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 "cost estimates" ...
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Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions on Rental Deals
This story is about one of the most fought-over pieces of property in Los Angeles, the 400 acre Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in West Los Angeles. It’s in an affluent neighborhood and has been a target of developers. But with many unused buildings, it’s also been coveted as a place to house some of L.A.’s 8,000 homeless veterans. That was the original use of the land, which was donated for an Old Soldiers’ Home in the late 19th century. The VA has not acted on plans announced in 2007 to begin rehabbing unused buildings there for housing for homeless vets. Meanwhile, it’s rented out land and buildings to commercial enterprises. There is no public accounting for this income. Through FOIA and other documents, we found that the VA is renting out the property using a law intended for sharing health care resources, though the renters are non-health related commercial enterprises. We were also able to estimate that the VA has taken in at least 28 million and possibly more than 40 million dollars over the past dozen years, far more than the cost of re-habbing a building to house homeless vets.
Tags: Property; neighborhood; land uses; veterans
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Cyber Espionage: The Chinese Threat
It’s the biggest threat facing American business today but the least talked about by corporate executives. Experts at the highest levels of government agree, cyber espionage is threatening to steal American wealth, American jobs and ultimately America’s economic security and the biggest aggressor is China. Due to the nature of the crime, the cost to American businesses is nearly impossible to pinpoint. Experts say Chinese hackers are constantly probing corporate networks, sifting through endless amounts of data to decipher what is valuable intellectual property, chemical formulas or proprietary technology. One conservative estimate from the National Counter Intelligence Executive puts the cost of economic espionage at up to $400B annually, but the report states such estimates vary “so widely as to be meaningless,” reflecting the scarcity of data available. CNBC’s David Faber and the Investigations Inc. team spoke with many corporate executives about China’s aggressive effort to target American businesses and their most valuable assets, but many refused to comment on camera for our report, citing becoming more vulnerable to attack by speaking publicly about the issue. However, not one executive denied their company is at risk of cyber-attack on a daily basis or the possibility of losing valuable intellectual property to cyber spies. Government and industry experts we spoke with on-camera have witnessed such costly cyber-attacks during their careers and attest to the fact there are only two companies left in America today: Those who know they’ve been hacked and those who don’t. From a whistleblower claiming telecommunications giant Nortel was one of the first casualties of this all-out cyber war, to high profile and public attacks on Google and RSA, its clear defending against cyber espionage is the new normal for American business.
Tags: Chinese hackers; American businesses; cyber attacks; cyber espionage
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Health Care Hustle
It is one of the biggest and most overlooked factors in the rising cost of health care. According to government estimates, fraud in programs like Medicare and Medicaid costs taxpayers $80 billion a year, with some estimates as high as twice that amount. Doctors, pharmacists, home health care providers, and even patients are hustling the system. Who's paying the tab? You Are.
Tags: Health care; fraud; Medicare; Medicaid; taxpayers; government authorities; patients
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"Prison Medical Series"
In this investigation, Charles Piller reveals that cost to improve medical care in California's prisons was grossly "overstated." In 2006, a court-ordered receiver took control of the prisons' health care system and "fundamentally" miscalculated the $8 million estimate. Further investigation shows "fraud and waste" within the receiver's "staffing programs."
Tags: Matthew Cate; Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; J. Clark Kelso; John Hagar; California state prisons
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Taj Mahal on the Trinity
"This story dealt with the out-of-control construction costs of public county community college urban campus." Also, the errors made by the district, the demands for more money, and failure to oversee the project until the costs estimates were up to "half-billion dollars with less than one-third of the project complete." Further, a great deal of citizens turned against the project, due to the large amount of taxpayer dollars being used.
Tags: education; facility; FOIA; Tarrant County; college district; construction; costs; colleges
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The Evidence Gap
The nations' medical bill last year exceeded $2.7 trillin -- nearly as much as the projected total cost of the Iraq war. If it were medical money well spend, there might be few cries to "reform" the American health care system. But by some estimates, one-third or more of the medical care received by patients in this country may be virtually worthless. The nation is wasting hundreds of billions of dollars each year on superfluous treatments -- money that otherwise could by spent, for example , on providing health insurance for every child, woman and man int his country who currently have no coverage. A team of science and business reporters from The New York Times set out to explain how and why the United States is spending so much on health care with so relatively little to show for the money, They discovered a gaping chasm between scientific evidence and the practice of medicine. In an in-depth series of articles, told through real doctors and patients, and based on information they dug up that was frequently unflattering to medical providers, companies and regulators, the Times team documented many disturbing instances of "The Evidence Gap."
Tags: health care; CT angiograms; Avastin; cancer treatment; reckless spending; Food and Drug Administration; mammograms
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2008 Auto Issue
Two groundbreaking stories in Consumer Reports' annual auto issue used sophisticated survey techniques to help people cut through the hype of spending money on their automobile. The first story, "What that car really costs," looked at new owner cost estimates that help consumers asses how much they are going to spend. The second story used owners' actual experiences with buying and using extended warranties to show that they are usually a bad deal.
Tags: car costs; consumers; automobiles; auto maintenance; auto repair; cost estimates; buying cars
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Short Circuit in the Wired City
Tacoma, Washington recently installed a new computer system. However it ended up costing more than was estimated. The investigation discovered that the managers were to blame. They misinformed the public about how well the system would work and its cost, as well as shutting out dissenters and ignoring best practices.
Tags: costs; city government; money; technology; management
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The High Price of Homeland Security
In the rush to protect the nation, the federal government has handed out billions of dollars worth of contracts for security systems to prevent another terrorist attack. This ongoing examination of federal contracts found that the Department of Homeland Security failed to properly supervise those projects, the costs are climbing far above the original estimates, and some of the systems are not performing as promised.
Tags: terrorism; government contracts; lobbyists; government expenditure; Department of Defense
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Is Bigger Better?
When officials in Orlando decided to build a new convention center for the town (which will end up costing a total of $2.8 billion), they told residents that it would attract around 500,000 visitors during its first year. However, the center only attracted a mere 154,317 visitors and had a bad impact on Orlando's economy. Dan Tracy investigated and found that the numbers given by those who run the convention center are only estimates and educated guesses. He also found that it is becoming harder and harder for other cities to compete with Las Vegas, which is the number one convention destination.
Tags: The Orange County Convention Center; Las Vegas; tourism; Convention and Visitors Bureau