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Finalists announced for 2014 Golden Padlock award
Investigative Reporters and Editors is proud to announce the finalists for its 2014 Golden Padlock Award celebrating the most secretive government agency or individual in the United States. “The spirit of secrecy is alive and well across the United States at all levels of government,” said IRE president David Cay Johnston. “Efforts to hold power…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | True Believers
Welcome to the third episode of the IRE Radio Podcast. We’re taking a cue from reporter Corey Johnson and calling this episode “True Believers.” This week we’ll be talking about how to find crucial sources and, more importantly, how to get them to talk. Here’s the lineup: Corey Johnson of The Center for Investigative Reporting…
Read MoreUnfit for flight: Lies and coverups mask roots of small-plane carnage
A USA TODAY investigation shows repeated instances in which small aircraft crashes, deaths and injuries were caused by defective parts and dangerous designs, casting doubt on the government’s official rulings and revealing the inner workings of an industry hit so hard by legal claims that it sought and won liability protection from Congress. Wide-ranging defects…
Read MoreThe road to health is paved with good data
This was originally published on the ProPublica Nerd Blog. By Ryann Grochowski Jones, ProPublica I think I’m a decent arbiter of people’s appreciation of data. I worked at IRE’s data library as a grad student and I’ve attended four consecutive NICAR conferences. At ProPublica, I work with complex data sets every day. I help run…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Nebraska releases prisoners early; Koch brothers hold secret summit; Missile defense system proves unreliable
$40-billion missile defense system proves unreliable | Los Angeles Times The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, was supposed to protect Americans against a chilling new threat from “rogue states” such as North Korea and Iran. But a decade after it was declared operational, and after $40 billion in spending, the missile shield cannot be relied…
Read MoreSt. Clair County doles out more than $3.3 million in settlements behind closed doors
“More than $3.3 million in legal settlements have been approved behind closed doors in St. Clair County in the past 10 years — possibly in violation of the state’s Sunshine laws. The settlements range from $900,000 to a teenage boy allegedly sexually abused at the county’s Juvenile Detention Center to $1,000 to a person claiming…
Read More$40-billion missile defense system proves unreliable
The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, was supposed to protect Americans against a chilling new threat from “rogue states” such as North Korea and Iran. But a decade after it was declared operational, and after $40 billion in spending, the missile shield cannot be relied on, even in carefully scripted tests that are much…
Read MoreNebraska prison doors open too soon
“The examination of prison records revealed that Nebraska Department of Correctional Services officials had released or were set to release dozens of prisoners years before their sentences were supposed to end. All told, state officials had carved at least 750 years off the collective sentences of more than 200 of the state’s worst criminals. The…
Read MoreFriends want probe of 77-year-old’s death after arrest
“Branson residents are questioning why city police arrested a 77-year-old man with health problems on an Arkansas bad check warrant from 1996 and held him in jail for five days. Shortly after his release from Taney County Jail, Evans E. Ray was found dead in his home. It’s unclear how long he was deceased in…
Read MoreSecret Summit: 24 hours with the Koch brothers
“The retreats drum up hundreds of millions of dollars for conservative political candidates and set policy for the Kochs’ network of political organizations, which all share the same goal — moving the country to the right. Most of the cash is funneled through “dark money” groups that are not legally required to disclose their donors.…
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