The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development fails to use common-sense oversight.
In “Million-Dollar Wasteland,” The Washington Post’s Debbie Cenziper reports that the federal government’s largest housing construction program for the poor has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars on stalled or abandoned projects and routinely failed to crack down on derelict developers or the local housing agencies that funded them. Nationwide, nearly 700 projects awarded $400…
Read MoreLax oversight in the Salt Lake City FBI office could be detrimental to national security.
After nearly a yearlong investigation, including interviews with FBI informants, Lori Prichard and Kelly Just report on the corruption inside the SLC FBI offices. These whistleblowers were interviewed as part of a yearlong investigation by KSL News, which was able to corroborate much of what each source reported by conducting individual interviews without the knowledge…
Read MoreThe NJ Casino Reinvestment Development Authority forced by former admin. to make bad loan.
The Press of Atlantic City reports that the former governor of New Jersey pressured the CRDA to make a $4 million loan to another state agency. Corzine’s administration pressed the agency responsible for reinvesting casino dollars to make the loan, former Executive Director Tom Carver said. The loan helped a Democratic Party contributor and Corzine…
Read MoreFormer SEDC officials accused of embezzlement
Two San Diego redevelopment officials were arrested and accused of “embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds.” The voiceofsandiego.org investigation that began in 2008 culminated this week when the Southeastern Economic Development Corp.’s former president and former finance director were accused of “five criminal felony counts” each. Voiceofsandiego.org reported that the SEDC started paying “hundreds of…
Read MoreWhite House visitor logs incomplete
An analysis by the Center for Public Integrity recently revealed that the visitor logs for the White House are incomplete. The logs are the “official record” of who stops by the White House and is “maintained by the Secret Service.” The investigation shows that the logs are missing many visitors, including celebrities, “lobbyists, government employees,…
Read MoreOn Shaky Ground series
A three-part investigation by California Watch uncovered “systematic failures by the state’s chief regulator of construction standards for public schools.” The series exposed lax oversight of earthquake safety certification for schools; project inspectors with poor performance records; and government rules that made it nearly impossible for schools to get the repair money they needed.
Read MoreNY lawmakers cut services while funneling money to own interests
Michelle Breidenbach of The Post-Standard in Syracuse, NY, reports that while New York state lawmakers were cutting services for health and education, they continued to quietly borrow millions of dollars for grants under their sole control. The legislators handed out grants without competition or open review, and often gave the public money to political insiders…
Read MoreHead of Emerging Technology Fund profited off of private deals
The Dallas Morning News investigated Alan Kirchhoff, the former director of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s prized economic development program, the Emerging Technology Fund. The story traced the rapid rise of Kirchhoff and his friendship with a powerful member of the tech fund’s advisory committee, William E. Morrow. The News obtained a Texas Ranger investigation that…
Read MoreProgram for violent offenders deporting non-criminal immigrants
“Secure Communities, a federal immigration-enforcement program designed to identify and deport violent illegal immigrants, has increasingly targeted and deported undocumented immigrants with no criminal backgrounds,” reports Thomas Francis of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. Nationally, 28 percent of the immigrants deported since the program began in 2008 have been “non-criminal” immigrants. In Florida, the…
Read MoreDebt collection software for Sacramento County millions over budget
In 2005, Sacramento County decided to invest $4.4 million in a custom-built debt collection system. The system was expected to be implemented within two years. An investigation by the Sacramento Bee found that “six years later the costs have skyrocketed to more than $10 million, and the county still doesn’t have a finished system. In…
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