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 "Missouri" ...
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Trust Us
Laclede Gas uses estimating billing for customers, making it impossible to verify. "In the way the system is constructed, consumers basically had to trust Laclede and its billing practices." Further investigations found that new meter reader systems were imporperly installed causing the gas to leak.
Tags: gas; billing; utilities; Laclede Gas; Missouri; estimated billing; gas meter readers
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United HealthCare
United HealthCare "began an aggressive sales campaign targeting the most vulnerable population, the poor and elderly." Hidden cameras found the insurance agents being deceptive, often playing off of fear and sometimes even insulting the customer to make a sale.
Tags: HMO; health care; United HealthCare; elderly; poor; insurance agents; Missouri
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Captive Victims
KMOV-TV examines prison "staff sexual misconduct" in Missouri and Illinois. In Missouri, prison staffers were having sex with inmates, but even when the misconduct was discovered, there rarely was prosecution. When there was, the sentences were light. Usually the employees were allowed to resign quietly. In Illinois, the offenders were prosecuted, but the state did not report any of the cases to the U.S. Department of Justice, in violation of federal law.
Tags: prisons; sexual misconduct; department of corrections; Illinois; Missouri
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Police Station Intimidation
KCTV decided to test procedures for making complaints about police offficer conduct by sending an undercover man who was wired for audio and video to request complaint forms in multiple police stations. In Independence, MO he was denied a form and was roughed up in response to his request.
Tags: police; police complain forms; intimidation; Independence, MO; Missouri
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Broken Promises, Broken Lives
An investigation finds "widespread mistreatment of mentally retarded and mentally ill people in Missouri, including sexual assaults, beatings and neglect in thousands of incidents that led to hundreds of injuries and 21 deaths." Further, the state has not followed its own law and policies in the investigation and reporting of the mistreatment, drawing the ire of the federal government. In addition, the police and prosecutors did not always do their own investigations "of suspicious incidents." The newspaper also discovered that "the public and private system of care relies on underpaid, overworked caregivers in dangerous jobs with little training."
Tags: Mentally retarded; handicapped; sexual assault; beating; neglect; sexual offenders
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A Perilous Place to Play, Navigate
The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri is the third-most accident-prone waterway in the U.S., after the Atlantic Ocean and the Colorado river, according to U.S. Coast Guard boating accident data from 1995-2004.
Tags: Lake of the Ozarks; boats; accidents; boating accidents; Coast Guard
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A Life Sentence
The Post-Dispatch looked at prisoners in Missouri and Illinois who had been paroled in the last decade after originally receiving long prison terms -- some in excess of 100 years. Many of those were sentenced before laws imposing mandatory minimum prison terms, and the luckiest served a small fraction of their sentences. No one in Missouri did more than 36 years, including those who were sentenced to multiple, consecutive life terms.
Tags: law enforcment; parole; jail; inmates; judicial system; courts; Missouri Board of Probation and Parole; prisoners
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Jews in Prison Face Special Challenges
The article took an in-depth look at the challenges facing Jewish inmates in Missouri prisons. The author covered all stages of incarceration, challenges on the inside and the challenge of re-integrating into society as a whole and the Jewish community in particular.
Tags: Missouri prisons; religion; Judaism; Jewish inmates; re-integration; incarceration; rights of prisoners; drug abuse; substance abuse; community outreach
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Hardly Child's Play
Rice investigated local youth culture in Columbia, Missouri, to see if teens in her own community were playing "the choking game." The game is a nation-wide phenomenon in which kids cut off the oxygen to their brains to get high; Rice found that it was a common past time in Columbia too.
Tags: choking; teenagers; trends; fads; health; accidental death
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Discounted lives
The KC Star analyze the Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection database for the Kansas City metropolitan area, reviewed public records and interviewed more than 100 people in order to determine how well OSHA protects workers. The study found that OSHA fines employees in workers' deaths less than it should and downgrades its most serious violations in workers' deaths, hurting workers who are trying to sue employees. OSHA is behind in its safety standards.
Tags: CAR; worker safety; corruption; OSHA; Occupational Safety and Health Administration; Kansas City; Missouri; health; inspections; workplace