The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Extra Extra
EPA chemical regulations lax
Meg Kissinger and Susanne Rust of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed how the Environmental Protection Agency fails to regulate chemicals that are made in excess of one million pounds a year. The EPA vowed to crack down on these types of chemicals years ago but has made little progress – largely because chemical makers can…
Read MoreWeak rules hinder appraiser oversight
Mitch Weiss of the Associated Press found that the system set up to protect consumers from rogue appraisers following the savings and loan crisis nearly 20 years ago has failed, playing a major role in America’s housing collapse. His six-month investigation showed more than two dozen states and territories are violating federal law by failing…
Read MoreHandling of death investigation riddled with questions
The coroner and police reports from the 2004 death of Kathy Savio raise many questions about how the original investigation was handled, report Erika Slife and Matthew Walberg of the Chicago Tribune. “The investigators and experts re-examining her death as a possible murder are now asking how police could have been so quick to overlook…
Read MoreSan Diego redevelopment chief resigns, projects in peril
A voiceofsandiego.org investigation has led to the resignation of San Diego’s downtown redevelopment chief and put the future of a $409 million hotel and condo project in question. The investigation revealed that the redevelopment chief acknowledged receiving almost $3 million in income from a business deal with a developer while her agency chose the company’s…
Read MoreDemoted to Private
Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigative reporter Eric Nalder showed that political patronage, the zeal to privatize, and a failure at background checks led to disaster for taxpayers and military families. Three services gave 8,000 military houses and billion-dollar contracts to a company headed by a politically-connected Texan involved in a messy bankruptcy and a Connecticut property manager…
Read MoreData shows 13-year-olds run highest risk of hunting accidents
More 13-year-olds — 10 since 2001 — were shot in hunting-related accidents than persons of any other age, a Tulsa World analysis found. That’s more than two times as many hunting accidents than any other age group since 2001. Three of the 10 accidents were fatal. Experts site inexperience and immaturity as likely reasons for…
Read MoreBuilding project for neighborhood school initiative fails
Dave Umhoefer and Alan J. Borsuk of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found in a three-part series “Subtraction by Addition” that Milwaukee Public Schools spent $102 million on a building spree on bigger neighborhood schools but that the building program has largely failed. Today, many of those new classrooms are empty. Declines in enrollment and falling…
Read MoreMedical records breached despite privacy law
Clark Kauffman of The Des Moines Register reports that in the past five years, 38,000 Americans, including 267 Iowans, have complained of medical-privacy violations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. More than half of those complaints nationally have been disposed of with no investigation. Until last year, no one nationally ever was prosecuted…
Read MoreWater “dead zones” doubling each decade
A recent study shows that the number of “dead zones” in bodies of water across the globe has doubled every decade since the 1960s, reports Joel Achenbach of The Washington Post. Fertilizer in agriculture run-off and air pollution are two factors that are causing hypoxia in coastal waters. “A few hypoxic ecosystems have improved in…
Read MoreMan exonerated by DNA evidence after serving 18 years
Robert McClendon of Columbus, Ohio was freed from prison by a Franklin County judge after serving 18 years for a child rape that new DNA tests showed he did not commit, report Geoff Dutton and Mike Wagner of The Columbus Dispatch. McClendon was one of 30 prisoners identified by The Columbus Dispatch and the Ohio…
Read More