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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Command Mistake
As a result of this WISH-TV (Indianapolis, IN) report, the United States Marine Corps is now issuing helmets with ballistic padding to all marines. Previously, only the Army was issuing padded helmets; and some marines were buying their own padding. The story showed that college football players' helmets were more protective than the marine helmet."The cost to care for a head-injured soldier with permanent brain damage is $2.5 to $3 million. The cost of the helmet pads is as little as $30." Story contains on-ground elements filmed in Germany and Iraq.
Tags: Traumatic brain injury research; TBI; concussion; ballistic pad testing; football helmet testing; Kevlar helmet; roadside bomb blasts; Commanding General George Casey; Baghdad; Fallujah; Landstuhl Medical Center, Germany; Riddell; Brigadier General John Kelley; Congressman Steve Buyer; Indiana National Guard; Roudebush VA Medical Center; craniectomy; aphasia; Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; Joint Theater Trauma Registry; Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center; DVBIC; Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital; Traumatic Brain Injury in the War Zone; Susan Okie, MD; New England Journal of Medicine; American Football Coaches Association; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program
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Tax Dodgers
A WTAE-TV investigation found serious problems with Pittsburgh's tax collection procedures as the city grappled with municipal bankruptcy. The two stories found that the city had more than $21 million in delinquent taxes, or half its deficit at the time, and that some of the biggest banks in Pittsburgh, and around the country, were failing to pay their taxes.
Tags: Pittsburgh municipal bankruptcy; Pittsburgh delinquent taxes; Pittsburgh banks; property records; corporation records; Pennsylvania's Right-To-Know (FOI) Law
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Pittsburgh Terror Plot
In October 2001, it was made known that Pittsburgh was on a list of seven US cities cited as possible targets for terrorism. The WTAE-TV investigation confirmed with sources inside the US Justice Department that in the days following the attacks of 9/11, American intelligence agents in Hamburg, Germany, discovered plans for a possible Al Qaida assault in Pittsburgh. The target was the US Post Office and Courthouse in Pittsburgh.
Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation; United States Marshal; United States Coast Guard; Al Qaida; United States Post Office and Courthouse in Pittsburgh
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"UPMC Transplant Policy Attacked"
An investigation of one of the top transplant centers in the world; The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center(UPMC), found that the center was frequently using 'marginal livers' due to shortage of organs across the nation. By accepting rejected liver from other centers, UPMC shows high number of patients needing second transplants. Many transplant surgeons UPMC surgeons knowingly use unsuitable organs because those patients would go to the top of the wait list.
Tags: hospitals; surgery; surgeons; hospital; liver; transplant; medical center; patients; organs
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Local "Brain Drain" Mostly a Myth
More young people leave Pittsburgh than move there. Compared to other cities, similar in size and demographics, Pittsburgh is attracting relatively low numbers of new residents. The article explores possible reasons for this phenomenon, as well as various ways the city could address it.
Tags: cities; census; population
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Juvenile Court Journal; Open Court Stories; Selena Underwood Stories
This series of stories represents the "culmination of years of work" by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Barbara White Stack to "crusade for open hearing in juvenile court." Stack "came to believe secret hearing regarding abused and neglected children precluded comprehensive coverage of the issues....These stories show that getting access is possible, in addition to illustrating what is possible when access is denied." The system turned out to be fraught with problems, and the Post-Gazette challenged the secrecy rules in court -- ultimately prevailing when they won their appeal in Pennsylvania Superior Court, effectively opening the state's juvenile court system to the public and the press.
Tags: None
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Beyond Machines
This story offers a look at the "Digital Divide", the wide disparities between the technologically advanced and those at a significant disadvantage. Case studies of Houston and Pittsburgh public schools highlight some of the wide differences in access to technology, even in the same school district. The story also touches on another aspect of the digital divide: that simply installing computers does not solve the problem. Sometimes using technology to teach helps, and in other cases it hurts. The methods of teaching, too, significantly alter the benefits students receive.
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New Families, Old Heartbreak
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's two-part special report on American families adopting Russian children. The report looks at adoptive families that have encountered corruption, a lack of regulations and troubled orphans that they couldn't handle.
Tags: international adoption; Russian adoptions; adoption regulations; corruption; orphans; baby brokers; adoptions; intercountry adoption; troubled children; Pittsburgh; International Adoption Resource Center; University of Pittsburgh
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Potential for Disaster
From the contest entry summary: "The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reasoned that chemical plants would be a major terrorist target in the wake of Sept. 11 attacks. If ruptured, tanks storing catastrophic levels of chemicals could kill, injure or displace millions of Americans living in or around our largest cities. Similar events have transpired in the Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian wars in the 1990s, and domestic and foreign terrorists have claimed credit for attacking chemical tanks in the U.S. and Middle East."
Tags: 9/11; terrorism; security; safety; hazardous materials; toxins; plants; drinking water
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A call for "Holy War"
Since 1991, an Arabic magazine called "Assarat Al Mustaqeem" started publishing in Pittsburgh, distributing over 2,000 copies in the United States and some all over the world. The reporters uncovered ties between the magazine and other influential radical Muslim groups, and discovered the magazine to contain militant articles, advocating jihad and the killing of Jews.
Tags: jihad; terrorism; propaganda; militant Muslim; Islam