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 "transit" ...
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WSJ China's Troubled Transition
During his years in China, British businessman Neil Heywood cut a rather eccentric figure, cruising around Beijing in a silver Jaguar with “007” license plates and boasting implausibly about his connections to senior Communist Party officials. When he was found dead in a second-rate provincial hotel room in November 2011—of “excessive alcohol consumption,” according to local authorities—he was immediately cremated and seemingly just as quickly forgotten. Forgotten, that is, until Wall Street Journal reporter Jeremy Page began digging into the case. Using his wide network of local and foreign contacts, the Beijing correspondent discovered that this was much more than a sad case of expat overindulgence. It turned out that Mr. Heywood was in fact very close to the wife of Bo Xilai, a Communist Party rising star—and that he had told friends he feared she might do him harm. The investigation lifted the lid on the extravagant, and often lawless, private lives of the country's elite—a forbidden topic for Chinese media, and one rarely touched on by the foreign press. Mr. Page’s reports, devoured by China’s vast population of Internet users, sparked massive public debate and may even have altered the course of China’s once-a-decade leadership transition.
Tags: Bo Xilai; China; Communist Party; death
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Revolution to Riches
In a tense year of political transition in China, the Bloomberg News series "Revolution to Riches" was the first to expose the huge wealth amassed by the top families of senior leaders. Bloomberg also revealed the origin of the system of hereditary privilege that has become a lightning rod for popular discontent and threatens to undermine the ruling Communist Party.
Tags: Chinese politicians; China's senior leaders; business dealings; Communist Party
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The Return
The first hand account of Russia's transition from communism since 1985 involved detailed reporting and analysis spanning a period of more than two decades. Major findings include the sources of President, and then Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin's popularity and reasons for Russia's descent into economic depression in the 1990s and recovery after 1999.
Tags: Russia; communism; USSR; Vladimir Putin
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Wounded Warriors
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review began following up on tips worldwide from military personnel inside the Warrior Transition Units, the special military-medical wards constructed in the aftermath of the scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. After months of gathering leaked documents and compiling numerous interviews at bases nationwide, especially with soldiers, the Tribune leaked reams of secret reports detailing the Pentagon's own inspection of medical wards.
Tags: Military Personnel; Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Washington D.C. Documents
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Rough Road for Bus Safety
Houston's public transit agency, Metro, has poor safety records according to an investigation by the Houston Chronicle. The investigation determined there were more than 1000 bus-involved crashes in a one-year period and hundreds of traffic violations. Metro officials were unaware of many of these violations.
Tags: bus safety; transportation; driving; traffic; Metro
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"FEMA's Toxic Bureaucracy"
After nearly a year of reporting, the CBS News Investigative Unit reported a string of "discrimination, sexual harassment and cronyism in the New Orleans" FEMA office. Several staff members went on camera to share stories revealing the "toxic environment" of the FEMA office. Just a day after the story aired, an internal investigation was launched by FEMA, and the Chief of Staff was quickly transferred.
Tags: Gulf Coast Recovery; Nancy Ward; Federal Emergency Management Agency; FEMA Louisiana Transitional Recovery; Doug Whitmer; Joseph Cao; Jim Stark; Mary Landrieu
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Dodging Dart
“Des Moines Area Regional Transit travels 3.7 million miles a year”. Many people use the system to travel back and forth to work and school. These people haven’t had bad experiences, but fear for the pedestrians coming in the way of the bus. There have been “at least seven people hit by the bus in a little more than two years”. Little has been done to make the streets safer because it is difficult, when hiring, to set criteria for them.
Tags: buses; downtown; Brad Miller; drivers; transportation; collisions; safety; accidents; route
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Access Denied
When reviewing how well the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) was fulfilling the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it failed to fulfill in many cases. Many stations are designated as fully accessible, but in reality lack many of the general necessities. These include, “broken doors, turnstiles and elevators, and lacking automatic doors, which make it fully accessible”. Furthermore, the CTA declined to discuss these problems, but one employee did answer some questions, which lacked any substantial feedback.
Tags: public transportation; violation; handicap; public transit system; wheelchair; commuters; disabled
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Game of Control
While some agencies have chipped away at corruption in football, their efforts have stopped at their national borders. Criminals have observed no boundaries. Reporters for the Organize Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of investigative reporters, took a months-long look at the business of football in the southeast Europe and the former Soviet Union. They found networks of agents and power stakeholders quietly skimming transfer fees and working through tax havens and companies with shell proxies to avoid taxes. In post-transition Bulgaria some 200 killings have been linked to football. Among the dead are 15 club leaders who attained their posts through questionable means.
Tags: football; soccer; corruption; murder; athletes; organized crime; Eastern Europe
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SLICC Deal for Pentagon Brass, Pimp My Ride -- Air Force Edition,
In June 2008, sources came to the Project on Government Oversight about the Air Force wasting taxpayer funds. They presented documents and e-mails that raised questions about two little-known programs to build "world-class" luxury aircraft accommodations for the military and senior civilian leadership. The accommodations -- called SLICC (Snior Leader In-transit Conference Capsule) and SLIP (Senior Leader In-transit Pallet) -- were justified as filling a "deficiency gap," but e-mails obtained by POGO showed that there was significant internal dissent within the Air Force over this extravagant waste of taxpayers' funds. Requirements documents obtained by POGO emphasize the need for "aesthetically pleasing" accommodations. E-mails obtained by POGO state that Air Force generals upgraded the leather, carpet, and wood choices, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the program cost. After the first FLIP was procured, General Robert McMahon expressed dissatisfaction with the color of the seat leather and type of wood used. He directed that the leather be reupholstered from brown to Air Force blue leather, and requested to replace the wood originally used with cherry. Internal Air Force e-mails make it clear that the Air Force leadership's overriding concern us SLICC's level of luxury. Contract documents obtained by POGO revealed that these accommodations do not provide any additional operational capabilities (e.g. communications advantages) beyond those currently existing.
Tags: government spending; Air Force; SLICC; SLIP; misconduct; overspending