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 "state assemblies" ...
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Unfair Game
Texas high school athletics rules prohibit students from transferring from district to district for athletic purposes, but that hasn’t stopped coaches and administrators from openly flouting the rules to assemble state championship-caliber teams as part of an underground recruiting system that puts athletics over academics. WFAA investigative reporter Brett Shipp's reports showed how improper recruiting helped Dallas' Kimball Knights build back-to-back state champ basketball teams, and how former Dallas Cowboy Deion Sanders' new school, Prime Prep Academy, also drew in blue-chip players against the rules.
Tags: High school athletics; sports; coach; recruiting system; state champion team
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Murder Mysteries
Schripps Howard News Service has conducted the most complete accounting ever made of homicide victims in the United States. Aggressive use of state and local Freedom of Information laws allowed the wire service to assemble a database of 525,742 homicides, including records of 15,322 killings never reported to the FBI. The "Murder Mysteries" project calculated the homicide clearance rate for every police department in the U.S., prompting four departments to promise reforms. Scripps also developed an algorithm that identified 161 suspicious clusters of unsolved homicides involving women of similar age killed through similar means. Authorities in Gary, Ind., and Youngstown, Ohio, Launched new investigations into possible serial murder in their communities as a result of this project.
Tags: Murder; mystery; FBI; homicide; killings; serial killer; police department; investigation; FOI; algorithm; computer-assisted reporting;
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Murder Mysteries
Using state and local Freedom of Information laws, the author was able to assemble the largest database of homicides in the U.S. It also found records of 15,322 killings never reported to the FBI and calculated the homicide clearance rate for every police department.
Tags: police; homicide; Freedom of Information Act; FOIA; killing
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Broke State
As the country suffers from the recession, so does the state of California but not directly from the country’s recession. California’s recession is based off of poor spending decisions from legislators, representatives, and a number of agencies. Most of these bad decisions are costing the taxpayers “millions of dollars” and they are seeing little benefit from these costs.
Tags: assembly; state government; local government agencies; public funds; taxes; expenses; unemployment; Bill Lockyer; Schwarzenegger; prison
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"Scrutinizing Scholarships"
"Each member of the Illinois General Assembly, the state’s legislative body, can give up to eight one-year scholarships away to any Illinois public university student." When deciding on the scholarship recipients, lawmakers can pick any rubric they want to choose them. In fact, "lawmakers awarded 196 scholarships to relatives of campaign contributors." These scholarships affect the universities because the scholarships are like tuition waivers, which leave the bill for the universities. Further, "university officials note the GA scholarship program costs their institutions about $12 million per year."
Tags: Illinois; FOIA; General Assembly; University
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Toxic Legacy
The authors investigated the massive quantity of waste produced by Ford Motor Co. The waste has polluted watersheds and other environmentally sensitive areas 25 years after the automaker closed the assembly plant in Mahwah, NJ. The water supply for one quarter of the state's population is threatened by leaching industrial waste.
Tags: industrial waste; pollution; environment; Ford Motor Co.; toxic waste; environmentally sensitive areas; FOIA; water supply
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AAA Poll
AAA used a poll financed in part with taxpayer money to lobby for its driving initiatives before the Maryland General Assembly. The author explores the conflict of interest and ethical dilemmas that arise from this complicated situation.
Tags: congress; legislature; politics; politicians; interest groups; state government; driving
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Health care influence at the Rhode Island General Assembly
This series of stories raised a number of ethical concerns involving state legislators. The stories detailed how the president of the senate made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling Blue Cross Insurance to CVS pharmacy employees, while as a legislator he used his position to kill pharmacy choice legislation. Other stories showed how another senator worked as a "consultant" for health care concerns and how the national drugstore industry entertained state legislators from around the country at luxury resorts. Following the newspaper's reports, the senate president and the head of Blue Cross resigned, while the state police and the FBI began an investigation.
Tags: politics; health care industry; pharmaceutical industry; drugstores; ethics; corporate influence; lobbying; special interests
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Trade Secrets
California set up foreign-trade offices around the world to boost the state's exports and lure investors from other countries. However, documents obtained by the Register showed the trade offices repeatedly made false and overblown claims about the business deals they said they were instrumental in landing. In their last annual report, the offices took credit-at least 31 times on deals totaling $4.2 million-for export or investment deals in which they played little or no role. Six times, they took credit for deals that, in reality, did not happen. Officials in the state agency that had oversight responsibility for the offices said they never checked the accuracy of the offices' claims and believed they had no reason to.
Tags: commerce; trade offices; annual report; California Legislature; California Technology Trade and Commerce Agency; California Assembly; California Senate; brokerage; toxic-cleanup; Gigante USA; South Africa; Tokyo; Taiwan; Singapore; Tri-C Manufacturing; exports; Onlyone Products Inc.; H/A International; United Food and Commercial Workers union; U.S. Department of Commerce; California Bureau of State Audits; Department of Finance; private enterprise
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Failed Empire
Jack Kemp, a Buffalo congressman, initiated an enterprise project - the Empire Zone program to revitalize decaying urban areas. As the reporters from the Buffalo News found out the finances allotted for this project was used to provide tax breaks to law firms, fast-food restaurants and other corporations. After this series of articles were published, the speaker of the New York State Assembly proposed changes in the Empire Zone program
Tags: Jack Kemp; Buffalo congressman; Empire Zone program; tax breaks to firms; fraud with funds; New York Assembly