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 "inner city" ...
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section 8: Subsidizing Surburbia
"Thousands of poor people have moved out of Cincinnati's inner-city ghettos and settled into homes on middle-class, suburban streets- exactly the result a federal housing program intended. But that victory comes at a cost: Poor families with government subsidies that help pay the rent are creating new pockets of low-income housing in formerly stable, middle-class neighborhoods."
Tags: clustering; relocation; township; housing; property; real estate; urban development;
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Toxic Neighbors
Industrial plants with toxic chemicals were located blocks from homes, apartment complexes and schools. Some were found across the street from residences. The staff mapped where hazardous material sites were located in relation to densely-populated areas.
Tags: housing; toxins; poison; factory; zoning; subdivision; inner city; EPA; health; chlorine;
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The Real Estate Meltdown
"Did Appraisers Juice the Market?" showed how appraisers overstated home values. Using disciplinary records and interviews, Shanklin and McClure found appraisers who exaggerated condo sizes, appraised homes without seeing them and stated that condos were worth the $240,000 sales price even though the price was padded with $40,000 of incentives. The "Subprime Mess" package was based on more than 2 million records and showed how unconventional loans moved from low-income, inner city neighborhoods to the burgeoning suburbs. "How Investors Helped Overheat the Market" explored the role of investors in Central Florida's real estate meltdown by analyzing hundreds of data records and found that sales of non owner-occupied homes grew from 25 percent of all local residential sales in 2002 to 70 percent in 2006.
Tags: real estate; investors; lenders; purchase prices; subprime loans; adjustable-rate loans; high-interest loans; housing scam; vacant housing; condo conversion; development; property values
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"Prescription for Profits"
The Wall Street Journal examined whether nonprofit hospitals, which account for the majority of hospitals in the U.S., deserve the billions of dollars in annual tax exemptions they receive. The Journal's series revealed that, far from struggling financially, many nonprofit hospitals have become profit machines while shirking their charitable missions. Among the series' findings: Some pay tens of thousands of dollars upfront' others have closed facilities in poor inner cities and built new ones in affluent suburbs; and one hospital put patients' lives at risk to increase its lucrative liver-transplant business.
Tags: charitable causes; medical service; patient care; hospital taxes; nonprofit hospitals; Amish; Mennonites
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The F-School Bomb
"F-School Bomb" tells the story of English teacher Erika Selig's attempts to address a serious lack of discipline at Allapattah Middle School where she taught. Through Selig's eyes, readers were able to get a first-hand look into the daunting problems facing children, teachers and administrators inside a title 1 school. From racially charged fights between Hispanic and black students to the pressures of teaching students to pass Florida's standardized tests, Allapattah Middle School exemplified everything that is wrong with inner-city failing schools.
Tags: inner-city schools; education; standardized tests; race; public schools; juvenile delinquents; teaching
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Fentanyl - Fatal Euphoria
This special section traces the drug fentanyl from a chemist in Mexico City to dope houses, morgues and the homes of grieving families all over the US, but especially in Detroit. The reporters used medical examiner records and interviews with street addicts to show that drugs like fentanyl are not only problems of the inner city; victims come from diverse social and professional backgrounds.
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Broken Ballots
After a primary election in "an inner city legislative precinct in Memphis" finished with a margin of just 13 votes for the winner, the Commercial Appeal looked into the election. Among its findings were: "names of dead people and others on vacant lots were used to cast ballots." Also, a poll worker who was tasked to monitor voting and "whose signature appears on Election Day records including vote tallies from voting machines was actually in New York on a taxpayer-funded trip that day, not at the polling place." In addition, hundreds of deceased persons and people who have moved away are still on the voter lists, and many Election Day workers at the polls have criminal records.
Tags: Election fraud; false voter registration; dead people on voting lists
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Broken Promises
Tax-exempt deals that provided $7 billion in bonds for low-income housing or inner-city schools turned out to be another way for banks and advisers to make money. Bloomberg investigates situations such as a deal in which JPMorgan Chase and Co. and American International Group "pocketed fees, along with their advisers, totaling $12 million." AIG and CDR of Beverly Hills actually had a deal "in which the financial firms made more money and faced less risk if none of the $220 million in bond funds was used by the public. None of it was." There were 70 other such deals across the country in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. The investigation also includes similar situations of schools being neglected while insurance companies, banks and advisers profit.
Tags: school bonds; Wall Street; JPMorgan Chase and Co.; American International Group; Bank of America; housing bonds
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Lessons in Waste
This investigation took a hard look at New Jersey's early education program. The authors found that the state-subsidized program for inner-city preschoolers was rife with abuse and fraud. Millions of state dollars earmarked for the program was intercepted by preschool owners who spent the money on luxuries for themselves instead of resources for the children.
Tags: education; public records; school; preschool; state government
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Washington Park School
The I-Team investigated Cincinnati School Board decisions related to the relocation of one inner city public school. The story provides insight into how CPS is managing a billion dollars of new school construction. It revealed problems of student safety, economics, Board incompetence and conflicts of interest. The school board deviated from standard property appraisal procedures, overpaid for the school, located it in Cincinnati's most dangerous area and could have renovated a nearby school for far less money.
Tags: school board; school construction; inner city schools; conflicts of interest; student safety