The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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No funding available in Washington state for thousands of families approved for developmental disability benefits
“No funding available” may best summarize the system for residents with developmental disabilities in Washington state, where some 14,600 families determined eligible for services don’t receive any.
Read MoreStretch of Nogales, Ariz. a ‘flashpoint’ of rocking attacks
“A short stretch across the fence from this road, just a few hundred yards long, is perhaps the one spot along the entire U.S.-Mexico border where Border Patrol agents are most likely to be attacked with rocks and to respond with force,” the Arizona Republic reported. “Roughly one in every six incidents along the entire…
Read MoreAfter NYT series, officials to transfer hundreds of children out of ‘deplorable’ shelters
City officials are moving more than 400 children and their families out of two city-owned shelters in the wake of a New York Times series about homeless children. “For nearly three decades, thousands of children passed through Auburn and Catherine Street, living with cockroaches, spoiled food, violence and insufficient heat, even as inspectors warned that…
Read MoreBill seeks new restrictions on sterilizations in Calif. prisons
A California state senator introduced legislation to limit sterilization surgeries in state prisons, jails and detention centers after the Center for Investigative Reporting found that 132 women received tubal ligations in violation of prison rules. Prison medical staff had been coercing and targeting women “deemed likely to return to prison in the future,” CIR reported.…
Read MoreAir quality monitoring falls short at Eagle Ford oil and gas wells
An oil boom is underway at the Eagle Ford Shale in Karnes County, Texas, but the development is diminishing the quality of life of the inhabitants of the rural county and possibly endangering their health, according to reporting by the Center for Public Integrity, InsideClimate News and the Weather Channel. Residents’ complaints are going unaddressed and…
Read MoreCalifornia probation officers overwhelmed with GPS monitoring alerts
Electronic monitoring was supposed to help Los Angeles County deal with the influx of thousands of felons moved out of California’s prison system to ease overcrowding. The nation’s largest probation department strapped GPS ankle monitors on the highest-risk of those convicts, expecting the satellite receivers to keep tabs on where they spent their days and…
Read MoreMentally ill California prison inmate dies after being pepper sprayed
As California prison officials began looking into the September death of a breathing-impaired inmate who had been pepper-sprayed by a guard, they found themselves facing unusual interference and oversight from above, according to documents from an internal corrections investigation obtained by The Sacramento Bee. A corrections psychologist whose duties included a review of the Sept.…
Read MoreVirginia Beach Public Works Director keeps job while on military leave
The head of Virginia Beach’s second-largest department hasn’t been to work in nearly three years and keeps volunteering for military service instead of returning to his $150,000-a-year job. Since deploying in June 2011 – days after a city auditor’s report recommended that he be fired – Public Works Director Jason Cosby has become vested in…
Read MoreAltercations, assaults costly problems for teachers, tax payers
Jones is one of hundreds of city educators whose violent and traumatic encounters with students have led them to seek — and often receive — compensation for mental and physical injuries, a Baltimore Sun investigation of workers’ compensation claims has found. Those claims provide a behind-the-scenes look at violence that is rarely documented in school…
Read MoreFunctional and financial concerns for proposed radio communications network in Monroe County
It’s a firefighter’s worst nightmare: Trapped inside a smoke-filled basement, he radios for help. But he can’t get a signal. He speaks, but his colleagues and dispatchers hear nothing. Monroe County leaders and fire district officials agree that no firefighter should ever wind up in such a desperate position. But they are still working out…
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