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 "expenditure" ...
-
The Options
Many top companies, including Nextel, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Dell, figure profits without calculating expenditures on employee stock options. "They would have had their profits reduced -- or losses increased -- by as much as 139 percent, according to annual reports they filed with the SEC," Steffy reports.
Tags: stocks; stock options; S&P; profits; Microsoft; Bill Gates; Michael Dell; Irwin Jacobs; John Chambers; Dell Computer Corp.; Qualcomm; Cisco Systems; SEC
-
Janitors' Overtime
A San Francisco Examiner investigation explores a practice of questionable expenditures at the San Francisco Unified School District. The series focuses on the finding that "some San Francisco school custodians have doubled their salaries through overtime pay," charging the district for "answering" alarms that apparently never went off..." The investigation reveals that "the oversight may have cost millions over a number of years," as "the district failed to conduct the most basic oversight." It also shows a practice of boosting salaries through overtime among the schools' assistants and secretaries. Other parts of the series reveal that the district "has spent a half-million dollars over the last 10 years for a full-time sewing machines repair person, even though sewing programs had all but ended" and that the former chief financial officer of the school district has "collected nearly $ 40, 000 in compensatory and vacation time." The reporter details the school district's suits against those ex-workers who have inflated their wages or have been paid for work never done.
Tags: California Public Records Act; janitors; security alarms; earnings; payroll; budget; fraud; teachers
-
Lobbyists
The Daily Oklahoman identifies questionable lobbyists' expenditures in a three-story package. The reporters reveal that "government agencies are using taxpayer dollars to lobby for more taxpayer dollars." The package investigates how "taxpayers' money is used to lobby for new taxes" and the practice of public agencies "to pay large salaries to lobbyists, who in turn pass part of the money on to state legislators in the form of campaign contributions and honoraria."
Tags: no questionnaire; government agencies; taxpayers; state legislature; campaign contributions; votes
-
Roads To Nowhere: Squandering Highway Money in West Virginia
The series investigated "questionable and wasteful expenditures by the state Division of Highways." The reporter found out that "Since 1997, Gov. Cecil Underwood and the Legislature have approved the sale of $ 440 million in state road bonds. This year [2001] they hope to sell another $ 110 million. These bond sales will create a long term debt of more than $ 1 billion....The bond sales brought few additional federal matching funds to West Virginia...Much of the state road bond cash, moreover, was spent for routine resurfacing and maintenance, which has a short life span. Voters will still be paying off road bonds for years after these improvements are worn out." In some of the stories the reporter exposed "the failure of weak state laws to control overweight coal and lumber trucks that pose major threat to public safety."
Tags: diskette; FOIA; Virginia state Division on Highways; state issued bonds; wasteful expenditures; road construction; overweigth trucks; public safety; taxpayers; election
-
Free Ride
"Taxpayers in Harrison County, Miss., foot the bill for an impressive fleet of county government vehicles. Elected officials and scores of county employees have take-home automobile privileges with little oversight to prevent personal use of the vehicles and little though toward saving tax dollars. Many officials and employees drive expensive gas-guzzling sorts utility vehicles...The state of Mississippi has 4,400 such passenger vehicles worth $150 million, which cost $17.9 million for mileage reimbursement in 1999." After the story roughly 25 percent of the vehicles were ordered to be parked.
Tags: government vehicles; misuse of government property; FOIA; Mississippi Open Records Act; Harrison County; passenger vehicles; SUVs; perks; PEER (Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review commission)
-
Plumb Jobs
This "story investigated spending practices and political connections in a formerly tiny water agency whose expenditures ballooned as politicos began using it to fund pet projects and to reward allies. The expenditures were paid out of dramatically increased assessments passed on to cities -- and therefore consumers - who had no choice in whether to pay and had no say in how the agency was run."
Tags: Utilities; public works; water; Water Replenishment District of Southern California cronyism nepotism pork projects
-
Business Incentives or Corporate Welfare?
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigated Wisconsin's incentives programs in this three-part series. "Wisconsin jumped on the incentives bandwagon in the mid-1980s in a big way, with programs and expenditures proliferating to meet or anticipate almost any demand expanding businesses might make. While state officials offered soothing assurances about accountability for the programs no one... had attempted to analyze the effectiveness of the programs..." The newspaper found: spending reached $1 billion during the past 12 years, "many of the state's largest... firms were the biggest recipients of state largess" and "job creation promises were overblown and poorly monitored."
-
Alternative Medicine, safe or not, lures more people
Alternative medicine is growing exponentially yet is essentially unwatched by the Federal Gov.t, which ruled in '94 to classify these products as "food" -- not drugs. In '97, more than $21 billion was spent -- more than the out-of-pocket expenditures for all hospitalizations in the U.S. The FDA will soon (mid-June) hold hearings concerning the regulation of alt. medicine, especially the "free-wheeling" dietary supplement sector. Traditional doctors argue that "natural does not mean safe." The Internet is significantly spurring growth in the alt. med. industry.
Tags: Alternative medicine; Internet; FDA
-
What They Earned in 1996-97: A Survey of Private Colleges' Pay and Benefits
The Chronicle of Higher Education presents an annual survey of the top-paid officials at 475 private colleges that reflects sharp growth in executive pay at a time when the public is questioning costs in higher education. The report includes a chart of the highest paid officials at each college, a side-bar story on the concentration of highly paid presidents at colleges on Long Island and a side-bar story examining the extent to which colleges comply with IRS requirements that they report their lobbying expenditures.
Tags: 990; FOI; non-profit
-
Overkill is Not Dead
The story examines U.S. policy on nuclear weapons after the Cold War. While the arms race is supposed to be over, this article shows that the government is still developing new nuclear weapons and still has missiles trained on Russian targets. The piece details government expenditures on weapon research and development, and questions assumptions commonly made in post Cold War America.
Tags: None