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 "Michigan" ...
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Wage Theft In the Fields
American farmworkers have often experienced egregious abuses, but nothing is more pervasive, nor harder to ferret out, than the wage theft that results from a practice called farm-labor contracting. Found in the fields of every handpicked crop in the country, farm-labor contractors not only provide growers with crews, but also handle wages and manage everything from verifying immigration status to providing workers' compensation. The problem is, the contractors systematically underpay the workers. “Farm labor contractors,” says writer Tracie McMillan, “give American produce growers what companies like China's Foxconn offer to Apple: a way to outsource a costly and complicated part of the business, often saving money in the process and creating a firewall between the brand and the working conditions under which its products are made.” And yet McMillan — a fellow with both the Knight-Wallace program at University of Michigan, and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University — found that enforcement is rare: In 2008, inspectors visited only 1,499 of the more than 2 million farms nationwide; in 2011, California inspectors found just seven minimum wage violations on the state’s 86,000 farms. Fines are minimal: “It's cheaper to violate the law than to follow the law,” says one farmworker advocate. And wage theft is tedious to prove, requiring inspectors to interview workers, analyze time cards, and collect payroll records. That's why workers and their advocates in California are counting on a lawsuit brought earlier this year on behalf of two farmworkers against the contractors who hired them—as well as the growers who outsourced the work. The suit alleges that the contractors routinely undercounted the hours worked, failed to pay minimum wage or overtime, failed to provide safe or sanitary working conditions, and housed the workers in unsafe and unsanitary living quarters. The “collective action” suit—open to anyone who can prove he or she experienced the same treatment—may cover thousands of workers and deliver awards substantial enough to deter other employers from the same practices.
Tags: Labor; farms; working conditions; wage
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Detroit Free Press: Free to Kill
“Free to Kill,” a seven-month Detroit Free Press investigation, found the Michigan Department of Corrections failed to properly supervise some of the most violent of the state’s roughly 70,000 offenders under its watch. A total of 88 parolees and probationers were suspected, arrested or convicted in 95 murders between Jan. 1, 2010, and Aug. 31, 2011. The number nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011 -- from 21 to 38. The series also revealed that dozens of offenders weren't outfitted with court-ordered electronic tethers, and others weren't sent back to prison for new crimes or failed drug tests.
Tags: Department of Corrections; violence; criminals; drug tests
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Wayne County Confidential: Government Run Amok
In Michigan's largest counties, WXYZ-TV exposed a secret $200,000 severance paid to Turkia Mullin, the county's outgoing economic development czar in September while employees endured 20% pay cuts.
Tags: Severance
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Confusion and Consequences: Changing Michigan's Auto Insurance
The supporters of legislation to change Michigan's no fault Personal Injury Protection implied the cause of Michigan's relatively high auto insurance rates was in large part due to generous coverage of catastrophic injuries.
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No Worker Left Behind
Michigan's No Worker Left Behind program faced funding cuts in 2010. A large proportion of the funds for the program were going to private trade schools, however, no state agency was licensing or inspecting these schools.
Tags: No Worker Left Behind; funding; job retraining; labor; unemployment
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Speed Trap Controversy
Some Detroit speed limits may be set too low, according to a Detroit News investigation. Municipalities in Michigan were not complying with Public Act 85 which requires them to conduct studies to set proper speed limits.
Tags: speed limits; traffic; roads; speed trap; Public Act 85
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Shut Down and Shipped Out
The series examines the trend of factory closings in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan and finds that the closings resulted in work being shifted to other states or countries.
Tags: factory closing; jobs; manufacturing; trade agreement; outsourcing
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"Shut Down & Shipped Out"
This three-day series examines the "trend of factory closings" through Ohio and Michigan starting as far back as 2000. Reporter Joe Vardon found factory closings accounted for more than 20,000 jobs lost throughout Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. Much of the work has been shipped to other states or overseas. Vardon finds these closings to be as much "a cause as they are an effect" in the recession that has ravaged the U.S.
Tags: recession; factories; job loss; unemployment
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Not Enough Money or Time to Defend Detroit's Poor
According to the 6th Amendment everyone is reserved the right to have adequate representation in court. Though, in Detroit, a national public defender crisis has broken out due to overworked and underpaid defenders. This is a problem throughout the national, but has reached crisis levels in Michigan. "More than 90 percent of criminal defenders in Wayne County cannot afford their own lawyers", so to make up for this public defenders are used for representation instead.
Tags: court system; defense system; rights; public defenders; criminal defense; clients; law system
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Academics and Athletics At Michigan
A psychology professor at the University of Michigan taught at least 294 independent study courses during a three-year period, 85 percent of his time was spent with athletes. Those athletes coming close to losing academic eligibility were sent to study with John Hagen.
Tags: GPA; grade point average; curriculum; transcripts; NCAA; professors; degree; studies;