New Black Tar Heroin Invading US -- Dealers from Mexican province targeting middle-class, white communities, LA Times reports. Black tar H is cheaper, deadlier. 2/16/10
Cali. Holds Onto Report on Maternal Deaths in Pregnancy -- Study shows huge spike in California, possible national trend seen as well. State says report, first finished in 2008 and revised in 2009, only needs more revisions. 2/09/10
Chicago Police Shooting Questioned -- Chicago Trib., journalism students, report that witnesses with story contrary to cops' were held overnight until a gun was found. Fingerprints of the man whom police say shot at them weren't found on the gun. 2/04/10
Judge Excoriates Feds for FBI Complicity in Murders -- Decision, released Friday, bashes DOJ for trying to "argue 'she was asking for it'" as a defense. Latest judgement costs feds $2.7M. 2/01/10
Nursing Home Rape -- Eighty-six cases investigated around Chicago since July 2007, but only one arrest, Chicago Tribune reports. Illinois houses younger psych. patients, sometimes with criminal records, with the elderly. 1/21/10
Military Chaperones Buy Booze, Food on Lawmakers -- WSJ reports that military officials accompanied lawmakers on trips abroad with hefty expense accounts -- spending about $4,300 per trip for the 43 trips examined by the paper. 1/21/10
Feds Order Debt Collectors to Open Books -- FTC action follows Scripps-Howard investigation into consumer debt resale market, which found that bad info. often passed on to collectors, and that, "in turn, can lead collectors to use bad information to try to collect unsubstantiated debt, sue consumers without proof and damage their credit scores." 1/20/10
Film Tax Credits Should End, Think Tank Study Says -- Conservative Tax Foundation says film tax credits wildly popular but based on "fanciful estimates of economic activity." 1/14/10
Bad Nurses Get Jobs in Other States -- LA Times/ProPublica investigation finds nurses disciplined in Rhode Island working in Mass. Nationwide problem, report says. 1/13/10
Sexual Abuse in Juvenile Lockup -- Twelve percent of incarcerated youths are sexually abused, DOH says. 1/11/10
Iowa Disabled Paid Cents/Hour -- One person paid on average 11 cents per hour in Iowa, Des Moines Register reports. That person works for company owned by Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm with $87 billion in assets, paper reports. 1/7/10
27 Years in Solitary After Flawed Trial? -- Man who spent nearly 3 decades in solitary in notorious Angola prison hopes for new trial after finding a "brief full of evidence that was hidden or suppressed 35 years ago", Mother Jones reports. 12/29/09
Code Fraud -- "'Habitual liar engaged in fraud'" created a computer program -- a "bizarre scam" -- Playboy reports, that led to Dec. 2003 Code Orange alert. 12/18/09
Inside the Tiger Woods Cover Coup -- WSJ has inside story on how little Men's Fitness scored it's exclusive cover story on the golfer -- parent company agreed not to print alleged affair photos in Natl. Inquirer. 12/18/09
Daycare Drug Dens -- "More than a dozen Wisconsin child-care centers that reaped millions of dollars in state subsidies have had close ties to drug dealing operations, including big-time crime bosses, a (Milwaukee) Journal Sentinel investigation has found." 12/15/09
Philly Court Chaos -- Philly Inquirer shows old spark with series on Philly courts. Today's installment: "Witnesses Fear Reprisal, and Cases Crumble". Congressional investigation already promised. 12/14/09
Mass. Judges Unmuzzled -- The SJC has issued new rules allowing Mass. judges to explain their decisions. They shouldn't do so, SJC says, "solely to respond to public criticism of the decision." Via Robert Ambrogi's Media Law blog. 12/11/09
Agent Orange -- "For U.S., a record of neglect." Chic. Tribune rolls out multi-part story about Agent Orange's legacy. Expert tells paper, "'The government doesn't want to study this because of international liability and issues surrounding chemical warfare. And they're going to win because they're bigger and everybody's getting old and there are new wars to worry about.'." 12/4/09
Operation Sofia -- Guatemalan Genocide Documented -- Secret military records "contain explicit references to the killing of unarmed men, women and children, the burning of homes, destruction of crops, slaughter of animals and indiscriminate aerial bombing of refugees trying to escape the violence", says National Security Archive, which obtained the records. 12/3/09
Dead Farmers Getting Subsidies -- South Florida TV I-Team finds 234 dead people received a total of $9,506,255 in US farm subsidies. 12/02/09
Fraud in Disabled Vets Contracting Program -- Millions in government contracts meant for service-disabled vets not going where intended, Congressional investigators find. 11/20/09
