Controversies
SEC Lawyer Refused to Investigate Allen Stanford Ponzi Scheme…then Represented Stanford
Spencer Barasch could have done something years ago about the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme, but didn’t. Four times red flags went up in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth, Texas, office about Stanford, who has been accused of craft... read more
Did New York Police Bungle Terrorism Case by Ignoring FBI?
While FBI agents quietly tracked the movements of terrorists planning to bomb the New York City subway system last year, local police conversed with an Islamic religious leader who had ties with the plotters—and in the process inadvertently helped... read more
Hip Hop Protest Soldier Discharged
Army Specialist Marc Hall will not undergo a court martial trial, and instead has been released from his military service. Hall, a.k.a. hip hop artist Marc Watercus, was arrested in December after he refused to be sent back to Iraq and produced a ... read more
Big Business Exploits Tort Reform: Ken Connor
Conservative attorney and author Ken Connor is not willing to go along with reforms to the legal system that big business and many on the right have been advocating. Using the recent mining disaster in West Virginia as an example, Connor points ou... read more
Obama Gladly Embraces Bush’s Anti-Terrorism Powers: Eli Lake
Regardless of the rhetorical attacks Republicans have lobbed at him for being soft on terrorism, President Barack Obama is continuing much of his predecessor’s policies and strategies for the war on terror, argues Eli Lake at Reason.com.
Sure,... read more
Are Congressional Districts with Prisons Overrepresented?
The United States has more than two million phantoms voters, thanks to the way the U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners. During the 2010 census, federal officials will record inmates as residents of the towns where their prisons are located, and th... read more
Pentagon Restricts White Supremacist Activity by Members of Military…Finally
Despite numerous warnings in recent years of growing white supremacist numbers in the U.S. military, the Defense Department waited until late in 2009 to quietly issue a directive ordering soldiers to refrain from participating in such activity on ... read more
Move to Stop Outsourcing Security at Federal Buildings
Relying on private companies to guard federal buildings has resulted in numerous breaches of security, according to an investigation by the Government Accountability Office. A new GAO report has called upon the Department of Homeland Security (DHS... read more
Army Accused of Cheating Wounded Vets over Pre-Existing Personality Disorders
The U.S. Army has gotten out of paying lifetime benefits to wounded soldiers by fraudulently diagnosing them with “personality disorder” (PD), a pre-existing condition that trumps any injuries suffered from combat. Doing so has saved the Departmen... read more
What’s in a (Re)Name? In Pakistan, At Least 10 Deaths So Far
Renaming Pakistan’s northernmost province has not gone down well with local residents who belong to the Hazara ethnic group. What was known by the British colonial name of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as decreed o... read more
Failed Financial Regulators Go to Work at Bingham McCutchen
Legal powerhouse Bingham McCutchen is loading up on former federal regulators who failed to catch many of the highest profile Wall Street disasters in recent years. After hiring former chairman Christopher Cox and enforcement official Herbert Jani... read more
DA in Wisconsin Threatens to Prosecute High School Teachers Who Promote Condom Use
District Attorney Scott Southworth of Juneau County, Wisconsin, does not like the state’s new sex education law and is threatening to charge teachers with contributing to the delinquency of children if they teach students about using condoms and t... read more
Justice Dept. Investigates High Suicide Rate at Small New York Jail
Federal prosecutors are investigating a small jail in Buffalo, New York, where six inmates have committed suicide in the past five years. That total, for the 680-bed Erie County Holding Facility, is considerably out of proportion compared with Ri... read more
Mining Companies Avoided Paying 92% of Fines in Last 5 Years
In the wake of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia, the United States’ worst mining disaster in four decades, media scrutiny has turned to the federal agency whose mission is to prevent such accidents from happening
The Mine S... read more
Multiple Tours of Duty Lead to Post-Traumatic Stress
Nearly 300,000 American troops have served three, four or more times in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, while cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have risen dramatically since the wars began. The possible correlation between these two facts ha... read more
Whistleblowers Uncover Corporate Fraud More Often than Regulators
Less than 7% of corporate fraud cases are uncovered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), based on an academic study of 216 instances of criminal behavior by companies. The analysis (“Who Blows the Whistle on Corporate Fraud?”) determin... read more