The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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No tracking for hazardous materials traveling across Iowa
“Each day, trucks and railcars hauling hazardous materials share roadways with Iowa drivers and pass through Iowa towns and fields. But unless there is an accident, officials often don’t know what materials pass through the state.” Read the full story from IowaWatch/Investigative News Network here.
Read MoreMizzou did not pursue alleged assault
“The University of Missouri did not investigate or tell law enforcement officials about an alleged rape, possibly by one or more members of its football team, despite administrators finding out about the alleged 2010 incident more than a year ago, an “Outside the Lines” investigation has found. The alleged victim, a member of the swim…
Read MoreFree game tickets, hot concert seats: The politics of higher education in Missouri
“Missouri’s public universities have spent almost a million dollars since 2011 on contracts with professional lobbyists to represent their interests in Jefferson City — while plying state legislators with tens of thousands of dollars more in free meals, sports outings, concert tickets and other perks,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Read the full story here.
Read MoreConsumers With Canceled Insurance Plans Shifted to New Ones Without Their Permission
“The California Department of Insurance said it is exploring whether any laws were broken when insurance companies withdrew money from consumers’ accounts for plans they didn’t select,” ProPublic reports. Read the full story here.
Read MoreCharity Checker
The Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting have teamed up to create the Charity Checker, which “searches the nation’s top charity watchdog and review sites and shows you their ratings, all in one place.” Check it out here.
Read MorePatients’ deadly surgery wait as toll soars
“More than 840 people – 16 a week – died waiting for surgery in Victoria in the past year. The revelation comes as the length of time patients spend on elective surgery waiting lists continues to grow,” the Herald Sun in Melbourne, Australia, reports. Read their full story here.
Read MoreChemical spill site went largely unregulated for years
The Wall Street Journal reports that “the site of a West Virginia chemical spill that contaminated the water supply for 300,000 people operated largely outside government oversight, highlighting gaps in regulations and prompting questions on whether local communities have a firm grasp on potential threats to drinking water.”
Read MoreFeds in Ajo for Border Patrol home cost audit
“Following an uproar by residents and some members of Congress, the Department of Homeland Security has opened an investigation into whether $15 million in tax dollars to build housing for Border Patrol agents here was improperly spent,” The Arizona Republic reports. Read the full story here.
Read MoreHow Lobbyists Still Fly Through Loopholes
“It’s widely believed that the 2007 rewrite of congressional travel rules spurred by the scandal that sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff to prison banned such international dalliances. But that’s far, far from true,” the National Journal reports. “A National Journal investigation has found that despite efforts to clip the wings of congressional travel planned and paid…
Read MoreDuke Fracking Tests Reveal Dangers Driller’s Data Missed
“When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared that a group of Texas homes near a gas-drilling operation didn’t have dangerous levels of methane in their water, it relied on tests conducted by the driller itself,” Bloomberg Sustainability reports. Read the full story here.
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