Taxpayer-Funded Flights and Pot Proliferation

by David Epstein
ProPublica, June 3, 2009, 11:02 a.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.

Over the past decade, Congress has routed more the $1 billion to small communities to subsidize air travel. But many of the subsidized flights are half empty, reports the Macon Telegraph, and critics like the GAO question the efficiency of the program—which just got a big budget boost. Proponents say it serves a critical need.

Also, a ban on new medical marijuana shops in Los Angeles inadvertently prompted a boom in business, reports the Los Angeles Times: A loophole allowed the number of dispensaries to balloon from 186 to at least 600 in the last two years. “I don’t think anyone could have predicted how that clause was going to be used,” said a city councilman.