The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Extra Extra
Despite no data to prove case, NY institutions receive more state dollars for residents with alleged criminal backgrounds
Institutions for developmentally disabled New Yorkers have taken a new approach to care: locked units for people who officials say have had a brush with the law, according to an investigation by Mary Beth Pfeiffer of the Poughkeepsie Journal. In Part 2 of the ongoing series, “Money Pit/Money Makers” the newspaper revealed that the state…
Read MoreCompany executives knew of questionable spending by underlings who paid bribes to win city contract
Detroit Free Press investigative reporter Jennifer Dixon uncovered government documents showing that top executives at Synagro Technologies knew of questionable spending by underlings who paid bribes to win a $1.2-billion city contract in Detroit. The report noted that federal authorities prosecuted the two underlings, who now are in federal prison; but no executives with the…
Read MorePost series reveals national security system too large to manage
The Washington Post’s “Top Secret America” series investigates the U.S. national security and intelligence system that is “so big, so complex and so hard to manage, no one really knows if it’s fulfilling its most important purpose: keeping its citizens safe.” The project, nearly two years in the making, includes detailed interactive graphics and maps.
Read MoreSecondary chemo exposure a threat to healthcare workers
An InvestigateWest investigation revealed that the same powerful chemotherapy drugs that have saved hundreds of thousands of patients’ lives for decades have at the same time taken a potentially deadly toll on the health of hospital and clinic workers who handled them. The federal government, despite knowledge of the potential risks, continues to let these…
Read MoreGulf of Mexico littered with abandoned oil and gas wells
Associated Press reporters Jeff Donn and Mitch Weiss discovered that more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one – not industry, not government – is checking to see if they are leaking. The oldest…
Read MoreBlast at BP Texas Refinery in ’05 foreshadowed Gulf disaster
An on-going investigation by ProPublica and FRONTLINE traces the story of a deadly but much lesser-known BP refinery explosion in 2005. The report explains how the company’s record of cutting corners on safety to maximize profits may have led to the blast. The explosion at a refinery in Texas City, Texas killed 15 people. “The…
Read MoreFEMA trailers reappearing in Gulf to house oil spill workers
FEMA trailers are appearing in the Gulf region to serve as temporary housing for workers involved in cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to an investigation by Ian Urbina of The New York Times. “The trailers were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being…
Read MoreCradle of Secrets series
An six-part investigation by The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer “examined autopsies for more than 550 baby deaths from 2004-2008 that were classified as SIDS, a category that means natural and unpreventable.” The investigation revealed that at least one well-known and potentially fatal risk factor was present 69 percent of those deaths.
Read MoreBoard members profit from part-time work
An accountant, a lawyer and two retired executives each collected more than $475,000 last year – and one topped $600,000 – doing part-time work for multiple Wisconsin companies, according to review of Securities and Exchange Commission data by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Cary Spivak. The men are members of corporate America’s most elite club: the…
Read MoreInstitutionalized individuals are “cash cows” for the state of New York
Nine institutions for New York’s developmentally disabled get nearly $5,000 per person per day in Medicaid reimbursements. This is ten times what they received in 1991 when the state vowed that they would shut the sprawling, inefficient centers by 2000. According to a report by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, the state…
Read More