California Watch debuts

The first story from California Watch lands today, the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and uses public records to evaluate how California's cities and counties spent the $1.9 billion in Homeland Security funds awarded to make them safer:

Under the state’s open-records laws, California Watch found scores of instances of wasteful spending, purchasing violations, error-prone accounting and shoddy oversight at agencies across the state during the years immediately following 9/11.

The complete article is here.

California Watch was started by the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting.