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Suspiscious real estate deals in Ohio raise concern
Geoff Dutton of The Columbus Dispatch dissected unusual property deals worth more than $11 million involving Middle Eastern buyers who paid far above the list price on expensive houses. The catch: “the sellers must agree to immediately refund the difference between the asking price and the sale price“. Neighbors and real-estate experts fear that the…
Read MoreCriminal investigators tried to stop abuses at Gitmo
In a 2-part series for MSNBC.com, Bill Dedman details the investigations into detainee abuses at Guantanamo. “[F]ormer leaders of the Defense Department’s Criminal Investigation Task Force said they repeatedly warned senior Pentagon officials beginning in early 2002 that the harsh interrogation techniques used by a separate intelligence team would not produce reliable information, could constitute…
Read MoreTRAC data suggests shortcomings in FBI’s dealing with international terrorism
Data from the Justice Department indicates that federal prosecutors appear to have big doubts about the FBI’s criminal enforcement activities when it comes to fighting international terrorism. According to a TRAC report, federal prosecutors so far in FY 2006 have rejected 87% of the FBI’s referrals on international terrorism. The report also shows that despite…
Read MoreRemaking the U.S. Intelligence Community: Playing Defense
In this week’s U.S. News & World Report cover story — part two of their series — David E. Kaplan and Kevin Whitelaw reveal how America’s top spies are attempting the most sweeping reforms since the intelligence community’s creation nearly 60 years ago. The investigation is based, in part, on interviews with nearly two dozen…
Read MoreMine deaths avoidable
Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette analyzed government reports and data and found that 9 out of every 10 coal mining deaths nationwide over the last 10 years could have been avoided if existing safety rules had been followed. Ward’s report, the first in a series of special investigative stories, appeared in Sunday’s…
Read More“Lead Astray”
In a piece for MotherJones, CIR correspondents Sara Shipley Hiles and Marina Walker Guevara reveal how the St. Louis-based firm, Doe Run, expanded its operations abroad at a time when it was facing increasing scrutiny and regulation in the United States, milking money from its Peruvian operation while claiming it couldn’t afford to finish its…
Read MoreAcademic assessment industry gets failing grade
David Glovin and David Evans report on “Tests that Fail” for the December issue of Bloomberg Markets. Their story exposes egregious faults in the $2.8 billion academic assesment industry. Regularly, the largest testing companies make errors in grading and scoring exams – from mistakenly failing over 4,000 aspiring teachers on the national Praxis exam to…
Read MoreRemaking U.S. Intelligence: Hubs, Outreach, Blogs, and Wikis
David E. Kaplan and Kevin Whitelaw released Part One of a series in U.S. News & World Report on how reformers are trying to remake the U.S. intelligence community. In this week’s issue, Whitelaw presents the first in-depth portrait of the secretive National Counterterrorism Center, which acts as the hub for foreign and domestic intel…
Read MoreAir defense system behind schedule and over budget
Michael Fabey of Aerospace Daily & Defense Report writes that the Air Force’s planned defense system meant to protect the US against a repeat of 9/11-type aviation attacks is 2 years behind schedule and millions over budget. In the meantime, the US relies on NORAD Contingency Suite – the interim system put in place immediately…
Read MoreBond scam yields profits at the expense of the needy
William Selway, Martin Z. Braun and David Dietz of Bloomberg News exposed a phantom bond scam – over $7 billion in the past 10 years – which promise benefits for the needy (better housing, improvements to inner-city schools, etc.), yet the only ones profiting are banks, insurance companies and financiers. “The arrangements — often called…
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