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 "minnesota court" ...
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StarTribune: Discipline Deferred
A six-month investigation by the Star Tribune found that the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice, once considered a national leader in the regulation of licensed physicians, often doesn’t punish doctors whose mistakes harm patients or who demonstrate a pattern of substandard care. After analyzing information compiled by a national databank and reviewing thousands of pages of court and medical board records, the reporters found that the board, which regulates 20,000 physicians in the state, has been reluctant to punish some doctors who have harmed patients, including more than 100 doctors who were disciplined by other states and even doctors who lost privileges to practice at Minnesota hospitals. The investigation also showed that the board lags behind boards in other states in disclosing information to the public, including data on malpractice judgments or settlements. It also doesn’t disclose whether doctors have been disciplined by regulators in other states or lost their privileges to work in hospitals and other facilities for surgical mistakes and other problems.
Tags: Board of Medical Practice; physicians; doctors; punishment; patients
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Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
This fourteen-part investigative series revealed how a prostitution and human trafficking ring could flourish in rural Iowa towns. The series also details the story of one 13-year-old runaway Minnesota girl was entrapped in the ring and was forced into prostitution. A ring operator, who was being beaten by her live-in boyfriend, helped rescue the girl from prostitution and helped her make her way to safety. Law enforcement officials first missed opportunities to help this girl and break the ring. But they finally solved who was behind the ring and assisted in a dozen human trafficking convictions.
Tags: human trafficking; sex abuse; prostitution; kidnapping; court hearings; Iowa; sex workers
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The Notification Gap
Although there are only, roughly, a 100 sex offenders registered in Minnesota, the KSTP investigation found over 200 Minnesota residents that were not registered as sex offenders, though they should have been. Notification will only happen when the offender's conviction occurs at a Minnesota court, which is why some offenders choose to move to Minnesota so their neighbors will not be made aware of their criminal history.
Tags: Sex offender; sex registry; minnesota court; abuse; child molestation
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Spending the tobacco money
The Star-Tribune reports on the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco, an organization created in 1998 to help smokers quit smoking. The investigation finds that the organization is spending most of its money on advocating smoking bans in bars and restaurants. A database created from court documents, which shows the connections between the organization and grant recipients, reveals heavy insider funding. MPAAT shifted course from the voluntary cessation oriented program even though its "own statewide survey (...) provided evidence that the smoking ban strategy would never work."
Tags: CAR; lobbying; public health; smoking attitudes; nonprofit; tax-exempt status
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Teaching Johnny The Appropriate Way To Flirt
The New York Times Magazine reports on the issue of sexual harassment, looking at an incident that happened in a Minnesota middle school to talk more genreally about the state of sexual harassment in our schools and the legalities involved. The question is whether students can and should be treated like adults in cases of student-to-student harassment.
Tags: sexual harassment; supreme court; Title IX
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Investigating the Investigators
WNEM-TV reveals that many of the practicing private investigators in Minnesota have potentially invalid licenses, which have not been signed by the county sheriff or village police chief. The reporter draws the conclusion that "some of these private eyes who are watching you, may not be legal" and, as a result. anything private investigators say or do, might also not be valid in court. The investigation finds that "the practice of not getting the proper signatures has been going on for years..." and that "the Michigan State police who oversees the investigators has been letting it slide for years."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; FOIA; Michigan State Police; sheriffs; licensing
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Catch and Release Justice.
An analysis of criminal justice data from 1994 through 1998 shows that Minnesota has at least 8,700 chronic offenders -- people booked more than 11 times in that five year period. The state's justice system is routinely recycling these habitual offenders back into the community where they flout the law with little serious consequences. How the costs add up. For the vistims: disrupted lives, tragic losses, violated trust. How the analysis identified offenders.
Tags: crime; court; law; justice; criminals; data; records; chronic offender; money; jail; police.
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Betrayal of Trust
St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reveals how hundreds of people are being defrauded of their life savings by unscrupulous care-takers and lack of oversight by the Minneapolis probate court system, March 21-22, 1993.
Tags: caretakers; social services; life savings; guardianship; nursing home residents; conservator fees; wards; Minnesota Alliance for Health Care; ARC Minnesota; Catholic Charities; Minnesota Board on Aging.
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No title (id: 4212)
Minneapolis Star and Tribune publishes articles based on the newspaper's study of Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. - -its rates, profits, and the regulatory climate governing it--which found the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission particularly generous to the company; reporters used court documents, lobbying report forms and campaign finance forms to show the company spent a lot of money to win the favor of PUC commissioners, Aug. 10, 1986.
Tags: MN