The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Florida’s unemployment benefits website was not ready for launch and state can’t explain why
Florida’s new unemployment benefits website, CONNECT, “launched so riddled with technical glitches that it has left thousands of unemployed Floridians without the money they need for food, rent and bills,” according to the Tampa Bay Times. “The problems are so bad that the (Department of Economic Opportunity) began fining the contractor $15,000 a day and federal…
Read MoreVa. law enforcement agencies violating drug destruction laws
Less than two dozen of Virginia’s roughly 300 law enforcement agencies filed a required drug destruction report to the state’s Board of Pharmacy in 2012, according to a report by Richmond, Va. television station WRIC. “Since the ABC 8 News investigation first aired in February 2013, the number of law enforcement agencies complying with the…
Read MoreDirect Commitment forces Florida teens to choose between juvenile or prison
The 4th Judicial Circuit, which consists of Duval, Clay and Nassau counties, dramatically leads the state in the number of juveniles incarcerated through a method called direct commitment. That’s usually a plea deal reached between a juvenile’s lawyer and the prosecutor. When juveniles agree to plea deals, they are often incarcerated without the chance to…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Pollution control plans, juvenile justice and inmate deaths
Wis. freeing more sex offenders from mental lockup | WisconsinWatch.org Wisconsin officials have nearly quadrupled the number of offenders released from state custody after they were committed as sexually violent persons. The risks to residents are reasonable, officials say, because the state’s treatment programs are working and new data suggest these offenders are less likely…
Read MoreFor special education students, diplomas, jobs increasingly elusive
Mississippi is one of three states where more students with a learning disability graduate with an alternate diploma than a regular one. That poses a serious problem for many students leaving the state’s special education programs. According to the Hechinger Report, many colleges and employers don’t recognize the alternative diplomas. “As a result, thousands of…
Read MoreWest Virginia officials never reviewed pollution prevention plans from Freedom Industries
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection officials never reviewed two key pollution-prevention plans for the Freedom Industries tank farm before the Jan. 9 chemical leak that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 residents, according to interviews and documents obtained under the state’s public-records law.
Read MoreWisconsin releasing sex offenders at higher rate
Wisconsin officials have nearly quadrupled the number of offenders released from state custody after they were committed as sexually violent persons. The risks to residents are reasonable, officials say, because the state’s treatment programs are working and new data suggest these offenders are less likely to reoffend than previously thought. The story is the first…
Read MoreSalary loophole allows staff members and aids to defy law, become lobbyists
The experiences of the three Capitol Hill aides-turned-lobbyists — traced through interviews with political operatives and a review of public records — illustrate in new detail the gaping holes in rules governing Washington’s revolving door. Federal ethics rules are intended to limit lobbying by former senior officials within one year after they leave the government.…
Read MoreTwo Navy divers perish in training exercise
A Navy jury last month found that a master diver failed to make sure proper safety procedures were followed during a training exercise that left two men dead. The Pilot pieced together an account of the dive using court testimony, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with unit members, witnesses and…
Read MoreErnest Lacy law goes unused in Wisconsin police custody deaths
Of the 18 deaths in law enforcement custody from 2008 through 2012 in Milwaukee County, 12 were classified as suicide or natural. Officials at every level have used those rulings to absolve themselves of responsibility for prisoners’ deaths, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found. In many cases, officials did not evaluate all of the circumstances…
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