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.

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: A reporter for Mother Jones investigates the story of Felix Garcia, a man serving a life sentence in a north Florida prison for a robbery-murder his brother now admits to framing him for. Functionally deaf since childhood but never treated, Garcia is serving a sentence for a crime he did not commit as a result of proceedings he could not understand.

Notes: We'll be posting less often during this holiday week. Links open in a new window. More reading: previous daily collections.

Today's links:

• The New York Times: Errant NATO airstrikes in Libya: An interactive feature examining 13 cases reveals NATO's operations were far from flawless
• Bloomberg Businessweek: In the king of all Vegas real estate scams, a twisted tale of how homeowners were bilked by those they least suspected: their neighbors
• Center for Public Integrity: A look inside the case of a 17-year old who needed a liver transplant but whose insurance co. would not pay, and the reality of "prior approval" needed by doctors from insurance groups in medical decision making
• NBC Los Angeles: A reporter checks on the claim that new Census data show 1 in 2 Americans is poor or low-income, and finds the Census Bureau's experts say, well, not really
• The Florida Times-Union: Two year long FBI probe leads to dual investigations of civil rights abuses and corruption reports at Nassau County sheriff's office
• The Kansas City Star: Secrecy protects doctors with long histories of problems: A look inside the Department of Health and Human Services' new rules that restrict how researchers and reporters can use anonymous information from govt. malpractice database
• St Petersburg Times: Silent at first, teachers unhappy with the Gates initiative, an educational rehaul funded with $100 million from Bill and Melinda Gates, are beginning to speak out
• The Chicago Tribune: Feds dole out millions of dollars for questionable studies on treatments ranging from energy healing to acupuncture
• The Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum's finance director earned Visa points on stadium upgrade
• ProPublica: Government runs late with rules for disclosing drug company payments to doctors
• Yahoo! News, The Lookout: A hit viral chart depicting student loan debt over the past thirty years receives a thorough critique from experts and policy analysts, who say important factors have been left out of the calculation
• PBS NewsHour: Aid groups: children in North Korea at risk for starvation this winter
• KUOW.org: A former professor at The Evergreen State College has skipped out on paying the largest ethics fine in Washington state history
• Center for Investigative Reporting, California Watch: As Prime hospitals face investigation, examination of one patient's records show she was billed for malnutrition, but patient says she wasn't treated

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: As the last of US troops leave Iraq for good, a New York Times reporter discovered hundreds of pages of secret U.S. military documents in an Iraqi junkyard. The documents cast light on the 2005 massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha by U.S. Marines.

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

Today's links:

• The Jewish Daily Forward: In just three years, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes has arrested 83 Orthodox men and two women on charges of child sex abuse. But why won't he name names?
• The Detroit Free Press: Michigan nursing homes with good staff, stopgaps still can fail; neglect is all too common, according to a Free Press analysis of state inspection reports
• Bloomberg Markets Magazine: Victoria's Secret revealed in child picking Burkina Faso cotton: subsistence farmers say they don't have the resources to grow fair-trade cotton without violating a central principle of the movement
• Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Disgraced police officers still collect pensions
• Center for Public Integrity: Gingrich earned twice as much as previously disclosed from ethanol lobbying group
• The Washington Post: FBI considered a sting aimed at Gingrich in 1997
• The New York Times: Gingrich's health care policy history at odds with GOP
• The Seattle Times: Justice Department report blasts Seattle police, today will release the findings of its investigation into allegations of excessive use of force and biased policing
• The Miami Herald: Academica: A look inside Florida's richest charter school management firm. Read the full investigation on Florida charter schools, Cashing In On Kids
• The Lens: NOLA deputies working private, off-duty details pay into fund used by sheriff for questionable discretionary spending
• ProPublica: Without autopsies, hospitals bury their mistakes - the latest article in ProPublica's investigation into America's morgues
• ScrippsNews: Genealogy sites remove Social Security numbers of deceased; investigation reveals con artists easily pilfer the data of the deceased from family history databases
• The Christian Science Monitor: Exclusive: Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer
• Center for Responsive Politics: Food and beverage company spending on lobbying

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: This Monday, for the first time on record, Chinese communist party officials were forced to retreat from the tiny southern fishing village of Wukan, whose 20,000 residents are in open revolt three months after they violently protested the sale of their land to property developers. As the government regroups and forms an iron circle around the village, its residents wait with unity and resolve for the next move. Read the Telegraph's exclusive look into the history behind this explosive protest, and the bloody consequences still unfolding.

