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 "City regulators" ...
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Mortgage Meltdown: The Watchdogs Who Warned Us
"State, city, and local officials had warned of the coming subprime lending crisis since the late 1990s, but were thwarted by aggressive banking industry lobbying, sometimes with the support of federal bank regulators."
Tags: attorney; lawsuit; currency; mortgage; interest rate;
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Catering Expensive Taste
The Memphis City Schools' nutrition department was found to have little regulation over questionable spending, wasting food and providing employees and public officials free food for private events.
Tags: audit; taxpayer funds; school board; school district; cuisine; nutrition; meals;
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Toxic Traces Revisted
The first story in the series shows that the Minnesota Dept. of Health knew about the contaminated drinking water in the Twin Cities almost a year before releasing the information to the public. The second story reported that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency ignored the fact that perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in the soil near the 3M Company building were spilling into the Mississippi River and ground water. Last in the series, MPR News reported on how pressure from the public drove the investigation in regulating the flow of PFCs into the city's water.
Tags: contamination; Minneapolis; St. Paul; PFBA
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City Hall's Sway over Bridgeport Development
"Allegations that Mayor Richard Daley's friends controlled development in the mayor's native Bridgeport on Chicago's South Side have swirled below the surface for ears. The reporters pierced that veil of secrecy and provided a rare look into how the politically connected benefited from the city's building book at the expense of homeowners and taxpayers." The reporters looked into how insider dealing and lax regulations lead to poor construction jobs and how many people benefit from their personal connections in the Mayor's office.
Tags: city government; housing; development; construction; building permits
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Takings Initiatives Accountability Project: The Center for Public Integrity investigates ballot initiatives that would radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states
The [non-partisan]Center for Public Integrity investigated 2006 "ballot initiatives that were designed to radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states. They discovered that a trio of "secret donors" accounted for 99% of the propostions' bankrolls, and some of the initiatives did not comply with campaign-finance and other regulations. Then the Center revealed that 85 percent of the funding was coming from a single wealthy real estate investor and Libertarian activist, Howard RIch All but the Arizona inititative failed at the ballot. The Center for Public Integrity set up a stand-alone website-- www.takings initiatives.org-- and filed more than 50 articles on it. "Our general practice-- and a novel one as far as we can tell-- was to mount verbatim transcripts of the interviews on our website, including audio recordings where available. We sought to allow proponents, opponents funders and experts to have a chance to present their side of the story in their own words." The Center also checked with state and federal regulators for compliance of relevant laws and regulations.
Tags: Takings Initiatives; takings clause; ballot initiatives; land-use regulation; environmental regulation; tax-exempt organizations; Howard Rich; Andrea Millen Rich; Council for Responsible Government; William A. Wilson; state campaign-finance filings; public records requests; state freedom of information requests; America At Its Best; Americans for Limited Government; John Tillman; Howard Ahmanson; Fieldstead & Company; property rights; prefessional signature-gatherers; Colorado At Its Best; term limits; nonprofit advocacy organizations; Sam Adams Alliance; Sam Adams Foundation; Legislative Education Action Drive; Parents in Charge Foundation; Social Security Choice.org; Illinois Charitable Trust Bureau; educational vouchers; tuition tax credits; National Taxpayers Union; First Class Education; Susquehanna International Group; Jeffrey YAss; Cato Institute; Alliance for School Choice; Decision Education Foundation; Eric Brooks; Susan Mitchell; Pete Sepp; Kern Family Foundation; Generac Power Systems, Inc.; Milton Friedman; Taxpayer Bill of Rights; TABOR; Laird Maxwell; This House is MY Home; John Whitehead; Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Exoxemis, Inc.; Family Farm Preservation Pact; Citizens for Community Protection; Kelo v. City of New London; eminent domain; New York Millionaires Assistance Act; Wallace Global Fund; Nicholas C. Dranias; PRNewswire; Eric O'Keefe; getliberty.com; George Soros
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Private Security in a Post-9/11 World
As the focal point of a study of the private guard industry in New York state, WNYC looks at Tristar Patrol Services, "which had seen a dramatic expansion after the September 11 attack in NYC, getting more than $80 million in contract work with the City of New York." The company had more than a thousand employees, mostly young minority males, and they had the task of protecting all of the city's office space, infrastructure and Fire Department facilities. The investigation found that Tristar's owner, Gary Zimmer, had been convicted of assault and had to resign as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, yet attained the right to hold a security guard company license when a judge, believing the owner's misrepresentation of his criminal case, granted him an exemption from state law. In addition, there were other issues as Tristar "had been disqualified from doing state work for misrepresenting it had properly credentialed guards, but went on to win a multi-million dollar, multi-year City contract." The company failed to properly compensate guards, including not paying for vacation or advanced state security credentials, and Tristar also did not pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars it was required to pay the union representing the guards to cover union dues and health and welfare benefits required by the contract." But because of the New York Secretary of State's lack of investigators, regulations were not enforced. Also, there is no uniform requirement across the country for the training and qualifications for security guards and companies.
Tags: Private security; Sept. 11, 2001; Tristar Patrol Services; Gary Zimmer; New York City security
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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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Chemical Insecurity
60 Minutes learned that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had documents showing that 100 chemical facilities in this country stored enough toxic chemicals for each to put more than a million people at risk in the event of an accident or deliberate attack. The news team investigated what kind of security existed at "high-risk" facilities, talked to experts, present and former government officials and environmentalist groups to put this report together. The three month investigation looked at plants in highly populated cities like Los Angeles, New York, Houston and Chicago; and found that there are no federal regulations in place when it comes to security.
Tags: TAPE; chemical insecurity; bio terrorist; terrorist attack; chemical weapons; nuclear weapons; chemical plant; nuclear plant; WMD; toxic chemicals; deliberate attack; security; terrorism; anti-terrorism expert; risk management plan; Environmental Protection Agency; Clean Air Act; Chemical Safety Board; American Chemistry Council; chemistry; chlorine gas
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The Flip Side of Homeownership
According to the author, "A five-month investigation by The Record exposed serious loopholes in local, state and federal housing regulations that thwart the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's goal of neighborhood stabilization of the inner city. The stories document how lax regulations allowed a real estate partnership to buy more than 100 shoddy homes in New Jersey cities, make cosmetic repairs and sell them for 75 to 100 percent profit to first-time homebuyers with taxpayer backed mortgages. Due to this property-flipping scheme, many owners are forced to foreclose because of high repair costs. Because HUD guarantees the mortgages, the federal government ends up paying off the house."
Tags: federal housing; housing regulations; schemes; loopholes; state housing regulations; New Jersey; real estate; mortgages; taxpayers; federal government; HUD; Housing and Urban Development; cities; inner city
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Inside Edge: The Councilman and the Crooked Building Consultant
According to the article, "In a scheme that fit the dismal pattern of past scandals, prosecutors said city employees took free trips, meals, and tickets to sporting events from a corrupt, private buildings consultant who went unnamed in the indictments. In this case, the suspects went as high as the agency's well-liked number two executive, veteran bureaucrat Barry Cox."
Tags: building code regulations; building code violations; inspectors; Barry Cox; scandals; city employees; buildings consultant