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 "military budget" ...
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A $191 Million Question
Waste, fraud and criminal activity plague the procurement budget, an expenditure that ballooned to $600 billion in 2007. The Post investigates the sources of the escalating costs and finds government and corporate ties to be appallingly mangled.
Tags: procurement; military; corporate; Washington; army; contracts; O'Harrow; contractor; technology program; manager; billion;
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We overpay by 20% for military goods"
The Pentagon's prime vendor program costs taxpayers about 20 percent more for goods. The Pentagon does not shop for the cheapest goods but employs middlemen who charged $20 for plastic ice cube trays and $32,000 for refrigerators.
Tags: military budget; Pentagon; no-bid contracts; army; armed forces
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"Under the Radar" and "Stormy Weather"
These stories revealed crucial information undermining the U.S. Air Force's controversial plan to lease 100 air refueling tankers from Boeing-a deal, which, if completed, would have cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars more than if traditional purchasing were used. "Under the Radar" deals with documents showing how Boeing pushed a plane that even some military officials doubted was right for the job. It also revealed how the Air Force relied on Boeing to shape the basic performance requirements for the tanker and let the company devise the financial structure of the costly, unusual lease agreement. "Stormy Weather" discloses a perverse effect of the derailing of the lease proposal.
Tags: U.S. Air Force; air refueling tankers; Boeing; taxpayers; Air Force officials; Congress; White House; Pentagon; White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card; endorsement; tanker planes; Lockheed C-5 transport; Lockheed C-17 transport; Continental Airlines; lobbying campaign; European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.; Senate Commerce Committee; EADS; Congressional Budget Office; Defense Department; Air Force Air Mobility Command; Fleet Viability Board; General Accounting Office
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Outbreak: A Common Virus, A Military Recruit - And a Mysterious Death
The Wall Street Journal exposes the failure of the Pentagon to provide military training camps with vaccines against a wide-spread virus that in some cases can lead to death. The story reveals that the so-called adenovirus is a common one that causes respiratory illnesses, but "poses a unique problem for the military's nine basic-training camps" because of the "combination of cramped living quarters, close contact and stress." The report sheds light on the deaths of two recruits believed to have lost their lives because of the virus. A major finding is that in the 80s, because of tightened health budget, the military turned down Wyeth Laboratories' offer to buy vaccines, and now is expected to end up spending between $15 and $25 million on a far more expensive project to find a new manufacturer.
Tags: FDA; Armed Forces Epidemiological Board; vaccines; army; Pentagon; military; adenovirus; viral encephalitis; doctors; recruits; respiratory illness; Wyeth Laboratories; health; infectious diseases; defense
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Air Force Academy Superintendent Kitchen Spending
A Gazette investigation revealed that the Air Force Academy "used military readiness money to remodel generals' homes including $308,000 spent on a kitchen.... The Air Force isn't alone in the practice. The Navy recently told Congress it had spent $5.6 million in readiness money on admirals' homes... "
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Big guns aren't sole casualties
Many small contractors were devastated by post-Cold War military budget cutbacks. But federal retooling may not help these often overlooked mainstays of the defense economy.
Tags: Small Business
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No title (id: 12899)
WOOD-TV finds that politicans and civilians fly free around the world under a National Guard public relations program. Federal taxpayers are paying millions of dollars a year in flight time. No federal agency has ever audited the program, though other like military trips have recently been found to have waste and abuse. WOOD-TV found that these trips often benefit certain politicans, who are powerful enough to play a role in the National Guards future budget. (Nov. 24, 1995)
Tags: Halsne Flying for free Contest entry Politics 7 pgs. TAPE
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Exposing the Black Budget
Wired magazine reports that "The Cold War is over. So why, Paul McGinnis wanted to know, are major CIA, NSA, and Department of Defense programs still being kept secret from Congress and US taxpayers?... The black budget is the government's illusory and tangled accounting of what it spends on intelligence gathering, covert operations, and - less noticeably - secret military research and weapons programs. It admits to no easy calculation, but by estimates of those who watch it, the black budget may hit US$30 billion a year - a figure larger than current federal expenditures for education."
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No title (id: 10472)
Forbes describes how military readiness will fall to overwhelmingly substandard levels with the current budget cuts, far below even what the administration says is the minimum; also details how cuts often drastically cut the fighting power of the military, the actual combat troops, while leaving massive bureacracies and wasteful practices in place to suck up whatever is left, August 15, 1994.
Tags: DC Banks 5 pages
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The Pentagon's Secret Cache
Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the Pentagon's "Black Budget," a $35 billion cache of money secretly diverted from other appropriations for covert military and intelligence activities; reporter studied thousands of pages of Pentagon budget documents line-by-line for several years to discover military items that disappeared into the Black Budget, 1987.