1. ‘Smart Growth’ Goals Frustrated By Local Authorities

   In a pasture, along a tree-lined road, a small herd of hefty black-and-white striped “Oreo cows” — more formally known as Belted Galloways — graze… Read more

2. The Battle for Wheatland

   The Wheatland Manor House was built 35 years before the Revolutionary War. The farmland surrounding it served as a focal point of a small community… Read more

1. The Montenegro Connection

   “My little cat … I’m going crazy without you …. You have repeatedly betrayed me, I think …. Little cat, when are you coming? ...… Read more

2. The Climate Lobby’s Nonstop Growth

   Makers of sneakers, blue jeans, and computer network servers joined forces late last fall and vowed a bigger push in Congress on climate change. Meanwhile,… Read more

More from the Center >

1. Center Joins New Nonprofit Investigative News Network

   WASHINGTON, D.C., July 2, 2009 — The Center for Public Integrity has joined with nearly two dozen other nonprofit news organizations nationwide in announcing plans… Read more

2. Center Elects Five New Members to its Board of Directors

   WASHINGTON, D.C., June 30, 2009 — The Center for Public Integrity’s board of directors has elected five new members representing diverse… Read more

1. Tobacco, Terrorism, and Illicit Trade

   WASHINGTON, D.C., June 29, 2009 — China leads the world in contraband cigarette production, with Paraguay and Ukraine also fueling billion-dollar black markets, according to… Read more

2. Podcasts

   The Public I podcast series, hosted by Bill Buzenberg, features our reporters and sources discussing the Center's latest investigations. Read more

More Front & Center News >

Archive Investigations

1. Land Use Accountability Project

   Sprawl is threatening America’s famed open spaces, challenging our rural culture and love of nature. Yet, expansion and development, too, are essential to the American character. This project paints a complete picture of sprawl, examining the different assessments of and responses to the phenomenon.

2. Broken Government

   As the Bush administration came to an end, the federal government was not functioning as it should. Just how bad was this government dysfunction? In an effort to answer that question, the Center for Public Integrity embarked on Broken Government, an examination of the worst systematic failures of the executive branch over the past eight years.

3. The Hidden Costs of Clean Coal

   A highly productive method, longwall mining yielded 176 million tons of coal in 2007 — 15 percent of total U.S. production. An estimated 10 percent of all U.S. electricity now depends on coal from longwall mines, which have grown in Appalachia and in Illinois, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. But longwall mining is the most brutal technology yet employed to extract coal from underground quickly and cheaply. This project examines social and environmental impacts of longwall’s full-extraction method.

4. Perils of the New Pesticides

   A groundbreaking review of 10 years’ worth of adverse-reaction reports filed with the Environmental Protection Agency by pesticide manufacturers, which found that pyrethrins and pyrethroids — used in thousands of supposedly “safer” pesticides — accounted for more than 26 percent of all fatal, “major,” and “moderate” human incidents reported to the EPA in 2007. Based on information from the previously unreleased EPA pesticide incident-reporting system, this investigation spurred the director of the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs to announce the agency would begin a broad study of the human health effects of pyrethrins and pyrethroids.

5. Iraq: The War Card

   In a widely reported study of orchestrated deception, the Center found that President Bush and seven top officials made 935 false statements leading-up to the Iraq war — and offer them in a database for all to see.

6. The Buying of the President 2008

   Did 2008 shape up to be the most expensive campaign year ever? Find out at the Center’s quadrennial signature project.

7. 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.

1. Welding’s Toxic Legacy

   The shaking in Jeffrey Tamraz’s right hand began in 2001. It was intermittent, so he paid it little mind. A six-foot, 260-pound bear of a man, he’d played football and thrown shot and discus in high school; later he got into competitive weightlifting, and worked up to bench-pressing 465 pounds — once, to win a bet, he flipped a Honda Civic on its side. He brought the same passion to his work. “I taught welding for six years,” he says. “I read books on welding. I loved to weld.”

2. Over the Limit

   Rusk 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. States of Disclosure

   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.

6. Collateral Damage

   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.

7. Wasting Away

   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.