The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Government (federal/state/local)
Lack of tough measures result in deaths
Gregg Jones and Doug Swanson of The Dallas Morning News use a fatal 2004 truck accident near Dallas to illustrate many of the problems in the trucking industry. Miroslaw Jozwiak, a Polish immigrant, plowed the commercial truck he was driving into incoming traffic in 2004, killing 10 people, including three children. The investigation found that…
Read MoreInequities found in property taxes
Andrew Nelson, Bill Dedman and Matt Hersh of The Telegraph used city records to show that thousands of homeowners in Nashua, N.H. are paying too much in property taxes because of wide disparities between sale prices and the city’s valuation of properties. Thousands more are paying too little, requiring other taxpayers to pick up the…
Read MoreDallas fails to collect parking fines
Dave Levinthal and Molly Motley Blythe of The Dallas Morning News analyzed city records to show that Dallas City Hall, perennially strapped for cash, is owed at least $40 million in unpaid parking fines. As of November, the city had yet to collect on nearly 1 million outstanding parking tickets and their corresponding late penalties…
Read MoreFla. fails to inspect elevators regularly
John McCarthy of Florida Today reviewed reports by local, state and federal agencies to show the state agency that oversees elevators has failed to ensure proper inspections as state law requires, in a three-day series on elevator safety. The newspaper found that in Brevard County, 221 of 1,113 passenger elevators do not have a current…
Read MoreFederal loans granted for risky businesses
Ben Welsh of the Columbia Missourian used Small Business Administration loan records to show that over the past five years, the number of government-backed loans to Columbia’s bars and restaurants has skyrocketed far beyond previous levels. “Between August 2000 and August 2005, 33 cents of every loan dollar the SBA backed in Columbia — more…
Read MoreTaxpayer money goes to gifts, travel
Ryan J. Stanton of the Northwest Explorer, a weekly newspaper that covers the northern suburbs of the Tucson, Ariz., area, investigated how local officials are spending taxpayer money. For the five-part series, the paper reviewed town’s travel and training expenses, bank statements and receipts. It found “Marana public officials have charged close to $200,000 on…
Read MoreOfficial invests despite possible conflict of interest
Joni James of the St. Petersburg Times reviewed tax returns to show that Florida’s elected insurance commissioner, Tom Gallagher, invested millions of dollars in insurance-related stocks in his last year on the post. “And as a member of the Cabinet in 2004, Chief Financial Officer Gallagher voted to approve a natural gas pipeline for an…
Read MoreSchool district loans are unreasonable burden on taxpayers
Jeffrey Gaunt and Emily Krone of the Daily Herald , outside Chicago, analyzed 206 suburban school district loans to show many taxpayers repay those loans at rates higher than they would on their homes. The investigation found that, despite federal measures that keep government rates low, the district agreed that taxpayers will pay back $6.03…
Read MoreHighway plan too costly to execute
Tim Darragh of The Morning Call investigated why the move to widen a local highway, Route 22, seemed highly unlikely, despite the backing of several powerful groups. “The widening plan has backers that include those who lobbied for and got construction of such landmark road projects as the completion of Route 33 from the Poconos…
Read MoreDenver code enforcement cases on the rise
Daniel J. Chacón of the Rocky Mountain News used local data to show that code-enforcement cases in Denver increased more than 12 percent between 2004 and 2005 and by more than 20 percent in five of the city’s 11 council districts, according to data obtained under a Colorado Open Records Act request. “The number of…
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