The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Parolees clustered in a handful of communities in Utah
An investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune found clustering of probationers and parolees “in specific neighborhoods and even apartment buildings, despite rules prohibiting people on supervision from associating with one another. Law enforcement and scholars say offenders are more likely to succeed if they are dispersed, but a lack of halfway houses and city ordinances…
Read MoreTracking gang activity in Tennessee
The Tennessean‘s three-part series on gangs reveals a growing problem across the state, particularly in suburbia and small towns. Law enforcement is overwhelmed and schools are ripe recruiting grounds in what’s part of a national trend of gangs expanding their influence to areas outside the urban core to sell drugs. The newspaper gained access to…
Read MorePayday loan industry profits, fights regulation
Keith Epstein of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund provides an inside look at the tactics of the influential $42 billion-a-year payday lending industry, which is thriving from a surge in emergency loans to people struggling through the recession as it pours record sums into lobbying and campaigns. It’s getting results, too – most notably in…
Read MoreLawyers to Ohio’s governor intervened in active criminal investigation
An investigation by Randy Ludlow of The Columbus Dispatch revealed that the top two lawyers to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland intervened in an active criminal investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol into “an alleged scheme to cover up the use of illegal immigrants to remodel a state-leased office building.” A lobbyist who is close…
Read MoreDespite fatalities, many police officers fail to wear seat belts
An investigation by the Houston Chronicle found dozens of police officers across the country have died in car crashes while unbuckled — at least 64 between 2004 and 2008 alone. It also discovered a widespread culture in police agencies of officers refusing to wear seat belts. “Some officers worry that their belts could hinder them…
Read MoreKingpin of illegal wildlife trade turns focus to tigers
An investigation by Bryan Christy for National Geographic reveals that Anson Wong of Malaysia, “the Pablo Escobar of Illegal Wildlife Trade” is out of U.S. prison and has plans to specialize in a new tiger operation with help from his government.
Read MorePrescription drugs linked to seventy percent of Milwaukee overdoses
In an analysis of prescription drug deaths in the Milwaukee area, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Kertscher found of the 1,200 overdose deaths in an eight-year period, some 70% involved prescription drugs. Kertscher created the database himself by reviewing the medical examiner reports for each of the counties in question. Additionally, Kertscher reviewed hundreds of…
Read MoreEight deaths reported by homeowners with toxic drywall
Homeowners with toxic drywall have reported eight deaths to federal consumer safety officials, though no direct linkage has been found. That’s according to a Scripps Howard News Service analysis of almost 2,700 drywall complaints to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and 467 follow-up inspections by the CPSC, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act…
Read MoreLeaking underground tanks leave legacy of contamination in Pennsylvania
An investigation of leaky underground storage tanks in the Lehigh Valley by Christopher Baxter and Tim Darragh of The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) found spills left lingering for years or even decades, homeowners kept in the dark about nearby problems and inconsistent tracking and enforcement by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The project includes…
Read MoreCalifornia state employees pile up millions in vacation time
Amid a crippling fiscal crisis, managers throughout California’s government have routinely allowed their employees to amass unused vacation time, enabling hundreds of workers to end their public-service careers with payouts topping $100,000, a California Watch investigation has found. One worker combined vacation and compensatory time to walk away with more than $800,000, records show.
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