http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/index.html http://media.miamiherald.com/images/logos/rss_sitelogo.gif http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/index.html 140 25 News, sports and entertainment from MiamiHerald.com en-us Copyright 2008 MiamiHerald.com Watchdog Report 60 Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:09:26 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's PubSys miamifeedback@miamiherald.com http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/689469.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/689469.html Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:01 EDT In a stinging critique of the state's oversight of the mortgage industry, top Florida investigators found that state regulators failed to alert police agencies to crooked mortgage brokerages, ignored citizen complaints and allowed hundreds of people with criminal histories to peddle loans.<p/>The report released Tuesday to Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet criticized the Office of Financial Regulation, saying the agency broke down in key areas, including screening brokers and shutting down shoddy operations, while the state grappled with the nation's worst home loan fraud crisis.<p/>The investigation, carried out by the Inspectors General of the State Cabinet Offices, concluded the state's regulatory system was ``insufficient to protect the people of the state of Florida.'' http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/690599.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/690599.html Sun, 23 Jul 2006 18:41 EDT The Miami Herald revealed waste, favoritism and lack of oversight at the Miami-Dade Housing Agency. http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/456937.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/456937.html Sun, 11 Jan 1998 14:03 EST The Miami Herald revealed voter fraud in a city mayoral election, which was later overturned. http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/446705.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/446705.html Sat, 06 Jan 1996 15:25 EST The Miami Herald profiled a local cult leader, his followers and their links to several area murders. http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/457240.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/457240.html Sat, 18 Jan 1986 19:00 EST Miami Herald reporters won a Pulitzer for their coverage of the U.S.-Iran-Contra connection. http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/457431.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/457431.html Tue, 04 May 1976 21:32 EDT Miami Herald investigation led to the release of two men wrongfully convicted of murder twice and sentenced to death. http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/486434.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1357/story/486434.html Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:36 EDT Miami Herald investigation helped free two persons wrongfully convicted of murder. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/689469.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/689469.html Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:01 EDT In a stinging critique of the state's oversight of the mortgage industry, top Florida investigators found that state regulators failed to alert police agencies to crooked mortgage brokerages, ignored citizen complaints and allowed hundreds of people with criminal histories to peddle loans.<p/>The report released Tuesday to Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet criticized the Office of Financial Regulation, saying the agency broke down in key areas, including screening brokers and shutting down shoddy operations, while the state grappled with the nation's worst home loan fraud crisis.<p/>The investigation, carried out by the Inspectors General of the State Cabinet Offices, concluded the state's regulatory system was ``insufficient to protect the people of the state of Florida.'' http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/693580.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/693580.html Sun, 29 Jan 2006 03:01 EST A special state program to treat Florida's worst sexual predators is not only failing, but backfiring. Some of the most violent rapists and pedophiles are allowed to walk away with no treatment, monitoring or supervision. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/693544.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/693544.html Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:01 EDT The Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust squandered millions on insider deals, pet projects and bad loans. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/690599.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/690599.html Sun, 23 Jul 2006 18:41 EDT The Miami Herald revealed waste, favoritism and lack of oversight at the Miami-Dade Housing Agency. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/446658.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/446658.html Sun, 10 Mar 2002 14:57 EST Miami-Dade politicians and lobbyists regularly asked the company managing Miami International Airport's massive expansion to contribute to a raft of political campaigns and pet charities, funneling money to causes of little or no benefit to the airport and its passengers. For $15 million a year, Dade Aviation Consultants is supposed to help transform county-owned MIA from crowded and dim disarray into a spacious showpiece, with wide passenger concourses and new brand-name retail shops. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/455642.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/455642.html Sun, 10 Nov 2002 17:53 EST In dozens of shootings since 1990, city of Miami police officers have shot unarmed people in the back, fired wildly at fleeing cars, and shot indiscriminately even when it put innocent lives at risk, a Herald review of every bullet fired by officers shows. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/443581.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/443581.html Sun, 03 Nov 2002 13:18 EST David Nieves Jr. is buried in the Garden of Promise, under a gravestone emblazoned with a teddy bear, clad with a bow. "He was the sweetest little boy. He couldn't defend himself," recalled Jocelyn Pridemore, a registered nurse who warned the Department of Children & Families that David, developmentally disabled, might be in danger. "I feared he would end up dead." http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/445521.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/445521.html Sun, 09 Feb 2003 18:39 EST Miami-Dade Public Schools squandered tens of millions of dollars on a mangled construction program, delayed crucial projects by months or even years, and trapped children in schools that are not only crowded, but obsolete, poorly maintained and in some cases downright unsafe, a Herald investigation has found. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/445490.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/445490.html Sun, 11 May 2003 18:05 EDT Murray Sisselman, who served as UTD president for 27 years, wanted to come clean in his final days. He directed Angleton to a file cabinet packed with records showing that longtime union chief Pat Tornillo and his wife were apparently reimbursed for at least $155,000 in personal expenses in less than three years. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/56963.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/56963.html Sun, 31 Aug 2003 13:44 EDT The recruiters come rolling through in roomy vans, searching for a fresh crop of farmworkers from the homeless shelters, haggard parks and soup kitchens dotting North Florida's urban hubs. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/455571.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/455571.html Sun, 18 Apr 2004 17:17 EDT The executive director of Camillus House used his employees and homeless clients to renovate his own homes with thousands of dollars in labor and materials bought on the charity's credit cards, a Herald investigation has found. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/437834.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/437834.html Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:08 EDT Forget bucolic barns and lush pastures. Here's what passes for farmland in South Florida: rocky, trash-strewn fields, lots crammed with melaleuca trees, even fledgling construction sites. http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/437622.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1358/story/437622.html Sun, 13 Mar 2005 15:30 EST With the power of a new crime-tracking computer system, the Broward Sheriff's Office wanted to launch a new policy to ensure the agency was properly clearing thousands of burglary cases. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/455810.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/455810.html Sun, 04 Mar 1990 20:09 EST A lengthy Miami Herald investigation reveals that Dade Circuit Judge John Galardi Gale -- a judge since 1972, head of the bustling civil division since 1977 -- has doled out lucrative court appointments to friends, issued favorable rulings to select attorneys and declined to remove himself when his impartiality could be questioned. He enjoys a life style well beyond his public salary. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/446660.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/446660.html Sun, 09 Dec 1990 15:02 EST The Florida Legislature gave away more than $100 million this past year -- public giveaways with little oversight and virtually no accountability for how the money was spent. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/455769.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/455769.html Sun, 14 Apr 1991 19:24 EDT At a time when Miami's oldest inner-city social service agency could not make its payroll, two top executives cashed more than $100,000 in agency checks they wrote to themselves. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/455661.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/455661.html Sun, 12 Apr 1992 18:19 EDT A group of private lawyers has run up six-figure incomes by repeatedly billing Dade County taxpayers for hours they did not work. Many times, the attorneys billed for more than 24 hours of legal work in a single day. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/455651.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/455651.html Sun, 07 Jun 1992 18:14 EDT The robberies were part of a terrifying crime wave in Broward County two years ago -- and most of it was monitored and financed by a squad of sheriff's deputies secretly operating outside the department's theft and robbery units. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/447899.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/447899.html Fri, 27 Nov 1992 11:54 EST Essie Weaver, dead from bedsores and infection, lived the last of her 83 years mostly in a wheelchair in a vermin-infested crack den where authorities believed she was raped. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/456039.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/456039.html Thu, 25 Apr 1996 00:05 EDT A prominent South Dade farmer, paid millions by Metro to landscape county roadways, charged taxpayers for towering royal palms while planting shorter, cheaper trees, a survey by The Herald shows. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/453909.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/453909.html Sun, 13 Jul 1997 14:20 EDT Cops call it "Collars for Dollars." It's how they turn arrests on the streets into money in their pockets. Until now, it has been a courthouse secret. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/446714.