By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: Today marks the debut of Rossen Reports, a new unit led by NBC national investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen. First out of the gate: A hidden-camera investigation exposing how easy it is for anyone – even criminals – to buy dangerous weapons.

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

Today's links:

• ProPublica: With spotlight on super PAC dollars, nonprofits escape scrutiny
• The New York Times: Mortgage tornado warning, unheeded: years before the housing bust — before all those home loans turned sour and millions of Americans faced foreclosure — a wealthy businessman in Florida set out to blow the whistle on the mortgage game.
• The Star Tribune: Doctor discipline: State fails to offer full disclosure - Minnesota's medical board doesn't provide access to malpractice awards and other records that are readily available in other states.
• Center for Public Integrity: Another Bain exec revealed as man behind corporate donor to pro-Romney super PAC, 'Restore Our Future'
• ProPublica with NPR News: Freddie Mac placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if American homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates.
• ProPublica: Meet the obscure federal regulator who's not helping homeowners
• New England Center for Investigative Reporting with the Center for Public Integrity: The latest from the NECIR's investigation into current juvenile justice policies finds racial disparity in school discipline in Massachusetts
• The Los Angeles Times: Governor Jerry Brown ordered firing of regulator who took hard line on oil firms;
  The dispute centered on a risky method of extraction. California's governor has sued oil companies throughout his career, but he now talks of tossing cumbersome regulations to revive the economy.
• The Washington Post: The FDA secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress that the agency was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable risks to patients, government documents show.
• CorpWatch: Grey market drugs: profiting from poorly managed U.S. health care
• Center for Public Integrity: Gingrich's health center was power player in a host of Washington policy debates
• The Wall Street Journal: The CEO Bankruptcy Bonus: firms sidestep rule limiting rewards for executives
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Calif. drugmaker's HIV prevention pill draws concern
• The Chicago Tribune: Most older residential towers fail to meet tougher fire standards; woman's death draws attention to 2004 city fire ordinance, lapses in system
• The Chicago Sun-Times: Two say they got paid to protest, back closing Chicago schools
• Bloomberg Businessweek: Safe gas fracking touted by Obama disputed by environmentalists
• ABC News, The Blotter: The casino company run by the principal financial backer of Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, Sheldon Adelson, has been under criminal investigation for the last year by the Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission for alleged bribery of foreign officials, according to corporate documents.
• The New York Times: In China, human costs are built into an iPad
• Chicago News Cooperative: Former Chicago city colleges chief's sick pay windfall
• CNET News, Privacy Inc. blog: Hawaii's legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit.
• The Columbus Dispatch: A Dispatch investigation of domestic violence in 2009 found flaws in Ohio laws and policies that created a culture of tolerance. Two years later, more agencies are reporting more abuse and deaths, yet reform legislation remains stalled. The latest updates from the series "Domestic Silence" can be read here, spotlighting the question of adequate shelter for those who have left abusive homes, reluctance to help gay victims, and follow-ups with those who endured the violence.
• The Statesman: Texas hate crime law has little effect
• Idaho Statesman: Zombie debt creeps onward in Idaho courts; A thriving debt industry sues Idahoans to get paid, and only a few fight back
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Counterterror, disaster response centers not sharing information
• The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting for The Atlantic: The super-resistant bacteria that has India 'hell scared'; can India's already troubled health system -- much less its political system -- handle the NDM-1?
• Center for Public Integrity: Georgia considers reforms for youth prisons rife with problems; director says workers admit sex with wards, low-paid guards often quit
• ProPublica: A reading guide to Mitt Romney's tax returns
• New York Times: In NYPD training, a dark film on U.S. Muslims
• FRONTLINE: Marine to serve no time in Haditha war-crimes case. Read more about FRONTLINE's documentary on the 2005 massacre in Haditha here.
• FactCheck.org: FACT CHECK: the state of Obama's facts
• The Indianapolis Star: Could deaths of Indiana children have been prevented? Investigation raises questions about whether Department of Child Services could have done more to protect kids
• Forbes: Gingrich used payroll tax ploy often attacked by IRS
• GlobalPost: The devastating crackdown on Egypt's revolution: since Mubarak was deposed, over 12,000 civilians have been tried by shadowy military tribunals