Today's links:

• McClatchy Newspapers: Marines promoted inflated story for Medal of Honor winner
• The New York Times: New York nonprofits giving home care to developmentally disabled swim in state money
• Center for Public Integrity: Environmental injustice: EPA neglects discrimination claims from polluted communities
• Reuters: Exclusive: American Airlines' $30 million London townhouse
• The New York Times: Two US agencies, two different accords with Wachovia: settlement points up a controversy
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Wal-Mart ramps up ballot threats to speed new stores
• The Miami Herald, Naked Politics: Bahamas trips and champagne -- a sign of how a charter-school company prospers
• The Guardian: Kenya's Samburu people 'violently evicted', squatting on edge of disputed territory after US charities buy land
• The Center for Responsive Politics: Buying the Joint Strike Fighter caucus: contractor contributions flow to members of the JSF caucus, "billions of taxpayer dollars spent yearly on the JSF"
• WyoFile: Flaming Gorge Reservoir has capacity to hold 3.5 million acre-feet altogether. But who can get hold of it? Million pipeline proposal may be on the rocks, but the thirst for Green River water is unquenched
• ConsumerReports.org, Consumer News: Hospital readmission depends on where you live, study finds
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: A year after environmentalists lost a regulatory battle to keep a controversial pesticide off the California market, only six growers found to have used it
• The Daily Telegraph: The Guardian backtracks on one of its most damaging claims against News of the World
• Mother Jones: Who is the former militiaman behind the Fast and Furious Scandal? The blogger who helped turn the ATF op into a national controversy is better known for inciting violence than exposing wrongdoing

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: As the rhetoric of the Occupy protests has entered common parlance, politicians now freely refer to "the 99 percent" and "the 1 percent" in their speeches and campaign media. But what about the 1 percent of the 1 percent? Research by the Sunlight Foundation on campaign contributions in the United States "reveals a growing dependence of candidates and political parties on the One Percent of the One Percent, resulting in a political system that could be disproportionately influenced by donors in a handful of wealthy enclaves." Read about the people who make up this political donor elite, and what it means for future elections.

Today's links:

• The Journal-Sentinel: A 40-year-old Wisconsin legal precedent for obtaining care for the mentally ill is now woefully inadequate: a Journal-Sentinel special report
• Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting: Inside Syria: one reporter travels through the unrest to find who makes up the opposition, who continues to support the government, and the hopes that both have for the future of Syria
• ProPublica: Emails suggest Ohio's new Republican-friendly maps save the GOP 'millions'
• The Washington Post: Cyber-intruder sparks massive US federal response — and debate over dealing with threats
• The New York Times: Online schools score better on Wall Street than in classrooms: Profits and questions at online charter schools
• The Associated Press: Dept of Health and Human Safety reveals chronic safety violations in Head Start centers across the country
• ThreatPost: Twenty-something asks Facebook for a comprehensive record of his stored personal information on the site, and gets it - all 1,200 pages
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: After a yearlong investigation, FBI now questioning former Prime hospital coders, who charged Medicare for treating elderly patients with rare medical conditions at far higher than average rates
• Des Moines Register: Hospital asks judge to seal records in U of I lawsuit: One critic says such a move would be a 'sweeping order of secrecy.'
• Center for Public Integrity: As the investigation into Countrywide continues, management gurus claim they were blindsided by toxic culture
• Nephrology News: Kidney patients at for-profit dialysis centers less likely to get transplants, "suggesting that financial pressures to keep patients on dialysis at the centers could be driving the disparity"
• The Los Angeles Times: L.A. Unified will weigh a ban on admission preferences after two charter schools allowed some families to bypass lotteries
• The Center for Responsive Politics: How much love will leadership PAC contributions buy in GOP presidential race?

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: For the past few years, a panic has been rising over the cause behind a mystery chronic kidney disease epidemic sweeping Central America, taking a toll on people in the sugarcane regions of Nicaragua and El Salvador, among other countries. PRI's The World and the Center for Public Integrity investigate the many plausible contributing factors, including interaction with pesticides illegal in most Western countries, abuse of alcohol and painkillers, or the most recent theory: People are simply being worked to death.

