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 "copy" ...
-
Bales: Army suspect in Afghan shooting was liable in financial fraud
On the day that tips arose about a U.S. soldier who may have strafed two Afghan villages, I left the office for a flight to Tacoma. Within 48 hours of the soldier’s being identified as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, I and two colleagues broke the news that the emerging hagiography of Bales drafted by family and attorneys had more to it than the story of a soldier who enlisted at the ripe of 27 driven by outrage over the 2001 terrorist attacks—and then broken down by an unrelenting cycle of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Our story started with pure spidey senses: Bales’ s family and lawyer said he had left a stockbroker’s career to enlist, as they explained his call to serve. Yet he had not finished college and clearly had financial troubles, I had determined. And he was active in brokerage in the late 1990s in Florida I learned by checking assorted online records—which raised my suspicions about the quick-money penny stock trading that was commonplace then. Based on those instincts, while also doing the running daily story from Bales’ Army base in Washington state, I had checked some online brokerage records and enlisted Julie Tate to look at others and run through civil and criminal filings in Ohio (Bales’s home state and then nationally). Within an hour, I had found one suspicious record and Julie had found others and we were off on a 30-hour run of investigative reporting and boots on the ground interviews that yielded the breaking news of Bales’s more complicated—and less laudatory—past in the period just before he joined the Army. We located and I interviewed an elderly couple who had lost substantial savings in accounts managed by Bales and received copies of detailed financial records that corroborated their claims and showed Bales as the account manager. We also peeled back corporate records for a now-shuttered firm run by Bales and his brother with backing from a longtime friend and reached him to further flesh out the checkered professional history of the Staff Sgt. at the center of an explosive, fast-moving and intensely competitive story. The story demanded intense investigative reporting that netted notable results in far far less than 30 days of a breaking event.
Tags: U.S. soldier; Afghanistan; military draft; terrorist attacks; deployment
-
Seattle Police:Vanishing Videos
This story began as a relatively simple venture; how to get copies of police dashboard camera videos to provide watchdog oversight of a police department facing growing criticism. It grew into a major expose of questionable police tactics and a battle for public access to critical public records that is currently before the state Supreme Court. Over the course of a year and a half, KOMO TV’s fight for videos and the video database became a game of strategy and attrition as the Seattle Police Department denied us access to public records at every opportunity. We tried every means at our disposal to get these records including direct appeals to elected officials. Finally, with no other recourse, KOMO TV sued the SPD and the city of Seattle. Only then did we make our fight for these records public. What followed in 2012 was a cascade of stories; people coming forward alleging police misconduct and an attempt to hide the videos that would tell the truth. In addition to KOMO TV’s public records lawsuit, our investigation has prompted state legislators and other open records advocates to pursue changes in state law to ensure these records can no longer stay hidden.
Tags: police; camera videos; SPD; Seattle Police Department; public records
-
Moonlight Patrol
After a grueling odyssey through the Pennslyvania courts, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Associated Press obtained heavily redacted copies of 1,038 supplemental employment forms filed over the previous six and a half years by state troopers and the agency's civilian employees. Despite assurances to the contrary, the Trib uncovered numerous violations of statute and state regulations regarding the after-hours employment of the police.
Tags: employment; police; after hours; pittsburgh police
-
Janitor Paid $100,000 to Travel
This series exposed the outrageous hiring practices at the nation's sixth largest school district, casting a light on a system in which janitors and copy clerks were paid huge salaries as teachers- but barely set foot in the classroom. Ultimately, the reporting effort saved taxpayers $1 million, led to pay cuts for 59 employees, and resulted in stricter oversight of the Broward County School District.
Tags: Broward County School District; Hiring; School; Taxpayer
-
Sneak & Peek Warrants
A Team 4 investigation exposes people breaking into homes, copying computer files, and covering their tracks on the way out. But these weren't criminals. They were federal law enforcement agents using a special kind of warrant known as sneak & peek.
Tags: Warrants
-
Missing the mark
The Reporter analyzed 1,376 cases where juveniles faced gun charges in adult felony courts between 2006 and 2010. The Reporter randomly selected hard copies of court files for 90 cases -- which represents 57 percent of convictions in 2009 -- and found: -One in four teens was never clearly identified as having had a gun -A gun was recovered in only 46 percent of the cases
Tags: gun; juvenile; conviction; arms; crime;
-
Photocopiers Hidden Danger
Many Americans are unaware that digital office copiers have hard drives in them. CBS News proves how easy it is to read the hard drives using software downloaded from the internet. Security experts say that criminal groups and foreign intelligence services are buying the machines for the documents they may hold.
Tags: technology; hard drive; copy; machine; foreign intelligence; domestic
-
Crime Inc: Counterfeit Goods
The story gives viewers a rare look at the production and sale of counterfeit goods. Viewers hear the story of a company whose brand was copied as well as that of a defense contractor who made counterfeit defense parts used in Iraq.
Tags: counterfeit; raid; fake handbag; fake shoes; fake jewelry; designer; underground industry
-
Overseas Donors
The Associated Press investigated whether any donors to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain with foreign addresses were illegal foreign donors; whether the two campaigns were guarding against illegal foreign money by asking overseas donors for copies of their current U.S. passports as the Federal Election Commission instructs; and to what extent the two campaigns were failing to disclose basic information about donors such as their employers and occupations. The AP reviewed hundreds of thousands of donations from around the globe and found evidence that both campaigns took money first and asked questions later. The reporters found a smattering of illegal foreign donations to Obama as well as missing details in federal paperwork the law requires from Obama and McCain. During interviews with 123 donors in 11 countries, The AP found that Obama accepted illegal contributions from at least three foreigners. In one case, a Canadian noted with is donation that he was not an American; the Obama campaign accepted his money anyway, and the Canadian's note about his foreign citizenship actually appeared in Obama's campaign finance report. A donor in Australia admitted to the AP that he entered a phony passport number when making an Internet contribution to Obama. Just five donors, three for Obama and two for McCain, told the AP that the campaigns asked to see copies of their current U.S. passports.
Tags: Barack Obama; John McCain; campaign finance; illegal donations; foreign donations; campaign regulation; 2008 presidential election
-
District 13 Undervote
Tamman used public records laws to get copies of electronic files that recorded every vote cast on each of the 1,500 electronic voting machines used in District 13 during the race to succeed Katherine Harris. He performed intense statistical analysis to look for trends in voting. He found that party loyalists were mostly responsible for the missing 18,000 votes.
Tags: voting; elections; data analysis; voters