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 "social inequality" ...
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The $10 Billion Hole
This project, which included three major stories and several smaller pieces, revealed the many problems that plague education funding in Illinois. The investigation found that reliance on property taxes to fund education leads to funding inequalities that keep lower-income neighborhoods at a disadvantage. The story also found that the state loses $10 billion in "social costs" (such as prisons and public assistance) from high school dropouts. Finally, the reporters also found that higher levels of education do not necessarily guarantee higher test scores.
Tags: Philip Meyer Award; education; funding; state government; property taxes; statistical analysis; standardized tests; CAR
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Plan Columbia
Colombia is now the third-largest recipient of US aid in the world after Israel and Egypt. The two-year, $3.2 billion aid package is to help fight "the war on drugs," by eradicating half of the nation's 300,000 acres of coca fields within five years. Yet others consider the escalating US military presence and its technological aid to the right wing paramilitary forces a thinly veiled military intervention, stabilizing the government in power against guerillas in the coca-producing regions. Kidnappings are up sharply, and others fear they'll increase even more if drugs profits are stymied.
Tags: Columbia; US Aid; War on Drugs; anti-narcotics; School of the Americas; U.S. military advisors; toxic herbicides; Plan Colombia; Pais Libre; kidnapping; FARC; ELN; death squads; human rights; Pentagon's Southern Command; Amnesty International; Paz Colombia; social inequality
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Rebuilding America
The Columbia Daily Tribune investigates what has gone wrong in America in the last century and why wages are down, creating a society of have-mores and have-lesses. The article focuses on some starting points for fixing the American economy, including how to deal with trade, immigration, global wages, taxes, Social Security and Medicare, executive salaries, and campaign finance and lobbying.