Social issues
Detroit’s Human Services Department spends $200k+ on new furnishings instead of feeding and clothing low-income families
Steve Neavling and Jim Schaefer of the Detroit Free Press uncover, that despite a third of Detroit’s population living below the federal poverty line, their Human Services Department spent “$182,000 in furniture purchases destined for the department offices at 5031 Grandy, near Warren and Mt. Elliott.” City officials said the purchases were especially egregious because…
Read MoreAfter several reports of abuse, HI long-term care facilities goes unsanctioned
“In a state where nursing homes are rarely sanctioned, federal regulators did not penalize one of Hawaii’s premium institutions for its failure to protect defenseless elderly women from a sexually abusive caregiver. They also didn’t sanction a nursing home even after a nurse’s failure to follow physician orders resulted in the puncturing of a man’s…
Read MoreWorkforce employees create list of illegal immigrants
Two women who worked for the Department of Workforce Services conspired to create a list of undocumented immigrants who were receiving state assistance. Leah Carson was reluctant at first but was eventually convinced by her co-worker, Teresa Bassett to help create the list. Bassett’s intent was to hand the list over to immigration officials. The…
Read MoreThe murder of Edwin Pratt
In a five-year investigation, Seattle Weekly reporter Rick Anderson has brought to light the 1969 murder of the Northwest civil rights activist and leader, Edwin Pratt. This detailed report discloses new details on a decades old case that has gone unsolved and reveals “the likely solving of the historic racial assassination of the director of Seattle’s…
Read MoreAdults with disabilities paid extremely low wages
In this series that was “inspired by a session at the IRE conference in 2010,” The Columbus Dispatch reporters Rita Price, Jill Riepenhoff and Jennifer Smith-Richards reveal that thousands of adults with intellectual disabilities working across Ohio are receiving wages that “pay less money than a teen-age baby sitter earns.” A provision in the federal…
Read MoreDoctors in juvenile jails linked to drug company’s wallet.
“A Palm Beach Post investigation found that Florida is doling out heavy doses of antipsychotic drugs to kids locked up in state juvenile jails. The drugs, which can cause suicidal thoughts and other dangerous side effects, are being prescribed by contracted doctors who, in some cases, have taken tens of thousands of dollars in speaker…
Read MoreSheriff’s office in one AZ county ignore children’s plea for help.
Christina Boomer and Mark LaMet at KNXV-TV in Phoenix discovered more than 400 sex crimes cases, many involving young children, were ignored by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Detectives never interviewed victims, witnesses or potential suspects, despite having solid leads in most cases. In the City of El Mirage, AZ, 43 of 51 sex crimes…
Read MoreThe 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 MoreSocial and economic discrimination still rampant in Houston low-income housing.
Yang Wang reports on the disturbing low-income housing neighborhood conditions in Houston, TX that led to a teens death. Just weeks before 19-year-old Jamesha Floyd was pulled from her burning home, her aunt and uncle complained to their landlord about faulty electrical wiring in the four-room house they shared with Floyd on Sayers Street. And…
Read MoreFlorida caretakers leave residents to suffer
In the series, Neglected to Death, Miami Herald reporters Michael Sallah, Rob Barry and Carol Marbin Miller revealed that “caretakers in assisted-living facilities across Florida” were neglecting patients of proper medical attention and basic care. The improper care has led to the deaths of dozens of residents. The Herald obtained “confidential records” from the Department…
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