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 "rental" ...
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Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions on Rental Deals
This story is about one of the most fought-over pieces of property in Los Angeles, the 400 acre Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in West Los Angeles. It’s in an affluent neighborhood and has been a target of developers. But with many unused buildings, it’s also been coveted as a place to house some of L.A.’s 8,000 homeless veterans. That was the original use of the land, which was donated for an Old Soldiers’ Home in the late 19th century. The VA has not acted on plans announced in 2007 to begin rehabbing unused buildings there for housing for homeless vets. Meanwhile, it’s rented out land and buildings to commercial enterprises. There is no public accounting for this income. Through FOIA and other documents, we found that the VA is renting out the property using a law intended for sharing health care resources, though the renters are non-health related commercial enterprises. We were also able to estimate that the VA has taken in at least 28 million and possibly more than 40 million dollars over the past dozen years, far more than the cost of re-habbing a building to house homeless vets.
Tags: Property; neighborhood; land uses; veterans
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Troubled Landlords
For at least a decade, Twin Cities landlords Hyder Jaweed and Asgher Ali ran a rental property empire that left hundreds of tenants -- most often low income and/or immigrants -- living in squalid conditions and left city inspectors wishing there were laws to stop the landlords.
Tags: landlords; housing; inspectors; renters
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WESD's Web of Deals
A 16-month investigation of a regional education service agency showed that employees were charging the district for luxury rental cars, expensive hotels, Starbucks trips, and more as the district was struggling to stay afloat. It also found that numerous red flags raised over the past 10 years had been ignored.
Tags: education; tax abuse; corruption; county government; oversight
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The rise and fall of Denny Hecker
Denny Hecker is one of the” biggest, most well-known businessmen in the Twin Cities”. He owned car dealerships, a national car rental company, and was the star of many advertisements. Behind this perfect exterior is a story of criminal behaviors and massive debt. All these details were revealed after Hecker filed for personal bankruptcy, which began the “collapse of a massive empire”.
Tags: loans; revenue; money; fortune; recession; deal maker; financial; finances; assets; FOIA; lawsuits
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Database Delay
Unethical car sellers putting salvage vehicles on the road has presented a danger to those on the road. KGTV shows how a database could have saved billions of dollars while preventing unnecessary deaths on the road.
Tags: CARFAX; auction; rental car; John Ashcroft; Attorney General; resale; history report;
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Which Price is Right?
A massive mortgage scheme that dramatically increased the price of rental homes at the closing table was uncovered by the Journal-Gazette. Novice investors were tricked into paying an inflated price for dilapidated homes with only the highest sale price recorded in official documents.
Tags: real estate; realtor; John Kintz; Jeff Radabaugh;
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Prince George's County Coverage
In Maryland's Prince George's County, county Executive Jack B. Johnson "awarded 51 county contracts totaling nearly $3.3 million to 15 of his friends and political supporters, some of whom had no expertise in the field." The Washington Post investigates Johnson's dealings, further finding that he and other officials from the same county "used county-issued credit cards to pay for personal expenses totaling thousands of dollars," including plane tickets, clothing, video rentals and prescription drugs. These charges were seldom repaid in the county's mandated deadline of 10 business days.
Tags: Prince George's County; Jack B. Johnson; personal credit-card usage
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Lost Among the Ruins
With at least 100,000 apartment units and more than 500,000 people, "the D.C. Attorney general's office "has prosecuted only four landlords for housing-code violations since 2001, or less than one case per year." In addition, the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs "had no agency-wide process for collecting fines and is owed more than $8.8 million in outstanding fines and penalties in more than 22,000 housing-violation cases." The Legal Times touches on these issues, as well as the story of convicted slumlord David Nuyen, "who is still renting apartment units in D.C. despite a court order for him to get out of the rental business."
Tags: Slumlords; Washington, D.C. Attorney general; D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs; David Nuyen
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The Scumlords
A three part series which examines the actions of Skyline's landlord. Security employees used scare tactics trying to get rent controlled tenets to leave so the landlord could charge more. Complaints of housing conditions were numerous. The third part focused on the family history of the owners of Skyline.
Tags: landlord; rental; rent control; housing conditions; Skyline; San Francisco;
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Housing Headaches
Since the balcony collapses of 2003 in Chicago, building codes and regulations have had to change because of the resulting deaths. The student rental properties' landlords are not maintaining the property or inspecting them every three years as they should.
Tags: student housing; rental; housing code; property damage; safety