The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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20 percent of early release inmates in Fresno County back in jail
The Fresno (Calif.) Bee analyzed Fresno County Jail data and found one in five inmates released early over the past year was already back in jail. “Probation violations, drug possession and disorderly conduct were the most common charges, but some early-release inmates also have been arrested for violent crime such as robbery.”
Read MoreDelays on loan modifications leave many vulnerable to foreclosure
Many homeowners have struggled to obtain loan modifications through Litton Loan Servicing, according to a report by Mc Nelly Torres for ConsumerAffairs.com. Dozens of complaints against Litton have been filed with ConsumerAffairs.com. Months-long delays on promised modifications have left many customers vulnerable to or victims of foreclosure. Litton settled a class action suit last spring “alleging…
Read MorePrivate school tax credits going to publicly-funded charter schools
In the most recent installments of its series on private school tuition tax credits, The Arizona Republic revealed that the system is so lax that publicly-funded charter schools have been able to tap into the tax credit intended for private schools. The Republic also found that a number of private school tuition organizations are failing…
Read MoreMillions await disability benefits due to backlog
An enormous backlog of disability claims have left millions waiting for their benefits leading to “splintered families, foreclosed homes and suicides,” reports Clark Kauffman of The Des Moines Register. “During the past year, the number of people waiting to have their claims processed has increased more than 30 percent, from 556,000 to more than 736,000…Nationally,…
Read MoreWashington Redskins: The Toughest Ticket in Town
For more than 70 years, the Washington Redskins have boasted that they have sold out every game. Seats are so scarce that the waiting list for general admission season tickets has 160,000 names on it. But James Grimaldi of The Washington Post reports that the reality is that the team has sold thousands of general…
Read MoreState looks to junk bonds to recover pension losses
Carolina Journal‘s Sarah Okeson reports that North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell is hoping to recover a potential $3.3 billion loss in the state’s pension portfolio by investing in junk bonds and commodities. “A new law, signed by Gov. Beverly Perdue in June, lets the state treasurer put up to 5 percent of the pension’s assets…
Read MoreHarsh policing tactics employed during RNC assessed
G.W. Schulz of the Center for Investigative Reporting investigated the policing tactics used during Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. last year. “Officials took unprecedented advantage of new laws to halt potential subversives before they attack. But the effort resulted in heavy-handed tactics, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Center for Investigative…
Read MoreLax board, hazardous lending lead to bank’s failure
Hazardous lending practices approved by the directors of Cape Fear Bank appear to have contributed to the bank’s failure, according to a report by Stella M. Hopkins of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. John Davie Waggett, a successful pharmacist, tried his hand at real estate development securing over $18 million in loans. The largest lender was…
Read MoreAccidental deaths remain a problem for the medical industry
Hearst Newspapers reveals widespread failure ten years after a federal report implored the medical industry to cut in half the annual death toll from medical errors and hospital-caused infections, estimated at 200,000. Among the failures: the federal government doesn’t even tally the nation’s leading category of accidental deaths. Some states tried but most failed. Hospital…
Read MoreArmy ends practice of profiling journalists covering war efforts
Stars and Stripes (Washington, D.C.) reporter Kevin Baron reports that less than a week after the paper first revealed that the Pentagon was routinely profiling journalists, the Army decided to cancel the program. “The U.S. military is canceling its contract with a controversial private firm that was producing background profiles of journalists seeking to cover…
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