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: 'Half-Lives: The Chernobyl Workers Now' is a piece by Maisie Crow for the Virginia Quarterly Review, which examines the lives of the people closest to the world's worst nuclear reactor accident. The story explores the new industry that evacuated peoples developed in new cities, created around breaking down the plant, and what the future will hold when the plant has finally been disassembled. "We have no future for our children after they graduate from school," says Chernobyl liquidator Lubov Nikolaevna. "Radiation isn't scary to those who work at the plant. … And the people who live in Slavutych aren't afraid of it either. They are tired of being afraid, that is why they are not afraid. They are afraid of that the city of Sluvatych will be shut down."

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

Today's links:

• KUOW News: Flying the leaded skies: small planes still pour lead into America's air
• Center for Responsive Politics, Open Secrets blog: Billionaire Harold Simmons gave big to several GOP candidates, super PACs in fourth quarter
• Center for Responsive Politics, Open Secrets blog: E-filing campaign finances remains a rarity for senators
• The Chicago Tribune: Failure to bring border-crossing fugitives to justice a national problem; Tribune analysis shows extradition failures reach far beyond northern Illinois
• BBC News: The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC
• msnbc.com, Vitals: Who's behind that outbreak? Sometimes, Center for Disease Control won't say
• The Bay Citizen: Nursing home investigation finds errors by druggists
• The Atlantic: Quietly, U.S. moves to block lawsuits by military families; why is the Justice Department trying to make it more difficult for service members and their families to sue the government for medical malpractice?
• The Guardian: Mysteries of Data Pool 3 give Rupert Murdoch a whole new headache: the arrest of four Sun journalists threatens to open a fresh phase of the scandal surrounding News International
• Mother Jones: How Bain's lobbying saved Mitt millions: private equity titans like Bain Capital used K Street to preserve the GOP front-runner's favorite—and most lucrative—tax loophole
• Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism: Are frac sand miners failing to check for rare butterfly? 'They have to let us know they're there,' Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says
• Bloomberg Businessweek: Congress's six-figure benefits add to $674 billion pension gap
• The Bay Citizen: When the nursing home resident in the next room is a convicted criminal
• Reuters: Insight: Top Justice officials connected to mortgage banks
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Stanford doctor in birth control vote had ties to pill's maker
• ProPublica: Years after evidence of fracking contamination, EPA to supply drinking water to homes in Pa. town
• The Washington Post, Federal Eye: Federal employees owed $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes at the end of fiscal 2010
• The Los Angeles Times: On L.A. colleges project, firm paid by company it was overseeing; for at least a year, records show, Gateway Science & Engineering collected consulting fees from one of the main contractors it was supervising on the $450-million rebuilding of Mission College in Sylmar
• NPR: CIA tracks public information for the private eye: a rare behind-the-scenes look at the CIA's Open Source Center
• The Jewish Daily Forward: Kars4Kids charity loses big on real estate; $29 million in gifts translates to just $6 million in programs
• Denver Westword: Drilled, baby, drilled: The strange battle to keep Big Oil from cheating the government
• Project on Government Oversight: Navy pressures agency into redacting information from Camp Lejeune investigation
• The Street: Bank of America, Citigroup face billions in losses in antitrust case
• Texas Watchdog: Lots of Einsteins or too low a bar? Houston Independent School District bursting at the seams with 'gifted' students, shelves plan to tighten standards
• ProPublica: Deutsche analyst sounded alarm when asked to alter numbers
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Calif. public schools relying more on private donors, "being used to prevent teacher layoffs, keep libraries open, and save music and foreign-language classes."
• Center for Public Integrity: Feds investigating possible fraud at GE's former subprime unit: the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department are looking into potentially criminal business practices at WMC Mortgage Corp. during the home-loan boom, according to four people with knowledge of the investigation.
• ProPublica: PAC track: the most recent data on this primary's super-PAC spending, and where the money is coming from
• Mother Jones: During his time as a senator, a controversial land deal by presidential candidate Rick Santorum robbed a vets' home of tens of millions of dollars
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Ex-school board official sparks records war between state, USPS
• Mother Jones: L.A.'s Abu Ghraib? The ACLU files a lawsuit and cites a "sick culture of deputy-on-inmate violence" in L.A. County jails
• Mother Jones: 21 CEOs with $100 million golden parachutes
• The Oregonian: Oregon taxpayers must bail out state fund that made bad loans for renewable-energy projects
• FRONTLINE: How much electricity does my state generate from nuclear? An infographic breaks down state-by-state consumption, one excerpt from FRONTLINE's three-country investigation into the stability of nuclear power around the world.
• The Wall Street Journal: Protest sapped of cash: Occupy Wall Street freezes spending on new projects as donations dry up
• The Palm Beach Post: Prison privatization effort resurfaces in bills that would exclude public comment
• Investigative Reporting Workshop and FRONTLINE: Citing these two newsgroups' jointly produced film 'Lost in Detention', a documentary that explored the Obama administration's get-tough immigration policies, 30 members of Congress are now pressing the Government Accountability Office to look into the issue of sexual abuse at immigration detention centers
• The Independent: Tamiflu maker accused of secrecy over trial data

