Corporate Crime Database

[As shared on the BUSLIB business librarian listserv]

Since the beginning of 2010, drug manufacturers, hospital systems, insurers and other healthcare companies have paid nearly $7 billion in fines and settlements to resolve cases in which they were accused of defrauding the federal government. Banks, led by Wells Fargo, account for the second largest portion of False Claims Act penalties, with more than $3 billion in payments. More than one-third of the 100 largest federal contractors have been defendants in such cases during the seven-year period.

These are some of the key findings that emerge from an expansion of Violation Tracker, a database of corporate crime and misconduct produced by the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First. It is available to the public for free at http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/violation-tracker.

With the addition of more than 750 cases relating to the 150-year-old False Claims Act and similar laws, Violation Tracker now contains a total of 112,000 entries from 30 federal regulatory agencies and all divisions of the Justice Department.

Find Out if the Government Owes You Money

If the government owes you money and you do not collect it, then it’s unclaimed.

Currently, the government does not have one central website for finding unclaimed money by name, Social Security number, or state. To find unclaimed money from the government, you can check various sources.

A word of caution: government agencies will not call you about unclaimed money or assets. Avoid unclaimed money scams by learning how to recognize government impostors.

U.S. Federal Government Shutdown

Due to a lapse in funding, the U.S. federal government has shut down.

During the shutdown, updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at USA.gov. You can also get answers to government questions by calling 1-800-FED-INFO (1-800-333-4636), 8 AM - 8 PM (Eastern Time), Monday through Friday.

The federal government will remain shut down until Congress and the President pass a funding bill.

See also Government shutdown: What’s closed, what’s open?

For you data users, know that websites affected by this shutdown are all census.gov websites, including:
• www.census.gov
• American Factfinder
• ftp2.census.gov
• ask.census.gov
• blogs.census.gov
• respond.census.gov
• www.fcsm.gov
• www.fedstats.gov
• www.mapstats.gov

Do Americans Believe Capitalism and Government Are Working?

Description by American Consumers: August 2013

A survey of religious beliefs combined with economic and social attitudes finds Americans falling into four philosophical camps:

38% religious moderates
28% religious conservatives
19% religious progressives
15% nonreligious

Not surprisingly, these four groups differ in size by political party, according to the timely report, Do Americans Believe Capitalism and Government Are Working? by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.

30 Percent of Adults Receiving Government Assistance Have a Disability

Among the 46.0 million adults who received income-based government assistance in 2011, 30.4 percent of them had a disability, according to a report released from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report, Disability Characteristics of Income-Based Government Assistance Recipients in the United States: 2011, offers information about the occurrence of disabilities among people 18 and older who received income-based government assistance. The information is based on data from the 2011 American Community Survey.

"On average, people with disabilities have lower employment and earnings; therefore, understanding what assistance people with disabilities receive may help governments better coordinate and administer their programs,” said Bernice Boursiquot, a Census Bureau statistician and co-author of the report.

People with a disability include those having vision, hearing, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care or independent living difficulties. Among recipients of public assistance, 18.2 percent had difficulty walking or climbing stairs, 14.6 percent had trouble leaving home to go shopping or visit the doctor without assistance, and 14.2 percent encountered trouble with memory, concentration, or making decisions.

Recipients received assistance in three forms: cash assistance (cash or money income), in-kind assistance (services, goods or vouchers) or both cash and in-kind assistance. Among people who received both cash and in-kind assistance, 58.3 percent had a disability. Among recipients of only cash assistance, 33.2 percent had a disability. Recipients of only in-kind benefits had the lowest disability rate at 22.6 percent.

This report also found that 22 states had disability rates above the national estimate of 30.4 percent among those receiving assistance. In comparison, 15 states had rates below the national estimate.

States west of the Appalachian Mountains had higher rates of disability among recipients of income-based assistance. In comparison, states in the Southwest and along the Eastern Seaboard had lower rates.

West Virginia, Kentucky and Arkansas were three of the top five states for disability prevalence in the total population, as well as in the total population receiving government assistance. In West Virginia, 26.8 percent of people with disabilities reported having ambulatory difficulty, defined as severe difficulties walking or climbing stairs.

Increased State Government Revenues and General Expenditures for 2011

Total state government revenue increased to $2.3 trillion in 2011, up 11.3 percent from $2.0 trillion in 2010, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Total state government revenue includes general revenues (mainly tax revenue), utility revenue, liquor store revenue and insurance trust revenue. General revenues were $1.7 trillion in 2011, a 5.7 percent increase from 2010. General expenditures by state governments rose 3.7 percent in 2011 to $1.7 trillion.

The findings are from the 2011 Annual Survey of State Government Finances, which shows revenues, expenditures, debt, and cash and security holdings for each state as well as a national summary of state government finances.

The increase in state government revenue in 2011 was mainly because of a $141.0 billion increase in social insurance trust revenue. Social insurance trust revenue includes employee retirement investments, which had gains in 2011. There was also an increase in tax revenue as government taxes collected in 2011 ($757.9 billion) grew 8.0 percent over 2010 ($701.7 billion) and accounted for 45.9 percent of general revenue.

Expenditures for education ($592.3 billion), public welfare ($496.8 billion) and health and hospitals ($125.7 billion) represented the top three expenditures in state government budgets.

State government budgets depend mostly on revenue from general sources: taxes, federal grants, service charges and other miscellaneous revenues. General revenues fund most state programs and in general comprise the bulk of state government revenue (72.9 percent in 2011).

