The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Extra Extra
New reports fuel debate of whether Lisa Steed arrested innocent drivers
“This month, UHP provided The Tribune with more documents about Steed, including the Winward review and the internal affairs investigation undertaken before her firing last year. In the internal affairs investigation, UHP found prosecutors who had received complaints about the former trooper of the year, but some of those same prosecutors also praised Steed’s work.”…
Read MoreFacing lawsuits over deadly asbestos, paper giant launched secretive research program
“Named in more than 60,000 legal claims, Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific sought salvation in a secret research program it launched in hopes of exonerating its product as a carcinogen, court records obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show.”
Read MoreWisconsin Supreme Court justices tend to favor attorney donors
“Justices have the option of recusing themselves from cases involving donor attorneys but have rarely stepped aside, remaining involved in nearly 98 percent of such cases, the Center found.”
Read MoreBooming rental market makes it easier for neglectful landlords to ignore substandard living conditions
“A wide range of involved parties — City Council members, city Code Compliance officials, tenant advocates and real estate industry groups — agree that Austin’s real estate boom has made it possible for a subset of “bad actors” among rental property owners to ignore substandard conditions and tenants’ complaints. One indicator of the scope of…
Read More$1,100 an hour? Part-time service at little agencies means big bucks and benefits for politicians
“Even the elected officials who benefit were surprised by the hefty hourly rates, which this newspaper calculated through an analysis of government meeting minutes and the Bay Area News Group’s public salary database.”
Read MoreIvy Tech, DNR emails expose favors between officials, raunchy jokes, nude pictures
“The emails — which featured jokes about erectile dysfunction and breast size, and pictures that compared naked women to various animals — appear to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of Ivy Tech’s sexual harassment policy. Yet they were allowed to continue for at least six months before administrators asked Walkup to cease sometime…
Read MoreResearch stalls on dangers of military burn pits
“Thousands of returning veterans and civilians are now attributing myriad symptoms — respiratory problems, neurological disorders, cancers and ALS — to exposure to the burn pits, which were located at dozens of bases throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Read MoreTed Cruz Failed To Disclose Ties To Caribbean Holding Company
“Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz potentially violated ethics rules by failing to publicly disclose his financial relationship with a Caribbean-based holding company during the 2012 campaign, a review of financial disclosure and company documents by TIME shows.”
Read MoreBP oil refinery waste piles up on Southeast Side
By the end of the year, the oil giant BP is expected to complete work on new equipment that will more than triple the amount of petroleum coke produced by its Whiting refinery on Lake Michigan, the Chicago Tribune reports. The project will turn the sprawling Indiana plant into the world’s second-largest source of petroleum…
Read MorePortrait of an Afghan Assassin
Green-on-blue (or insider) attacks have been sweeping Afghanistan, leaving dozens of Americans dead, Mother Jones reports. The surge of internal attacks came out of nowhere. In 2007 and 2008, there were just six such attacks combined against members of the US-led International Security Assistance Force. The following year there were 8, the next, 15. In 2011, there…
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