Taken for a Ride: Temp Agencies and ‘Raiteros’ in Immigrant Chicago | ProPublica and Marketplace
“Some of America's best-known companies and largest temp agencies benefit from — and tacitly collaborate with — an underworld of labor brokers, known as raiteros, who charge workers fees, pushing their pay below minimum wage.”

Problems keep proliferating at discredited private foster care agency | Los Angeles Times
“A decade after L.A. County auditors delivered a harsh assessment of Teens Happy Homes, probe finds that children were repeatedly harmed in recent years and dubious financial practices grew.”

Mortgage Mess | NBC Bay Area
“Tens of thousands of Bay ...

Center for Investigative Reporting
VA’s ability to quickly provide benefits plummets under Obama
“Internal VA documents, obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting and authenticated by the agency, reveal that delays newly returning veterans face before receiving disability compensation and other benefits are far longer than the agency has publicly acknowledged. The documents also offer insight into some of the reasons for those delays.”

The Houston Chronicle
Pasadena Superfund site's owner indicted, missing
“In reality, prosecutors said, he is a polluter responsible for a 17-acre disaster - hundreds of dumpsters and concrete tanks vaporizing hazardous chemicals into the air ...

Time
Bitter Pill: Why medical bills are killing us
“Breaking these trillions down into real bills going to real patients cuts through the ideological debate over health care policy. By dissecting the bills that people like Sean Recchi face, we can see exactly how and why we are overspending, where the money is going and how to get it back. We just have to follow the money.”

New York Times Magazine
The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food
“Inside the hyperengineered, savagely marketed, addiction-creating battle for American ‘stomach share.’”

Columbia Journalism Review
Immigration reform and private prison cash
“Key lawmakers ...

An analysis by The Record/NorthJersey.com has found that, "in a striking reversal, growing numbers of young parents are choosing the bustle of New York City over the calm of suburban life as a place to live, a trend that is already changing the face of some neighborhoods across North Jersey and could have long-term implications for schools, the housing market and beyond."

Charter schools are public schools, funded by taxpayers and widely promoted as open to all. But Reuters has found that across the United States, charters aggressively screen student applicants, assessing their academic records, parental support, disciplinary history, motivation, special needs and even their citizenship, sometimes in violation of state and federal law. Reuters found that thousands of charter schools don’t provide subsidized lunches, putting them out of reach for families in poverty. Hundreds mandate that parents spend hours doing “volunteer” work for the school or risk losing their child’s seat. In one extreme example, an Illinois school mandates ...

The Post and Courier in Charleston, SC, has launched a series exploring why South Carolina can't shake the disparities in education, health care and economic opportunity that keep it at the bottom of every list you want to be at the top of, and the top of every list you want to be at the bottom of.

Using data on education, health and economic development, the Post and Courier revealed two parallel worlds in South Carolina: "One where life reflects the modern national average on most measures, and a forgotten one that has been left behind as the rest ...

The Minneapolis Star Tribune
Murderous 'monster' acquires an arsenal
A Minnesota man who killed his mother with a firearm in 1995 and was later committed to a state mental hospital was still able to obtain a permit to purchase firearms last May, the Star Tribune’s Paul McEnroe and Glenn Howatt reported.  Dozens of other Minnesotans judged by a court to be mentally ill have also found that designation no barrier to obtaining deadly weapons. A review of state court records found case after case in which individuals deemed mentally ill in judicial proceedings later wound up in possession of ...

Chicago's overall rise in killings hasn't been spread across the city, The New York Times reports. Most of the homicides -- which authorities told the Times are gang-against-gang shootings, happened mostly in neighborhoods west and south of the city's downtown. A map from the Times found that more than 80 percent of the city's homicides happened in only half of the city's police districts. The police district including the business district downtown reported no killings.

The New Haven Register
Connecticut superintendents get many perks in addition to salaries
“Meal allowances, housing help, generous mileage reimbursements and bonuses of up to $30,000 a year are some perks Connecticut school superintendents get in addition to their annual salaries.”

The Texas Tribune
A Part-Time Legislature, but in Whose Interest?
“Wth a conflict disclosure system rife with holes, virtually toothless ethics laws often left to the interpretation of the lawmakers they are supposed to regulate, and a Legislature historically unwilling to make itself more transparent, the reality is Texans know exceedingly little about who or what influences the ...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ethics and the Legislature: Money, secrets, power rule dome
On the floor and in the committee rooms, you can identify the most powerful lawmakers simply by checking their fundraising and lobbying totals. The cost of access to a legislator rises as he does: being promoted to chair a key committee doubles his campaign contributions and lobbyist gifts.

Slate
How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?
"The answer to the simple question in that headline is surprisingly hard to come by. So Slate and the Twitter feed @GunDeaths are collecting data for our crowdsourced interactive ...