The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories 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. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Allegheny County" ...
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"The Air We Breathe"
The people living in and around Pittsburgh are breathing in some of the poorest quality air in the U.S. High levels of Benzene and other harmful chemicals have been found in the air causing potentially serious health risks to residents who inhale the "toxic brew" over a long time period. The Allegheny County Board of Health has "indefinitely postponed" voting on issuing new air quality permits.
Tags: Neville Island; Coke Works; Clairton; Allegheny County Board of Health; air quality; Dan Onorato; Pittsburgh; Carnegie Mellon University; EPA; American Lung Association
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"Schoool Radon"
The state of Pennsylvania does not require schools to test for radon, a cancer-causing chemical. In fact, the majority of school districts in the western part of the state had not "done any radon testing." Testing in other districts registered levels many times higher than the "EPA maximum safe level." One district that tested positive for radon did not share the information with parents.
Tags: Howe Elementary; Mount Lebanon; Gateway school district; Aliquippa; Allegheny County; Beaver County; Rochester; EPA
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Clean and Green
Taking advantage of a state program designed to limit suburban sprawl and preserve open space, Pennsylvania's Allegheny County has been providing tax breaks for country clubs, developers, and owners of million-dollar estates. Under the law, which allows for property assessment breaks, county assessment officials have approved hundreds of new applications since 2003, increasing the number of properties in the program by 50 percent. In return for the tax break, owners had agreed to open their properties to the public. But land owners interviewed for the story asserted their right to declare their homes private property. In addition, the investigation discovered that 60 properties - 5 percent of those in the program - have unpaid taxes totaling more than $100,000. In the wake of the initial story, a followup reported that the government declared the properties open to the public, since they received a tax break like public parks.
Tags: Property taxes; tax breaks; country clubs; government; Allegheny County
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Firings have cost county $1.5 million
This investigation found that Allegheny County has paid out more than $1.5 million since 1996 to end lawsuits filed by fired employees who claimed politics cost them their jobs. The newspaper found that after every recent change in the county's administration, the newly elected officials have fired employees who claimed they had been dismissed for their political support of the prior administration.
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A jury of peers?
Due to a flawed selection system, blacks and whites in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, do not have a reasonably equal chance of being called to jury duty, as the U.S. Supreme Court requires. This investigation spurred several major changes, including an ongoing statewide study of jury pool imbalances, several proposed bills in the PA Senate, and a jury registration drive by the local NAACP.
Tags: Juries; race; discrimination
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Port Authority Waste
WTAE-TV reports on Allegheny County port authority's extravagant spending. At times of budget woes, when the agency had to cut bus routes and raise fares for the poorest segment of the community, its executives "were treating themselves with trips to Europe; gifts of silver, crystal and perfume for board members and contractors; and overnight stays in hotels with room rates of more than $300 per night."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; transportation; buses; trains; expense vouchers; public records; audits; Pennsylvania Right to Know Act
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Juvenile Court Journal
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette received access to thousands of normally-closed hearings regarding abused and neglected children to produce the "Juvenile Court Journal," which took readers into the secret world of Allegheny County's Juvenile Court system.
Tags: Juvenile Court; Allegheny County; FOIA; access; children; abused; neglected
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New Values Off The Mark
"In one out of every five open-market real estate transactions in Pittsburg last year, a property sold for less than half or more than double its new assessed values," the Tribune Review reported. Analyses of the sale prices of homes versus their assessed values across revealed patters of under- and overassessment by neighborhood. Also includes a sidebar on the analysis of the data.
Tags: housing assments; property values; underassessment; overassessment; Allegheny County; Sabre Systems & Service; Inc.
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Allegheny County Row Officers
An archaic local government system, unchallenged for more than 200 years, opens the floodgates to rampant abuse by some top elected officials, who were found to spend more time at their law practices than on the job.
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Tax Trouble
For decades, Allegheny county has had a mismanaged, some say corrupt, tax assessment system that has forced some people to pay more than they should, while others pay too little. In 1997, the county commissioners proposed a reassessment to return fairness to the system. The investigation sought to determine whether county officials' predictions were correct about how many assessments would increase and how many would decrease. The story also sought to determine which communities would be most affected by a county-wide reassessment, because there had been fingerpointing by officials and residents of poor and middle class communities who believed the rich were not paying their fair share. The story also attempted to find the most egregious cases where property owners paid less than their fair share. The story found that county officials' estimates were off. They estimated about a third of the assessments would go up, but WTAE found the figure to be 84-90 percent. Ranking the 15 most affected communities, the story predicted that middle class neighborhoods would see assessments go up most.
Tags: TAPE