The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Unregulated logging industry raises questions
A father-son logging team in Vermont with a history of environmental and criminal violations is implicated in yet another investigation, while the landowners who contracted them are left with the bill for environmental remediation on their property, Hilary Niles for VTDigger, reports. State authorities won’t even use the word “logging” to describe what the men…
Read MoreNew reports fuel debate of whether Lisa Steed arrested innocent drivers
Last year, Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Winward sent a memo about the performance on probably the most controversial trooper in the agency’s history: Cpl. Lisa Steed, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. A UHP memo, dated two years earlier, suggested Steed was falsifying reports and arresting drivers who showed no signs of impairment. But Winward’s…
Read MoreThe War on Rape
As an innocent abroad, Jamie Leigh Jones was a perfect heroine, Washington Monthly reports. And she confronted an unusually good villain. KBR had been plagued with allegations of fraud and overbilling involving its Pentagon contracts in Iraq. It also was closely associated with Vice President Dick Cheney, who had been Halliburton’s CEO before coming to the White…
Read MoreOn the Ground With Syria’s News Smugglers: They go where professional journalists won’t
Syria is now the most dangerous country in the worldfor reporters: According to the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, at least 114 journalists have died there since the spring of 2011, the News Republic reports. Among the dead are seasoned correspondents like the American Marie Colvin, who was killed in Homs in 2012, and freelancers…
Read MorePrivate Prison Empire Rises Despite Startling Record Of Juvenile Abuse
Over the past quarter century, James F. Slattery’s for-profit prison enterprises have run afoul of the Justice Department and authorities in New York, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and Texas, the Huffington Post reports. The alleged offenses range from condoning abuse of inmates to plying politicians with undisclosed gifts while seeking to secure state contracts. Despite that…
Read MoreGW misrepresented admissions and financial aid policy for years
George Washington University admitted publicly for the first time Friday that it puts hundreds of undergraduate applicants on its waitlist each year because they cannot pay GW’s tuition.
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Poverty and profits, innocent drivers arrested, asbestos lawsuits and neglected abuse fatalities
Facing Foreclosure: Oklahoma’s mortgage settlement program benefits attorneys | Tulsa World“So far, the largest financial beneficiary of Oklahoma’s mortgage settlement program is a young attorney who used a system of vouchers and possibly a family connection to acquire dozens of clients.” Shocking cost investigation: Utility middle men charge renters inflated prices | Columbus Dispatch“A 10-month…
Read MoreFacing Foreclosure: Oklahoma’s mortgage settlement program benefits attorneys
“So far, the largest financial beneficiary of Oklahoma’s mortgage settlement program is a young attorney who used a system of vouchers and possibly a family connection to acquire dozens of clients.”
Read MoreShocking cost investigation: Utility middle men charge renters inflated prices
“A 10-month investigation by The Dispatch found that residents pay markups of 5 percent to 40 percent when their landlords enter into contracts with certain submeter companies. If the customer fails to pay, the companies sometimes resort to collection tactics that would be illegal for regulated utilities, including shutting off heat in winter and even eviction.”
Read MoreSouth Austin pastor lives lavishly while West Side project languishes
“In a rolling investigation, Chicago Tribune reporters David Jackson and Gary Marx examine government’s haphazard efforts to assist one of the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods. Tracing where the money goes, their latest installment how a politically-connected pastor lives in a lavish suburban mansion while some tenants in his apartment buildings endure substandard conditions and go without…
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