1. The Food Lobby’s War on a Soda Tax

   Washington lobbyists have been enjoying a multi-million-dollar sugar rush from the food industry. Soft drink makers, supermarket companies, agriculture and the fast-food business have poured… Read more

2. A ‘Murtha Method’ Encore

   A review of the 2010 defense appropriations process reveals that most members of a key House of Representatives panel continue to engage in controversial relationships… Read more

1. The Murtha Method

   For months, a cloud has swirled around Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and the relationship that Murtha and… Read more

2. You Broke It, You Fix It?

   Firms that fed off the subprime lending frenzy that devastated the banking system are lining up to collect more than $21 billion in taxpayer funds… Read more

More from the Center >

1. Nearly 1,800 Interests Vying To Influence New Transportation Bill, Center Report Finds

   WASHINGTON, D.C., September 16, 2009 — Almost 1,800 special interest groups of all kinds are trying to influence Congress, as it races against time to… Read more

2. The Latest from our Partners at the Center for Investigative Reporting

   This story is part of a collaborative effort between the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, CA. Over several… Read more

1. Center for Public Integrity Wins Knight-Batten and Society of Environmental Journalists Honors

   WASHINGTON, D.C., August 4, 2009 — For the first time ever, the Center for Public Integrity has won a prestigious Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in… Read more

2. Call for Submissions for 2010 Daniel Pearl Awards

   Washington, D.C., July 14, 2009 — The 2010 Daniel Pearl Awards competition, which honors the world’s best cross-border investigative journalism, has… Read more

More Front & Center News >

Archive Investigations

1. States of Disclosure

   Following up on our two previous analyses in 1999 and 2006, the Center for Public Integrity’s latest financial disclosure rankings for state legislators found that 20 out of the 50 states received a failing grade and three of those states have no disclosure requirements at all.

2. Tobacco Underground

   The illicit trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business today, fueling organized crime and corruption, robbing governments of needed tax money, and spurring addiction to a deadly product. Drawn by profits rivaling those of narcotics, smugglers move cigarettes by the billion, making tobacco the world's most widely smuggled legal substance.

3. Pentagon Travel

   When Department of Defense personnel travel, it’s not always the federal government that picks up the bill. Over a 10-year period, defense employees have taken thousands of trips paid for by outside sources, including foreign governments and private companies that conduct business with DOD, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Pentagon travel disclosure records.

4. Land Use Accountability Project

   Sprawl is threatening America’s famed open spaces, challenging our rural culture and love of nature. Yet, expansion and development, too, are essential to the American character. This project paints a complete picture of sprawl, examining the different assessments of and responses to the phenomenon.

5. Broken Government

   As the Bush administration came to an end, the federal government was not functioning as it should. Just how bad was this government dysfunction? In an effort to answer that question, the Center for Public Integrity embarked on Broken Government, an examination of the worst systematic failures of the executive branch over the past eight years.

6. The Hidden Costs of Clean Coal

   A highly productive method, longwall mining yielded 176 million tons of coal in 2007 — 15 percent of total U.S. production. An estimated 10 percent of all U.S. electricity now depends on coal from longwall mines, which have grown in Appalachia and in Illinois, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. But longwall mining is the most brutal technology yet employed to extract coal from underground quickly and cheaply. This project examines social and environmental impacts of longwall’s full-extraction method.

7. Perils of the New Pesticides

   A groundbreaking review of 10 years’ worth of adverse-reaction reports filed with the Environmental Protection Agency by pesticide manufacturers, which found that pyrethrins and pyrethroids — used in thousands of supposedly “safer” pesticides — accounted for more than 26 percent of all fatal, “major,” and “moderate” human incidents reported to the EPA in 2007. Based on information from the previously unreleased EPA pesticide incident-reporting system, this investigation spurred the director of the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs to announce the agency would begin a broad study of the human health effects of pyrethrins and pyrethroids.

1. Iraq: The War Card

   In a widely reported study of orchestrated deception, the Center found that President Bush and seven top officials made 935 false statements leading-up to the Iraq war — and offer them in a database for all to see.

2. The Buying of the President 2008

   Did 2008 shape up to be the most expensive campaign year ever? Find out at the Center’s quadrennial signature project.

3. Pushing Prescriptions

   The Center’s investigation of the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbying might and gifts of free travel for members of Congress — and its resulting political influence and impact on the American public.

4. Welding’s Toxic Legacy

   The shaking in Jeffrey Tamraz’s right hand began in 2001. It was intermittent, so he paid it little mind. A six-foot, 260-pound bear of a man, he’d played football and thrown shot and discus in high school; later he got into competitive weightlifting, and worked up to bench-pressing 465 pounds — once, to win a bet, he flipped a Honda Civic on its side. He brought the same passion to his work. “I taught welding for six years,” he says. “I read books on welding. I loved to weld.”

5. Over the Limit

   Rusk County, Texas — A gentle twilight pink stretches across the sky, touching the waters of Martin Creek Lake. The still air, smelling only of East Texas pines, brings the faint sounds of wildlife in the surrounding woods. Smog and traffic seem much further away than the 145-mile drive to Dallas.

6. Great Lakes Danger Zones?

   Here’s the report that top officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thought was too hot for the public to handle — and the story behind it.

7. Windfalls of War II

   The Center reveals that military contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan grew from $11 billion in 2004 to more than $25 billion in 2006 — and that billions have gone to unidentified foreign companies.