The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
Toxic aftermath: Decades later, PBB contamination suspected in illnesses and deaths
The Detroit Free Press has found that four decades after an agricultural disaster allowed the chemical polybrominated biphenyl into the food and water of nine out of 10 Michigan residents –as the state scales back monitoring of the sites and the Environmental Protection Agency gears for a multi-million dollar cleanup, many of the health risks…
Read MoreOversight board had little say in History Museum land purchase
After the Missouri History Museum spent $875,000 of its $10 million in tax dollars to purchase “a shuttered restaurant site from a former mayor,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch found, via documents and museum officials, that the museum commissioners, appointed by area officials to approve spending, never see purchases until after they’ve been made and never…
Read MoreWisconsin forestry tax break program gives taxpayers bill, landowners benefit
There are more than 1 million acres in Wisconsin open to the public through a forestry tax break program. Good news for hunters and hikers … if only they could find it. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Raquel Rutledge found while taxpayers pick up the tab, it can be nearly impossible for anyone other than the landowner to…
Read MoreLos Angeles Times finds dispatchers waste valuable time on 911 calls
An internal study obtained by the Los Angeles Times shows that Los Angeles Fire Department dispatchers waste valuable time getting 911 callers to start CPR on cardiac arrest victims, possibly leading to preventable deaths. In March, the Times reported that a Los Angeles mayoral candidate unwittingly exposed inaccurate reporting of response times by the fire department.…
Read MoreDayton Daily News finds wasteful mileage reimbursements in Ohio cities, counties
Many city and county governments in Ohio pay employees more for mileage reimbursements than the state government does, and they could save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually if they switched to pay what the state does, according to a Dayton Daily News report published Wednesday. How they did it, from the Dayton Daily News…
Read MoreWashington Post exposes secretive deals, billions in unexplained property tax reductions
In an ongoing series, The Washington Post’s Debbie Cenziper and Nikita Stewart identified $2.6 billion in unexplained property tax reductions, made through secretive, back-room deals, for hundreds of influential developers in Washington, D.C. The third installment today found that the District’s new chief appraiser had been dogged by similar allegations at his last job in…
Read MoreWashington state’s price of public office
The Skagit Valley Herald reports that even though “Skagit County has just two full-time mayors, both earn more than the mayors of Tacoma, Vancouver, Yakima and Olympia.” An interactive map was created to compares the salaries with other mayors across the state.
Read MoreMental health patients falling through the safety net
KUOW’s John Ryan reports that “in the past decade, a dozen patients of Washington’s Western State Hospital have killed themselves and more than a hundred others have tried.” “Suicide is the second leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults in Washington state. But inside a psychiatric hospital like Western, patients are supposed to…
Read MoreDCFS failing to protect Illinois children
In a report by The Chicago Reporter it has been found that “despite the Illinios Department of Child and Family Services involvement, many children die at the hands of their caregivers. Advocates say their deaths could be prevented.”
Read MoreUtah’s Transit Authority officials travel the world
Documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune have revealed that Utah’s Transit Authority CEO has spent more than $600,000 on international travel. Trips range from China to the United Arab Emirates and also include 17 U.S. cities. “But UTA officials say they receive great value from travel, learning from mistakes and successes of other transit agencies.…
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