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 "housing regulations" ...
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All the Devils are Here: The Hidden Story of the Financial Crisis
This book offers an attempt to exlore all the various forces -- on Main Street, Washington and Wall St. -- that lead to the financial crisis of 2008. They explored the extent that subprime loans fed the crisis; how Wall Street dictated the degraded lending terms; and the efforts of federal regulators to thwart predatory lending at the state and local levels.
Tags: financial crisis; subprime lending; housing crisis; foreclosure; predatory lending; Wall Street; Contrywide; Ameriquest; Goldman Sachs; Merrill Lynch; AIG;
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Steamrolled
The story documents how Houston residents are being exposed to industrial pollution with no protection from state and local regulators. Because Houston does not have zoning laws, industrial plants can be built in residential neighborhoods.
Tags: pollution; industrial plant; neighborhoods; residents; housing
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Could Sandy Hill Have Been Saved?
This series looked at why fire-and-rescue workers were unable to save a woman trapped inside her home even though she was on the phone with a dispatcher giving directions to her upstairs bedroom. The reporting found that volunteers who responded that night did not use thermal imaging equipment that could have helped them find the victim, Sandy Hill; that they did not place a ladder at either of the windows in her bedroom; that they were slow to ventilate the house and remove the smoke that killed her; and that they did not question people who had escaped the house about her location. Additional reporting exposed systemic weaknesses in Spotsylvania's fire-and-rescue services, which rely on self-governing volunteer departments and a smaller number of career personnel hired and directed by the county. These weaknesses include a poorly structured chain of command, lack of communication, insufficient training for man volunteers, and a failure to enforce existing regulations due in large part to friction between the career and volunteer units.
Tags: Firefighters; Fire Department; asphyxiation; volunteer; equipment; protocol; Spotsylvania; fire-and-rescue; training; regulation
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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
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Takings Initiatives Accountability Project: The Center for Public Integrity investigates ballot initiatives that would radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states
The [non-partisan]Center for Public Integrity investigated 2006 "ballot initiatives that were designed to radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states. They discovered that a trio of "secret donors" accounted for 99% of the propostions' bankrolls, and some of the initiatives did not comply with campaign-finance and other regulations. Then the Center revealed that 85 percent of the funding was coming from a single wealthy real estate investor and Libertarian activist, Howard RIch All but the Arizona inititative failed at the ballot. The Center for Public Integrity set up a stand-alone website-- www.takings initiatives.org-- and filed more than 50 articles on it. "Our general practice-- and a novel one as far as we can tell-- was to mount verbatim transcripts of the interviews on our website, including audio recordings where available. We sought to allow proponents, opponents funders and experts to have a chance to present their side of the story in their own words." The Center also checked with state and federal regulators for compliance of relevant laws and regulations.
Tags: Takings Initiatives; takings clause; ballot initiatives; land-use regulation; environmental regulation; tax-exempt organizations; Howard Rich; Andrea Millen Rich; Council for Responsible Government; William A. Wilson; state campaign-finance filings; public records requests; state freedom of information requests; America At Its Best; Americans for Limited Government; John Tillman; Howard Ahmanson; Fieldstead & Company; property rights; prefessional signature-gatherers; Colorado At Its Best; term limits; nonprofit advocacy organizations; Sam Adams Alliance; Sam Adams Foundation; Legislative Education Action Drive; Parents in Charge Foundation; Social Security Choice.org; Illinois Charitable Trust Bureau; educational vouchers; tuition tax credits; National Taxpayers Union; First Class Education; Susquehanna International Group; Jeffrey YAss; Cato Institute; Alliance for School Choice; Decision Education Foundation; Eric Brooks; Susan Mitchell; Pete Sepp; Kern Family Foundation; Generac Power Systems, Inc.; Milton Friedman; Taxpayer Bill of Rights; TABOR; Laird Maxwell; This House is MY Home; John Whitehead; Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Exoxemis, Inc.; Family Farm Preservation Pact; Citizens for Community Protection; Kelo v. City of New London; eminent domain; New York Millionaires Assistance Act; Wallace Global Fund; Nicholas C. Dranias; PRNewswire; Eric O'Keefe; getliberty.com; George Soros
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Timeshares: No Matter How You Slice Them, Buyers Pay a Price
With major corporations now involved, timeshare buyers face "high-pressure sales tactics, expensive financing, convoluted reservation systems, volatile and steep annual fees and questionable management and a dismal resale market in which owners virtually must give away their units in order to get rid of them." Even as major lawsuits have been field in recent years on behalf of timeshare buyers, "most states do little to regulate the industry and ensure that timeshare units are accurately represented and that the reservation systems are fairly administered."
Tags: timeshares; housing market; timeshare financing; property loans; timeshare resale
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Exporting Faith
The Boston Globe used "a complete raw database of all USAID awards (prime contracts, grants and agreements) obligated from FY 2001 to FY 2005" to investigate the results of President Bush's Executive Orders that "created the faith based initiative and relaxed federal regulations for religious groups using government funds that once sought to protect church-state separations." The series shows that the percentage of USAID awards going to ngo faith based organizations in 2005 was almost doubled the percentage in 2001, from 10.5% to 19.9%. This creates the potential for problems where aid recipients "might forgo assistance because they don't share in the religion of the provider."
Tags: separation of church and state; faith-based initiatives; foreign aid; executive orders; church-state ties; White House Office of Faith and Community Based Initiatives; President Bush; USAID; NGO; Christian evangelicals; Kenya; Angola; Pakistan; Focus on the Family; James Dobb; FOIA; UNICEF; UNDP; State Department; Samaritan's Purse; National Association of Evangelicals; Americans United for Separation of the Church and State; Global Health Outreach; Offfice of Volunteers for Prosperity; Youth for Christ; World Vision; Yellowbook;
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Dumping Grounds?; Just Moving On; Six More Years
"The Chicago Housing Authority will spend $1.6 billion on its 'Plan for Transformation'- a 10-year urban reform plan to destroy and tear-down more than 38,000 units of high-rise public housing and rebuild vibrant condo-style mixed-income housing in its place. Yet seven years into the plan, the authority has only built 1,600 replacement units of a promised 6,000 in mixed-income condos."
Tags: relocation; regulation; Harold Ickes Homes; Dearborn Homes
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Housing Headaches
Since the balcony collapses of 2003 in Chicago, building codes and regulations have had to change because of the resulting deaths. The student rental properties' landlords are not maintaining the property or inspecting them every three years as they should.
Tags: student housing; rental; housing code; property damage; safety
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Aging Sex Offenders Pose Problems
The authors used several actual incidents of abusive behavior in North Dakota nursing homes to illustrate that the state has no appropriate housing option for aging or disabled sex offenders after they have been released from incarceration. The investigation looked at what the long-term care industry and state regulators are doing about such incidents, as well as what they believe should be done.
Tags: sex offenders; pension; long term care; Department of Human Services; nursing homes; sexual abuse