Today's links:

ACLU: Comparison with WikiLeaks info reveals what U.S. blanked out of documents released under Freedom of Information Act

• Frontline, PBS: How the drone war plays out in Pakistan's tribal areas: proponents insist on their efficacy while locals' photos speak to a messy, grisly reality
• BBC News Magazine: 'Cleansed' Libyan town spills its terrible secrets
• The Blotter, ABC News: Private security firm Blackwater renames itself for the second time in three years, tries to win back the right to do business in Iraq
• The Texas Observer: As Texas suffers through one of its worst droughts, utility records show that Texas' business and political elites are using up to 19 times more water than the average Texan
• The Denver Post: Colorado anesthesiologist being sued defends practices that defy guidelines
• California Watch, Center for Investigative Reporting: Top 100 delinquent taxpayers owe $419M
• Marketplace, American Public Media: As Egypt embarks on its second phase of elections, continuing coverage of the food policy crisis, its role in the revolution, and how the new govt. could tackle it
• Center for Public Integrity: Banned in other countries, little-known soda chemical has cloudy heath history
• Mother Jones: How many innocent Americans are in prison? The exact number is unknown—but is likely in the tens of thousands.
• Tulsa World: When Edie King's body was found hanged, she was in possession of a letter that detailed sexual abuse of inmates at Delaware County jail. Her death was ruled a suicide, but her family believes otherwise.
• OpenDemocracy: Journalists as terrorists? An Ethiopian journalist speaks out against Zenawi's "stifling" laws against political dissent – even for journalists
• Center for Public Integrity: GOP assault on regulations could undermine air pollution protections
• Center for Responsive Politics An overview of the personal finances of the ten richest members of Congress
• The Star Tribune: Two Minn. state agencies granted thousands of exemptions to people convicted of disqualifying offenses, allowing them to work with state's most vulnerable people
• Orlando Sentinel: Fla. water agency proposes changes to ethics policy to better shield employees from intimidation
• The New York Times: As Newt Gingrich emphasizes openness with his past to the media, his spokesman reveals that Gingrich was in fact the source of a detailed criticism of Mitt Romney in a NH paper, though initially attributed to "a senior aide in the Gingrich campaign"
• New Jersey Watchdog: Series continues on double-dipping by state employees who stay on the job while collecting retirement

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: On Saturday, tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets in what has been acknowledged as "the largest anti-government protests that post-Soviet Russia has ever seenm," demanding regime change and decrying the recent electoral processes and results as falsified. The number and variety of political backgrounds that came together is testament to the vitality of Russia's investigative and anti-corruption bloggers, who have helped to organize outraged Russians into protesters. As the role of Russian bloggers take on a new and potent significance, in the U.S. investigative blogger Crystal Cox finds herself on the end of a $2.5 million dollar fine for defamation after a judge rules she is not a real journalist, and therefore has none of the same legal rights and protections.

Today's links:

• The New York Times: Oscar Griffin Jr., 78, Pulitzer prize winner who brought down scheming Texas tycoon, dies
• Boston Globe: Ventilator errors are linked to 119 deaths. Warnings are often ignored, missed by overtaxed caregivers
• The Los Angeles Times: Unraveling an epidemic: An in-depth look at the soaring rate of autism diagnosis in recent years, and whether the diagnoses speak to more complex problems
• Wisconsin Watchdog: Minor offenders, major consequence – why Wisconsin's justice system treats 17-year-olds as adults
• The Seattle Times: Wash. state pushes methadone as safe pain medication to cut cost, but hundreds die each year — and the poor pay the price
• Center for Public Integrity: An epidemic of expulsion: California's Kern County at leading edge of national debate over costs and benefits of harsh school discipline
• The Center for Investigative Reporting: New sex crime arises after Ariz. sheriff's office fails to investigate
• NaplesNews.com: Florida's recent 'Stand your ground' criminal defense, which permits force to be met with force in cases of bodily harm, due to be employed again in southwest Fla. court
• The Bay Citizen: At Californian vocational schools, complaints mount as oversight lags - at one school, nearly half of nursing graduates failed national licensing exam
• Pro Publica: NY's tax overhaul, said to raise taxes on the rich, actually doesn't
• WisconsinWatch.org: In Haiti, U.S. deportees face illegal detentions and grave health risks
• Center for Public Integrity: Report says a quarter of hospitalized Medicare patients got improper treatment
• The Sun-Sentinel: In tight economic times, domestic violence incidents jump in South Florida

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: This week, a hearing in the Senate Commerce subcommittee marked a climactic moment in the three-year investigation of contaminated drywall, imported largely from China, and now found in nearly 7,000 American homes. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the body leading the federal investigation, came under intense scrutiny by lawmakers for its lack of concrete results. The CPSC argues that China's "lack of cooperation" has slowed the proceedings. Read ProPublica's long-term investigation into the drywall scandal.

