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 "injury awards" ...
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Prison Workers Compensation Investigation
The reporters find that hundreds of guards at a Illinois maximum security prison were receiving large taxpayer-funded injury awards for carpal tunnel syndrome they claimed came from unlocking cell doors. The state had spent $30.6 million on these settlements over three years. As a result of the investigation, the Illinois Department of Insurance launched a civil and criminal investigation.
Tags: injury awards; state prisons; settlements; Menard Correctional Center; workers compensation
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A 9/11 phony
This series examined the claims of a man who said he suffered a raft of illnesses resulting from his 9/11 rescue efforts at Ground Zero. He was awarded nearly $650,000 from the victims compensation fund, but the newspaper found evidence that his tales of heroism and life-threatening injuries were not true. The newspaper revealed that the man has a 20-year history of "exaggeration, self-promotion, freeloading and very little evidence of real rescue work."
Tags: 9/11; September 11; September 11th Victims Compensation Fund; con; fraud; Ground Zero
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Patients At Risk
In this news series, the Dispatch finds dozens of examples of unpunished, negligent conduct by medical doctors that resulted in serious injury to patients, multiple unnecessary operations and even death. The story is told through data and victimes, naming doctors and employing specific elements of cases that had never before been brought to light. Also used are documents from over 1,000 cases that have been procured by the newspaper through the FOIA.
Tags: Virginia Department of Health Professions; Del. Winsome E. Sears; Salih M. Zamzam; Dr. Judith A. Goettert
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Injured For Life
Times-Dispatch reporter Bill McKelway was finally able to penetrate the secretive Virginia Birth-related Neurological Injury Program, after years of trying to shed light on one of the most secret institutions in the state. The program was created to help pay compensation for children who suffered brain damage during birth at the hands of doctors and nurses that was "so severe that they never will be able to care for themselves." By paying out claims in secret, the intention was to keep malpractice lawsuits to a minimum and thus malpractice insurance low. But the institution was so secretive that even families involved in the program had no knowledge of each other, and the program claimed for years it was exempt from all open-records and open-meetings laws. However, McKelway was able to slowly gain information on the system, and he wrote dozens of stories on it in 2003 . The resulting reports by the Times-Dispatch revealed a program that was "woefully underfunded, failing to slow the increases in malpractice insurance, as it was designed to do, inconsistent in its application, and aimed at protecting doctors and hospitals more than helping brain-injured babies." In the wake of the reporting, the program's board meetings were made public for the first time in 15 years, and the institution is now subject to Virginia's freedom of information act.
Tags: FOIA; open records; birth; children; babies; baby; brain damage; neurological; nurse; doctor; physician; compensation; secret; malpractice; victim
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On the Job of Last Resort
The Omaha World-Herald reports on how the U.S Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has provided only "minimal oversight" over the contractors who clean up meatpacking houses every night. The World-Herald found that "most of these contractors are undocumented workers, and that their cleaning is every bit as dangerous as day-time meatpacking" -- and in fact their injury rate is four times higher than normal workers in the industry. In the demand for speed from employers, many of these workers "have lost fingers, arms and even legs when they tried to keep pace. Harried workers have been known to clean cutting and grinding machines while they are still running, which is a clear violation of federal safety rules." But with undocumented workers fearful to come forward because of their legal status, and some pushed out of their jobs by their bosses when they raise safety concerns, the situation is only getting worse. The World found OSHA gave considerably less scrutiny to the problem, in part because it lumped those cleaning packinghouses into the same industry category as "janitors and maids."
Tags: OSHA; meatpacking; meat; packing; food; industry; safety; workers; workplace; cleaning; cleaner; machine; agriculture; undocumented; illegal workers; immigrants; human resources; occupational safety; USDA; hispanic; latino; union; contracting; contractor