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/446714.html Sun, 17 Oct 1999 15:27 EDT Miami's tourism industry is threatened by politicians who run the airport for the benefit of cronies - not millions of passengers. Miami International Airport, rated among America's worst for passengers, is being used by Miami-Dade politicians as a billion-dollar piggy bank to enrich their friends and campaign contributors. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/446705.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/446705.html Sat, 06 Jan 1996 15:25 EST The Miami Herald profiled a local cult leader, his followers and their links to several area murders. http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/456937.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1359/story/456937.html Sun, 11 Jan 1998 14:03 EST The Miami Herald revealed voter fraud in a city mayoral election, which was later overturned. http://www.miamiherald.com/1360/story/457240.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1360/story/457240.html Sat, 18 Jan 1986 19:00 EST Miami Herald reporters won a Pulitzer for their coverage of the U.S.-Iran-Contra connection. http://www.miamiherald.com/1360/story/455557.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1360/story/455557.html Mon, 25 Sep 1989 03:01 EDT The people at Port Everglades lived the good life. Now the good life has turned on them. http://www.miamiherald.com/1360/story/455575.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1360/story/455575.html Sun, 06 Aug 1989 03:01 EDT The truth is that 2-year-old Bradley McGee was almost potty trained. At his grandma's, relatives clapped for him. "Yeah Braddie," they cheered. But at home July 27, the little boy had an accident. His mother and stepfather murdered him for it, police say. http://www.miamiherald.com/1361/story/457431.html http://www.miamiherald.com/1361/story/457431.html Tue, 04 May 1976 21:32 EDT Miami Herald investigation led to the release of two men wrongfully convicted of murder twice and sentenced to death. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/639677.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/639677.html Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:01 EDT Embattled state mortgage regulator Don Saxon, whose agency allowed thousands of former criminals to sell loans in Florida, abruptly resigned Tuesday as the state Cabinet debated his fate. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/636777.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/636777.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT For years, Medicare has begged Congress to help stop the loss of billions of dollars to healthcare scams from Miami to Los Angeles. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/638113.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/638113.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT Under severe criticism for allowing bank robbers and racketeers to sell loans in Florida, the state's top mortgage industry regulator is calling for sweeping emergency changes to bar people convicted of financial crimes from peddling loans and running mortgage businesses. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/636745.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/636745.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT The dollar might not be worth much these days, but it can go pretty far in the fight against healthcare fraud, experts say. For every $2 million invested in anti-fraud efforts annually, a health insurer can realize $17 million in prevented losses, savings and recoveries, according to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, a private-public partnership based in Washington. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/629378.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/629378.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT The Benitez brothers were masters of Medicare fraud, prosecutors say. They spent their Medicare millions on Mediterranean-style homes, apartments, hotels, boats, a helicopter, even a water park -- all in the resort area of Bavaro, Dominican Republic, court records show. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/639677.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/639677.html Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:01 EDT Embattled state mortgage regulator Don Saxon, whose agency allowed thousands of former criminals to sell loans in Florida, abruptly resigned Tuesday as the state Cabinet debated his fate. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/636777.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/636777.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT For years, Medicare has begged Congress to help stop the loss of billions of dollars to healthcare scams from Miami to Los Angeles. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/638113.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/638113.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT Under severe criticism for allowing bank robbers and racketeers to sell loans in Florida, the state's top mortgage industry regulator is calling for sweeping emergency changes to bar people convicted of financial crimes from peddling loans and running mortgage businesses. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/636745.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/watchdog-report/story/636745.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT The dollar might not be worth much these days, but it can go pretty far in the fight against healthcare fraud, experts say. For every $2 million invested in anti-fraud efforts annually, a health insurer can realize $17 million in prevented losses, savings and recoveries, according to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, a private-public partnership based in Washington.