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

Today's links:

• Poynter Institute: Center for Public Integrity reduces staff to compensate for $2 million budget hole
• The Associated Press: AP Exclusive: Inside Romania's secret CIA prison
• The Baltimore Sun: Audit shows Maryland may have spent up to $2.5 million in Medicaid payments for dead people
• The Independent: Wikipedia founder attacks UK lobbying firm for 'ethical blindness'
• ProPublica: Feds link water contamination to fracking for the first time
• Mother Jones: On the heels of climate talks in Durban, a reporter witnesses US dollars underwriting massive South African coal plant
• Colombia Reports: Colombian government set up fake nonprofit organizations to discredit real ones: Caracol Radio
• The Washington Post: New watchdog report details theft, fraud committed by postal workers
• The Guardian: Goldman Sachs whistleblower threatened with dismissal
• The Center for Public Integrity: A fact check on Newt's erroneous ethics alibi
• Mother Jones: Monsanto (still) denies super-insect problem, despite evidence
• Popular Mechanics: Two years after Air France 447 went down in the Atlantic, the recovered flight-data recorders complete the mystery
• PBS NewsHour: Who really owns Montana's rivers? The Supreme Court hears the arguments between a power company and the state
• Center for Investigative Reporting, CaliforniaWatch: Audit: Sloppy oversight increases risk of unsafe school buildings in California
• Kaiser Health News: A look inside our critical access hospitals finds some are not so critical
• The Montreal Gazette: Traditional cloak of secrecy around academic misconduct in Canada shed for name-and-shame tactics after pressure on research councils

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: At the time of his accidental overdose and death at just 28, NHL hockey player Derek Boogaard was known as one of the fiercest fighters on the ice. But as The New York Times shows in this comprehensive investigation, Boogaard had never chosen the life of a fighter; it seemed, rather, to have chosen him. Read the full story of the life and death of a hockey enforcer: Punched Out. See the interactive video feature here

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

Today's links:

• The Washington Post: Air Force dumped ashes of more troops' remains in Va. landfill than acknowledged
• CBS: Documents: ATF used 'Fast and Furious' to make the case for gun regulations
• Bloomberg: Bloomberg: Aunt Midge Reveals $14B Hospice Market
• The Washington Post: Despite law against it, stealth commercials frequently masquerade as TV news
• ProPublica: Coffee, Tea or Cancer? After reports reveal risks of cancer, a majority of polled Americans oppose airport X-ray scanners
• Time's Global Spin: The bloody nature of the average diamond revisited as Global Witness quits role in ethical sourcing scheme
• BloombergBloomberg News responds to Bernanke criticism of U.S. bank-rescue coverage
• BBC News: County police department gave a £45,000 contract for its new website without putting it out for bids; consultancy calls the expense "absolutely absurd"
• Center for Responsive Politics: A look at the long-term contribution trends amongst the pro-Israel lobby in Congress
• ABC News, The Blotter: Is the CEO at the helm during the Massey mining tragedy back in business?
• Naples Daily News: Agent who wrote bogus insurance policies can pay up to avoid hefty prison term
• Yahoo News, the Lookout: Years after immigration raid, Iowa town feels poorer and less stable
• Fishbowl LA: Oakland Police Drop #OWS Arrest Charges Against Cartoonist Susie Cagle
• Center for Investigative Reporting: Food for revolution: A look into the hunger that fueled Cairo's Arab Spring
• TPM Muckraker: FBI tries to reassure Muslims it's taking training material issue seriously
• The Miami Herald, Naked Politics: Undercover personal injury protection fraud investigators make the rounds at the Capitol
• Center for Public Integrity: GOP senators' position on consumer finance bureau matches industry lobby

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: ProPublica continues its investigation of bias in presidential pardons and the political influence pervasive in the system. The landing page for the series is here. Note the political angles: "Pardon Applicants Benefit From Friends in High Places," and "Michele Bachmann Lobbied for Campaign Donor's Pardon."

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

Today's links:

• Center for Public Integrity: Center stands firmly behind its investigative work on bluefin tuna black market despite Politico attacks
• Bloomberg: Romney-Gingrich rival campaigns count on early investment from lobbyists
• The Associated Press: Rick Perry used state phones to call top donors for campaign
• Wall Street Journal: For the families of some debtors, death offers no respite
• Voice of San Diego: The financial crisis in San Diego schools
• The Oregonian: Portland-owned property is exempt from taxes but open to residents making $97,200
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram:Squatters claim more than $8 million of Texas properties, county records show
• Msnbc.com's Red Tape Chronicles Consumer: Trove of evidence didn't persuade credit bureau to fix error
• The Miami Herald: As Florida capitol no longer asks gun owners to secure firearms, the Senate installs panic buttons for lawmakers and their staff
• Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Racial gap found in traffic stops in Milwaukee
• Yahoo News, The Ticket: On private call, Republicans say attacking Obama personally is too dangerous
• ProPublica: Why no financial crisis prosecutions? Ex-justice official says it's just too hard
• The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch: How Goldman played a key role in Solyndra's rise
• Nieman Watchdog: Libyan is posthumous winner of journalistic integrity award from Harvard fellows
• MinnPost: Twin Cities communities falling far behind on affordable housing
• The Hill: The Hill's 2011 list of the 50 wealthiest members of Congress
• The New York Times: NBC stations collaborate with nonprofits, ProPublica

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. (Links open in a new window.)