Nuke Detectors at US Ports Flawed -- Radiation monitors at ports around the country continue to be plagued by technical problems, GAO reports. 11/19/09
Williams College Professor Fired After Guilty Plea -- Former Congressional aide to US Rep. Danny Davis used aliases to rack up debt, pleaded guilty to fraud on Nov. 9. The aide had been organizing visits from the Congressional Black Caucus to the campus, Berkshire Eagle reports. 11/17/09
Problems at Nation's Biggest For-Profit School -- ProPublica writes, "...some of the school's recruiters have continued to use high-pressure, deceptive tactics, according to a dozen current and former students and two former recruiters....". 11/04/09
Top Fundraisers Given White House Access -- Big donors allowed to bowl, watch movies in the White House, Washington Times reports. 10/29/09
Terror Financing Fighters Lag -- US Treasurery terrorism fighting unit has significant problems, including "declining collaboration" with State, Justice officials, new GAO report says. 10/27/09
Bad Science -- Loopholes, delays impede FDA oversight of drug and medical device trials. Getting rid of bad clinical investigators can take years, GAO reports. 10/22/09
Subsidized Day Care Scam -- Red flags gone unheeded with problematic day care provider who received $3M in state subsidies. She billed for kids who weren't there, Milwaukee JS reports. 10/21/09
Adoption Nightmare -- International adoptions can end in heartbreak for all involved, Minnesota Star-Tribune investigation finds. 10/14/09
"Deadly Mistakes Doom Children" -- 22 Milwaukee County children died in four years despite clear warning signs, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. 10/06/09
Hamburger Risks -- "...eating ground beef is still a gamble," reports NYT, in an exhaustive study of one tainted hamburger's path from factory to the woman who nearly died from E. Coli. 10/05/09
Ice Cream, Electronics Used to Lure Kids to School -- Detroit schools go all out on one day to boost attendance when funding is on the line, raffling a plasma screen TV, iPods and relaxing dress codes for "Count Day," WSJ reports. 10/02/09
Felons, Seniors, Together in Nursing Homes -- Rape, assaults occuring in Illinois, Chicago Tribune finds. 10/01/09
US Biolabs Vulnerable to Theft -- Experts tell a Congressional committee that labs with dangerous pathogens don't have enough security. 9/25/09
Russians Smear US Diplomat with "Sex Tape" -- US Ambassador protests, says the tape is a fake. Heavily edited video shows diplomat in his underwear, then two people having sex. 9/23/09
"Glock's Secret Path to Profits" -- Business Week investigates the country's biggest supplier of police handguns. 9/22/09
Recovery Under Wraps -- Good luck trying to find out what's behind Recovery.gov: the government redacted giant swathes of the web site's redesign contract. 9/21/09
Revolving Door Leads to Crim. Probe -- DOJ investigating Bush Interior Secy. Gale Norton for approving a lucrative lease agreement with a Shell Oil subsidiary in 2006, LA Times reports. Norton was later hired by Royal Dutch Shell as counsel. 9/17/09
Find Water Pollution in Mass. -- NYT series "Toxic Waters" lets you find local data.. 9/15/09
"Tsunami" of Disability Claims Looms -- "Splintered families, foreclosed homes and suicides" follow years-long delays to get Social Security disability benefits, Des Moines Register reports. And it could get worse. 9/8/09
Secret Society: Hamilton Town Government -- Salem News writes of a "near 'secret government". 9/4/09
DA: Essex Regional Retirement Board Violated Open Meeting Law -- Embattled retirement board scolded by DA for not posting meetings and kicking a videographer out of a public meeting; editorials scold toothlessness of law . 9/2/09
Pentagon Cancels Profiling Contract -- DoD axes $1.5m contract with Rendon Group, a well-connected PR firm with Hub ties, after reports of "reporter profiling" surface. 9/1/09
Pentagon Profiling Journos With Boston Group’s Help -- Despite Pentagon denials, Stars & Stripes reports that the Rendon Group has prepared profiles of reporters to the Defense Department, complete with helpful tips on how to get better coverage out of individuals. The Rendon Group has deep Boston and Democratic party ties. 8/28/09
The Torture Archives -- All you'd want to read about it. Compiled by the National Security Archives. 8/25/09
9/11 Commission Pleads for Congress to Finish Work -- Members of the former blue-ribbon panel say many key recommendations remain undone. 7/27/09
9/11 Commission Pleads for Congress to Finish Work -- Members of the former blue-ribbon panel say many key recommendations remain undone. 7/27/09
