Deep in the foothills, miles above California’s Sacramento Valley, the 640-acre home of the Cortina Band of Wintun Indians lies empty except for six houses,…
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Officials in one of the nation’s fastest growing counties defeated a plan to purchase nearly 100 acres of land, at a cost of more than…
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Stand-up comedian Tim Slagle was on a roll. In a lunchtime routine tailored to 400 conference attendees, Slagle was killing ‘em with jokes about, well,…
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Termites? No problem. On DoMyOwnPestControl.com, $64.99 buys a 20-ounce bottle of Termidor SC. That’s enough for anyone with a credit card and a shipping address…
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WASHINGTON, D.C., October 20, 2008 — A renegade network of Russian and Eastern European factories is behind at least $1 billion worth of contraband “Jin…
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LILLEHAMMER, NORWAY, Sept. 13, 2008 — A New York Times series about deadly Chinese counterfeit drugs sold around the world and a TV4 Sweden investigation…
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The latest media coverage of Center projects.
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The Center's podcast series, narrated by Bill Buzenberg, features our reporters and sources discussing investigations.
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Archive InvestigationsThe 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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Washington State is tops in making it easy to track the private interests of public officials, and Vermont, Michigan, and Idaho tie for last in the Center’s national ranking. Check where your state ranks.
Post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy and military aid and assistance had a huge impact in nations around the world — and at home. This award-winning project includes 20 articles from four continents.
The Superfund isn’t so super anymore. A year-long investigation examined all 1,624 Superfund sites and found daunting toxic threats across the country 27 years after the Environmental Protection Agency program was launched.
At least 900 little-known federal advisory committees wield enormous influence over government policy, some to good ends — but many have become secretive, ideological, or packed with industry representatives.
A year-long investigation of President Bush’s initiative to fight AIDS abroad finds that conservative ideology hinders its real benefits by insisting on abstinence-only programs over promoting condom use.
This project offers a comprehensive examination of business and legislative influences on media — and includes the Media Tracker, a searchable online database of who owns the media serving any U.S. community.
200 trips to Paris? 150 to Hawaii? 140 to Italy? The Center’s investigation of how private interests gain access to members of Congress by funding supposedly educational or investigative travel.
Government contracts awarded for cleanup and reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina are collected in a searchable database, and the best coverage of what happened on the Gulf Coast is gathered and categorized.
An investigation into the state of federal lobbying identifies the top 100 lobbying companies and organizations — led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — as well as the top 250 lobbying firms.
The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to producing original investigative journalism about significant public issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable.
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The Bush administration today lost one of its main talking points for defending its approach of relying on voluntary measures to address climate change. The government’s energy statistics agency is reporting that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased 1.4 percent in 2007 — meaning the slight decrease recorded the prior year was a mere blip on the nation’s current pathway toward increasing its fossil fuel burden on the atmosphere.
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Forget stimulus checks; wealthy farmers raked in more than $49 million in federal funds between 2003 and 2006 that they may have been ineligible for, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
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The National Intelligence Council released its latest study on the world’s future last week, Global Trends 2025. The report, produced by experts inside and out of the U.S. intelligence community, found, among other things, that Al Qaeda could soon be on the decline and that America will be less dominant as China, India, and other powers rise. But buried on page 33 was also this tantalizing tidbit:
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PaperTrail is going through withdrawal. Memories of once-regular characters like Fred Thompson, Chris Dodd, and the slew of other presidential contenders are beginning to fade. And though Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have stayed in the picture — benefiting from President-Elect Obama’s “Team of Rivals” approach — what about the remaining cast of challengers we grew to know (and occasionally love) over the past two years?
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News that Desiree Rogers, a Chicago businesswoman, has been named White House social secretary by the incoming Obama administration pinged our “Barack Obameter” — our measure of just who will wield influence in the new administration.
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Native Americans bet heavily on the Obama administration, and they’re now expecting a big return. During the 2008 federal election cycle, Indian gaming interests contributed almost $8 million, 73 percent to Democrats. Obama raked in more than $68,000 from the groups as compared to $5,000 for McCain, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
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The controversy over the missile defense system the United States plans to build in Eastern Europe has taken almost a 360-degree turn recently. Until November the Bush administration had been courting our “new Europe” pals, the Poles and Czechs, offering planes, missiles, discounts, and other goodies to help smooth the way for the Star Wars installation. But on November 4, the tables turned.
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UPDATE: The Democratic caucus voted Waxman into the chairmanship by a count of 137-122.
California Democrat Henry Waxman scored an early-round victory over Michigan Democrat John D. Dingell today in Waxman’s quest to unseat the longest-serving member of the House of Representative and claim his Energy and Commerce Committee chairmanship for the upcoming 111th Congress. In a 25-22 vote, the House Democratic Steering Committee endorsed Waxman for the job — though the final vote by the full Democratic caucus won’t come until Thursday.
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