The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets 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. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "federal loans" ...
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Investigating Higher Education
Use this tipsheet from award winning reporter, Perez, when you need to cover the higher education beat. She gives great resources for where to look and story ideas for the data you receive.
Tags: higher education; property records; IRS; grants; student federal loans
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Tracking the Economy and Business
Brooks provides suggested resources for tracking: state and local economic data; municipal finance; pensions and 401(k) plans; companies; and the financial crisis.
Tags: Moody's Analytics; federal reserve; securities; loans; U.S. Department of labor;
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Following the Money
Cochran's powerpoint explores the use of data to cover the financial crisis. He provides an overview of banks, and a link to the BankTracker project, by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, that tracks the quarterly reports each bank submits to the FDIC. He also provides information on how to obtain data from the FDIC, and tips on tracking a bank with some details on the types of data available in this data.
Tags: financial crisis; banking; FDIC; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; assets; loans; securities; real estate; loan losses; interest income; non-interest income
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What you need to know to cover an economy in crisis
Brooks discusses the important issues of the current economic crisis, and provides links to helpful material to assist in covering the current state of the economy.
Tags: subprime; mortgage; economics; economy; federal reserve; banking; savings and loans; S&L; pension; bankruptcy
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Investigating Subprime Lending and Foreclosures: HMDA Data
Thompson describes how to use the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) database in order to investigate subprime lending in your community. She explains what fields in the database will reveal subprime lending, and how to use an "update function" to count the subprime loans and apply a demographic element. The tipsheet ends with a list of helpful sources, such as the Consumer Federation of America and the State Licensing Board.
Tags: foreclosure; subprime lending; data analysis; Microsoft Access; queries
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Data Before and After a Disaster
Heath lists and describes different federal programs that provide financial assistance after a natural disaster. He discusses where to get records of each program's spending, and how to best incorporate that information into a CAR story. Heath also describes the programs used by federal agencies to run simulations and assess potential damage; most of those programs are available for free and could be useful for reporters covering a recent disaster.
Tags: natural disaster; FEMA; forest service; demographics; geophysical data; SBA loans; flood insurance; housing assistance
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Following the Money: Federal Spending
Moulton explains the process of examining federal spending, beginning with the Federal Procurement Data System and continuing to federal assistance such as loans, grants, direct payments, insurance, etc. The tipsheet also includes questions that should be asked when examining federal money, including queries regarding amounts being spent and what the money is being spent on. The tipsheet also features pages from the Web site fedspending.org.
Tags: federal spending; loans; grants; direct payments; insurance; fedspending.org
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The Day After: Resources for Covering the Aftermath of Natural Disasters
This tipsheet is comprised of slides from Nixon's power point presentation on covering natural disasters. The slides cover information about SBA disaster loans, federal contracts and other data. Nixon included examples of recent stories that used each type of data.
Tags: environment; federal government; state government; response time; federal loans; disaster assistance loans; purchases cards
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Foreclosing on the American Dream
This tipsheet discusses various ways to identify foreclosures, including court and county records, as well as many factors that can affect foreclosures, such as high rate lenders. Mellnik also discusses how to use mapping to visualize foreclosures for the reports.
Tags: real estate; housing; loans; property records; property taxes; Federal Housing Administration
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Following the Money after a Disaster
Buettner walks us through how story about the federal money given to New York after 9/11. He discusses the agencies he investigated and the sorts of data he analyzed to find out where the money was going. The data he discusses includes contract data, grant data, SBA Disaster Loans, and FEMA grants. Buettner discusses how he found and used each type of data. At the end of the tipsheet, he shares the results of his investigation.
Tags: September 11; federal government; state government; relief efforts; emergency services; public health; public safety; housing and urban development; HUD