The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
State officials overspending, despite fiscal crisis
Louis Hansen and David Gulliver of The Virginian-Pilot obtained spending records from Virginia’s Department of Game & Inland Fisheries showing that “officials regularly traveled to conventions, bought expensive sporting goods and routinely exceeded limits on their state-issued charge cards … Oversight of the department’s use of charge cards appeared lax: 19 different employees exceeded their…
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 MorePACs make up large chunk of campaign contributions
Jennifer Talhelm of The (Columbia) State reviewed campaign contributions to South Carolina state lawmakers during the final six months of 2004, finding that “36 cents of every dollar … given to House and Senate lawmakers in the last two reporting periods of 2004 was tied to businesses, PACs or other special interest groups. During that…
Read MoreExpunged records raise concern over judicial fairness
Steve Myers of the Mobile Register reveals the existence of hundreds of court cases where convictions were removed from the public record. “The practice of expunging records came to the forefront recently due to the case of Mobile County school board President David Thomas, who was arrested for drunken driving in 1998. Before he was…
Read MoreProblem cops keep badges through troubled system
Ron Menchaca and Glenn Smith of the Charleston Post and Courier investigated South Carolina’s agency that oversees law enforcement, finding “endemic failures in the state’s system for tracking police officers that allow problem cops to keep their badges despite histories of misconduct and even criminal behavior… Until three years ago, the state turned a blind…
Read MoreMillions misspent by housing authority
Michael Biesecker and Pat Stith of the Raleigh News & Observer reviewed records from the Durham Housing Authority, finding that the agency “improperly spent millions for temporary labor, auto repair, landscaping and legal advice. Other financial records requested by The N&O are missing, officials say.” The authority paid more than $2.3 million for temporary workers…
Read MoreNonprofits not required to follow sunshine laws
Matthew Hirsch of the San Francisco Bay Guardian investigated nonprofit city contracts and found that San Francisco is spending billions on nonprofit contracts without adequate oversight. “Since 2002 … the city has distributed more than $1.5 billion to nonprofit organizations …” The nonprofits receiving the contracts, unlike city agencies, do not have to comply with…
Read MoreOfficials fail to act on abuse claims
Michelle Roberts of The Oregonian found that warnings about abusive behavior by state parole officer Michael Lee Boyles went unheeded for years, and Oregon officials acted only after the suicide of a young man supervised by Boyles. “State officials received repeated and detailed warnings from a family raising concerns about Boyles and his behavior with…
Read MoreDelays, inconsistencies plague veteran affairs
Chris Adams and Alison Young of Knight-Ridder Newspapers sued the Veterans Administration to obtain records never before released to the public. They showed that “injured soldiers who petition the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for those payments are often doomed by lengthy delays, hurt by inconsistent rulings and failed by the veterans representatives who try…
Read MoreSerious workplace violation fines low
Marc Chase of The (Northwest Indiana) Times used OSHA data to investigate workplace safety violations. They found “that fines at or below the minimum are the rule, not the exception, in cases involving what OSHA considers serious violations. The average fine from 1991 to 2003 was $862.74 per serious violation, $637.26 less than the minimum…
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