Tag: Investigations
Lawsuit Reveals New Allegations Against PG&E Contractor Accused of fraud
Former PG&E employees are accused of taking bribes to funnel business to a waste-hauling company. by Scott Morris, Bay City News Foundation Co-published with Bay City News Foundation. Feb. 26, 5 a.m. EST Utility giant Pacific…
Report of illegal $80 million arms transfer by Erik Prince to Libyan warlord raises question of who’s backing former Blackwater CEO
Prince has “been linked to the Trump administration, the Emirati leadership, and the Russians,” noted one expert. by Brett Wilkins, staff writer Saturday, February 20, 2021 Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of the mercenary…
Father Vincent O’ Connell deserves better than a smear
by Wade Rathke Thursday, February 18, 2021 New Orleans This was random. A friend and comrade got it in her mind to memorialize Father Vinnie O’Connell, one of the rare and now vanished labor priests,…
The IRS cashed her check. Then the late notices started coming.
A mountainous backlog of paperwork at the IRS continues to wreak havoc on America’s tax collection system — which especially hurts lower-income filers. by Lydia DePillis, ProPublica Kathy Brenneman hears plenty of taxpayer horror stories in…
Utility companies owe millions to California regulatory agency. The problem? The agency can’t track what it’s owed.
When a whistleblower alleged that $200 million was missing from the California Public Utilities Commission, the agency says it took steps to collect. Yet an audit uncovered more missing money and cited flaws in the agency’s…
Congressional report reveals manufacturers ‘knowingly’ sold toxin-tainted baby food
“This is what happens when you let the food and chemical companies, not the FDA, decide whether our food is safe to eat.” by Kenny Stancil, staff writer Friday, February 5, 2021 Leading baby food manufacturers…
Text Messages Show Top Trump Campaign Fundraiser’s Key Role Planning the Rally That Preceded the Siege
Caroline Wren, a Trump fundraiser, is listed as a “VIP Advisor” in a National Park Service permit for the Jan. 6th rally at the Ellipse. Text messages and a planning memo show the title downplays the…
‘That’s insane… He still has the money’: SCOTUS tosses emoluments lawsuits targeting Trump
One watchdog critic angered by the court’s decision said, “Congress must act now to ensure that no future president can profit off the presidency.” by Jessica Corbett, staff writer Monday, January 25, 2021 The U.S. Supreme…
How Operation Warp Speed created vaccination chaos
States are struggling to plan their vaccination programs with just one week’s notice for how many doses they’ll receive from the federal government. The incoming Biden administration is deciding what to do with this dysfunctional system….
Video details tense moments as Capitol Mob sought out lawmakers
“Where They Countin’ the Votes?!” New video, found in an archive of data uploaded to Parler, includes a fresh look at the mob’s confrontation with Eugene Goodman, the officer credited for luring rioters away from senators…
Failure to hold Trump accountable for Capitol siege means ‘it will happen again,’ says Rep. Ocasio-Cortez
“If another head of state came in and ordered an attack on the United States Congress, would we say that that should not be prosecuted?” the New York Democrat said Sunday. by Andrea Germanos, staff write…
A lender sued thousands of lower-income Latinos during the pandemic. Now it wants to be a National Bank.
Oportun, which lends in only a dozen states, applied for a bank charter late last year. Consumer and Latino civil rights groups are pushing back, citing the findings of a joint investigation by ProPublica and The…
She Noticed $200 Million Missing, Then She Was Fired
Alice Stebbins was hired to fix the finances of California’s powerful utility regulator. She was fired after finding $200 million for the state’s deaf, blind and poor residents was missing. by Scott Morris, Bay City News…
Inside Trump and Barr’s last-minute killing spree
Private executioners paid in cash. Middle-of-the-night killings. False or incomplete justifications. ProPublica obtained court records showing how the outgoing administration is using its final days to execute the most federal prisoners since World War II. by…
State, county policies impact rejected ballot rates in Arizona for November election
The rejected ballots show that Arizona’s election system worked as intended: Voters who were eligible to vote and followed state laws had their ballots counted. by Sam Kmack, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting Monday, December 21,…
The government promised to return Ancestral Hawaiian land, then never finished the job
Native Hawaiians are still waiting for state and federal officials to fulfill the promises of land legislation that was signed into law 25 years ago. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” said one former governor. by Rob…
Most profitable US companies fired workers, enriched shareholders during pandemic
“This is a global crisis but the big companies are not treating it as one—they haven’t skipped a beat.” by Kenny Stancil, staff writer Thursday, December 17, 2020 While the Covid-19 pandemic and corresponding economic crisis…
JPMorgan Chase Bank wrongly charged 170,000 customers overdraft fees. Federal regulators refused to penalize it.
Documents and records show that bank examiners have avoided penalizing at least six banks that incorrectly charged overdraft and related fees to hundreds of thousands of customers. by Patrick Rucker, The Capitol Forum Monday, December 14,…
This system Is supposed to protect people with developmental disabilities. It is falling apart.
Arizona’s Independent Oversight Committees helped make it one of the best places to live as a person with DD. But now they say the state isn’t giving them what they need. by Amy Silverman for Arizona…
Corporations paying lawmakers to outlaw protest is a crime against democracy
More communities are standing up to pipelines. The fossil fuel industry wants to make that a felony. We need to push for “Protesters’ Bills of Rights” in state legislatures to codify the right to protest. by…
Rapid testing is less accurate than the Government wants to admit
Rapid antigen testing is a mess. The federal government pushed it out without a plan, and then spent weeks denying problems with false positives. by Lisa Song Monday, November 16 The promise of antigen tests emerged…
Lawyers can’t locate parents of 666 seized migrant children—121 more than previously believed
. The children were separated from their families under the Trump administration’s widely condemned “zero tolerance” immigration policy. by Brett Wilkins, staff writer Tuesday, November 10 Last month, the world was shocked and outraged to learn…
Swept up by police
Analysis of arrests in 15 cities reveals most George Floyd protesters were charged with misdemeanors and lived within the metro area where they were arrested. By Meryl Kornfield, Austin R. Ramsey, Jacob Wallace, Christopher Casey and…
James O’Keefe, Spy Boy
by Wade Rathke October 29, 2020 New Orleans Back when we used to have Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which looking forward to 2021, seems an iffy proposition, one of the treats for early risers…
