Quick Picks: Texas Town Shakedown and More on Murtha’s Earmarks

by Alexandra Andrews
ProPublica, March 11, 2009, 10:14 a.m.

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Our editors’ picks of the latest investigative stories around the Web:

Police in Tenaha, Texas, are accused of routinely stopping African-American motorists and threatening them with criminal charges if they don’t fork over cash and other valuables, reports the Chicago Tribune. “More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008,” says the Trib, which reviewed court records.

Sources tell Politico that Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) has used the Electro-Optics Center at Penn State University as a “front” to steer earmarks to clients of lobbying shop PMA Group, which was raided by the FBI in November. PMA and its clients have donated $2.38 million to Murtha’s campaigns in the last ten years. According to Politico, “Murtha’s office defended the federal dollars given to the EOC as a worthwhile investment of taxpayer funds.”

Check out more of our roundup in “Breaking on the Web.”

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