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 "condemnation" ...
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Politics' Role in Selecting Judges Condemned, Defended
"Virginia remains the only state in the nation in which the legislature - specifically the majority party - wields all the power in the judicial selection process." Because of this, patronage is a problem, as judges have been appointed to positions after making "hefty campaign contributions to the legislators who picked them."
Tags: Patronage; campaign contributions; judicial appointments; judicial selection
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Hillsborough County School District Land Investigation
The ninth largest U.S. school district, Hillsborough County (FL), in 2006 was "growing fast enough to fill five new schools" per year. To meet the demand, Hillsborough county used the services of 4 private real estate brokers, without using bids, in violation of its own regulations. Three of the four brokers have records of criminal, legal and financial problems. Some of those brokers simultaneously represented the sellers, or flipped the land themselves, resulting in land purchases often made substantially above appraisal values. Reporters from the St. Petersburg Times documented swampland purchases, and school sites surrounded by the homes of sexual predators.
Tags: land; school board; school district superintendent; real estate brokers; realtors; swampland; bidding practices; state FOI; land flipping; rezoning applications; condemnation; assessments; appraisals; financial investigations; land records; wetland maps; FBI investigation; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Excel; Matthew B. Cox; Chester B. Luney; Fred Edmister; National Realty Associates; school planning; Wilson-Miller; Florida Real Estate Commission; 2606 East Caracus Land Trust; Laurence E. Fuentes; Fuentes and Kreischer Title Co.; Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
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Pipeline to Peril
The story exposed how the US government finances and benefits from practices it also condemns, namely human trafficking, and how those practices feed an undocumented and illicit pipeline of cheap labor to America's privatized military-support operations in Iraq.
Tags: human trafficking; War on Terrorism; War in Iraq; Halliburton; FOIA; undocumented workers
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Land Condemnation: Who Pays the Price?
The investigation focuses on Kentucky's system of acquiring land for highway construction which wastes millions of dollars in public funds, is often performed by biased and unqualified surveyors, and efforts which have failed to change the system over the last three decades.
Tags: Federal Highway Administration; Kentucky's Transportation Cabinet; FOIA; public funds; highway construction; land condemnation
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Canada vs. Vatican
Le Point magazine compares the Catholic Church's official doctrine re: homosexuality and gay marriage to the realities of sexual abuse by Canadian priests, finding a blatant conflict between the Vatican's condemnation of gay marriage and its long-standing toleration of priests' child abuse. The article is in French, but the Resource Center has provided a basic translation in English.
Tags: separation of church and state; discrimination; civil rights; Catholic Church; Vatican; the Pope; child abuse; child pornography
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Ports in the Storm
The author audited the South Carolina State Ports Authority. He found that the agency, "...condemned land from private citizens, violated the state Freedom of Information Act, had questionable connections to private businesses associated with the state operation and perks like $7,600 golf club memberships paid from the state rolls."
Tags: FOIA; watchdog; fraud; government waste; corruption; state and local government; port; shipping; cargo; containers; privatization; transportation; intermodal
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Uncomfortably Numb
Lethal injection procedures have been largely unchanged - and unexamined - since the method was pioneered in the mid-1970s. It is possible that a condemned inmate might awaken during the lethal injection procedure, but because of the injection's paralytic agent, no observer would notice. The combination of two of the drugs used by executioners in Missouri and many other states has been condemned by the American Medical Veterinary Association for use in animal euthanasia.
Tags: lethal injection; death penalty
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Take and Give. Condemnation is used to hand one business property to another. Tactic by local governments seeking jobs and taxes is protested as unfair. BMW Yes, Mitsubishi No.
According to the article, "Local and state governments are now using their awesome powers of condemnation, or eminent domain, in a kind of corporate triage: grabbing property from one private business to give to another. A device used for centuries to smooth the way for public works such as roads, and later to ease urban blight has become a marketing tool for governments seeking to lure bigger business."
Tags: eminent domain; condemn; condemnation; property; owners; buildings; public works; big business; ownership; land
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Land Grab
This article looks at the national battle over property rights and the use of eminent domain authority. Opposition to local condemnation powers is on the increase, particularly when it is used to hasten redevelopment and/or favors one private owner over another. Highlighted are cases in Port Chester, NY, Merriam, KS and Pittsburgh, PA.
Tags: development; eminent domain; property-rights; local condemnation powers
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Bringing Down the House
A Riverfront Times investigation exposes St. Louis City's "demolition craze." The report reveals that the Housing Authority has failed to fix and use its old vandalized buildings, while at the same time hundreds of large families are waiting for subsidized housing. The story focuses on a house at 5950 Enright Avenue, which the Housing Authority insists on tearing down, even though neighbors want to buy it, and a building inspector recommends saving it. "Once a house is condemned, boarded up and labeled "V&V" (vacant and vandalized", demolition's the next step," the Times reports.
Tags: construction; inspection; low-income; poverty; urban renewal; rehabilitation