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 "CAPS" ...
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A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea
The book tells how the government and BP responded to an emergency unlike anything encountered before in the history of petroleum engineering: a blowout in imle-deep water. The book chronicles the 87-day effort to cap the Macondo well after the explosion on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon.
Tags: Deepwater Horizon; BP; oil rig; drilling; Macondo well
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"Big payout, little oversight at NEIU"
After receiving a tip from a member of the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit (NEIU) board, reporter Sarah Hofius Hall began investigating the retirement of Fred Rosetti, former executive director of the NEIU. She revealed that the board "blindly and quietly" removed caps on accrued vacation and sick days, which meant Rosetti would have received slightly more than half a million dollars in payouts upon retirement.
Tags: NEIU; payouts; right-to-know request; Abington Heights; Alvin Hollister; vacation days; sick leave; Italy
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"Carbonomics"
The key elements lawmakers intend to use against global warming are "carbon offsets" of the "cap-and-trade" legislation. The investigation reveals these offsets have created a "loophole" and could potentially "undermine the entire effort to solve the climate crisis." The current United Nations-run program is "greatly flawed," and there are "scientific uncertainties" about the effectiveness of the "pollution reductions."
Tags: carbon offsets; cap-and-trade; carbon dioxide; global warming; Center for American Progress;
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Blackwater Blood Money & Other Scandals
ABCNews.com's "The Blotter" has tracked the operations of one of the most controversial private security companies operating in Iraq, Blackwater. ABC news focused on the investigation following a deadly shooting in Baghdad that left 17 civilians dead. Reporters in the U.S. and in Baghdad followed the investigation by developing relationships with the victims of the shooting and their families, obtaining exclusive documents and developing knowledgeable sources inside the State Department. The team began their investigation by looking behind-the-scenes at Blackwater's effort in Iraq to make compensation settlements with the survivors and victims' families and capped with reporting that one of the Blackwater guards involved in t he shooting signed a secret plea deal to testify against his five indicted co-workers. In the course or reporting, ABC news also uncovered numerous other unreported controversies surrounding Blackwater's operations. Despite being accused of improper use of force, arms trafficking and overbilling, the State Department renewed Blackwater's $1.2 billion contract earlier this year.
Tags: Iraq War; Blackwater; contracting; arms trafficking; improper use of force; U.S. State Department
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The Secret University
Lu Hardin, popular president of the University of Central Arkansas , received a $3000,000 bonus, approved in secret by the college's board of trustees - a violation of Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act. Trustees told the reporter that the bonus came from private funds, but she discovered that the board had used public funds in violations of rules capping the amount of public funds that can be used for college presidents' salaries.
Tags: university fraud; sweetheart deals; improper use of funds; Lu Hardin; University of Central Arkansas; bonus; salaries;
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Meadowlands for Sale
"The stories examined how a $1-billion plan to clean up and reclaim a large swath of the Meadowlands -- New Jersey's infamous toxic swamps and trash dumps -- lead to an environmental disaster underwritten by the state's taxpayers." The reporters found that the plan was plagued with corruption. For example, the developers who were supposed to be cleaning the area made $30 million by opening it up to dumpers. The Meadowlands site is now more polluted than when the project began.
Tags: development; developers; EnCap; toxic waste; garbage; environment; EPA; state government
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OHSU: Shielded by the Law
KATU examines the tort liability cap grated to Oregon Health and Science University, "one of the largest hospitals in Oregon." The cap "limits all malpractices awards to $200,000," which results in malpractice attorneys not taking on cases against the hospital.
Tags: health care; patients; malpractice; law; lawyer; torts; liability; medical malpractice; doctors; hospitals; Oregon; Oregon Health and Science University
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Serious Interest
Karen Spiller investigated short-term payday loans in New Hampshire, the only New England state that doesn't cap interest rates and thus allows them to sometimes soar as high as 500 percent.
Tags: short-term loans; payday loans; Advance America; interest rates; Check 'n Go; money
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Misuse of Tax Caps
The reporters' investigation focused on the community approval of local tax-rates without realizing that under a loop-hole in a tax cap law passed previously by the Illinois State legislature, public departments who knew about the loop-hole were able to collect a much higher sum of taxes than the constituents thought they were approving.
Tags: tax rates; loop-hole; tax law; financial consultants; school districts; property tax; district budgets; FOIA
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A Death in McAllen
This investigation by the Texas Observer looks into nursing home abuse and state legislation protecting owners from non-economic damages in civil suits. What they found was a 2003 Texas law placed a $250,000 cap on damages, heavily lobbied by nursing home companies, directly affected the number of nursing home inspections and leaves little punishment for nursing homes who abuse, or even kill, their patients. The story also tells the tale of Noe Martinez Jr., a patient who died in McAllen Nursing Center due to gross negligence in July 2004. The state only fined the center $1,300 for his death. Because caring for Medicaid patients like Martinez costs nursing homes up to $1,800 per year, the center more than likely saved money because of his death.
Tags: abuse; elderly; McAllen Nursing Center; civil lawsuits; lobbying; CAR; politics; negligence; non-economic damage caps; health care