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 "Tulsa World" ...
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What Happened to Edie?
Edwina King's death was ruled a suicide by the very law enforcement agents she was investigating, regarding allegations that women in the Delaware County Jail were being raped and sexually abused. Edwina went missing the very day she was supposed to meet a Tulsa attorney to discuss a possible civil rights lawsuit on behalf of female inmates. Two weeks later, her body was found hanged in a horse tack barn on her own property, not more than 200 miles from her trailer home.
Tags: Suicide; Edwina King; Tulsa World; Trailer Home; Rape; Sexual Abuse
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Women in Prison
The series examined reasons leading to Oklahoma's No. 1 U.S. ranking for its rate of incarcerating women. The Tulsa World found that while the state ranked in the mid-range for arrests of women, it jumps significantly when it comes to sentencing.
Tags: prisons; female prisoners; women in prison
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Joint Investigationby Oklahoman and Tulsa World
Reports from the Oklahoma Health Department found more than 830 violations at the residential group homes for the mentally ill and elderly. The reports showed residents were found covered in feces, stolen from, or sleeping on dirty mattresses.
Tags: mentally ill; mentally disabled; oversight; elderly; group home
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Saint Matthew's Churches and the Rev. James "Eugene" Ewing
The Tulsa World does "an in-depth look at an organization called Saint Matthew's Churches, formerly Church By Mail and St. Matthew's Publishing, which sends 1 million letters per month to recipients across the country. The company uses demographic data to target poor people and grossed $26 million in 1999. It is headed by a reclusive Beverly Hills resident, the Rev. James Eugene Ewing, who is credited with being the father of the seed-faith gospel. Documents show Ewing lives an opulent lifestyle, has neglected to pay his taxes in the past and has battled with the IRS over his non-profit status. The "church" has no actual address, only a P.O. Box in Tulsa."
Tags: Saint Matthew's Churches; Church By Mail; St. Matthew's Publishing; Re. James Eugene Ewing; IRS; Tulsa; non-profits; seed faith; mail ministry; religion; religious organizations; direct-mail
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Oklahoma's Environment
A Tulsa World investigation of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality -- a regulator of air, soil and water pollution -- revealed that the department "readily hands out warnings, but rarely fines offenders." This series attempted to evaluate how well the ODEQ was doing its job.
Tags: Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality; ODEQ; DEQ; Environment; regulators; soil; air; water; pollution; fines; offenders; business
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Juvenile Justice
Tulsa World reports on how Oklahoma juvenile criminals are evaluated, treated and returned to society. The findings are based on public records, court databases and "unprecedented access to the juvenile court and treatment process," the authors report. One story describes a highly successful program, called STARS, for troubled youth. Another part of the series looks at the process of establishing a juvenile sex offender registry. Branstetter and Morgan conclude that " a brush with the law usually is enough to redirect a teenager in trouble."
Tags: CAR; crime; sex offenders; children; teenagers; probation; law enforcement; police; judges; prosecutors; drugs; alcohol abuse
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Nearly 1,000 Deaths Were Preventable Review Shows
After reviewing more than 300,000 death certificates from 1990 to 1999, the Tulsa World found nearly 1000 people died of preventable causes in Oklahoma nursing homes. In addition, their investigation found "doctors actually viewed the body after death in only about three out of every 20 cases." Furthermore, records show autopsies were performed "in less than one percent of nursing home deaths in the 10-year period." The article details preventable causes of death in nursing homes (dehydration, falls, urinary tract infections), the warning signs of poor health care and what citizens are doing to change the system.
Tags: nursing homes; elderly; medicine; doctors; Oklahoma State Health Department; autopsies; death; health care
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Trinity Hospice investigation
Tulsa World investigated multiple shortcomings in the health care of dying people, provided by Trinity Hospice. The company, which operates in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado and Kansas, has been accused of limiting medical care as a way to increase profits. In the words of one of the main sources cited in the story, "Trinity's patient care coordinators were supposed to keep costs down to $50 per day. Meanwhile the hospice was billing Medicare $90 per day..." The reporters revealed that this for-profit hospice, paid by the government, had "often failed to follow physicians' orders, allowed bed sores to worsen and failed to provide a variety of services." The story listed specific examples of discrepancies between what Medicare required and what regulators found at Trinity operations. These revealed missing criminal history checks in eight of ten personnel files, as well as failures to provide medicines for dying patients and to update plans of care.
Tags: Medicare; Health Care Financing Administration; hospitals; government; reimbursement; nursing homes; nurses; insurance
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Dead Men Waiting
The Tulsa World "looked at why the pace of executions had remained unabated in Oklahoma, despite growing concerns elsewhere that the capital punishment system was inherently flawed . . . Described the emotional impact of executions, discussed the types of cases that lead to capital convictions and illustrated the uneven application of justice in the same crime." Reporters also investigated inmate competency, prosecutor misconduct, reviewed cases of those executed in the past decade and researched the role of DNA in such cases. "We also took readers into the penitentiary and outside on the grounds during an execution. Sidebars looked at the appeals process, key decisions in modern death penalty cases and victims' families."
Tags: Department of Corrections; death penalty; capital punishment
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Bad Apples: School Safeguards Put to Test
The series found that despite school districts insistence that their background checks were thorough, criminals were still being hired to work with children. The Tulsa World found one such employee, an elementary school bus driver, was convicted of armed robbery after an episode that involved the shooting of a Kansas trooper during the getaway.
Tags: None