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 "Obama administration" ...

  • Untangling FOIA: a Test of Obama's Transparency Pledge

    Bloomberg News filed Freedom of Information Act requests with 57 federal agencies in June to test President Barack Obama's 2009 promise that his administration would be the most transparent in U.S. history. The series revealed how few departments complied with the law by disclosing the travel costs of top officials in a timely manner. Overall, only eight agencies met the 20-working-day deadline. After six months, nine of 15 cabinet offices and about a third of the agencies overall still had yet to release the documents.

    Tags: Freedom of Information Act; FOIA; federal agencies; Obama

    By Jim Snyder; Danielle Ivory; David Ellis; David Ingold; David Evans

    Bloomberg News (New York)

    2012

  • Returning Home to Battle

    While the Obama administration declared care for returning U.S. military personnel to be a top priority, reporter Aaron Glantz found something entirely different when he drilled down in the San Francisco Bay Area – home to more than a quarter-million veterans. In a series of stories for The Bay Citizen, which is part of the Center for Investigative Reporting, Glantz exposed an alarming failure inside the Department of Veterans Affairs, where mistakes and massive delays in processing disability claims for ailing veterans were the norm, sometimes leading to tragic consequences. Glantz was the first to detail this trend, finding that tens of thousands of Northern California veterans had been waiting an average of 313 days for a decision from the Oakland office on compensation claims for conditions as serious as traumatic brain injury. The Oakland regional office ranks fifth in the nation for number of veterans served – nearly 1 million veterans from the Oregon border to Bakersfield. The story was so shocking it prompted 16 members of Congress to demand immediate help for veterans filing through Oakland. More action quickly followed. Glantz had found through his reporting that the problem was not limited to the Bay Area. Next he set out to show it. The decision to dig deeper – to go beyond the local story – helped bring greater context to such a critically important issue. Through rich storytelling and clear writing, Glantz ably captured the plight of our veterans in his series, Returning Home to Battle.

    Tags: veterans; Bay Area

    By Aaron Glantz, reporter; Shane Shifflett, data engineer; David Suriano, web designer; Amy Pyle, senior editor; Brian Cragin, graphic artist; Peter Lewis, editor; Lonny Shavelson, videographer

    The Bay Citizen

    2012

  • Foreclosure Crisis

    The reporters reveal the underlying flaws in a public-private debacle involving the Obama administration's program that depended on the good faith of mortgage servicers.

    Tags: mortgage; foreclosure; housing market; home

    By Paul Kiel; Olga Pierce

    ProPublica

    2011

  • Solyndra Syndrome

    In 2011, the Washington Post reported the facts about the Obama administration's green-energy focus. The promise of tens of thousands of new jobs to curb a near historic enemployment rate was unfufilled- the Post discovered that only 3,500 jobs had been created through a $38 billion energy-financing program.

    Tags: Obama; Administration; Green Energy; Solyndra

    By Joe Stephens, Carol D. Leonnig, Alice Crites, Steve Mufson

    Washington Post

    2011

  • Lost In Detention

    The film takes a look at the Obama administration's expanded immigration net, investigating the controversial Secure Communities enforcement program and going inside the hidden world of immigration detention.

    Tags: immigration detention; immigration; immigrants; obama; ICE; FBI; DHS, homeland; securituy; mexico;

    By Rick Young; Margaret Ebrahim; Catherine Rentz; Maria Hinojsa; Leslie Atkins

    Investigative Reporting Workshop

    2011

  • Earmarks to Nowhere

    USA Today revealed $13 million in "orphan earmarks" in highway spending director to pet projects but never spent. In reaction, Congress demanded an accounting of the earmarks from the Obama Administration, and members of both parties quickly introduced bills to clean up the practice and require public disclosure unspent funds.

    Tags: orphan earmarks; Congress

    By Cezary Padkul; Gregory Korte

    USA Today ( Arlington, Va.)

    2011

  • Impossible Dream: Rebuilding Afghanistan amid corruption, nepotism, and mismanagement

    The investigation examines the Obama administration's efforts to create a modern, secure nation in Afghanistan.

    Tags: Afghanistan; War on Terror; al Qaeda; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; reconstruction

    By Dion Nissenbaum; Marisa Taylor; Warren P. Strobel; Jonathan S. Landay; Hashim Shukoor

    McClatchy - Washington Bureau

    2010

  • How Obama's White House Learned to Love the Drone

    The investigation examined the Obama administration's heavy use of armed CIA drones in Pakistan which received little public debate or discussion. Major findings include that only a fraction of those killed by the drones were known Taliban or al Qaeda leaders. The investigation also found that the White House approved adding an American citizen to the CIA's target list.

    Tags: drones; Pakistan; al Qaeda; Taliban; CIA

    By Adam Entous; Zeeshan Haider; Kamran Haider

    Wall Street Journal (New York)

    2010

  • BP's Oil Spill: Beyond the Spin

    This series provides extensive coverage of the Gulf oil spill and its effects. It exposes BP's failures to measure the amount of oil spilled and the reasons for the disaster. It also uncovers the Obama administration's inability to asses damage.

    Tags: oil spill; Gulf Oil Spill; environment; BP; disaster

    By Les Blumenthal; Marisa Taylor; Erika Bolstad; Shashank Bengali; Renee Schoof; Richard Maver; Anna M. Tinsley

    McClatchy - Washington Bureau

    2010

  • Toxic Taxes

    Toxic Taxes explores how Obama's fiscal stimulus tax credits will expand business for unregulated tax preparers and create more opportunities to commit fraud.

    Tags: unlicensed; unregulated; tax; tax preparers; tax credits; Obama administration; fiscal stimulus; H&R Block; fraud; Internal Revenue Service;

    By Ben Elgin; Keith Epstein; Brian Grow

    Bloomberg Business News (Princeton, N.J.)

    2009