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 "University of Pennsylvania" ...
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Degrees of Justice
Higgins told the story of Charles Plinton, a graduate student at the University of Akron. The story begins when Plinton was suspended for selling marijuana to a police informant just weeks after being acquitted of felony drug trafficking charges. The story ends with his suicide a year later on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Tags: drugs; education; graduate school; drug dealing; courts; trial; public records
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More grads booking a path to college; Interest in military rises at Fayette high school
These articles are an analysis of what Pennsylvania's graduating high school seniors plan to do after graduating. It shows that more students plan on going to college than five years ago. The story also reveals that interest in joining the military is up in certain places. Cholodofsky also analyzes the data geographically, to show how students from regions around the state differ in their post-graduation plans.
Tags: college; university; high school; analysis; CAR; demographics
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The Cost of Courage
From small community hospitals, to Ivy League medical centers, physicians are increasingly facing retaliation from hospitals for reporting poor care. America's physicians are sworn to protect their patients from harm, but increasingly face a surprising obstacle. Doctors who step forward to warn of unsafe conditions or a colleague's poor work say they have been targeted by hospital administrators or boards. This is done by labeling the physicians "disruptive," then terminating their admitting privileges and listing them in a national data bank, effectively crippling their careers.
Tags: Center Community Hospital; hospital administration; hospital boards; National Practitioner Data Ban; patient care; hospital attorneys; suspension; Cleveland's University Hospitals; physicians; whistleblower physicians; Pennsylvania Medical Society; Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; American Medical Association; Health Care Quality Improvement Act; Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center; Cleveland Clinic; Case Western Reserve University; hospital inspections; VA's Office of Healthcare Inspections
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Lost in Translation, Students Crib Free Help From Language Sites
The Wall Street Journal reports on the attempts of some foreign-language teachers to discourage the practice of their students to use free translation sites, mostly Babelfish.altavista.com. The story finds that "cheating is often detected because the software powering the sites has among its faults a tin ear for idioms." The author concludes that despite teachers' efforts, "online translation won't be expelled easily from U.S. schools."
Tags: Internet; schools; teachers; children; Spanish; Pennsylvania State University; Melrose High School; software; grades
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The Early-Decision Racket
The Atlantic Monthly examines how the early-decision programs offered by most universities "have added an insane intensity to middle-class obsessions about college." The reporter reveals that these programs "distort the admissions process, rewarding the richest students from the most exclusive high schools and penalizing nearly everyone else." One of the findings is that "the incentives fro many colleges and students are as irresistible as they are perverse."
Tags: education; universities; students; Princeton; Harvard; MIT; Georgetown; the University of Chicago; Notre Dame; Cal Tech; University of California; Yale; University of Pennsylvania; Washington University
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The Genetic Surprise
Should people with genetic predisposition for certain diseases be charged more for health insurance? In 20 states, laws are on the books to preserve the privacy of genetic testing, but potential employers can still ask for a genetic profile. Is it really fair? Forced anti-discriminatory insurance rates, such as those that are in place in New York, force insurance companies to raise rates to cover costs of the outliers. It also prices many -- mostly younger people -- out of insurance. Is it "genetic discrimination" or "just another form of predictive information, like sex, age, weight, and past medical history?"
Tags: Genetic testing; insurance; Stanford Program in Genomics; Ethics; and Society; Risk Management and Insurance Program at U.T. -Austin; Denter for Biomedical Ethics at teh University of Pennsylvania; privacy
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Teen Dies Undergoing Experimental Gene Therapy
This series of stories investigates medical research and explains how many participants in controversial gene therapy experiments have died. This file includes copies of documents from the Department of Health and Human Services, the University of Pennsylvania Health System and others that were used for research.
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How Colleges Are Gouging U
Erik Larson investigates the rising cost of college tuition. He focuses on his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. He say that a combination of forces - inflation, hubris, competition and perhaps even conspiracy - drove up tuition.
Tags: None
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"No Cuts, No Glory"
Dick Rothman, an othopedic surgeon who has run the biggest practice of its kind in the United States, is taking his practice public. But the nation's oldest hospital -- Pennsylvania Hospital -- can't imagine letting him go. He's their most productive surgeon, bringing in millions of dollars annually for the institution. Rothman is the quintessential specialist physician who practiced in an era doctors, particularly specialists, were the center of the health care universe. Now, the federal government, insurance companies and health-maintenance organization tell doctors what to charge. This article explores the reasons why Rothman will have no part of it.
Tags: Health maintenance organizations; specialist physicians; doctors; Pennsylvania Hospital; Dick Rothman; hospitals
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Facing Up to Retin-A
This article takes a look at Retin-A, the wrinkle remover "wonder drug" and inventor Albert Kilgman. For the first Kilgman, now 80, confronted charges that he illegally, or at least immorally, tested Restin-A and other drugs on black prison inmates in the 1960s. Interviews also revealed for the first time, the recent Retin-A paten fight between himself, Johnson & Johnson, and the University of Pennsylvania.