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: "Poisoned Places," a report by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, has found that "regulators in Maine and nearby states have taken months and even years to sanction facilities violating the Clean Air Act – even those the government itself has called high priority violators." Bureaucracy and lack of resources are blamed for the laborious pace of reform, but the environmental and health issues at stake continue to worsen for communities, not only in New England, but nationwide. "The EPA's own internal watchdog has expressed concern about the level of attention being paid to high priority violators. A 2009 report by the agency's inspector general found that 'in many instances EPA and States are not addressing high priority violations . . . in a timely manner,' thereby allowing 'continued emissions from facilities (that) may result in significant environmental and public health impacts, deterrence efforts being undermined, and unfair economic benefits being created.'"

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

Today's links:

• The Washington Post: Million-dollar wasteland: a Washington Post investigation finds that, in D.C. loan program, mortgage defaults abound
• The Associated Press: In the super PAC era, do handshakes even matter? "The ads have affected primary results more than other forms of campaigning, including personal appearances by candidates, campaign speeches or town hall meetings, according to an analysis by The Associated Press"
• Bloomberg: Johnson & Johnson pushed Risperdal for kids without approval, memo shows
• McClatchy Papers, Charlotte Observer: Big banks have picked their candidate, and it's Romney - based on analysis of the federal campaign donation data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics. Note that the contributions come from individuals, not from the banks themselves.
• Dayton Daily News: Home health care program rife with fraud: former nurse tells how she cheated the system for years
• The Associated Press: Ron Paul wants big spending cuts as president, spends big on first-class travel in Congress
• ABC News, The Blotter: F-22 raptor pilots suffer more apparent oxygen problems
• Center for Public Integrity: 'Outsider' candidate Santorum collected millions in corporate PAC money
• CNN: For years, doctors around the country taking an exam to become board certified in radiology have cheated by memorizing test questions, creating sophisticated banks of what are known as "recalls," a CNN investigation has found
• Texas Watchdog: Texas windstorm agency must surrender a number of documents it has battled for months to withhold, the state Attorney General's office has ruled
• The Los Angeles Times: U.S. intelligence report on Afghanistan sees stalemate: The sobering judgments in a classified National Intelligence Estimate appear at odds with recent optimistic statements about the war by Pentagon officials
• The Independent: Echoing similar events stateside, an investigation has found Britain's two state-owned banks have hired seven separate lobbying and public affairs companies at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in taxpayer money
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Private company hoarding license-plate data on US drivers
• The Oregonian: Federal highway dollars pay for Southern Oregon bus shelters that cost as much as a house
• ABC News, The Blotter: Scientists: UN soldiers brought deadly superbug to Americas
• Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting: U.S. spent $140 million of Haiti earthquake aid on controversial food exports, undermining Haitian farmers. Over at Foreign Policy, a photo-essay reveals life on the inside of Haiti's little known 1%, who control 50 percent of the country's economy, and its top 500 taxpayers generate 80 percent of its tax revenues."
• MinnPost: Changes in the way grants are awarded to public radio have left Minnesota's network of small, educational stations frustrated as they cut back on high-quality programming; critics allege the move was based entirely on politics — and now it appears the strategy backfired.
• ABC News, The Blotter: Days before a Butterball turkey farm in North Carolina was raided by police because of allegations of animal abuse, the company had been tipped off that it was under investigation
• ABC News, The Blotter: Pakistani fertilizer kills American troops in Afghanistan
• The Washington Monthly: The Yaz Men: Members of FDA panel reviewing the risks of popular Bayer contraceptive had industry ties
• Center for Public Integrity: EPA's Toxics Release Inventory doesn't offer full picture of pollution
• Wired, The Danger Room: Almost 1 In 3 U.S. warplanes is a robot
• The Texas Observer: Crumbling under corruption: Mexico's bus line operators targeted by organized crime
