Lobbying Loopholes and CDC Secrecy

by Alexandra Andrews
ProPublica, April 28, 2009, 12:48 p.m.

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Here are our editors’ picks from today’s roundup of investigative stories around the Web. Was there a story we missed? Please keep sending us your picks or include them in the comments section below.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. According to the Wall Street Journal, in order to evade the Obama administration’s rule prohibiting registered lobbyists from seeking details about stimulus spending from government officials by phone or in person, resourceful lobbying firms are sending other, nonregistered personnel in their place.

Also, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the defensive. In response to the paper’s reporting on morale problems at the agency, a chaotic response to Hurricane Katrina and other taxpayer-funded boondoggles, the CDC compiled 4,000 pages of documents assessing the risk posed to the agency’s reputation. The paper then, of course, submitted a FOIA request for them. But the CDC won’t hand them over, despite the administration’s recent directive urging greater public disclosure.