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 "strain" ...
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The Price of Parking
The City of Columbia disregarded a study it comissioned building a parking garage double the size of a 3rd party recommendation. The garage, at 5th and Walnut in downtown Columbia, MO, remains mostly empty putting financial strain on the city's parking utility. Yet the city plans on building another parking garage six blocks away from the brand new garage. The city didn't have the money to pay for the first garage and doesn't have money to pay for the second garage. The first garage cost taxpayers $21 million. The city says the second garage will cost another $12 million- not including interest.
Tags: Parking Garages; Columbia; Missouri; Parking
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The Siren Song of Alcohol
Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, is facing a staggering upward trend of alcohol-related injury. Ambulance calls taking place at night and early morning hours are consuming and straining city emergency medical response resources. Binge drinking, drunk driving, and blacking out have all on the rise over the last five years.
Tags: drunk; drinking; alcohol; Iowa City; University of Iowa; binge; ambulance; injury; blackout; driving; intoxication; strain; resources; emergency; violence; deaths;
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Cuts Put Strain on Park Police
The number of full-time police officers at New York State Parks has decreased the past five years, along with increases in more "serious" offenses. Several areas have minimal or no police coverage, and some officers are working extended shifts as a result.
Tags: cops; beach patrol; park and recreation; overtime; Long Island; Bethpage; Caumsett; Hempstead; Belmont Lake;
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Prisons' Legal Strain
Eight class-action lawsuits won by inmates rights lawyers have led to the state of California mandating "fixes for past failures that have already cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and will cost nearly $8 billion over five years." Included in that bill are improvements in the ways prisoners are treated, like health care and "general confinement conditions." An outbreak of Valley Fever at one prison is included in the coverage of these issues. One of the ways the state seeks to balance the prison budget is a plan to release 22,000 "low-risk offenders" early.
Tags: Prisons; health care; medical conditions; confinement conditions; prison health care; Valley Fever
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Strains for Airport Screeners
The story revealed that federal airport screeners have the highest injury rate in the nation; injuries were causing screeners to miss about 250,000 work days a year; some of those absences led to screeners missing training, and violating a federal law requiring all checked luggage to go through bomb-detection machines. The story also found that the Transportation Security Administration had known about the injury problem for more than a year but had taken little action to improve the situation.
Tags: airports; luggage handlers; injury; Transportation Security Administration; safety conditions; Occupational Health and Safety Administration
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How Far Will the Army Go?
With the help of an undercover high school journalist KCNC revealed that Army recruiters in suburban Denver advised the 17 year old student about how to obtain a fake diploma and beat a drug test. After the story aired, KCNC received tips from across the country about similar recruiting practices. Following the broadcast, the military froze recruitment efforts for a day and re-examined recruitment policies and procedures.
Tags: military; US Army; recruiters; recruitment; US Navy
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Repeat Claims Strain Federal Flood Insurance
Gaul investigates the wave of insurance claims that is sure to follow in the wake of recent hurricanes. He found that the National Flood Insurance Program will likely suffer enormous financial strain after thousands of people file their claims.
Tags: FEMA; hurricane; natural disaster; national flood insurance; federal government; property; real estate; Hurricane Katrina
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Superbugs
This story reveals that, not only are "superbugs" (bacteria that are resistant to existing antibiotics,) proliferating, but the major pharmaceutical companies are not developing new antibiotics to combat them. Bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics at such a rate that pharmaceutical companies find it more profitable to develop big sellers like Viagra that do not become obsolete.
Tags: infectious disease; drug-resistant strains; FDA; MRSA; Texas Children's Hospital
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The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed
Thompson's book investigates the U.S. government's failures and incompetencies during 2001's series of Anthrax attacks. The attacks killed five people and left thousands of Americans in fear. The investigation looks at how a number of government agencies from the CDC to the FBI have controlled information under the Bush Administration. "The Killer Strain is the definitive account of the year in which bioterrorism became a reality in the United States, exposing failures in judgement and a flawed understanding of the anthrax bacteria's capacity to kill."
Tags: BOOK; Anthrax attacks; U.S. Postal Service; Center for Disease Control; National Security Council; USAMRIID; FOIA
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Making Mental Illness a Crime: For more Georgians, disorders mean time in jail, not treatment centers. I Hear Voices Sometimes, Crazy Stuff. Bibb County Jail Uses Outside Help to Treat Mentally Ill. Prisons: A costly answer to mental health care. Funding Problems Hamper Treatment of Mental Illness. Mental Illness History Comes Full Circle. Advocates Say System is Broken; Funding woes, short- staffing, deluge of paperwork strain state mental health workers. Breaking the Cycle: New programs may prevent jail time for mentally ill Georgians. Mandatory Treatment: Not an easy decision.
Georgia's jails are being filled not only with criminals but also with people suffering from mental illness. These articles explore this recent development and examine how it affects the prisoners, the institution, the state and the taxpayers. The article also discusses various kinds of mental illness and offers suggestions as to how a better system for dealing with it could be developed.
Tags: National Alliance for the Mentally Ill; NAMI; schizophrenia; manic depression