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 "bingo" ...
-
Welfare Waste
An ongoing KSTP-TV investigation, led by reporter Mark Albert, has examined waste and the potential for fraud in Minnesota's public assistance programs, including free-wheeling rules that allowed welfare to be used for tattoos and liquor, withdrawn at ATMs inside casinos and bingo halls and a systematic lack of oversight in state-funded child care that can lead to millions of dollars in payments every year to families and providers that do not qualify.
Tags: public assistance; welfare; oversight
-
FEMA; A Legacy of Waste
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel "exposed waste in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's crisis counseling grants, meant to help people overcome disaster-related mental health problems." In Florida, the $23 million counseling program paid for "puppet shows, Hurricane Bingo and yoga on the beach." Only one fourth of the program supervisors were qualified. Also, the Sun-Sentinel found that "other states had used FEMA grants totaling more than $445 million on activities such as gardening workshops, martial arts classes and "Beat Stress with Crafts." As a result of these stories, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General and the state of Florida each launched an investigation, and a bill was introduced in Congress to "prohibit spending the grants on puppet shows and similar activities."
Tags: FEMA; Federal Emergency Management Agency; Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General; misuse of federal funds; disaster-related mental problems
-
Siren song: Gambling's allure
Utah formally outlaws all forms of gambling. However, it is available in both illegal and legal forms. There is extensive gambling on the border between Idaho and Utah. Also "bingo halls" and "poker clubs", numerous in Utah, are essentially casinos using loopholes in the law. Internet gambling also is popular due to lax law enforcement.
Tags: gambling; Utah; casinos; lottery; illegal gambling; bingo; poker
-
Series: Missing Kids' Center Vanishes" and "Bingo Jackpot"
The National Child Safety Council, a Michigan nonprofit, assumed control of a small missing children's organization (Missing Children's...HELP Center) in Florida in 1980. Twenty-two years later, its abrupt abandonment of the organization left the HELP Center in financial ruin and brought the Council's own financial ethics in question.
Tags: nonprofits; National Child Safety Council; HELP Center; missing children centers; Missing Children's...HELP Center; bingo
-
Ohio Hedges Its Bet
"Increasing competition from neighboring states and an interest by Gov. Bob Taft in enhancing Ohio's lottery options prompted The Dispatch to explore the issue during the past year." Proponents argue that billions of dollars are lost when Ohioans gamble out-of-state, but who are the real losers? The Dispatch finds that "lottery players with annual incomes under $20,000 spend nearly twice as much per person ... as those in the middle-income bracket."
Tags: gambling; lottery; elderly; older Americans; casino; Powerball; slots; online gambling; bingo
-
The Bingo Connection
In this story, Mother Jones investigates the Hawaiian Gardens Bingo Club in Long Beach, CA; in compliance with a California law all profits from the bingo club must be given to a charity; since 1988 the club's owner Irving Moskowitz has been funneling the money into right wing causes in Israel.
-
The Bingo King
Texas Monthly examines the 1998 murder of San Antonio's behind-the-scenes dealmaker, Eddie Garcia. Author discusses how San Antonio's Mexican community has gained political clout since the early 1970s. Offers differing opinions on Garcia's death while commenting on his prominent connections in the community.
Tags: Eddie Garcia; Mexican Americans; Hispanic political power; San Antonio
-
Questions surround Arkansas casino firm
A public company trying to legalize casino gambling, charitable bingo and a lottery in Arkansas was founded by a ragtag group of business partners with questionable pasts.
Tags: Casinos
-
Game for Trouble
The Anniston Star series chronicles how massive amounts of money changed hands in bingo parlors even though the Alabama Constiution doesn't permit games of chance. Alabama has not raised taxes by sidestepping legal restrictions to schemes of wealth for big operators who return a pittance to the public treasury. An amendment to the state's basic law opened bingo to the opportuntists who could feed off the obsession of players. Elected officlas, law enforcemnet officers and a state senator all were invloved.
Tags: gambling; illegal charities; crooked politicians; fraud
-
The Buckley Stops Here
Through mismanagement and over-close ties to the state's most powerful bingo players - including seemingly illegal campaign contributions - Colorado's secretary of state, Victoria Buckley, has turned her office into a meaningless bureaucracy and permitted the bingo industry to effectively run itself free of regulation.
Tags: Politics; Campaign Fincance