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Wall Street Journal sues for access to Medicare records
By Bill Allison Jan 25, 2011 2:56 p.m.The Wall Street Journal announced today that it's suing for access to data on payments that doctors receive from Medicare, which has been exempt from public disclosure thanks to a 1979 court case won by the American Medical Association. The Journal argues that absent data on the payments, it's impossible for journalists or members of the public to tell which doctors are billing the system improperly. "It's time to overturn an injunction that, for decades, has allowed some doctors to defraud Medicare free from public scrutiny," Mark Jackson, the counsel for Dow Jones, the Journal's immediate parent, said.
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Republicans Ask Watchdogs to Review FOIA Request Process
By Laurel Adams Oct 4, 2010 10:04 a.m.Inspectors general at the Energy Department and Social Security Administration say their review of FOIA procedures at the request of senior Republican lawmakers showed no signs of meddling by political appointees.
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Re-Named Offshore Energy Agency Urged to Publish Production Data
By Linsey Isaacs Sep 29, 2010 9:38 a.m.The scandal-wrecked Minerals Management Services changed its name to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) as part of a promised wave of reforms, but consumer advocacy groups say more transparency is what is really needed at the offshore energy agency.
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Consumer Safety Agency Plans Crowdsourcing Database
By Laurel Adams Sep 3, 2010 11:36 a.m.Over the objections of manufacturers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will launch a searchable, online database in March that collects consumer complaints about harmful or dangerous products.
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Gitmo detainee classifications remain detatched from identities
By Gabriel Debenedetti Aug 17, 2010 2:58 p.m.When the Guantanamo Review Task Force summary report was released in June — more than five months after its completion — it marked the latest step in President Barack Obama’s plan to close the detainee prison in Guantanamo Bay.
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OMB struggles to track $800 billion IT spending by government
By Sarah Whitmire Aug 13, 2010 10:11 a.m.IT Dashboard attempts to tracks billions of dollars spent by the federal government on information technology, but the website itself has out of date information and inaccurate ratings on the investment risks of some agency projects.
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NIH urged to create a single website showing grantees' funding
By Claritza Jiménez Aug 12, 2010 12:47 p.m.Dr. Charles Nemeroff’s name is synonymous with what can go wrong when scientists who receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. government’s $31 billion a year medical research arm, fail to disclose business relationships that pose a conflict of interest.
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EPA limits chemical accident data citing security concerns
By Chris Hamby Aug 10, 2010 12:03 p.m.It has been 20 years since Congress included provisions in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments to inform citizens of risks from factories using hazardous substances, but the data that details the potential effects of accidents at these sites is largely unavailable to the public.
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Project updates on Recovery.gov lack clarity
By Claritza Jiménez Aug 9, 2010 5:06 p.m.A Texas company that received $14,675 in economic stimulus money submitted a mandatory progress report to the federal government using just two words: “door mats.” A California solar energy company went to the other extreme, using technical language that gave little insight of what it did with a half-million dollars in taxpayer money.
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One year later, Data.gov bigger but needs to get better
By Gabriel Debenedetti Jun 30, 2010 6:33 p.m.One year ago, the U.S. government launched Data.gov, a central plank in its Open Government initiative to make it easier for the public to find and use official datasets. The site has grown from an initial 47 databases to more than 272,000, and attracted nearly 100 million hits. It inspired eight American cities – including San Francisco and New York City – eight states, and six other nations to launch similar sites of their own. By most metrics, the project has been a success.
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Free repository offers copies of PACER federal court records
By Traver Riggins Jun 30, 2010 6:21 p.m.Want to see the federal indictment of a mortgage fraudster? You got it. Need the docket for a U.S. appeals court case? It’s yours. All with the click of a mouse — and your 16-digit credit card number.
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Farm credit regulator won't disclose enforcement actions against banks
By Joe Eaton Jun 16, 2010 12:39 p.m.As Congress negotiates a final version of financial reform, one group of lenders has already won a blanket carve out from increased bank regulation — the more than 90 banks and associations of the Farm Credit System, a government-sponsored enterprise that dates back to 1916. The system, which has $30.8 billion in capital, includes about 90 agricultural credit associations that are cooperatively owned, plus five wholesale lending banks.
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Quest for EPA documents reveal deliberate misclassification by agency staff
By Naseem Miller Jun 16, 2010 11:21 a.m.For the past four years, as executive director of Citizen Action New Mexico, Dave McCoy has been hounding the local and federal government for documents.
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Coast guard database makes oil spill penalties nearly impossible to track
By Ariel Wittenberg Jun 7, 2010 1:39 p.m.The U.S. government has investigated potentially thousands of BP leaks, spills and other incidents but the information is stored in a Coast Guard database that keeps key details such as investigative findings and penalties out of the public’s reach.
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