BP will pay a $50.6 million penalty and spend at least $500 million to upgrade its Texas City, Texas, refinery where a 2005 explosion killed 15 workers.

The record fine was negotiated after the U.S. Department of Labor last year found BP "failed to live up to several extremely important...

Fannie Mae executives bungled their stewardship of the federal government's massive foreclosure-prevention campaign, creating a bureaucratic muddle characterized by "mismanagement and gross waste of public funds," according to a whistleblower lawsuit by a former Fannie Mae executive and consultant.

Caroline Herron, a former Fannie vice president who returned to the...

By Chris Hamby and Elizabeth Lucas
The Center for Public Integrity

Tired of waiting for state regulators to take meaningful action, two environmental groups are preparing to file a lawsuit against the nation's largest oil refinery, accusing ExxonMobil Corp, of illegally releasing at least 5.9 million pounds...

By Josh Israel and Aaron Mehta
The Center for Public Integrity

Who has funded the ascent of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? A prominent trial lawyer, his graphic-designer wife, an IBM heiress turned healing-touch practitioner, a land developer, and a savings and loan magnate comprise...

By Josh Israel, Aaron Mehta, and Caitlin Ginley
The Center for Public Integrity

Long before Congressman John Boehner of Ohio rose to his current position as House Republican Leader, he created the "Thursday Group" -- a weekly discussion around a U.S. Capitol conference room table with conservative...

By Josh Israel, Aaron Mehta, and Caitlin Ginley
The Center for Public Integrity

Tobacco and whiskey have helped build Mitch McConnell's political career. Tobacco giants Altria Group Inc. and Reynolds American Inc. are two of Mitch McConnell's top five career campaign PAC contributors. And three of the...

By Josh Israel, Aaron Mehta, Caitlin Ginley, and Claritza Jimenez

A former professional gambler, a taxi company magnate, a telecommunications lobbyist, and a giant tobacco company are among the top lifetime givers to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, 70, of Nevada, who faces the toughest re-election race of his political...

The U.S. government has investigated potentially thousands of BP leaks, spills and other incidents but the information is stored in a Coast Guard database that keeps key details such as investigative findings and penalties out of the public's reach.

More than 8,000 incident reports about BP's U.S. spills, emissions, and...

Coast Guard officials grasped the potential threat of a catastrophic spill within hours of the explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, estimating that 8,000 barrels a day of crude oil could possibly gush out of the well in the event of a complete blowout, according to