Document of the day: Although the police chief in Cleveland, Tenn., says he didn't have enough information to open an investigation of possible misconduct by police officers, an internal memo surfaces in The Chattanooga Times Free Press, in which "no accusations were made; however, the officers were warned about unbecoming and unacceptable behavior including, but not limited to, dating minors, porn on City-owned phones, consumption of alcoholic beverages while off-duty, snorting crushed pills, oral sex in public, and running from other law enforcement agencies."

• New Jersey Watchdog: NJ attorney general's 23 double-dippers pocket millions; most 'retire' for one day, then collect pensions for life
• Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project: Japan tobacco fights back against former employees
• The Las Vegas Review-Journal: Yearlong investigation shows many police shootings in Las Vegas could have been avoided
• From professionals and students at the University of Illinois: Bed check: the condition of East Central Illinois nursing homes
• Reuters: Romney staff spent nearly $100,000 to hide records
• ProPublica: Congressman slams military brain-testing program
• The Washington Times: D.C. funds for needy used more for perks
• Center for Public Integrity: After news of secret 'watch list' breaks, EPA names names -- and divulges no details
• The Journal-Sentinel Watchdog Report: Judges crack down on the nefarious practices of bankruptcy petition preparers
• LA Times: Californian prison doctors, barred from seeing patients, collect full pay
• The Broward Bulldog: Constitutional amendment proves no guarantee to opening up hospital records to patients
• Center for Investigative Reporting: Heart failure cases surge among hospital's Medicare patients east of Los Angeles
• TPM Muckraker: Department of Justice believed ATF denials of gun-walking allegations
• Florida Today: Director of Fla. city redevelopment prog. resigns as new City Council members demand accountability
• The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: A look inside the booming international trade of our personal information
• The Wall Street Journal: For the families of some debtors, death offers no respite
• Neos Kosmos: Veteran BBC journalist's family takes on pharmaceutical titan as he fights for life
• Voice of San Diego: County reforms healthcare for the very poorest, but stops there
• The Independent: Caught on camera: top UK lobbyists boasting how they influence the PM, execs reveal 'dark arts' they use to bury bad press
• Politico: Good-governance groups demand the super-committee to reveal its secrets
• The Los Angeles Times: Idea of civilians using drone aircraft may soon fly with FAA
• Center for Public Integrity: Day after story breaks on weak enforcement, Iowa cracks down on polluter
• NYT City Room Blog: May We Car-Pool? Wed at Macy's? It's Up to the NYC Conflict of Interest Board
• Investigative Reporting Workshop: As Apple grew, American workers were left behind for sweatshop laborers in China and beyond

Unknown document source of the day, from The New York Times: At TV and radio outlets, a little-known trove of kudos and complaints

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. (Links open in a new window.)

• Pro Publica: Pro Publica's continuing exposé on presidential pardons: the benefits of friends in high places
• PolitiFact: Finalists for 2011 Lie of the Year
• The Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla., How rogue cops stay on the job, first two parts of a weeklong series based on public records: Part one and Part two
• The New York Times: Drilling down: Learning too late of the peril of natural gas leases
• Center for Responsive Politics: An illuminating look at the history of Barney Frank's campaign donors
• The Boston Globe: '90s Red Sox sexual abuse case rekindled; 2 men seek $10m, accuse late clubhouse manager
• Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism: Arab investigative journalists discuss their role in changing region
• The New York Times: Coke's role in killing a ban on plastic water bottles at Grand Canyon National Park
• 60 Minutes, CBS News: Two whistleblowers offer a rare window into the roots of the subprime mortgage meltdown
• Voices of San Diego: Water district directors meet, talk in secret, pushing the boundaries of a legal loophole
• The Boston Globe: US Preparing to cut aid for lead poisoning prevention efforts
• The Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Sheriff's Department keeps quiet on the results of investigations of alleged inmate abuse to D.A.
• Florida Center for Investigative Reporting: Feds Issue Condemning Report on Shuttered State Youth Facility

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.