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Crisis deepens in Zimbabwe
“How much lower can Zimbabwe sink? Chronic food shortages, hyperinflation, a cholera epidemic, people abducted for speaking out against President Robert Mugabe’s regime — all this is the stuff of daily life for ordinary Zimbabweans, as related here by a journalist in Harare, the capital,” begins the latest dispatch from “One Step From Hell.” It’s…
Read MoreForeign workers hired as banks failed
“Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.” Frank Bass and Rita Beamish of the Associated Press reported that visa applications…
Read MoreRaids targeted illegal immigrants with no criminal record
Nina Bernstein of The New York Times reports that, despite the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s January 2004 statement that its officers would focus their efforts on detaining illegal immigrants with criminal records, the agency changed its quotas to facilitate the capture of non-criminal illegal immigrants as well. By 2006, only 9 percent of those detained…
Read MoreA look at Seattle’s suffering real estate market
Working off a report from Zillow.com stating that 29 percent of homes in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area sold at a loss during the final months of 2008, Karen Gaudette and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times extended the analysis and traced the depreciation trend back to 2005. They also compiled lists of the cities in Snohomish…
Read MoreCorrosion, health problems linked to Chinese-made drywall
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that ships carrying hundreds of millions of pounds of Chinese-manufactured drywall — enough to potentially construct more than 60,000 homes — unloaded their cargo at two dozen U.S. ports across the country since 2006. Some Chinese drywall, used to make interior walls, has now been linked to the near-complete corrosion of…
Read MoreRacing company profited off subsidies from city of San Diego
An investigation by The San Diego Union-Tribune has found that Elite Racing, a marathon promotion company, has received subsidies from the city of San Diego. According to the article, “The subsidies stem from a nonprofit charity that San Diego-based Elite Racing created that co-hosts the event. It allows the company to cash in on a…
Read MoreLogging practices of Scouts influenced by profit
“A Hearst Newspapers investigation has found dozens of cases over the past 20 years of local Boy Scout councils logging or selling prime woodlands to big timber interests, developers or others, turning quick money and often doing so instead of seeking ways to preserve such lands.” Since 1990, scouting councils have logged over 34,000 acres,…
Read MoreInterior Department’s plan may have hurt Grand Canyon wildlife
Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post obtained memos from the Interior Department suggesting officials may have ignored the environmental risks of a plan to reduce water flow through the Grand Canyon at night when there is low demand for hydroelectric power. The department proceeded with the plan despite warnings that it would harm endangered species…
Read MoreFinancial crisis strikes small community banks
An investigation by Jake Bernstein and A.C. Thompson of ProPublica explores how small community banks around the country are failing after years of profiting off commercial real estate and development loans. Silver State Bank of Nevada was closed by the FDIC in September. “The bank made its biggest bets not on home mortgages, but on…
Read MoreLobbyists spent $12.8 million courting Texas lawmakers
According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, lobbyists spent more than $12 million in the last four years wining and dining Texas lawmakers and other state workers, including trips to pricey resorts across the country. Using lobby disclosure data, reporter Matt Stiles found that state senators and representatives had accepted at least $3.5 million…
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