Gulf rig operator responsible for spill had rising tally of accidents The Wall Street Journal
Since 2008, nearly three of every four incidents on deepwater drilling rigs that triggered federal safety investigations in the Gulf of Mexico have been on rigs operated by Transocean, according to The Wall Street Journal's analysis of federal data.

Internal Ford memos on Explorer rollovers reflect engineering concerns The Washington Post
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determined that tires were to blame for Ford Explorer rollovers in the 1990s. However, previously unreported internal memos reveal that Ford engineers identified potential dangers in Explorer suspensions and roof strength that could make the vehicles more dangerous during blowouts.

Drilling outpaced oil industry's safety efforts, despite federal studies and previous accidents The Miami Herald
Industry safeguards to prevent or minimize oil spills failed to keep pace with the dangers of deepwater drilling over the years, despite a series of malfunctions and warnings, federal studies and interviews show.

California state prison guards accused of mistreating prisoners The Sacramento Bee
An investigation into the behavior modification units at several state prisons in California uncovered widespread allegations of verbal and physical abuse, including denial of medical care, racial slurs, violence and destruction of protest appeals.

Virginia rarely investigates schools that break standardized testing rules The Virginian-Pilot
When schools break testing rules, the Virginia Department of Education can revoke a teacher's license, withhold the school's accreditation or seek fines in court. Last year, the state conducted four inquiries out of about 3,000 complaints -- and only two schools caught manipulating scores have ever lost accreditation.

Investigative reporters Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham appeared on Good Morning America today to discuss Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery, their expansion on The Washington Post's original 13-part examination of Chandra Levy's murder.

Here is the Good Morning America interview:

Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham also recently visited the area in Rock Creek Park where a man walking his dog found Levy's remains in 2002. The pre-trial hearing for Levy's murder begins Friday, May 14, in advance of Ingmar Guandique's October 4 trial.

Today, The Washington Post is excerpting our new book, Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery. The book is a year in the making and picks up where The Washington Post left off when the paper and website published a 13-part examination in July 2008 into the botched murder investigation of Chandra Levy.

When we first embarked on this project, we thought we knew a lot about the case. We were wrong. In our years of working as investigative reporters, we've never seen a story quite like it.

The story was the result of perfect storm during the summer of 2001--a young intern from California who went missing in Washington, a married congressman who had a relationship with her, an ambitious press corps hungry for a big story, and police and prosecutors who pursued the wrong man for months.

Nine years later, the Chandra Levy case endures as Washington's most famous recent murder mystery, and the book takes readers behind the investigation and into the darker side of Washington and its institutions of power and privilege.

Finding Chandra contains new details about the case and the individuals who came together with tragic consequence during the spring and summer of 2001. The book delves deeply into the lives of Chandra, the congressman and the man now accused of her murder, a 19-year-old Salvadoran immigrant named Ingmar Guandique. The book contains pages from a diary kept by one of Condit's girlfriends, and copies of FBI interviews with another young woman, who says she had a 3-year-long affair with the congressman and contemplated suicide because of her feelings of guilt.

Finding Chandra also details the hunt for the man now charged with the murder. The book describes how D.C. detectives newly assigned to the investigation put their case together with old-fashioned police work and a little luck. Less than two months after The Post published the 13-part series, the detectives interviewed Guandique in a federal prison, where he is serving a 10-year prison term for attacking two women at knife-point around the time of Chandra's disappearance. The detectives bluffed Guandique into saying that he had "touched" Chandra, and they noticed that he had a tattoo on his chest of a naked woman with long dark hair. They asked him if the tattoo was some sort of a "souvenir" of the murder. Guandique smirked, then giggled, but he didn't say a word, according to the detectives.

Today's excerpt takes readers into the world of a woman who was attacked by Guandique, but got away. Halle Shilling was jogging in Rock Creek Park two weeks after Chandra disappearance when Guandique jumped her from behind and put a knife to her throat. Shilling had taken a self-defense course and fought her way to her feet and ran away. D.C. detectives searching for Chandra's killer didn't interview Shilling until a few months after The Post published its series.

Reflecting on those few minutes along the jogging trail in Rock Creek Park is never easy for Shilling. We interviewed her in Dupont Circle hours after she reenacted the attack for D.C. detectives and prosecutors on Dec. 14, 2008. Sitting at a table in a bookstore, she opened her purse and pulled out a picture of her children, born after the attack, and said she knows she is a mother today only because she was able to fend off Guandique.

In these moments, she said she thinks of Chandra, and what might have become of her life, her possibility of a husband and children. After she put the photos in her purse, she looked up and said, "I was her."

-- Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz

Former Vice President Dick Cheney told a special prosecutor in 2004 that he could not remember playing any role in leaking the identity of Valerie Plame as a clandestine CIA officer, according to FBI records released under court order (PDF) today.

After years of legal maneuvering to keep the documents secret, they were made public late today under a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. That organization provided the FBI notes to The Washington Post. Portions of the three documents, totaling 67 pages, were redacted on grounds of national security, privacy or privileged presidential communications.

Outline and Notes from the Cheney Interview (PDF)

Second document from Cheney interview (PDF)

Third document from Cheney interview (PDF)

In his May 8, 2004 interview with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, Cheney said he could not recall when he learned that Plame, the wife of Iraq war critic Joe Wilson, worked for the CIA; could not recall telling his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, about Plame's employment; and could not recall telling Libby to disclose the news to reporters.

Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying under oath about his conversations with reporters. Cheney's role remained a central mystery. In sworn grand jury statements, Libby said "it was possible" that Cheney asked him to leak Plame's identity to reporters, "but I don't recall it happening."

FBI notes of Cheney's May 8, 2004 interview, which have not been made public before, do little to clear up the unanswered questions that, according to Fitzgerald, left "a cloud over the vice president" in one of the most embarrassing episodes of the presidency of George W. Bush.

--Barton Gellman

The Department of Justice late Monday released thousands of pages of additional documents related to the CIA's detention and interrogation program, including correspondence involving senior Bush administration lawyers, Justice Department memoranda, and other documents. One example: the PDF file titled New Amnesty v. CIA includes, at pages 25 - 43, a step-by-step summary of how detention and interrogation procedures were employed. We invite your scrutiny of these records and your comments.

OLC Letter to John Rizzo (PDF) (July 13, 2002)

OLC Memo for Michael Chertoff on Patriot Act (PDF) (Aug. 6, 2002)

OLC Memo on Use of Military Force in Iraq (PDF) (Oct. 21, 2002)

OLC Memo to Inspector General on FBI Bulletins (PDF) (April 5, 2004)

OLC Letter to Scott Muller on IG Report (PDF) (May 27, 2004)

OLC Letter to Scott Muller on Interrogation Techniques (PDF) (July 7, 2004)

Attorney General Letter to John Mclaughlin on Interrogation Techniques (PDF) (July 22, 2004)

OLC Letter to John Rizzo on Waterboarding (PDF) (Aug. 6, 2004)

OLC Letter to John Rizzo on Specific Interrogation Techniques (PDF) (Aug. 26, 2004)

OLC Letter to John Rizzo on Specific Interrogation Techniques (PDF) (Sept. 6, 2004)

OLC Letter to John Rizzo on Specific Interrogation Techniques (PDF) (Sept. 20, 2004)

OLC Memo to John Rizzo on Detainee Treatment Act (PDF) (Aug. 31, 2006)

OLC Letter to John Rizzo on Conditions of Confinement (PDF) (Aug, 31, 2006)

OLC Letter to John Rizzo on War Crimes Act (PDF) (July 7, 2007)

OLC Memo by Steven Bradbury (PDF) (Aug. 23, 2007)

OLC Memo by Steven Bradbury (PDF) (Nov. 6, 2007)

OLC Memo by Steven Bradbury (PDF) (Nov. 7, 2007)

Memo by Barron on OLC Opinion (PDF) (June 11, 2009)

Memo by Barron on OLC Opinion (PDF) (April 15, 2009)

OLC Letter to John Helgerson (PDF) (June 14, 2004)

Dept. of Defense and Inspector General Questionnaire Regarding Detainees (PDF)

ACLU vs. Dept. of Defense, Criminal Division (PDF)

Bronte v. Dept. of Defense (PDF)

CIA, Inspector General Release (PDF)

Rayner Document (PDF) (Aug. 24, 2009)

ACLU vs. CIA Discretionary, Combined(PDF)

ACLU v. Dept. of Defense, OLC Combined(PDF)

Amnesty v. CIA (see p. 25-44) (PDF)

Amnesty v. State (PDF)

The Justice Department released a raft of documents yesterday related to the Bush-era CIA's interrogation program as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that he had asked a prosecutor to investigate possible abuses by the agency interrogators. At the same time, the White House announced steps to form a new interrogation unit under the aegis of FBI.

In addition, the ACLU received several other documents late yesterday as a response to its Freedom of Information suit: Office of Legal Counsel Documents and Memos from 2002-2005 and 2006-2007.

Here are a few reactions from the blogosphere to the documents and Obama administration's actions.