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 "Barnett" ...
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"A Toxin in the Air"
Toxic emissions have been found near natural gas facilities in the Barnett Shale in Texas, an area that spreads out over 15 counties. Originally, the emission were believed to be non-harmful, but recent testing reveals "high level of benzene, a cancer-causing toxin." WFAA also reveals a major "lack of oversight" of "drilling in the Barnett Shale."
Tags: Barnett Shale; Fort Worth; environmental agency; benzene; natural gas; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality; TCEQ; North Central Texas Communities Alliance; Al Armendariz
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Sacrificed to Shale
A small town, Dish, TX, which is surrounded by gas well compressor stations and wells. Recently, there was an air study done, which revealed several poisons being released by the gas wells well above EPA regulations. Further, these chemicals in the air “were discovered to possibly be responsible for animals and trees dying in the area”.
Tags: air conditions; environment; toxic; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Denton County; Barnett Shale; residents
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Jefferson County (Ala.) Sewer Bonds: Penetrating the Fog of Municipal Debt
Until early 2008, no one paid attention to Jefferson County sewer debt. That is when auction-rate-security auctions began to fail and two municipal bond insurers for county bonds were downgraded. Soon, the most populous county in Alabama faced the threat of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Tags: bond; municipal; auction; insurer; Alabama; sewer; county; bankruptcy; debt
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Absolute Convictions: My Father, a City, and the Conflict that Divided America
Reporter Eyall Press grew up with this story-- his father, Shalom Press, was a colleague of Dr. Barnett Slepian, the abortion provider who was murdered in Buffalo NY in 1988. Press used "newspaper articles, books, municipal reports, medical journals...videotapes, newslertters, journals, and court records" to document the abortion wars centered in western New York. His main sources were several hundred interviews with the participants in the conflict, including those with pro-life activists, some of whom had "spent years protesting outside my father's medical office in Buffalo, and, at times, outside the home where I grew up." (292 pages)
Tags: James C. Kopp; Army of God; Spring of Life; New York Christian Coalition; Operation Rescue; Paul Schenck; Project Rescue; Pro-life Alliance for Non-Violence; Pro-choice; Roe v. Wade
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Unnecessary epidemic
This extensive investigation showed that Congress and the Drug Enforcement Administration could have stopped methamphetamine growth across the West during the 1990s and still can. The newspaper explained how the drug is able to be controlled because it relies on chemical ingredients produced by only a handful of factories worldwide. Two clampdowns on the legal trade of the chemicals caused meth shortages, prompting users to quit and meth-related property crime to fall. But the drug trade survived because of loopholes and lax enforcement. The scope of this story includes examinations of DEA drug seizures, DEA-registered sellers of the drug, ephedrine drug shipments, ephedrine seizures, congressional records, the federal budget, federal audits, property tax records, patents, academic studies and public policy.
Tags: drugs; meth; methamphetamine; Drug Enforcement Agency; DEA; drug control policy
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Parking Tickets Unpaid
Motorists in Birmingham have gone years without paying traffic tickets. As this investigation finds out, people in the city owe over 12 million dollars for parking and traffic tickets dated back to 1989. As a result of this published article, the city is considering implementing an amnesty program to get motorists to pay up.
Tags: motorists; traffic tickets; parking tickets; amnesty program; Birmingham; Alabama; unpaid traffic tickets; traffic regulations
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Home Sick
Reporters at the Florida Trend magazine examine a 30-year-old contract law which protects subcontractors from getting stuck with the bills of bankrupt contractors. The state law, called the Construction Lein Law, puts any building costs not paid by the general contractor into the hands of the homeowners, regardless of if they have already paid the contractor. This law has caused a number of problems among consumers because of lax state regulation of homebuilders, and the ability to easily rip off consumers.
Tags: Construction Lien Law; subcontractors; homebuilding contractors
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Big Money on Campus: How Taxpayers are Getting Scammed by Student Loans
This story details how private lenders lure schools out of the federal government's cost - effective direct loan program and into exclusive contracts in the more expensive bank - based Federal Family Education Loan Program. Private lenders use questionable tactics that border on bribery to convince schools that they should switch programs. 62 colleges have entered this program since 2000, at a cost of roughly $250 million to the Treasury.
Tags: Sallie Mae
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Road Racket
The story explains how some Florida contractors [involved in highway construction] "have used the claims process to re-engineer the low-bid system" because "they underbid to get the job and then try to make their profits with supplemental claims and lawsuits." From 1995 to 2000, Florida road builders demanded more than $185 million in claims from the State's Department of Transportation. Anderson Columbia Co. and White Construction were two of the companies that accounted for most lawsuits filed from 1995 to 2000 (18 percent and 13 percent), respectively.
Tags: Anderson Columbia Co.; White Construction; JB Coxwell Contracting; Florida Department of Transportation; Florida Transportation Builders Association; Pensacola; Tallahassee; Dispute Resolution Board; Florida Legislature
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Standard Practice?
Florida Trend magazine found that one of the state's largest road contractors, White Construction, illegally dumped the waste from construction projects into pits that did not meet strict state standards as to where construction waste could be dumped. The story looks at how much construction waste is produced and where most of it goes, both legally and otherwise.
Tags: construction; waste; dumping; illegal; environment; contractors