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 "pennsylvania" ...
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Schools Flunk Finance; The Fleecing of Alabama; JPMorgan's Muni Morass
In "Schools Flunk Finance" (March 2008), reporters Martin Z. Braun and William Selway revealed how JPMorgan had deceived school districts in Pennsylvania by promising them free money if they entered into swaps deals. In Erie, for example, a banker said all the district had to do was sign a contract, and JPMorgan would give $750,000. The bank didn't disclose the exact terms of the contract or its fee. Three years after the schools took the upfront money, Erie paid $2.9 million to JPMorgan to get out of the rapidly souring swaps deal. After their reporting in Pennsylvania, Braun and Selway went back to Jefferson County, Ala. In "The Fleecing of Alabama: The Bills Come Due" (July 2008), the reporters found that Jefferson County was nearly broke because it couldn't make its monthly payments to JPMorgan. In "JPMorgan's Muni Morass" (December 2008), Braun and Selway exposed more cases in which the bank victimized taxpayers in states and municipalities.
Tags: JPMorgan; financial news; public schools; Jefferson County, Ala.; Erie, Penn.
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Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul
Monkey Girl is an investigative book based on the federal court case Kitzmiller v. Dover, a modern version of the Scopes Monkey Trial. The book examines what to teach children in the classroom when it comes down to evolution and intelligent design. The First Amendment lawsuit against the local Pennsylvania school board had the potential to change school practices nationwide, bringing up the question of whether intelligent design is a scientific or religious idea.
Tags: God; creationism; Darwin;
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Methadone Clinics
WCAU-TV "documented drug dealing going on right in front of a drug rehabilitation clinic in Pennsylvania" where a patients are treated with liquid methadone. "There's evidence some patients at this clinic and across the state ...are selling their doses to addicts on the street."
Tags: drugs; addiction; liquid methadone; drug dealing; rehabilitation; clinics; state government; death; health;
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Battling for Benefits
WTAE-TV found that veterans were waiting over a year for "their disability claims to be processed." In particular Western Pennsylvania "had the third-longest waiting period nationally."
Tags: veterans; Iraq; health; disability; benefits; Pennsylvania; Afghanistan;
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Casino Licenses Awarded Without Full Background Checks
Police were blocked by the Pennsylvania governor's administration from doing background checks on "prospective licensees of Pennsylvania's nascent slots industry."
Tags: casino; background; police; Ed Rendell; slot; gaming; state government
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Pennsylvania Open Records
WTAE-TV detailed the "wasteful and abusive spending of public monies" at "Pennsylvania's state-run student loan agency." These stories and the two accompanying lawsuits showed how difficult it was to access records in Pennsylvania and established the "good case law."
Tags: FOIA; open records; PHEAA; loans; public records; open records law; Jess Stairs
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Who's Watching Out for Me?
"Pennsylvania's dog wardens have been extremely lenient in policing licensed dog kennels. Our analysis of kennel inspection records, the first of its kind, showed that the vat majority of inspections recorded not a single violation, and even when violations were found, authorities almost never took firm action."
Tags: dogs; animals; health; inspections; Right to Know law; kennels
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Shriners Hospitals for Children Investigation Series
Freelance reporter Sandy Frost investigated a tip from Shriner Vernon Hill that there were irregularities in the way the fraternal Shriners organization and the charitable Shriners organizations were handling their money and not complying with Standards For Charitable Accountability.
Tags: Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine AKA Shriners; Standards for Charity Accountability; 2001 Criminal Tax Manual; Hershel Gober; Philanthropic Research, Inc. AKA Guidestar.org; Second Avenue Partners; Mike Slade; Aquantive; Nick Hanauer; Shriners; Masons; Knights Templar; Royal Order of Jesters; National Sojourners Order of Quetzacoatl; Mike Severe, Imperial Officer, Shrine of America; compensation; real estate transactions; excessive benefit transactions; charitable donation fraud; HIPPA; Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; Vernon Hill; Suite101.com; Paul Dolnier; 501c10 non profit fraternal corporation; 501c3 non profit charity; Better Business Bureau; Charity Watch Center; Pennsylvania's Charitable Special Investigation Unit; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; good old boy system; U.S. Senate Committee on Finance; whistleblower retaliation; Charles G. Cumpstone Jr., Potentate Stewart W. Lewis; Charities Review Council of Minnesota; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; GAAP; Independent Sector; SLAPP: strategic lawsuits against public participation; Cabiri Royal Order of Scotland; International Order of Demolay
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Route 22 Widening Going Nowhere
Despite the best efforts from many fronts, plans to widen Pennsylvania's Route 22 are unlikely to be fulfilled. Traffic has continued to get worse on what is the main highway through Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, but "a lack of money, a large number of eminent domain cases, other needs across the state and a changing view of transportation strategies make even partial completion of the widening project unlikely."
Tags: Roads; road expansion; Route 22; traffic; road congestion
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Doubts About Cassey
Over the course of a decade, AIDS activist Cassey Weierbach told her tragic story of contracting HIV from a man who raped her. The local people in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley helped her when she needed it, as they "held her hand when she was laid up in a hospital bed. They’ve cooked her meals and done her laundry. They’ve passed the plate for her on Sunday and paid her rent when it was overdue." But a pastor revealed her accusation that Weierbach did not have AIDS, and was deceiving everyone. Others questioned the veracity of Weierbach's story, as it also included details of a best friend, the alleged rapist's daughter and also a rape victim of the same man, shooting herself in front of Weierbach. Weierbach also claimed her father died in a famous plane crash. Both individuals were still alive and well, and quoted for the story. The Morning Call tells the story of a community and a woman who may or may not have been telling the truth about an affliction with a terrible disease. In the wake of the story, Weierbach was charged with defrauding the state of $67,000 worth of medical benefits.
Tags: AIDS; HIV; Munchausen syndrome; fake illness; fraud; medical fraud