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 "restaurants" ...
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Fishy Business
Boston Globe reporters Jenn Abelson and Beth Daley captured the attention of consumers across the nation with their 2011 “Fishy Business” series, which revealed widespread mislabeling of seafood at restaurants. DNA testing commissioned by the Globe showed diners frequently – and unwittingly -- overpaid for less desirable species. In 2012, the Globe produced two more “Fishy Business” installments to expand and follow up on the initial investigation. First, Abelson spent several months examining how fish processors add water to seafood to increase profits. The Globe hired an independent lab to conduct an analysis of 43 fish samples collected from supermarkets across Massachusetts. The results, presented in a multimedia package in September 2012, showed consumers often pay for excess water when they buy scallops and frozen fish. About 1 in 5 of the samples weighed less than what was stated on packages. The testing also showed 66 percent of the fish from one supplier had too much ice. The Globe also wanted to verify restaurants and wholesalers had changed their ways following the newspaper’s 2011 investigation and resulting calls for reform. Daley and Abelson returned to 58 restaurants that served the wrong fish in 2011 to collect new samples. DNA tests showed 76 percent did not match what restaurants advertised on their menus. The resulting third installment of “Fishy Business,” published in December 2012, detailed these findings. In addition, Abelson and Daley explained how accountability is lost in the fish supply chain by investigating a major wholesaler that provided mislabeled fish to some of the region’s best-known restaurants.
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Hot Trucks
Amidst widespread reports of food safety recalls and food borne illness outbreak, WTHR's "Hot Trucks" exposed a gaping hole in the safety net of our nation's food supply. The 6-month investigation revealed tons of meat, seafood, dairy products, produce, and other perishable food items are transported to grocery stores and restaurants every day under unsafe and unsanitary conditions that pose a serious health threat to millions of Americans.
Tags: Food Safety
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Champaign Pest Inspection
The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District conducts about 1,300 inspections of restaurants and other food-service facilities next year. But, unlike many other health departments in the area and across the U.S., the district does nothing to publicize the results of these inspections.
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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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"Buffalo economic development agency scandal"
The News exposed numerous economic blunders by members of Buffalo's economic development agency. The use of anti-poverty funds for employee health insurance perks and BlackBerry devices are just some of the misuses of city finances. The city also financed a failed restaurant that was owned by a "former pro basketball player" with the anti-poverty funds.
Tags: Leonard Stokes; Michelle Barron; Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp.; Byron W. Brown; Brian C. Davis; Brian Reilly
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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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Fields of Terror-The New Slave Trade in the Heart of Europe
People from poor countries are becoming modern day slaves as they are lured in on false pretenses and then being held captive. They were promised “good salaries, accommodations, and food”, but instead were beaten and threatened if they asked for these items. These people were becoming slaves and provided many local restaurants with fresh foods from the surrounding fields. Even though this was all happening, many people were continuing to get away with having these modern day slaves and no one was stopping them.
Tags: Czech Republic; Eastern Europe; illegal immigrants; gangsters; criminals; labor; force; manual labor; work
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Trouble on the Tray
This series found problems in the federal, state, and local programs that supplied food to the nation’s schoolchildren. Some of the major findings: beef supplied for school lunches wouldn’t pass at national fast-food restaurants, chicken found at schools is only quality enough for pet food, supplied recalled beef to schools, failed to inform schools of bad tortillas, and many schools lacked the two inspections per year.
Tags: Food safety; Schoolchildren; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Schools; Cafeteria; Government; Lunch; Beef; Children; Food; Bad food; E. coli
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What's on the Menu?
Eight stations in the E.W. Scripps Television station Group worked together to investigate claims by national restaurant chains about low-fat and low-calorie menu items. The group specifically gathered menus from restaurants who listed the fat and/or calorie content directly on their menus, and decided to have the food tested at Analytical Laboratories, Inc. in Boise, Idaho. They created an excel spreadsheet and assigned each station three foods listed on various low-fat/low-calorie menus on the same way. The stations each packed their food the exact same way and videotaped this procedure to verify protocol. The packages were then sent overnight to Analytical Laboratories, Inc. for testing. The test results showed that out of the 23 items tested, 78% were over the fat limit and almost 69% were over the calorie limit listed on the package. A producer from KNXV-TV then contacted all the restaurants involved in the test and asked for a response. No company would go on camera for the story, though the company that owns Chili's and Macaroni Grill apologized and said they would work to reinforce the menu standards.
Tags: food; nutrition; low-fat; low-calorie; Ohio; false advertising
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The Casino Kings
The state of South Dakota partners with thousands of bars and restaurants that offer video gambling. The state takes in more than $100 million each year from the games, but basic information about who owns and operates the establishments is hidden from public view by state law. Using liquor license records and business registrations, the newspaper built a backdoor database of owners, officers and financiers that took six months. The reporting revealed a consolidation of licenses by a handful of individuals and partnerships in the state's most lucrative markets.
Tags: video gambling; bars; public records; South Dakota; lottery; money; license