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 "government expenditures" ...
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Follow The Money: Corruption in Alabama's Community Colleges
Blackledge discusses how to find and examine community colleges' expenditures and payrolls. He draws from his experience reportng on Alabama's community colleges to offer advice to other higher education reporters. His tips include information about how to request data from community colleges, and how to analyze it.
Tags: higher education; community college; state government; data request; story ideas
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Being the government watchdog: legislative corruption
Williams shares lessons he learned and techniques he used while investigating the Tennessee state legislature. He lists sources and on-line resources to examine, expenditures to scrutinize and tricks lawmakers use to collect and distribute money.
Tags: state government; legislature; legislators; corruption; campaign finance; open records; public records; state funds; consulting; regulation; lawmakers; influence; graft
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Index of Blank Check Stories
This tipsheet is comprised of a compilation of Washington Post stories about how various government agencies award contracts unfairly.
Tags: government expenditures; federal government; state government; contracts; contractors; fraud; corruption
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Keeping Government Accountable
Keating discusses how to report on government expenditures. The tipsheet is broken down into sections: what sort of data to use, what questions to ask, how to put the two parts together.
Tags: contracts; government waste; funding; state government; local government; watchdog role
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Using Federal Campaign Expenditure Data
This tipsheet is a good guide to using electronically filed campaign expenditure data. First, Willis offers an explanation of electronic data formats, then he discusses the different types of expenditures. He offers tips on different ways to work with the data through the FEC website. lastly, he warns about some problems to watch out for and offers final tips for the analysis.
Tags: campaign finance data; analysis; FEC; government reporting; elections; voting; python script; FTP server
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Statehouse Investigations
Heyser offers numerous tips, some standard fare, others that are unconventional, on doing statehouse investigations. A valuable handout for those looking for something new when covering politicians.
Tags: state government; politics; campaign finance; expenditures; state budgets; debates; accuracy check; federal government; election
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Finding stories in local campaign finance data
Gulliver gives the goods on what to look for in campaign finance data. He also offers story ideas based on the data.
Tags: campaign finance; CFIC; interest groups; expenditures; politics; SEC; elections; government
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City Budgets
This tipsheet provides tips for doing investigative projects on city budgets. It also includes a summary of expenditures and transfers from Glastonbury, Connecticut and tips for detecting errors in the budget.
Tags: CAR