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 "disclosure laws" ...
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Full Disclosure
When the Daily Record used the state's new open records law, it created an open records website. Doing this published multiple public records based stories and investigations. One of the largest stories to come out of this was the compensation paid to the founders and operators of Angel Food Ministries Inc. This raised the question of what their earnings were being used for and if they were really an organization focused on helping the less fortunate.
Tags: FOIA; Angel Food Ministries Inc; charity; new open records law; records; public; access; documents; Wingo family; non-profit; Christian
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Bosnia-Herzegovina Politicians' Assets
By law, Bosnian politicians are required to disclose their assets. When the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo explored financial records of individual politicians, small unreported private fortunes were uncovered. Corporate kickbacks from special interests were found as well.
Tags: Bosnia; Herzegovina; assets; politicians; disclosure; finances; officials; officeholders; private business;
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Police Illegally Buying Machine Guns
"An ongoing, in-depth investigation, coupled with ongoing Freedom of Information litigation, of the secret, illegal purchase of dozens of machine guns by officers of the Albany, NY Police Department who used their agency's authority to buy automatic weapons for official use only as a means to acquire restricted firearms for personal sport and amusement. Eventually, the guns began turning up for sale in at least two gun stores. To this day, several machine guns remain missing and unaccounted for while the department refuses to comply with New York's FOI Laws and has fought disclosure of the truth at every turn."
Tags: police; weapons; fireams; FOI; city government; law enforcement; gun control
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Series on Congressman Jerry Weller
Congressman Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) is married to a foreign government official, Zury Rios Sosa, daughter of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt. Weller is a member of a committee "whose main focus is Latin America," and "has been silent about Guatemalan problems that affect the U.S., particularly drug smuggling." The investigation also found that Weller failed to report on his congressional disclosure form the amount of beachfront property he owns in Nicaragua, putting him in "violation of house ethics rules and U.S. law."
Tags: Jerry Weller; Zury Rios Sosa; Efrain Rios Montt; Guatemala; political conflicts of interest; politicians' financial disclosure forms
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Cash Cow
The author investigated the use of public funds going to political insiders, conflicts of interest, cronyism, nepotism and a reluctance for transparency in the little- scrutinized town of Southwest Ranches, Florida. The investigation showed how a "contract" form of government could spin out of control and defy all tenets of good public policy.
Tags: Southwest Ranches; public funds; conflicts of interest; cronyism; nepotism; contract government; public disclosure; Sunshine laws
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Free ride: While schools suffer, hundreds get free city cars and fill-ups
In this ongoing series that exposes mismanagement, incompetence and corruption inside Yonkers City Hall, the newspaper examined the city's car-lease program for employees, questionable ethics among officials, and a handshake deal for garbage service that allowed businesses to pay their bills in cash. The investigation found the city spent more than $820,000 on 54 car leases -- far more than similarly sized cities -- including leases for SUVs and other expensive cars. Council members were awarded lucrative contracts while in office, and they had failed to file financial disclosure forms for five years as required by law. The garbage deal defied a city code and cost taxpayers $175,000 annually.
Tags: ethics; government leases; contracts; Freedom of Information; computer-assisted reporting; CAR; car-lease program; financial disclosure laws; trash service; city government
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Wining and dining allowed, but, please, no wooing
This Inquirer investigation into lobbyists' reports reveals the shortcomings of New Jersey's disclosure laws. While the amount of money lobbyists spent mushroomed to more than $10 million in 1989, a number of loopholes in the law leave some of the recipients of that money unknown. The reports did disclose how some legislators were wined and dined and how others were wooed with golf and trips to sporting events.
Tags: lobbyists; lobbying disclosure law; lawmakers; legislature; government; politics
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Secret Files
The Courant detailed the extent and nature of an unusual practice whereby state judges selectively sealed cases, some so completely that their very existence was not publicly acknowledged. That disclosure, and the revelations that the practice often favored fellow judges, celebrities, and wealthy CEO's, stoked considerable public outrage. Six months later, judges abolished it.
Tags: state judges; dockets; Connecticut Practice Book; Connecticut Law Tribune; sealed cases; sealed files; lawsuit; divorce-court cases; Texaco; Nine West; Arthur Anderson; MasterCard; Primerica Corp.; General Electric; University of Connecticut; Level 1 sealing; Level 2 sealing; judicial branch; Superior Court Judges; U.S. Supreme Court; Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford; Connecticut State Supreme Court; U.S. District Court in Hartford; sexual abuse; lawsuits public interest cases; secret court files; state-court proceedings
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Hired Guns
The Center for Public Integrity offers this analysis of every state's lobbyist disclosure laws. They found that, while lobbyists and their employers spent more than $715 million winging, dinging and generally influencing state lawmakers in 2002, many details about how those dollars were spent remain hidden from public view.
Tags: lobbyist; lobby; government; legislature
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Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else
This in- depth examination of tax laws is based on analysis of government statistical reports, court records, SEC disclosure forms and other documents. It proves that America's tax laws are unfair.