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 "Jersey City" ...
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No Show Policing
The police chief of one of New Jersey's largest cities billed taxpayers for tens of thousands of dollars a year for off-duty "detail work", much of which was never actually performed. Subsequent reporting uncovered that a handful of influential officers, including the heads of both police unions, also enriched themselves in this way. Police records were also so sloppy that it appears taxpayers paid some officers double for working (or, in some cases, not working) the exact same hours.
Tags: taxpayers; police; off-duty; News Jersey
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Fire Department Corruption
This investigation revealed that hundreds of commercial building and large apartment buildings in New York City have been allowed to operate with defective and potentially dangerous fire alarm systems despite obvious violations found by Fire department civilian inspectors. This includes some hospitals, schools and department stores. Two inspectors alleged that, because of corruption, the fire department allowed buildings to get letters of approval needed for legal occupancy even with numerous fire alarm safety violations when certain former inspectors, working as consultants or expediters, were hired by the buildings' owners. Because of this investigation, the city council will hold public hearings on these allegations and comptroller William Thompson has turned over information from this investigation to "criminal authorities."
Tags: fire departments; New Jersey; corruption; dishonest hiring; building inspections
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PharmaWater
"The year-month long project by the AP National Investigative Team found that drugs- mostly the residue of medications taken by people, excreted and flushed down the toilet- have gotten into the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans in at least 24 major metropolitan areas, from Southern California to Norther New Jersey." A follow-up was written after the original series.
Tags: health; pollution; medicine; water; drinking water; urban; city; sewer system; waste management; pharmaceuticals; wildlife; fertility; birth control; estrogen
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Lessons in Waste
This investigation took a hard look at New Jersey's early education program. The authors found that the state-subsidized program for inner-city preschoolers was rife with abuse and fraud. Millions of state dollars earmarked for the program was intercepted by preschool owners who spent the money on luxuries for themselves instead of resources for the children.
Tags: education; public records; school; preschool; state government
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Private Security in a Post-9/11 World
As the focal point of a study of the private guard industry in New York state, WNYC looks at Tristar Patrol Services, "which had seen a dramatic expansion after the September 11 attack in NYC, getting more than $80 million in contract work with the City of New York." The company had more than a thousand employees, mostly young minority males, and they had the task of protecting all of the city's office space, infrastructure and Fire Department facilities. The investigation found that Tristar's owner, Gary Zimmer, had been convicted of assault and had to resign as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, yet attained the right to hold a security guard company license when a judge, believing the owner's misrepresentation of his criminal case, granted him an exemption from state law. In addition, there were other issues as Tristar "had been disqualified from doing state work for misrepresenting it had properly credentialed guards, but went on to win a multi-million dollar, multi-year City contract." The company failed to properly compensate guards, including not paying for vacation or advanced state security credentials, and Tristar also did not pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars it was required to pay the union representing the guards to cover union dues and health and welfare benefits required by the contract." But because of the New York Secretary of State's lack of investigators, regulations were not enforced. Also, there is no uniform requirement across the country for the training and qualifications for security guards and companies.
Tags: Private security; Sept. 11, 2001; Tristar Patrol Services; Gary Zimmer; New York City security
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The Great Divide
This four-part series reveals that education in Pennsylvania and New Jersey is overwhelmingly not diverse despite 50 years of supposed desegregation. Economic factors often lead to racial segregation, but research shows that "white flight" causes suburban areas to be just as separated as big cities. The private schooling option also steals many white students from public schools. One school district attempts to prove that with effort almost perfect racial balance can be achieved.
Tags: Brown v. Board of Education; school; diversity; minority; black; African American; integration; equal; education; race; segregation; NAACP; white flight; Jim Crow
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Close Connections
The Asbury Park Press' investigations of municipal officials found that politically powerful attorneys had almost free reign to double bill and over bill the agencies they were supposed to serve. An investigation of the township attorney, who is the top elected Republican in the state, found that he double billed the city by more than $8,000. He initially said the double-billing was not his responsibility, but later admitted it was an accident. The Press found that the project in which the double-billing occurred was part of an unfinished seven-year effort to rewrite the city's ordinances. The senator charged more than $100,000 for the incomplete work, although similar projects cost a quarter as much and can take months, not years, to finish. Close examination of these billing records for the ordinance re-writing project showed his bills included rewrites of ordinances that don't exist, and repeated rewrites of ordinances that were little more than a paragraph or two long.
Tags: Marlboro Township-New Jersey; Council Members; Mayor Matthew V. Scannapieco; developers; Anthony Spalliero; Senator John O. Bennett III; political contributions; double-billing; town budget; ordinances; legal invoice; Monmouth County; campaign contributions; Center for Responsive Politics Marlboro Cultural and Improvement Fund; Keansburg Board of Education; New Jersey State Commission of Investigation; reform bill; elected officials
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"Paterson school buildings: Playing with fire"
The Paterson Public Schools, a state-operated, inner city school district in Northern New Jersey, opened five schools illegally in September 2002. The buildings had faulty fire alarms, missing fire escapes and other safety hazards. For these reasons, they had failed safety inspections. The investigation led to the firing of the head of the district's facilities department and a complete restructuring of the department.
Tags: safety; schools; fire alarm; Paterson; safety inspections
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Collision course
This story deals with the unfairness of the factors determining auto insurance rates. Specifically, New Jersey drivers "pay more on average for auto insurance than in any other state." In general, drivers from urban areas pay more than those from rural areas and, although there is a logic to it, "consumer advocates in several states argue that the higher number of losses in urban areas cannot possibly account for the huge difference in rates." Besides, some insurance companies avoid getting inner-city clients by not having offices in such areas. Legislation passed in New Jersey in 1997 partially fixed the problem and the number of insured cars went up 12 percent in two years. The story also refers to a program the state of California designed to counteract the unfairness.
Tags: insurance agents; urban drivers; New Jersey; Consumer Federation of America; Public Advocates; Texas Department of Insurance; Nationwide Financial Corp.; Automobile Urban Enterprise Zones; Los Angeles County; San Francisco County; California Insurance Department
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The Flip Side of Homeownership
According to the author, "A five-month investigation by The Record exposed serious loopholes in local, state and federal housing regulations that thwart the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's goal of neighborhood stabilization of the inner city. The stories document how lax regulations allowed a real estate partnership to buy more than 100 shoddy homes in New Jersey cities, make cosmetic repairs and sell them for 75 to 100 percent profit to first-time homebuyers with taxpayer backed mortgages. Due to this property-flipping scheme, many owners are forced to foreclose because of high repair costs. Because HUD guarantees the mortgages, the federal government ends up paying off the house."
Tags: federal housing; housing regulations; schemes; loopholes; state housing regulations; New Jersey; real estate; mortgages; taxpayers; federal government; HUD; Housing and Urban Development; cities; inner city