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 housing regulations" ...
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All the Devils are Here: The Hidden Story of the Financial Crisis
This book offers an attempt to exlore all the various forces -- on Main Street, Washington and Wall St. -- that lead to the financial crisis of 2008. They explored the extent that subprime loans fed the crisis; how Wall Street dictated the degraded lending terms; and the efforts of federal regulators to thwart predatory lending at the state and local levels.
Tags: financial crisis; subprime lending; housing crisis; foreclosure; predatory lending; Wall Street; Contrywide; Ameriquest; Goldman Sachs; Merrill Lynch; AIG;
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Steamrolled
The story documents how Houston residents are being exposed to industrial pollution with no protection from state and local regulators. Because Houston does not have zoning laws, industrial plants can be built in residential neighborhoods.
Tags: pollution; industrial plant; neighborhoods; residents; housing
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Takings Initiatives Accountability Project: The Center for Public Integrity investigates ballot initiatives that would radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states
The [non-partisan]Center for Public Integrity investigated 2006 "ballot initiatives that were designed to radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states. They discovered that a trio of "secret donors" accounted for 99% of the propostions' bankrolls, and some of the initiatives did not comply with campaign-finance and other regulations. Then the Center revealed that 85 percent of the funding was coming from a single wealthy real estate investor and Libertarian activist, Howard RIch All but the Arizona inititative failed at the ballot. The Center for Public Integrity set up a stand-alone website-- www.takings initiatives.org-- and filed more than 50 articles on it. "Our general practice-- and a novel one as far as we can tell-- was to mount verbatim transcripts of the interviews on our website, including audio recordings where available. We sought to allow proponents, opponents funders and experts to have a chance to present their side of the story in their own words." The Center also checked with state and federal regulators for compliance of relevant laws and regulations.
Tags: Takings Initiatives; takings clause; ballot initiatives; land-use regulation; environmental regulation; tax-exempt organizations; Howard Rich; Andrea Millen Rich; Council for Responsible Government; William A. Wilson; state campaign-finance filings; public records requests; state freedom of information requests; America At Its Best; Americans for Limited Government; John Tillman; Howard Ahmanson; Fieldstead & Company; property rights; prefessional signature-gatherers; Colorado At Its Best; term limits; nonprofit advocacy organizations; Sam Adams Alliance; Sam Adams Foundation; Legislative Education Action Drive; Parents in Charge Foundation; Social Security Choice.org; Illinois Charitable Trust Bureau; educational vouchers; tuition tax credits; National Taxpayers Union; First Class Education; Susquehanna International Group; Jeffrey YAss; Cato Institute; Alliance for School Choice; Decision Education Foundation; Eric Brooks; Susan Mitchell; Pete Sepp; Kern Family Foundation; Generac Power Systems, Inc.; Milton Friedman; Taxpayer Bill of Rights; TABOR; Laird Maxwell; This House is MY Home; John Whitehead; Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Exoxemis, Inc.; Family Farm Preservation Pact; Citizens for Community Protection; Kelo v. City of New London; eminent domain; New York Millionaires Assistance Act; Wallace Global Fund; Nicholas C. Dranias; PRNewswire; Eric O'Keefe; getliberty.com; George Soros
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Timeshares: No Matter How You Slice Them, Buyers Pay a Price
With major corporations now involved, timeshare buyers face "high-pressure sales tactics, expensive financing, convoluted reservation systems, volatile and steep annual fees and questionable management and a dismal resale market in which owners virtually must give away their units in order to get rid of them." Even as major lawsuits have been field in recent years on behalf of timeshare buyers, "most states do little to regulate the industry and ensure that timeshare units are accurately represented and that the reservation systems are fairly administered."
Tags: timeshares; housing market; timeshare financing; property loans; timeshare resale
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Exporting Faith
The Boston Globe used "a complete raw database of all USAID awards (prime contracts, grants and agreements) obligated from FY 2001 to FY 2005" to investigate the results of President Bush's Executive Orders that "created the faith based initiative and relaxed federal regulations for religious groups using government funds that once sought to protect church-state separations." The series shows that the percentage of USAID awards going to ngo faith based organizations in 2005 was almost doubled the percentage in 2001, from 10.5% to 19.9%. This creates the potential for problems where aid recipients "might forgo assistance because they don't share in the religion of the provider."
