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 "Veterans Administration" ...
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Returning Home to Battle
While the Obama administration declared care for returning U.S. military personnel to be a top priority, reporter Aaron Glantz found something entirely different when he drilled down in the San Francisco Bay Area – home to more than a quarter-million veterans. In a series of stories for The Bay Citizen, which is part of the Center for Investigative Reporting, Glantz exposed an alarming failure inside the Department of Veterans Affairs, where mistakes and massive delays in processing disability claims for ailing veterans were the norm, sometimes leading to tragic consequences. Glantz was the first to detail this trend, finding that tens of thousands of Northern California veterans had been waiting an average of 313 days for a decision from the Oakland office on compensation claims for conditions as serious as traumatic brain injury. The Oakland regional office ranks fifth in the nation for number of veterans served – nearly 1 million veterans from the Oregon border to Bakersfield. The story was so shocking it prompted 16 members of Congress to demand immediate help for veterans filing through Oakland. More action quickly followed. Glantz had found through his reporting that the problem was not limited to the Bay Area. Next he set out to show it. The decision to dig deeper – to go beyond the local story – helped bring greater context to such a critically important issue. Through rich storytelling and clear writing, Glantz ably captured the plight of our veterans in his series, Returning Home to Battle.
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Deadly Force: When Las Vegas Police Shoot, and Kill
In the wake of two controversial officer-involved deaths in the summer of 2010, the Las Vegas Review-Journal asked a simple question: Are Las Vegas police too quick to shoot? What reporters Lawrence Mower, Brian Haynes and Alan Maimon found in a groundbreaking analysis of all police shootings in Clark County since 1990 stunned even veteran police administrators: Local cops had shot at people 378 times, resulting in 142 deaths. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department alone was involved in 311 incidents resulting in 116 deaths. By any measure, Nevada's largest law enforcement agency uses deadly force more often than counterparts in the region and in other major cities surveyed.
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Benefits Denied
This series reveals the “shameful failing of both the state and federal government in living up to its promises to both Indiana’s most vulnerable and it’s most brave”. The story began when a “1.3 billion dollar state welfare contract” was cancelled and “new federal directives were sent to every V.A. office nationwide”. Further, when people were sick and turning to the V.A. for help, their requests were denied.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs; medical care; Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA); support; military; soldiers; agencies
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Soldiers At Risk: Iraq Water Investigation
With temperatures rising up to “130 degrees or more” a day, why would the military be rationing water to only 2 liters a day per person? The answer is a water shortage. As a result, some soldiers are reporting from “serious physical problems with their kidneys, nerve degeneration, and even serious brain damage”. Further, some of these conditions went on for up to a year.
Tags: Iraq; Wars; medical professionals; officers; Army; Veterans Administration; defenders; troops
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Brian Ross Investigates: Disposable Heroes
In a joint investigation with The Washington Times, ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross revealed that mentally distressed veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan were being recruited by the Veterans Administration for tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects.
Tags: Chantix; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; suicide; veterans; drug protocols; Pfizer; pharmaceutical drugs; violent side effects
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Disposable Heroes
The original story focused on Iraqi war veteran James Elliott, who suffered a psychotic breakdown and was stun gunned by police while taking the drug Chantix in a smoking cessation study by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The series examined the use of military veterans as guinea pigs in drug experiments conducted by the federal government and exposed numerous ethical lapses, including a system-wide failure to notify participants when the Food and Drug Administration issues new drug warnings.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs; veteran; drug trials; Food and Drug Administration; Soldiers for the Truth; human research studies; Pfizer; PTSD; smoking
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The War Behind Me: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth about War Crimes
This book was born out of an archive of war-crime reports from the Vietnam war. Declassified in 1990, they shed light on the extent of such atrocities during the Vietnam conflict. "The War Behind Me describes our search for answers, not only from the archive but also from the men named in it. We tracked down veterans accused of committing atrocities, witnesses who reported them, and higher-ups who covered them up."
Tags: Vietnam; war crimes; atrocities; Army; My Lai; Quang Nam; massacre; Swift Boat Veterans; FOIA; National Archives; Marine; Veterans Administration; war
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Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care is Better than Yours
This book documents the generally poor quality of American Health Care, and uncovers one surprising exception: the Veterans Health Administration. Longman explores how the VA was pressured by doctors into reforming its practices and is now one of the most respected and effective health care agencies in the U.S.
Tags: health care; hospitals; federal government; veterans; doctors; medical records; Veterans Administration; VA;
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Home front: The government's war on soldiers
This book chronicles how George Bush has cut benefits for both veterans and front-line troops. It reports how the Pentagon has ordered soldiers to take experimental medicines that sometimes prove fatal, how defense contractors deliver faulty weapons to soldiers, and how "the true casualty of war is the subsequent body count -- the medical failures, psychological toll and the uninvestigated suicides -- on the home front."
Tags: BOOK; war; Iraq; veterans; soldiers; veterans benefits; Bush; military; Veterans Administration; Gulf War syndrome
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Fighting for Care
ABC News Prime Time Thursday continued their investigation of veterans' hospitals, which began in 1990. Among the many findings were: a surprising number of doctors still in training were left in charge of operating rooms and diagnostic situations while the doctors who were supposed to supervise them were not around; a disturbingly large number of mistakes and often fatal misdiagnoses; sloppy hygiene and unsanitary conditions; and retaliation against whistleblowers while incompetent administrators were promoted despite gross mismanagement.
Tags: Veterans; health care; military; hospitals; medical care