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 "state and local government" ...
-
Uncounted Casualties
A three-day series that analyzed causes of death for 266 Texas veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. The six-month investigation uncovered previously unknown information, pulling data from a variety of federal, state and local sources. The series, which also depended on extensive interviews with family members and fellow service members, revealed the startling number of Texas veterans dying of prescription drug overdoses, suicides and motor vehicle crashes. The newspaper's analysis was hailed by epidemiologists and former Department of Veterans Affairs researchers as an important step in understanding veteran mortality, and led to calls for better government tracking of how veterans are dying.
Tags: Veterans; Iraq; Afghanistan; prescription drug overdoses; suicides; vehicle crashes
-
Mercury News: Loss of Trust
The San Jose Mercury News IRE contest entry "Loss of Trust" consists of an original two-part series published July 1 and July 2, 2012, and the series' remarkable aftermath. The series exposed the eye-popping fees charged by private professionals working as court-appointed conservators and trustees for dependent adults in Silicon Valley - exorbitant rates that together with attorneys' fees threaten to force their vulnerable clients onto government assistance to survive. Within days of publication, the Santa Clara County Superior Court launched an overhaul of its local rules, and state legislation was pledged for the coming year to rein in the abuses.
Tags: Conservators; Trustees; attorneys; overcharged fees
-
Local officials are likely to profit from fracking in Southern Tier
Local government officials have been lobbying the state to the controversial oil and gas extraction process known as fracking. But when they spoke at public hearings and pushed in other forums, were they just representing their communities, or did they have more at stake? In a four-month investigation, SUNY New Paltz students reviewed thousands of public records in two states. The investigation found more than 30 locally elected officials who have been outspoken proponents for fracking. Public records and additional examinations identified about 20 percent of those with more than political philosophy at stake — the chance to gain personally and financially. To open government advocates such as Common Cause, these instances raise concerns about transparency and conflicts of interest among locally elected officials. About six months after publication, and after further moves by local officials to press the state to approve fracking, the state attorney general has launched inquiries into whether local officials have violated conflicts of interest.
Tags: Oil; gas; oil and gas extraction; fracking
-
California's Public Pension Dilemma
The Contra Costa Times found that California public employee pension systems are grossly underfunded; the benefits far exceeded the private sector and are regularly understated by the pension systems; the debts for state and local governments are huge; and the cost is being transferred over to future generations.
Tags: California; Public Pensions; State; Local; Government
-
Bad loans, No penalties
The state of Ohio leads the nation in failed loans, which the federal government corrects while the communities suffer. One of the biggest stories, which led to the investigation and this series, was when “Columbus developers walked away from an apartment-renovation project and $26 million in government-insured loans”. Further, there wasn’t anything that held these developers liable to repay the money.
Tags: Federal Housing Administration (FHA); tenants; neighbors; local officials; foreclosure; taxpayers; property; Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
-
Broke State
As the country suffers from the recession, so does the state of California but not directly from the country’s recession. California’s recession is based off of poor spending decisions from legislators, representatives, and a number of agencies. Most of these bad decisions are costing the taxpayers “millions of dollars” and they are seeing little benefit from these costs.
Tags: assembly; state government; local government agencies; public funds; taxes; expenses; unemployment; Bill Lockyer; Schwarzenegger; prison
-
Gaming the System: Public Pensions the Massachusetts Way
The series reveals the “manipulations of the state public pension system by legislators, ex-legislators, and local city councilors for their own and their friends’ enrichment, and at taxpayers’ expense”. Overall, this series describes the public pension abuse and the specific findings of the series.
Tags: state government; Senate; John A. Brennan Jr.; town moderators; city council; state budget; House; legislator; politicians
-
The rise and fall of Ray Sansom, speaker of the Florida House
Ray Sansom, the speaker of the Florida House, gave the state college “$35 million in two years”. These two years he oversaw the House budget, but wasn’t the speaker quite yet. Furthermore, these millions of dollars were added outside the normal budget method. Additionally, he worked with the college president to help maneuver the funds to the college.
Tags: government; politics; money; state government; Jay Odom; local officials; Northwest Florida State; college trustees
-
Secret Settlement
This series describes a secret deal with the assistant of the former mayor to pay her a great deal of money plus benefits if she would drop a sexual harassment against the former mayor. Further, the series revealed a confidentiality clause, which forbid anyone in the deal to talk about it and city officials could deny its existence. As a result of this series, the state legislature is considering making it illegal for government officials to enter into confidential settlements.
Tags: local government; corruption; Papillion; Nebraska; city; James Blinn; city council; resignation
-
Trouble on the Tray
This series found problems in the federal, state, and local programs that supplied food to the nation’s schoolchildren. Some of the major findings: beef supplied for school lunches wouldn’t pass at national fast-food restaurants, chicken found at schools is only quality enough for pet food, supplied recalled beef to schools, failed to inform schools of bad tortillas, and many schools lacked the two inspections per year.
Tags: Food safety; Schoolchildren; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Schools; Cafeteria; Government; Lunch; Beef; Children; Food; Bad food; E. coli