All Blog Posts from Investigative Round-Up

http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/global_climate_change_lobby/overview/> The Center For Public Integrity:
Global attempts to craft a pivotal new climate treaty in Copenhagen this December are being stymied by a far-reaching, multinational backlash led by fossil fuel industries and other heavy carbon emitters, according to an eight-country report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (read the article)

AP: An American soldier who barged into a counseling center and killed five fellow troops with an assault rifle had been unraveling for nearly two weeks but the U.S. military lacked clear procedures to monitor him or deal with his deadly shooting spree once it began to unfold, a report found. (Read the article)

The Dallas Morning News:

After terrorists slammed airliners into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, the law-enforcement community had one overriding priority – preventing another attack. (read the article)

The Center For Public Integrity:

Almost 1,800 special interest groups of all kinds are trying to influence Congress, as it races against time to enact a giant new transportation bill, according to The Transportation Lobby, a new investigation by the Center for Public Integrity. Notorious for earmarks like Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere,” Congress’s funding of transportation has become a broken process influenced by special interests, according to the investigation. Interest groups employed 2,100 lobbyists and spent an estimated $45 million to lobby lawmakers on transportation in the first half of 2009 — a spending pace on par with the amount spent lobbying on climate change, the Center found.

(read the article)

The Center for Public Integrity:

Computer Analysis Shows 12 of 16 House Defense Subcommittee Members in Controversial Circles of Lobbyists, Earmarks, and Campaign Cash

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 other subcommittee members had with the PMA Group, a lobbying firm filled with former subcommittee aides.

(read the article)

CBS/AP:

Researchers say a small number of young law enforcement officers who participated in the World Trade Center rescue and cleanup operation have developed an immune system cancer. (read the article)

The Guardian:

Federal investigators are examining whether a labor-affiliated nonprofit improperly funneled consulting fees to Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar and former Board of Education member David Tokofsky, according to sources close to the probe. (read the article)’

LA Times:
The federal government routinely failed to follow its own standards regulating immigration detention centers across the country, denying detainees sufficient recreation time and adequate access to attorneys, legal materials and telephones, according to a new report issued Tuesday. (read the article)

The Center For Public Integrity:
Whether the subject is health care reform, climate change, or pay-as-you-go budgeting rules, almost everyone, it seems, suddenly wants to talk with the Blue Dogs. President Obama’s White House meeting with members of the fiscally conservative Democratic coalition earlier this week is but the latest indication that the Blue Dogs — 52 members strong — have deftly turned themselves into a key voting bloc at the nexus of power. With them, the Democrats do not need a single Republican to back their legislation; without them, the Democratic agenda would be in serious peril. And as their clout has expanded, fundraising has grown accordingly, not just from traditionally Democratic contributors, but from unexpected quarters as well. The Center for Public Integrity
(read the article)

CBS/AP:
The mayors of three New Jersey cities, two state legislators and several rabbis were among more than 40 people arrested Thursday in a sweeping corruption investigation that began as a probe into an international money laundering ring that trafficked in goods as diverse as human organs and fake designer handbags. (read the article)