Bell, California, is a working-class community of about 35,000 residents – and a textbook case for why U.S. democracy needs serious journalism to hold public officials accountable. For years, Bell’s city councilors awarded themselves exorbitant pay increases without transparency. They claimed stipends for serving on boards and commissions that seldom met. The city administrator took a salary of nearly $800,000, with benefits that brought his annual compensation to $1.5 million; and the police chief enjoyed an annual salary of $457,000 plus benefits, more than twice what the New York City Police Commissioner earned. Glaring corruption continued unimpeded – until 2010 when the Los Angeles Times blew the whistle in a well-researched expose. more...