Rich Valuation, Poor Valuation: Chicago's Tax Divide
Chicago Tribune
Chicago has long been a city divided by race and class: Carnage on the South Side attests to that. But an investigative series finds another division: Cook County's property tax system, which hands huge tax breaks to well-off homeowners through low property valuations while working-class taxpayers fork over more than full freight on over-assessed homes. What if you appeal your assessment? This series says that process makes the system even less fair. Suspicions Grow of Kaspersky Ties to Russia's Spies
McClatchy
Chances are, Kaspersky Lab provides the security software on your P.C. After all, the Russian company serves more than 400 million users worldwide. Lately it's having a hard time fending off allegations of ties to the Kremlin's intelligence arm. And now McClatchy has found a military intelligence number on Russian government certifications issued to the company. Some experts say it may be hard evidence of a connection. Companies Skirt Race Bias Laws Using Temp Agencies
Reveal
Hiring workers based on race or sex is illegal, but some companies are skirting the law by contracting out their discriminatory practices to temp agencies, an investigation has found. In Baton Rouge, a former recruiter for Automation Personnel Services said her branch manager used "the N-word like it's just second language for her." And employers always got what they wanted, she said, whether it was clean-cut white men, skinny women or black men without tattoos. "They'd be like, ‘Vicki, you know what I'm looking for,'" the recruiter said. Case of N.C. County Official and $600,000 in Missing Cash
News & Observer
Former Register of Deeds Laura Riddick is at the center of a mystery over at least $600,000 cash that disappeared from Wake County coffers over two years. It seems that, at the end of every day, she collected the day's take from marriage licenses and what have you, and handled the books herself. Twenty dollars here, a C-note there -- pretty soon you're talking about real dough. Then colleagues started checking the math on their own. Guess what? On her day off, no missing cash. Vo-Tech: Not Your Father's Shop Class Anymore
City Journal
Shop class is fast shedding its loser motorhead image. Now it's more geek meets gearhead. Businesses, educators and nonprofit funders are intensifying efforts for 21st-century vocational education, because training hasn't evolved to keep up with the modern economy -- and American employers can't find the help they need. An in-depth status report.
Duke University Lab Fabricated Data for Federal Money
Daily Caller
Fake science can pay off -- or at least, it did, for a while, for a Duke University lab technician who used fabricated data to win millions of dollars of grant money from the EPA and other federal agencies. Her research on respiratory illnesses supported the EPA's position on the strong causal relationship between air pollution and disease. Italian Mafiosi Find Greener Pastures in Germany
The Guardian
Leave the gun; take the streusel. That could be Sicilian mafia clans' new motto as they decamp north to greener pastures in Germany. Southern Europe's lousy economy and an Italian government crackdown have pushed them to some of the wealthiest regions of Europe's economic powerhouse. Welcome to the Bada Bing! Stripteaseklub. California Has So Much Solar Power It Pays Arizona to Take It
Los Angeles Times
A mix of subsidies and cheaper manufacturing costs have led to a solar power boom in California. That's not an understatement: The state now has so much energy coming from the sun that it has to pay Arizona to take it away sometimes. The lesson here seems to be that someone needs to think through a bit more how to make the move to renewable energy. From Ptolemy to GPS: A Brief History of Maps
Smithsonian
If you happen to follow your GPS into a lake, congratulations: You're part of a rich historical tradition. Humans have long had trouble accurately capturing terrain on maps -- and following those maps, even when they're good. We've come a long way from the days when Christopher Colombus thought the Caribbean was India. Yet we still manage to get lost. No need to ask for directions in this case, though: Here's a road map from square one. | 
