By Michael Grabell, Jennifer LaFleur, Amanda Michel and Christopher Flavelle, ProPublica.

When the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package passed in February, President Obama pledged that American taxpayers would be able to track every dime. Today, the government released its first comprehensive look
...

By Paul Kiel, ProPublica.

Since its March launch, the government's $50
billion program to prevent foreclosures has been marked by confusion, delays and doubts. A little-noticed conclusion in a government report released last week reveals that the program's auditor is no different: Freddie Mac --...

By Jake Bernstein, ProPublica.

The FDIC shuttered California's San Joaquin Bank on Friday, putting the total number of bank failures for the year at 99. (See ProPublica's failed bank list.) 

The pace of failures has slowed somewhat...

By Paul Steiger, ProPublica.

Cross posted at McKinsey & Company: What Matters

On Sunday, July 12, 2009, the Los Angeles Times published on its front page and on four full inside pages an article headed, Problem nurses stay on job as patients suffer.

Of the many extraordinary things...

By Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica.

Many Americans are not aware of what impact the economic stimulus package has had on their communities and their opinions of the stimulus differ by race and ethnic group, according to a new poll released today by

By Paul Kiel, ProPublica.

Last week, we (ProPublica) published a story examining the boom in "foreclosure rescue" companies, firms that promise — in exchange for a large up-front fee — to persuade lenders to modify desperate homeowners’ mortgages. The story was done in collaboration with American Public Media’s...

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica

Pennsylvania environment officials are racing to clean up as much as 8,000 gallons of dangerous drilling fluids after a series of spills at a natural gas production site near the town of Dimock late last week.

The spills, which occurred at a well site...

by Olga Pierce, ProPublica

The hubbub has subsided after President Obama's health care speech, but reform's treacherous route through Congress remains the same.

Obama called for reining in the insurance industry, creating a public option to help make insurance available to everyone, and requiring everyone to have coverage....

by Olga Pierce, ProPublica

Much of the coverage of the health care reform process has left consumers -- and many of us here at ProPublica -- struggling to understand just how the various proposals in play would affect them.

To begin to tackle that, we partnered with...

By Olga Pierce, ProPublica.

To curb the lobbying feeding frenzy surrounding the nearly $800 billion stimulus package, in March the Obama administration imposed unprecedented restrictions on lobbyists: All lobbyist communications regarding specific projects were to be submitted in writing, and general conversations between government officials and lobbyists...

By Chris Flavelle, ProPublica.

When President Obama introduced the stimulus plan, he made a bold promise of transparency: “Every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new Web site called Recovery.gov.” But like so many noble...

by Karen Weise, ProPublica

"Systemic abuse." "Extraordinary incompetence." "Reckless."  In a growing body of legal cases, judges and the Justice Department are breaking from legal jargon to starkly chastise mortgage companies. 

As mortgage delinquencies rise, more and more homeowners...

by Marcus Stern and Jake Bernstein

To supporters, the "cash for clunkers" program miraculously jolted the moribund car market back to life, engendering hopes that it might help revive the broader U.S. economy.

Skeptics saw it differently: The automotive industry had hijacked an environmental bill and turned it...

by Karen Weise, ProPublica

Seventy-year-old Barbara Harris can’t help crying when she walks around her neighborhood. She says she hates seeing possessions piled up on front lawns — the remnants of...

by Michael Grabell and Jennifer La Fleur

Since the economic stimulus bill passed nearly six months ago, the Obama administration has repeatedly pledged that the money would reach middle America, seeping into the communities hardest hit by the recession.

But analysis of the most comprehensive list of stimulus...

by Olga Pierce, ProPublica

There's been lots of coverage so far about the insider politics of health care reform, but what about the most important question of all: how will proposed changes affect consumers who rely on the system for their health?

To find the answer, we're teaming up...

by Amanda Michel, ProPublica

(flickr user kylemay)

It's the middle of July and we're all wondering whether the stimulus is working. If we do as the administration has advised, we should remain patient — and let the administration measure...

by Christopher Flavelle, David Epstein, and Michael Grabell

The economic stimulus package may be a political football in Washington, but its success or failure depends on what happens in cities and towns across the country. As part of our effort to track the stimulus from bill to...

The following stories are sidebar reports by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber that were taken from their extensive investigation "When Caregivers Harm: Problem Nurses Stay on the Job as Patients Suffer" that was published by the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica this past weekend.

The complete investigation...

by Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica

The Obama administration's nomination of Ignacia Moreno to head the environment division of the Department of Justice is moving quietly through the confirmation process, with hearings expected to begin in the next few weeks. Moreno has worked for the environment division before, during the Clinton...