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 "inefficiency" ...
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Socialized Water
Forbes Magazine reports on the true costs of government controlled water utilities. "In privatizing its water supply, the U.S. lags behind Europe, but this may change as evidence mounts about the relative inefficiency of public water," Forbes reports. Higher government salaries and more employees per customer are cited as reasons government controlled water cost more.
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Healing Medicare
As a reliable source of basic health insurance for the elderly, the Medicare program has been a tremendous success. Today, however, Medicare faces formidable challenges: an inadequate benefits package, an inefficient system of delivery, and a long-term budget gap.
Tags: Medicare; elderly; health coverage; benefits package; budget
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Crime and Punishment
"The incarceration of so many drug-only offenders makes no economic sense." Since the 1970s, a "prison build-up" began in the U.S. Since 1980, incarceration costs have grown from $ billion annually to $45 billion. Drug offenders make up the largest area of growth in prison populations. By comparing the social and real costs of certain crimes, it would seem that locking up drug offenders is very inefficient while programs that teach new work skills seem to show lower rates of recidivism.
Tags: prison; jail; job-training; crime; adult education; faith-based programs; vocational training; drug-treatment programs
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Dim Bulb
"For more than two decades, Hennepin County has paid the Salvation Army to feed, house, and supervise 300 homeless adults a day in the Army's Harbor Light Shelter Minneapolis ... But since early 1998, the county has been knowingly doing business with a homeless shelter plagued by lax security and inefficient management. According to documents obtained by City Pages and scores of interviews, problems at Harbor Light include incompetent staff, relentless turnover, woefully inadequate security, on-site drug dealing, and at least one incident of rape. "
Tags: nonprofit; emergency shelter contract; social services; transitional housing; detox; Hennepin County; National Coalition for the Homeless; NCH; Salvation Army; rape; lawsuit; ministers; religion; Christianity
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Understaffed or Poorly Managed?
This St. Petersburg Times investigation exposed the dispatching inefficiency at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. The reporter found out that "emergency calls were delayed" and that "the public had been endangered by those delays." The story analyzed the staffing situation at the Sheriff's office and "bolstered the sheriff's contention that he was severely understaffed." Among the major findings was the fact that "the department had put for an $ 80 million tax to boost staffing levels."
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Fighting for a Smile
WCCO-TV reports profiles of three victims of inefficiency at Minneapolis' VA Medical Center, which had been keeping dozens of patients waiting in line for dentures, some for more than a year.
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The Price of Power
In the first installment of a series about military spending, the Wall St. Journal reports on how the government consistently misuses its military money. The writers claim, "Nowhere is the military's failure to adapt to the modern world more evident than the way it treats its people." They go on to cite examples of how the military could increase efficiency by updating its services. A significant number of helpful graphs and illustrations that detail military spending in post-Cold War military operations accompany the story.
Tags: Congress; Pentagon; Navy; military inefficiency; post-Cold War military operations
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Force in disarray
Courier-Post three-part series examined how inefficient and ineffective the Camden Police Department operates in New Jersey's poorest and most violent city. The series followed public promises by the Camden mayor and police chief that the city would have a "New York-style comeback" led by its police force.
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The Unfashionable
In the year of "Dances with Wolves," everybody wanted to be on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Nearly a decade later, it can hardly get a quorum. Reporter Peter Carlson looks at the problems still plaguing America's Indian reservations, from extreme poverty to an inefficient bureaucracy at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Tags: Indians; BIA; treaties; Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell; gaming; poverty; Black Hills
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How Justice Fails
Kennedy details the problems with the Philadelphia juvenile justice system, which is overburdened and inefficient. He looks specifically at the case of two brothers for whom the system failed miserably.
Tags: juveniles; youth; courts; Youth Study Center; juvenile offenders; juvenile crime; violence