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 "competition" ...
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Bales: Army suspect in Afghan shooting was liable in financial fraud
On the day that tips arose about a U.S. soldier who may have strafed two Afghan villages, I left the office for a flight to Tacoma. Within 48 hours of the soldier’s being identified as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, I and two colleagues broke the news that the emerging hagiography of Bales drafted by family and attorneys had more to it than the story of a soldier who enlisted at the ripe of 27 driven by outrage over the 2001 terrorist attacks—and then broken down by an unrelenting cycle of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Our story started with pure spidey senses: Bales’ s family and lawyer said he had left a stockbroker’s career to enlist, as they explained his call to serve. Yet he had not finished college and clearly had financial troubles, I had determined. And he was active in brokerage in the late 1990s in Florida I learned by checking assorted online records—which raised my suspicions about the quick-money penny stock trading that was commonplace then. Based on those instincts, while also doing the running daily story from Bales’ Army base in Washington state, I had checked some online brokerage records and enlisted Julie Tate to look at others and run through civil and criminal filings in Ohio (Bales’s home state and then nationally). Within an hour, I had found one suspicious record and Julie had found others and we were off on a 30-hour run of investigative reporting and boots on the ground interviews that yielded the breaking news of Bales’s more complicated—and less laudatory—past in the period just before he joined the Army. We located and I interviewed an elderly couple who had lost substantial savings in accounts managed by Bales and received copies of detailed financial records that corroborated their claims and showed Bales as the account manager. We also peeled back corporate records for a now-shuttered firm run by Bales and his brother with backing from a longtime friend and reached him to further flesh out the checkered professional history of the Staff Sgt. at the center of an explosive, fast-moving and intensely competitive story. The story demanded intense investigative reporting that netted notable results in far far less than 30 days of a breaking event.
Tags: U.S. soldier; Afghanistan; military draft; terrorist attacks; deployment
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The Mafia of Public Job Competitions
The story shows that investigations for fraud in public job competitions have been carried out in every Brazilian state. Required to join municipal, state and federal institutions, the competitions should be meant to choose the best applicants. However, only those appointed by politicians, and people who pay for a given position, are approved. Making use of a hidden camera, the reporter caught off-guard seven companies that fraud competitions and still approve only applicants appointed by mayors and other officials. Some sell the positions directly to the applicants.
Tags: international; job; fraud; Brazil; politicians; mayors
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OSU Scandals
An investigation of a football coach from OSU that covered up NCAA violations and knowingly allowed star atheletes to play in games even though he knew they may be ineligible for competition. The university attempted to dismiss Tressel's violation as a minor oversight and suspended him for two games.
Tags: NCAA; OSU; Ohio State University; Football; College
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CIF's Grab for Oil and Minerals
This story examines how a well-connected Chinese conglomerate eased out its Western rivals and wrangled lucrative resource deals in Africa. Its competitive edge? Promises of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects, most of which never materialized.
Tags: Oil; China; Conglomerate
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ESPN Outside the Lines: Gambling & Youth Football
"This investigation discovered rampant gambling on young boys playing football in the highly competitive South Florida Youth Football league."
Tags: gambling; youth football; sports; ethics; broadcast
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Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers
"This book looks at the hidden causes of the retirement crisis in America. While employers blame an aging workforce, global competition and market losses, Retirement Heist demonstrates that employers themselves are largely to blame for the crisis."
Tags: retirement
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"Little Leagues, Big Costs"
This five-day series chronicles the experiences with youth sports of high school and college athletes and coaches. By establishing "baseline data" that has been previously unreported, Dispatch reporters found a "corrupted" sports program overrun with angry parents and practices that cause severe injury to young athletes. Rising costs and financial competitions are added pressures to the industry.
Tags: youth-sports; IRS 990s; NCAA; NCAA Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act; Nexis; Ohio State; Gene Smith; Ohio High School Athletic Association; OHSAA; OSU
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"The Stem Cell Wars"
Aldhous focuses on the recent influx of work in cellular programming and takes a look at the peer review system by which research papers in the field of science are published. His analysis showed that U.S. researchers have had a "significant advantage in publication" and that those publications end up in more prominent journals. On the other hand, Japanese researchers are faced with "tougher competition" from U.S.-based researchers.
Tags: cellular programming; Nobel; stem cells; peer review; bibliometric
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Ready Money: The Baltimore City Foundation
The investigation of a private nonprofit group, which was formed to benefit city programs for the underprivileged, revealed a number of shocking facts. Some of them being, that a number of city officials used the group to pay for a few items for the mayor’s inauguration and to avoid competitive bidding for the design of the visitors center. Also, some of the donations went to support political initiatives, not those needing help. The foundation was unaware of the happenings because they were asking few questions from the city government.
Tags: city officials; needy; Finance Department; city clerk; Lenwood M. Ivey; funds; support; philanthropy; agency; tax-exempt; Mayor Sheila Dixon
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A Life at Sea, A Life at Risk
In one of the most dangerous occupations in America, the fishing industry is facing government regulations which obstruct the industry and make it more dangerous. This series also focuses on the economic impact, which extends far beyond the sea to the seafood that is reaching consumers. Furthermore, the challenges facing the US fishing industry are foreign competition and changes in trends and technology.
Tags: fishing; New Jersey; safety; ocean; sea; seafood; economy; regulations; fisheries