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 "L.A" ...
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Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions on Rental Deals
This story is about one of the most fought-over pieces of property in Los Angeles, the 400 acre Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in West Los Angeles. It’s in an affluent neighborhood and has been a target of developers. But with many unused buildings, it’s also been coveted as a place to house some of L.A.’s 8,000 homeless veterans. That was the original use of the land, which was donated for an Old Soldiers’ Home in the late 19th century. The VA has not acted on plans announced in 2007 to begin rehabbing unused buildings there for housing for homeless vets. Meanwhile, it’s rented out land and buildings to commercial enterprises. There is no public accounting for this income. Through FOIA and other documents, we found that the VA is renting out the property using a law intended for sharing health care resources, though the renters are non-health related commercial enterprises. We were also able to estimate that the VA has taken in at least 28 million and possibly more than 40 million dollars over the past dozen years, far more than the cost of re-habbing a building to house homeless vets.
Tags: Property; neighborhood; land uses; veterans
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"Urban League Gets Mixed Grades On Crenshaw Area Overhaul"
This series attempts to provide a "midway progress report" for a major, $25 million effort by the Los Angeles Urban League to "address academic problems at Crenshaw High School," and several other "social ills" that bother the neighborhood that surrounds the campus. Reporters interviewed members of the community, school and local law enforcement in an effort to report on the progress of the program. They found the Urban League's Neighborhoods@Work program "met some goals and fell short of others."
Tags: Los Angeles Urban League; Crenshaw High; LAPD; L.A. Unified School District; L.A. City Attorney's Office; California Public Records Act; records request
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"Grading the Teachers"
The LA Times studied schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District. Using gain-score analysis, data linking standardized test scores and various evaluation techniques, the Times identified the "most and least effective" teachers and schools in the district. Reporters examined schools ranked high by the API standard, only to find inconsistencies in student performance.
Tags: California Standards Test; API; Los Angeles Unified School District; LAUSD; RAND; California Public Records Act; United Teachers L.A.
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"Faces of a Health Crisis: L.A. County's Swine Flu Victims"
The Neon Tommy team takes a look at the people directly affected by the H1N1 virus in L.A. County to find out exactly who was dying from the virus and why. In a review of 44 death certificates, the team found that 22 of the deceased had no "preexisting conditions" before contracting the H1N1 virus. They also found that the majority of those who died from H1N1 were women.
Tags: H1N1; Swine Flu; Los Angeles County; Annenberg Digital News; USC; pre-existing conditions
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Donald T. Sterling's Skid Row Mirage
According to advertisements he distributed in the media, Los Angeles Clippers basketball owner Donald T. Sterling was building a new homeless center in downtown LA. But after L.A. Weekly did some investigating, they found he wasn't close to constructing anything. In fact, he was still looking for a homeless service provider to raise the $50 million needed to build the Donald T. Sterling Homeless Center.
Tags: homeless centers; celebrity; fundraising; construction; false advertising; wealthy; media scam; public relations
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Contaminated
"This series of undercover reports exposes dangerous health and food safety problems at a major facility that distributes food to thousands of restaurants and stores in Southern California and wester U.S. We revealed how food from L.A.'s huge 7th Street Wholesale Produce Market... is getting contaminated before it even gets to the restaurants." They also found that the Los Angeles County Health officials knew about this and had done nothing about it.
Tags: health; food; wholesaler; undercover; safety; Los Angeles county Health Department; restaurants;
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Sheriff Lee Baca & L.A. City Jails
"These stories provide a penetrating look at conditions inside the nation's largest county jail system and show how the violence within cannot be contained. With the jails seriously overcrowded by felony defendants awaiting trial, 150,000 less serious offenders have been released since 2002 after serving fractions of their sentences."
Tags: Castaic; violence; riots; fights; correctional facility; inmate
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Welcom to Boondoggle Unified
" At L.A. Unified, the nation's second largest school district, Joe Santos worked at a construction company that had won a $10 million dollar seismic bracing project, despite no experience in seismic safety work. When Santos witnessed false claims, left his company and became a federal whistle blower, he was troubled to find that not only were the school district and FEMA reluctant to root out the fraud and waste he exposed; the District Attorney was willing to prosecute him on computer theft charges, even though key evidence had been tainted. The story exposed a vacuum of accountability between FEMA, its inspector general, the general, the school district and its facilities management division. Selective prosecution raised questions about priorities and methods within the L.A. District Attorney's Office."
Tags: earthquake; seismic protection; fraud; construction; school district; FEMA
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Broken Bridges: Did City Hall's plan to fight gangs bankroll a gangster?
Ex-gang member and alleged Mexico Mafia member Hector Marroquin, Sr. founded a gang-prevention program in Los Angeles in 1997 that was supported by nearly $1.5 million from the City COuncil. Using FOIA requests and over 50 interviews, L.A. Weekly reporters Jeffrey Anderson and Christine Pelisek point out that the program had no oversight, no means of measuring its success in keeping children out of gangs. They also uncovered nepotism, and evidence suggesting Marroquin was a member of the Mexican Mafia while he ran the anti-gang program.
Tags: L.A. Bridges; gang intervention programs; Hector Marroquin; Networks Organizing for Gang Unity and Neighborhood Safety; N.O. G.U.N.S; L.A. County Probation Department; Mexican Mafia; drug trade; FOIA; Community Development Department; DEA; Drug Enforcement Administration; L.A. Sherriff's Department; Diversified Strategies for Organizing; People Works, Inc.; Central Recovery Development Project; Toberman Settlement House;
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The Scourge of Skid Row
In Los Angeles' Skid Row, the lives of police, firefighters, social workers and homeless people are threatened by a staph infection outbreak. Yet the country health department has done little to assist, even as L.A. firefighters and police, as well as a doctor, chaplain and employees at local homeless Missions were infected.
Tags: Staph; LAPD; LAFD; Skid Row; staph outbreak; staph infection