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 contracts" ...
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Wage Theft In the Fields
American farmworkers have often experienced egregious abuses, but nothing is more pervasive, nor harder to ferret out, than the wage theft that results from a practice called farm-labor contracting. Found in the fields of every handpicked crop in the country, farm-labor contractors not only provide growers with crews, but also handle wages and manage everything from verifying immigration status to providing workers' compensation. The problem is, the contractors systematically underpay the workers. “Farm labor contractors,” says writer Tracie McMillan, “give American produce growers what companies like China's Foxconn offer to Apple: a way to outsource a costly and complicated part of the business, often saving money in the process and creating a firewall between the brand and the working conditions under which its products are made.” And yet McMillan — a fellow with both the Knight-Wallace program at University of Michigan, and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University — found that enforcement is rare: In 2008, inspectors visited only 1,499 of the more than 2 million farms nationwide; in 2011, California inspectors found just seven minimum wage violations on the state’s 86,000 farms. Fines are minimal: “It's cheaper to violate the law than to follow the law,” says one farmworker advocate. And wage theft is tedious to prove, requiring inspectors to interview workers, analyze time cards, and collect payroll records. That's why workers and their advocates in California are counting on a lawsuit brought earlier this year on behalf of two farmworkers against the contractors who hired them—as well as the growers who outsourced the work. The suit alleges that the contractors routinely undercounted the hours worked, failed to pay minimum wage or overtime, failed to provide safe or sanitary working conditions, and housed the workers in unsafe and unsanitary living quarters. The “collective action” suit—open to anyone who can prove he or she experienced the same treatment—may cover thousands of workers and deliver awards substantial enough to deter other employers from the same practices.
Tags: Labor; farms; working conditions; wage
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Meningitis Outbreak
When an unprecedented outbreak of fungal meningitis began last fall in Tennessee, The Tennessean reacted with aggressive and highly interactive coverage that has led the nation. Before other media realized the significance of the outbreak, which has sickened more than 650 people in 19 states, The Tennessean was already analyzing the regulation of specialty pharmacies and digging into the contracts and connections of the New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts firm suspected of shipping contaminated steroids responsible for the illnesses. As of today, the outbreak has killed 40 people nationwide, 14 of them in Tennessee. More than a hundred more are still sick. We quickly reported problems associated with New England Compounding Center, lag times on informing victims and regulation slip-ups in the drug compounding industry that allowed companies to operate outside of the law.
Tags: Health; meningitis; New England Compounding Center; steroids
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Fraud on the Job
KING 5 dedicated nearly a year to dig into the complex world of the federal minority contracting program. The program is intended to remedy past and current discrimination against minority and women-owned contracting businesses who want a shot at working on federal highway projects. But instead of fostering equal opportunity, KING found staggering fraud and abuse in the taxpayer-funded program. The investigative series titled “Fraud on the Job" was born. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is responsible for administering the program. WSDOT contracts with a small state agency, the Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises (OMWBE) to certify which contractors qualify as "disadvantaged business enterprises" or DBEs. They also make sure that once in, the companies aren’t cheating or becoming too big to qualify. The state’s share of billions of federal highway funds comes with some strings attached, including a requirement that a certain percentage of money spent on transportation projects be reserved for minority-owned firms. The results of the “Fraud on the Job” series were swift and extraordinary. Two days after the first story aired, the governor ordered the Washington State Patrol to conduct a criminal fraud investigation. She also ordered a top-to- bottom review of OMWBE. Two weeks later, the governor asked the director of OMWBE to resign. Another top manager quit and another was fired. Two of the companies KING exposed as defrauding the government were removed from the DBE program by the state. State and federal legislation is now being drafted to stop the cheating. And now the FBI and the Inspector General of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation are investigating.
Tags: fraud; government; tax; taxpayer; fund
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King High Charter Controversy
The King Charter stories reveal that two public officials- Dwight Evans, a state legislator, and Robert Archie, chair of the city's school governance board- collaborated on a secret campaign to steer a lucrative charter school contract to a politically connected private contractor.
Tags: Charter Schools
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Fishing For Business
A look at Illinois' program to give state contract money to business owned by minorities, women and people with disabilities. The state claims to have one of the best records in the nation when it comes to doing business with diverse companies, but our investigation shows that large departments are failing to meet goals year after year and evidence shows that the state may be influencing how well it is doing by circumventing the system.
Tags: state; contract; money; public; funds; minority; businesses;
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Watchdog website and its web pages
The Oklahoman/NewsOK.com started this project in 2008 with the Right to Know page, a collection of databases developed internally to go along with stories and links to relevant public information. That site became part of the Watchdog page in 2009. In 2010, the staff continued to evolve the Watchdog page with "mini-sites" of investigative topics, such as a political corruption case at the Oklahoma Legislature; the staff's FOI fight over the birth dates of public employees; and allegations of bid-rigging with a married lawmaker and lobbyist for a private company seeking a state juvenile justice contract. Other "mini-sites" under Watchdog include ongoing coverage of the state Department of Human Services and the federal stimulus package.
Tags: continuous coverage; online; watchdog; bid-rigging; Department of Human Services; federal stimulus; FOI; Right to Know
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Contract Sunshine
This story reveals that state agencies in Wisconsin were not following a four-year-old transparency law requiring them to post contract data online for public review, and that Wisconsin ranked among the worst in the nation at providing such information. Agency directors blamed each other, a lack of enforcement power, technical glitches and a shortage of money.
Tags: Wisconsin; Contract Sunshine; transparency; law; public records; state; online; data;
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ArmorGroup Conflict of Interest
The Inspector General and his brother have a relationship where one helps the other and vice versa. The Inspector General was supposed to police the security contract at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, but was protecting is brother an executive at ArmorGroup. ArmorGroup is the company accused of wrongdoing and has continuously gotten away with it.
Tags: Howard Krongard; Board of Directors; corruption; Kubal; State Department; watchdog; war contractor; complaint; scandal
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Space Florida
A new agency, Space Florida, was created in the state of Florida to find innovative ways to help those who were losing their jobs and create alternative business. But an investigation into the agency revealed that it was creating more controversy than helping. Some of these include things like spending huge amounts of money without return, stealing ideas, not creating jobs because they didn’t track it, and awarding contracts to those later convicted of crimes.
Tags: Steve Kohler; NASA; space shuttle fleet; astronauts; space-tourism; industry; aerospace; state crisis; rockets
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Benefits Denied
This series reveals the “shameful failing of both the state and federal government in living up to its promises to both Indiana’s most vulnerable and it’s most brave”. The story began when a “1.3 billion dollar state welfare contract” was cancelled and “new federal directives were sent to every V.A. office nationwide”. Further, when people were sick and turning to the V.A. for help, their requests were denied.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs; medical care; Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA); support; military; soldiers; agencies