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 "veterans' issues" ...
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Returning Home to Battle
While the Obama administration declared care for returning U.S. military personnel to be a top priority, reporter Aaron Glantz found something entirely different when he drilled down in the San Francisco Bay Area – home to more than a quarter-million veterans. In a series of stories for The Bay Citizen, which is part of the Center for Investigative Reporting, Glantz exposed an alarming failure inside the Department of Veterans Affairs, where mistakes and massive delays in processing disability claims for ailing veterans were the norm, sometimes leading to tragic consequences. Glantz was the first to detail this trend, finding that tens of thousands of Northern California veterans had been waiting an average of 313 days for a decision from the Oakland office on compensation claims for conditions as serious as traumatic brain injury. The Oakland regional office ranks fifth in the nation for number of veterans served – nearly 1 million veterans from the Oregon border to Bakersfield. The story was so shocking it prompted 16 members of Congress to demand immediate help for veterans filing through Oakland. More action quickly followed. Glantz had found through his reporting that the problem was not limited to the Bay Area. Next he set out to show it. The decision to dig deeper – to go beyond the local story – helped bring greater context to such a critically important issue. Through rich storytelling and clear writing, Glantz ably captured the plight of our veterans in his series, Returning Home to Battle.
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Carmelo Rodriguez Story
Carmelo Rodriguez was a marine who said his skin cancer was misdiagnosed while he was serving in Iraq. The Carmelo Rodriguez story raises disturbing questions about the care that military doctors give to servicemen and women, and it presses the issue of whether soldiers should be able to sue the federal government for medical malpractice, which is not currently allowed.
Tags: Carmelo Rodriguez; health care; veterans; military; Iraq; misdiagnosis; malpractice;
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Disposable Heroes
The original story focused on Iraqi war veteran James Elliott, who suffered a psychotic breakdown and was stun gunned by police while taking the drug Chantix in a smoking cessation study by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The series examined the use of military veterans as guinea pigs in drug experiments conducted by the federal government and exposed numerous ethical lapses, including a system-wide failure to notify participants when the Food and Drug Administration issues new drug warnings.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs; veteran; drug trials; Food and Drug Administration; Soldiers for the Truth; human research studies; Pfizer; PTSD; smoking
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Nobody's Hero
This is an investigation into the Defense Department agency Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) and its unreliability in helping returned servicemen and women reclaim their jobs upon return from deployment in the Middle East. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 560,000 National Guard members and reservists have been deployed to the Middle East, "the largest mobilization of citizen-soldiers since World War II." But thousands of the more than 460,000 who have returned home after completing their service are finding that employers are reluctant to allow them to return to work. The reservists can seek help from federal agencies including the Departments of Labor, Justice, Defense and the Office of Special Counsel, but the "military brass strongly encourages the rank and file" to ask the ESGR for assistance. Yet ESGR is disorganized and does not always give helpful advice.
Tags: Military Reservists; Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve; formed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act; disenfranchised veterans; veterans' issues; nobody's hero
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Connecticut Veterans' Home
The State Veterans' Home in Connecticut is allowing in people with criminal backgrounds, posing a possible danger to residents and employees in the home. WFSB investigates, and finds the Commissioner of the state Department of Veterans' Affairs unwilling to admit there is an issue. The Commissioner said the number of people with criminal backgrounds in the home was in single digits, while WFSB-TV found it was three times that many. There are 500 residents on the house, and often only two unarmed guards patrolling the premises. In addition, the Commissioner only consented to a timed, five-minute interview regarding the issue.
Tags: Security; criminal records; Connecticut Veterans' Home; halfway house
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Command Mistake
As a result of this WISH-TV (Indianapolis, IN) report, the United States Marine Corps is now issuing helmets with ballistic padding to all marines. Previously, only the Army was issuing padded helmets; and some marines were buying their own padding. The story showed that college football players' helmets were more protective than the marine helmet."The cost to care for a head-injured soldier with permanent brain damage is $2.5 to $3 million. The cost of the helmet pads is as little as $30." Story contains on-ground elements filmed in Germany and Iraq.
Tags: Traumatic brain injury research; TBI; concussion; ballistic pad testing; football helmet testing; Kevlar helmet; roadside bomb blasts; Commanding General George Casey; Baghdad; Fallujah; Landstuhl Medical Center, Germany; Riddell; Brigadier General John Kelley; Congressman Steve Buyer; Indiana National Guard; Roudebush VA Medical Center; craniectomy; aphasia; Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; Joint Theater Trauma Registry; Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center; DVBIC; Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital; Traumatic Brain Injury in the War Zone; Susan Okie, MD; New England Journal of Medicine; American Football Coaches Association; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program
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Battling for Benefits
"Women have formally served in the United States armed forces for nearly a century, beginning with the creation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901. But women are only now winning a long battle for veteran's health care services that has at times seemed as formidable as the conflicts they faced in two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf." Due to recent legislation over the last ten years, health care for female veterans has greatly improved. Female veterans now may receive monthly compensation payments for loss of a breast for reasons related to military service and benefits for children born with birth defects. However, "the VA recognizes that more improvements are needed . . . including providing greater privacy in hospital facilities and better inpatient psychiatric care for women." In addition, "veterans groups point to other ways in the VA could more effectively help women: developing better programs for those women veterans who are homeless; paying more attention to the specific health care needs of women; and giving the special women veterans' coordinators more time to do their job." Reporter Karen Lee Scrivo reports more on these issues.
Tags: women; military; Veterans Affairs Department; Center for Women Veterans; Women Veterans Health Programs Act; children; Special Monthly Compensation K Award; health care
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Badges of Dishonor
"An in-depth examination of Johnstown, Pa., Police Department, including drug abuse by officers, payroll records, morale issues, claims of police brutality and racial profiling." The story centers on Robert Hayes, a 13-year-veteran of the police force who overdosed on drugs. Sources in the police department claim the police department knew of Hayes' unfit conduct but failed to investigate. A young woman, rumored to be his girlfriend, committed suicide shortly after the overdose incident.
Tags: police; confidential sources; cover-up; alcohol and drug tests; unfit conduct; assault; fabrication of police charges
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Dividing Lines
The Columbus Dispatch investigated the "uneven educational opportunities in the Columbus Public Schools." The series revealed that "the Columbus elementary schools again are divided by race and income - and by student achievement, teacher experience and resources." The reporters identified problems with "poor test scores, a high dropout rate, financial and policy mismanagement, aging buildings" as common in the schools with prevailing minority enrollments. Some of the key findings were that "the assignment boundaries for some neighborhood schools closely match those ones singled out by the courts as racially gerrymandered", "spending by building bears little relation to the number of poor children" and "private donations...exacerbate inequities among schools". The newspaper also investigated how teachers' absenteeism and salaries correlate with the inequity issue. The reporters came to the conclusion that "veteran educators generally work at schools in middle-class neighborhoods, while beginning teachers get assigned to the poorest schools."
Tags: diskette; education; academics; race; income; poverty; segregation; FOIA; Ohio Department of Education; teachers; absenteeism; minority students; federal funds; database mapping project
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The Internet Internist
New Times investigates a series of crime-related issues. Topics include: doctors who prescribe drugs over the internet; convenience stores that make methamphetamine; and doctors who only treat abused children.
Tags: Criminal; Negligence; Medicine; Drugs; Prescription; Veterans; Eternal Flame; Nursery Crimes; A Killer Sleep Disorder; Moral Sex; Murder