People have gathered at sites across the country today for "tea parties," a protest of wasteful government spending. CNN is reporting that more than 300 organized protests were under way in the U.S. today. I can't vouch for the credibility of the crowd estimate, but two people on Twitter say they're at the Harrisburg protest and that there are 2,000 or more people there. (If you went and are reading this, leave a comment here on how it went).
If you're interested in tracking government spending, here are some ways to do it, plus links to some watchdog stories (not necessarily government-based stories) we've done. I believe the point of today's protests is federal spending, but I'll post some links that are more local.
If you're interested in tracking government spending, here are some ways to do it, plus links to some watchdog stories (not necessarily government-based stories) we've done. I believe the point of today's protests is federal spending, but I'll post some links that are more local.
Obviously, though, we don't know everything that's out there, so if you know of
something we ought to link to or a story we should go after, holler.
Meanwhile:
Meanwhile:
- If you go to our Full Disclosure web site on open records, you'll find this link to county and statewide web sites where you can review things such as state contracts, audits of the workers' insurance fund and
how municipalities spend their liquid-fuels tax money. (If you know of
ones we don't have listed, please let us know and we'll get links up).
- Also on Full Disclosure: A company called BauerFinancial analyzes banks' financial information and rates them. You can plug in your bank's name and see what pops up. See the 'Searchable databases' list.
- The government allows charities and nonprofits to not pay taxes as long as they're serving a charitable purpose. In the case of Angel Food Ministries, a national food nonprofit, our story revealed financial questions regarding salaries and other benefits for the organization's founding family. Angel Food is being investigated by the FBI, the IRS and the Georgia Department of State, and has been sued by two members of its board over alleged financial improprieties.
- There are ways you can research charities if, for example, you'd like to donate to one. You can see how much they bring in, how much they give out, how much the CEO makes, that kind of stuff.
- The York City School District got a bunch of money to start its own alternative-education program, but spent most of it on private contractors.
- Wondering what local banks are doing with their federal bailout money? Here's what we found out.
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