The Center for Public Integrity : PaperTrail Blog

TOBACCO: Black Markets, Mafias, and Terrorists

2009-07-02T18:26:52+00:00

This week on the Center’s Public I podcast, Executive Director Bill Buzenberg talks to David Kaplan, the Center’s editorial director and head of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, about the global tobacco smuggling network and the billions of dollars in lost tax revenue that have resulted from the illicit industry.

MEDIA: The New Investigative News Network

2009-07-02T18:20:22+00:00

We came. We saw. We talked. We argued. But when this week’s meeting at New York’s Pocantico Conference Center wrapped up Wednesday, the groundwork had been laid — we hope — for an unprecedented new nonprofit Investigative News Network.

As Membership Month Ends, a Quick Thanks to Our Supporters

2009-07-02T17:21:50+00:00

By phone, online, even via Twitter, support poured in from across the country this June in response to the Center for Public Integrity’s Membership Drive. All told, we raised more than $60,000 to support the Center for Public Integrity’s unique brand of investigative journalism in the public interest.

ECONOMY: Mandatory One-Week Vacation Legislation Lacks Congressional Support

2009-07-01T18:53:16+00:00

As Congress leaves town for the July 4th recess, a timely bill is languishing in the House: the Paid Vacation Act.

ENVIRONMENT: Southern Company Dominates the Climate Lobbying Scene

2009-07-01T13:58:52+00:00

Southern Company, the nation’s largest electric power generator, also had the largest force of lobbyists among the hundreds of businesses and interest groups that were seeking to influence the landmark climate change legislation that just passed the House.

ENVIRONMENT: By Releasing Coal Ash Sites, EPA Raises More Questions

2009-06-30T14:48:59+00:00

Last February, in a four-month investigation into the dangers of coal ash, the Center covered the notorious, ash-laden water in Colstrip, Montana, home to a behemoth coal-fired power plant known by the same name. Now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has revealed that the Colstrip plant’s ash ponds — the ones responsible for all that toxic water — are on its much-anticipated list of 44 potentially highly dangerous coal-ash dumpsites nationwide.

STATES: Discussing Financial Disclosure Laws

2009-06-29T17:57:08+00:00

This week on the Center’s Public I podcast, Executive Director Bill Buzenberg talks to reporter Caitlin Ginley about the Center's latest state-by-state survey of financial disclosure laws, which found that 20 out of the 50 states received a failing grade and three of those states have no disclosure requirements at all.

MEDIA: Brainstorming the Future of Investigative Reporting

2009-06-29T14:00:51+00:00

It is, admittedly, just a modest first step. But the Center for Public Integrity is co-hosting a meeting this week that we hope might eventually help change the landscape of investigative journalism.

MONEY & POLITICS: Political Spouses Behaving Badly

2009-06-26T20:20:04+00:00

Though the nation has been focused more this week on politicians who behaved badly toward their spouses, a less-noticed story in Detroit presents the opposite problem — a powerful Congressman’s spouse who is in trouble for her own misbehavior.

TRANSPARENCY: A Shrill Message for Whistleblowers

2009-06-25T14:41:24+00:00

A government whistleblower review board has upheld the firing of a federal air marshal for disclosing “sensitive security information”, even though the information had not been marked as “sensitive” at the time. And in an ironic twist, the board’s decision was itself labeled “sensitive security information” and posted on a publicly accessible government website, due to a “computer glitch,” the board says.