On Sept. 3, 2009, contract laborer Nick Revetta was killed in an explosion at U.S. Steel's Clairton Plant near Pittsburgh. Revetta's death and the events that followed reveal the limitations of a federal law meant to protect American workers. Continue reading →

Alex Trebek, thinking deep after 28 seasons of ‘Jeopardy!’ If 6,300 episodes of “Jeopardy!” count as scientific data, human beings can be classified as a cordial and sedate species, partial to demure wardrobes and simple haircuts. Each human displays a rigorous grasp of general knowledge and possesses both a typical occupation and a single succinct-yet-charming anecdote that defines his or her life. They enjoy using their knowledge to win modest amounts of money, three at a time, Monday through Friday, on a soundstage in Culver City, Calif. There is a fourth human who remains apart, behind a lectern near a wall of flat-screen TVs. He is also cordial and sedate. He is the host of the show. He cracks few jokes. He hugs no one. ... Continue reading →

At Rancho Grande Supermarket in San Pablo, a package of 18 corn tortillas recently cost $7.80. Taxpayers footed the bill for the pricy tortillas, which were bought in early April with a government voucher from the California Women, Infants and Children program, a federally financed nutrition program that is administered by the state. Despite its name, Rancho Grande Supermarket is a small grocery store located in a strip mall on San Pablo Avenue. Less than a mile away at FoodMaxx, a megastore where WIC vouchers are also accepted, the same tortillas are sold for $1.44. The California WIC program, which provides staple foods like milk, dried beans and peanut butter to 1.48 million low-income Californians, is the largest in the country. But it is being ... Continue reading →

Watch a video introduction about Investigating Power with Executive Producer Charles Lewis. - video introduction - Continue reading →

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Alex Shakar's novel "Luminarium," about the role technology and spirituality play in shaping people's reality, and Stephen King's "11/22/1963," about a time traveler who attempts to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination, were among the winners Friday at the 32nd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. The awards to Shakar in the fiction category and to King in mystery-thrillers were among 12 presented at USC's Bovard Auditorium in a ceremony that launched this weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the campus. More than 400 authors will participate in readings, signings, panel discussions, musical performances and other events. The festival, which moved to USC in 2011 after 15 years at UCLA, runs through Sunday. About 150,000 visitors are expected to attend. Shakar's "Luminarium" prevailed over ... Continue reading →

SuperShuttle drivers say they face tough times under firm’s franchise system By Emma Schwartz, Center for Public Integrity Okieriete Enajekpo needs money.It’s not that the Nigerian-born Maryland resident is unemployed.But as a driver for the airport van service, SuperShuttle, he must pay the company $900 a week or more before he takes home any money of his own.And going into his fourth day one week in January, Enajekpo was still more than $100 short of settling his weekly debt.“People back home [in Nigeria] think, ‘Oh, you’re in America so you must be doing well,’ ” he says. “They don’t understand.”It wasn’t always like this.Once, drivers of this ubiquitous blue-van airport shuttle service were salaried employees. But in the past 13 years, SuperShuttle has transformed its ... Continue reading →

I set off after the vanishing jack mackerel with trepidation. Who would care? It’s hard to love a bony fish with oddly shaped fins and oily flesh that swims in shoals far away in the southern Pacific. But as oceanographer Daniel Pauly told me, they are the last buffalo. Industrial fleets, moving southward, have hammered one fishery after another. When the jack mackerel are gone, Pauly said, everything will be gone because the expansion will be finished.Ten months later, I wrapped up tve’s BBC documentary with this alarming but unavoidable conclusion:“People keep saying we’ll find something else .. We’re at the point where there really is nothing else ... Once these fish stocks collapse, we won’t have them. The only solution is for us to ... Continue reading →

The former executive gave names, dates and bribe amounts. He knew so much, he explained, because for years he had been the lawyer in charge of obtaining construction permits for Wal-Mart de Mexico. Wal-Mart dispatched investigators to Mexico City, and within days they unearthed evidence of widespread bribery. They found a paper trail of hundreds of suspect payments totaling more than $24 million. They also found documents showing that Wal-Mart de Mexico’s top executives not only knew about the payments, but had taken steps to conceal them from Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. In a confidential report to his superiors, Wal-Mart’s lead investigator, a former F.B.I. special agent, summed up their initial findings this way: “There is reasonable suspicion to believe that Mexican and USA ... Continue reading →