• Reuters: TV broadcasters enjoy spoils of political wars: One winner in 2012's political races already has been decided: local television stations
• Bloomberg: Treasury statements omit projected TARP losses, government watchdog group claims

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: Two years ago, 60 Minutes began an investigation into claims of stem cell therapy cure-alls, often peddled to the desperate parents of severely disabled children. Reporters "worked with patients suffering from incurable diseases and…discovered conmen, posing as doctors, conducting dangerous medical experiments." Read the full transcript of the program, as reporter Scott Pelley investigats the disgraced doctor responsible for one family's false hope for their paraplegic child.

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

Today's links:

• ProPublica in partnership with NPR and Frontline: One false conviction "provides a window into the increasingly rancorous scientific debate about shaken baby syndrome. Official reviews in Canada and Britain have uncovered cases in which people were wrongly convicted based on the shaken baby theory." View the FRONTLINE-produced investigative feature, "The Child Cases", here.
• Florida Today: Disabled vet, family have gone seven months without running water
• ABC News, The Blotter: The case against five United Nations peacekeepers caught on tape in an alleged sexual assault on a Haitian teenager has apparently stalled, and the accused soldiers have been freed, a UN official has confirmed
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Rural schools struggle to keep buses running
• Inter-Press Service: The closure of Mexico's biggest garbage dump has highlighted the absence of a comprehensive policy for urban waste collection, disposal and processing, a failure that has serious consequences for health and the environment
• The New York Times: In a fledgling country, perils for the press; a look inside the struggle to run a daily newspaper in South Sudan, a country twice the size of Arizona, where 80 percent of its roughly 10 million people are illiterate
• San Diego Union-Tribune: Even as investigators closed in, questioning relationships between Greater San Diego Sweetwater schools officials and construction companies, board member Pearl Quiñones held a birthday party campaign fundraiser last month with contractors as guests
• The Guardian: Andaman Islands tribe threatened by lure of mass tourism; Jarawa people at risk from disease, predatory sex and exploitation as tourist convoys crowd the road through their jungle
• msnbc.com, Vitals: As statistics show that over a third of all American adults are obese, "officials at some whole body donation programs in the United States tell msnbc.com they've turned away corpses that are too fat for scientific study. Others say the bigger issue is that potential donors simply don't sign up once they learn of weight limits that can be as low as 170 pounds, but generally top out at 300 pounds."
• The Federal Times: Federal delays in granting security clearances keep 10 percent to 20 percent of federal intelligence contractors from doing their intended work, wasting billions of dollars, a new report says
• Voice of San Diego: After a 2008 report prompted a massive shift in the integration of special education into general education programs, the VOSD began a parallel investigation to observe the efficacy of the shift, and found "a haphazard rollout of the new special education model that was plagued by a lack of vision and leadership"
• MinnPost: Drought or glut? Health of America's water resources depends on how deep you look
• Reuters: Special report: Romney's steel skeleton in the Bain Capital closet; a federal government insurance agency had to pony up $44 million to bail out a steel mill company's underfunded pension plan while Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees
• The Daily Telegraph: Tony Blair and the £8 million tax 'mystery': Former Prime Minister Tony Blair channeled millions of pounds through a complicated web of companies and paid just a fraction in tax
• Center for Public Integrity: Record-setting $736,000 paid for bluefin tuna poor indicator of scarcity
• Florida Center for Investigative Reporting: Rick Scott takes credit for jobs, economic growth — but data show wages fell for working poor, poverty still widespread
• The Orlando Sentinel: In the wake of an FAMU student's death by hazing, years of angry complaints from FAMU parents warning university President James Ammons and others of dangerous hazing practices come to light
• The Guardian: Medical devices and Chinese toys share same level of safety checks; manufacturers of breast implants and hip joints must get CE mark rather than license based on evidence from clinical trials
• BBC: Schools across the UK are being charged up to 10 times too much for laptops and other IT equipment through mis-sold lease agreements, a BBC Radio 5 live investigation found

