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 "Entrepreneur" ...
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Up In Smoke
The series was dealing with the “proliferation of medical marijuana clinics in Los Angeles”. The series revealed “a loophole inadvertently included in legislation passed by the Los Angeles City Council which allowed hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries to open with no oversight”. Further, the council was unwilling or unable to control the problem they had knowledge about.
Tags: FOIA; City government; Oaksterdam University; cash crop; entrepreneurs; medical purposes; cancer; AIDS; glaucoma
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Dykstra's Business a Bed of 'Nails'
Lenny Dykstra appeared to be the picture of success. He set out to build a “financial empire” based off of professional athletes and his own reputation as a former Major League Baseball star. “But an ESPN.com investigation discovered that Dykstra was a financial train wreck with a long history of skipping out on bills. Also, ESPN.com discovered that at least 24 legal actions had been filed against Dykstra over the previous two years.”
Tags: Baseball; Financial; Players; Lawsuit; Entrepreneur; Major League Baseball; MLB
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Dirty Deeds
Mark Bosworth was a self-proclaimed guru of Pheonix real estate, a rags-to-riches entrepreneur who once claimed his companies owned $1 billion in property. When the housing market turned, Bosworth's trickes were exposed and his clients lost more than their fair share. The Phoenix New Times detailed how Bosworth forged deeds, misled clients, abused customers of his companies and lost his empire.
Tags: real estate; scam; housing market collapse; Arizona; forgery
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A million LIttle Pixels
Kansas City's Pitch Weekly reporter David Martin pokes holes in claims made by entrepreneur John FLowers, who got $500,000 in venture capital support from Kansas state's Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation.
Tags: Kozoru; background checks; venture capital; skunk works; computer hacker; DefCon; network security; Hiverworld; nCircle; natural language; Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation; KTEC; OPen Prairie Equity Partners; David Warthen; Ridgely Evers; Ask Jeeves; open records; instant messaging; mobile devices; cell phone; Wikipedia; Industry Ventures; reality-challenged statements
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Regulation of Contractors A Blueprint for Problems: Despite long history of complaints, lawsuits, Hollywood company, entrepreneur unfazed
Reporter Mc Nelly Torres investigates South Florida business owner John Pluto and the problems with a system that allows an entrepeneur to open a new business even though his past companies have been plagued with problems. Current laws offer little protection for the consumer and even when consumers investigate a company's background, it's difficult for them to know who is behind the business.
Tags: construction; state law; business; consumer watchdog; consumer
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Wheeler Dealer: How Minnesota Cops and the War on Drugs Made a Successful Entrepreneur out of a Small-Time Hustler and Snitch Named Michael Felix
This article tells how a police informant actually abused his protected position and profited from selling drugs himself. The whole time that the police thought he was buying drugs to track down dealers, he was actually dealing them, right across the street from a school. His presence wrecked havoc on the community of Detroit Lakes.
Tags: drugs; narcotics; addiction; dealers; marijuana; methamphetamine; DEA
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Making Space: How to Become Rich By Building Offices For the Government; Mr. Haney Figured It Out, But Some of His Methods Now Raise Questions; 'Dinner With Al and Tipper'
The Wall Street Journal tells the story of Franklin L. Haney, a Tennessee entrepreneur who has found "a profitable niche in government and real estate." His genius is in "figuring out the intricacies of government contracting and the constantly changing rules of tax-exempt finance."
Tags: Franklin Haney; government contracts; Tennessee; politics; Democrats; real estate; building; construction
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Blood and Money
East Bay Express's two-part series investigates Yusuf Bey's network of Black Muslim entrepreneurs and social workers and uncovers "chilling details of their alleged violence, brutality and fraud, as well as the remarkable lengths that powerful civic leaders have gone to in order to secure light sentences for them and prop up their businesses." For decades, the Yusuf Bey group has "enjoyed populist respect and admiration, the friendship of politicians and religious figures, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in city subsidies, despite persistent rumors of their propensity for violence."
Tags: Yusef Bey; Black Muslims; Oakland; Ca.; Soul Beat; violent crime
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Making a Killing: The Business of War
This 11-part series by the International Consortium of International Journalists and the Center of Public Integrity examines the "economic conflict in the post-Cold War era and those who profit from it. Individual stories looked at how, amid the military downsizing and increasing number of small conflicts that followed the end of the Cold War, governments are turning increasingly to private military companies -- a newly coined euphemism for mercenaries -- to intervene on their behalf in war zones around the globe. Often, these companies work as proxies for national or corporate interests, whose involvement is buried under layers of secrecy. ICIJ also found that a handful of individuals and companies with connections to governments, multinational corporations, and sometimes criminal syndicates, in Europe, the Middle East and the United States, profited from these wars.Entrepreneurs selling arms and companies drilling and mining in unstable regions have prolonged the conflicts, in which up to 10 million people have died. "
Tags: Cold War; mercenaries; business; corporate interests; Middle East; Europe; war; conflict; death; military; ONLINE; cd; irewar03
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Secret Accounts
A well known entrepreneur in the pay phone business turned out to be a prolific drug smuggler in his early years. A profile on his rise to fortune- twice.