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Self-serving charity CEO's, junkets, prison health horrorsSHOWCASE | October 304, 2005Reporters uncover tales of buried industrial sludge, a broken prison health care system and failed weather forecasting gear By Alex Kingsbury Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) regularly spotlights stories by the country's top watchdog reporters in an online feature called Extra!Extra! Here's a digest of some of the most compelling investigative journalism as catalogued by IRE. "Business has never been better for thousands of charities that employ disabled Americans -- or for their chief executive officers, who are pulling in record compensation." So say Jeff Kosseff and Bryan Denson of the Portland Oregonian in a report that concludes, "The soaring paychecks come from charities that often pay disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, The Oregonian found in an ongoing investigation of the disparities. The increases parallel a big expansion of defense contracts set aside for disabled workers since the wars in In The public radio program Marketplace reports that though tax laws prohibit members of Congress from taking international trips paid for by private foundations, California Republican Richard Pombo may have done just that. The International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources, or the IFCNR, has financial backers including "the Japan Whaling Association, the International Fur Traders Association, and a company that was shut down after its president was convicted of smuggling and of violating endangered species protections," the report finds. The complication, reports Bob Williams, is that "Congressman Pombo is chairman one of the most important environmental committees in the House of Representatives. He his wife and a staffer have accepted $23,000 in international travel from the IFCN in the last 5 years." Prison health system nightmares Fort Worth Star-Telegram staffers Jennifer Autrey and Bill In one case, a "teen-ager with a known heart defect was given Pepto-Bismol for chest pain, only to collapse and die from a split heart valve. An AIDS patient sobbed in his cell, saying he couldn't get his medication. He, too, died in custody."
Predicting isn't supposed to be this difficult Reporter Debbie Cenziper used forecast verification reports to conclude that "Buoys, weather balloons, radars, ground sensors and hurricane hunter planes, all part of a multibillion-dollar weather-tracking system run by the federal government, have failed forecasters during nearly half of the 45 hurricanes that struck land since 1992." The Miami Herald staffer found that the " A team of reporters from the Record dug deep to investigate a legacy of industrial pollution that still effects a residents of downloadable documents.
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