The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Lost opportunities in foster care
Jenifer B. McKim of The Orange County Register writes about lost opportunities to save a 10-month-old foster child who was returned to his mother and brutally murdered. “The investigation found that nearly two dozen abused or neglected children who had been under protection of the Juvenile Court in Orange County have died over the past…
Read More‘Road Hazards’ examines Texas truck safety
Holly Becka, Gregg Jones, Jennifer LaFleur, and Steve McGonigle of The Dallas Morning News obtained and analyzed federal and state truck inspection and investigation records, accident reports and court records to show that trucking companies rarely take blame in fatal crashes. “They hire illegal immigrants who struggle to read road signs and communicate in English…
Read MoreReport links USC Heisman winner to marketing agents’ wallets
Charles Robinson and Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports conducted an eight-month investigation and reported that <a href=http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=ys-bushprobe&prov=yhoo&type=lgns&league=top"“Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush and his family appear to have accepted financial benefits worth more than $100,000 from marketing agents while Bush was playing at the University of Southern California. The story cites hotel records and credit…
Read MoreInvestigative coverage of mafia at U.S. News
Dave Kaplan kicked off his new Bad Guys blog on USNews.com this week with two entries on what the Mafia’s been up to since 9/11. Part One reveals its involvement in a new “Pizza Connection” case that links up the Sicilian and American mobs. Part Two reports on how the Mafia remains active in a…
Read MoreOklahoma campaign donors ranked
Mick Hinton, Randy Krehbiel and Curtis Killman of the Tulsa World used state campaign finance data to find the top donors to Oklahoma elections during the current cycle. Enid attorney Stephen Jones led the list with $73,600 in contributions this year, followed by energy and real estate executives. The reporters also noted, “Several of those…
Read MoreGround war costs dominate defense budget
The most recent Pentagon contract data show more payments for logistics, support and ground vehicles and less money for aviation programs, compared to a year ago. “One year of wartime operations equals about four years’ worth during peacetime, analysts say. In Iraq, with the harsh environment, the ratio has been more like one to five.”…
Read MoreTen Miami journalists take U.S. pay
Oscar Corral of The Miami Herald reports that at least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from El Nuevo Herald, received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years.
Read MoreProperty flip costs city
Andrew McIntosh of The Sacramento Bee reports on a real estate transaction by the city of Sacramento which netted an Orange County developer nearly $1 million. In failing to get the details on the property’s sale history, the city ended up paying a record price for the land – $218 per square foot when similar…
Read MoreHomeland Security spending post-9/11
In light of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., several papers have run stories based on the data tracking how homeland security money has been spent in the last 5 years. Some of these include: “9/11 cash beefs up region” The Cincinnati Enquirer “Post-9/11 funds often used for routine items” Portland…
Read MoreCouncil absences concern community
An investigative story by Daniel J. Chacón of The Rocky Mountain News examined the number of committee meeting absences among Denver City Council members. The newspaper went through the minutes of hundreds of meetings to determine the number of meetings each member was supposed to attend and how many each missed since mid-2003, when the…
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