The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Politics
U.S. legislative leaders take frequent trips on corporate jets
R. Jeffrey Smith and Derek Willis from The Washington Post analyzed federal campaign expenditure records to find that top congressional leaders “flew on corporate-owned jets at least 360 times from January 2001 to December 2004.” Members of both parties took part in the practice, although leading Republicans flew more often than Democrats. “The records show…
Read MoreGovernor took gifts from lobbyists
James Salzer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used state records to show that “Gov. Sonny Perdue has championed limiting the gifts that lobbyists can give legislators and other state officials, but he has accepted airplane rides, NASCAR tickets and dinners from lobbyists.” Among the gifts was a 30-mile flight to Atlanta Motor Speedway and dinner and…
Read MoreCity officials spending with little oversight
Jim Davis of The Fresno Bee used city expense reports to show that “Fresno Mayor Alan Autry and the City Council spent tens of thousands of dollars in the past four years on meals, hotel bills and other expenses with little oversight and less public debate.” Autry had the city pay for 422 business meals…
Read MoreU.S. implements secret policy to win over Islam
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Reports details how the White House is implementing a secret policy to intervene not just in the Muslim world, but within Islam itself, and how Washington has set up a program of political warfare unmatched since the height of the Cold War forty years ago. The project…
Read MoreHouse members hire family, pay with campaign funds
Larry Margasak and Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press reviewed federal campaign filings to find that “dozens of lawmakers have hired their spouses and children to work for their campaigns and political groups, paying them with contributions they’ve collected from special interests and other donors.” The AP identified about 50 House members who pay their…
Read MoreLobbyist fail to follow rules
A team from the Center for Public Integrity released LobbyWatch, an analysis of nearly $13 billion spent on federal lobbying since 1998. One story reveals that more than 19 percent of all filings to the Senate Office of Public Records were late and “49 of the top 50 lobbying firms (in terms of revenue) failed…
Read MoreLegislators took gifts, trips from lobbyists
Nolan Clay of The Oklahoman used state disclosure reports to find that “Oklahoma politicians, their aides and relatives accepted at least $125,000 worth of meals, drinks, football tickets and other gifts last year.” Many of the freebies were associated with the state’s college athletic programs, including season tickets to football games at Oklahoma University and…
Read MoreEmergency fund used by legislators
Eric Eyre and Scott Finn of the Charleston Gazette examined records of a contingency fund controlled by West Virginia’s governor, finding that “Hardy County received $6.7 million from the contingency fund since 1997 – more than any county in the state – even though the county ranks 42nd out of 55 counties in population.” The…
Read MoreGovernor’s office political dealings in question
Alan Judd of The Atlanta-Jounal Constitution investigated claims that the Georgia governor’s office put heat on the state’s consumer regulatory office over dealings with a major car dealership and donor to the governor’s campaign. “In the Bill Heard Chevrolet case, Hills’ inquiry became a key point in a series of events that, Smith says, undermined…
Read MoreLegislators double salaries with expense checks
Bonna de la Cruz of The (Nashville) Tennessean analyzed state data to find that “twenty-seven Midstate lawmakers double their salaries or better by collecting state expense checks whether they incur the expenses or not. The expense checks – which are taxed by the IRS as income because they are not linked to any documented cost…
Read More