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Credit-reporting agencies fail to correct mistakes
“Mistakes on credit reports can inflict widespread damage. And because there are insufficient rules on how credit-reporting agencies must correct them, Americans are left virtually powerless to erase the mistakes.” Jill Riepenhoff and Mike Wagner of The Columbus Dispatch “documented the plight of thousands who, through no fault of their own, have been denied the…
Read MoreNECIR takes a five-year look back at public servants charged with crimes and ethics violations
“In the past five years, Massachusetts residents have been forced to witness an embarrassing parade of fallen public servants caught up in corrupt acts, handcuffed and led away.” However, according to a new analysis by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting “an overwhelming majority of public servants embroiled in criminal or ethical scandals since…
Read MoreThousands of crumbling Florida homes owned by the biggest banks
“Thousands of vacant homes across South Florida have deteriorated into eyesores that violate local health and safety laws, depress property values and spread blight. The owners of these homes: some of the world’s biggest banks.” “In an extensive investigation of foreclosed homes plaguing neighborhoods, the Sun Sentinel found more than 10,300 property code violations lodged…
Read MoreS.C House Speaker’s PAC channels hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican Party
“South Carolina’s House speaker is affiliated with a political action committee that has doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and private contracts to sitting state lawmakers.” “According to publicly filed data analyzed by The Post and Courier, the Speaker’s PAC has channeled about a half-million dollars in the last four years to…
Read MoreFormer UTSW Medical Center president used taxpayer money on lavish lifestyle
“Reese Dunklin and Sue Goetinck Ambrose of The Dallas Morning News document how former UT Southwestern Medical Center president Kern Wildenthal used public money to build wine cellars, pay for his opera interests and travel to paradises around the world.” “The investigation details a collapse in controls over taxpayer dollars and triggered a University of Texas system…
Read MoreWhite House sought healthier school lunches, food industry fought back
Duff Wilson and Janet Roberts, for Reuters, report on “how food and beverage companies have dominated policymaking in Washington by doubling their lobbying expenditures during the past three years and defeating government proposals aimed at changing the nation’s diet.” Reuters Investigates TV also produced a video about “how the food industry fought back when the…
Read MoreUConn absorbed nearly $3 million in unsold Bowl Championship Series tickets
Mac Cerullo, of The Daily Campus, reports that the “University of Connecticut sold fewer tickets to the 2011 Fiesta Bowl than any other public school that has appeared in the Bowl Championship Series over the past three years, according to bowl documents obtained.” Cerullo found that the school ended up absorbing nearly $3 million in…
Read MoreKeeping tabs on super PACs and super donors
“To keep tabs on super PACs, and as of today, super donors, The Center for Public Integrity has a project to “out” the shadowy political organizations that have flourished in the wake of the Citizens United ruling.” Consider the Source “provides narrative to behind the flow of money and how the election is influencing a…
Read MoreN.J. state troopers led unauthorized high-speed caravan
“Two New Jersey state troopers have been suspended without pay and a station commander reassigned after an investigation by Christopher Baxter of The Star-Ledger uncovered that State Police led two escorts of luxury sports cars at speeds reportedly in excess of 100 mph on some of the state’s busiest highways.” “One of the caravans, headed…
Read MoreWal-Mart de Mexico bribery case silenced by top executives
A New York Times investigation into Wal-Mart has revealed that top Wal-Mart executives may be focusing more on damage control when they should be rooting out wrongdoing. “In 2005, after a senior Wal-Mart lawyer learned that the company’s largest foreign subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico, had orchestrated a campaign of bribery to win market dominance, Wal-Mart…
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