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 "privatization" ...
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Foreclosure Crisis
The reporters reveal the underlying flaws in a public-private debacle involving the Obama administration's program that depended on the good faith of mortgage servicers.
Tags: mortgage; foreclosure; housing market; home
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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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NC Auto Inspection's-Failing the Test
Every year, North Carolina auto owners must take vehicles to private garages for state-mandated safety and emissions testing meant to prevent traffic crashes and curb pollution. Drivers cannot put a car on the road legally unless it passes inspection. A review inspection data showed the program is undermined by unscrupulous garages who do a volume business, passing unsafe cars, and by other who take bribes or cheat customers with uncessary repairs.
Tags: auto owners; emissions testing; unsafe cars
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California's Public Pension Dilemma
The Contra Costa Times found that California public employee pension systems are grossly underfunded; the benefits far exceeded the private sector and are regularly understated by the pension systems; the debts for state and local governments are huge; and the cost is being transferred over to future generations.
Tags: California; Public Pensions; State; Local; Government
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Perry's Private Deals
An investigation into Texas Governor Rick Perry's political campaign. The investigation uncovered Perry's relationship with his doctor and his back-room pressure to make the stem cell injection practice- which isn't FDA approved- big business in Texas. The Texas Governor also quietly retired and started cashing out his pension and salary concurrently.
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White Mayor's Burden
In the summer of 2011, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he was starting the Young Man's Initiative, a multi-million dollar public-private partnership to "help" young black and Latino male New Yorkers. What he neglected to mention in the rollout was that under his tenure, New York City has arrested record numbers of black and Latino young men using the controversial "stop and frisk" technique, has suspended record numbers of black and Latino men from schools, and has actively fought a federal lawsuit to make the Fire Department comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Tags: Civil Rights Act of 1964; Michael Bloomberg; Mayor; New York City; Young Man's Initiative Black; Latino; Fire Department
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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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America's War Within
America's War Within, led by the Center for Investigative Reporting, deeply examined the first 10 years of the war on terror. There were several findings stemming from work conducted throughout the year. First, a little-known but costly intelligence arm of the Department of Homeland Security did not meaningfully contribute to the war on terror and instead generated reams of "intelligence spam." Second, a private counterterrorism team at the Mall of America ensnared innocent shoppers by reporting them to authorities for "suspicious activity," part of a national initiative promoted by the federal government to college and analyze threat intelligence, much of which has dubious value. Third, local police around the country have stockpiled combat-style equipment with the help of some $34 billion in federal homeland security grants contributing to a "militarization" of law enforcement, even though violent crime is dropping and terrorist attacks are rare.
Tags: terrorism; violence; grants; Department of Homeland Security
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Parking Patients
"Parking Patients" examined the amount of time hospitals in the Memphis area were taking to assume custody of patients brought to their emergency departments by city ambulances. In hundreds of cases we found patients were spending hours strapped to ambulance stretchers, waiting inside emergency departments for hospital staff to sign off on the transfer of care. In the meantime, city paramedics were tied up waiting with the patients and unavailable to answer other emergency calls. We found dozens of cases in the last year in which the city ran out of available ambulances to answer these calls, and had to rely on private companies to fill the gap, sometimes resulting in longer response times. The fire department blamed these shortages on the practice of hospitals using paramedics as "free labor."
Tags: broadcast; hospitals; paramedics; patients; waiting; ambulances
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Billions Behind Bars: Inside America's Prison Industry
An investigation of the controversial and profitable business of private prisons.
Tags: prison; private; incarceration