The investigative website ProPublica and the Washington Post are jointly reporting the industrial giant GE has become a major beneficiary of the taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout while avoiding many of the attendant restrictions imposed on participating firms. GE’s financial arm initially failed to qualify for the bailout, but ended up taking part after regulators eased eligibility rules. Assistance to GE so far accounts for nearly a quarter of the $340 billion in debt secured by the government bailout.