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 "switch" ...
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Cracking the Codes
Cracking the Codes documented how thousands of medical professionals have steadily billed Medicare for more complex and costly health care over the past decade – adding $11 billion or more to their fees – despite little evidence elderly patients required more treatment. The series also uncovered a broad range of costly billing errors and abuses that have plagued Medicare for years – from confusion over how to pick proper payment codes to apparent overcharges in medical offices and hospital emergency rooms. The findings strongly suggest these problems, known as “upcoding,” are worsening amid lax federal oversight and the government-sponsored switch from paper to electronic medical records.
Tags: Medicare; health care; billing; medical offices; hospitals; government; medical records
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Deep Trouble
The Journal's initial coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill posed many questions about the impact of the spill. It also revealed that the Deepwater Horizon rig didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch, a feature used as a last-resort protection against oil spills.
Tags: oil; Gulf Oil Spill; Deepwater Horizon; oil spill; oil rig
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Is it true?
"For several years a local car dealership ran advertisements on the radio, television and in newspapers offering deals on cars that it could not live up to". As a number of complaints mounted, the investigation into the dealership began. The investigation revealed the dealership used false advertising and "even increased the interest rate on finance documents after they were signed by the customer".
Tags: Mike Young Motors; bait-and-switch advertising; advertisements; ads; false; car dealership; dealer's claims; violations; automobiles
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Bad Bargain
This article identifies several people who suffered consequences after switching from brand name drugs to generic ones. Furthermore, this article identifies loopholes that allow these generic drugs to reach the market. These generics, many of us believe are the same as the brand name ones, are actual substandard and un-equivalent.
Tags: Prescriptions; Drugs; Generic; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Insurance companies; Brand Name; Doctors; Pharmacy; Pharmaceuticals
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Distracted
Distracted explores the steep societal and individual costs to our split-focus, hyper-mobile, cyber-centric lives. In our "knowledge" economy, the average worker switches tasks every three minutes on average, and a third of workers say they are so interrupted and busy that they don't have time to reflect on the work they do. We eat on the run, keep one eye on a gadget, and process the world in snippets. It's rare to pay attention to anyone or anything in full or for long. In this climate of diffused and splintered attention, workers, parents and children alike have less time to reflect, create and connect."
Tags: distracted; multitask; society; switch; busy; technology, tasking;
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Sounding the Alarm
An extra $274,000 was required to fix the problems created by a $37 million upgrade to the Marion County digital radio system. The switch from analog to digital was not as smooth as hoped because firefighters claimed the transmissions were unintelligible.
Tags: dispatcher; 911; emergency call; International Association of Fire Chiefs; radio; walkie talkie; alert
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Whistle Blower Outs NSA Spy Room
In San Francisco, a "secret Internet switching room packed with surveillance gear and wired to AT&T's backbone network" was interconnected to other major Internet providers. The documents detailing this setup had been sealed due to a class-action lawsuit against AT&T, in which a civil liberties group "charged that the company had helped the government eavesdrop on Americans' domestic and international Internet traffic without a warrant."
Tags: Internet; national security; government eavesdropping; Web surveillance; AT&T; NSA
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Ford Fires
The authors investigation showed that the Ford F150 pickup truck was a potential fire hazard due to faulty cruise control switches. Their series of reports also showed that Ford as well as other companies may have known about the problem for the last five years and have hidden it.
Tags: Ford; fire; cruise control switch; Dupont; Texas Instruments; Ford F150; FOIA
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Big Money on Campus: How Taxpayers are Getting Scammed by Student Loans
This story details how private lenders lure schools out of the federal government's cost - effective direct loan program and into exclusive contracts in the more expensive bank - based Federal Family Education Loan Program. Private lenders use questionable tactics that border on bribery to convince schools that they should switch programs. 62 colleges have entered this program since 2000, at a cost of roughly $250 million to the Treasury.
Tags: Sallie Mae
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A Priest's 2 Faces: Protector, Predator
In this detailed report, The Times details the two-pronged personality of Rev. Paul R. Shanley who was arrested on charges of raping a 6-year-old boy in 1983. While he was seen as a benefactor by many harassed children, he switched roles to harass some himself.
Tags: Religion; Catholic; Church; Priest; Rev. Paul R.Shanley; Boston; Archdiocese