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 "government protection" ...
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Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed
This book reveals how the U.S. government consciously looked away as miners, and then the neighbors, were exposed to uranium's dangers as it was mined on a Navajo reservation, in a slow-motion environmental catastrophe that last for decades and continues today.
Tags: uranium; radiation; mining; Navajo; Indian reservation; yellow cake; yellow dirt; EPA; Environmental Protection Agency; Indian Health Service; Bureau of Indian Affairs; Atomic Energy Commission; National Cancer Institute; environmental pollution; environmental disaster; nuclear power; atomic bomb
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Keeping Secrets
This series exposed the financial and public safety costs of North Carolina's personnel law, which we discovered was among the most secretive in the nation. The series showed how the law protected abusive cops and predatory teachers, political patronage and nepotism, as well as extravagantly pay raises and pensions.
Tags: North Carolina; personnel; state employment; salaries; personnel law; North Carlina Open Government Coalition;
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The Radiation Boom
The reporter provides insight into the medical community's inadequate safety protections. Within these hospitals, the reporter documents the number of patients burned by the radiation of new machines, little government oversight,poorly trained personnel, and outdated equipment.
Tags: radiation; hospital; technology; FDA; overdoses
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The Card Game
This story investigates the “future of the massive consumer loan industry and its impact on a fragile national economy”. This story looks into the inner workings of the credit card business and how a number of people are trying to reform the way the industry has done business for years. But some major steps need to be taken before a change can be made.
Tags: Consumer Financial Protection Agency; Congress; banks; finances; government; Providian Financial; interest rates; fees; payments
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Taking Care of Business
"In 'Taking Care of Business,' staff writer Neil Parmar reveals a BBB that consumers are far less familiar with: a group whose funding and governance comes almost solely from the business world, one that has collected information from consumers and sold it without their knowledge. It's a portrait that calls into serious question the BBB's image as the little guy's knight in shining armor."
Tags: BBB; Better Business Bureau; consumer protection;
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Security Breach
"From broken metal detectors to convicted felons carrying police badges and guns, WTTG-TV's hidden camera investigation of the DC Protective Service Police Department (DCPSD) showed how anyone armed with a weapon could easily slip through security inside District government buildings."
Tags: security; federal buildings; Washington, D.C.; police;
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Energy Star Has Lost Some Luster
The Energy Star program was started by the federal government to help consumers save energy but it has become outdated and manufacturers are using loopholes to bump up their energy efficiency scores.
Tags: electricity; LG; kilowatt; Environmental Protection Agency; EPA; emission;
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Unprotected: An Investigation o Sacramento County's Child Protective Services
A dozen years after the 1996 torture-death of one boy triggered major reforms within Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, -- and resulted in a quadrupling of the agency's budget and doubling of its staff -- many of the same problems persist in 2008. The Sacramento Bee found that, despite the massive increase in resources, numerous children continue to be injured or killed who had prior involvement with Sacramento's CPS. Among the problems detailed by The Bee: inadequate supervision and training, sloppy investigations, poor evaluation of children's risk, lack of accountability for serious mistakes. In its follow-up stories, which prompted a grand jury investigation, The Bee used a new state law related to child deaths to push CPS to release case files and found it had illegally altered the records of one boy who died in their care.
Tags: child protective services; county government; torture; child welfare; government agency; government accountablity; child services
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American's Neglected Levees
Scripps reviewed the federal and state level system of levee oversight and found that no one at any level of government knows where all levees are, what they protect or what shape they are in. Thousands of communities are being forced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get levees certified under a national upgrade of flood hazard maps, but even FEMA admits the standards are outdated and don't accurately reflect the risks to people behind them.
Tags: FEMA; levee; flood; Army Corps of Engineers; infrastructure; National Levee Safety Committee; insurance
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Financial package
"Hedge funds in swaps face peril with rising junk bond defaults" examined the complexity of credit default swaps, which are unregulated securities that were supposed to act as a form of insurance and protect investors against risk. "FDIC may need $150 billion bailout as local bank failures mount" reported that many regional banks in the country would fail within a year because they hadn't realized losses on defaulting mortgages. "Exploiting FDIC loopholes enriches former U.S. bank regulators" revealed that three former government employees created a for-profit company that exploits FDIC rules and helps millionaires insure up to $50 million in bank accounts guaranteed by the FDIC.
Tags: economy; finance; recession; bank; bond; FDIC; mortgage; bailout