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 "special interests" ...
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Redistricting
The investigation shows how sophisticated voter data, skilled map drawers, and lobbyists were used to manipulate district lines to protect their political friends or punish their enemies.
Tags: redistricting; lobbyists; maps; special interest
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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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State of Neglect
The state of Texas, which is one of the nation’s wealthiest states, is faced with low rankings in social benefits. These benefits include “assistance to poor children and the malnourished, treatment of the mentally ill, care of the disabled and many other social indicators”. This series reveals special interests are being heard and are shaping laws and decisions in the state of Texas.
Tags: lawmakers; state government; health care; state health; human services; privatizing; Evercare; hospitals; companies; businesses; lobbyists
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Bosnia-Herzegovina Politicians' Assets
By law, Bosnian politicians are required to disclose their assets. When the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo explored financial records of individual politicians, small unreported private fortunes were uncovered. Corporate kickbacks from special interests were found as well.
Tags: Bosnia; Herzegovina; assets; politicians; disclosure; finances; officials; officeholders; private business;
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The DeParle Portfolio
"The DeParle Portfolio" explore the Obama administration's health czar's moneyed connections with the health care industry.
Tags: DeParle; Obama; health care; health czar; special interests; ties; revolving door;
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"The Climate Change Lobby"
Multinational lobbyists, particularly business interests in fossil fuel energy production, have backlashed against government's expanded interest in deterring climate change. As decisive action on global warming increasingly takes center stage, the climate change lobby over the past six years has increased in numbers by 400 percent. "The Climate Change Lobby" explores how special interests have attempted to sway environmental policy in a time of important decisions on global environmental and economic sustainability.
Tags: lobby; climate; energy; global warming; lobbyists; fuels; Copenhagen; Obama; special interests; manufacturing;
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Pentagon Travel
"Pentagon Travel" details special interest involvement in Pentagon travel expenses. A year-long analysis revealed that between 1998 and 2007 22,000 Pentagon trips worth at least $26 million were funded by business and foreign interests. The Center for Public Integrity in conjunction with Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism uncover the specific Pentagon relationships with outside interests sponsoring military trips.
Tags: Pentagon; travel; expenses; outside interests; military; kickbacks
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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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Storm World
"In the wake of Katrina, the book follows the careers of leading scientists on either side of the argument over the relationship between hurricanes and global warming, tracing how the media, special interests, politics, and the weather itself have skewed and amplified what was already a fraught scientific dispute."
Tags: global warming; hurricane; Katrina; environment; science; politics; media;
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Hillary's Mystery Money Men
This article looks at the use of bundling and fundraising by people formerly tied to transnational interests and foreign dictators as a means to get the ear of a prospective U.S. president. This story revealed the influence of Alan Quasha, an international businessman and early key benefactor of George W. Bush, in Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Tags: campaign finance; campaign donations; special interests; international politics; presidential election; FEC