Highlights of General Revenues

Social insurance trust systems showed revenues of $591.7 billion in 2011, a gain of 31.3 percent over the year before. Two major sources make up the state trust systems: state employee retirement systems and state social insurance trust systems including the unemployment compensation system, state government workers’ compensation programs and other insurance trust systems.

Individual income tax revenue ($259.1 billion) grew 9.8 percent in 2011 over 2010 ($236.0 billion). General sales taxes revenue grew 5.4 percent to $234.5 billion in 2011.

Federal grants increased 3.4 percent from 2010 to 2011 to $574.1 billion and accounted for 34.7 percent of general revenue. Federal grants for welfare programs comprised 57.9 percent of all federal grants received in 2011, increasing 5.3 percent to $332.6 billion.

Service charges (excluding those for utilities) collected rose by 6.6 percent from $169.9 billion in 2010 to $181.1 billion in 2011. Service charges accounted for 11.0 percent of general revenue.

Highlights of State Government Expenditures

State government spending on public welfare was greater than 30 percent of general expenditures in 14 states, led by Tennessee (39.0 percent), Rhode Island (37.5 percent) and Maine (36.3 percent). (See Table 1.)

Unemployment compensation spending was $121.4 billion in 2011; this represented a 10 percent decrease from 2010, when it was $134.9 billion. (See Figure 1.)

State government spending on education totaled more than 40 percent of general expenditures in 13 states, led by Georgia (46.6 percent), Indiana (45.5 percent) and Alabama (45.0 percent). The accompanying table shows general expenditures and education expenditures and their shares of total spending for each of the 50 states for 2011 and 2010. (See Table 2.)

The leading states in highway spending, measured as a percentage of general expenditures, were South Dakota (14.9 percent), North Dakota (14.2 percent) and Alaska (14.2 percent). (See Figure 2.)

The leading states in spending on public health and hospitals, measured as a percentage of general expenditures, were Hawaii (12.9 percent), Missouri (11.2 percent) and Connecticut (10.8 percent).

For the 43 states with lotteries, ticket sales totaled $54.7 billion in 2011, compared with $53.1 billion in 2010. Lottery prizes awarded totaled $33.8 billion in 2011 and lottery proceeds were $18.3 billion in 2011. The top three states in lottery ticket sales were New York ($7.0 billion), Massachusetts ($4.2 billion) and Florida ($3.8 billion). The same states also ranked highest in prizes awarded: New York ($4.0 billion), Massachusetts ($3.2 billion) and Florida ($2.5 billion).

Google Updates Transparency Report

From Google Official Blog:

We’re updating the Transparency Report with data about government requests from January to June 2012.

This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise. As you can see from the graph below, government demands for user data have increased steadily since we first launched the Transparency Report. In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.

Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive? It Depends on How You Measure the Price

Most Americans consume diets that do not meet Federal dietary recommendations. A common explanation is that healthier foods are more expensive than less healthy foods. To investigate this assumption, the authors compare prices of healthy and less healthy foods using three different price metrics ... For all metrics except the price of food energy [$/calorie], the authors find that healthy foods cost less than less healthy foods (defined for this study as foods that are high in saturated fat, added sugar, and/or sodium, or that contribute little to meeting dietary recommendations).

From the USDA

Governmental Tracking of Cell Phones and Vehicles: The Confluence of Privacy, Technology, and Law

This report [PDF] will briefly survey Fourth Amendment law as it pertains to the government's tracking programs. It will then summarize federal electronic surveillance statutes and the case law surrounding cell phone location tracking. Next, the report will describe the GPS-vehicle tracking cases and review the pending Supreme Court GPS tracking case, United States v. Jones. Finally, the report will summarize the geolocation and electronic surveillance legislation introduced in the 112th Congress.

Best and Worst Run States in America

For the second year, 24/7 Wall St. has reviewed data on financial health, standard of living and government services by state to determine how well each state is managed. Based on this data, 24/7 Wall St. ranked the 50 states from the best to worst run. The best-run state is Wyoming. The worst-run state is California.

Read more.

Want to guess where New York State ranks?

Consolidated Federal Funds Report

The Consolidated Federal Funds Report is proposed to reach its end run this year. This could well be the last report of this kind issued! Be a part of history, read it, and maybe print a copy and keep it for your records.

Find Government Forms Online

You can quickly find the federal form you need by searching or browsing by name, type, or agency. Find tax forms, postal service forms, and more.

Find government forms now.

Open Government Data Sites to Go Dark in May

Several of President Obama’s open government initiative data websites are scheduled to go dark in May due to lack of funding. Funding will run out on April 20 for IT Dashboard; Data.gov, which provides enhanced access to publicly available federal datasets; and Paymentaccuracy.gov, which tracks improper payments from government programs. Other open government public data sites scheduled to go dark after July 30 are USASpending.gov, which provides detailed information on federal contracts, and Apps.gov, a site that tracks how federal agencies use free web applications. More information about the proposed cuts is available here.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2009

"The ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report sheds light on the faces of modern-day slavery and on new facets of this global problem. The human trafficking phenomenon affects virtually every country, including the United States. In acknowledging America’s own struggle with modern-day slavery and slavery-related practices, we offer partnership. We call on every government to join us in working to build consensus and leverage resources to eliminate all forms of human trafficking."
–Secretary of State Clinton, June 16, 2009