Lobbyists, Senators, Mingle at Vineyard Fest -- At least 30 US Senators and candidates were reported to attend last weekend's party along with "record turnout" from lobbyists, one donor tells Roll Call. Among those reported to attend, RC says, was John Kerry. 7/22/09
CIA Committed Fraud, Judge Says -- A federal Appeals Court judge is considering sanctions against CIA lawyers and top officials for their role defending the agency in a lawsuit brought by a DEA agent who accuses the agency of bugging his room. 7/21/09
Dubious Secrets -- "Pentagon classification authorities are treating classified historical documents as if they contain today's secrets, rather than decades-old information that has not been secret for years," says the non-profit National Security Archives. Records already fully released now given out in redacted form. 7/17/09
Bid-Rigging for Boston Housing Contracts -- Mass. IG says scheme won $120k in pest control and painting contracts for firm; no criminal wrongdoing by BHA but "modicum of background checks" would have uncovered the scam, IG says. 7/15.09
Cali. Nursing Board Fired, Bad Nurses Kept Jobs -- The board that licenses California nurses took on average three years and five months to take action against problem nurses, letting nurses work despite convictions, drug theft, abuse and more. Story by the LA Times and ProPublica. 7/14/09
Blogs Drop MJ, MSM Can't Let Go -- While most of the online chatter moved past the gloved one's demise, big media outlets hung on, the Project for Excellence in Journalism Finds. The Tweeterati also dropped Jack-O; Iran still going strong. 7/10/09
Robert McNamara: An Appreciation -- A compilation from the esteemable National Security Archive. 7/9/09
Congressional Travel Skyrockets -- Jamaica, Virgin Islands among destinations increasingly frequented by members of Congress. Travel is up nearly tenfold since 1995, WSJ reports. 7/7/09
Marion Barry Arrested, Again -- Former D.C. mayor caught on camera smoking crack accused of stalking a sort-of ex-girlfriend. 7/6/09
Newton North HS -- For Their Eyes Only -- Newton officials bar local reporter and photog. from joining a public tour of $200m Taj Mahal high school. 6/26/09
Good FOIA Get -- -- FBI reports of Saddam Husseins interviewes, FOIA'd by the NY Daily News. 6/25/09
Western Companies Set Up Iranian Web Censoring Technology -- Experts have been amazed at Iranian's ability to censor Internet traffic, but it's all thanks to the Western engineers who set it up, WSJ reports. 6/22/09
Justice Dept. Anti-Corruption Unit In Disarray -- How does this bode for Boston-based public corruption cases? WaPo reports that two senior managers of the units have been reshuffled following the bungled prosecution of Alaskan Senator. 6/19/09
War On Drugs a Costly Failure in Mass., Study Says -- The Mass. Bar Association reports that mandatory minimum sentencing reform and treatment could save the state more than $25 million a year. 6/18/09
Immigration Backlog Grows as Promise of More Judges Lapses -- Backlog of cases growing despite 2006 vow by US to boost number of judges. The number of judges has fallen since then until April 2009, when 10 immigration judges sworn in. 6/18/09
Child Abusers, Felons Running Wisconsin Day Cares -- Running investigation by Milwaukee paper finds all sorts of unsavory characters not only running day care centers but also cashing in on state subsidies. 6/17/09
Sen. Kerry Wants to Spend Campaign $$$ to Make a Movie -- He's asking the FEC for permission to spend $300k of his campaign funds to make a documentary about soldiers injured in Iraq. He would serve as an executive producer but make no money. 6/15/09
Judge Says OK to Use Taser to Force Suspect to Give DNA Sample -- Upstate NY police tasered a handcuffed, seated suspect to convince him to open his mouth for a swab. He was a suspect in a home invasion and for pointing a gun at police responding to a convenience store robbery. A NY judge said the move was not unconstitutional. 6/12/09
Pentagon Trips Paid for By Special Interests A year-long investigation finds more than 22,000 trips worth at least $26m paid for, often by those interested in influencing US policy or purchasing. 6/11/09
Lawmakers Lobbying for Stimulus Bucks Obama has defended $787b stimulus bonanza by saying it wasn't going to legislators' pet projects, but USA today finds pols are lobbying heavily, and getting results, including from our own Barney Frank. '"This is really subverting the intent of the legislation, when members call an agency and say, 'Fund my project,'" says Thomas Schatz of the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste.' 6/10/09
Modular home story may spur change
Hollywood handout or economic boost?
Modular Homes: Built to Burn?