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 "private information" ...
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Campus Security
ChicagoTalks reporters found only a handful of the 63 colleges and universities in Cook County are following an Illinois law -- the Campus Security Enhancement Act of 2008 (SB 2691) -- aimed to make campuses safe. Under the law, colleges and universities are required to create all-hazard emergency and violence prevention plans, along with threat assessment teams and violence prevention committees. The schools are also required to hold annual security trainings. ChicagoTalks reporters contacted, often repeatedly, every public and private, two and four-year college and university in Cook County, and determined that 11 schools appear to be violating the law, while 45 schools provided conflicting or incomplete information -- or no information at all. Reporters found just seven schools in compliance.
Tags: campus security; Cook County; violence prevention; colleges; universities
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Watchdog website and its web pages
The Oklahoman/NewsOK.com started this project in 2008 with the Right to Know page, a collection of databases developed internally to go along with stories and links to relevant public information. That site became part of the Watchdog page in 2009. In 2010, the staff continued to evolve the Watchdog page with "mini-sites" of investigative topics, such as a political corruption case at the Oklahoma Legislature; the staff's FOI fight over the birth dates of public employees; and allegations of bid-rigging with a married lawmaker and lobbyist for a private company seeking a state juvenile justice contract. Other "mini-sites" under Watchdog include ongoing coverage of the state Department of Human Services and the federal stimulus package.
Tags: continuous coverage; online; watchdog; bid-rigging; Department of Human Services; federal stimulus; FOI; Right to Know
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Renaissance 2010: Searching for Equity
Karps' investigation looked into the the impact of Renaissance 2010, an education initiative in Chicago intended to "open 100 new schools, most of the charter schools, and close 70 failing schools within a span of six years" in an effort to bring better education to areas that needed it most. This investigation looks at the actual results of the plan. To report the story, Karp had to struggle against the barriers to obtaining meaningful information on charter schools. While funded publicly, they are operated by private companies that are not subject to the same transparency laws as public schools.
Tags: education; charter schools; public schools; academic performance; FOIA; transparency; Renaissance 2010; Chicago
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Secrecy 101
"Universities hide information about their athletics departments behind a student-privacy law designed to keep grades private." Further, it hides athletes, who have done a number of unethical and some illegal activities. Also, coaches are using the law to hide their own bad behavior. All this information stunned the senator who created the law and he believes the "institutions are putting their own meaning into the law."
Tags: education; college; Senator James L. Buckley; NCAA; Ohio State; FOIA; Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); federal; sports; public records; censor; academics
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Iraq -- The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War
The project, the product of two and half years of reporting and research, produced a 380,000-word database that juxtaposes what President Bush and seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (such as major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews. An interactive timeline shows the examination of the records. All 935 records highlighted false statements and hundreds of secondary accounts that illuminate the discrepancies between what was being said against what was known privately, for a two-year time span.
Tags: September 11 attacks; 9/11; World Trade Center attacks; Bush administration; George W. Bush; Richard Cheney; Condoleeza Rice; Donald Rumsfeld; Colin Powell; Paul Wolfowitz; Ari Fleisher; Scott McClellan
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The Secret University
Lu Hardin, popular president of the University of Central Arkansas , received a $3000,000 bonus, approved in secret by the college's board of trustees - a violation of Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act. Trustees told the reporter that the bonus came from private funds, but she discovered that the board had used public funds in violations of rules capping the amount of public funds that can be used for college presidents' salaries.
Tags: university fraud; sweetheart deals; improper use of funds; Lu Hardin; University of Central Arkansas; bonus; salaries;
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The Governor's Database
This story revealed that Texas Governor Rick Perry was compiling a massive database on Texas residents. A private contractor had been hired to collect personal information about millions of people. While the stated purpose of the database was homeland security, it was controlled by a political appointee working within the Governor's office, not by a law enforcement agency.
Tags: state government; privacy; public records; FOIA; homeland security
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Uninsurables
CBS examines how the individual market for health insurance works and found "a system stacked against the individual, with insurers combing through private medical databases and records for information, that they can use to deny coverage..."
Tags: insurance; individual; health plans; medical information; insurance companies;
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System Error
The Sun used a FOIA request to obtain a declassified version of a 2003 NSA report on Trailblazer, the program designed to "fix the holes" in NSA's information filter. In the report the agency's inspector general found "'inadequate management and oversight' of private contractors and overpayment for the work done." A govenment official told The Sun, "The government has been standing by while the agency has been gradually 'going deaf' as unimportant communications drown out key pieces of information."
Tags: National Security Agency; NSA; Lt. General Keith B. Alexander; Trailblazer; 9/11; post-9/11 investigations; Science Applications International Corporation; SAIC; Freedom of Information Act; FOIA; Fort Meade; Threat Operations Center; Jared Adams; General Michael V. Hayden; FBI's Virtual Case File program; TASC
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Holes in the System: Ohio's Missing Fingerprints
The State of Ohio's database is missing tens of thousands of criminal records used to perform background checks on job applicants for both public and private employers. Without the information, a convicted felon could potentially be hired for a position their conviction would usually preclude them from obtaining. The investigation found that local courts were not fingerprinting defendants who were summoned to court rather than being arrested. The state's computers do not accept a conviction without fingerprints. After finding many examples of convicted criminals' records not existing in the database, the reporters further discovered that some state officials were aware of the issue, but had been slow to act.
Tags: Criminal records; database; fingerprints; convicted felons; background checks