By Cora Currier/ProPublica

When Bank of America announced it was buying Merrill Lynch in September 2008, bank execs told their shareholders that the merger might hurt earnings a touch. It didn’t turn out that way. Losses at Merrill piled up over the next two months, before the deal even closed. Yet the execs kept painting a prettier picture to shareholders – even though it turns out they knew better.
As the New York Times detailed on Sunday, a brief in a new lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan recounts sworn testimony and internal e-mails in which execs admitted to giving bad information to shareholders and that they had worried about the legal ramifications of doing so.

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Posted on June 8, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“The NATO summit at McCormick Place cost Metra $800,000 in lost revenue from customers who stayed away and extra security expenses like bomb-sniffing dogs, the commuter railroad agency said Wednesday,” the Tribune reports.
Oh, they’ll make it back through increased tourism down the road.

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Posted on June 7, 2012

By Justin Elliott/ProPublica

In a lengthy front-page story last week exploring President Obama’s use of drone strikes in countries including Pakistan and Yemen, the New York Times reported that the president had “embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in.”
Citing “several administration officials,” the Times reported that this method “in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants . . . unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.” The Times reported that this standard allowed counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to claim in June 2011 that for nearly a year “there hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that we’ve been able to develop.”
Human rights groups and others have expressed outrage at the reported counting method. And in the last few days alone, 27 “suspected militants” have been killed in three drone strikes in Pakistan, including the reported No. 2 of al-Qaeda.
We wanted to lay out exactly what’s known (not much) about the apparent policy, what’s not (a lot), and what the White House is saying in response to the Times report.

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Posted on June 6, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

What in the world is up with arbitrator Edwin H. Benn?
That’s what city inspector general Joe Ferguson – and much of the (small) portion of Chicago that pays attention to these things – wants to know.
“Chicago’s internal watchdog on Monday defended his recommendation to fire dozens of firefighters who padded mileage reports and called an arbitrator’s ruling to soften penalties in the case ‘patent nonsense,'” the Tribune reports.
“Last year, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson recommended firing 54 firefighters in the Fire Prevention Bureau that his office determined had falsified their mileage reimbursements to the tune of $100,000 in 2009. Then-fire Commissioner Robert Hoff decided instead to issue lengthy unpaid suspensions to most firefighters but fired four of them.
“The arbitrator, Edwin Benn, reversed the firings last week, ruling that the four instead should be suspended without pay for 40 days. He also ruled that most of the other firefighters have their 30- to 60-day suspensions reduced to 20 to 40 days.
“Benn found that while firefighters and supervisors violated city rules, they engaged in conduct that had been ‘almost a work rule,’ condoned within the department for decades.”
In other words, Benn decided to let the firefighters off easy because the corruption they engaged in is so widespread that they shouldn’t be held accountable for their misdeeds. What a novel legal theory.
On Monday, Ferguson fired back in fine form, releasing this statement:

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Posted on June 5, 2012

By Blair Hickman and Cora Currier

Inspired by the New York Times’ expose on Obama’s “secret ‘kill list,'” we collected some of the best pieces of watchdog journalism on Obama’s national security policies.
For a good introduction, and to see how they’ve evolved since Bush, see our timeline.
One of our resident national security experts, Dafna Linzer, helped curate this list. If we missed any, please let us know by e-mailing MuckReads@ProPublica.org.

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Posted on June 4, 2012

By The Illinois Campaign For Political Reform And CHANGE Illinois!

The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR) on Thursday called on Gov. Pat Quinn to veto Senate Bill 3722, which would create a wide loophole in the state’s campaign contribution limits system. [Ed. note: links added]
“Gov. Quinn can and should veto this bill and protect the campaign finance system reforms he helped enact in 2009,” said Brian Gladstein, Executive Director of ICPR. “The Governor signed the limits bill just a few years ago as part of what he called his ‘year of reform.’ If he signs this bill, a lot of the work he did during that year will be for naught.”

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Posted on May 31, 2012

And He’s Right

Occupy Springfield.

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Posted on May 30, 2012

By Blair Hickman/ProPublica

We rounded up some of the best accountability journalism for U.S. soldiers in our recent wars. Check them out while you’re basking on a boat this weekend, and remember the reason for this federal holiday.
Armored Humvees are in Short Supply, October 2003, News Observer: When the insurgency in Iraq started, the U.S. Army didn’t have enough armored Humvees to protect its troops. As soldiers died in vehicles not built to withstand combat, the Army boosted their orders. But that takes time. While waiting for requests to be filled, soldiers rigged their own with sandbags.

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Posted on May 27, 2012

By The Beachwood Bob Forrest Affairs Desk

“Cash-strapped Cook County government and the more financially sound Forest Preserve District are looking to bring in corporate cash by selling naming rights, sponsorships and concessions,” the Tribune reports.
Is this really a good idea? Cook County isn’t exactly a brand anyone would want to be associated with. Besides, the best ideas aren’t likely to make money. For example:
* The Todd Stroger Memorial Department of Human Resources. I mean, I’m not sure all of that would fit on his locker at the East Bank Club.
* The Forrest Claypool Memorial Preserve District. I mean, who would want that?
* The Toni Preckwinkle Ethics Task Force Chaired By Political Ally And Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios Brought To You By JPMorgan Chase. I mean, it’s just a mouthful.
* The Cook County Auditor’s Office of Joe Berrios. Wait, that exists.

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Posted on May 25, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

A continuing look at the nonsense that surrounded NATO.
1. Eric Zorn says it so I don’t have to. Lou Raizin, you are Today’s Most Ridiculous Person In Chicago.
*
Raizin, and just about everybody else it seems, apparently has also forgotten that it was the G8 conference that was expected to draw loads of protesters. NATO was almost an afterthought.
*
And don’t forget, it was that hippie organization called Crain’s Chicago Business that blamed Rahm Emanuel himself for a summit plan that “reinforces the very stereotypes that Chicago is trying to shed” and creating a crisis atmosphere.

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Posted on May 24, 2012