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 "Ground Zero" ...
-
September 11 Lax Loans
"The government's $5 billion effort to help small businesses recover from the Sept. 11 attacks was so loosely managed that it gave low-interest loans to companies that didn't need terrorism relief - or even know they were getting it."
Tags: September 11, 2001; loans; companies; Ground Zero;
-
9/11 Money Trough
The series examined what happened to the $21.4 billion that President Bush promised to help New York City recover in the aftermath of Sept. 11. The results are disheartening, finding widespread waste, fraud and mismanagement.
Tags: terrorism; 9/11; fraud; Government Accountability Office; FEMA; Ground Zero; World Trade Center; Federal Aid; SBA disaster loans
-
A 9/11 phony
This series examined the claims of a man who said he suffered a raft of illnesses resulting from his 9/11 rescue efforts at Ground Zero. He was awarded nearly $650,000 from the victims compensation fund, but the newspaper found evidence that his tales of heroism and life-threatening injuries were not true. The newspaper revealed that the man has a 20-year history of "exaggeration, self-promotion, freeloading and very little evidence of real rescue work."
Tags: 9/11; September 11; September 11th Victims Compensation Fund; con; fraud; Ground Zero
-
Ethical Breaches by Homeland Security Nominee Bernard Kerik
This investigation about the New York correction commissioner, Bernard Kerik, came together as a result of more than two years of investigation into corruption and the Department of Correction. The series reveals how Kerik accepted a number of gifts and cash, and failed to file proper public disclosures. The Secretary of Homeland Security nominee is also accused of having ties to the mob, having an extra-marital affair in an apartment two blocks from Ground Zero, on top of violating a number of city ethics rules. On Dec. 10, just before the stories were to be published, Kerik withdrew his nomination for Secretary of Homeland Security and eventually resigned from Rudolph Guiliani's consulting firm.
Tags: Bernard Kerik; mob; corruption; Department of Correction; correction commissioner; Fredrick Patrick; Anthony Serra
-
What's Next? Rebuilding Downtown. For Ground Zero, a Fate Undecided. Many questions, decision to be resolved.
Officials at the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. hope to have a design plan by year-end. But some warn that officials are moving too fast and not considering that the construction will occur on "sacred ground." Based on Newsday's interviews with experts on rebuilding and in government and community groups, many broad details of redeveloping downtown are becoming clear.
Tags: terrorism; ground zero; New York
-
2002 IRE National Conference Show and Tell Tape #3
1) Valeri Williams (WFAA-Dallas/Fort Worth) WFAA-TV follows up its 2000 IRE Awards entry with this return investigation into Fort Worth's John Peter Smith Hospital. Reporter Williams and producer Schucker continued their investigation, focusing on Dr. Lydia Grotti and her connection to suspicious and overlooked deaths in the emergency room. As a result of WFAA-TV's investigation the Texas Department of Health began conducting its own investigation and discovered additional deaths that took place in the ER. The county district attorney's office called in a special prosecutor to examine a total of eight suspicious deaths in connection with Dr. Grotti at the hospital. 2) Robb Leer (KSTP-Minnesota) An investigation reveals that state adoption laws have loopholes that allow mothers of out of wedlock children to give the babies up for adoption without the father ever knowing. 3) Larry Posner (Inside Edition) An investigation reveals that a Florida man claiming to suffer from a rare conversion disorder that makes him act like a child is actually defrauding the state. 4) Jim Strickland (WSB-Atlanta) An area smoke detector salesman plays off the fears of senior citizens and sells them alarms at an inflated cost. 5) Larry Posner (Inside Edition) An investigation reveals that insurance companies can sell nearly-destroyed cars as though they weren't damaged. The cars are then repaired and end up in the hands of drivers who don't know they're driving dangerous vehicles. 6) Laure Quinlivan (WCPO-Cincinnati) A clip from the hour-long Visions of Vine street documentary on Cincinnati's deteriorating urban core. WCPO-TV tells the story of "Vine Street, the crumbling centerpiece of a neighborhood called Over the Rhine, ground zero for the April race riots that attracted national media attention." 7) (WTTG-District of Columbia) The city's DMV routinely charges two drivers for the same parking ticket or issues illegitimate tickets. The system is so bad that one lawyer spends all his time fighting parking tickets. 8) Vic Lee (KRON-San Francisco) An investigation reveals its not hard for employees at the San Francisco airport to sneak in knives. 9) (CBS 11-Dallas) Workers at a U.S. Post Office in Dallas are shown stealing from the mail. 10) (CBS 11-Dallas) Coverage of a fony charity called Kid Wish USA. The scam took money from donors who thought they were giving to dying children.
Tags: TAPE; San Francisco; conference; no transcripts; IRE
-
Visions of Vine Street
Visions of Vine street is a one-hour documentary on Cincinnati's deteriorating urban core. WCPO-TV tells the story of "Vine Street, the crumbling centerpiece of a neighborhood called Over the Rhine, ground zero for the April race riots that attracted national media attention."
Tags: race; urban sprawl; quality of life; TAPE; transcript
-
Toxic Utah
The Deseret News looks at Utah's toxic legacy -- at the beginning of the Cold War the U.S. government chose the state and others in the "remote West" for a weapons testing program that "sacrificed the lives of American citizens. From uranium mining to chemical and biological weapons, from the military to the industrial complex built to support the Cold War, the region became ground zero for an environmental assualt that poisoned the air, water and land for millions who now live there, oblivious to the toxic legacy that continues to contaminate."
Tags: nuclear weapons; West; Cold War; Utah; environment; toxic; cancer; diseases; death; destruction; bombs; radiation
-
Ground Zero
The New Times reports on a Phoenix neighborhood attempting to hold itself together in the face of gangs, poverty, noise, pollution and decay. Community leaders have organized a Fight Back program they hope will slowly help them reclaim their streets.
Tags: gangs; immigrants; inverse condemnation; poverty; development; HUD
-
Ground zero
Amicus examines how drilling and other activities of oil companies in Alaska have disturbed the people Nuiqsut, an Inupiat Eskimo village an Alaska's North Slope. "Big oil offered a village of Inupiat Eskimos jobs and economic boom. All it asked for in return was their way of life," the magazine reports. The story reveals that the environmental problems in Alaska include water quality changes, air pollution, land use conflicts, oil spills, increased traffic and noise, and disturbance to fish and wildlife species. The latter has forced Eskimos to give up some of their traditional food. For example, a huge arctic caribou's herd has moved away from the oil development area, and a bottom fish - an Eskimos' delicacy - now has elevated levels of toxics.
Tags: Alaska Wilderness League; Arctic Refuge; Trustees for Alaska; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Alaska Whaling Commission; drilling; politics; President Bush