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 money" ...
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Analysis Tools at FollowTheMoney.org
Roth Barber highlights the many great tools at FollowTheMoney.org in this tipsheet. There's everything from an independent spending database to "A unique view of the top 10,000 donors to political campaigns at both the state and federal level—information that exists nowhere else."
Tags: campaign spending; donors; tracking the money; L-CAT; contributors
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Powerpoint from: The new money trail: Tracking spending in an earmark-free world
Fallis goes through his story on earmarks "Capital Assets" and what to look for now that earmarking is banned, because there are still ways lawmakers can get what they want.
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FOLLOW THE MONEY – Tracking Companies’ Influence on Politics
Allison and Nixon give you extensive tips and share lots of websites so that you can track what kind of influence a company has on this year's (or any) election.
Tags: campaign finance; elections; tracking; FEC
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10 Mortgage Default Stories You Can Do At Home
Track the foreclosure money trail with these great tips from Shanklin. See what neighborhoods in your community are at risk, and start searching for the inconsistencies (they're there)!
Tags: mortgage default; foreclosure; inflated values; subprime lending; loans
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Campaign Finance: Tracking the Money
This tipsheet outlines important facts for those reporting on campaign finance and outlines information reporters should look at when analyzing campaign finance information. It also provides links to several useful sites/organizations who track campaign finance information, including some that provide data for download.It also touches on lobbying information.
Tags: campaign finance; lobbying; Federal Election Commission; FEC; PAC; political action committees; Center for Responsive Politics; Sunlight Foundation; Political Party Time; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; National Institute on Money in State Politics; TransparencyData.com; Congrelate.org
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Following the Money
Cochran's powerpoint explores the use of data to cover the financial crisis. He provides an overview of banks, and a link to the BankTracker project, by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, that tracks the quarterly reports each bank submits to the FDIC. He also provides information on how to obtain data from the FDIC, and tips on tracking a bank with some details on the types of data available in this data.
Tags: financial crisis; banking; FDIC; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; assets; loans; securities; real estate; loan losses; interest income; non-interest income
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Following the Stimulus Money
Poston and Grabell give links to and information on several sites that can assist you in reporting on and tracking stimulus funds
Tags: Recovery act; stimulus; government spending; federal procurement data; transportation; infrastructure
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The Bailout - Tracking the Money
Donald and Dunbar give pointers on tracking the bailout money funds. Included are links to Web sites and datasets to help inform stories on the bailout. Links provided include information on: subprime lenders; bailout cash/TARP funds; banking data; and enforcement actions.
Tags: bailout; economy; subprime lenders; banking; TARP; Troubled Asset Relief Program; housing; Home Mortgage Disclosure Act; HMDA; Federal Reserve;
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Following the Money: From Grade School through College
This tipsheet discusses how to track education funding from grade school through higher education. The data sources used for example are the Illinois State Board of Education and Property Tax Revenue from the Illinois Department of Revenue. Lowenstein advises on where to look for education funding: local property taxes; commercial and industrial property taxes; local and federal governments; test scores by region; other supplemental income for schools
Tags: education; taxes; property taxes; department of revenue; education funding; testing; test scores
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Following the money
The tipsheet outlines ways to use CAR to cover the financial crisis. Included are the steps to tracking a specific bank and getting bank data from federal Web sites.