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 "privately owned" ...
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Workforce Central Florida
The state's Regional Workforce Boards -- 24 private, nonprofit entities -- receive more than $300 million a year in public money to help put people back to work. The story revealed that the regional agencies handed out millions in business deals to companies owned by or controlled by their own board members. The reporters discovered that local elected officials charged with overseeing the boards had abdicated virtually all their authority, sometimes failing to meet for years at a time.
Tags: Regional Workforce Boards; public officials; local government
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God of Radio
The investigation finds that Carl Russ, the top radio expert in Wisconsin and driving force behind the statewide emergency radio system, has been profiting from the project. The state had been buying a quarter of a million dollars' worth of radio frequencies from his privately owned company -- presenting a conflict of interest for Guse.
Tags: radio; emergency radio system; Wisconsin; WisCom; Badger Spectrum Limited
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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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What's in your burger?
This story revealed how a number of restaurants aren’t following health code guidelines. These violations include not using gloves, not cooking at correct temperatures, no mouth guards at buffets, no sanitizer in rag buckets, dirty restrooms, no dates on food in the refrigerator, and storing food where it is subject to contamination.
Tags: health inspection; records; Cedar City; food; sickness; food protection code; Public Health Department; home-owned; chains; privately owned
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Cowboys of Kabul
US Protection and Investigations, a company owned by a Texas couple named Del and Barbara Spier, was, until recently, one of the largest security operations in Afghanistan. The company oversaw security of reconstruction projects but secured no-bid contracts, submitted false invoices, hired men from a notorious Afghan warlord, paid off militants and demonstrated many other corrupt actions. "The Cowboys of Kabul" details the actions of these and other corrupt contractors in America's war on terror.
Tags: USPI; Afghanistan; Spier; contractors; militants; fraud; security; contracts; military; private security;
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American Divide; The Immigration Crackdown
The crackdown on immigrants living here illegally has spread to nearly every corner of the United States. States, counties and private citizens have taken matters into their own hands. Get-tough laws, however, have created unintended consequences for U.S. citizens, employers and foreigners
Tags: immigrants; citizenship; Latinos; state government; city government; county government
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Demoted to Private: America's Military Housing Disaster
Political patronage, the zeal to privatize and a failure at background checks led to a disaster for taxpayers and military families in Pentagon housing programs in six states. All three branches of the service gave 8,000 military houses and billion-dollar contracts to a company headed by a politically-connected Texan involved in a messy bankruptcy and a Connecticut property management firm that had been previously suspended from HUD housing projects because it diverted millions to its own uses.
Tags: military; housing; privatization; Pentagon; government contracts; corporate abuse; whistle-blower
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Broken Homes
The state of California created "a community care system for its developmentally disabled residents that is managed and operated by private entities," which moved residents of state-run institutions into these care homes. But "owned and operated by people with few qualifications, the system is dangerous, and even deadly, for the people it is supposed to protect." And often, the state has done little to check the system and ensure that people in need receive the proper care. The Tribune examines individual cases, including a mother who lost her adoptive son when his medical emergency was mishandled and a care home that housed a sex offender who allegedly abused another resident while living there.
Tags: special-needs care; developmentally disabled; misdiagnosis; lax medical care
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The PZU Game
The multi-billion dollar privatization of Poland insurance company PZU has raised questions. "Polish postcommunists and Dutch businessmen of unclear past" took over the company. The story focuses on the situation of Grzegorz Wieczerak, a PZU president who was accused of embezzlement. The evidence against him had been gathered by a company hired by people attempting to control PZU. The charges were eventually dropped, prompting Wieczerzak and his attorney to launch an investigation of their own.
Tags: PZU; insurance company; privatization; Grzegorz Wieczerak
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Hillsborough County School District Land Investigation
The ninth largest U.S. school district, Hillsborough County (FL), in 2006 was "growing fast enough to fill five new schools" per year. To meet the demand, Hillsborough county used the services of 4 private real estate brokers, without using bids, in violation of its own regulations. Three of the four brokers have records of criminal, legal and financial problems. Some of those brokers simultaneously represented the sellers, or flipped the land themselves, resulting in land purchases often made substantially above appraisal values. Reporters from the St. Petersburg Times documented swampland purchases, and school sites surrounded by the homes of sexual predators.
Tags: land; school board; school district superintendent; real estate brokers; realtors; swampland; bidding practices; state FOI; land flipping; rezoning applications; condemnation; assessments; appraisals; financial investigations; land records; wetland maps; FBI investigation; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Excel; Matthew B. Cox; Chester B. Luney; Fred Edmister; National Realty Associates; school planning; Wilson-Miller; Florida Real Estate Commission; 2606 East Caracus Land Trust; Laurence E. Fuentes; Fuentes and Kreischer Title Co.; Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation