The Center for Public Integrity has taken a hard look at what hasn’t worked in government, with a look at dozens of examples of government breakdown.

Here is an excerpt:

In a comprehensive assessment of systematic failures over the past eight years, the Center found more than 125 examples of government breakdown.

The failures occurred in areas as diverse as education, energy, the environment, justice and security, the military and veterans’ affairs, health care, transportation, financial management, consumer and worker safety, and more.

This report also gets extra Investigative Mommy Blogger points for striving for investigative journalism 3.0. Readers of the report can suggest additional government failures, and the public can rank the failures.

See the full report: Broken Government

The Investigative Reporters’ and Editors recently highlighted an investigation by The Columbus Dispatch in its Extra! Extra! news feed. Here is an excerpt from the newspaper’s investigative report:

An investigation by The Dispatch found that 87 of the 234 children who succumbed to abuse and neglect from 2002 to 2007 died on the watch of Ohio’s children services agencies. Their families or caregivers were being assisted and monitored by county children-services workers at the time of, or within a year before their deaths.

They’ve been kicked, strangled, suffocated, beaten, shaken, thrown, drowned, burned, frozen, poisoned, starved and denied medical care, all while county officials were monitoring their families, foster parents or caregivers.

See the full report: System fails, kids die

_{Photo of files &copy Elvis Santana}