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 "tracking the dollar" ...
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Tracking the dollar in government
D'Ambrosio gives tips on how to root out "legalized corruption": political payback to friends and financial supporters of candidates. He notes which government records to look for and where to find them, and gives two SQL query formulas to match criteria in separate electronic databases.
Tags: tracking the dollar; CAR; computer-assisted reporting; check register; contracts database; election finance database; pensions database
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Tracking the dollar at the statehouse
Long gives tips on where to look to uncover pork-barrel spending. Examples include contracts, legislation and property records, among several others.
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After the storm: Using FEMA records to piece together winners & losers
Gaul's tipsheet outlines approaches to analyzing Federal Emergency Management Administration records to show "how the breathless coverage of storms greases the skids for disaster declarations." Tips include tracking how, where and to whom FEMA dollars are allocated following a disaster, whether National Flood Insurance Program premiums are covering expenses, and who are receiving Small Business Administration loans following a disaster.
Tags: disasters; FEMA; Federal Emergency Management Administration; National Flood Insurance Program; NLIP; Small Business Administration; SBA; CAR; computer-assisted reporting
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Tax Increment Financing: Great stories behind the dull name
Tedesco explains Tax Increment Financing (TIF). This tipsheet contains detailed graphics, information about the law behind TIF and advice for reporters interested in investigating the program in their community.
Tags: Tax Increment Financing; TIF; Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone; TIRZ; development; infrastructure; city planning; San Antonio; municipalities; city hall; local government; developers; urbanism
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Tips for covering a condemnation fight
Using legal condemnation as an example, Baniak describes how public records can help reporters investigate key money issues and city government.
Tags: condemnation; city government; city council; campaign finance; disclosure reports; public utility regulators; Kentucky; Lexington; open records; nonprofit; utilities; city employees
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Investigating Contract Fraud
Williams offers tips for investigating government contract fraud by looking out for predictable patterns.
Tags: government spending; contracts; government; broadcast; databases; fraud; investigative reporting; loan manipulation; grant; Request for Proposals (RFP)
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Tips for Reporting Government Contracts
Blackledge offers tips on what reporters should and should not do when dealing with contracts from the government. He also includes an actual contract as an example and provides four stories that he wrote with Vickii Howell for The Birmingham News.
Tags: Government; Fraud
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Follow the money -- government contracts
Klas outlines a number of things to keep in mind when looking into government contracts, from knowing the laws to checking out minority contractors to connecting the dots between political contributors and contract vendors.
Tags: government contracts; follow the money; RFP; RFQ; vendors; political contributions; SEC documents; contractors
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Tips for covering government contracts
Fazlollah's tipsheet on ways to investigate government contracts gives reporters a guide to checking for municipal malfeasance. Sources include campaign finance disclosure reports, Thomson Financial's bond data, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, a Web site to check the backgrounds of brokers and securities firms, airport concession contracts, minority business contracts, and bank loans to government officials.
Tags: government contracts; contracting; bonds; campaign finance; CAR; computer-assisted reporting; securities dealers; pension funds; SEC; NASD; airport; bank loans; minority business contracts
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The Business of Education
A helpful tipsheet for any education beat reporter. Hacker compiled some quality sources of information for tracking the dollars involved in any educations story, and then went even further, providing a sheet with 10 story ideas dealing with the dollars involved in education.