Problem gun dealers keep operating

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	Weekly Watchdog February 7, 2013
Problem gun dealers keep operating As the Obama Administration presses for stricter gun controls in response to the killings of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., last December, ATF's oversight of the gun industry — particularly its secretive dealer inspection and revocation process — faces criticism from all quarters. Gun control advocates argue that the program has been crippled by inadequate funding and congressional meddling and that as a result ATF can't assure the public that gun dealers are doing their best to keep weapons out of the wrong hands. They argue that the laws favor dealers over public safety, and that ATF has too few inspectors to do its job properly.   Read More ›› Share Democratic super PACs start year with cash advantage Prominent super PACs are already preparing for their next act — the 2014 midterm elections — with Democratic-aligned groups leading the way. Of the five super PACs with the most money in the bank through the end of 2012, all support Democrats, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of campaign finance reports released Thursday. Such cash illustrates how Democratic forces have become full-fledged participants on the post-Citizens United campaign battlefield, shedding ideological concerns about unbridled political spending to better compete with Republican foes.   Read More ›› Share IMPACT: Inspector General to review EPA's 'Watch Lists' The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general has begun a review of the EPA's use of internal watch lists to target enforcement of federal pollution laws. The watch lists first came to light as part of a 2011 investigation called Poisoned Places by The Center for Public Integrity and NPR. The inspector general is exploring "potential improvements in the protection of human health and the environment by ensuring the EPA is enforcing environmental laws and cleaning up communities," the IG's office wrote last month to Cynthia Giles, the EPA's assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.   Read More ›› Share   Crowd-funding our watchdog reporting The Center for Public Integrity can benefit from the Freedom of the Press Foundation's latest crowd-funding campaign in support of "aggressive, public-interest journalism focused on exposing mismanagement, corruption and law-breaking in government." A donation to this fund over the next two weeks will be matched up to $10,000 by actor and Foundation board member John Cusack. The Freedom of the Press Foundation has already raised about $200,000 for a select handful of organizations, from the National Security Archive to WikiLeaks. Foundation support for the Center will go toward our National Security reporting on Pentagon spending. We'll examine what makes up the biggest defense budget in the world. We'll detail what's gone wrong in some of the Defense Department's most troubled and costly projects like the F-35 fighter jet and the Navy's Littoral Combat Ships. We'll look at the explosion of military entitlements, and map how top defense contractors in Washington regularly finance the election campaigns of the lawmakers who oversee or control their budgets. Crowd-funding by the Freedom of the Press Foundation is built on the recognition that "this kind of transparency journalism — from publishing the Pentagon Papers and exposing Watergate, to uncovering the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program and CIA secret prisons — doesn't just happen. It requires dogged work by journalists, and often, the courage of whistleblowers and others who work to ensure that the public actually learns what it has a right to know." As the Foundation acknowledges, increasingly it is the non-profit media and transparency organizations like The Center for Public Integrity that are emerging as a critical component of the journalism landscape. "Leveraging the power of the Internet, these organizations are helping to reinvent and reimagine independent watchdog reporting." I couldn't have said it better. Until next week, Bill Buzenberg Executive Director
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