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: The Atlantic has posted the final piece in a four-part series by Tony Mitchell, an Australian English instructor who recorded his account of working and living in Bahrain as the growing dissent, protests and eventually brutal crackdown took shape and changed the country. This series, "Witness to an Uprising", chronicles his struggle to stay neutral under an increasingly violent authoritarian regime, and how his actions to document the chaos led to his dismissal, eviction, and eventual flight from the country.

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

Today's links:

• Bloomberg: Hospice turns months-to-live patient into years of abusing drugs
• The Journal-Sentinel: Drug research routinely suppressed, study authors find (links to the "Side Effects" series on conflict of interest between doctors and drug companies are included in the article).
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: California state seismic regulators destroy key electronic records "that might have shed light on its lax enforcement of earthquake safety standards – despite a binding agreement it has with the State Archives to preserve public records"
• New England Center for Investigative Reporting: The latest segment from NECIR's investigation in Massachusetts' juvenile murderers found "no comprehensive, detailed state or county information in Massachusetts on juvenile murderers prosecuted as adults, despite a growing federal movement to track the information"
• The New York Times: After Teachers resist high-tech push in Idaho schools; the latest in the NYT's series "Grading the Digital School", on what happens as technology and education increasingly intersect.
• PBS NewsHour: Are Syrian spies keeping tabs on opposition activists in U.S.?
• ProPublica: Speeding up security: the TSA wants to screen before they scan, but just how much information are they demanding access to?
• The Texas Observer: Grand jury testimony in Jaime Zapata murder case "accidentally taped over" by court reporter
• Center for Responsive Politics: Tea Party House members even wealthier than other GOP lawmakers
• The Chicago Tribune: Doubts surface as police sharply increase Taser use: electroshock weapons fired more frequently by city, suburban cops
• Denver Post: Password case reframes Fifth Amendment rights in context of digital world
• Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Nigeria: Why Boko Haram terrorists bombed churches on Christmas. The latest in the series "Divided Under God: Nigeria's Sectarian Crisis"
• Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism: Attorney conduct at issue in Wisconsin Supreme Court justice dust-up
• National Institute on Money in State Politics: Institute data on individual and institution contributions to both ballot measures and candidates played a critical role in the recent Montana Supreme Court decision, that "ruled in favor of the state's century-old corporate spending ban"

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: Veteran Afghan reporter Najibullah Quraishi's latest report for Frontline takes him deep into Afghanistan's remote regions to "investigate a sex trade: young girls kidnapped or traded to smugglers to meet the debts of impoverished opium farmers whose crops have been destroyed by the government." The report, "Opium Brides," focuses on vulnerable people in the poverty that plagues many of Afghanistan's former opium farmers, bearing the brunt of eradication policies enforced by the U.S. and local officials. An interview with Brookings institution fellow Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown about the failure of the eradication policy to defeat the Taliban can be read here.

