Free Republic

Jack Smith was in charge of the public integrity section of the Justice Department during five of the Obama-Biden years, which was a massively corrupt administration. He must have had blinders on. He was there when Lois Lerner and the IRS corruptly targeted Obama's opponents, who wanted smaller government and lower taxes. Lerner violated their Constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of association with her targeted harassment. Then she lied to Congress and destroyed evidence. She clearly obstructed justice. Yet she, nor no one else surrounding her were ever charged and Lerner went off to retire at her beltway...

The Center for Public Integrity has issued a report that shows tht only three states recieved a grade of better than "D+."  The investigation "found that in state after state, open records laws are laced with exemptions and part-time legislators and agency officials engage in glaring conflicts of interests and cozy relationships with lobbyists. Meanwhile, feckless, understaffed watchdogs struggle to enforce laws as porous as honeycombs." That's pulling no punches. After describing disturbing practices in several states, the report says: These are among the practices illuminated by the State Integrity Investigation, which measured hundreds of variables to compile transparency and...

State governments lack transparency and accountability to citizens, and remain at high risk for corruption, according to a new study of all 50 statehouses. Not a single state received an A in the State Integrity Investigation ranking, a product of the Center for Public Integrity, Public Radio International and Global Integrity. … Only five states got rankings of B, led by a surprising recipient: New Jersey. It got a B-plus, with an overall score of 87 out of a possible 100. Despite — or perhaps because of — recent corruption scandals, New Jersey got the top ranking because of steps...

When the White House announced the federal government would loan $465 million to Tesla, a California start-up company with plans to develop an all-electric sedan, President Obama called it an "historic opportunity to ensure that the next generation of fuel-efficient cars and trucks are made in America." The loan also represented a lucrative opportunity for Steve Westly, a major investor in the car company who had raised more than $500,000 for the president's campaign. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy lent more than half a billion dollars to companies backed by Westly's California venture capital firm. In 2010, the...

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has opened an inquiry into the lobbying work of former Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre and whether he violated city laws by failing to disclose those activities, several sources said. Cooley's Public Integrity Division, joined by investigators with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, also have been seeking information about any lobbying work by former city commissioner Leland Wong, who was sentenced last month to five years in prison. Both Alatorre and Wong have been influential figures in city politics and, in separate cases, have faced lengthy corruption probes. Alatorre pleaded guilty...

I visited this site, which I used in the past extensively for donor research, and find it very difficult to navigate. Does anyone know anything about how and why Public Integrity has changed? This is not good for conservatives. There are other sites, but PI always kept track of the 527s like Moveon.org.

Four New Orleans police officers have been cleared of allegations that they looted a Wal-Mart store after Hurricane Katrina, but each was suspended 10 days for not stopping civilians from ransacking the store, the Police Department said. The probe stemmed from an MSNBC report that showed the officers filling a shopping cart with shoes, clothes and other items. When a reporter asked the officers what they were doing, one responded, "Looking for looters" and turned her back. Assistant Police Chief Marlon Defillo, commander of the Public Integrity Bureau, said the officers seen on the video were recently cleared of looting...