Reuters Investigates

WikiLeaks, OpenLeaks, GreenLeaks and more leaks

A Reuters exclusive details the emergence of two anti-corporate, WikiLeaks-style websites in Europe, both called GreenLeaks. The sites promise to leak confidential documents regarding environmental abuses by a host of industries.

The report by Mark Hosenball also reveals the rise of other possible WikiLeaks copycats that would focus on specialized topics or regions — from Russia and the European Union bureaucracy to international trade, the pharmaceutical industry and the Balkans.

The two rival GreenLeaks sites were set up by Mads Bjerg (left) in Copenhagen (greenleaks.org) and Scott Millwood (below) in Berlin (greenleaks.com) — and neither is happy about the competition.

Over lunch in a Berlin sushi bar, Millwood told Reuters his group acquired the domain name GreenLeaks in 36 countries where it also has registered GreenLeaks internet addresses under the “.com” and “.biz” designators. Millwood said he also has applied to the European Union to register “GreenLeaks” as a trademark, but recently learned that Bjerg’s Denmark-based group had made a similar move within days of Millwood making his own application.

Millwood acknowledged that there was “one inactive domain name that we don’t own” –  Bjerg’s URL, “GreenLeaks.org.” By the same token he said, one of the URLs Millwood says he registered himself is “GreenLeaks.dk” — a domain name specifically related to Denmark. Millwood acknowledged the rivalry between the two groups could escalate into a “legal dispute.” 

The most closely watched rollout in the leak-hosting world was the launch on Thursday of OpenLeaks.org, a site whose principal creator, German transparency activist Daniel Domscheit-Berg, was once Julian Assange’s closest collaborator on WikiLeaks.

In Gatsby country, tea and red ink

Located just east of New York City and the setting for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby,” Nassau County makes an unexpected backdrop for a fiscal crisis. It is one of America’s wealthiest counties and, according to Forbes, it has the highest concentration of affluent neighborhoods in the United States.

But on Wednesday, New York state took control of Nassau’s finances, dealing a huge blow to Tea Party Republican County Executive Edward Mangano and a black eye for the Tea Party, the grassroots movement built around the core principles of constitutionally limited government, free-market ideology and low taxes. The county, which has vowed to battle the takeover in court, must now come up with a new budget.

In some ways, the county’s predicament remains highly unusual. It has for years been plagued by overspending and the state created a fiscal overseer in 2000 to help shore up its finances. But in other ways, Nassau’s dilemma is familiar to struggling municipalities across the country: how to arrive at a balanced budget when anti-tax fervor sweeps the country and sales tax revenues are still well below their pre-recession levels.  

Edith Honan and Kristina Cooke went to the “Gold Coast” to investigate for a Reuters special report: “A Long Island tax cut backfires on the Tea Party.”

See a multimedia PDF version of the story here.

A peek inside our layer

We stepped into the new new Media Universe for our report on Augmented Reality, creating our own app which will alert anyone using it (iPhone or Android-phones only so far) when they are near one of the new movers and shakers of the business. It wasn’t so hard — you can see how we did it here.

But for anyone who just wants an overview, here’s the contents of the layer we made and published through Hoppala (on a Firefox browser) and AR browser firm Layar. It’s our take on the movers and shakers in the AR industry, mainly linking to Twitter feeds, and Tarmo Virki is happy to learn of any updates. These entries are unadorned:

Company: Int13 What it does: mobile gaming firm ARDefender game for iPhone, bada  Weblink: http://twitter.com/#!/Int13

Parrot creator of AR.Drone plastic and foam-made helicopter controlled by iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/ar-games

Forrester research firm sees AR as disruptive technology http://twitter.com/#!/Forrester%20Research

Total Immersion founded 1999, an AR pioneer makes AR apps for many industries strategic alliance with Adobe http://twitter.com/#!/totalimmersion

Hoppala AR technology provider makes easy-to-use Layar tools

Boeing’s extreme outsourcing

Today’s special report from Kyle Peterson takes an in-depth look at the development of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. Boeing went further than ever before in outsourcing much of the work on the plane, upsetting its unionized workers in the Seattle area. This graphic shows why.

So what’s the result?

A revolutionary, light-weight aircraft that is nearly three years behind its delivery schedule.

With almost 850 orders for the plane — a record for a Boeing commercial plane at this stage in development — airline customers have high hopes that the company will meet its new third-quarter delivery target.

Meanwhile, Boeing’s labor unions complain of a lack of job opportunity at the company and a loss of the “tribal knowledge” mechanics, engineers and laborers have accumulated in the Puget Sound region, which is where Boeing assembles its commercial planes.

This special report examines Boeing’s approach to outsourcing and asks if there are limits to the jobs that can be shipped to outside suppliers. For other U.S. manufacturers tempted to follow Boeing’s example, there may be lessons they can learn.

