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 "Pittsburgh" ...
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Code Green: Bleeding Dollars
Code Green: Bleeding Dollars is a yearlong investigation by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review into the major underlying causes behind skyrocketing health care costs in the United States.
Tags: code green; health care costs; hospitals
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Moonlight Patrol
After a grueling odyssey through the Pennslyvania courts, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Associated Press obtained heavily redacted copies of 1,038 supplemental employment forms filed over the previous six and a half years by state troopers and the agency's civilian employees. Despite assurances to the contrary, the Trib uncovered numerous violations of statute and state regulations regarding the after-hours employment of the police.
Tags: employment; police; after hours; pittsburgh police
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Wounded Warriors
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review began following up on tips worldwide from military personnel inside the Warrior Transition Units, the special military-medical wards constructed in the aftermath of the scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. After months of gathering leaked documents and compiling numerous interviews at bases nationwide, especially with soldiers, the Tribune leaked reams of secret reports detailing the Pentagon's own inspection of medical wards.
Tags: Military Personnel; Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Washington D.C. Documents
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Education for Sale
Education Management Corp. was already a swiftly growing player in the lucrative world of for-profit higher education, with annual revenues topping $1 billion, but it had its sights set on industry domination. So, five years ago, the Pittsburgh company's executives agreed to sell its portfolio of more than 70 colleges to a trio of investment partnerships for $3.4 billion, securing the needed capital for an aggressive national expansion.
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Pipeline
A specialty investigative news site by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that focuses on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale that lies beneath Appalachia.
Tags: natural gas; pennsylvania; environmental issues; environment; pipeline; resources
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Gillece Services Complaints Investigation
Complaints by viewers led the WTAE-TV team to investigate the Pittsburgh plumbing and heating company, Gillece. In this series, reporters revealed that Gillece accounted for "36 percent of all plumbing contractor complaints filed with the local Better Business Bureau.
Tags: Better Business Bureau; Civil Court Complaints; Attorney General; plumbing
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"The Air We Breathe"
The people living in and around Pittsburgh are breathing in some of the poorest quality air in the U.S. High levels of Benzene and other harmful chemicals have been found in the air causing potentially serious health risks to residents who inhale the "toxic brew" over a long time period. The Allegheny County Board of Health has "indefinitely postponed" voting on issuing new air quality permits.
Tags: Neville Island; Coke Works; Clairton; Allegheny County Board of Health; air quality; Dan Onorato; Pittsburgh; Carnegie Mellon University; EPA; American Lung Association
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Watching the Watchdogs
The story documented how six tax investigators for the city of Pittsburgh were failing to do their job. Instead of looking for deadbeat businesses, they were shopping, taking four-hour lunch breaks or simply going home. Moreover, some of them got reimbursed for mileage on the days they were not working. Their jobs are especially critical in difficult financial times, when Pittsburgh is under state oversight because of its poor finances. The story had added weight because this was not an isolated case of one or two employees; the entire department has only eight tax investigators and this investigation found six of them goofing off.
Tags: tax investigators; Pittsburgh; misconduct; city government;
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The Bonus Scandal
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette uncovered that state employees working on incumbents' campaigns were being given bonuses from public funds.
Tags: tax payer; tax; public funds; employee; state; incumbent; campaign; state government; politics
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Mine Dangers/Mine Safety
This series on mine safety by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette uncovered several problems: with training, mine seals, ventilation, airpacks and fire suppression systems. Reporters Roddy and Twedt found out that the Mine Safety and Health Administration "narrowed its definition of work-related deaths, making its annual death tally artificially low and allowing them to declare that mining was safer than ever."
Tags: mine safety; mining tragedies; Mine Safety and Health Administration; MSHA; coal miners; mine ventilation; Department of Labor's Inspector General's Office; FOI; Assistant Secretary of Labor David Dye; Assistant Secretary of Labor Richard Stickler