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 "city services" ...
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A City Program's Deadly Failures
In this story, we uncovered dangerous breakdowns in a DC program critical to public safety. It had received millions of city dollars to rehabilitate young offenders without locking them up. Yet we found many of its teens did not get any services at all, and dozens were murdered or arrested for murder. As a result of our reporting, the city overhauled the program and the mayor called for an investigation by the attorney general.
Tags: Public safety; crime; criminals; young offenders; teen criminals
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Spanish-language FOIA requests
We undertook the project to explore the issue of language access and freedom of information. Our goals were threefold. First, we wanted to break new ground in open government with regards to language access by submitting FOI requests in Spanish. Second, we wanted to receive data from officials at city, country, state and federal levels to use as the basis for stories and articles that fulfilled our watchdog and public service mission. Third, we wanted to educated our colleagues and readers about their information rights so that they could have additional tools for their news production and consumption, respectively.
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Bad Medicine
"This series details the history of a Kansas City area neurosurgeon who has a long history of malpractice cases involving paralysis, disfigurement and deaths yet maintains a spotless Kansas medical license."
Tags: FOI; malpractice; Department of Health and Human Services
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A Horrible Answer
Fire years into massive reforms, Washington, D.C.'s pledge to create a more compassionate juvenile justice system remains unfulfilled, and youth in the custody of the city are killing and dying at epidemic proportions. This series looked comprehensively at the statistics and the stories behind a year's worth of deadly violence among juveniles in the custody of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), in most cases because they had a juvenile criminal record. Reporters found that during the year they studied, one in five homicides in the city involved a youth in the custody of the city as either a victim or a suspect.
Tags: Juvenile; Washington, D.C.; Crime; Violence; Youth; State; Homicide; Ward of City; Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services; DYRS
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"First, Do No Harm/Behind The Curtain"
Two women have come forward to say they were sexual assaulted by a male ER nurse while in the care of North Kansas City Hospital. The women were heavily drugged while the assaults occurred. KCTV reporters found that sexual assault on hospital patients is not as rare a problem as most might think. However, when asked about the issue, local advocacy groups, state nursing boards and even the senior V.P. of the Joint Commission were unaware it even existed.
Tags: MOCSA; Joint Commission; Federal Department of Health and Human Services; North Kansas City Hospital; William Price; Center for Health Ethics; Sarah Breier; Missouri State Board of Nursing; Paul Schyve
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"Wrongful Conviction, Unequal Compensation"
New York states says it has a "moral obligation" to tend to those who are wrongfully convicted. Once released, however, those who were wrongfully put behind bars often spend years waiting on compensation, while others never receive any payment at all. Reporters for the New York City News Service take a look at what happens after the prisoner's release and find several flaws in the state's system.
Tags: New York State law; wrongfully convicted; wrongful conviction compensation law; John Scott; Isidore Zimmerman
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Big Money Slides From WFP To City Campaigns; All In The Family
“The Working Families Party is an increasingly powerful third political party in New York which, due to quirky state election laws, is able to cross-endorse candidates and get involved in other parties’ primaries.” The question that everyone has been asking is how WFP (Working Families Party) finances its extensive operations. The first article reveals this very question. The WFP owned a secretive political consulting company, which uses the same resources as WFP and in apparent opposition to New York City’s campaign finance laws. The second article reveals that WFP not only has two arms, but there are in fact four arms. These four arms show the benefits received by WFP are of a political party, a non-profit, and a for-profit.
Tags: Working Families Party(WFP); New York; Data and Field Services(DFS); Campaigns; Politics; Politicians
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Flights to Nowhere
"Essential Air Services" paid airlines millions to fly near-empty planes to cities that most people have never heard of. Thirty years after the program began it has grown into a $127 million a year subsidy. It was found that the government pays for 2.4 million empty seats to be flown a year.
Tags: airplane; fly route; tourist; travel; flight; airfare;
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"Prescription for Profits"
The Wall Street Journal examined whether nonprofit hospitals, which account for the majority of hospitals in the U.S., deserve the billions of dollars in annual tax exemptions they receive. The Journal's series revealed that, far from struggling financially, many nonprofit hospitals have become profit machines while shirking their charitable missions. Among the series' findings: Some pay tens of thousands of dollars upfront' others have closed facilities in poor inner cities and built new ones in affluent suburbs; and one hospital put patients' lives at risk to increase its lucrative liver-transplant business.
Tags: charitable causes; medical service; patient care; hospital taxes; nonprofit hospitals; Amish; Mennonites
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EMS Taxi: Health Care Dysfunction on Wheels
An analysis of the public records database found that Cleveland residents were calling 911 to be picked up by Emergency Medical Service ambulances for minor ailments. This is because dispatchers can't say no. The result is that response times are slow and the transportation is a high cost for the city.
Tags: transportation; emergency medical services; Medicaid; Medicare; Metrohealth Medical Center; Cleveland; ambulance; 911; database; health; medicine;