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.
A Des Moines Register investigation found that air pollution in Iowa is dangerously close to exceeding federal limits, and that some of it is difficult even to quantify due to “limited oversight and antiquated methods of measuring chemical releases.” The state’s air quality compliance chief cited limited resources: “We’re doing what we can with what we have,” he said.
Also, the Detroit Free Press sued to obtain records of travel expenses incurred by trustees of Detroit’s two public pension funds and found that the trustees and their staff spent $380,000 on worldwide travel to conferences last year. What’s more, the funds are withholding receipts, and some documents have been destroyed, the paper reports. One trustee defended the travel by saying trustees have an obligation to stay educated.
