Resource Center

Stories

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 "Metropolitan" ...

  • MSD

    Corruption in the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District. The MSD oversees sewer treatment, storm water management and Ohio river flood control for the several hundred thousand people who live in Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky. Throughout the investigation, The Courier-Journal discovered that MSD board members owned companies that they were doing business with the agency they served, excessive bonuses to top officials, and a secret $140,000 lawsuit with an HR chief when he threatened a whisteblower lawsuit.

    Tags: Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District; MSD; Jefferson County; Kentucky

    By Jim Bruggers

    The Courier-Journal

    2011

  • Deadly Force: When Las Vegas Police Shoot, and Kill

    In the wake of two controversial officer-involved deaths in the summer of 2010, the Las Vegas Review-Journal asked a simple question: Are Las Vegas police too quick to shoot? What reporters Lawrence Mower, Brian Haynes and Alan Maimon found in a groundbreaking analysis of all police shootings in Clark County since 1990 stunned even veteran police administrators: Local cops had shot at people 378 times, resulting in 142 deaths. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department alone was involved in 311 incidents resulting in 116 deaths. By any measure, Nevada's largest law enforcement agency uses deadly force more often than counterparts in the region and in other major cities surveyed.

    Tags: officer; shootings; deaths

    By Lawrence Mower; Brian Haynes; Alan Maimon; Brian Haynes; James Wright

    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    2011

  • Overdose Deaths On the Rise

    Large number of overdose deaths on the Illinois side of the St. Louis metropolitan area are investigated.

    Tags: Overdose; Drugs; Death

    By Kevin Bersett; Jaqueline Lee; Zia Nizami

    Belleville News-Democrat

    2011

  • "The Lost Chalice"

    Author Vernon Silver dives deep into the Italian world of art smuggling. Through court documents and "interviews with modern tomb robbers, smugglers and art dealers," Silver is able to locate a valuable missing vase. The book provides an in-depth look at the world's third largest "underground economy," and how a "network of powerful people and institutions" has been at the center of the "illicit art and cultural property trade."

    Tags: Euphronios; Oxford University; Metropolitan Museum of Art; chalice; Zeus; art smugglers; tomb raiders

    By Vernon Silver

    HarperCollins (New York)

    2009

  • Police Towing Scandal

    Police officers were found to be using cars seized by the police department, the scandal led to the retirement of the Police Chief.

    Tags: Department of Motor Vehicles; S & H Towing; St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department;

    By Chris Hayes; Dave Sharp

    KTVI-TV (St. Louis)

    2008

  • Asset Forfeiture Collection

    This series examines the use and abuses of criminal and civil asset forfeiture that includes articles on Southern California motor cycle gangs, St. Louis policemen and pimps.

    Tags: gangs; Hell's Angels; Mongols Motorcycle Club; property; Metropolitan Police Department

    By Mary Spicuzza

    AssetForfeitureWatch.com

    2008

  • PharmaWater

    "The year-month long project by the AP National Investigative Team found that drugs- mostly the residue of medications taken by people, excreted and flushed down the toilet- have gotten into the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans in at least 24 major metropolitan areas, from Southern California to Norther New Jersey." A follow-up was written after the original series.

    Tags: health; pollution; medicine; water; drinking water; urban; city; sewer system; waste management; pharmaceuticals; wildlife; fertility; birth control; estrogen

    By Jeff Donn; Martha Mendoza; Justin Pritchard; Richard T. Pienciak

    Associated Press

    2008

  • An Offramp to Nowhere

    The Omaha developer Seldin Co. won $4 million in federal earmarks for an interstate interchange between Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska, but was found to have lobbied for the interchange where Seldin owns 935 acres of land.

    Tags: Lobbyist; Nebraska Department of Roads; Metropolitan Area Planning; Sarpy County; Pflug Road;

    By Joe Dejka; C. David Kotok

    World-Herald (Omaha, Neb.)

    2007

  • Run Over by Metro

    Spivak’s four-month investigation looks into fatalities and serious injuries caused by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, which provides the area's public bus service. Included were profiles of survivors and families of victims, detailing their physical, psychological and financial hardships."

    Tags: public transit; metro; bus; safety; First transit

    By Todd Spivak

    Houston Press

    2006

  • Scandal At UMDNJ

    "A series of investigative and enterprise stories into how the University of Medicine and Dentistry of new Jersey violated the public's trust- which uncovered widespread fraud and abuse at the nation's largest public health sciences university, ranging from the payment of illegal kickbacks to cardiologists for patient referrals, to inside deals that threatened a bio-research lab deemed crucial to the security of the New York metropolitan area. The stories led to federal and state investigations, dozens of resignations, likely indictments, and a governor's task force now seeking to restructure the university."

    Tags: university; dentistry; health science; New York; bio-research; slush fund; money;

    By Ted Sherman; Josh Margolin

    Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)

    2006