Thursday reading: the best investigative reporting on the Web

By Margaux Stack-Babich and Bill Dedman

Today's reading from the world of investigative reporting.

Story of the day: The absence of 15 Muslim community leaders from New York Mayor Bloomberg's end-of-the-year interfaith breakfast went unaddressed by the mayor. But the reason for their absence was made plain in their letter to him, protesting his support of targeted NYPD surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods, a spying program revealed by a broader Associated Press investigation into NYPD intelligence operations after the terrorist attackes of Sept. 11, 2001. The probe has found "that the NYPD dispatched undercover officers into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program" and "subjected entire neighborhoods to surveillance and scrutiny, often because of the ethnicity of the residents, not because of any accusations of crimes." Hesham El-Meligy, one of the boycotters and an Egyptian immigrant, said simply, "I don't care about having breakfast, I care about the liberties that I came to this country for."

Today's links:

• Center for Public Integrity: 'Super PACs' spend $13 million on early primaries, Romney top beneficiary
• ABC News, The Blotter: Was Pakistani teen Tariq Khan killed by CIA drone a militant -- or innocent victim?
• The Daily Telegraph: Scandal of UK's national health 'production line' as readmissions soar: The number of national health patients who have to undergo emergency readmission to hospital within a month of being discharged has increased by more than three quarters in the last decade
• The Flint Journal: Michigan state-appointed emergency managers make six figures at local community's expense
• The Chicago Tribune: Window blind makers' safety plans too lax, critics say; consumer advocates, regulators want exposed cords eliminated to save children's lives
• The Boston Globe: State reports detail 11 patient deaths linked to alarm fatigue in Massachusetts
• The New York Times: Does buying organic still mean the best for our environment? Skyrocketing demand for year-round organic produce is straining and depleting resources and creating new source of carbon emissions
• ProPublica: How Democrats fooled California's redistricting commission
• PBS NewsHour: Health experts question Army report on psychological training; in the latest from NewsHour's investigation, mental health experts say a U.S. Army report on training aimed at enhancing soldiers' psychological resilience is flawed
• Center for Responsive Politics: A look at independent spending in the 2012 presidential race: who is funding for and against, and how much

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Margaux Stack-Babich writes about investigative reporting for msnbc.com. Bill Dedman is an investigative reporter for msnbc.com.