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 "aging wells" ...
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Home Health Hustler
This investigation exposed a woman using multiple identities to set up and operate fraudulent home health care businesses and bill the government. Their investigation found Irene Anderson, also known as Iya Edwards, was in the country illegally and ordered deported nearly twenty years previous, yet she was able to establish numerous home health care agencies and collect millions of dollars in government money. She received Medicare payments for patients who would not typically qualify for home care coverage and for patients who received no home health care at all. This story exposed lapses in federal healthcare and legal systems as well as in the state regulatory system home health care providers. The news team found several ex-employees who had reported fraud and abuse to the state, but nothing had been done. In fact, the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services claimed it conducted an investigation and found nothing, clearing the way for Anderson to continue to fraudulently bill the federal government. The investigation triggered an arrest, a federal raid, criminal charges, repayment of millions of tax dollars and promises of legislative change.
Tags: Texas; home health care; fraud; Medicare fraud; public records
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Water Worries
"This four part series found serious flaws in management of the Madison Water Utility and, as a result, troubling problems with safety of the city's water supply. The series showed that the utility's response to the contaminant manganese in the tap water of many Madison homes and the potential health impacts of exposure to the mineral was late and inadequate."
Tags: water; magnese; industrial carcinogen; aging wells; pipes; Board of Water Commissioners; Madison Water Utility
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Aging Sex Offenders Pose Problems
The authors used several actual incidents of abusive behavior in North Dakota nursing homes to illustrate that the state has no appropriate housing option for aging or disabled sex offenders after they have been released from incarceration. The investigation looked at what the long-term care industry and state regulators are doing about such incidents, as well as what they believe should be done.
Tags: sex offenders; pension; long term care; Department of Human Services; nursing homes; sexual abuse
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Penalty Shots
The authors investigated the relationship between the owner of a bar near the University of Minnesota campus, and the school's Men's Hockey Team, many of whom were underage. The hockey players were allowed to drink, regardless of age and were given preferential treatment/discounts. This situation broke city and state laws as well as defied the National Collegiate Athletic Associations' code of conduct.
Tags: alcohol; underage drinking; University of Minnesota; code of conduct; by-laws; Hockey; Men's Hockey Team; National Collegiate Athletic Association
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County's Aging Bridges at the Breaking Point
One third of Ventura county's bridges were built before 1965 and 28 of them have been designated as "structurally deficient." But the county is still waiting for the funds to fix or replace them. California's winter floods in 2005 washed away one bridge and left others even more weakened. Dodge examines the Federal Highway Administration's Inventory and discusses funding problems as well as the potentially fatal consequences of continuing neglect.
Tags: Federal Highway funds; state highway grants; bridge repairs; structural damage; floods; erosion; engineers; transportation; roads
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Life's Last Chapter: How Well Will We Care?
According to the author, "Tens of millions of Americans are living healthy, active lives well into their 70s, 80s and beyond...Yet, inevitably, many of these same Americans will endure a slow, merciless decline. Three-quarters of Americans today die after lengthy struggles with chronic illness -- cancer, dementia, arthritis, heart disease, osteoporosis...." This series of articles focuses on the state of elderly care today...what is working, and what isn't.
Tags: elderly; old; disability; nursing homes; aging; care; long-term care; chronic illness; doctors
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Why America is losing its best hospitals
New Republic offers and in-depth look at Beth Israel, a small hospital in Boston well known for its policy on health care: that medicine is about patients. Lately, however, the hospital has fallen on hard times and its age-old idea of "patients first" has fallen by the wayside. This story examines the question of, "Why?".
Tags: Hospitals; patients; health care; patients rights; Boston
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Psychic Profits
The ads for TV psychic "Miss Cleo" say that anyone 18 or older can call her and learn about their future. But when 9-year-old Ashley Busch called the hotline, operators let the young girl talk for 20 minutes. After Ashley's mother received the phone bill she tried to refute the ads claim and get her money back, but the company refused to listen. KWCH-TV put the psychic's hotline to the test, and found that two out of five operators agreed to let 10-year-old children talk on the hotline, well aware of their age.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; phone scams; children; Miss Cleo
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Rude Boy
Village Voice tells the story of a little boy, J.J., who terrorized his classmates and his teachers at P.S. 207 in Harlem. At the age of 8 J.J. forced two six-year girls to perform oral sex, and was charged with first-degree sodomy and first degree sexual assault. The boy liked to hit other children, as well as his teachers, the investigation reveals. Even though the boy was diagnosed with conduct disorder, supposedly related to his father's absence, the mother refused to acknowledge the problem and give him the prescribed medication. At last J.J. ended up in a group home in upstate New York, Village Voice report.
Tags: children; schools; teachers; sexual abuse; mental health; discipline; family courts; Division of School Safety; social workers
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Early Childhood: A Growing Concern (series)
A four-month Courier-Journal investigation revealed that 260,000 of Kentucky's poorest children under the age of five are "especially vulnerable to failure in school and beyond if they are not well-fed, nutured and given quality care early in life." Among the investigation's findings was "the average quality of Kentucky's 2,000 child-care centers are poor", most child-care centers violated state regulations concerning staffing or saftey and "the number of state inspectors for child-care centers is far below that recommended by the national accrediting organization."
Tags: Child-care; neglect; Kentucky; parenting; poor; chilcare