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 records laws" ...
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Power Brokers
The story investigates what lead to the passage of the disastrous electricity deregulation law in Montana.
Tags: Montana Public Service Commission; deregulation; clean coal; records
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"Urban League Gets Mixed Grades On Crenshaw Area Overhaul"
This series attempts to provide a "midway progress report" for a major, $25 million effort by the Los Angeles Urban League to "address academic problems at Crenshaw High School," and several other "social ills" that bother the neighborhood that surrounds the campus. Reporters interviewed members of the community, school and local law enforcement in an effort to report on the progress of the program. They found the Urban League's Neighborhoods@Work program "met some goals and fell short of others."
Tags: Los Angeles Urban League; Crenshaw High; LAPD; L.A. Unified School District; L.A. City Attorney's Office; California Public Records Act; records request
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Reality Check: Where are the jobs?
As Indiana's unemployment rate soared, WTHR exposed how state leaders inflated official job statistics through a quasi-state agency shrouded in secrecy. Indiana's Economic Development Corporation claimed it had created 100,00 news jobs and billions of dollars in economic development deals for the state. When called upon to back up their numbers, the agency refused to grant detailed job information under the state's Access to Public Records Law.
Tags: employment; government; Economic Development Corporation; unemployment; jobs
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"DWI Death Capital"
KHOU-TV set out to answer a frightening question: Why is Harris County, Texas "the DWI death capital of the country?" Employees of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission revealed "little-known amendments" that offer immunity to bars and bartenders "from civil liability" or "state administrative action" that could result from the state law that prevents over-serving alcohol.
Tags: Safe Harbor; TABC; Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission; dram shop; liquor distributors; drunk driving; bartender; public records; Texas Public Information Act; Harris County
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Contract Sunshine
This story reveals that state agencies in Wisconsin were not following a four-year-old transparency law requiring them to post contract data online for public review, and that Wisconsin ranked among the worst in the nation at providing such information. Agency directors blamed each other, a lack of enforcement power, technical glitches and a shortage of money.
Tags: Wisconsin; Contract Sunshine; transparency; law; public records; state; online; data;
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Utility Ethics Flap
When the top lawyer for Indiana's utility regulatory commission suddenly quit his job to work for the state's largest utility (Duke Energy Corp.), reporters smelled a rat and demanded state records to see if the two organizations had been engaged in improper conversations. The lawyer in question, Scott Storms, had been the chief administrative law judge for the state, ruling on numerous cases involving the utility, notably its new $2.9 billion power plant. What they found was eye-opening. Mr. Storms had been in talks with the utility for many months about a job, even as he was ruling on cases involving the company, and approving huge cost over-runs for a new power plant. The matter was of deep public interest, because the state agency rules on utility rates paid by all state residents and businesses, and it's dealings were compromised by possible undue influence.
Tags: State Finances; Scott Storms; Ethics; Utility; State Records; Duke Energy Corporation
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Treasury Luxury Travel
The Oregonian's investigation spotlighted an obscure corner of state government where Wall Street practices became business as usual, where a set of high-paid employees were granted special exemptions to operate outside the scope of state gift and ethics laws, and functioned with little internal or public oversight. The newspaper revealed that state investment officers charged with monitoring more than $50 billion in state pension investments routinely travel in luxury, paid for by taxpayers and the Wall Street investment managers they are supposed to be overseeing. They stay at high-end resorts and five-star hotels, eat at celebrated restaurants and fly first class. The tab is often picked up by investment firms managing Oregon's investments, who are competing for hundreds of millions of dollars in fees that the pension fund pays annually. The state treasury didn't monitor that travel. It kept no record of the expenses or gratuities provided its employees. And it ignored the potential conflicts of interest.
Tags: State Government; Corruption; Finance; Wall Street; Exemption; Business; Gift and Ethics Law; Travel; State Treasury; State Employees
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Dallas Crime Stats
“Dallas had the highest reported crime rate among cities with more than 1 million people”. Many people were worried with distinction, so the police came up with a better system to record and report these statistics. Now that Dallas isn’t known to have the highest reported crime rate, it has come to attention that the rates being presented to the public are creating “an artificial image of crime in Dallas”.
Tags: law enforcement; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Police Department; Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines; officers; misclassified cases; Police Chief David Kunkle
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Bus-ted
The story reveals a number of things about a school district’s bus system. Some of the things revealed are school buses breaking traffic laws, and extensive records of the bus drivers, including traffic violations and speeding tickets. Once the findings were revealed, the school district wasn’t sure who hired them and the school district allowed them to be bus drivers as long as the insurance companies approved them.
Tags: Cedar Rapids Public School District; school administration; education; transportation; children; kids; Denny Schreckengast; Matt Dunbar
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Officer Absent, Case Dismissed
Many defendants facing felony charges were set free in 2007 because police officers, who arrested them, never showed up for court. Further, these defendants already had long criminal records and after being released were later arrested for other crimes. In some instances, cases were postponed when officers did not show up for court, instead of having the case dismissed. No matter if the case is postponed or dismissed it wastes the time of judges, lawyers, defendants, and the public’s money.
Tags: law enforcement; Louisville Metro Police Department; Jefferson District Court; absences; county attorney