The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Series investigates Twin Cities groundwater
In a three-part series that began Sunday, Sept. 16, David Shaffer of the Star Tribune analyzed databases and pollution reports to identify 20 areas of significant groundwater contamination in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region. Most of them are located in the suburbs, and some pose a serious threat to drinking water supplies. The series looks…
Read MoreChronic Polluters, Tainted Waters
Josh Kovner and Regine Labossiere of The Hartford Courant conducted a two-month investigation into the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s lax enforcement of the federal Clean Water Act. They found that 17 of 35 companies covered by the Act are dumping toxic chemicals into the state’s waterways under permit limits that have expired, some more…
Read MoreUS exports unsafe products
While much hoopla was made of the recall of certain Chinese-made products by the Consumer Product Safety Division, United States companies have been allowed to export unsafe products overseas, according to a report by Russell Carrollo of The Sacramento Bee. These items included very flammable children
Read MoreCEOs of healthcare nonprofit netting top dollars
The Honolulu Advertiser examined nonprofit salaries and reported that “the largest healthcare nonprofits in Hawai’i pay their chief executive more than $820,000 on average. Large foundations and trusts in Hawai’i pay an average of $341,000 to their top manager. Executives at a sampling of service providers were paid the least, averaging $133,100.” The healthcare companies…
Read MorePoughkeepsie firms benefit from government grants
The Poughkeepsie Journal used an analysis of federal data to find that “United States government agencies paid $39.4 million through federal contracts to more than 150 local businesses, nonprofits and individuals in the two most recent fiscal years.” While there has been a trend nationally of larger corporations receiving more grants at the expense of…
Read MoreAnimal shelter practices questioned
Sarah Okeson of Florida Today investigated the Brevard County animal services department after questions have been raised about how the Animal Services & Enforcement Department is being run. Allegations include one employee who has been illegally selling animals from the shelters. An audit found that the ownership records of 43 animals were changed in the…
Read MoreRailroads of Neglect
A Blue Line train bounced off its track and derailed in a fire that sent 1,000 passengers running for their lives in July 2006. Jon Hilkevitch and Monique Garcia of the Chicago Tribune read thousands of pages of investigative files and transcribed interviews of Chicago Transit Authority workers after the accident. Their story describes the…
Read MoreBusinessWeek tallies payoff from lobbying
BusinessWeek notes that, while scrutiny of federal earmarks and corporate lobbying has intensified recently,“no one outside the lobbying firms and corporate boardrooms has ever known just how much all those lobbyists bring in.” Based on an analysis of nearly 2,000 earmarks that went to companies in fiscal 2005, the story by Eamon Javers estimates that,…
Read MorePerks grew while budgets shrank in three Florida counties
With tax cuts and the real estate bust forcing local governments to slash their budgets, Doug Sword, Anthony Cormier and Patrick Whittle of the Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Fla.) looked at spending in three local sheriff’s agencies. They found a number of questionable expenses, such as a luxury SUV for Sarasota’s sheriff with upgrades like climate controlled…
Read MoreOfficer’s record leads courts to re-evaluate misconduct policies
Gina Barton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mined court records to find ten similar cases alleging that Jason Mucha, a Milwaukee Police officer, had beaten suspects or planted drugs. Despite the claims of misconduct, Officer Mucha had never been disciplined. Instead, the department promoted him to sergeant. After reviewing the cases, a state Court of…
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