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 "suburbs" ...
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Sweetheart Deals and Criminal Ties in Cicero
This series of stories exposed millions of dollars in questionable spending and waste, tainted by insider deals and nepotism, in the town government of Cicero, an inconic Chicago suburb.
Tags: Cicero; nepotism; waste; spending; city government
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Coppell Mayor Murder-Suicide
After the mayor of a Dallas suburb fatally shoots her daughter and then kills herself, the Dallas Morning News delves deep into the womens' lives and emerges with a different picture.
Tags: Dallas; Coppell; Jayne Peters; Corinne Peters; city; public official
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Gangs in Garden City: How Immigration, Segregation and Youth Violence Are Changing
Journalist Sarah Garland investigates how two of the most dangerous Central American gangs have made their way into the suburbs of Long Island. Garland also tells the story of several young people whose lives have been affected by gangs or gang violence. Her five-year investigation involves conversations with police, gang members and school officials. That information reveals a different opinion than that of the Department of Homeland Security, who believes the gangs to be a problem on the level of Al Qaeda.
Tags: street gang; gang violence; youth; Mara Salvatrucha; MS-13; Hempstead; immigrant gangs; Latin American gangs; Salvadorans With Pride; SWP; Long Island
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That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles; Tales of the Dragon
A network of ranch homes in a sleepy suburb became the site of Colorado's largest indoor marijuana bust. Dan Tang, the pot-growing ring leader, got off on just one charge of money laundering.
Tags: Dan Tang; Colorado; marijuana; drug bust; growing; indoor; police; largest indoor drug bust;
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The Real Estate Meltdown
"Did Appraisers Juice the Market?" showed how appraisers overstated home values. Using disciplinary records and interviews, Shanklin and McClure found appraisers who exaggerated condo sizes, appraised homes without seeing them and stated that condos were worth the $240,000 sales price even though the price was padded with $40,000 of incentives. The "Subprime Mess" package was based on more than 2 million records and showed how unconventional loans moved from low-income, inner city neighborhoods to the burgeoning suburbs. "How Investors Helped Overheat the Market" explored the role of investors in Central Florida's real estate meltdown by analyzing hundreds of data records and found that sales of non owner-occupied homes grew from 25 percent of all local residential sales in 2002 to 70 percent in 2006.
Tags: real estate; investors; lenders; purchase prices; subprime loans; adjustable-rate loans; high-interest loans; housing scam; vacant housing; condo conversion; development; property values
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The Partners Effect
The Partners Effect is a series that "focuses on an out-of-balance healthcare finance system that rewards a few big hospitals and pays them far more for work, even when there is no evidence that the higher-priced care produces healthier patients. The stories detail how New England's biggest healthcare network, Partners HealthCare, is increasingly using its marketplace clout to export its expensive brand of medicine into the suburbs, imperiling community hospitals, and how its cozy relationship with the state's largest insurer has helped to trigger a healthcare cost crisis.
Tags: hospitals; healthcare costs; monopoly; high-priced care; finance system; higher fees
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"Prescription for Profits"
The Wall Street Journal examined whether nonprofit hospitals, which account for the majority of hospitals in the U.S., deserve the billions of dollars in annual tax exemptions they receive. The Journal's series revealed that, far from struggling financially, many nonprofit hospitals have become profit machines while shirking their charitable missions. Among the series' findings: Some pay tens of thousands of dollars upfront' others have closed facilities in poor inner cities and built new ones in affluent suburbs; and one hospital put patients' lives at risk to increase its lucrative liver-transplant business.
Tags: charitable causes; medical service; patient care; hospital taxes; nonprofit hospitals; Amish; Mennonites
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The Watchdogs
The Chicago Sun-Times runs a weekly investigative column dubbed "The Watchdogs," a chance for smaller investigative pieces to be published. 2007's entries include stories out of Chicago City Hall and the suburbs; county and state government; and the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.
Tags: stories; documents; watchdogs; column; watchdog reporting
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The Town the Law Forgot
LA Weekly chronicled "the intersection of organized crime and public corruption in the Hispanic suburbs of Los Angeles County and in revitalized downtown Los Angeles. ... The overarching conclusion is that local law enforcement's piecemeal approach to gang and drug-related crime is not sophisticated enough to make a dent."
Tags: crime; drug; urban; elected officials; attorneys; political operatives; lobbyist; corruption; police department; city