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

Today's links:

• Center for Public Integrity: Fraud and folly: The untold story of General Electric's subprime debacle
• Bloomberg: Santorum becomes millionaire in six years after U.S. Senate loss
• The New York Times: After Santorum left Senate, familiar hands reached out
• Pine Tree Watchdog, Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting: Records fail to disclose $235 million in state work given to Maine officials' private interests
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Border agency seeks more unmanned aircraft use in California
• Reuters: Whistleblower documents illuminate case against BNY Mellon; included a detailed analysis of how the bank allegedly provided 'fictitious' foreign-currency costs for pension funds
• Arizona Daily Star: A look at the fallout in Tucson's housing market, which "has fallen so hard so fast that more than one in three homes sold last year went for less than $100,000"
• The Palm Beach Post: Wikileaks: Palm Beach County sugar family the Fanjuls among 'sugar barons' who 'muscled' lawmakers to kill free trade deal
• The Sunlight Reporting Foundation: Make Us Great Again: Pro-Perry super PAC has ties to former staff, major donor
• Alexandria Gazette Packet: Blind trust: partisan candidates in Virginia are not required to have ballot petitions certified
• Center Responsive Politics: Analysis of campaign donations shows that military donors prefer Ron Paul
• Read Write Web: WikiLeaks proves U.S. forced Spain to adopt SOPA-style law"
• TPMMuckraker: Emails rebut Republican suggestion that Bush-era 'gun walking' was coordinated with Mexico

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: The absence of 15 Muslim community leaders from New York Mayor Bloomberg's end-of-the-year interfaith breakfast went unaddressed by the mayor. But the reason for their absence was made plain in their letter to him, protesting his support of targeted NYPD surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods, a spying program revealed by a broader Associated Press investigation into NYPD intelligence operations after the terrorist attackes of Sept. 11, 2001. The probe has found "that the NYPD dispatched undercover officers into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program" and "subjected entire neighborhoods to surveillance and scrutiny, often because of the ethnicity of the residents, not because of any accusations of crimes." Hesham El-Meligy, one of the boycotters and an Egyptian immigrant, said simply, "I don't care about having breakfast, I care about the liberties that I came to this country for."

Today's links:

• Center for Public Integrity: 'Super PACs' spend $13 million on early primaries, Romney top beneficiary
• ABC News, The Blotter: Was Pakistani teen Tariq Khan killed by CIA drone a militant -- or innocent victim?
• The Daily Telegraph: Scandal of UK's national health 'production line' as readmissions soar: The number of national health patients who have to undergo emergency readmission to hospital within a month of being discharged has increased by more than three quarters in the last decade
• The Flint Journal: Michigan state-appointed emergency managers make six figures at local community's expense
• The Chicago Tribune: Window blind makers' safety plans too lax, critics say; consumer advocates, regulators want exposed cords eliminated to save children's lives
• The Boston Globe: State reports detail 11 patient deaths linked to alarm fatigue in Massachusetts
• The New York Times: Does buying organic still mean the best for our environment? Skyrocketing demand for year-round organic produce is straining and depleting resources and creating new source of carbon emissions
• ProPublica: How Democrats fooled California's redistricting commission
• PBS NewsHour: Health experts question Army report on psychological training; in the latest from NewsHour's investigation, mental health experts say a U.S. Army report on training aimed at enhancing soldiers' psychological resilience is flawed
• Center for Responsive Politics: A look at independent spending in the 2012 presidential race: who is funding for and against, and how much

