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 "barrel" ...
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Wilmington's Street Wars
Wilmington, Del., has become one of the most violent cities of its size in America. Nothing dramatized that fact more than several spectacular shootings in 2012, including one day in June when three people were shot to death in separate incidents, and a shootout a few weeks later at a soccer tournament that killed three people -- including a teenager waiting to play the game he loved. To document and study the violence he and other News Journal colleagues were covering, senior reporter Cris Barrish gathered information for a database detailing the 158 shootings, including 42 homicides, over a 20-month period. He learned that police made arrests in only one-third of the cases, many of which collapsed in court. His research into why police could not solve cases led to the revelation that both shooting suspects and victims had been arrested an average of about two dozen times, with many qualifying as habitual criminals -- a phenomenon that some authorities call "thugicide.'' His stories also explored the “don’t snitch’’ code of the streets that cripples prosecution of these cases, not only by the men on both sides of the gun barrel, but also by residents who are terrified of the gunmen and distrustful of law enforcement.
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Earmarks To Nowhere
Just when you thought you had read every outrageous story about congressional pork, last year USA TODAY revealed $13 billion in "orphan earmarks"- highway spending directed to pet projects but never spent. For states, this uncooked pork came at a tremendous cost: almost $7.5 billion of the earmarked money was taken directly out of the state's direct highway funding- meaning states literally lost billions they could have spent to improve or build bridges and highways.
Tags: pork barreling; earmarks; highway; money; orphan earmarks
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Dark Market
"The story examined 30 percent of the commodity futures markets for oil that trade without regulation. We examined how these markets may have played a role in bumping up the price of oil over the summer of 2008."
Tags: gasoline; Intercontinental Exchange; ICE; Trading Commission; barrel; premium price;
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In Harm's Way
This investigation shows how the lack of supplies and maintenance of equipment affected National Guard troops in Iraq. It also shows "how irresponsible pork-barrel spending by Congress has given the Pentagon no other choice but to raid some of the very accounts that pay for equipment and maintenance."
Tags: war; Iraq; National Guard; War on Terror; soldiers
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Corporate America's Secret Money Trail: "Dirty Money, Clean Banks" , "The $150 Billion Shell Game", "Homeland Security Pork Barrel"
"These three stories document different ways that the largest U.S. corporations break laws and don't get prosecuted, use secret Cayman Island dummy companies to avoid paying taxes, and place top executives on Presidential Advisory boards that award their companies billions of dollars in federal contracts."
Tags: corporate fraud; taxes; Coke; Intel; Cayman Islands; J.P. Morgan; Wells Fargo; banks; money laundering
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After Strom: Can a cracker-barrel fabulist capture South Carolina's Senate seat?
Profile of Alex Sanders, the Democratic candidate who sought to replace Strom Thurmond, when the elder Senator retired in 2002. "Sanders is sixty-three," writes Joe Klein, "but his sensibility seems much older--from the time before radio, where people entertained each other by telling yarns....Sanders is an estimable man, the former chief judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals and, most recently, the president of the College of Charleston." Klein provides a behind-the-scenes look at Sanders' campaign, as well as painting a vivid profile of the man himself.
Tags: south carolina; strom thurmond; senate; congress; alex sanders; charleston; campaign; politics; political; democrat
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Government Waste
A look into numerous areas of government spending, focusing on cases of what many consider to be a waste of tax dollars.
Tags: taxes; government waste; pork barrel; government spending; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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US Oil Politics in the Kuwait of Africa
Equatorial Guinea has a history of human rights abuses and went so far as to threaten the US Ambassador to the country with death in 1996. Shortly after this incident, diplomatic ties were cut off with the country. Six years later the Bush Administration resumed those connections due to the possibility of 1 billion barrels of oil existing off the coast of the country.
Tags: politics; foreign affairs; oil; africa
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Fatal Attraction
ABC news investigates how teenagers really react to guns. A few weeks after visiting a YMCA and giving gun safety lectures, ABC News conducted a hidden-camera experiment to find out how teenagers would react to finding a gun. The teenagers overwhelmingly played with the gun, loaded it, looked down the barrel and tried to fire it. The parents who watched the tape were horrified -- this was not how they thought their children would react.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; guns; teenagers; hidden camera
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Pigging Out
A National Journal investigation looks at the new developments in the "age-old practice of lawmakers pledging their support for key legislation in exchange for federally funded projects in their districts." The tradition, known as "pork barrel spending," isn't likely to die, even though Republicans who seized Congress in 1994 wouldn't put up with it, the magazine reports. The story reveals that most GOP revolutionaries have been trying to steer money for roads and bridges toward their districts in exchange for supporting the new transportation bill. The article provides insight on how funding for infrastructure has changed over the years.
Tags: transportation; lawmakers; politicians; GOP; Republicans; Democrats; pet projects; highways; gas tax; federal funds