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 "assessment" ...
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Banktracker
Banktracker is a project built to assess the financial health of every bank and credit union in the United States, and to disclose the information. The Troubled Asset Ratio serves as a measurement for bank safety.
Tags: banks; credit unions; safety; troubled assets; United States; financial health; benchmark; banktracker;
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Dead by Mistake
Studies indicate that the death toll for preventable deaths by medicine has more than doubled in the last ten years. "Death by Mistake" assesses the headway being made in the medical industry to reduce likeliness of preventable death.
Tags: medical; preventable; death; Trevor Nelson; Institute of Medicine; patient safety; adverse events;
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Tax Travesty
The story looks at how attempts to abolition Philadelphia's corrupt property tax agency, the Board of Revision of Taxes, was stymied by connected insiders and political connections.
Tags: property taxes; Philadelphia, Pa.; Board of Revision of Taxes; corruption; assessment;
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Fighting New Jersey's Tax Crunch
The series provided a detailed analysis of New Jersey's dysfunctional property tax system, which has the highest costs in the nation. Using U.S. census data, IRS data, 10 years of local tax information, and more than 40 databases of local and state employee payrolls, we found that the system had evolved into a juggernaut that was destroying the fiscal and social fabric economy of the state.
Tags: property tax; racial disparity; assessments; tax breaks; economic segregation;
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Finger prints
For almost a century, fingerprint evidence has been a revered cornerstone of the American criminal justice system. But that may soon change. Last fall, in a Baltimore murder case, a judge ruled that fingerprint analysis is not reliable, which shocked lawyers across the country and could possibly put thousands of criminal investigations in jeopardy. CBS News spent months researching the use of fingerprints in murder trials as well as assessing the future of fingerprint evidence.
Tags: fingerprint evidence; Brandon Mayfield; court cases; criminal investigations; attorney; forensic evidence; death penalty
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Fly Ash: Coal-Fired Dilemma
This series of stories showed how a virtually unknown state environmental policy, blessed by the EPA, let developers sculpt an 18-hole golf course with 1.5 million tons of "fly ash," a contaminant-laden residue left from the burning of coal for electricity, posing a threat to the wells of adjacent homeowners. Fly ash contains heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury, which can pose environmental threats through air and water. Although the EPA has been studying the the environmental;ecological impacts of fly ash for decades, it has twice determined that it doesn't warrant classification as "hazardous waste." The result is that there are no national guidelines for fly ash disposal; regulation is left up to the states, resulting in a hodge-podge of policies.
Tags: environment; EPA; contaminant; coal industry; fly ash; testing; site assessment; homeowners
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Race Gap Found in Pothole Patching
The Milwaukee Department of Public Works was found to have clear geographical and racial disparities in how it allocated city workers to fix potholes throughout the area. A database of pothole locations with repair times were mapped out by the reporters and U.S. Census data was used to assess the poor response times.
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A Question of Security
The "investigation discovered allegations of overfilling and security gaps at three major facilities in South Florida- the Miami Metrorail system and the Juvenile Assessment Center and a major hospital. All have contacts with Wackenhut, one of the largest security companies in America. The publicly funded contracts involve millions of dollars. Not only did we observe unfilled posts first-hand, but guards, former guards and supervisors went public detailing a pattern of fraud."
Tags: security; fraud; city government; contracts; transportation; health care; hospital; guards; Wakenhut
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You Can Fight City Hall
The City of Tamarac passed a resolution assessing 14 property owners a total of $9 million dollars, due a month from the first notice. This assessment money would fund the infrastructure on the city's Main Street project, something the whole community would use. Many of the property owners could not pay the money and suspected it was a way for the city to seize their properties. This story details an investigation of the assessment and profiles of the property owners.
Tags: property owners; special assessments; infrastructure; lawsuits; bill
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Fault Found in Scoring of Ohio Schools
"The success of nearly 40 Ohio schools - mostly charters- is inflated by a hidden default in how the state measures them. An analysis by The Repository found that some 30 charter schools and five public schools in Ohio got the state's third-highest designation - 'continuous improvement' - not because of student achievement but because of the state's measure, adapted from federal guidelines, of 'adequate yearly progress.'"
Tags: education; school; standardized tests; state politics; beat reporting; assessment; students; teachers