1. The Struggle to Police Foreign Subcontractors in Iraq and Afghanistan

   To win hearts and minds in Afghanistan and Iraq, military experts want U.S. companies to contract with local firms for a variety of tasks like… Read more

2. Tobacco Company Penalties May Signal U.S. Crackdown on Industry Practices Overseas

   A flurry of federal enforcement action targeting payoffs by subsidiaries of two U.S. tobacco companies may signal a broader regulatory assault against the industry’s business… Read more

1. Whistleblower: Fannie Mae Bungled HAMP Anti-Foreclosure Program

   Fannie Mae executives bungled their stewardship of the federal government’s massive foreclosure-prevention campaign, creating a bureaucratic muddle characterized by “mismanagement and gross waste of public… Read more

2. Senator Seeks Deadline for Medicare to Prevent Prescription Drug Fraud

   Taxpayer-funded Medicare recently spent more than $1 billion on drug prescriptions missing a valid doctor identification number and a Senate Democrat is demanding that the… Read more

More from the Center >

1. Center Publishes “Dangers in the Dust” e-Newsbook

   Headed to the beach in August and need something to read on your iPad? Read more

2. Dangers in the Dust – Inside the Global Asbestos Trade

   WASHINGTON, D.C., July 21, 2010 – Banned or restricted in more than 50 countries, white asbestos continues to be widely used in China, India, Russia… Read more

1. Center Awarded Two Major Grants

   WASHINGTON, D.C., June 28, 2010 – The Center for Public Integrity, now celebrating its 20th anniversary, is pleased to announce it has received grants from… Read more

2. Digital Publisher Named New CEO of Investigative News Network

   LAS VEGAS, June 10, 2010 — The recently formed Investigative News Network (INN), a collaboration of 32 non-profit news organizations producing public service journalism, today… Read more

More Front & Center News >

Archive Investigations

1. The Transportation Lobby

   America’s transportation policy is dysfunctional. It’s also nearly bankrupt. Now, as debate reaches a crescendo over a new $500 billion transportation bill, can the national interest trump hundreds of special interests?

2. Sexual Assault on Campus: A Frustrating Search for Justice

   According to a report funded by the Department of Justice, roughly one in five women who attend college will become the victim of a rape or an attempted rape by the time she graduates. But official data from the schools themselves doesn’t begin to reflect the scope of the problem. And student victims face a depressing litany of barriers that often either assure their silence or leave them feeling victimized a second time, according to a nine-month investigation by the Center for Public Integrity.

3. Homeland Security: Boom and Bust

   How federal, state, and local governments have managed - or mismanaged - anti-terror programs.

4. The Global Climate Change Lobby

   Global attempts to craft a pivotal new climate treaty in Copenhagen this December are being stymied by a far-reaching, multinational backlash led by fossil fuel industries and other heavy carbon emitters, according to an ICIJ investigation based on reporting in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, and the United States.

5. Ginnie Mae’s Troubling Endorsements

   The Government National Mortgage Association authorizes lenders to bundle mortgages into securities and sell them to investors — backed by U.S. taxpayer funds. But dozens of firms that have secured Ginnie Mae's blessing have troubled pasts.

6. The Murtha Method

   Following up on allegations of influence peddling involving Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, a Center for Public Integrity computer analysis reveals that three-quarters of his subcommittee’s members have been involved in similar patterns of behavior that include 16 former aides-turned lobbyists, $100 million in earmarks, and $1 million in campaign cash. Among those involved are members of Congress from Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

7. Who’s Behind the Financial Meltdown?

   The top subprime lenders whose loans are largely blamed for triggering the global economic meltdown were owned or backed by giant banks now collecting billions of dollars in bailout money — including several that have paid huge fines to settle predatory lending charges. The banks that funded the subprime industry were not victims of an unforeseen financial collapse, as they have sometimes portrayed themselves, but enablers that bankrolled the type of lending threatening the financial system.

1. The Climate Change Lobby

   The report provides a first-of-its-kind look at the universe of special interests shaping the climate change debate in the United States and how it has sharply expanded between 2003 — when Congress previously voted on climate change — and 2008.

2. States of Disclosure

   Following up on our two previous analyses in 1999 and 2006, the Center for Public Integrity’s latest financial disclosure rankings for state legislators found that 20 out of the 50 states received a failing grade and three of those states have no disclosure requirements at all.

3. Tobacco Underground

   The illicit trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business today, fueling organized crime and corruption, robbing governments of needed tax money, and spurring addiction to a deadly product. Drawn by profits rivaling those of narcotics, smugglers move cigarettes by the billion, making tobacco the world's most widely smuggled legal substance.

4. Pentagon Travel

   When Department of Defense personnel travel, it’s not always the federal government that picks up the bill. Over a 10-year period, defense employees have taken thousands of trips paid for by outside sources, including foreign governments and private companies that conduct business with DOD, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Pentagon travel disclosure records.

5. Land Use Accountability Project

   Sprawl is threatening America’s famed open spaces, challenging our rural culture and love of nature. Yet, expansion and development, too, are essential to the American character. This project paints a complete picture of sprawl, examining the different assessments of and responses to the phenomenon.

6. Broken Government

   As the Bush administration came to an end, the federal government was not functioning as it should. Just how bad was this government dysfunction? In an effort to answer that question, the Center for Public Integrity embarked on Broken Government, an examination of the worst systematic failures of the executive branch over the past eight years.

7. The Hidden Costs of Clean Coal

   A highly productive method, longwall mining yielded 176 million tons of coal in 2007 — 15 percent of total U.S. production. An estimated 10 percent of all U.S. electricity now depends on coal from longwall mines, which have grown in Appalachia and in Illinois, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. But longwall mining is the most brutal technology yet employed to extract coal from underground quickly and cheaply. This project examines social and environmental impacts of longwall’s full-extraction method.