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 "expense report" ...
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Grandma can’t accept your call: Inmates disconnected by phone costs
This series of stories started with a simple question. Why does it cost so much for inmates to make calls from the Cook County Jail? In the course of my reporting on criminal and legal affairs for WBEZ, the public radio station in Chicago, I had heard numerous people complain about the high cost of phone calls. Some digging confirmed that the price could be as high as $15.00 for 15 minute calls. Three or four calls a week at that price gets expensive even for financially stable middle class folks, but the people paying these fees were mostly the poorest residents in Chicago. That’s because most of the people in the Cook County Jail are there because they and their families couldn’t afford to post bond of a couple thousand, or sometimes even just hundreds of dollars to secure their freedom while awaiting trial. They are the people who are least able to afford such expensive phone calls. A few FOIA requests revealed the scheme (and scheme is the right word… I just looked it up: a crafty or secret plan of action). Cook County gave an exclusive phone contract to a company called Securus Technologies. Securus charged inflated phone rates and their exclusive deal in the jail meant inmates wanting to talk to their families or arrange their defense had no choice but to pay the rates. Securus then paid back to the county 57½ percent of the revenue from the calls. It netted the county about $4 million a year. Securus wouldn’t tell us their take but I imagine they did alright too. All of the money was coming out of the pockets of the poorest residents in Cook County, people who couldn’t even afford to post bond for their freedom. (As an aside, this isn’t just an issue in Cook County. According to its website Securus provides the phone systems for 850,000 inmates in 2,200 jails and prisons across the country.) Our reporting shed public light on a hugely profitable contract that no one was paying attention to. We documented the lives of the impoverished people getting hammered by the policy and then turned the hammer on the local elected officials to ask them to explain how this was a good policy. The public officials responded in a way that once again proved the genius of democracy. Our efforts and the results are detailed in subsequent answers below.
Tags: prison inmates; phone calls; fees
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Washington Mardi Gras, Pay to Party
Local public officials and employees attend D.C. Mardi Gras festivities each year at taxpayer expense. Is it all work or play? Reporters found local government spent more than $80,000 for the festivities in 2009.
Tags: Mardi Gras; taxpayer; government; city; finance; money; D.C.; Mystick Krewe; civil servants
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Treasury Luxury Travel
The Oregonian's investigation spotlighted an obscure corner of state government where Wall Street practices became business as usual, where a set of high-paid employees were granted special exemptions to operate outside the scope of state gift and ethics laws, and functioned with little internal or public oversight. The newspaper revealed that state investment officers charged with monitoring more than $50 billion in state pension investments routinely travel in luxury, paid for by taxpayers and the Wall Street investment managers they are supposed to be overseeing. They stay at high-end resorts and five-star hotels, eat at celebrated restaurants and fly first class. The tab is often picked up by investment firms managing Oregon's investments, who are competing for hundreds of millions of dollars in fees that the pension fund pays annually. The state treasury didn't monitor that travel. It kept no record of the expenses or gratuities provided its employees. And it ignored the potential conflicts of interest.
Tags: State Government; Corruption; Finance; Wall Street; Exemption; Business; Gift and Ethics Law; Travel; State Treasury; State Employees
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Digging Up Dirt on Flowers
Regional Superintendent Charles Flowers misused close to $400,000 in public money on personal and family expenses. Investigation into the office operations of Flower's yielded accounts of lavish spending on capital equipment for a department already mired in debt. As a result of the reporting, Flowers' irresponsible and corrupt behavior was exposed and he eventually was charged.
Tags: Charles Flowers; Superintendent; Illinois; Schools; debt; spending; corruption; layoffs; nephew; family; employed; public money;
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"At Top Subprime Mortgage Lender, Policies Were Invitation to Fraud
Amid a nationwide lending crisis, reporters found policies at Long Beach Mortgage "encouraged rampant fraud." Company policies made it easy for employees to submit "fake documents" and override "bad loans." Loan reviewers were often bribed with money or expensive items to approve bad loans.
Tags: Long Beach Mortgage; investment; banking; lending; Wall Street
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Scientists Gone Wild
Never before has America been shown such a wild and wasteful side of government scientists. This CBS Evening News exclusive exposed the partying and waste going on at taxpayer expense at some scientific conferences sponsored by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Tags: taxpayer funds; Inspector General Reports; audits; science funding; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; budget; costs; wasteful spending; government spending
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Congressional Travel
The three-month investigation scrutinized trips known as CODELs, or Congressional Delegations, and uncovered millions of tax dollars being spent each year to send members of Congress to exotic locations around the world under the premise of "fact-finding trips."
Tags: travel; federal spending; trip; Galapagos Islands; House of Representatives; junket; expense report; CODEL
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The high price of Rutgers sports
For a decade, Rutgers Univeristy pushed hard to become a college football powerhouse. But a six-month investigation of Rutgers athletics -- including a new review of public records the university fought to keep confidential -- found big-time college football came at a greater price than the school disclosed and still refuses to fully document. The investigation found that Rutgers has hiked tuition, canceled classes and eliminated six other varsity sports while doubling its football spending budget; hid millions of sports expenses, including salaries and charter flights, from public view; rushed into a $102 million expansion of Rutgers Stadium to retain coach Greg Schiano and refused to reveal several other financial and fundraising efforts.
Tags: Rutgers University; college football; financial records; private universities; expense reports; stadiums
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Corruption in the 2-million-member Service Employees
This investigation of the nation's fastest-growing labor union uncovered corruption in its largest California local as well as questionable financial practices at several affiliated organizations and its national headquarters. The stories revealed that the president of the California chapter - who represented nearly 200,000 working poor people, caregivers making about $9 an hour - had funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in dues money to himself his relatives, and spent similar sums on golf resorts, expensive restaurants and a Beverly Hills cigar lounge. They also showed that Tyrone Freeman misused two nonprofits for financial gain and political purposes, and that the head of the SEIU's largest Michigan local misappropriated funds from one of the charities. In addition, the stories reported that the SEIU's national office, while holding itself up as a model of reform, paid millions of dollars to consulting firms, nonprofits, and individuals with family ties and other personal connections to the union's top leaders.
Tags: Unions; SEIU; corruption; California; Michigan; Tyrone Freeman
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City Hall's Sway over Bridgeport Development
"Allegations that Mayor Richard Daley's friends controlled development in the mayor's native Bridgeport on Chicago's South Side have swirled below the surface for ears. The reporters pierced that veil of secrecy and provided a rare look into how the politically connected benefited from the city's building book at the expense of homeowners and taxpayers." The reporters looked into how insider dealing and lax regulations lead to poor construction jobs and how many people benefit from their personal connections in the Mayor's office.
Tags: city government; housing; development; construction; building permits