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: .A story detailing continued state funding to Florida assisted-living facilities with case histories of abuse and neglect is the latest segment in "Neglected to Death", a four-part series by The Miami Herald. The investigation reveals a rotten system on all sides, from elder advocates fired for trying to speak out against harmful policies to the gruesome reality of violence and sexual abuse of the frailest and most vulnerable, perpetuated with Medicare dollars. Examples of repeat injury from neglect and possible abuse in one care home meant that the "Agency for Health Care Administration could have suspended payments under the Medicaid insurance program to the troubled home. Instead, La Casa Grande received close to a half-million dollars in Medicaid money."

Today's links:

• Pioneer Press: One Minnesota woman's struggle to receive medical care from doctors free from drug company ties highlights a larger investigation into other recipients of drug company money, including the Mayo clinic and the University of Minnesota, "each institution collecting more in drug company payments than any individual doctor in the state", about $650,000 between the two institutes in 2010, and how drug companies are backing away from the lucrative consequences of paying consultants as new legislation for transparency is emphasized.
• ProPublica: Scanning the scanners: A side-by-side comparison of the two types of scanners used by the TSA, and the efficacy and dangers of each
• New Jersey Watchdog: In a continuing investigation, New Jersey prosecutors employ 125 double-dipping 'retirees'; they take $8.6 million a year in state pensions plus salaries
• Salon and WhoWhatWhy.com: Reporters dig into the history behind the little known American University of Iraq-Sulaimaniya in Kurdistan. Though the school was heralded a golden opportunity to bring new ideas and Western education to a war-torn country, the investigation finds the goals of the university are tied up with the interest of big oil companies.
• The New York Times: Waging a one-man war on American Muslims
• The Telegraph: Revealed: the true scale of the UK breast implant scandal; Health Secretary has ordered an urgent review of faulty silicone breast implants given to more than 40,000 women, after an investigation showed the rupture rate could be seven times higher than British regulators previously believed
• WyoFile: Official studying Wyoming's workplace fatality rate, which for the past 10 years has been either the worst or among the worst in the nation, resigns without comment
• Center for Public Integrity: Tax gift to the rich: how one loophole helps wealthy Americans pay less taxes, with accompanying graphs
• Star News Online: Analysis of five years of drug overdose death records from the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reveal the deadly abuse of prescribed medicines is rampant
• The Texas Watchdog: Did changes to Houston Independent School District's draft ethics policy take place behind the scenes? Some trustees puzzled
• Columbia Journalism Review, Campaign Desk: Local TV news, meet the internet: why are broadcasters trying to block political campaign transparency?
• The Journal-World: After months of investigating questionable financial practices, a Kanasa Purple Heart veterans charity dissolved
• Knoxville News Sentinel: An investigation into Tennessee's prescription drug abuse crisis prompts proposal for legislation that would mandate a state database check before writing prescriptions (links to the rest of the investigation included in the report)
• Chicago Magazine: In some parts of Chicago, violent street gangs and pols quietly trade money and favors for mutual gain. The thugs flourish, the elected officials thrive—and you lose
• The Journal-Sentinel: Medical device firm Medtronic paid millions to influential University of Wisconsin chairman
• ProPublica: As coverage of the foreclosure crisis continues, a year-end recap finds America still waiting for justice to be dealt
• Voice of San Diego: How a bad San Diego cop evaded detection
• The Washington Post: F-35 production a troubling example of Pentagon spending

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: The Obama administration's victories in the war on terror are built on the back of a powerful and hidden program. As the Washington Post reports in a revealing investigation, "in…three years, the administration has built an extensive apparatus for using drones to carry out targeted killings of suspected terrorists and stealth surveillance of other adversaries." This piece explore the consequences that come with reliance on this technology and the multi-billion dollar industry that has grown around it, observing "no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation's security goals."

