The men who knew

Today’s debate over the use of antibiotics in food animals is hardly new. Nearly 40 years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tried — and failed — to restrict the use of these drugs in animal feeds on the farm. That battle of 1977 is critical to understanding why the agency has taken …

iFOIA’s new site features tracking

iFOIA acts as a cloud service in which journalists can store all of their records requests online, sorted by project. Federal agencies are required to respond to FOIA requests within 20 business days.

More money, fewer banks

Compared with Sept. 30, 2011, an analysis of quarterly banking results by the Investigative Reporting Workshop shows: Loans increased to $7.44 trillion, up 3.9 percent from $7.16 trillion. However, total lending remains below the peak of $7.85 trillion in the second quarter of 2008. Troubled assets (a combination of nonperforming loans and the value of …