If you have solid tips, news or documents on potential ethical violations or abuses of power, we want to know. Send us your suggestions. 
Unfortunately I believe that we are limited in what we can focus on. I think that if we proceed with the partisan sideshow of prosecuting Bush admin. officials, healthcare will get lost in the brouhaha.
The Washington Post's permanent investigative unit was set up in 1982 under Bob Woodward.
Archive: April 2008
By the Numbers: D.C. Schools
A new report on DC. public schools underscores the lack of racial diversity in the system, finding that more than 200 of the 234 public and charter schools are more than 90 percent African American or Hispanic. Seven of the schools are majority white. The report, by researchers at the...
By The Editors | April 25, 2008; 11:51 AM ET | Comments (1)
A Sticking Point in the Farm Bill
The $290 billion farm bill has been stuck in Congress for months as lawmakers wrestle over tax and policy questions. If the differences can't be resolved, billions in farm subsidies as well as increases for nutrition, conservation and energy programs will die. Now, it turns out, one of the biggest...
By The Editors | April 23, 2008; 1:35 PM ET | Comments (1)
Justice Official Pleads Guilty in Abramoff Case
A former Justice Department official today admitted accepting more than $4,000 worth of meals and sports tickets from Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for helping a variety of Abramoff's clients, including a Mississippi Indian tribe seeking federal money to build a prison, reports The Post's James Grimaldi. Robert E....
By The Editors | April 22, 2008; 2:55 PM ET | Comments (15)
Check McCain's Tax Return
A couple of weeks ago we invited you to peruse the tax returns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Many of you came up with some interesting observations. Today, presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain released his taxes for 2006 and 2007. Have at it:...
By The Editors | April 18, 2008; 3:19 PM ET | Comments (2)
Air Force Contract Under Investigation
Agents from the FBI and the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service are looking into a contract between the Air Force and Commonwealth Research Institute, according to documents and interviews. Commonwealth Research Institute, or CRI, is a Pennsylvania non-profit hired for consulting and other work without competition through a five-year contract...
By The Editors | April 18, 2008; 10:36 AM ET | Comments (1)
Update on Student Funds
A former D.C. school business manager who raided donations to a chess club for emotionally disturbed students has been ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution and spend 25 days behind bars, court records show. The Post published a story in November detailing dozens of instances in which D.C. public school...
By The Editors | April 17, 2008; 5:36 PM ET | Comments (0)
Farm Bill Update: Taxing Matters
Back in 2002, then House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-Texas) helped engineer tens of billions of dollars in new spending for agriculture in a massive new farm bill that was denounced by fiscal conservatives. Combest's pivotal role in outflanking a reform faction and bringing President Bush on board for...
By The Editors | April 16, 2008; 6:03 PM ET | Comments (3)
More Problems at the Smithsonian
Another Smithsonian official has gotten into trouble for ethics violations and spending extravagances. Pilar O'Leary, 39, the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center, accepted gifts and gratuities from contractors, spent lavishly on travel and limousines, lodged in four-star hotels with ocean-view upgrades and Jacuzzis, and charged the Smithsonian for spa...
By The Editors | April 15, 2008; 1:30 PM ET | Comments (5)
Oversight of D.C. Police Eased
A decade of federal oversight of the D.C. police department's use of force is ending, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced this week. A Post investigation published in 1998, which found that city police officers shot and killed more people per capita than any other large city police force,...
By The Editors | April 15, 2008; 11:17 AM ET | Comments (0)
Few Alternatives to Animal Testing in U.S.
A decade after Congress created a panel to spur the development of alternatives for companies that now test their products on animals, only four such non-animal tests have been approved out of 185 reviews, The Post's Gilbert M. Gaul reports. In Europe, a similar panel has approved 34 tests. Is...
By The Editors | April 12, 2008; 11:55 AM ET | Comments (1)
Inside an Investigation
The Post's investigation into farm subsidies, a series of stories that ran in 2006 and 2007, is the focus of a PBS documentary airing tonight. The program, "Expose: America's Investigative Reports," follows the Post's Sarah Cohen, Gilbert M. Gaul and Dan Morgan, who explain how they found more than $15...
By The Editors | April 11, 2008; 4:01 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Passing of A Legend
The byline of Woodward and Bernstein is the most famous one in the history of investigative reporting, but inside the fraternity of investigative reporters there is a lesser-known name that is equally hallowed: Robert W. Greene. Greene died Thursday at age 78 of congestive heart failure in Long Island, N.Y....
By The Editors | April 11, 2008; 2:14 PM ET | Comments (0)
Farm Bill Update: Harvesting More Cash
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has turned up the pressure on Senate Democrats to support the House version of a $290 billion, 5-year farm bill, reports Dan Morgan, co-author of a nine-part Post series in 2006 exposing waste in agricultural subsidies. At a meeting Wednesday night, an angry Pelosi...
By The Editors | April 10, 2008; 5:31 PM ET | Comments (4)
Feds Find Slaughterhouse Problems
A federal audit of beef slaughterhouses has uncovered evidence that some plants continue to use inhumane practices in handling cattle. Yesterday on Capitol Hill, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer told the Senate farm appropriations committee that the USDA temporarily suspended operations at one plant after the audit found that it was...
By The Editors | April 9, 2008; 2:10 PM ET | Comments (1)
D.C. Council Questions Contract
A District Council committee is scheduled to meet today on a contract worth more than $120 million to run the DC Lottery's games and terminal network. Some council members have questioned why city officials are granting the contract to a start-up joint venture run by a controversial figure. The partnership...
By The Editors | April 7, 2008; 10:27 AM ET | Comments (0)
Check the Candidates' Tax Returns
The Clinton campaign today released tax returns that show Bill and Hillary Clinton earned a combined $109 million between 2000 and 2007. Barak Obama and his wife earlier released returns showing their most recent adjusted gross income was over $900,000. In the spirit of the tax and political season, the...
By The Editors | April 4, 2008; 7:31 PM ET | Comments (70)
City to Sue Landlords
D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced this morning that the city is suing 23 landlords whose 70 residential buildings have been racked by housing code violations and is asking the court to put 13 of the buildings into receivership to make sure the repairs take place. "In a number of...
By The Editors | April 4, 2008; 3:30 PM ET | Comments (1)
Council Acts to Protect Tenants
The District Council has voted to end a policy that council members said had become an incentive for landlords to empty apartment buildings so they could convert to condominiums. In a series published last month, the Post's Debbie Cenziper and Sarah Cohen reported that landlords had emptied more than 200...
By The Editors | April 2, 2008; 10:55 AM ET | Comments (0)
