Some of the best #MuckReads ProPublica read this week. Some of the best investigative reporting from news outlets around the country.
An Unbelievable Story of Rape, ProPublica/The Marshall Project
She said she was attacked at knifepoint and raped. Then she said she made it all up. The latest in our yearlong investigation of how police handle rape investigations in America looks at how police can go wrong – or right – when investigating rape.
Devils, Deals and the DEA, ProPublica
Situated between Pablo Escobar and “El Chapo” Guzman, there was the Arellano Felix Organization and the Arellano brothers, who at one point were responsible for 40 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States. When the DEA started investigating the AFO in the early ’90s, the agency thought it would last six months. It lasted 20 years. Our investigation examines how El Chapo became the biggest winner in the DEA’s longest running drug cartel case.
Law ignored, patients at risk, STAT
The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 established a federal database for research institutions to report the results of clinical trials. But according to an investigation by STAT, most institutions — including Stanford University and Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — routinely break the law by failing to report.
Beyond Punishment, Miami Herald
The largest women’s prison in the United States is home to widespread abuse, and inmates say it’s gotten worse over the past decade. This investigation goes inside the Lowell Correctional Institution and looks at the “cruel and inhumane treatment” of inmates by prison staff.
The Corporate Takeover of the Red Cross, ProPublica
Gail McGovern, a former AT&T executive and Harvard Business School professor, was supposed to turn around the struggling Red Cross when she became CEO. The board thought McGovern would restore the once venerable Red Cross to its’ glory – reality proved much different.
Bullets Beyond Recall: Defective Guns Outside U.S. Government’s Reach, International Business Times
The government forced Fiat Chrysler to buy back almost 580,000 cars because of a defect earlier this year. They wouldn’t have been able to do that if the cars were guns. Guns are one of the few consumer products that the government has no authority to recall.
We Blew $17 Billion in Afghanistan. How Would You Have Spent It?, ProPublica
When it comes to reconstruction, the U.S. government is a slow learner. By applying policies that failed in Iraq to Afghan reconstruction, we wasted a lot of money. We added all of that spending up so you can see for yourself how that money could have been spent here at home.