Vietnam’s Capitalist Roaders

A woman dressed in the traditional Vietnamese “ao dai”costume serves tea to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (front R) during the opening ceremony of the 11th Party Congress in Hanoi January 12, 2011

Vietnam’s ruling communists  opened an eight-day party congress on Wednesday with a candid  admission the fast-growing economy had become unstable, as  delegates began the process of reshuffling leaders and  charting new policies.     As leaders sang the national anthem to begin the  five-yearly event, streets in the chilly capital Hanoi were  festooned with red and yellow banners, some bearing the iconic  hammer and sickle. Propaganda posters bore the smiling  likeness of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh or of proud,  uniformed workers.     The economic backdrop is less festive. Inflation surged to  a 22-month high in December, the government is struggling to  bring down a hefty fiscal deficit, the currency has been  depreciating for three years and the trade deficit remains  stubbornly high.  

A Reuters Special Report takes a close look at Vietnam’s new breed of captitalists, as the country of 90 million takes a page out of China’s Communist Party playbook and promotes a more consumption-led economy. This is a development path divergent from that of its East Asian neighbours, whose economies became Tigers or Dragons (as the case may be) on the back of exports not consumers.

In contrast to most emerging markets, Vietnam has been a sell — up until recently, anyway. The Vietnam stock index is down 59 percent from its March 2007 peak and lost more than 3 percent last year, compared to gains of more than 40 percent in Thailand and Indonesia.

But the situation could reverse this year. The lone ETF tracking the country, Market Vectors Vietnam, has gained 10 percent over the past three months, handily outpacing the iShares NSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund.  

Somebody’s been making money on Ford

Here’s a line from our special report on Ford from Detroit today, by Bernie Woodall and Kevin Krolicki, who spent some quality time with Bill Ford earlier this week.

A $100,000 investment in the company’s stock at the bottom in late 2008 — when its cross-town rivals GM and Chrysler were nearing government bailouts — would be worth $1.8 million today.

For more graphics and a full multimedia version of the story, click here.

Congratulations to Murray Waas

Murray Waas is picking up the prestigious Barlett & Steele award today in Phoenix for his special report on health insurers dropping patients after they were diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Reynolds Center is holding a panel discussion with Murray and silver medal winner John Fauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which will be streamed live here.

Murray’s four-month investigation, supported by additional reporting from Lewis Krauskopf,  revealed that a giant health insurer had targeted policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer for aggressive investigations and canceled some policies. An exhaustive study of records, hearings and federal data, as well as dozens of interviews with experts, officials and patients led to the story, which was edited by Jim Impoco and Doina Chiacu.

We published the story in April and the reaction was swift. The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats urged insurers to end the policy known as rescission immediately — five months before the new healthcare law would require it to do so.

Within days, Wellpoint announced it would stop dropping coverage for all customers after they get sick. The very next day, UnitedHealth Group followed suit, as would most of the health insurance industry in the following days.

Congratulations to Murray.

Solar energy vs wildlife

Sarah McBride reports on brewing battles between environmentalists in her special report: “With solar power, it’s Green vs. Green.”

It turns out the perfect place to build a big solar plant is often also the perfect place for a tortoise or a fox to live. This means developers of large-scale solar plants are running into legal challenges from people who one would expect to be natural allies of alternative energy providers.

Here’s a map of some of the more contentious projects.

One local resident of the Panoche Valley, Sallie Calhoun, had this to say:

“I am passionate about preserving open space,” she says, adding she believes the solar plant achieves that goal. “The idea that we’re going to protect every lizard, every drainage, seems counterproductive.”

Let’s be ethical, economists say

Last month’s special report “For some professors, disclosure is academic” has been making waves in the academic world, as this story shows:

Economists urge AEA to adopt ethics code: letter

By Kristina Cooke

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Almost three hundred economists have signed a letter to the American Economic Association “strongly” urging it to adopt a code of ethics requiring disclosure of potential conflicts of interests.

The 135-year-old American Economic Association, or AEA, does not have a code of conduct for its approximately 18,000 members. Over half of its members are academics, according to its website.

“We strongly urge that the AEA create and then promote adherence to a professional code of ethics that at a minimum requires transparency with respect to potential conflicts of interest,” Gerald Epstein and Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth of the University of Massachussetts, Amherst wrote in a letter sent Monday to the AEA.

“We believe this would be an important and necessary step toward enhancing the credibility and integrity of the profession,” they wrote.

Jerry Brown is back

The new year brings a new set of politicians into office, including California Governor Jerry Brown. As Nichola Groom reports, he has his work cut out for him.

As this graphic shows, politicians are in low regard and pessimism is high in the Golden State.

Here’s another graphic showing how California’s public spending compares with the national average.

To read the special report “California or bust” in multimedia PDF format, click here.