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 "The Hartford" ...
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City Hall Documents Out in the Open
The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters discovered thousands of documents containing the personal and financial information of city residents dumped in the basement of Hartford City Hall. The basement is easily accessible to anyone who enters City Hall. As a result of our investigation, City Hall cleared out the basement, put locks on the door and secured the documents in another location.
Tags: Government; city hall; document security
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"Double Dipping"
Nearly 1,000 retired UConn professors are receiving duel payment from the state in the form of a paycheck and a pension. A law was enacted in 2007 that was designed to limit the number of retired professors who could be on the payroll and the length of time they could be hired, but as revealed by the Hartford-Courant, that law has been all but overlooked.
Tags: UConn; pensions; retirees; Connecticut Office of Policy and Management; Hugh Macgill; Ernest Marquez; Central Connecticut State University; Gov. M. Jodi Rell
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"Hidden Mistakes"
In Connecticut, the "adverse-event" law is supposed to ensure that hospitals report medical accidents that cause harm or death to patients to the state Department of Public Health. The law was revised in 2004 and since then the number of reported adverse-event cases has dropped "dramatically," suggesting that the medical mishaps are not being shared with the public and the state.
Tags: Bridgeport Hospital; Connecticut Center for Patient Safety; Connecticut Department of Public Health; Wendy Furniss; malpractice; Hartford Hospital; Terri Schiavo; Institute of Medicine
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"Disabled and Denied"
Reporter Evan George's investigation found that insurance companies repeatedly deny legitimate claims and often cut off coverage from disabled middle-class workers. There is no real downside for the insurance companies to deny claims any many disabled workers give up without a fight.
Tags: MetLife; insurance; disability; Unum; The Hartford
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Stingy with Security Funds
Hartford Courant reporters examined what Connecticut towns were spending Homeland Security money on, and why some towns had spent nothing or very little. The story also includes findings from a database that showed how much money each of the 171 communities in the state got, and highlights what they bought with the money they got.
Tags: money; Homeland Security; September 11; Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security; DEMHS
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Secret Files
The Courant detailed the extent and nature of an unusual practice whereby state judges selectively sealed cases, some so completely that their very existence was not publicly acknowledged. That disclosure, and the revelations that the practice often favored fellow judges, celebrities, and wealthy CEO's, stoked considerable public outrage. Six months later, judges abolished it.
Tags: state judges; dockets; Connecticut Practice Book; Connecticut Law Tribune; sealed cases; sealed files; lawsuit; divorce-court cases; Texaco; Nine West; Arthur Anderson; MasterCard; Primerica Corp.; General Electric; University of Connecticut; Level 1 sealing; Level 2 sealing; judicial branch; Superior Court Judges; U.S. Supreme Court; Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford; Connecticut State Supreme Court; U.S. District Court in Hartford; sexual abuse; lawsuits public interest cases; secret court files; state-court proceedings
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Keeping Charities Out of Town: Feeling overrun by social services, Hartford bards new facilities; other cities may follow suit
According to the article, "City leaders around the country have expressed frustration as they have watched suburbs draw away residents and businesses, often leaving behind large numbers of disadvantaged people. With little power to require the suburbs to offer care for the urban poor, cities like Hartford are taking steps to limit the private social services available within their own boundaries in the hope that some non-profit groups will decide to open their doors elsewhere."
Tags: charity; charities; Chrysalis Center; social services; poor; urban poor; disadvantaged people; Hartford; Connecticut; CT; non-profit; non-profit groups; businesses; suburbs
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Abusive Priests
The Hartford Courant published three investigative pieces about sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. The stories focused on New York Cardinal Edward Egan, who had served as a bishop in Connecticut; the psychiatric hospital, The Institute of Living in Hartford, which had treated Father John Geoghan; and a pedophile priest hiding for nearly a decade on a Carribean island with the support and knowledge of two priests from Connecticut and an order of priests in Washington D.C.
Tags: sexual abuse; Catholic Church; priests; pedophile; pedophile priests; Roman Catholic Church; Cardinal Edward Egan; John Geoghan; The Institute of Living; Connecticut; clergy sex-abuse
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Fatal Errors, Secret Deaths
The Hartford Courant investigates covered-up deaths resulting from neglect and staff errors in Connecticut's group homes for mentally retarded. Patients often fell victim to suffocation, drowning, choking, burns and potentially treatable infections. Other findings include that the state secretive system conceals suspicious deaths and their causes not only from the general public, but even from next of kin; that the death rate in group homes has tripled from 1990 to 2000; and that the State Department of Mental Retardation is ineffective in investigating and taking actions against faulty group home operators. The group home system costs Connecticut taxpayers $260 million a year, the Courant reports.
Tags: mental health; FOI requests; development disabilities; state government; health care
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Medical Research: Can we Trust it?
The Hartford Courant examines possible conflicts of interest inherent in academic medical research now that such research is funded more by corporate, rather than government, dollars. The Courant reveals that many academics at such schools as Harvard and UCLA receive their funding from the very companies that designed the drugs they are studying. Thus, there is some question as to the trustworthiness of the data these academics collect. "A Courant review of more than 40 recently developed drugs, as well as interviews with dozens of researchers across the nation, has found that scientists are asking questions -- and getting answers -- that neatly fit the agenda of their corporate sponsors."
Tags: academic medical research; drugs; corporations; government; funding; money; UCLA; Harvard; students; universities; colleges; medicines; health; safety; conflicts of interest