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 "expenditure" ...
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Buying the Election
“Never Mind the Super PACs: How Big Business Is Buying the Election” investigates previously unreported ways that businesses have taken advantage of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which overturned a century of campaign finance law and allowed corporations to spend directly on behalf of candidates. The piece debunks a common misperception that businesses have taken advantage of their new political spending powers primarily through so-called Super PACs. In fact, most Super PAC donations have come from extremely wealthy individuals, not corporations. The investigation shows how corporations have instead used a variety of 501(c) nonprofits, primarily 501(c)(6) “trade associations,” to direct substantial corporate money on federal elections. As one prominent advisor to GOP candidates as well as corporations points out, "many corporations will not risk running ads on their own," for fear of the reputational damage, but the trade groups make these ad buys nearly anonymous. In 2010, 501(c)(6) trade associations and 501(c)(4) issue-advocacy groups outspent Super PACs $141 million to $65 million. The investigation shows that the growth of trade association political spending has had a number of significant ramifications, such as increased leverage during beltway lobbying campaigns. Most troublingly, legal loopholes allow foreign interests to use trade associations to directly influence American elections. One of the most significant revelations in the piece was that the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association for the oil and gas industry, had funneled corporate cash to groups that had run hard-hitting campaign ads while being led in part by a lobbyist for the Saudi Arabian government, Tofiq Al-Gabsani. As an API board member, Al-Gabsani was part of the team that directed these efforts, which helped defeat candidates who supported legislation that would move American energy policy away from its focus on fossil fuels. Federal law prevents Al-Gabsani, as a foreign national, from leading a political action committee, or PAC. But nothing in the law stopped him from leading a trade group that made campaign expenditures just as a PAC would.
Tags: Elections; campaign finance; corporations; Super PACs
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Moonlighting deputies funnel cash to sheriff
Deputies working off-duty paid details at places such as Walgreens and Wal-Mart all pay Sheriff Marlin Gusman one dollar for every hour they work, providing Gusman with about $100,000 in discretionary money each year. Gusman, who often pleads penury in running his office, uses the detail money to throw parties for his staff and hire cheerleaders -- such expenditure is illegal, the Attorney General's Office has opined.
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"It's Your Money"
Several agencies in Kentucky that are funded by taxpayer money came under fire last year when the Herald-Leger revealed records of agency official's extravagant travel costs and other outrageous expenditures. The agencies, including the Lexington Public Library, the Kentucky Association of Counties and the Kentucky League of Cities, were operating with "little oversight" until their excessive use of taxpayer money was exposed.
Tags: Kentucky League of Cities; Lexington Public Library; Lexington's Blue Grass Airport; Kentucky Association of Counties; expenditures; Sylvia Lovely
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State of Your Money
The investigation reveals a shocking spending habit by Indiana's state government, while Indiana is faced with a statewide budget crisis. Through this investigation, it was found "nearly 1.7 million expenditures in Indiana's general ledger". The examination uncovered the purchasing of many overpriced and pointless items, such as office furniture, luxury trips, and promotional items. Overall, they spent "millions of dollars" on these items in total. As a result, action was taken and a statewide review of spending took place and new policies were underway.
Tags: budget; money; revenue; profit; state; taxpayers; tax dollars; government; expenses
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A $191 Million Question
Waste, fraud and criminal activity plague the procurement budget, an expenditure that ballooned to $600 billion in 2007. The Post investigates the sources of the escalating costs and finds government and corporate ties to be appallingly mangled.
Tags: procurement; military; corporate; Washington; army; contracts; O'Harrow; contractor; technology program; manager; billion;
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City councilman forced to resign over double billing
Acting on a tip from an anonymous source, the newspaper began an investigation of travel and meal expenses by members of the Roanoke City Council. The focus quickly shifted to councilman Alfred Dowe. Travel expense forms, receipts, credit card statements and other documents showed Dowe spent nearly $15,000 on city-related meals, lodging and travel in 2007 - almost as much as the other six council members.
Tags: city council; city government; travel expenses; Virginia; reimbursement; expenditure
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The Fall of Ohio's Attorney General
While top state officials from Elliot Spitzer to Rod Blagojevich fell from grace in 2008, no one was pushed out the door through dogged reporting by the press -- in this case, The Columbus Dispatch -- quite like Ohio's attorney general, Marc Dann. Information from a variety of sources and examination of voluminous e-mails and documents led to stories detailing sexual harassment and a shockingly unprofessional, party-like atmosphere of high-ranking Dann officials, including ribald festivities at the so-called "Dannimal House," the condo where he lived along with a pair of top aides. The Dispatch also broke stories about other misdeeds ranging from questionable campaign expenditures, shaky hiring practices and suspect purchases, as well as a proposed trip by Dann to a "law enforcement conference" in Turkey with his female scheduler. Although her trip, bankrolled by homeland security money, was nixed, the paper documented how Dann called her (on the taxpayers' dime via satellite phone) more often than his wife. Dann, 45, later admitted an affair with the scheduler, 28.
Tags: misconduct; attorney general; Ohio; Marc Dann; resignation; sexual harassment; campaign finance
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Dart Travel Spending
CBS 11 News reviewed thousands of pages of documents pertaining to travel expenses and credit card purchases by executives and staff members who manage Dallas Area Rapid Transit, AKA DART. We discovered dozens trips around the country and around the world for seminars. While traveling, executives enjoyed expensive accommodations. The station also found questionable expenditures on expensive catering, gift cards and purchases from Victoria's Secret. The expenses came at a time when the agency faced a $1,000,000,000 budget shortfall that jeopardized key transportation projects. CBS 11 producers followed a group of executives and board members to a transit junket in California where we watched as many skipped key meetings, attended steak dinners and parties thrown by companies who bid on transit projects. The station also watched as DART executives and staff members violated internal policies by using taxis and shuttles instead of local mass transit, a pattern found while reviewing dozens of other out-of-town junkets.
Tags: mass transit; Dallas; fraud; transit authority; travel expenses; questionable spending
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A Natural Question
Organic food costs consumers extra, sometimes twice as much or more than the "normal" equivalent. This expenditure is justified by the idea that organic foods are healthier. Yet, a Dallas Morning News investigation found that "some organic farmers and plant workers cheat. For example, they spray banned chemicals on their crop, or they raise animals using methods contrary to organic rules." Also, the organizations intended to certify the organic providers sometimes "bend the rules, or they're just woefully unqualified to enforce them." Overseas operations also raise concerns, as they export organic foods, but the USDA is unable to monitor these exports well, and cannot enforce violations.
Tags: Organic foods; organic imports/exports; organic farmers; organic products
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Down the Hole
The Chicago Reporter examines the Illinois school system and its funding, dropouts and their effect on the economy and the connection between funding and results. The investigation found that the 2005 range in expenditure per student was $4,000 to $28,000 and poor communities and farms were taxed at higher rates then their wealthier counterparts. School officials asserted that there is a clear connection between funding and quality of student produced, and an analysis by the newspaper bore this out. But a second analysis did not link funding to quality of student.
Tags: Schools; school funding; droput rate; high school dropouts; taxation; tax rates