The Suffolk County Police Department settled with seven officers, all of whom they should have fired immediately.
El Paso Schools bought school smartboards, and servers to run them, for $3.1 million, and no one knew what to do with them.
In 2012 the US military actually spent over a million dollars researching how to create beef jerky at a low price.
ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) handed a contract to run its largest detention center to a "firm" of 39 working out of a house.
A school superintendent, asked to resign before his first day after doubts surfaced about his competency, still got paid for a full year.
Six full-time county employees racked up travel and other expenses totalling close to $240,000, with very poor oversight.
A study of 38 American cities show weak or even negative correlation between big spending and policy success.
The Department of Justice has unspent money for anti-violence grants, at least $77.5 million worth, sitting idle from bureaucratic failure.
Medicaid has provided vast questionable reimbursements to health care providers who turn out to be delinquent on their taxes.
A town manager became the most highly paid public employee in his town's history, and all of it through criminal embezzlement.