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 "Quinn" ...
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Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions on Rental Deals
This story is about one of the most fought-over pieces of property in Los Angeles, the 400 acre Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in West Los Angeles. It’s in an affluent neighborhood and has been a target of developers. But with many unused buildings, it’s also been coveted as a place to house some of L.A.’s 8,000 homeless veterans. That was the original use of the land, which was donated for an Old Soldiers’ Home in the late 19th century. The VA has not acted on plans announced in 2007 to begin rehabbing unused buildings there for housing for homeless vets. Meanwhile, it’s rented out land and buildings to commercial enterprises. There is no public accounting for this income. Through FOIA and other documents, we found that the VA is renting out the property using a law intended for sharing health care resources, though the renters are non-health related commercial enterprises. We were also able to estimate that the VA has taken in at least 28 million and possibly more than 40 million dollars over the past dozen years, far more than the cost of re-habbing a building to house homeless vets.
Tags: Property; neighborhood; land uses; veterans
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Murder, Money and Politics
A $54.5 million program touted by Illiinois Gov. Pat Quinn to reduce violence consisted of teens handing out fliers to promote inner peace, take field trips to museums, march in a parade with the governor and even attend a yoga class to reduce stress. Two years after the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative began, the murder rate was nearly 20 percent in Chicago.
Tags: broadcast; violence; stress; neighborhood; murder rate
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Rising Violence in California Psychiatric Hospitals
The series of reports verified the claims by staffers at California's psychiatric hospitals that violence had been increasing in recent years. The stories traced the possible reasons for the escalating violence and followed the development of this controversy over the course of the year.
Tags: hospitals; psychiatric; Department of Mental Health; mentally ill; radio
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NCAA: Mixed Messages
The phrase “student-athlete” has been used for a number of years, but recently it seems unsuitable for college athletics. In this series, a number of issues are spotlighted and they include “academics, the arms race, television money, the use of likenesses and images, and the myth of the four-year scholarship”. The main purpose of this series was to display the recent activities of college athletics and let you decide if the phrase “student-athlete” still applies.
Tags: athletic department; FOIA; Florida State; Rutgers University; sports; networks; money; grades; classroom; education
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Pension Bonanza
The state of Illinois is in a large amount of debt due to its pension plan, which is causing services to be eliminated. The pension plan has allowed some government retirees to become millionaires and others earning “at least $100,000 a year”. This is one of the reasons the state is in large debt and the fact the pension plan is costing “more than $800 million a month”.
Tags: workers; taxes; taxpayers; economy; expense; burden; retirement; benefits; money; Quinn
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Governor Quinn Keeping Juvenile Prisons in the Dark
The report details governor Quinn's refusal to block information concerning conditions inside juvenile detention centers. The system cycles the same offenders in and out, and the report demonstrates why information on life inside these prisons could be beneficial to voters and taxpayers.
Tags: juvenile; prisons; detention centers; governor; cycle; offenders; information; prison life; Quinn;
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Follow the Money
Corruption among street agents in the Dominican Republic has been public knowledge, but after a Chicago White Sox assistant general manager tried to bring $40,000 in undeclared cash into the United States a new story emerged: corruption among MLB employees.
Tags: David Wilder; kickbacks; Washington Nationals; signing bonus; Outside The Lines; baseball
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Dirty Money
Some law enforcement agencies have become addicted to seizing drug money. This story found:</p> <p>*Police agencies are seizing bulk cash from drivers and alleging it's drug money without finding any drugs, or, in many cases, without ever filing criminal money laundering charges.</p> <p>* Underfunded, usually rural police and prosecutor's offices have become dependent on seizing suspected drug money to carry out the basic functions of their offices, a state of affairs specifically discouraged by federal asset forfeiture laws.</P> <p>* In the extreme, some corrupt police forces are setting up "forfeiture traps," reminiscent of small-town speed traps, to catch suspected drug couriers and take their currency, a practice some attorneys call "highway robbery"</p> <p>* Some sheriff's departments have become more interested in confiscating cash than drugs, i.d. working southbound lanes into Mexico -- "our piggybank," one South Texas sheriff told me -- where they're more likely to catch money couriers. The reporters also found that these departments are not interested in investigating the couriers as a way to disrupt cartel activities -- all they're interested in is seizing the cash.</p> <p>* With little oversight built into state or federal asset forfeiture laws, some prosecutors' office are misspending their seized drug funds on things like margarita machines for the annual picnic and soccer uniforms for the police soccer team.</p> <p>* More and more law enforcement agencies are taking advantage of the "piggy banks" on their highways. According to the US Justice Department, in the past four years seized assets tripled from $567 million to $1.6 billion.</p>
Tags: Drug enforcement; seizure of money; US Justice Department; radio; forfeiture traps
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Your Taxes Paid For It
The Arizona Daily Star did an audit of local government spending in the Tucson area, and found that officials were spending taxpayers' money on many personal items, including high cell phone bills and trips.
Tags: Audit; government spending; misuse of tax money; taxes; taxpayers; high-priced goods
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Ongoing Steroid Coverage
The year long investigation focused on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports, particularly in baseball.
Tags: drugs; steroids; baseball; Mark McGwire; Jose Canseco; Major League Baseball