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Bill aims to stop coal companies from denying benefits to miners with black lung
Update, Sept. 18, 2014, 3:00 p.m.: This story has been updated to include additional details about the proposed legislation and comments from Sen. Casey; the bill was not introduced today as...
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Health insurers turning into who knows what?
As I wrote last week, one of the nation’s biggest employers — Boeing — is pioneering a concept in providing health care benefits to its employees that eliminates insurance companies as middlemen.What...
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U.S. Senate passes bill curtailing conflicts of interest in security...
Private companies typically don’t fill out their own customer satisfaction surveys, and teachers are not generally allowed to pen their own evaluations. But the federal government sometimes pays...
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Oops: Republican super PAC misidentifies source of massive donation
Republican super PAC American Crossroads misidentified its second-largest donor last month in paperwork filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission.The group, co-founded by GOP strategist Karl...
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In Kansas, Democratic donors invest in uncertainty
Greg Orman, the independent U.S. Senate candidate from Kansas, won’t say whether he’ll caucus with Republicans or Democrats if he wins in November — a decision that could determine which party controls...
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Who’s trying to influence your vote?
The Center for Public Integrity is investigating who is trying to influence the 2014 elections through television advertising, part of a broader effort to consider the sources behind political power in...
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Secret politics pervade popular companies
Watch your Netflix show, wear your Ralph Lauren shirt, brew your Keurig coffee and deposit your paycheck at M&T Bank.Just know that you're patronizing some of the nation's least politically...
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'Outside' groups swamp Florida's airwaves in race for governor
The race to occupy the Florida governor’s mansion is among the most expensive state-level contests in the country this year, with roughly $31.8 million spent through September 8 on 64,000 television...
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Non-candidate spending increases in state elections
Kitchen cabinet magnate Tom Wolf has tapped his own considerable wealth to help blanket Pennsylvania's airwaves with more than $11 million worth of television ads, surging ahead of a crowded Democratic...
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Senate Democrats lead TV ad blitz
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ruled the TV airwaves last week, even trumping the conservative super PACs and Koch brothers-backed nonprofits they’ve accused of trying to buy...
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Marine Corps settles dispute with whistleblower
A military scientific adviser whose pay and security clearances were suspended after he exposed the Marine Corps’ disinterest in building lifesaving, heavily-armored, troop carriers settled his...
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McAuliffe names panel to reform Virginia’s ethics laws
Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia has rolled out another in a series of attempts to repair the state’s broken reputation, creating a commission to focus on ethics and accountability in government.The...
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12 things to know about who’s trying to influence your vote in 2014
We're a little over a month away from the 2014 midterm elections, and in addition to control of the U.S. Senate there are more than 6,300 state-level races around the country in play.And if you watch...
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New types of health care delivery are improving the 'patient experience'
Health care provider organizations that are working directly with employers like Boeing — and cutting out the insurance company middlemen — believe they can do more than save money for those employers....
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Prison bankers cash in on captive customers
Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series examining how financial companies charge high fees to the families of prison inmates. The second part, which will run Thursday, focuses on no-bid...
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Debit cards slam released prisoners with sky-high fees, few protections
When Clarence Justin Aldred was released from Macomb Correctional Facility in New Haven, Michigan, in July 2013, he left with the balance of his inmate account, which consisted of his prison wages and...
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Time is money: who's making a buck off prisoners' families?
Adryann Glenn, former inmate: I sold cocaine. I started selling cocaine when I was eleven years old. Powder cocaine, never crack.Vincent Townsend, Pay-Tel Communications president: The reason we’re in...
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Inside the virtual tollbooth at many U.S. prisons
Sending money to someone behind bars used to go something like this: you'd go the post office, buy a money order for about $1.25 and then mail that to the prison or jail. All told, it would cost you no...
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Megabanks have prison financial services market locked up
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series examining how financial companies impose high costs on the families of prison inmates. Part One, which ran on Tuesday, focused on the explosive...
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Open pits offer cheap disposal for fracking sludge, but health worries mount
NORDHEIM, Texas — School Superintendent Kevin Wilson tugged at his oversized belt buckle and gestured toward a field less than a mile from Nordheim School, where 180 children attend kindergarten...
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