2013
Tens of thousands of applicants for the federally subsidized Lifeline phone service had their private information compromised by the phone carriers that signed them up and were supposed to keep their information safe.
Arsonists in America burn according to a cruel calendar. They set fire to buildings in alarming numbers on holidays such as Independence Day, Halloween and New Year's Day. But a first-of-its-kind study, conducted by Scripps Howard News Service, indicates that arsonists also favor this week in April.
Payback can be a bitter pill for the nation's deadbeat doctors. The government has seized tax refunds and unemployment checks, claimed judgments against them in federal court, banned them from billing Medicare and Medicaid, even posted their names on a public shaming list. Yet 930 medical professionals nationwide remain in default, owing the government more than $116 million.
2012
She's a pretty soccer mom in Dallas who grew up in privilege attending the best private schools. He's a tatted-up Aryan Nations member in rural West Tennessee who has spent a third of his life in prison. If they have nothing else in common, they share a sordid history of using and selling methamphetamine.
A Scripps investigation into the Boy Scouts of America's so-called "perversion files" from 1970 to 1991 reveals the organization often failed to protect youngsters from adult molesters within its ranks -- and in many cases covered up the allegations by failing to notify police.
Heroin has become the deadly crest of a wave of addictive drug use in communities around the country. With addicts desperate for a cheaper high than prescription drugs or seeking a more powerful fix, experts are seeing heroin addiction treatment admissions, overdoses and fatalities rising in nearly every region, including areas where the drug has seldom been seen before.
Scripps reporters investigated conditions at 30 markets in 10 states and the District of Columbia and found a hodge-podge of regulations, spotty inspection records and some questionable sanitation practices. Consumers should bring a healthy sense of awareness and skepticism.
Thousands of nonprofit organizations in the United States misreport how they solicit billions of dollars in donations, making it impossible for Americans to know how their gifts are used, according to a Scripps Howard News Service analysis.
Roughly 1,200 of the nation's 6,700 animal shelters and rescue groups -- more than one in five -- identify themselves as no-kill, suggesting they subscribe to the ideal of euthanizing only those creatures suffering from terminal illness or injury or too vicious to live among humans.
An SHNS investigation has found records indicating that dozens of individuals who had been banned as food-stamp vendors nonetheless remained in business in communities across the country. The federal government has opened investigations into alleged violators identified by Scripps.
2011
As the nation commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of World War II, Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Daniel Inouye take us through the contributions and legacy of service of the "greatest generation."
For thousands of youths accused of crimes, punishment precedes any conviction in court. They may be held for months or even years in county jails for -- and sometimes with -- adult suspects. SHNS' Isaac Wolf reports on the 7,500 juveniles in adult jails at any time, their conditions of confinement and how a loophole in federal law allows jails in 29 states to house juveniles with adults.
Millions of manufacturing jobs have disappeared across America since 2000, evaporating in a furnace-like blast of economic upheaval. A hard look at our diminished industrial capacity.
When private companies want something from Washington, they hire lobbyists to win favor from Congress and the federal government. Now cities, towns, school districts and colleges – all funded by local taxpayer dollars – are rolling out the same lobbying strategy to pull more tax money out of an increasingly squeezed federal government.
The Social Security Administration each month falsely reports that nearly 1,200 living Americans have died. These clerical errors recorded in the official Death Master File have grave consequences for everyday Americans, shutting down their federal benefits, hampering loans, freezing credit cards, ruining attempts to get new jobs and even prompting unnecessary police investigations. A Scripps Howard national reporting project.
Our analysis of census data from 1860 and 1870 illustrates just how deeply the Civil War and its aftermath touched virtually every corner of the nation, often in surprising ways.
SHNS' Isaac Wolf reports on an independent lab test of national gasoline brands for detergent additives, which affect the health of vehicle engines and environment; some automotive and fuel experts contend the Environmental Protection Agency's minimum standard is outdated.
Tens of millions of animals are still sacrificed to biomedical research projects in labs across America each year. Scientists say the studies have to go on to find cures; animal protectionists say much of the work is dubious, but all sides agree better and cheaper technology needs to be found.
Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.
2010
Authorities in Indiana and Ohio have launched investigations into suspected serial killings after a Scripps Howard News Service study of FBI computer files found many alarming clusters of unsolved homicides of women across the nation.
A widespread method of extracting natural gas by fracking, or shooting chemical-laced water underground, is a growing threat to water supplies in 28 states, say scientists, landowners and environmentalists.
A behind-the-scenes look at the interactions between lobbyists and legislators over proposed legislation that would allow state alcohol regulators to restrict out-of-state sales of alcohol and help protect the wholesalers' entrenched position as alcohol middlemen.
Thousands of convicted sex offenders are evading state and federal authorities, congregating in regions thought to have lax enforcement, slipping back and forth to Mexico or disregarding laws on reporting their whereabouts.