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 "technology program" ...
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A $191 Million Question
Waste, fraud and criminal activity plague the procurement budget, an expenditure that ballooned to $600 billion in 2007. The Post investigates the sources of the escalating costs and finds government and corporate ties to be appallingly mangled.
Tags: procurement; military; corporate; Washington; army; contracts; O'Harrow; contractor; technology program; manager; billion;
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NASA
These stories take a hard look at NASA's plans to return humans to the moon and focus on the agency's decision to retire the space shuttle and build a revolutionary new rocket to replace it. The reporting documents actions by American's space agency that threaten to leave thousands of Floridians without jobs and America's space program bankrupt and grounded for years. It also exposes a NASA culture of decision making that is little changed from the one blamed for the deaths of the seven Columbia astronauts.
Tags: NASA; astronaut programs; funding; technology; debt; space missions; NASA engineers
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The Broken Work Visa System
The American work visa system was found by BusinessWeek to be hurting American workers and undermining the strength of the American economy. The investigation contributed to a Congressional probe in the visa program, led by Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley, who are determined to pass legislation to overhaul the program and eliminate its widespread misuse.
Tags: H-1B; skilled worker; specialization; Rochester Institute of Technology; temporary visa; immigration; outsourcing;
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No Place to Hide
American Radio Works producer Biewen and Washington Post reporter O'Harrow Jr. investigate in this one-hour program and the extent to which private companies are working with the U.S. government to create a growing and largely secret domestic intelligence system in the post-9/11 era. They particularly look at how the government utilized information technology to help it achieve its surveillance goals.
Tags: domestic spying; intelligence; Department of Defense; Department of Homeland Security; CAPPS II; Total Information Awareness; oversight; surveillance; U.S. government
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Spyware Cures May Cause More Harm Than Good
The CNET News.com investigation found that spyware programs sometimes cause the same problems they say they are erasing. Spyware or adware can weave itself into computers, cause problems and be extremely difficult to remove.
Tags: On-line; spyware; computer; software; web; spam; advertising; The Center for Democracy & Technology; Federal Trade Commission; privacy; adware; SpyBan; Trojan horse; NicTech; PC; internet
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Computer Games
This investigation found that government subsidized technology programs for schools were being poorly implemented in Houston. The reporters found "evidence of falsified documents, overcharging and unused equipment." In some cases, people with no understanding of technology were approving major installations; sometimes those people were taken advantage of and overcharged.
Tags: E-Rate; FCC; Houston Independent School District; education; grants; computer cabling
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Wired for waste: A $73 million shopping spree
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution looks at the amount of funds wasted in expensive technology among Atlanta Public Schools. The school system purchased pricey equipment and installed a high-priced unnecessary network for the Internet. The district purchased everything in response to a national program called, E-rate, a program that helps schools initiate an Internet infrastruce, but does not purchase the actual computers. Reporters discovered that the school district spent a lot of money on equipment they didn't need or couldn't use. Because the schools did not take bids, they were often overcharged and chose the most expensive Internet and network components.
Tags: E-rate Program
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Search and Deploy
The New Yorker offers this profile on the growing technology involved in internet searches. Special attention is given to Google.com.
Tags: Google; web; computers; programming; programs
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Bose and Arrows. MIT seeds inventions but wants a nice cut of profits they yield. It is jousting with a son of audio-making family over the use of a patent. Income source for university.
This article talks about how students at MIT often create inventions as part of their PhD program. As a result, MIT then owns the patent/rights to their invention, but now some students are upset they've lost ownership of their work.
Tags: MIT; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; students; education; patents; inventions; copyright; ownership; college; universities
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Broken System/Broken Rules
A Newport News Daily Press investigation revealed that the way the Pentagon buys, builds and refurbishes aircraft carriers invites mismanagement and waste. The newspaper found that "the Navy bypasses federal law, Pentagon policies and the service's own procedures when it buys its carriers or pays for programs to improve the ships. Navy program managers also bypass the Defense Department regulations for developing and testing technology, taking shortcuts to push through vital ship components like computer networks and combat systems. The immediate result -- hundreds of millions of dollars wasted. Long term, the costs will add up to billions of dollars."
Tags: Pentagon; aircraft carriers; mismanagement; waste; U.S. Navy; Air Force; Defense Department; contractors