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 "St. Petersburg" ...
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Saving Millions to Cost Billions
The executives who run the local power plant in St. Petersburg said from the start that their customers should help pay a $2.5 billion repair bill at their nuclear plant because no one could have predicted or prevented the disaster that crippled the facility and shut it down. But the Tampa Bay Times revealed gaping holes in that argument. Porgress received multiple warnings from employees and contractors about their approach to the project. An internal report obtained by Tampa Bay Times even warned the utility against self managing such an ambitious construction effort.
Tags: St. Petersburg; Tampa Bay Times; Repair Bill; Utility
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PolitiFact: The States
PolitiFact, a project of the St. Petersburg Times, is an effort to expand political fact checking to the state and local level. The site published over 1000 articles in 2010 that studied claims made by politicians and then rated them on their accuracy.
Tags: fact checking; accuracy; candidates; elections; campaign
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Politifact.com
Politifact is a fact-checking website that focuses on the statements of the 2008 Presidential candidates, and rates the truth of each fact stated by the candidates. Statements are rated via the "Truth-O-Meter," a scale that used terms such as Pants on Fire, or Mostly True to verify what is being said. The St. Petersburg Times analyzes in further detail the truth of said facts that Politifact rates.
Tags: Lie detector; Mitt Romney; Hillary Clinton; 2008 Presidential Race; Rudy Giuliani; Barack Obama; Mike Huckabee
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Hillsborough County School District Land Investigation
The ninth largest U.S. school district, Hillsborough County (FL), in 2006 was "growing fast enough to fill five new schools" per year. To meet the demand, Hillsborough county used the services of 4 private real estate brokers, without using bids, in violation of its own regulations. Three of the four brokers have records of criminal, legal and financial problems. Some of those brokers simultaneously represented the sellers, or flipped the land themselves, resulting in land purchases often made substantially above appraisal values. Reporters from the St. Petersburg Times documented swampland purchases, and school sites surrounded by the homes of sexual predators.
Tags: land; school board; school district superintendent; real estate brokers; realtors; swampland; bidding practices; state FOI; land flipping; rezoning applications; condemnation; assessments; appraisals; financial investigations; land records; wetland maps; FBI investigation; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Excel; Matthew B. Cox; Chester B. Luney; Fred Edmister; National Realty Associates; school planning; Wilson-Miller; Florida Real Estate Commission; 2606 East Caracus Land Trust; Laurence E. Fuentes; Fuentes and Kreischer Title Co.; Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
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Over My Dead Body
Mary Spicuzza of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times looks at the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on U.S. soldiers returning from the war in Iraq. Her story looks at the life and death of one such soldier who committed suicide at the age of 25 as a result of PTSD. Experts say the number of soldiers returning home from Iraq face emotional trauma worse than those who served in Vietnam decades ago.
Tags: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; soldier suicides; Iraq; behavioral health
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Orthodox Bulldozer
Artists who use religious imagery in Russia as a form of satire are subject to having their work destroyed by Orthodox vandals. ARTnews found that the vandals were hailed and martyrs and often not even punished for their crimes.
Tags: art; Russia; Orthodox; religion; Moscow; exhibition; symbols; satire; neo-Nazi; nationalist; fundamentalist; Duma; anti Semite; Soviet; St. Petersburg
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Soaring Home Prices in the Bay Area
This investigation by the St. Petersburg-Times looks at the skyrocketing price of real estate in Tampa Bay area homes. Reporters analyzed more than 260,000 homes in 300 neighborhoods to discover a new prospect of wealth for homeowners. "This has changed the face of neighborhoods, created wealth for middle class homeowners unthinkable short of winning the lottery and turned some into overnight land speculators."
Tags: None
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Lawmakers fly free on taxpayers' tab
Alisa Ulferts of the St. Petersburg Times looked deeper into the travel expenses of state legislators, only to find out that the Senate President, Jim King, as well as other lawmakers were using state planes for unofficial business. In an effort to save their own personal time and money, lawmakers used the planes for vacation and commutes between the capital city and home district. They did all of this despite the specific state law which forbids the use of state planes for anything other than official state business, as well as excluding the legislators from using the planes to commute.
Tags: commuting; state planes
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Wandering weapons: America's lax arsenal
Using documents, made public by the Pentagon in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, The St. Petersburg Times "chronicle a litany of accounting problems that contributed to some thefts and losses" of U.S. weapons.
Tags: weapons; arsenal; FOIA; Pentagon; military; munitions; oversight; Department of Defense; stolen weapons; lost weapons
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Father Appleby: Hiding in Texas
WFTS-TV goes to Texas to "track down a former priest in hiding who is accused of molesting an unknown number of altar boys in the Tampa Bay area of Florida."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; sexual abuse; priests; Catholic Church; St. Petersburg diocese; Tampa; Florida; Father Gerald Appleby