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 "passengers" ...
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Criminal Cab Drivers
This story reveals that “hundreds of criminals are behind the wheels of Houston cabs”. This is allowed to happen because if it falls outside of a 10 year period it won’t show up and they are allowed to get their cab license. It has become a standard on criminal background checks because people can change and straighten up their lives. But when one of these cab drivers commits a crime as a driver, people begin to question these tactics.
Tags: transportation; passengers; travel; cabbie; streets; taxicab; ordinance; FOIA; city council; Ricardo Steele; Yellow Cab
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Digging Up Millions for Tiny Airstrip
“The federal government intends to spend $11 million to build an airstrip in a rural area”. In the rural area, the demand for an airstrip is slim to none and pressures a local airport to shut down, which is barely used and supported by tax money. So building a new airstrip is unneeded and a waste of tax money. Additionally, this article is an example of “a runaway federal program fueled by fees and surcharge paid by airline passengers”.
Tags: transportation; air travel; taxpayers; aviation; tax dollars; Oswego County; Hastings New York; finances
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Under the Radar
Every year the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been given a grant, which then will be distributed to airports. The question is where does this money come from and how is it spent? The answer to the first half is the commercial-airline passengers, who pay the ticket taxes which in turn becomes the grant. The second part of the question is answered by not the improvement of airline travel, but rather the private pilots who fly corporate and recreational planes.
Tags: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); Federal fund; grants; airports; planes; airlines; commercial-airline; passengers; ticket taxes; pilots; private airplanes; flights
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Fatal RV Flaws
"Poorly secured cabinets, braking issues, along with a lack of safety inspections or RV's, has led to the death and serious injury of hundreds of drivers and passengers."
Tags: RV; recreational vehicles; safety inspection; fatalities; NHTSA; FARS; Washington State Patrol accident reports
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Right By Miles
This story looked back to a traffic accident six years ago (2002) in which a car driven by a teenager ran off a back country road in the middle of the night and his passenger, a 16-year-old named Miles White, was killed. The polk County Shriff's Office investigated, ruled it a single car accident and charged the 19-year-old driver with DUI-manslaughter. The Times was able to show that the sheriff's office had engaged in a cover-up. It was not a single-car crash; it was caused by a Polk County sheriff's deputy, who, as it turned out, was a sexual predator who like teenage boys. He chased the boys that night, hit their rear bumper and ran them off the road. The Times showed that before the accident, the sheriff's office had been warned that they had a deputy who was using his undercover vehicle to stalk teenage boys. They had not heeded that warning and left him on the road. If he then caused an accident that killed a boy, the department would have been on the hook for multimillion dollar damages in a wrongful death lawsuit. The office chose instead to cover up the truth.
Tags: sheriff's department; Florida; car accidents; cover-up; sexual predators; wrongful dath
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Houston Texas Bus Safety
This story looks at two bus crashes in Texas to determine how companies are regulated. It also looks at how Houston operators who cater to Hispanic, working-class passengers are allowed to operate, some illegally, despite poor safety records and questionable licensing.
Tags: buses; public safety; driving records; racial discrimination; bus crashes; chameleon carrier; driving offenses;
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Access to Steal
KIRO-TV investigated the security flaws in airports "that allow baggage handlers to enter luggage storage areas, steal items, then remove the goods from the property." The investigative teams also "tracked dozens of missing handguns, stolen by criminals, who had direct access to loaded passenger jets."
Tags: airports; security; theft; baggage; hidden camera; luggage; handguns; property
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Sky Harbor Security Risks
This investigation exposed major security lapses at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the fifth busiest airport in the country. Reporters posed as passengers and used hidden cameras to film unchecked bags being allowed into the secure site of the airport. The story had immediate consequences; the TSA took over operations at the airport and corrected the security problems.
Tags: transportation; hidden camera; airplane; federal government; TSA
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They Failed to Act
The nation's largest commuter railroad system failed to address a major public safety hazard that it had known about for years. Through tenacious shoe-leather reporting, the staff of Newsday documented a danger long ignored by the Long Island Railroad and by state and federal regulators. Armed with Stanley tape measures, they found dangerous gaps between the platform and trains at the railroad's busiest stations, holes large enough for passengers to fall through.
Tags: railroad system; public safety; injuries; gap injuries; repairs; Federal Railroad Administration; Public Service Pulitzer finalist
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Cuban Smugglers
"The lucrative but dangerous business of smuggling Cubans into the United States is highly organized and growing fast. It is financed mostly by Cuban-American families in South Florida and involves smugglers and financiers in the Miami area, along with arrangers and transporters in Cuba and Mexico." Coast Guards in the United States, Havana, and Cuba are "frustrated by what they see as a national security threat as hundreds of boats a year come from Florida to pick up passengers illegally on the Cuban coast."
Tags: Cuba; illegal immigrants; smuggling; Mexico; Havana; Florida