollars to run subsidized summer camps for homeless and foster children during the past three years. The story also called attention to a loophole in Florida law…
Read MoreProgram introduced to better track crime on indian reservations
An investigation by of The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah) found that inconsistently reported crime data has meant criminal activity on the country’s American Indian reservations is not well understood. Due to inconsistencies in the reporting of this data, some tribes have missed the chance for federal money for resource intended to help…
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