The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
Miami transit OT draining county budget
Jack Dolan, Larry Lebowitz and Scott Hiaasen of The Miami Herald analyzed local payroll data to find that “transit overtime pay — which is 1.5 times as high as regular hourly rates and cost taxpayers more than $129 million over the last five years — is a long-standing drain on county funds that has persisted…
Read MoreCity pays millions for bottled water
Cecilia M. Vega of the San Francisco Chronicle used public records to show that San Francisco, owner of a pristine reservoir in the Sierra Nevada with a reputation for producing some of the country’s best-tasting tap water, has spent more than $2 million of taxpayers’ money in the past 4½ years on bottled water. According…
Read MoreFederal list of safe structures flawed
Richard Whitt of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Holiday Inn & Suites, where a fire killed a South Carolina man on Sunday, improperly made the U.S. Fire Administration’s “National Master List” of structures deemed safe for federal employees while on government business. To get on the list, a hotel or motel owner has to…
Read MoreCity’s weekly dam reports fabricated
Greg Bruno and Jessica Gardner of The Times Herald-Record reviewed documents to show that inspection reports designed to prevent catastrophic failings at two New York City-owned dams in the Catskills were repeatedly fabricated, even as water officials publicly proclaimed the structures’ safety. “Since September 2002, about 70 percent of the city’s weekly inspections for the…
Read MoreAide might have violated ethics rules
Thomas Peele of the Contra Costa Times used congressional financial disclosure statements, state and federal campaign finance reports, IRS records, congressional committee and staff disbursement records and other documents to show that Rep. Richard Pombo’s top aide, Steven Ding, might have violated congressional ethics rules by not correctly reporting all of his outside political work…
Read MoreNation’s mine rescue system falling short
Ken Ward Jr. reports in the Charleston, W.Va., Sunday Gazette-Mail “the nation’s miners face a mounting risk because of a rescue system that is growing ever short on personnel and is in major need of reforms.” From 2000 to 2002, the number of safety teams approved by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration dropped…
Read MoreVehicle planned for Marines said to be ‘dangerous’
Joseph Neff of The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer reports that a vehicle the Marines plan to use for transport of troops and mortars may be inadequate. The vehicles, called Growlers, look “a lot like a Vietnam-era jeep. But this model, a modified dune buggy, costs $127,000 each and doesn’t have armor. Some experts worry…
Read MoreGa. hotel bill for Katrina evacuees tops $19 million
Yolanda Rodriguez of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with assistance from Craig Schneider, Leon Stafford and database editor David A. Milliron, used a FOIA request to show that “Georgia hotels have billed taxpayers more than $19 million to house evacuees who fled after hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast last year.” The agency has paid…
Read MoreAlito takes hard line on crime, immigration
Amy Goldstein and Sarah Cohen of The Washington Post, with a team of reporters and researchers, categorized Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito’s rulings and compared them to other federal appeals court judges, finding that “Alito has taken a harder line on criminal and immigration cases than most federal appellate judges nationwide, including those who, like…
Read MoreGa. voter registration system unreliable
Alan Judd, with data help from David A. Milliron, of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution compared a statewide voter registration database with a list of more than 100 commercial mailbox outlets in metro Atlanta, as well as voter registrations in the downtown business district and at government facilities, to identify flaws in the state’s voter registration system.…
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