Politics Archives - Page 7 of 21 - Investigative Reporters & Editors

“Jonathan D. Salant and Joshua Green of Bloomberg News reported that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain used campaign funds to buy books he wrote from his own company.”

“’All candidates publish books and they offer them as premiums to donors, but most candidates aren’t buying them from their own companies’, Bill Allison, editorial director at the Washington-based Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that tracks political money said. ‘It raises the question of his campaign contributions ending up in his own pocket.’”

"Following the deadly Esperanza wildfire in Southern California in October 2006, in which five U.S. Forest Service firefighters were killed, a task force recommended tougher zoning and code enforcement to limit development in the mountain forests considered high fire hazard zones. Yet within a year of those recommendations, Riverside County supervisors gave the go-ahead to a 150-home, upscale development in a small mountain community that burned in Esperanza.

A review of campaign finance records by The Desert Sun’s Keith Matheny shows the Orange County-based project developer, his wife or his company contributed a total of more than $12,400 to the campaigns of every Riverside County supervisor and the district attorney. The donations began in December 2008 — one week after the county preliminarily approved the project — and continue into this year."

“In recent months Koch Industries Inc., the business conglomerate run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, has repeatedly told a U.S. Congressional committee and the news media that the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has “nothing to do with any of our businesses.”

But Inside Climate News reports that the company has told Canadian energy regulators a different story.”

An Alberta-based subsidiary of Koch Industries told the National Energy Board that it “‘is among Canada’s largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters. Consequently, Flint Hills has a direct and substantial interest in the application’ for the pipeline under consideration.”

In his bid for the president, Governor Rick Perry has attacked the Troubled Asset Relief Program numerous times; calling it an “unprecedented assault on free markets.” However, The Dallas Morning News reports that the very bank Perry designated for his campaign finances received more than $87 million in TARP money. That same bank, PlainsCapital, is ran by some of the largest and wealthiest Perry supporters in Texas.

The president of PlainsCapital Corp., the parent company, is James R. Huffines, a confidant of the governor.

Huffines, his three brothers and their father have contributed $467,000 to Perry campaigns, state records show. Huffines accounted for $32,000 of the total. He has also contributed $8,700 for campaign events.

It may be surprising to learn that after legislators in South Carolina passed a law that would allow them to collect their pension, while still working for the state full time, their annual incomes have nearly tripled.

Thomas Frank, of USA TODAY, investigates the disturbing, yet legal, actions our legislators are taking. “More than 4,100 legislators in 33 states are positioned to benefit from special retirement laws that they and their predecessors have enacted to boost their pensions by up to $100,000 a year, a USA TODAY investigation found. Even as legislators cut basic state services and slash benefits for police, teachers and other workers, they have preserved pension laws that grant themselves perks unavailable to voters they serve or workers they direct.”

Frank also includes an interactive map to help understand just how “state lawmakers pump up their pension in ways you can’t”.

The El Dorado County sheriff John D’Agostini surprised county administrators when a helicopter appeared as a new tool for the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department. KCRA3 reporter Dave Manoucheri reveals that D’Agostini failed to alert county officials that a chopper was in the works, which raises risk management and liability concerns. Although the sheriff says his budget is his to spend, officials worry about possible costs to taxpayers.

Click here to view the complete video.

Citizens Voice reporter, Andrew Staub, uses DocumentCloud to publish documents showing Mayor Tom Leighton has been hiring his kids and relatives for summer jobs. Over the past 8 years, Leighton hired his children for over a dozen different positions. However, it’s not just his children he’s hiring, but also affluent children from his neighborhood.

“The hires have clouded a summer jobs program that offers organized activities and lunch for city youth and resume-building work experience for the hires. A review of Leighton’s seasonal and temporary hiring, funded largely through more than $2 million in budget allocations over eight years, showed the summer program often benefited residents with existing city ties – especially those who lived in Barney Farms, the small riverside development the mayor and many other politically connected residents call home.”

Dale Russell, investigative reporter for Fox 5 in Atlanta, reveals the latest information regarding the Georgia state ethics commission. Two top staffers of the commission have found themselves out of a job after a recent commission decision. The same two staffers are conducting an investigation on the campaign of Governor Nathan Deal. Ethics commissioners say that a "tight budget" was the reason for cutting one position and drastically cutting the salary of another, not the fact that the staff members were involved in the investigation.

"Thousands of Iranians took to the streets in 2009 as part of the Green Movement to protest a disputed presidential election. The government crackdown that followed included some women being imprisoned, tortured and raped. This report shares some of their stories."

Jeffrey Brown with The Center for Investigative Reporting and PBS NewsHour reports on the aftermath of the Iranian protests, with startling accounts from the women on the front line.

This four-month investigation by The Star-Ledger reveals questionable practices by the Elizabeth Board of Education. The Elizabeth school district is the largest in New Jersey, and seen as one of the "top" districts to some. Reporter Ted Sherman found that members of the school board often contacted teachers soliciting donations and various other types of monetary contributions. Teachers felt pressured to buy raffle tickets and attend fundraising events in fear of losing their job. Sherman also found internal documents that "show friends and relatives of board members scattered through the payroll."

FEC-Cain used campaign money to buy autobiography from Co. he owns