Accountability

Thank you to the Sunlight Foundation’s “Real Time Investigations” project, where Bill Allison and Anupama Narayanswamy are undertaking a massive FOIA inquiry to create a searchable database that would be helpful to other reporters (like me).

While Democrats patted themselves on the back for their “earmark-free” spending bill earlier this year, some Republicans accused them of sneaking hidden earmarks into the bill. It turns out that some of the GOP critics were lobbying for earmarks behind the scenes.

The new Democratic Congress passed a major spending bill earlier this year that it promoted as being stripped of all earmarks and a strike against pork-barrel spending. But even as the bill passed, a joint investigation by CIR and the Los Angeles Times reveals today, top Democrats and members of both parties deluged government agencies

After Democrats won control of Congress, they moved to fulfill their pledge to crack down on the controversial practice of lawmakers slipping projects in spending bills without public scrutiny. In February, they scrapped Republican-drafted bills loaded with earmarks and passed a bill that they boasted had none. Among those celebrating the achievement was Senate Majority

In “Becoming the Story,” EXPOSÉ returns to San Francisco and the steroid scandal that rocked the sports world.

The PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW wrote up a guide for other journalists planning projects similar to Carl Prine’s investigation into the security of chemical plants and railroads. A condensed list of their advice:

Part two premieres tonight on PBS. On Monday: What every responsible journalist should know before casing a joint.