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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Old Hire
The Denver Post analysis of pension records reveals an outdated pension system that "funnels millions of tax dollars to retired city police officers and firefighters by linking their pensions to the salaries of current department employees, even decades after they've retired." As city and state budgets tighten, the strain of the pension system is becoming even greater.
Tags: pensions; budgets; Denver; Colorado; retirees; old-hire plans; retirement system; government pensions; police officers
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Trouble in the ER
National Journal reports that "a shortage of nurses and inpatient beds is straining emergency rooms. Congress may be forced to respond."
Tags: ER; emergency medicine; hospitals; emergency rooms; nursing shortage; Congress
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Medical Morass: How Do You Tame A Wild U.S. Program? Slowly and Reluctantly
The Journal investigates the practice of home health care companies to prolong patients' recovery. "Across the U.S., elderly patients are becoming economic jackpots for home-care companies, thanks to open-ended reimbursement by Medicare. What once was seen as one of the government's smartest initiatives for the elderly is increasingly viewed as a program out of control. Costs are soaring. Federal fraud investigators are widening their inquiries into billing practices. And Washington policy makers are hunting for ways to revise the fast-growing program to keep it from busting the already-strained Medicare budget."
Tags: health care; nurses; patients; politics
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Modern Meat
Frontline investigates health hazards posed by the nation's meat industry. The story points to evidence that the "widespread use of antibiotics to promote growth and keep livestock healthy may result in the development of bacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotic treatment." The investigation started with examining a lawsuit that a Texas meat-grinding company, Supreme Beef -- after failing federal salmonella standard tests three times -- filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Tags: hygiene; diseases; deaths; food safety; USDA; Center for Disease Control; FOI requests; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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The Story of Sprawl
"A city is composed of four elements: water, land, buildings and people. Urban areas function when these elements combine in the right proportions. Too much or too little of any one, and the city develops the signs of strain: overcrowding, water shortages, jammed highways. As North America's third-fastest-growing city, Toronto is not immune." Reporter John Lorinc reports on the urban sprawl of Toronto and raises the question of possible solutions.
Tags: developers; Ontario Municipal Board; urban; growth; cities; housing; Credit Valley Conservation Authority; property; environment
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Fired By Big Brother
Lewd e-mail had always been passed around Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Michigan, "but when one worker complained of seeing offensive material on a terminal last May, it set off the largest-known crackdown on computer misuse in the U.S. workplace." The result: 39 workers were labeled with "computer-age scarlet letters. Pilloried in the media, and declared deviants by Dow, they're finding that other companies won't touch them. They have faced the humiliation of explaining to their families what happened, and financial strain has pushed some to bankruptcy. . . they still struggle to comprehend how their lives were upended by something as innocuous as e-mail."
Tags: internet; e-mail; companies; employees; sexual harassment; computers
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Shades of Gray
Education Week examines how the funding of public schools may change as the nation's population ages. As the baby boomer generation nears retirement age, many analysts believe schools will face tougher competition for public resources. "It is far from a given, but many analysts have foreseen that an economy that is straining to pay the public and private pensions, an even more, the medical costs of a mammoth elderly population will have trouble finding money for the needs of young people."
Tags: schools; retirement; baby boomers; elderly; funding; public resources; politics; Florida
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"Thinning Ranks Strain Medical Rescue Squads"
A computer-assisted reporting project of ambulance response times revealed that the local dispatching service, staffed largely by unpaid volunteers, worked better than expected, with response times actually dropping in previous years.
Tags: Dutchess county; FOIA; database
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Are you getting your money's worth?
First part:Taxpayers who pay more in local taxes do not necessarily receive more municipal services. Second part: Urban sprawl is causing a strain on municipal services.
Tags: Urban sprawl; tax levies; municipal services
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Into Thick Air
Last year was the safest in U.S. aviation history, the first ever without a death due to an accident. But with the number of flights expected to double over the next decade, air traffic controllers warn that gridlock in the sky--already a strain on their outmoded equipment and a cause of delays--is raising the potential for disaster.
Tags: Aviation Transportation