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 "waste management" ...
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A $191 Million Question
Waste, fraud and criminal activity plague the procurement budget, an expenditure that ballooned to $600 billion in 2007. The Post investigates the sources of the escalating costs and finds government and corporate ties to be appallingly mangled.
Tags: procurement; military; corporate; Washington; army; contracts; O'Harrow; contractor; technology program; manager; billion;
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PharmaWater
"The year-month long project by the AP National Investigative Team found that drugs- mostly the residue of medications taken by people, excreted and flushed down the toilet- have gotten into the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans in at least 24 major metropolitan areas, from Southern California to Norther New Jersey." A follow-up was written after the original series.
Tags: health; pollution; medicine; water; drinking water; urban; city; sewer system; waste management; pharmaceuticals; wildlife; fertility; birth control; estrogen
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MBI Heavy Trucks
WSMV-TV examined MBI trucking, “the nation's largest garbage hauler,†which hauls ordinary household trash across Tennessee. Their analysis of "a single trucker's daily weigh tickets for a period of more than 3 years" showed that he only "followed the federal weight law just 21 times." As a result of the investigation the company's safety and compliance record has caught the interest of the federal government.
Tags: waste management; trucking; highways; roads; U.S. Attorney; FBI; Congress; federal government; MBI; landfill;
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Welcom to Boondoggle Unified
" At L.A. Unified, the nation's second largest school district, Joe Santos worked at a construction company that had won a $10 million dollar seismic bracing project, despite no experience in seismic safety work. When Santos witnessed false claims, left his company and became a federal whistle blower, he was troubled to find that not only were the school district and FEMA reluctant to root out the fraud and waste he exposed; the District Attorney was willing to prosecute him on computer theft charges, even though key evidence had been tainted. The story exposed a vacuum of accountability between FEMA, its inspector general, the general, the school district and its facilities management division. Selective prosecution raised questions about priorities and methods within the L.A. District Attorney's Office."
Tags: earthquake; seismic protection; fraud; construction; school district; FEMA
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FEMA; A Legacy of Waste
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel "exposed waste in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's crisis counseling grants, meant to help people overcome disaster-related mental health problems." In Florida, the $23 million counseling program paid for "puppet shows, Hurricane Bingo and yoga on the beach." Only one fourth of the program supervisors were qualified. Also, the Sun-Sentinel found that "other states had used FEMA grants totaling more than $445 million on activities such as gardening workshops, martial arts classes and "Beat Stress with Crafts." As a result of these stories, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General and the state of Florida each launched an investigation, and a bill was introduced in Congress to "prohibit spending the grants on puppet shows and similar activities."
Tags: FEMA; Federal Emergency Management Agency; Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General; misuse of federal funds; disaster-related mental problems
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Is it Homeland Insecurity?
The billions of dollars poured into Homeland Security since Set. 11, 2001 has not made Texas communities significantly safer. Instead Homeland Security has evolved into a massive spending spree undertaken with inadequate planning, coordination or accountability. A good portion has been wasted on high-tech gadgetry that is of minimal practical use in real emergencies. A 2004 chlorine gas spill outside San Antonio showed that emergency response efforts have not improved since the 9-11 attacks.
Tags: FOIA; defense; Homeland Security; government spending; grant money; state government; data negotiation; emergency management; high-tech gadgetry; chlorine gas spill
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Talkin' Trash
The authors investigated a scam run by Republic Waste Services involving the city of Houston. The investigation found that Republic had falsely charged the city for millions of dollars of waste disposal over a timespan of several years.
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"Toxic Traces"
Minnesota Public Radio investigated the widespread environmental presence of chemicals once used to make Scotchguard. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was not very aggressive in pursuing the matter, an attitude that is possibly explained by the fact that the commissioner of the agency was at one time an environmental manager for 3M. MPR laid out for the public, both by broadcast and on-line, what was behind the conflicting agendas of the government, 3M and the public.
Tags: pollution; toxic waste; 3M; state government; clean water; whistleblower
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The fine print: Bush forces a shift in regulatory thrust
This three-day series revealed how small, subtle regulatory changes by the Bush administration at three federal agencies have had large consequences for the American people. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has eliminated nearly five times as many pending regulations as it has completed. The Data Quality Act, slipped into an appropriations bill, directs the Office of Management and Budget to ensure all information disseminated by the government is reliable, but in practice it allows industries to challenge the need for stiffer regulations. A one-word change in another regulation accelerated "mountaintop removal" mining because the debris was reclassified from "waste" to "fill."
Tags: federal regulatory process; Occupational Safety and health Administration; OSHA; Office of Management and Budget; OMB; Data Quality Act; federal government; Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.
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Overtown and the CRA: Agency May Have Wasted Millions
When Oscar Corral of the Miami Herald began questioning the location of parking lots being built by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), he quickly realized something was "seriously awry with the CRA's management." The nearly year-long investigation that followed centered on Overtown, one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods -- and discovered "a pattern of mismanagement, questionable spending decisions and failed projects. The result: The community has virtually nothing to show for $70 million in spending over the past decade," and the neighborhood "remains a near-wasteland of poverty and substandard housing." The primary program charged with "revitalizing the neighborhood" spent millions of dollars, but "completed only five of 36 proposed projects and has not pushed a single housing initiative." What's more, back-door dealings resulted in dubious contracts being awarded, some of which were never fulfilled despite the CRA paying for them -- and the nepotism even included the hiring of a former prostitute and thief to run errands for the CRA chairman. More than 50 interviews with frequently elusive sources, along with numerous documents and computer-assisted analyses of databases including enforcement cases, delinquent loans, property records and building demolitions, went into getting the stories -- which resulted in city, state, and FBI investigations into the CRA.
Tags: development; business; neighborhood; economic; housing; public body; nepotism; mismanagement; building; parking lot; Florida; Miami; Overtown