The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Police failed to track government-owned take-home vehicles
An investigation by Daniel Chacón of The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) found that the “Colorado Springs Police Department’s tracking of dozens of take-home government-owned vehicles is so incomplete no one can say if officers are using them to respond to emergencies, commuting or personal errands.” The police department was not aware of the issue until…
Read MoreRecall of tainted meat did not include beef provided to schools
Blake Morrison, Peter Eisler and Anthony DeBarros of USA Today report that a recall of tainted beef from Beef Packers of Fresno, Calif. did not include beef supplied to schools. Their investigation calls into question whether adequate steps were taken to ensure meat supplied for school lunches was safe for consumption. Beef Packers has had…
Read MoreFunding problems found in charter school construction program
Tony Kennedy of the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune reports that some of the state’s charter schools have found a loophole in the Minnesota law that forbids charter schools from owning property. Millions of dollars in public money have gone to build schools even though the properties remain in the hands of private nonprofit corporations. According to…
Read MoreShut out of Social Security
Mike Chalmers of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., found a pattern of “denial and delay” among administrative law judges who have the power to grant or deny Social Security benefits to disabled workers in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The News Journal “analyzed four years of decisions by ALJ in every state, more than 1.7…
Read MoreSoldier’s suicide illustrates problems in military psychiatric care
Tapping into hundreds of pages of medical records, Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel told the story of Iraq vet James Weigl, who committed suicide soon after his return to Wisconsin. Kissinger’s reporting identified numerous mistakes and missed warning signs – by the Army and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee. For example,…
Read MoreLawmakers, state employees get millions in health insurance perks
Beth Reinhard and Marc Caputo of The Miami Herald report that Florida taxpayers foot the bill for the insurance premiums of Governor Charlie Crist and other high-ranking Florida officials. According to the article, 2,431 of the 27,479 government employees who receive this subsidy earn more than $100,000. The subsidy program costs about $45 million a…
Read MoreMan paroled 22 years after questionable conviction
An investigation by Times Herald-Record reporter Christine Young into the questionable handling by police and prosecutors of a 1987 New York City murder has led to the prison release of a man convicted of the crime. Lebrew Jones, who spent 22 years behind bars for a crime he maintained he did not commit, has been…
Read MoreConsultancies a cash-cow for retired military
A USA Today investigation found that the Pentagon has hired “at least 158 retired admirals and generals…to offer advice under an unusual arrangement. Most of the retired officers, one to four stars in rank, have been paid hundreds of dollars an hour by the military even as they worked for companies seeking Defense Department contracts.”…
Read MoreDomestic Silence series
A Columbus Dispatch investigation of domestic violence by Stephanie Czekalinski, Jill Riepenhoff and Mike Wagner shows flaws in Ohio laws and policies that create a culture of tolerance and indifference about the top crime in the state. Among the findings in the four-day series are that animals receive more protections than people, restraining orders for…
Read MoreFBI tracked Studs Terkel for over four decades
Through the Freedom of Information Act, CUNY graduate student Valerie Lapinski was able to obtain previously unreleased FBI file of Studs Terkel. The file revealed that the agency suspected Terkel was a Communist. “The 269-page paper trail spans 1945 to 1990 – covering everything from Terkel’s McCarthy-era blacklisting to his involvement with Paul Robeson and…
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