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 "website" ...
-
MKE Journal Sentinel: Police Problems
In Milwaukee, there may be no institution more powerful, more troubled and more determined to fight public scrutiny than the police department. It is a dangerous combination. In 2012 alone, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposed how two officers ignored a handcuffed prisoner’s gasps and pleas for help, refused to call an ambulance in violation of department policy, and then were cleared of responsibility despite indications they played a role in the man’s death. We revealed deep flaws with the city’s crime numbers and showed how the chief, instead of fixing them, misled the public about its safety while boosting his resume. All the while, the department has worked to stymie scrutiny, from charging unpermitted fees for access to public records to dropping daily media briefings in favor of news dispensed via Twitter and a flashy new website ironically dubbed “The Source.”
-
Grandma can’t accept your call: Inmates disconnected by phone costs
This series of stories started with a simple question. Why does it cost so much for inmates to make calls from the Cook County Jail? In the course of my reporting on criminal and legal affairs for WBEZ, the public radio station in Chicago, I had heard numerous people complain about the high cost of phone calls. Some digging confirmed that the price could be as high as $15.00 for 15 minute calls. Three or four calls a week at that price gets expensive even for financially stable middle class folks, but the people paying these fees were mostly the poorest residents in Chicago. That’s because most of the people in the Cook County Jail are there because they and their families couldn’t afford to post bond of a couple thousand, or sometimes even just hundreds of dollars to secure their freedom while awaiting trial. They are the people who are least able to afford such expensive phone calls. A few FOIA requests revealed the scheme (and scheme is the right word… I just looked it up: a crafty or secret plan of action). Cook County gave an exclusive phone contract to a company called Securus Technologies. Securus charged inflated phone rates and their exclusive deal in the jail meant inmates wanting to talk to their families or arrange their defense had no choice but to pay the rates. Securus then paid back to the county 57½ percent of the revenue from the calls. It netted the county about $4 million a year. Securus wouldn’t tell us their take but I imagine they did alright too. All of the money was coming out of the pockets of the poorest residents in Cook County, people who couldn’t even afford to post bond for their freedom. (As an aside, this isn’t just an issue in Cook County. According to its website Securus provides the phone systems for 850,000 inmates in 2,200 jails and prisons across the country.) Our reporting shed public light on a hugely profitable contract that no one was paying attention to. We documented the lives of the impoverished people getting hammered by the policy and then turned the hammer on the local elected officials to ask them to explain how this was a good policy. The public officials responded in a way that once again proved the genius of democracy. Our efforts and the results are detailed in subsequent answers below.
Tags: prison inmates; phone calls; fees
-
Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs
The passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act included provisions, requiring five government financial agencies to log meetings with financial companies, employees, or lobbyists on their individual websites.
Tags: Consumer Protection Act; Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform
-
Green Energy: Contracts, Connections and the Collapse of Solyndra
Beginning in March, the Center's Ronnie Greene and ABC's Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross exposed flaws in the Department of Energy's billion-dollar spending spree, revealed deep links between Obama campaign bundlers and energy contracts and foreshadowed the financial and political storm that later engulfed Solyndra. Our reporting for "Green Energy: Contracts, Connections and the Collapse of Solyndra" broke ground before Solyndra's meltdown, and went well beyond the company in revealing a web of connections entangling a department lauded for its innovation. Working as full-reporting partners, our stories tied major Obama donors to lucrative green energy contracts for everything from electric cars to diesel substitutes. After over a year of reporting, we produced 50,000 words for the Center's website, thousands more on ABC's site and broadcasts on World News Tonight, Good Morning America and Nightline. Our stories, built from FOIA requests that yielded thousands of contract, financial and ethics documents, served as a template for national media reports that followed.
Tags: contracts; green energy; Obama; green energy; spending
-
Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs
The passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act included provisions requiring five government financial agencies to log meetings with financial companies, employees or lobbyists on their individual websites.
Tags: Dodd-Frank; consumer; Congess; financial industry
-
"BP Oil Spill coverage"
MotherJones.com published "more than 500 articles" and related posts to their website during the coverage of the 2010 BP oil spill. Reporters broke news stories on the ground in Louisiana and all along the Gulf, while a Mother Jones West Coast reporter kept tabs on "what BP and its contractors knew and when they knew it."
Tags: BP; oil; Gulf Coast; oil spill; Deepwater Horizon
-
Watchdog website and its web pages
The Oklahoman/NewsOK.com started this project in 2008 with the Right to Know page, a collection of databases developed internally to go along with stories and links to relevant public information. That site became part of the Watchdog page in 2009. In 2010, the staff continued to evolve the Watchdog page with "mini-sites" of investigative topics, such as a political corruption case at the Oklahoma Legislature; the staff's FOI fight over the birth dates of public employees; and allegations of bid-rigging with a married lawmaker and lobbyist for a private company seeking a state juvenile justice contract. Other "mini-sites" under Watchdog include ongoing coverage of the state Department of Human Services and the federal stimulus package.
Tags: continuous coverage; online; watchdog; bid-rigging; Department of Human Services; federal stimulus; FOI; Right to Know
-
Sold On Craigslist
The popular classified website Craigslist was found to be selling underage prostitutes through it's adult services section. The website was not screening ads as promised to uncover trafficking and it was profiting from the sales.
Tags: Craigslist; underage prostitution; prostitution; human trafficking; adult services; classified; advertising; prostitute
-
Dollars for Docs
The series investigates the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the physicians they pay to serve as their speakers and consultants. ProPublica created a searchable database on its website that allows members of the public to see whether their doctors have been paid by one of seven pharmaceutical companies.
Tags: pharmaceutical companies; drugs; drug sales; widget; speakers
-
Do It Yourself Plastic Surgery
Prescription strength chemicals and other procedures should not be done at home without a doctor. A number of websites are selling such products at a discount rate and many people are buying them and facing devastating consequences. These products are unapproved and experts say using these can result in “blindness, paralysis, or death”.
Tags: Botox; syringes; prescriptions; drugs; money; medications; medicine; Federal Drug Administration (FDA); skin