Thursday reading: the best investigative reporting on the Web

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: In 1995, a brutal murder by a Massachusetts teen prompted a law requiring juvenile "super predators'' to be tried in adult court. But an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University finds that inequities have grown up in the juvenile justice system since passage of this 1996 law. A review of these cases found no obvious pattern to explain why some killers got life without parole and others got lesser sentences. What is clear, however, is that the law has not been applied consistently to the most grievous murder cases.

Notes: Links open in a new window. More reading: previous daily collections.

Today's links:

• Msnbc.com: Maker of tainted wipes gets FDA nod toward reopening, update on an investigative series by msnbc.com of the FDA's actions in the case of Triad Group of Hartland, Wis. Excerpt: "But the public won't be allowed to know exactly how the firms intend to fix the problems with products distributed to hospitals, clinics, stores and homes in the U.S. and around the world, the FDA has ruled. The agency has denied an msnbc.com public records request for copies of two reconditioning plans submitted by the firms. In a letter, officials said release of the documents would disclose trade secrets and confidential commercial information and could interfere with law enforcement proceedings."
• Denver Post: Colorado teachers unions under fire for taxpayer subsidies from school districts
• The New York Times: In treating the disabled of New York state, potent drugs and few rules are found to be the tools of treatment. This is part of a continuing series on the treatment of the developmentally disabled in New York, and how money is spent on their care.
• The Atlantic: How Ethiopia's adoption industry dupes families and bullies activists
• Reuters: Special Report: Phantom firms bleed millions from Medicare
• The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah beer tax not always poured where law wants it; a review has found that perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars of beer tax money have been diverted
• The Sacramento Bee: Reasons unclear for fatal Sacramento CPS decision to return a child to her parents
• The Wall Street Journal: China hackers hit U.S. Chamber of Commerce - attacks breached computer system of business-lobbying group; emails stolen
• Center for Responsive Politics: The most recent data on Super PAC spending reveals that so far over $31 million has been received by 262 groups, and more than $12 million spent
• Yahoo! News, The Cutline: How many journalists were killed in 2011? Depends who you ask
• The Washington Post: Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers and constituents
• Bloomberg Businessweek: A small Italian town's post-war rebuilding debts came to a head in the settling of an interest rate swap with JP Morgan Chase & Co., leaving the town unable to pay for daycare for 60 of its infants and services to the poor
• Center for Investigative Reporting in partnership with NPR: Local police stockpile high-tech, combat-ready gear
• ProPublica: Gone without a case: As part of ProPublica's continuing investigation into post-mortem procedures in hospitals, a new piece finds that suspicious elder deaths rarely investigated
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: With weak state economy, California business lobby wields strong influence
• ABS-CBN News: More than a dozen US embassy cables tagged the indicted retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan on extrajudicial killings in the Philippines
• Center for Public Integrity: McCain changes tune on support for Grand Canyon air tours; tour operator a major campaign supporter
• Wall Street Journal: Belarus in talks with Chinese company Huawei Technologies over purchase of new surveillance gear
• ProPublica: American Pain Foundation claims risk of overdose and addiction to painkillers are overblown, but collected nearly 90 percent of its $5 million funding last year from the drug and medical-device industry -- and closely mirrors its positions
• The Washington Post: The fall of Solyndra: Meant to create jobs and cut reliance on foreign oil, Obama's green-technology program was infused with politics at every level, in a special investigation by the Washington Post
• ProPublica: Internet scams trick vacationers with fake rentals

Keep up on the latest investigative reporting with the Twitter feed of the same name.

Let us know if your group or organization should be listed there.

Margaux Stack-Babich writes about investigative reporting for msnbc.com. Bill Dedman is an investigative reporter for msnbc.com.