Tags: separation of church and state; faith-based initiatives; foreign aid; executive orders; church-state ties; White House Office of Faith and Community Based Initiatives; President Bush; USAID; NGO; Christian evangelicals; Kenya; Angola; Pakistan; Focus on the Family; James Dobb; FOIA; UNICEF; UNDP; State Department; Samaritan's Purse; National Association of Evangelicals; Americans United for Separation of the Church and State; Global Health Outreach; Offfice of Volunteers for Prosperity; Youth for Christ; World Vision; Yellowbook;
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Aging Sex Offenders Pose Problems
The authors used several actual incidents of abusive behavior in North Dakota nursing homes to illustrate that the state has no appropriate housing option for aging or disabled sex offenders after they have been released from incarceration. The investigation looked at what the long-term care industry and state regulators are doing about such incidents, as well as what they believe should be done.
Tags: sex offenders; pension; long term care; Department of Human Services; nursing homes; sexual abuse
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U.S. Slow on Clean-ups
The Pentagon has resisted paying for clean-up of toxic substances from its former bases. Asbestos, perchlorate and trichloroethylene (TCE) have been deemed hazardous by the EPA and remain on lands previously owned by the Pentagon but that now house private families and schools. But the Pentagon has complained to the White House about EPA regulations and Bush appointees have responded by admonishing EPA officials, essentially creating separate and less stringent environmental standards for the military than for states, communities and private industry. Since 2001 clean-ups have slowed and an estimated 15 million acres of land remain contaminated with dumped munitions alone.
Tags: Military; EPA; contamination; toxic waste; military base closings; asbestos; TCE; Bush administration
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Trouble on the Farm
This series about the University of Nevada-Reno's unethical treatment of their research animals came after five months of extensive investigation by the Reno Gazette-Journal. One university professor is under fire for filing complaints with the USDA about the neglect of animals used to help find new treatments for various diseases. One of the allegations looks at how the university has been disposing of animal carcasses (or parts) in their farm property just a few hundred yards from a Hidden Valley, a residental subdivision. Animal carcasses are left in the open air for coyotes, increasing coyote problems in the area. Other allegations include the unnecessary deaths of 38 pregnant ewes because they were not given food or water, research pigs housed with minimal water or space, and lack of regulations and quality controls for the university.
Tags: research animals; University of Nevada-Reno; Hidden Valley; United States Department of Agriculture
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Building Homes: Building Problems
"A yearlong investigation by the Orlando Sentinel and WESH-NewsChannel 2 into new-housing construction in the region uncovered a systemic lack of quality control by builders who are producing too many homes too fast, with not enough trained workers and inadequate oversight." The investigation consisted in a survey of new home construction in the state of Florida and the inspection of 406 homes built in 2001, that were randomly selected from the 18,000 new homes sold in Central Florida that year done by engineering students at the University of Central Florida. "The reporting attributed the cause to the construction of too many homes too quickly, by a poorly trained and supervised work force dominated by illegal migrants, with inadequate oversight by regulators."
Tags: building; homes; construction; Latino; Hispanic; immigrants; illegal; inspection; workers; migrants; Florida; subcontractors; Mexicans; engineering; homeowner; builder; CAR
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The Flip Side of Homeownership
According to the author, "A five-month investigation by The Record exposed serious loopholes in local, state and federal housing regulations that thwart the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's goal of neighborhood stabilization of the inner city. The stories document how lax regulations allowed a real estate partnership to buy more than 100 shoddy homes in New Jersey cities, make cosmetic repairs and sell them for 75 to 100 percent profit to first-time homebuyers with taxpayer backed mortgages. Due to this property-flipping scheme, many owners are forced to foreclose because of high repair costs. Because HUD guarantees the mortgages, the federal government ends up paying off the house."
Tags: federal housing; housing regulations; schemes; loopholes; state housing regulations; New Jersey; real estate; mortgages; taxpayers; federal government; HUD; Housing and Urban Development; cities; inner city