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 workers" ...
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Counting Kids Out
"Counting Kids Out" exposed years of systemic cheating in Columbus City Schools, Ohio's largest school district. The rolling investigation has uncovered widespread fraud that likely resulted in higher-than-deserved report-card grades; inflated graduation rates; and bonuses for school workers who did not actually deserve them.
Tags: Columbus City Schools; cheating; fraud; graduation retes
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City Hall Heist
How a humble city utilities dept. worker stole $1 million from City Hall, with no one noticing. His fellow employees had no idea that mild-mannered "nice guy" Joe Phan was a millionaire and - relying merely on a rubber stamp, an ATM machine and a willing bank - was depositing stolen city checks into his personal account at the rate of more than $360,000 annually. Seattle Weekly dived into the story explaining for the first time who Phan was, how he pulled off a million-dollar heist, and how it could happen again.
Tags: City utilities department; city hall; theft
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Retiree' benefits under fire; Car perks add up for taxpayers; Were city workers' nest eggs too generous?
The series examined lash perks of government workers in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The stories found that even as local governments cried poverty because of state-mandated tax cuts, they continued to heap generous benefits to public employees - even if it meant imposing tax hikes down the road.
Tags: benefits; city workers; taxes; pension; municipalities; retiree
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Boston Firefighters Disability Pensions
"Boston firefighters became increasingly injury prone in recent years and reported career-ending, on-the-job injuries at more than three times the rate of comparably sized cities. They often remained on the city payroll, on injured leave while taxpayers paid their full salaries, for months - and in some cases, several years - while retirement officials with strong union ties processed their disability retirement claims"
Tags: firefighters; workers compensation; disability fraud; padding pensions; disability retirement fraud; disability claims
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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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Did State Fund Overpay in Redding Land Deal?
State Compensation Insurance Fund board member Kent Dagg was pushed for State Fund to build a new regional headquarters in his city of Redding, California. SCIF overpaid for the property by almost 50 percent, and the contract was given to a former officer of the Shasta County Builders Exchange, which was run by Kent Dagg.
Tags: Highway 44: Shasta View Drive; Ken Miller; Lewis-Pripgras; Workers' Comp Executive; Frank Del Re;
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New Orleans Now: Immigrants, Labor Rights and the Human Cost of Rebuilding and American City- Part 1
"An in-depth report on the variety of human rights, labor rights, health care and advocacy issues surrounding the treatment of immigrant and migrant workers in Post-Katrina New Orleans."
Tags: Hurricane Katrina; Mexican; spanish; African-American; General Robert E. Lee Circle; New Worker Center for Racial Justice; Common Ground Health Clinic; health care
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Paper Pushers
During the 2003 election Mayor Richard M. Daley won by reaching out to all corners of Chicago: white to black, Latin to Asian citizens. Before the election took place, he had people mostly of white and Latin descent along with many city workers petition his signatures, which led to his victory.
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Broken Ballots
After a primary election in "an inner city legislative precinct in Memphis" finished with a margin of just 13 votes for the winner, the Commercial Appeal looked into the election. Among its findings were: "names of dead people and others on vacant lots were used to cast ballots." Also, a poll worker who was tasked to monitor voting and "whose signature appears on Election Day records including vote tallies from voting machines was actually in New York on a taxpayer-funded trip that day, not at the polling place." In addition, hundreds of deceased persons and people who have moved away are still on the voter lists, and many Election Day workers at the polls have criminal records.
Tags: Election fraud; false voter registration; dead people on voting lists