Money and Politics

When they needed political money – to make donations urged by Speaker John A. Pérez and to pay for their 2012 campaigns – Democrats in the California Assembly turned to interest groups with a big stake in state government decisions, a Center for Investigative Reporting analysis shows. For last year’s state elections, Assembly Democrats together […]

When Speaker John A. Pérez asked Democrats in the California Assembly to make political donations, how did lawmakers respond? Were lawmakers who gave large sums rewarded with powerful positions in the new Legislature? What were the outcomes for lawmakers who didn’t give? For this report on campaign finance dynamics during the 2012 state election, the […]

Joji Thomas was desperate to save his home. The San Francisco mechanical engineer sold his car, tapped into his wife’s savings and begged friends for money. In July, to stave off foreclosure, he bought a $27,777.85 cashier’s check and mailed it to Bank of America.  Joji Thomas (right) directs movers as he packs up his […]

Bank of America has found a way to make money through foreclosures by using a complicated web of subsidiaries. The process begins with a company called ReconTrust, which handles 1 in 5 Bay Area foreclosures. Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America plays the largest role of any bank in Bay Area foreclosures. From July 2008 through October, […]

Since mid-2008, more than 184,000 Bay Area properties have entered default. This map shows the number of foreclosures for each of the nine Bay Area counties. Click on the county to see foreclosure information. Source: RealtyTrac Inc., 2010 U.S. Census

Conservative foundations, multinational oil companies and a prescription drugmaker were the most frequent sponsors of more than 100 expense-paid educational seminars attended by federal judges over a 4 1/2-year period, according to a Center for Public Integrity investigation. Among the seminar titles were “The Moral Foundations of Capitalism,” “Corporations and the Limits of Criminal Law” […]

 Creative Commons/Richie Fingers The largest tech companies in the Bay Area have avoided paying federal taxes on more than $225 billion they have accumulated through foreign subsidiaries, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. By sheltering their assets overseas, Silicon Valley companies such as Apple, Google, eBay and Hewlett-Packard are able to reduce […]

 The 621st Contingency Response Wing/Flickr An estimated 1 in 4 jobs in San Diego County are tied to the military sector, and $32 billion in defense-related activities is linked to that area alone, more than the entire economic output of Panama.   So what happens if tens of billions of dollars in defense spending is […]

Derek Purdy/Flickr An armored personnel carrier bought by a sheriff’s office in Washington state with anti-terrorism dollars was used to pull over a suspected drunk driver. A $21 fish tank, a hog catcher and a $24,000 “latrine on wheels” were purchased with homeland security funds in Texas. A counter-terrorism summit was held on an island […]