The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
Homeland security funds wasted across California
G.W. Schulz of California Watch found widespread waste and mismanagement of homeland security grants awarded to agencies throughout the state of California. Schulz reviewed thousands of pages of documents from state monitoring reports and found scores of problems and questionable purchases.
Read MoreFraud in child care system linked to lack of oversight
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Raquel Rutledge exposed flaws in Wisconsin’s taxpayer-financed child care system – and the case workers, supervisors and politicians responsible for costing taxpayers millions. In a two-part series, Rutledge looked at the case of a woman who collected nearly $3 million in taxpayer money while running a questionable operation. For a decade,…
Read MoreNepotism bogged down struggling Tacoma housing agency
Lewis Kamb of The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) used IRS 990 forms, non-profit records and meeting minutes, and interviews to piece together the developing story about financial mismanagement at Tacoma’s largest private non-profit affordable housing agency. This story is the latest installment in a series about nepotism in hiring practices involving Washington state’s former Speaker…
Read MorePrivate school tax credits going to publicly-funded charter schools
In the most recent installments of its series on private school tuition tax credits, The Arizona Republic revealed that the system is so lax that publicly-funded charter schools have been able to tap into the tax credit intended for private schools. The Republic also found that a number of private school tuition organizations are failing…
Read MoreMillions await disability benefits due to backlog
An enormous backlog of disability claims have left millions waiting for their benefits leading to “splintered families, foreclosed homes and suicides,” reports Clark Kauffman of The Des Moines Register. “During the past year, the number of people waiting to have their claims processed has increased more than 30 percent, from 556,000 to more than 736,000…Nationally,…
Read MoreState looks to junk bonds to recover pension losses
Carolina Journal‘s Sarah Okeson reports that North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell is hoping to recover a potential $3.3 billion loss in the state’s pension portfolio by investing in junk bonds and commodities. “A new law, signed by Gov. Beverly Perdue in June, lets the state treasurer put up to 5 percent of the pension’s assets…
Read MoreFormer governor failed to report gift of $50,000 golf club dues
Andy Curliss of The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) reported that former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley got at least $50,000 in free golf dues from an expensive club near Raleigh and did not report the gift on the required disclosure forms. The News & Observer‘s continued coverage of Gov. Easley has led to federal…
Read MoreRetreat pay a costly perk in UNC system
Dan Kane and Eric Ferreri of The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) took a look at a little known perk for University of North Carolina administrators known as “retreat rights” that paid them as much as a full year’s leave at their administrative salaries while they prepared for courses. In several cases, the administrators left…
Read MoreA look at the influence of foreign lobbyists on Capitol Hill
Analysis of foreign lobbying disclosure records by ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation provide insight into foreign influence on Capitol Hill. “More than 280 lobbying firms collected $87 million in fees for representing 340 foreign clients, including governments, government-controlled organizations, political parties, separatist groups and a handful of for-profit firms.” United Arab a, principally addressing interests in…
Read MoreBacklog overwhelms U.S. Patent and Tradmark Office
John Schmid and Ben Poston of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office “has become overwhelmed by the growing volume and complexity of the applications it receives, creating a massive backlog that by its own reckoning could take at least six years to get under control.” The also found that…
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