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 "land" ...
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Shadow Banking
Fricker provides you with a list of professions whom are considered shadow bankers, the 5 steps of shadow banking, what would be considered shadow lending and much more.
Tags: shadow lending, banking; hedge funds; pension funds; ABS; CDO; ABCP; CDS; Repo; SecLand
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Using Archives and Historical Records for Environmental and Land Use Investigations
Young explains how to use historical records when conduction environmental and land use investigations.
Tags: historical archives; records
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Pinning Down the Reluctant Interview for Controversial Stories
Attkisson addresses issues for broadcasters trying to land the reluctant interview. She outlines PR tactics that are often used to avoid interviews without actually refusing the interview. She outlines communication techniques to engage possible interview subjects - including a sample of an email she exchange she had to land an interview.
Tags: interviews; broadcast journalism; interview techniques; reporting; communication; email
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Staying On the Air, Staying Relevant aka Becoming Indispensible
Goudie makes suggestions for becoming indispensible in the broadcast newsroom. Suggestions include becoming a fixture in the newsroom and landing a regular time slot on the news (be it once a day or once a week). Goudie also includes a list of stories completed in the previous few months.
Tags: broadcast; television;
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Housing
Kessler covered the story of defective chinese drywall for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. His presentation explains how we went about the story. He also discusses using CAR and social network analysis to look at questionable mortgage/land deals.
Tags: drywall; housing; data; CAR; computer-assisted reporting; shipping data; builders; SNA; social network analysis
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Using property tax/appraisal records in stories: avoiding pitfalls
Lavigne shares general and specific advise for utilizing property and tax records in investigative stories. She explains how to deal with challenges and irregularities that occur when working with land records, and lists types of records that are frequently overlooked.
Tags: land records; real estate; property taxes; titles; deeds; contracts
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Hidden Disparities
This is Gebeloff's PowerPoint presentation on a study the Star-Ledger did that showed discrepancies in property tax rates along racial lines. Using databases and GIS they analyzed 66 different townships in New Jersey that demonstrated a trend; higher-value property owners tend to underpay and lower-value property owners to overpay taxes when properties are not frequently reassessed. The Star-Ledger showed that property values should be more accurately reassessed more often.
Tags: Mapping; GIS; CAR; property values; tax assessment; property taxes
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The Rockies and Beyond: Investigations into the environment
This tipsheet is about the importance of environmental journalism. It covers some of the more common topics in environmental journalism, discusses reasons why environmental investigations are often hard to do, and includes some references to Denver Post stories as examples.
Tags: environment; pollution; land; water; animals
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Growing Pains: Digging Up the Dirt
This tipsheet offers some good story ideas for reporters in cities with a lot of development. Spears suggests looking into how construction companies contribute to pollution, and whether or not the city enforces regulations to limit their pollution. Other suggested topics include looking at how urban sprawl affects highways and water shortages.
Tags: urban sprawl; construction; development; city politics; city laws
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Investigating Property Scams
Panepento gives a list of documents and sources he used to uncover a property scam. He includes public records, websites and some key things to look for when uncovering property scams.
Tags: "flipping" property; hiding behind LLCs; uncovering predatory loans; land schemes