Great Lakes Danger Zones?
Here’s the report that top officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thought was too hot for the public to handle — and the story behind it.
Windfalls of War II
The Center reveals that military contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan grew from $11 billion in 2004 to more than $25 billion in 2006 — and that billions have gone to unidentified foreign companies.
Pushing Prescriptions
The Center’s investigation of the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbying might and gifts of free travel for members of Congress — and its resulting political influence and impact on the American public.
The Center's podcast series, narrated by Bill Buzenberg, features our reporters and sources discussing investigations.
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Rich people live lives that most everyone else can only imagine. They can buy the nicest cars, drink the finest wines, afford the best doctors,…
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When Mark Hanna stepped in as a fundraiser for William McKinley’s 1896 reelection campaign, he took the unprecedented, if notorious, approach of tapping into a…
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The BBC Radio World Service's Steve Evans examines independent expenditure committees and the buying of ambassadorships in a two-part documentary series based on the Center…
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WASHINGTON, D.C., August 21, 2008 — The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is proud to announce the finalists for…
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WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2008 — According to a new Center investigation, Perils of the New Pesticides, pyrethrins and…
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The latest media coverage of Center projects.
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WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8, 2008 — The Center for Public Integrity’s Board of Directors has elected Marianne Szegedy-Maszak as its new board chair. Szegedy-Maszak, a…
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Archive InvestigationsRusk County, Texas — A gentle twilight pink stretches across the sky, touching the waters of Martin Creek Lake. The still air, smelling only of East Texas pines, brings the faint sounds of wildlife in the surrounding woods. Smog and traffic seem much further away than the 145-mile drive to Dallas.
Washington State is tops in making it easy to track the private interests of public officials, and Vermont, Michigan, and Idaho tie for last in the Center’s national ranking. Check where your state ranks.
Post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy and military aid and assistance had a huge impact in nations around the world — and at home. This award-winning project includes 20 articles from four continents.
The Superfund isn’t so super anymore. A year-long investigation examined all 1,624 Superfund sites and found daunting toxic threats across the country 27 years after the Environmental Protection Agency program was launched.
At least 900 little-known federal advisory committees wield enormous influence over government policy, some to good ends — but many have become secretive, ideological, or packed with industry representatives.
A year-long investigation of President Bush’s initiative to fight AIDS abroad finds that conservative ideology hinders its real benefits by insisting on abstinence-only programs over promoting condom use.
This project offers a comprehensive examination of business and legislative influences on media — and includes the Media Tracker, a searchable online database of who owns the media serving any U.S. community.
200 trips to Paris? 150 to Hawaii? 140 to Italy? The Center’s investigation of how private interests gain access to members of Congress by funding supposedly educational or investigative travel.
Government contracts awarded for cleanup and reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina are collected in a searchable database, and the best coverage of what happened on the Gulf Coast is gathered and categorized.
An investigation into the state of federal lobbying identifies the top 100 lobbying companies and organizations — led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — as well as the top 250 lobbying firms.
Who’s winning the big contracts? Between 1998 and 2004 no-bid contracts accounted for more than 40 percent of Pentagon contracting, totaling $368 billion — and many contractors were generous campaign donors.
The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to producing original investigative journalism about significant public issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable.
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So there was something of a hullabaloo this weekend when rumors came down that GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin was once a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. The party with the motto “Alaska First – Alaska Always” has a reputation as a secessionist organization (though that overstates the case a bit — they merely want Alaskans to have a vote to determine if they will remain in the union). The McCain camp has since shot back that Palin has never been anything but a card-carrying Republican (though there are reports that her husband was an AIP member for most of the period between 1995 and 2002).
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Looking for a reprieve from the political echo chamber this election season? Your best bet may be to head to the local movie theater, which, unlike the bookstore or boob tube, is almost certain to be free of brass-knuckle attacks on McCain or Obama. Though Michael Moore showed four summers ago with Fahrenheit 9/11, that politically driven documentaries could fill the seats, movie theaters have since mellowed. That’s in part because political attack movies struggle, not necessarily to attract an audience, but to comply with the regs laid down by the Federal Election Commission.
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The Dems may be trying to tag John McCain as George W. Bush Jr., but McCain, with his pick of Sarah Palin for VP, is clearly trying to shore up his own image as a maverick who fights for reform. Palin, the governor of Alaska, has earned a reputation as a government reformer, having run for the Statehouse on a platform of cleaning up Juneau. One of her first acts was pushing ethics bills that advocated greater access to politicians’ financial disclosure reports and restricted gifts from lobbyists to public officials. Nevertheless, as with Joe Biden, we still must ask, does anyone own Sarah Palin?
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Last week, after John McCain had trouble remembering how many homes he owned, PaperTrail took a look at the number of houses owned by the top four candidates for Democratic VP. As you’re no doubt aware, Obama picked Joe Biden, the owner of a mere one home (assessed value: $527,500). In advance of John McCain’s selection of his veep, we now pose the same question, but for the other side of the aisle: How many houses do McCain’s leading VP choices own?
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The American Leadership Project is back. This pro-Hillary Clinton group is a 527 – one of those independent nonprofits notorious for skirting campaign finance law – and now it’s targeting John McCain with a new ad. The ALP’s latest: “More Money, More Problems,” warning that McCain’s energy plan will bring “more money for Big Oil” and more problems for average Americans. The price tag for these ads? More than $75,000, according to the group’s FEC filings.
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Following Barack Obama’s announcement of his running mate Saturday, the blogosphere and traditional media have been atwitter with the question of who, if anyone, owns Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Since we have more than a passing interest in the influence money has on politics, we decided to throw our two cents in, as well.
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Convention-goers in Denver and St. Paul won’t be able to miss the $2 million advertising blitz planned by businesses promoting “clean coal” as key to the nation’s energy future. But chances are, the politicians flying in from the nation’s capital are already well aware of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity’s message. A Center for Public Integrity analysis shows that the newly formed group spent $4.7 million on lobbying so far this year — more than any other organization that described itself in disclosure forms as devoted exclusively to influencing climate change legislation.
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Two stories have dominated the political news cycle of late: vice presidential picks and the number of houses the presidential candidates own. The obvious next step, then, is to ask how many houses the potential vice presidents own.
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A new anti-abortion group has its sights set beyond just running ads and launching viral Internet attacks on Barack Obama. The group wants to overturn the federal election law that could rein in not only its own activities but those of any so-called issue advocacy groups.
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