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 "ports" ...
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Port Authority: Battle at the Waterfront
This investigation was about lies and obfuscation, and the stakes were enormous: A mayor’s election, a growing media empire and potentially billions of dollars in development. Our reporting revealed how within months of purchasing the largest media operation in San Diego County, the new owners of U-T San Diego were using their power and status to influence -- and even threaten -- government officials into helping them realize lucrative plans for developing the downtown waterfront. It also illuminated an insidious practice suspected nationwide: use of private electronic accounts to conduct the public’s business. Our reporting defined much of the discussion around the mayor’s race in the weeks before the election. In the end, the candidate at the heart of the probed was defeated.
Tags: Mayoral election; fraud; government officials; San Diego
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PAT Bus Investigation
Channel 4 Action news captured Port Authority bus drivers running red lights over and over again. They also uncovered people that had been badly injured, even killed, in accidents with Port Authority buses. In just the past 3 years, Port Authority has paid out 2.8 million dollars to more than a thousand individuals who claimed they were injured or suffered damages because of Port Authority.
Tags: Port Authorityl Buses
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Port-O-Plenty
The investigation finds millions wasted on a possible deal between the Port of Houston and the Gaddafi regime, questioning consulting deals and vacations with port vendors.
Tags: Gaddafi; Port of Houston; contracts
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"Cruise Ships Dodge Rules"
This investigation takes a look at the claims of cruise ships boasting "green" cruising and whether or not it can truly reduce the "impact on the environment." Despite the claims, reporters found that ships are playing the system and continue to dump harmful waste along their cruise routes, in areas where the rules are "less stringent."
Tags: Canada; Straight of Juan de Fuca; cruise ships; waste disposal; Port of Seattle; Carnival; Royal Caribbean
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The Wasteland
CBS News found that when well-meaning American consumers give their electronics to so-called recyclers, the waste is often smuggled to China and other parts of the Third World, where it is broken down or melted for the precious metals inside. They investigated a major electronic waste recycler in the Denver area, Executive Recycling, and tracked a container that had been filled with cathode ray tubes at the company's loading docks. They followed this container from Denver, to the port of Tacoma, to Hong Kong, which is the main entryway to the part of southern China where electronic waste is broken down in the worst conditions. There, seven out of ten kids have dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Pregnancies are six times more likely to end in miscarriage. The reporters also went to China and found that wasteland, where workers were cooking circuit boards over open flames and separating the gold from other metals in acid baths on the edge of a river. While filming, the crew was attacked by a gang that protects this gray market enterprise. Back in Denver, CBS News confronted the CEO of Executive Recycling. He denied that his company had sent the CRTs overseas, but the evidence was all but irrefutable.
Tags: recycling; gray market; electronics; China; worker safety; pollution;
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Airport Insecurity
With the help of a whistle blower, KOMO-TV showed that airport security was lax when it came to maintaining security among airport staff. Outfitting the "whistle blower with a hidden camera and on different days and times of days, [the] whistle blower went into every secure area of the airport without once being checked, or questioned." As a result of this report, TSA announced that it would screen all employees.
Tags: airport; security; whistle blower; hidden camera; Transportation Security Administration; Port Authority; TSA; employees
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Secret Political Piggy Bank
An investigation into member-item spending within the New York State Legislature. With the opening of lawmakers' records "numerous examples of corruption, conflict of interest and self dealing by elected officials" were discovered.
Tags: New York; legislature; member-item; projects; corruption; conflict of interest; self dealing; indictments; criminal investigations; federal; state; government
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On the Waterfront
This series documented how the Port of Seattle cut deals with one company and its partners to develop a conference center, corporate club and cruise terminal on the central waterfront. The port uses tax dollars to shoulder all of the financial risk and only makes a marginal profit. Instead, the private company makes millions from the development. The lack of controls violates state law.
Tags: state government; development; contractor; public records; correction
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Inside Two Agencies: How Security and Policy Problems Undermine the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Speed has become more important that security in two organizations that should be emphasizing security. The Star-Ledger investigates the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and finds that airport screeners are not as efficient as they should be. In addition, the series discusses the difficulty of securing cargo both at the port and on passenger jetliners.
Tags: Transportation Security Administration; Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; cargo; security; port security; airport security; airline security
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Private Security in a Post-9/11 World
As the focal point of a study of the private guard industry in New York state, WNYC looks at Tristar Patrol Services, "which had seen a dramatic expansion after the September 11 attack in NYC, getting more than $80 million in contract work with the City of New York." The company had more than a thousand employees, mostly young minority males, and they had the task of protecting all of the city's office space, infrastructure and Fire Department facilities. The investigation found that Tristar's owner, Gary Zimmer, had been convicted of assault and had to resign as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, yet attained the right to hold a security guard company license when a judge, believing the owner's misrepresentation of his criminal case, granted him an exemption from state law. In addition, there were other issues as Tristar "had been disqualified from doing state work for misrepresenting it had properly credentialed guards, but went on to win a multi-million dollar, multi-year City contract." The company failed to properly compensate guards, including not paying for vacation or advanced state security credentials, and Tristar also did not pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars it was required to pay the union representing the guards to cover union dues and health and welfare benefits required by the contract." But because of the New York Secretary of State's lack of investigators, regulations were not enforced. Also, there is no uniform requirement across the country for the training and qualifications for security guards and companies.
Tags: Private security; Sept. 11, 2001; Tristar Patrol Services; Gary Zimmer; New York City security