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 "malfeasance" ...
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Bad to the Bone
When four executives of a medical-device company called Synthes went to jail for illegally marketing a bone cement—five patients had died after it was injected into their spines—Mina Kimes knew there had to be a compelling saga behind a case that had generated little coverage beyond local news articles. So she began digging, first with FOIA requests for never-before-published government documents, and then assembling hundreds of pages of court transcripts and internal company e-mails and reports. She used that foundation to begin the harder challenge: persuading Synthes employees, many of them terrified by the criminal case and the company’s intimidating chairman, to talk to her. With six months of grueling, old-fashioned reporting, Kimes succeeded, and “Bad to the Bone” is the masterful result. Not only did she persuade more than 20 current and former company employees to speak, but she also revealed a story whose disturbing breadth far exceeded the case presented in court. Her tour de force reporting raises profound new questions about the culpability of a key figure who wasn’t charged: Hansjörg Wyss, the reclusive and controlling Swiss founder and chairman—one of the richest people in the world—who made crucial decisions about how to sell the bone cement. This is a classic tale of corporate malfeasance: Warned by the government not to sell its bone cement for use in the spine, Synthes ignored the admonition despite clear evidence of lethal danger—a pig had died within seconds when the cement was tested on it—and encouraged surgeons to use the cement on people, five of whom died soon afterward. But “Bad to the Bone” isn’t just an exposé. It opens a window into a broader issue: how the medical system actually runs. Readers see how salespeople with no medical training advise surgeons—inside the OR during operations—on how to use their devices. They experience the tale of one surgeon who continues using the cement even after two of his patients died. Oh, and what sort of justice does Synthes itself receive? Wyss sells it, for $20 billion, to health care giant Johnson & Johnson, which praises Synthes’s “culture” and “values.” Corporate crime. Death on the operating room table. Secret e-mails. Surgeons on the edge. An imperious multibillionaire CEO. It’s a mesmerizing article, and Kimes’s reporting takes readers on a deeply unsettling journey that ensures they’ll never look at the medical system the same way again.
Tags: Medical devices; bone cement; Synthes
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Con-Men: Grant Chasers Plague Katrina Aid
This series investigates the malfeasance and graft inside Louisiana's $750 million home elevation grant program, a federally financed effort to help Katrina victims rebuild safer homes.
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A Chief Under Fire
The story looks at "corruption and malfeasance at the federally-funded, volunteer fire department, the Boone County Fire Protection District." Specifically, the author reveals a misuse of "federal grant money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and public, taxpayer money for the purchase of an 8-foot bronze statue in front of the department's Columbia, Mo. headquarters.
Tags: fire department; misuse of funds; taxpayer money; corruption, Boone County Fire
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Salon.com Bush Series
This story is a duplicate. Go to 23221 for the actual file.
Tags: Judge James H. Payne; Judge Terrence Boyle; U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judges; George W. Bush; presidential malfeasance; corruption; buying Judges
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Columbus Police Chief
This investigation uncovered violation of drinking-and-driving laws and policies by the chief of the Columbus Indiana Police Department; it involved surveillance of the chief. In one incident, he arrived an hour late to a hostage crisis after drinking on a golf course. The story led to the chief's suspension and resignation.
Tags: alcohol; law enforcement; drinking and driving; drunk driving; police chief malfeasance; surveillance
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On the City's Tab
The Fresno Bee's Davis did a detailed examination of the mayor of Fresno, California's expense account and found a lack of oversight, some double-billing and sometimes a stretching or disregarding of rules. Compared to past mayors, the current mayor Alan Autry, a republican, spends more and takes more liberties with his expense account. The same is true of some city council members, but to a lesser degree.
Tags: Expense accounts; public servants; city budget; malfeasance
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Behind the Bars
This series of investigations took the Times/Tribune readers inside the Lackawanna County Prison, and revealed "a history of chronic mismanagement, malfeasance and allegations of criminal activity." Reporters found "widespread misuse of inmate labor, lax security, chronic understaffing, improper sexual activity between guards and inmates and physical abuse inflicted on many inmates by guards."
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Department of Citrus Investigation
This investigation began from a tip from a Florida Citrus Department employee who contacted the paper "with a long list of allegations regarding administrative misfeasance and malfeasance in the department. ... Bouffard searched numerous records and the department had issued 56 no-bid contracts worth more than $2.2 million during the past three years. About 30 of them had been approved ... over the objections of the agency's purchasing director. ... The Ledger continued to investigate the department and uncovered more additional no-bid contracts, most to Supermarket Promotions of New Jersey."
Tags: diskette
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Why Harris Fell
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports how "The Harris Methodist Health Plan aimed to be a model for the new age of managed care. Instead, it lost hundreds of millions of dollars and became an example of an overreaching strategy gone bad."
Tags: HMO; doctors; patients; privatization; profits; hospital; mergers; cost-cutting; managed care; malfeasance; database mapping project
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Air Force Academy Superintendent Kitchen Spending
A Gazette investigation revealed that the Air Force Academy "used military readiness money to remodel generals' homes including $308,000 spent on a kitchen.... The Air Force isn't alone in the practice. The Navy recently told Congress it had spent $5.6 million in readiness money on admirals' homes... "