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 "sales" ...
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Maywood Confidential
On the evening of Oct. 23, 2006, as a premature snow fell in parts of the Chicago area, Maywood (Illinois) Police Officer Tom Wood pulled his marked SUV to a dimly lit corner known for drug sales, rolled down his window part of the way and began talking to somebody, likely a person he knew. Within minutes gunfire exploded from the street, ripping through the car and hitting Officer Wood in the head and elsewhere, killing the 37-year-old father of five almost instantly. More than six years later, the murder is still unsolved, and an eerie pall has been cast over the official investigation, and Maywood itself. The nonprofit Better Government Association (BGA) and WFLD-TV/FOX Chicago set out to determine what happened – why Officer Wood was killed and why the official investigation into his death had failed to produce an arrest or criminal charges. In a figurative sense, our findings (which form the basis for our entry) indict not a person, but a culture of corruption and apathy in Maywood that may have contributed to Officer Wood’s death, and certainly played a role in the subsequently botched homicide probe.
Tags: Murder; police officer; corruption; homicide
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Blood Ivory: Ivory Worship
At a time when the elephant is under siege and the world's media and NGOs have long focused attention on poaching in Africa, Bryan Christy went after ivory’s demand side. He spent nearly three years building a groundbreaking investigation into this crucial but poorly understood aspect of the illegal ivory trade. Using court records, official documentation, law enforcement sources, and reporting across five continents, Christy identified, for the first time, that religion plays a huge and ruinous role in the sale and purchase of illegal ivory; that China's government is driving the world's ivory market, has manipulated attempts to control it, and has plans to expand; and that the statistical model used by global regulators to make ivory trade policy decisions is insufficient and has been exploited.
Tags: elephant; ivory; ivory trade
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Education for Sale
Education Management Corp. was already a swiftly growing player in the lucrative world of for-profit higher education, with annual revenues topping $1 billion, but it had its sights set on industry domination. So, five years ago, the Pittsburgh company's executives agreed to sell its portfolio of more than 70 colleges to a trio of investment partnerships for $3.4 billion, securing the needed capital for an aggressive national expansion.
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Short Sale Shenanigans
The story uncovers a little known practice in this post-bubble real estate world: the people who make money flipping and flopping houses in a time of crashing prices and foreclosures.
Tags: flopping houses; short sale; housing market; foreclosures
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17
Illinois is one of 12 states in the U.S. in which a minor who faces a felony charge is prosecuted in the "adult penal system." In this Chicago Reporter investigation, Angela Caputo reveals that the majority of minors charged with a felony and prosecuted as an adult are black 17-year-old males. She also reveals that most of the cases involve nonviolent crimes like "low-level drug sales" and "property theft."
Tags: felony; Chicago; Austin; Humboldt Park; North Lawndale; Roseland; West Englewood; Cook County; McArthur Foundation
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Crime Inc: Counterfeit Goods
The story gives viewers a rare look at the production and sale of counterfeit goods. Viewers hear the story of a company whose brand was copied as well as that of a defense contractor who made counterfeit defense parts used in Iraq.
Tags: counterfeit; raid; fake handbag; fake shoes; fake jewelry; designer; underground industry
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Florida's Insurance Nightmare
Six years after eight hurricanes ripped across Florida, state residents still struggle to recover from the storms' legacy - a wrecked property insurance market. Exorbitant premiums, the highest in the world, have soured the state's struggling economy, killed real estate sales and forced families from their homes. Homeowners were told that unless they paid even more, no insurance company would take their hurricane risk. The Herald-Tribune showed that is a lie. Floridians have been lied to about why there is a crisis, where their money is going, and whether they're even protected against storm losses. Public policy has been corrupted by fiction spun by the insurance industry and its supposed regulators. Billions of dollars desperately needed for the next disaster have been siphoned offshore. And millions of homeowners are left to entrust their financial security on a system rigged to extort profit. To expose the hidden truth of Florida's insurance crisis, St. John cultivated key sources deep within every aspect of the insurance industry and sought massive amounts of financial and policy data from multiple state and national entities. When it became obvious Florida's crisis was manipulated from afar, she traveled to Bermuda and Monte Carlo to discover the hidden players truly in charge.
Tags: home insurance; property insurance; Florida; hurricane; real estate; insurance premiums; homeowners; Bermuda; Monte Carlo; state regulators; anti-trust law; State Farm
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Breaking Point: Personal tales of New Jersey's tax crush
This investigation into New Jersey's highest-in-the-nation property tax system found that it is forcing people out of their homes, fueling the big business of tax lien sales, forcing homeowners to pay billions in extra taxes because of the faulty assessment system. Loopholes in the law allow billionaires and land developers to get a 98 percent tax break.
Tags: tax liens; property tax; tax loopholes; tax breaks; tax rates; assessments
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Sold On Craigslist
The popular classified website Craigslist was found to be selling underage prostitutes through it's adult services section. The website was not screening ads as promised to uncover trafficking and it was profiting from the sales.
Tags: Craigslist; underage prostitution; prostitution; human trafficking; adult services; classified; advertising; prostitute
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The Hidden Life of Guns
The investigation details the way guns move through society, from retail sales to street crimes. The Post set out to break the secrecy imposed by Congress and an examination of how gunes are used in crimes. Their investigation included creating a database of more than 35,000 guns traced to crimes; a comprehensive database of 511 police officers killed by firearms; lists from confidential sources of the top 12 gun dealers who have sold the most weapons trace from Mexican crime scenes over the past two years.
Tags: guns; gun laws; crime; gun dealer; illegal gun trade; Mexico; criminal statistics; Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; National Shooting Sports Foundation; Tiahrt Amendment;