Today's links:

• Reuters: Special report: Energy giant hid behind shell companies in "land grab"
• Wired: FDA won't act against antibiotic use on farms
• The Statesman: Members of Congress collect thousands in state pensions; Texan watchdog group calls for more transparency at the state level
• The Associated Press: Six years later, Katrina victims fight FEMA debts
• The Independent: Murdoch's £100m plan to settle hacking cases before they get to court; News International will use legal fund to prevent further revelations
• ProPublica: As the practice of fracking in America comes under increasing scrutiny, it flourishes in parts of Canada, where "some of the largest fracking operations anywhere on earth" have been built or are under construction
• NPR: How do you hold mentally ill offenders accountable?The latest piece from a continuing investigation into the violence in California's psychiatric hospitals. Read the full feature here
• The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly cops net big bounty via court overtime and fudged paperwork
• ABC Eyewitness News: An over-budget and behind schedule World Trade Center Transportation Hub will not receive fireproofing treatment as "it meets required fire resistance ratings"
• The Chicago Tribune: Illinois hospital oversight limited; A suicide and other violations at Jackson Park Hospital show regulators can't ensure dangers are corrected
• PBS NewsHour in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: In the Peruvian Amazon, extensive gold-mining operations have stirred major environmental concerns over mercury contamination in fish, fish-eating wildlife and humans
• Politico: Jon Huntsman multi-million super PAC seeks filing delay, may get to keep its donors secret for another few weeks
• The Salt Lake Tribune: A review of the best and worst discoveries from the Utah Freedom of Information in 2011

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.

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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: A four-part series by the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Powerful Pipes, Weak Oversight" illuminates the reality behind construction of pipelines through Pennsylvania's gasland. The investigation finds that pipelines in rural areas fall into a limbo between state and federal oversight, and are being built without the proper safety rules and regulatory oversight. Read the full report on the Deep Drill feature page.

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

Today's links:

• Statesman.com: Growth of large private water companies brings higher water rates, little recourse for consumers
• Bloomberg: Puerto Rico tax break shifts to Cayman Islands
• E&E Publishing: 40% of state drilling regulators have industry ties
• Center for Public Integrity: Fact or fiction? 2011's top ten worst political deceptions, from both sides of the aisle
• ProPublica: Congress moves toward tougher stand on pipeline safety, but is it enough?
• The Daily Dayton News: Millions in VA funds go to ineligible firms: some are cheating a program designed to help vets find work
• The Wisconsin Watchdog: Mapping Scott Walker's support: data shows about 42% of his campaign donations came from out of state donors, an unprecedented percentage
• Florida Center for Investigative Reporting: Large corporations cash in on Florida environmental fund
• ProPublica: In a continuing investigation of X-ray body scanners, a safer type of scanner is found to have a high rate of false alarms; France and Germany have decided not to use the scanners because of false alarms triggered by folds in clothing, buttons and even sweat
• Bloomberg Businessweek: Big Brother is watching you shop: Retailers are linking security cameras with software to track consumer behavior
• The New York Times: the unspoken civilian toll from NATO's airstrikes in Libya
• Politico: Four current members of Congress took part in the controversial VIP program run by Countrywide Financial, according to chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
• Kaiser Health News in collaboration with the Washington Post: Medicare penalties for readmissions could be a tough hit on hospitals serving the poor
• Bloomberg: Bond insurers hired lobbyists as lawmakers argued over Harrisburg's fate
• The Courier-Journal: Kentucky lenient on troubled doctors accused of pill pushing, "restored his medical privileges even though he still had more than six months of court-imposed home incarceration to serve"
• The Sunlight Foundation: The House approves sweeping open data standards, "requiring that a wide variety of crucial House legislative information be published online, in open formats, and at permanent predictable URLs"
• The Boston Globe: Mass. State probation dept. faulted on use of free legal help; poor screening for $47m spent, state audit finds
• The Star Tribune: Secret GOP meetings spelled Amy Koch's end as majority leader; powerful Senate staffer was sent packing the next day

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.