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 "public interest" ...
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Professional Victim
This journalistic investigation is about using an agent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Prosecutor General's Office as a "victim." The office uses the "victim" in order to forge various criminal cases. There had always been rumors that the police used such agents, but the public in the country of Georgia did not have any real information about these agents. The faked victim in this case was Vagarshak (Gaikovich) Loris-Ruso. He has been used by the General Inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to "disclose" criminal cases of bribery. From July 2004 to 2007, he took part in six criminal cases. The journalists became interested in his past and found him in four other criminal cases. The investigation showed that he had been cooperating with the police and helped them to arrest undesirable people. The investigation consisted of two parts. The first part of the story was about Alexhandre Mkheidze, and his detention, trial and verdict. In this case, Vagarshak admitted to cooperating with the police and receiving money for it. The second part of the investigation is about eight other criminal cases and shows the accusation, official grounds and certain objections for each case.
Tags: Georgia; international journalism; bribery; police departments; misconduct
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The Shadow Economy
This series of investigations into the Baltimore crime scene was inspired by the public interest in the HBO show The Wire, a show highlighting Baltimore crime. The paper uncovers the shadow economy in which launderers and drug dealers meet and develop political connections to stay in business
Tags: Milton Tillman Jr.; gangster; money-laundering; bondsman; felony;
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WAMU: Inside The Collapse
It's October 2008: major banks are failing, Congress is bailing them out with taxpayer dollars. The public deserves to know how we got into the mess. ABC News Nightline's "Inside the Collapse" was first to expose a top-down, company-wide reckless lending strategy that led to the biggest bank failure in U.S. history: Washington Mutual Bank. Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas got inside Washington Mutual's culture and uncovered what really went wrong using original reporting, an exclusive whistleblower interview, a video of a jubilant company party, exclusive internal company documents, former employee interviews and victim interviews. His piece, as well as a follow-up on World news with Charles Gibson and articles on ABCNews.com, caught the attention of law enforcement. Two days after the piece aired, federal prosecutors announced that because of "intense public interest" they were investigating the bank's activities with assistance from the FBI, FDIC, SEC and IRS. The story was widely reported in the national media in the following weeks.
Tags: Washington Mutual; Securities and Exchange Commission; Internal Revenue Service; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; FDIC; Federal Bureau of Investigation; economics
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The Federal Contractor Misconduct Database
The Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD) is a Web-based resource that tracks the civil, criminal, and administrative misconduct of the federal government's largest suppliers of goods and services. POGO created the FCMD to ensure that the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars the federal government awards every year in contracts (over $530 billion in fiscal year 2008) go to companies with solid records of responsibility, integrity and performance. POGO developed the FCMD because government contracting officers are required by law to award contracts to responsible vendors only but lack a centralized repository of information on vendors' misconduct histories. To make decisions that are in the best interest of the public and prevent fraud, wasted and abuse, the government must have as much information as possible reflecting the past performance and responsibility of prospective vendors. The FCMD provides this information free to the public in a concise and user-friendly format. The FCMD spotlights each of the top 100 federal contractors. It complies each contractor's instances of misconduct -- actual and alleged -- dating back to 1995. In addition to misconduct instances, the FCMD includes primary source documents and links to the contractors' Web sites, annual reports, SEC filings, and lobbying and campaign finance information. Search and sort features allow users to search the data for key words, or to organize the data in interesting ways. The FCMD is an evolving resource. POGO continually adds and updates instances and contractor information. POGO also periodically updates the contractor list to reflect the most current fiscal year ranking. Each year, the roster of contractors will change, but POGO will keep all old rankings on a special archive page so that eventually the FCMD will include hundreds of contractors.
Tags: government contracts; computer-assisted reporting; database work; government oversight; misconduct
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Chemical Fallout
"The reporters exposed inept government programs that favor chemical makers over the needs of the public. They detailed conflicts of interest among regulators and uncovered new hidden threats for consumers. The newspaper tested common household plastics billed as "microwave safe" and found toxic levels of chemicals leaching from every item tested."
Tags: chemicals; toxins; public safety; government protection; bisphenol A; Environmental Protection Agency; Food and Drug Administration;
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The Redevelopment Investigation
This investigation came in several installments throughout the year. The city of San Diego, unlike any other government in California, operates two redevelopment agencies outside of the traditional City Hall structure and with little oversight, running them as separate nonprofit corporations with their own presidents, boards, offices and identities. An investigation into those two public agencies, which have combined annual budgets of nearly $300 million, uncovered a rogue system of forgotten government, which was underscored by a clandestine bonus system. The president of one agency used to pay herself and her aides more than $1 million over 5 years and numerous conflicts of interests between developers and top officials.
Tags: San Diego; city government; corruption; redevelopment agencies; new media; nonprofit corporations
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Broken Promises
JPMorgan Chase has become the central focus of what is now the largest-ever criminal investigation of the $2.6 trillion municipal bond market. This report shows how JPMorgan Chase convinced school districts, counties and cities to use so-called interest-reat swps, complex derivatives that were supposed to provide low-cost financing to the public. Instead, taxpayers lost millions of dollars as JPMorgan reaped profits.
Tags: finances; banks; corruption; scams; overcharging; municipal bond market;
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Tollway Junket
"The North Texas Tollway Authority, a public entity, sent 5 representatives on an all-expenses paid trip to Vienna, Austria to attend the International Bridge, Tunnel and Tollway Association's annual meeting. The trip cost tollway users more than $42,000 dollars and our hidden cameras revealed some representatives dining on five star meals, catered by companies with multi-million dollar construction contracts."
Tags: North Texas Tollway Authority; transportation; roads; toll roads; Texas; conflict of interest; funding; hidden camera; budget; public;
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Conflicted Justice
The series found "major problems with a little-known but significant aspect of indigent defense in Nevada. When two or more indigent defendants are charge in the same case, each defendant's testimony might implicate another. To avoid conflicts of interest that would occur if co-defendants were represented by a county public defender, that office represents only one, and private lawyers are hired by judges to represent the rest. Alan Maimon's reporting revealed that some conflict attorneys claimed to work more than 24 hours in a single day. Some spent excessive time on certain cases that paid a higher hourly rate, and tended to hastily offer guilty pleas on cases that did not pay as well."
Tags: courts; legal; justice; conflict attorneys; criminal defense; court corruption; lawyers; civil defense
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On Their Honor
This story reveals a problem within the federal court system. The system bars judges from hearing cases where they have a financial conflict, but leaves the decision to withdraw from the case up to individual judges. Consequently, this investigation found that Milwaukee County Circuit Court judges often make rulings in cases that involve corporations in which they have substantial economic interests.
Tags: Philip Meyer Award; justice system; judges; courts; ethics; federal government; county court system; public records; FOIA