A report on  Bank Tracker, a project of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, shows that OneUnited Bank, the bank at the center of the allegations against Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., was the weakest TARP bank at the time of its rescue.  “When then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced creation of the so-called “Capital Purchase Program” in October 2008, he said said it was directed at “healthy institutions.” Nevertheless OneUnited Bank of Boston received a $12.1 million capital injection from the Treasury Department on Dec. 19, 2008. The money has not been repaid, according to Treasury Department documents.”

When it comes to using water, in Milwaukee the largest users do not have the largest homes or properties, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis by Ben Poston revealed. It’s the opposite: The biggest users are in the poorest census tracts in the city and are disproportionately minorities. Why? Those homes are more likely to have leaky pipes and poor quality fixtures in the home. The analysis was prompted by a push by the city to increase water rates by 25%.

Citations for safety and health violations by operators of underground coal mines have increased by nearly a third since 2006, with federal mine inspectors focusing about equally on three main types of mining hazards. An NPR analysis of nearly 80,000 citations written last year found that an accumulation of combustible coal dust was the most frequently cited violation overall, accounting for more than one in 10 citations. The analysis found that three categories of problems — fire and coal dust issues; ventilation problems; and electrical issues — each made up about a quarter of the violations found by inspectors nationwide. At Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W.Va., federal inspectors spent 180 days last year enforcing safety and health standards. Still, they could not prevent the April 5 explosion that killed 29 miners.

An accountant, a lawyer and two retired executives each collected more than $475,000 last year – and one topped $600,000 – doing part-time work for multiple Wisconsin companies, according to review of Securities and Exchange Commission data by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Cary Spivak. The men are members of corporate America’s most elite club: the board of directors. By creating a unique database of board members for the state’s 50 or so public companies, Spivak was able to identify trends and cross-connections between boards. The package included a searchable database of all the board members, their pay packages and the boards they sit on.

The Charleston Gazette’s investigation of federal grant misuse at West Virginia’s state employment agency culminated with four criminal convictions in federal court and a prison sentence for one of the people involved. Gazette business reporter Eric Eyre used a hex editor to analyze the contents of a computer file, showing that the state official in charge of distributing federal grants at the employment agency had written – and later approved  — a $100,000 grant application for her son’s marketing and publishing firm. The same official tried to steer an additional $1 million to her son’s company, but the newspaper’s reporting prompted the agency to scrap the project before the money was spent. The Gazette’s rolling investigation toppled three state officials and two local computer executives.

California Watch launched Politics Verbatim, a site that “collects and categorizes the promises, proposals, arguments and attacks” made by Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman in their race for governor of California.  The site was launched with 300 documents and 1,000 excerpts that will be added to daily as the race progresses allowing voters to hold the candidates accountable in during the campaign.

KNXV-Phoenix teamed up with colleagues at Scripps Howard News Service to review the FBI’s uniform crime report data for unsolved murder rates nationwide.  Phoenix did not fare well in the analysis.  A lack of time, resources and money resulted in a homicide clearance rate of just 54.6% over a 28 year period.  As a result,  killers walked free and justice has been denied for more than 2000 families. The story includes a searchable database that allows online readers to look up clearance rates nationwide.