The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Project uncovers more than 160,000 unreported arson cases
Arson is far more common and dangerous than has been previously reported, a new project by Scripps Howard News Service has found.The yearlong investigation has identified more than 163,000 fires in America that experts agree have a significant chance of being undetected arsons. These fires caused at least 788 deaths, 13,009 injuries and at least…
Read MoreA gilded goodbye for many private college leaders
Many other college presidents across the country are negotiating huge exit packages when they step down, which critics say is emblematic of schools’ unrestrained spending on everything from administrative salaries to elaborate new buildings that drive up the cost of higher education. Lawrence S. Bacow, president emeritus of Tufts, received $1.7 million in 2011 for “end…
Read MoreMMA fighting: Inside look at the brutal sport’s rising popularity and danger
Mixed martial arts, or simply MMA, is cage fighting that mixes punching, kicking and grappling. Likened to human cockfighting and blood sport by detractors, its intoxicating mix of athleticism, intensity and violence delivers something people have been lining up to see since Rome built the Colosseum. Still in its infancy, MMA already has entrenched itself…
Read MoreUS warship faces expanding list of problems
Tony Capaccio for Bloomberg reports that the “U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship lacks the robust communications systems needed to transmit critical data to support facilities ashore, according to an unreleased congressional audit, the latest in a succession of troubles for the $34 billion shipbuilding program.” “The program to build a total of 52 ships in…
Read MoreHealth-care Web site’s lead contractor employs executives from troubled IT company
The lead contractor on the dysfunctional Web site for the Affordable Care Act is filled with executives from a company that mishandled at least 20 other government IT projects, including a flawed effort to automate retirement benefits for millions of federal workers, documents and interviews show.
Read MoreAddiction Treatment With a Dark Side
In demand in clinics and on the street, ‘Bupe’ can be a savior or a menace.
Read MoreAlways Right
Since at least 2006, Nassau County Police Department’s deadly force investigators have never ruled an officer’s actions unjustified, Newsday reports. A Nassau County police officer shot an unarmed man in the back. Another intentionally ran down an unarmed man with his squad car, costing him a leg. Still another shot an unarmed cabdriver after a…
Read MoreUnaccountable: The high cost of the Pentagon’s bad bookkeeping
For two decades, the U.S. military has been unable to submit to an audit, flouting federal law and concealing waste and fraud totaling billions of dollars, a Reuters investigation found. At the DFAS offices that handle accounting for the Army, Navy, Air Force and other defense agencies, fudging the accounts with false entries is standard operating procedure,…
Read MoreIn NC medical examiner system, heavy autopsy caseloads raise risk of mistakes
Accurate autopsies help ensure that murderers don’t go free, that suspects aren’t wrongfully prosecuted and that spouses receive the life insurance payments they deserve. But in North Carolina, heavy caseloads are raising the risk of errors, a Charlotte Observer analysis has found. Pathologists in North Carolina’s thinly staffed medical examiner system do as many as…
Read MoreBroken Bonds
When municipal officials want to build for the future, they have a powerful financial tool at their disposal: general obligation bonds that yield millions of borrowed dollars. The money is meant to let cities move forward on costly projects that will serve the community for decades. But in an unprecedented analysis of Chicago’s finances, a…
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