The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Documents detail complaints that FDA managers are too lenient with industry
Internal Food and Drug Administration documents indicate that an FDA official overruled agency scientists and approved the sale of an imaging device for breast cancer after receiving a phone call from a Connecticut congressman. The legislator’s call and its effect on what is supposed to be a science-based approval process is only one of many…
Read MoreExamining the environmental cost of coal mining practice
A year-long investigation by the Center for Public Integrity details the steep environmental toll taken by the practice of longwall mining, a process employed to quickly and cheaply extract coal. The investigation found that longwall mining dramatically rearranges the earth’s landscape, depleting water resources and disrupting wildlife.
Read MoreCoal ash dam in Tennessee had previous leaks
“The chief executive of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the coal-burning power plant responsible for an enormous flood of coal ash in East Tennessee late last month, acknowledged Thursday that the plant’s containment ponds had leaked two other times in the last five years but had not been adequately repaired,” according to a report…
Read MoreInvestigation into problems in county program kept secret
Voice of San Diego reporter Will Carless reports that the county of San Diego has kept secret the results of an investigation into a report of improprieties in a program that provides wheelchairs and other medical services to children with physical disabilities. The investigation lasted more than a year and led to disciplinary action and…
Read MoreCitigroup bailed out subprime lender
A report by John Gittelsohn of the Orange Country Register details how Daniel Sadek, a subprime mortgage lender, was bailed out by Citigroup. Sadek was the founder of Quick Loan Funding which wrote over $4 billion in subprime loans before its demise in 2007. Citigroup, recipient of the largest federal bank bailout, offered Sadek modified…
Read MoreAIG’s role in financial crisis explored
In the latest installment of The Washington Post’s look at the ways in which Wall Street innovation outpaced Washington regulation, Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Brady Dennis look at the role played by American International Group (AIG). They find that many of the most compelling aspects of the economic cataclysm can be seen through the story…
Read MoreOhio children die despite state oversight
An investigation by Randy Ludlow of The Columbus Dispatch uncovered that more than one-third of the Ohio children who died from abuse and neglect from 2002 to 2007 died on the watch of county children services agencies. The story revealed that caseworkers regularly made fatal mistakes by leaving imperiled children in abusive homes. The package…
Read MoreMany NBA players’ charities mismanaged
A Salt Lake Tribune analysis of NBA player-run charities found they face a wide range of problems, from meager funding and high administrative costs to a lack of professional staffing and oversight. Tax records indicate these 89 charities together raised at least $31 million between 2005 and 2007, but only about $14 million of that…
Read MoreAthletes’ SAT scores lag at major colleges and universities
An investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that football and men’s basketball players on the nation’s big-time college teams averaged hundreds of points lower on their SATs than their classmates. The investigation involved using state open records acts to request reports that colleges must file with the NCAA disclosing SAT scores of their athletes. More than 50…
Read MoreOfficers use deadly deadly force against unarmed suspects
A Los Angeles Times investigation has found that over the last six years, police officers in Inglewood, Calif., have repeatedly resorted to physical or deadly force against suspects who were unarmed or accused of minor offenses. In the span of four months this year, Inglewood officers shot and killed four people, three of them unarmed. The…
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