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 "Court Administration" ...
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The Jobs Game
"This series of articles by the AP showed that, despite his 2002 election on a "reform and renewal" platform in which he pledged to "end business as usual," Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration continued some of the old-style practices of patronage- and might have violated the law in the process."
Tags: patronage; bribe; republican party; rutan; supreme court; department of central management
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Jury Not Of Their Peers
The reporters investigated the lack of Black participants in the judicial process, from being disproportionately under-represented on juries to a startling lack of Black prosecutors, defenders and judges.
Tags: Department of Justice; DOJ; courts; jury service; lawyers; judges; racial representation; legal system; disproportionate representation; Blacks; African-American communities; Administrative Office of the Courts; racism
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Violators: How they stack up
A Dayton Daily News computer analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration Records shows that from 1972 to 1990, Sparrows Point, a steel corporation, was inspected and cited 26 times in workers' deaths or serious-injury accidents. This is more than any other facility in the country. Employees say the company has put steel ahead of workers' lives. The records show the company violated government safety standards, failed to adequately train workers, and failed to at on employee complaints about hazards. This is part 2 of a 5 part series.
Tags: OSHA; Bethlehem Steel Facility; injury accidents; Occupational Safety and Health Administration Records; steel; hazards; safety practices; forklift; cranes; Sparrows Point; storage tank; carbon monoxide; OSHA violations; Armco Steel Corp; The Sorg Paper Co.; Dayton Walther Corp.; General Motors Corp.; Butler County Common Pleas Court; union; faulty breaks; steel corporations; amputations; burns; eye injury; concealing injuries
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Queens County judgeships: No Republicans need apply
This series looked at the election process for state and city judges in Queens. After two months of investigation, the reporters found that the Queens County Democratic Organization and its chairman, are in firm control of who makes it to the bench in the borough's state and city courts. The Democrats have an unbroken record of winning judicial elections, going back to at least 1990. The investigation also found the chairman of the Queens County Democratic Organization, also a lawyer, can gain lucrative appointments and contracts from their friends on the bench.
Tags: Queens County Democratic Organization; judicial elections; election process; state judges; city judges; bribery; Brooklyn judiciary; Brooklyn Democratic party; election records; campaign finance; Queens County Bar Association; Association of the Bar of the City of New York; Queens County; Queens State Supreme Court; Office of Court Administration; New York City Civil Court; Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections; judgeship; Queens Treatment Court; Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Queens County Republican Party; Commission on Judicial Conduct
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"Grave Robbers"
This investigation involves the case of two brothers who organized an identity theft ring and kept it going for more than two years. They were accused of stealing the identities of the recently deceased and using them to obtain more than $1.5 million worth of luxury cars, loans, and merchandise. Their ringleaders also stole 23 luxury cars.
Tags: identity theft ring; criminal court records; police reports; arrest warrant affidavits; Texas open records law; taxing authorities; deed transfers; auto registrations; real estate sales price; federal crime; Countrywide Home Loans; mortgage; Michael F. Tisdale; William R. Tisdale Jr.; America's Team Mortgage; Social Security Administration
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Dysfunctional Family Court
Legal Times investigates the backlog of cases in Washington, D.C.'s domestic-relations court system. The articles finds the "system seems to victimize those who need help the most." Why? The article finds a lack of good communication between lawyers and judges, miserly court administrators, and basic tardiness are some of the main problems plaguing the system. In a previous survey, two of the most common answers for why cases were delayed were that the "judges or commissioners were not on time," or that "the courtroom was locked." Another factor contributing to the backlog was litigants being able to give long, rambling arguments without being limited by the presiding judge.
Tags: superior court; family court; backlog; domestic relations; Domestic Relations Branch; divorce; child custody
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Justice Delayed, Justice Denied
The Courier-Journal investigates inept administration and case backlog at the Bullitt County, Ky., court system. The series reveals that "more than 200 felony indictments ... either were never prosecuted or else were incompletely prosecuted between 1998 and 2000," according to the contest entry summary. The mishandling was due to clerks' errors and inept record-keeping.
Tags: crime; prosecutors; judges; rape; drug-dealing; punishment; law enforcement
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What Killed Brian Lykins
CBS 60 Minutes II reports on dangers of tissue transplants. The story focuses on the case of Brian Lykins, a healthy 23-old, who has died from a routine knee surgery after a gangrene-like infection. The main finding: the infection was caused by contaminated tissue supplied by Cryolife, a company that had known of dangers of contamination for at least four years and had settled previous cases of deaths out of court.
Tags: doctors; Food and Drug administration (FDA); tissue processing; health; safety; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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If This Ain't Libel
Brill's Content looks at a libel case involving the Drudge Report, "the popular website of conservative cybergossip Matt Drudge." The story describes how Drudge has reported that Sidney Blumenthal, a former journalist and an assistant to the president in the Clinton's administration, "has spousal abuse past that has been effectively covered up..." The article focuses on the negative emotions that Jacqueline Blumenthal, Sidney's wife, has experienced because of the defamatory report. "It should not be acceptable for an Internet publisher - or any other publisher - to fact-check reputaion-damaging gossip by disseminating it, then issue a retraction only if and when it becomes apparent that the victim is going to sue," the Brill's Content concludes.
Tags: politics; Matt Drudge; defamation; reputation; public figures; AOL; spousal abuse; White House; journalistic standards; ethics; litigation; courts
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Investigative Reporting Finalists
The Goldsmith Prize awards a $25,000 annual prize for reporting that best promotes more effective and ethical conduct of government, the making of public policy, or the practice of politics. The five finalists for 1996 were "The F.A.A., USAir and the ATR Turbo Prop Planes," "Military Secrets," "Prisoners On Payroll," "Honduras," "Who Owns The Law? West Publishing and the Courts," and "Profits From Pain." The stories come from the New York Times, Dayton Daily News, Baltimore Sun, Minneapolis Star Tribune and Sun-Sentinel.
Tags: Goldsmith Prize; Federal Aviation Administration; airplane safety; air traffic control; airplane inspection; airplane accidents; military secrets; sexual assault; military judicial system; Tailhook; military pay; Honduras; CIA; West Publishing; judicial bribes; Supreme Court; judicial ethics; HMOs