EPA Launches Study of Hydraulic Fracturing
Introducing the ProPublica Blog: Digging Past Headlines
The reason we’re starting this blog at ProPublica is because we’re most concerned with accountability reporting going forward.CIA Creates Transparency Page That Doesn’t Reveal Much
The CIA posted its rather sparse open government page this week, following an order from the White House requiring agencies to create Web pages dedicated to transparency.Greenspan: Not My Fault
Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, will be presenting a 48-page paper to the Brookings Institution tomorrow. For years considered “The Maestro” of our economic system, Greenspan’s paper acknowledges that the Fed “did little” to address the systemic risks of banks that were growing increasingly complex, but he doubts that the recession could have been prevented.
I’ve pulled out a few choice excerpts. (If you want to read the full paper, we’ve put it in our handy document viewer.)
Have You Received Marketing Materials in the Mail Offering to Refinance Your Mortgage?
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We want to know about the direct mail (not e-mail) solicitations you may have received and what types of refinancing deals you’ve been offered. Please tell us about the materials you’ve gotten below. We may call or e-mail you with additional questions.
ProPublica’s T. Christian Miller Is a Finalist for the Daniel Pearl Award
Today, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists announced that T. Christian Miller and the team responsible for the "Disposable Army: Civilian Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan" series are finalists for the Daniel Pearl Awards for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. According to the Center for Public Integrity, who sponsors the award, the prize was specifically created to honor cross-border investigative reporting.
Miller was nominated along with Doug Smith and Francine Orr of the Los Angeles Times and Pratap Chatterjee, a freelance journalist, for his series of reports about the obstacles contractors who are injured in war zones face when they go home and try to collect their legally mandated benefits. Earlier this year, Miller was also honored with the Selden Ring Award for this series.
You can see all of the finalists here. Congratulations to everyone!
Congress Does Repair Job on Stimulus School Construction Plan
Last December, we reported in USA Today that a plan to subsidize billions of dollars in school construction under the stimulus bill had largely flopped.
Now, Congress has passed a fix to get the program back on track. President Obama signed the bill today.
“We’re excited about this,” said Ben Matthews, director of school support for North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction. The state was among many that couldn’t take full advantage of the program because of red tape, technical glitches and difficulty persuading lenders to participate.
EPA Launches National Study of Hydraulic Fracturing
Responding to reports of environmental contamination in gas drilling areas across the country, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will conduct a nationwide scientific study to determine if the problems are caused by the practice of injecting chemicals and water underground to fracture the gas-bearing rock.
The study, announced Thursday but hinted at for months, will revisit research the agency published in 2004, which concluded that the process of hydraulic fracturing did not pose a threat to drinking water. The 2004 report has been widely criticized, in part because the agency didn't conduct any water tests in reaching that conclusion.
Investigations You Need to Read: Thursday
Word is that the health care bill isn’t dropping until Friday. So in the meantime, check out these accountability headlines:
- Payday lenders, with an aggressive lobbying presence in Washington, attack critics and weaken financial reform efforts, according to Talking Points Memo.
- Also in lobbying ... This year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gears up to target Democrats in midterm elections. It plans to spend at least $50 million in what it’s calling “the most aggressive voter-education and issue-advocacy effort in our nearly hundred-year history,” according to The Washington Post.
- A report shows coal-fired power plants are still spewing highly toxic mercury, according to McClatchy. Mercury emissions are up at more than half of the country’s largest coal-fired power plants.
- Records show insurance giant WellPoint fell short of fulfilling a pledge to spend $30 million to help the uninsured, reports the Los Angeles Times. The company argues it did—through a “complicated reporting process.”
These stories are part of our ongoing roundup of investigations from other news outlets. For more, visit our Investigations Elsewhere page.
CIA Creates Transparency Page That Doesn’t Reveal Much
The CIA posted its open government page this week, following an order from the White House requiring agencies to create Web pages dedicated to transparency.
The move is overdue. Last month we reported that 27 of 64 independent agencies—agencies like the CIA, which are under the purview of the executive branch but function independently—had missed the Feb. 6 deadline for creating these transparency pages. The deadline was set by the White House Office of Management and Budget as part of a larger transparency to-do list. We are are tracking that larger to-do list too.
Reporting Recipe Conference Call Set for Thursday, March 25 at 2 p.m. EDT
Earlier this month, Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber took the unique step of publishing a reporting recipe to show people how they could do their own investigations of nursing boards and other state regulatory and licensing agencies. At the time, we said we would schedule a conference call so that the reporters could walk you through the reporting recipe and answer any questions you might have. Well, the cake has been baking long enough, and we've set the date for the call -- Thursday, March 25 at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PST. If you plan to participate in the call, please sign up here. Call-in information will be sent to those who want to participate.
Introducing the ProPublica Blog: Digging Past the Headlines
Conversations about the future of news often get stuck on a few main topics. The search for new funding streams. How to effectively use social media. Bickering between schools old and new. We’re not weighing in on those debates.
The reason we’re starting this blog at ProPublica is because we’re most concerned with accountability reporting going forward. People are not suffering from a lack of news. Morning to night, they’re barraged by information from tweets, radio, 24-hour cable news, blogs, aggregators, and traditional media. At any moment, there’s a tidal wave of information out there, constantly getting updated. What’s lacking is enough context to make sense of it all. To borrow a metaphor from this Poynter piece, it’s hard to drink from a firehose.
Ongoing Investigations
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Disposable Army: Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
The Latest: Defense contractors suffer war trauma just as soldiers do but don’t have the insurance safety net veterans enjoy.
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Strained by Katrina, Hospital Faced Deadly Choices
A two-year investigation reveals what happened to some patients who died at Memorial Medical Center after Katrina.
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New Orleans: Chaos in the Streets & in Police Ranks Too
After Katrina, New Orleans cops shot 10 civilians, at least four of whom died, according to interviews and documents.
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Buried Secrets: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
Staffing levels at agencies that police oil and gas wells have not kept pace with the rapid expansion of drilling in 22 states.
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When Caregivers Harm: Unwatched Nurses
Nurses with serious infractions can work in new locales because states fail to tell each other what they know about them.
- Most Power Plants Still Spewing Toxic Mercury, Report Says - McClatchy
- Wellpoint’s Giving for Uninsured Falls Short, Records Show - L.A. Times
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce Set to Spend Record Campaign Cash - Wash. Post
- The Pay-Day Lender Lobby - TPMMuckraker
- Government Bank Auditors Got Big Bonuses - AP
- Foundation Promotes Art as Well as Sole Trustee - New York Times
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Latest: Senior Reporter T. Christian Miller talks about war contractors injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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What Health Care Reform Means for: ‘Young Invincibles’
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