Search results for:
FEMA no longer provides ice in emergency situations
Megan Chuchmach of ABC.com reports that new FEMA rules stipulate that states must provide their own ice in emergency situations. FEMA changed its policy is due the high cost of storing ice and its high perishability. Many relief aid workers and state officials did not know about the change, causing problems in areas affected by…
Read MoreGOP money buoys McCain campaign
Despite accepting $84 million in public financing for his Presidential campaign, John McCain “has found a way to work around these limits. The Republican Party — and not his campaign committee — has paid for more than half of his campaign ads and outspent Obama on television in the first week following the conventions,” reports…
Read MoreNashville council members enjoy generous health-care benefits
A report by Brad Schrade at The Tennessean showed how the Metro Council in Nashville had voted themselves generous life-time health care benefits that even city employees can’t get. The city pays 75% of annual health coverage costs for council members and their families for life, one of the most generous packages for elected officials…
Read MoreNY school cafeterias not meeting inspection requirements
“Nearly two-thirds of schools in New York state are not receiving the twice-yearly health inspections required by federal law to curb food poisoning, making the state among the nation’s worst offenders,” reports David Andreatta of the Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.). Inspection rates are lowest in Monroe County where nearly 80 percent of school cafeterias…
Read MoreLabor laws offer little protection to North Carolina workers
An investigation by Ames Alexander of the Charlotte Observer reveals that North Carolina has failed to protect employees who are fired in retaliation for filing workers compensation claims or blowing the whistle on unsafe practices. The newspaper found that few who seek help under the state’s anti-retaliation law wind up getting it. Of the roughly…
Read MoreHousing up-data-ed
NICAR’s copy of the Housing Mortgage Disclosure Act dataset for 2007 has been updated. This dataset, maintained by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, provides information about property loans in the United States, including, for each loan application: the race, ethnicity and gender of the applicant how much money was requested in the loan the…
Read MoreUS policies lead to crackdown on Iranian businesses in Dubai
The Boston Globe‘s Farah Stockman reports that small Iraqi businesses in Dubai and across the United Arab Emirates are suffering as the UAE refuses to register Iranian work visas or open bank accounts for Iranian businesses. Although these measures are designed to place pressure on the Iranian government, many Iranian small-business owners in Dubai are…
Read MoreRenegade Riders
All-terrain vehicles are rolling by the thousands into the Minnesota woods, offering motorized thrills but also causing long-term damage to public wildlands, the Star Tribune revealed in a multimedia investigative report. As the state Department of Natural Resources struggles to curb destructive off-trail riding, the agency is also mapping an immense trail network for ATVs…
Read MoreTreasury secretary issued ultimatum to Lehman Brothers
With Wall Street undergoing a major crisis, Deborah Solomon, Dennis K. Berman, Susanne Craig and Carrick Mollenkamp of the Wall Street Journal report that New York Federal Reserve Bank president Timothy Geithner, with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, told about thirty Wall Street executives with Lehman Brothers Holdings, “There is…
Read MoreCheney shielded Bush from surveillance program backlash
Continuing its ongoing series on the Cheney vice-presidency, Barton Gellman and the Washington Post have posted the second of a two-part article on how Vice President Dick Cheney handled a near-riot in the Justice Department over the domestic surveillance program. The articles are adapted from Gellman’s upcoming book “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,” due out…
Read More