The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Advisers" ...
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Bad to the Bone
When four executives of a medical-device company called Synthes went to jail for illegally marketing a bone cement—five patients had died after it was injected into their spines—Mina Kimes knew there had to be a compelling saga behind a case that had generated little coverage beyond local news articles. So she began digging, first with FOIA requests for never-before-published government documents, and then assembling hundreds of pages of court transcripts and internal company e-mails and reports. She used that foundation to begin the harder challenge: persuading Synthes employees, many of them terrified by the criminal case and the company’s intimidating chairman, to talk to her. With six months of grueling, old-fashioned reporting, Kimes succeeded, and “Bad to the Bone” is the masterful result. Not only did she persuade more than 20 current and former company employees to speak, but she also revealed a story whose disturbing breadth far exceeded the case presented in court. Her tour de force reporting raises profound new questions about the culpability of a key figure who wasn’t charged: Hansjörg Wyss, the reclusive and controlling Swiss founder and chairman—one of the richest people in the world—who made crucial decisions about how to sell the bone cement. This is a classic tale of corporate malfeasance: Warned by the government not to sell its bone cement for use in the spine, Synthes ignored the admonition despite clear evidence of lethal danger—a pig had died within seconds when the cement was tested on it—and encouraged surgeons to use the cement on people, five of whom died soon afterward. But “Bad to the Bone” isn’t just an exposé. It opens a window into a broader issue: how the medical system actually runs. Readers see how salespeople with no medical training advise surgeons—inside the OR during operations—on how to use their devices. They experience the tale of one surgeon who continues using the cement even after two of his patients died. Oh, and what sort of justice does Synthes itself receive? Wyss sells it, for $20 billion, to health care giant Johnson & Johnson, which praises Synthes’s “culture” and “values.” Corporate crime. Death on the operating room table. Secret e-mails. Surgeons on the edge. An imperious multibillionaire CEO. It’s a mesmerizing article, and Kimes’s reporting takes readers on a deeply unsettling journey that ensures they’ll never look at the medical system the same way again.
Tags: Medical devices; bone cement; Synthes
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KSHB: Questionable Contracts
A 41 Action News investigation scrutinized the bidding process for a $32 million energy project with Kansas City Public Schools. The investigation revealed that a businessman who acted an unpaid adviser early in the process eventually founded his own company and won the lucrative contract. The reporting lead to a resignation by a high-ranking district leader and a canceled contract. The ongoing investigation later examined other contracts and discovered a district facilities manager had helped award millions of dollars of work to a company with whom he had a personal relationship. That part of the investigation showed the district did not have a conflict of interest policy in place for district employees.
Tags: broadcast; public schools; personal relationship; corruption; bidding process
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Shades of Mercy: Presidential Pardons
Reporters obtained exclusive access to thousands of internal documents and conducted scores of interviews with pardon applicants, Justice Department, and top legal advisers to every president since Ronald Reagan. What the documents showed were repeated instances in which white applicants with serious criminal records received pardons, while minority applicants who committed lesser crimes were rejected.
Tags: presidential pardons; justice department; pardon; race; discrimination
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Investor's Club
The story shows that the University of California had invested $2 billion into private equity funds and companies with policy making Regents that held substantial conflicts of interest. The Regents include California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his personal investment adviser, and the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Tags: Regents; conflict of interest; University of California; investment; Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Investor's Club
The eight-month investigation found that the University of California invested $2 billion in private equity funds and companies in which several Regents held significant financial interests. The Regents include Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his personal investment adviser, Paul Wachter, and Richard C. Blum, a Wall Street professional married to Senate Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
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"Allegations of Enrollment Abuses at U. of Phoenix"
In this series, Marketplace and ProPublica team up to investigate accusations that The University of Phoenix has been lying to potential students, as well as improperly advising students on financial aid options. They found enrollment counselors frequently pressured students to sign up, and also lied to students about "whether their credits" were transferable.
Tags: University of Phoenix; Bill Pepicello; Congressman George Miller; American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers; Barmak Nassirian; Career College Association; Department of Education; Harris Miller; The Apollo Group
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Risky Business
The investigation revealed “how a school district’s use of risky “swaps” - derivatives that are bets on interest rate swings - caused huge losses and higher taxes for the district”. These “swaps”, given by financial advisors and investment banks, brought in millions of fees for them and left the school district in debt. Further, the school and adviser failed to terminate two swaps, which cost taxpayers millions more.
Tags: Bethlehem Area School District; education; tax system; finances; board; administration; Stanley J Majewski; Joseph Lewis
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Questionable Advisors, ethical gaps dog Detroit's public pensions
The investigation “focused on the advisers to Detroit’s public pension plans and their investments.” The findings revealed: advisers failed to display the problems with the businessmen who pitched investments, trustees didn’t follow their rules and had zero travel policies, and the fund invested a large amount of money in real estate.
Tags: Advisers; Public pension; Investments; Economy; General Retirement System; Trustees; Stock Market; Ethics
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A Political Crime Spree
Reporters worked for years to expose the corruption within the administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who rode into office on promises of reform and transparency. Tribune stories unraveled the complex inner workings of the governor and his closest advisers, showing how they rewarded friends and political contributors with state work, how people who did business with the governor's wife got benefits from state government and how politics infiltrated law enforcement and regulatory agencies. These stories helped lay the foundation for a massive federal investigation that eventually led to the governor's arrest.
Tags: Blagojevich; government investigation; FOIA; search warrants; fraud; ethics legislation; Chicago governor arrested; shoe-leather reporting; administrative cover up;
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The Forgotten
This story is an inside look at the systematic warehousing of more than 17,000 adults and children in Serbia's mental institutions. Dateline NBC gained unprecedented access to remote, government-run facilities and found alarming and sometimes life-threatening conditions. The institutions are remnants of Serbia's communist past and symbols of a deeply ingrained prejudice against the mentally disabled and their families. Serbia's medical establishment continues to advise parents to put their mentally disabled newborns into institutions, and the government provides virtually no support for those who choose not to. In mental institutions throughout Serbia, Dateline found adults and children crammed into fetid rooms and metal cribs, their bodies emaciated, atrophied and disfigured. Some residents appeared to be children but they were actually young adults whose growth had been stunted by years of institutionalization. One of our most disturbing discoveries came while staying overnight in a dangerously overcrowded institution. There we learned that children are routinely tied to their bed railings for long periods of time - a practice that one disability rights organization says meets the legal definition of torture under international law.
Tags: mental health; Serbia; child abuse; patient abuse; patient rights; mental institutions