The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Racing company profited off subsidies from city of San Diego
An investigation by The San Diego Union-Tribune has found that Elite Racing, a marathon promotion company, has received subsidies from the city of San Diego. According to the article, “The subsidies stem from a nonprofit charity that San Diego-based Elite Racing created that co-hosts the event. It allows the company to cash in on a…
Read MoreLogging practices of Scouts influenced by profit
“A Hearst Newspapers investigation has found dozens of cases over the past 20 years of local Boy Scout councils logging or selling prime woodlands to big timber interests, developers or others, turning quick money and often doing so instead of seeking ways to preserve such lands.” Since 1990, scouting councils have logged over 34,000 acres,…
Read MoreInterior Department’s plan may have hurt Grand Canyon wildlife
Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post obtained memos from the Interior Department suggesting officials may have ignored the environmental risks of a plan to reduce water flow through the Grand Canyon at night when there is low demand for hydroelectric power. The department proceeded with the plan despite warnings that it would harm endangered species…
Read MoreFinancial crisis strikes small community banks
An investigation by Jake Bernstein and A.C. Thompson of ProPublica explores how small community banks around the country are failing after years of profiting off commercial real estate and development loans. Silver State Bank of Nevada was closed by the FDIC in September. “The bank made its biggest bets not on home mortgages, but on…
Read MoreLobbyists spent $12.8 million courting Texas lawmakers
According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, lobbyists spent more than $12 million in the last four years wining and dining Texas lawmakers and other state workers, including trips to pricey resorts across the country. Using lobby disclosure data, reporter Matt Stiles found that state senators and representatives had accepted at least $3.5 million…
Read MoreCashing in on kids
In a two-part series, Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found a trail of phony businesses and child-care providers who were tapping into taxpayer subsidies for child care in Wisconsin. Rutledge reviewed thousands of pages of documents, and also obtained records from whistle-blowers that the county and state refused to release. Her findings revealed…
Read MoreDocuments reveal decisions that led to bank’s demise
Less than a week after Washington state’s Bank of Clark County failed, The Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.) used public records and inside sources to uncover the decisions that sent this financial institution into what one insider called the bank’s “death spiral.” Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. documents, Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council documents and county land records…
Read MoreAlt-weekly exposes mayor’s lie about sexual relationship
Willamette Week, the alt-weekly based in Portland, Ore., broke a story about Portland Mayor Sam Adams. After 16 months of reporting, Willamette Week compiled evidence that Adams had lied in 2007 about having sex with an 18-year-old legislative intern. In an interview last week, Adams again denied having sex with the young man but as…
Read MoreIllinois gala for Obama supported by lobbyists he banned from donating to campaign
Supporters from Barack Obama’s home state held a celebration this week that was paid for, in part, by the same lobbying firms the president-elect banned from donating to his campaign and inaugural committee, Bloomberg’s Jonathan D. Salant and Kate Andersen report. Seven firms that earned a total of at least $30 million in lobbying fees…
Read MoreOfficial confirms detainee was tortured
In an interview with The Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward, the official overseeing U.S. military commissions confirmed that treatment of a Guantanamo Bay detainee qualified as torture. “The public record of the Guantánamo interrogation of the detainee, Mohammed al-Qahtani, has long included what officials labeled abusive techniques, including exposure to extreme temperatures and isolation, but the…
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