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 "Missouri Sunshine Law" ...
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The Jack in the Box Shootings
The Post-Dispatch refutes the official police version about the shooting of two suspects by undercover drug detectives in June 2000. The story reveals that -- contrary to what the detectives claimed -- the suspects' car was moving away from the detectives when they fired, not forward toward the detectives.
Tags: crime; collision expertise; Missouri Sunshine Law; law enforcement; self-defense; African Americans; U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
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Open Records
The Joplin Globe explores how the public is treated when making requests for public records. The two-article series reveals that some local government agencies in Missouri fail to comply with the state's Sunshine Law. For example, one sheriff's department refused to release any records, and one city suspected the researcher of being engaged in "improper criminal discovery." The city of Pineville, Missouri, failed to respond to a written open-records request for more than three months.The probe discovers that Joplin City Council has been improperly meeting in secret during dinner sessions.
Tags: Missouri Sunshine Law; FOI requests; local government; personnel
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What Lies Beneath
Riverfront Times chronicles "the history of corrosion problems with copper-inside-steel natural gas service lines as well as corroding direct-buried soft copper gas lines." The story depicts how a gas explosion in an old family upended the lives of Tom and Mary Hessel who were permanently disfigured as a result of their critical injuries. Laclede Gas, the faulty public utility, and the Missouri Public Service Commission, have known for years that the copper lines pose safety problems, but have failed to address the issue, the story reveals.
Tags: Missouri sunshine law; public safety; disabilities; burn survivors; lawsuits; settlement; fire protection
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Who's Next?
Riverfront Times reports on "police patterns in enforcing drug laws, particularly in African-American neighborhoods." The story includes maps showing the ethnicity of the neighborhoods by using US Census data. The reporter discovers that "police in St. Louis County routinely serve high-risk drug raids in black neighborhoods, but rarely in white ones." Another finding is that very few of the targets end up with criminal charges against them, which challenges the efficacy of the raids. The Times also sheds light on three killings of unarmed people by police.
Tags: search warrant affidavits; courts; minorities; justice; drug dealers; addicts; shootings; violence; Missouri sunshine law; CAR; Database Mapping Project
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Seeking the Shade
The Chronicle of Higher Education investigates violations of the Alabama sunshine law by public university boards in the state. The story details circumstances surrounding multiple closed meetings of officials at Auburn University, the University of Alabama and the University of West Alabama. The report also details lawsuits alleging violations of state freedom of information acts that are pending against public colleges or public college foundations in Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. In Arizona, Florida and New Jersey public college lobbyists have managed to curtail or limit the expansion of open-records or open-meeting laws.
Tags: FOIA; lobbyists; lobbying; media; universities; colleges; higher education; press; journalists; SPJ; disclosure; First Amendment; legislature; newspapers