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 "financial contributions" ...
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Lobbying Disclosure and Financial Bailout
Narayanswamy went line by line through the reported contributions to nonprofit organizations that honor members of Congress made by lobbyists. She found that the contributions were numerous and that incumbents received the most. However lobbyists also contributed to new candidates.
Tags: Philip Meyer Award entry; lobbyist; politics; money; campaign finance; Congress; Mark Warner; Jeanne Shaheen; John Sununu; Federal Election Commission
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Wright Did Not Account for $119,607
Schreiner analyzed Rep. Thomas Wright's campaign disclosures from 1992 to 2006 and compared it to the reports of donors' contribution. "That analysis revealed that Wright hadn't disclosed $119,607 that donors reported that they had sent him."
Tags: campaign finance; accounting; cross-auditing; money; financial records; donors; North Carolina; Blue Cross/Blue Shield; disclosure
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Juice vs Justice
According to the Los Angeles Times, Las Vegas Justices rule on matters in cases where they have received donations from lawyers or defendants, without disclosing their financial interests or relationships, and without withdrawing when a conflict of interest exists. The Los Angeles Times reports "A common perception among a dozen out-of-state lawyers interviewed about their experiences in Nevada courtrooms is that justice in Las Vegas is just another form of legalized gambling." The Times reported this series because more than a quarter of all visits to Las VEgas are made by Southern Californians, and over a third of alll business relocating to Nevada come from California.
Tags: Blackstone; judicial corruption; good-old-boy culture; Las Vegas; Nevada Supreme Court; political fundraising; financial contributions; juice; disclosure; campaign funds; endorsements; pay-to-play
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Special Report: Best Schools
Reporters from the Buffalo News investigate how poverty level affect student test scores in nine local elementary schools. What they found was that, in most cases, schools with children from lower ecomonic backgrounds often faired better than higher income students in suburban schools. "We considered these to be the schools doing the best job educating students--rather than the schools that happened to have students from the best economic backgrounds." This investigation also looks into how financial contributions from each school district affected student academic success.
Tags: test scores; poverty levels; New York State Education Department; student achievement rates
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Money and Politics
A year-long investigation into the role of Tennessee campaign contributions in Tennessee politics, and how candidates used these contribution funds. The Times found that candidates filed inaccurate disclosure reports and that there was little to no examination of the documents. They also took a look at Tennessee money in federal elections, and found that local races were not competitive, and that Republicans in particular were funneling contributions to out-of-state candidates.
Tags: campaign finance; campaign contributions; campaign loans; inaccurate disclosure reports; federal elections; state elections; campaign financial filings; questionable campaign practices
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Captive Clientele
This investigation looks at how some financial companies used unethical, misleading sales tactics to sell costly insurance and investment products to young military recruits. These companies use their military and Congressional connections to keep their business growing while gaining access to military bases. "And although the Pentagon has been warned about these exploitive practices for decades, it has done almost nothing to prevent them."
Tags: mutual funds; insurance; campaign contributions; General Accountability Office
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Under the Influence: Money in Trenton
In the face of campaign contribution reforms, the staff at The Record perform an extensive investigation into the major contributors for candidates in the 2003 New Jersey state legislature elections. What they found was that candidates and contributors have discovered new ways around contribution limits through a process called "wheeling," which transfers large sums of money into key candidates' races. Using data from the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, reporters discovered a number of flaws in the information that had gone unnoticed, and contributors who had gone unpunished. According to the questionnaire, "The Record learned that the toughest penalty these legislatures would face was a fine, and even that was unlikely if they returned the funds befor ethe commission learned about it."
Tags: CAR; New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission; Division of Financial Recording; wheeling; lobbying
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Banking on your money
Commerce Bancorp- one of the nation's fastest growing financial services companies-has also become the biggest private political benefactor New Jersey has seen in a century. The bank's far-reaching political clout and regular campaign contributions-more than $1.6 million in the last five years-have helped Commerce obtain more no-bid government banking, bond and insurance contracts in the state than any of its competitors, including much larger banks such as Wachovia and Fleet.
Tags: Commerce Bancorp; Wachovia Bank; Fleet Bank; FDIC; Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; Securities and Exchange Commission; SEC; Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB); campaign contributions; taxpayer money; Morgan Stanley Dean Witter trust; government banking; underwriting; financial advising; New Jersey State League of Municipalities'; Commerce Insurance Services; Gloucester County Democratic Committee; Gloucester County Board of Freeholders; Ocean County Republican Finance Committee
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Habitat: Borrowed Dreams
This story discovers some negative outcomes within Habitat for Humanity, the popular charity that helps poor families become homeowners. The report found that Habitat's recipients were ill-prepared for home ownership. More than 40 percent of the local affiliate's homeowners filed for bankruptcy after moving into their homes, and nearly half of those who filed for bankruptcy did so multiple times. For many, Habitat's benefits, including its hallmark zero-interest mortgage, fell victim to crushing financial stresses. They found at least 40 examples of homeowners refinancing their no-interest mortgage, adding costly second mortgages or tacking criminal bail bond liens onto their homes. Desperate for cash paid at closing when taking a new home loan, homeowners paid fat fees and took on steep interest rates, some as high as 24 percent. Seventeen homeowners either lost their homes in foreclosure of deeded them to others. Some contributing factors involved Habitat for Humanity, for having inadequate front-end financial training, and a failure to protect Habitat mortgages from new lenders. Other factors stemmed from poverty in Memphis.
Tags: Habitat for Humanity; mortgage; bail bond liens; homeowners; bankruptcy; foreclosure; housing; loans; predatory lending; Collier County Habitat for Humanity; RISE Foundation; bankruptcy protection; low income housing
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The Sham of Enron: How the Deception of Shareholders, Analysts and Employees Paved the Way for the Biggest U.S. Bankruptcy
Bloomberg reports on the collapse of the Enron Corp. The three part series reveals that the company had close ties and had enriched financial analysts who overwhelming backed the company despite red flags in the end of 2001; that former Enron Chief Financial officer Andrew Fastow was behind the engineered network of Enron's off-balance-sheet entities; and that an online venture called NewPower designed the conquer the deregulating energy retail market strategy that contributed to Enron's slide into bankruptcy. The file includes a Bloomberg Markets article of May 2001 that contains some preliminary findings on Enron's questionable deals and accounting practices.
Tags: business; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); mergers and acquisitions; accounting chicanery; stocks and bonds