The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets 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. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "contracts" ...
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Getting intimate with government data to produce hard-hitting stories
Torres gives advice on how to dig into government data to leverage stories covering areas such as government budgets, contracts, payroll, campaign contributions, and elections.
Tags: government data; data; federal government; public records
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Contracts, Strategies and Resources for Border and Immigration Cover
Olsen provides tons of links for covering border and immigration (in English and español). From links to the Federal Court websites to the ACLU’s immigrant rights page; your story will not lack the information needed to provide a good investigative story.
Tags: bilingual; español; immigration
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On the Beat: The Military
McKie eases the fears of reporters new to covering the military. He talks about the bigger picture of covering the military - not only as a "fighting machine" but "a major employer, major spender, and an economic engine." He talks about dividing the beat into short- and long-term stories.
Tags: military; Canada; United States; war; casualties; armed forces; soldier; military contracts
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Stimulus Webinar
Cohen dissects the stimulus explaining some of the basics, and describing the best way to report on it. Cohen includes a list of possible story ideas using stimulus data.
Tags: stimulus; economic recovery; The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RAT); Office of Management and Budget; OMB; federal spending; recovery.gov; USASpending.gov; contracts: FPDS;
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10 Story Ideas for Quick Turn Business Beat Investigations
Lorek gives a list of quick hit stories for the business beat with suggestions ranging from mining EPA violations to OSHA inspection reports,
Tags: EPA; military contracts; appraisal district; nonprofits; tax abatements; SEC filings; Attorneys General office; mortgage brokers; databases; complaints; OSHA;
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Paper and Databse Trails
Hall discusses the information that an investigative reporter can gather from various data sources including documents and databases. The tipsheet provides a list of documents/records and what sort of information you can anticipate finding with each given example
Tags: documents; FOI; databases; audits; payroll documents; police reports; correspondence; reports; annual budgets; overtime; purchasing records; contracts; campaign finance reports; test scores; tax-exempt organizations; inspection reports
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Iraq: Exposing Truths About the War
This tipsheet goes into great detail about how to find story ideas from the FedBizOpps website, which lists many federal contracts. The author explains how to find contracts for Iraq, and then where to look for details (like the dollar amount of the contract) that will turn into interesting stories. The author also lists several other useful websites for covering the Iraq war, as well as advice for embedded reporters.
Tags: Iraq; federal contracts; federal government; internet searching; sources; military
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Using Data and Documents to Investigate Schools
This tipsheet lists and explains 27 sources of data and documents that will help turn an education beat into a watchdog beat. The tipsheet includes sources for charter schools' information, school violence, test scores, administrative contracts, and safety issues.
Tags: schools; education; school board; state government; local government; sources; beat reporting
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Crunching Contracts: A Rough Guide for Dissecting Data from the Military Mines
This guide is meant to help reporters and researchers navigate their way through the reams of government contracting data made available online or through vendors such as the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR). Fabey includes a lot of screen shots to illustrate his instructions.
Tags: defense; contracts; data anlysis; federal government; military; SQL
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CAR for Money and Politics
The authors list and describe sources for data to use in stories about money and politics. Some of the sources are place to find concrete records, such as the Federal Election Commission and the IRS. Other sources include organizations that have already compiled the records into searchable databases, like the Center for Public Integrity and OMB watch.
Tags: lobbyists; campaign contributions; politics; government documents; government contracts; government spending; sources; internet research