The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
Ag programs spend billions to prop up suburbanites, temporary price dips
Dan Morgan, Sarah Cohen and Gilbert M. Gaul of The Washington Post analyzed payment records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an investigative series. People who don’t farm at all have received $1.3 billion in government handouts since 2000, the investigation found. They also found that growers reaped benefits even in good years from…
Read MoreOfficials responsible for overseeing NASA expressed concerns regarding launch of Discovery
Michael Cabbage of the Orlando Sentinel studied e-mails sent from NASA’s Office of the Inspector General to an agency administrator and the chairman of an advisory panel that monitors NASA safety and found that “key officials responsible for overseeing NASA expressed serious concerns about launching space shuttle Discovery without additional work to prevent foam insulation…
Read MoreCity Hall list reveals ‘All-Stars’ of insider clout
Steve Warmbir, Art Golab, Natasha Korecki and Mark J. Konkol of the Chicago Sun-Times did a computer-assisted analysis of 5,743 requests for city jobs, promotions or transfers made to the mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs from 1989 to 1997 and found that “Tim Degnan, the mayor’s friend and political adviser, is the biggest slugger, batting…
Read MoreMurders cost Tenn. more than $110 million annually
Melvin Claxton of The Tennessean has a three-part series on the price of murder in Tennessee, finding that “homicides cost state and local governments more than $110 million each year. The bill for Nashville alone, which has accounted for 17 percent of the state’s homicides over the past two decades, exceeds $18.7 million annually.” The…
Read MoreCDC jet used primarily to shuttle official
Alison Young of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed the flight log of the jet leased by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found that “a luxury private jet leased by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use in emergencies has been used instead primarily to shuttle Health and Human Services Secretary Mike…
Read MoreFirefighters earned millions in fire-watch duty
Jack Dolan and Scott Hiaasen of The Miami Herald reviewed the fire department records and found that Miami-Dade County had a special program — “‘fire watch,’ an ostensible public safety program that has never saved a life that anyone can remember, but has put at least $4.3 million into county firefighters’ pockets since 2000. ”…
Read MoreMayor’s brother paid for promoting social service center
Gregory Korte of The Cincinnati Enquirer analyzed weekly billing statements and found that the brother of Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory billed a federal anti-poverty program for working to bring a controversial social services center to the West End. “Dale Mallory, the West End Community Council
Read MoreRating communities’ performance
Michael Mansur and Rick Montgomery of The Kansas City Star used Data Envelopment Analysis to analyze the budget and performance numbers from 18 area cities and rank how efficiently they provided eight municipal services. “Four cities tied in police services: Belton, Grandview, Liberty and Prairie Village. Three cities tied in fire and fire-and-ambulance services: Belton,…
Read MoreFla. officials profit from weak ethics laws
Bob Mahlburg of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reviewed state financial disclosure records to show Florida’s weak ethics laws and how state and local officials with real estate investments walk a tightrope between their public posts and personal profits. “State Sen. Mike Bennett has made more than $2 million renting office space to a state agency he…
Read MoreCongressional travel adds up to $50 million
An analysis of more than 25,000 travel disclosure documents over a 5½-year period by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University’s Medill News Service found that “members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips — valued at almost $50 million — financed by private sponsors, many of them…
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