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 "income" ...
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Ivory tower inspections: Holding higher education's complex bureaucracies accountable
Gabrielson discusses the challenges of deciphering the world if higher education. He suggests ways of demystifying the institutions if you're covering higher education; who to know to get the information/data you need; reading internal control audits to better understand university finances; and map the university's income sources.
Tags: education; higher education; college; university; administration; students; academic fraud; audit; tuition
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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's next in housing? CAR for real estate
Grotto explores the potential for CAR stories in the midst of the current housing crisis. Suggests looking at the redevelopment of public and low income housing. He talks about the new strategy of mixed-income developments in Chicago. Grotto details where to go for housing data. Grotto lists key documents when doing housing stories: master ground lease; restrictive covenants; leasehold mortgages; quick claim deeds; regulatory and operating agreements.
Tags: public housing; low-income housting tax credit; LIHTC; HOME block grants; recorder of deeds;
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Following the Money: From Grade School through College
This tipsheet discusses how to track education funding from grade school through higher education. The data sources used for example are the Illinois State Board of Education and Property Tax Revenue from the Illinois Department of Revenue. Lowenstein advises on where to look for education funding: local property taxes; commercial and industrial property taxes; local and federal governments; test scores by region; other supplemental income for schools
Tags: education; taxes; property taxes; department of revenue; education funding; testing; test scores
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Special Texas Records Areas: Children, low-income individuals, driver's histories, commerical vehicles
Langford offers advice for finding special sorts of records in Texas. The records include: Child Protective Services records, driving histories, public assistance records and commercial vehicle registrations. Langford describes where to find each type of data, and how it's useful.
Tags: data; story ideas; state government; local government; Texas
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Census - Not Just for Counting Heads
This tipsheet discusses various information available in the census data. It covers the American Housing Survey, the Economic Census, the Census of Government, among others.
Tags: census; population; demographic; CAR; income; statistics
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A Teaching Tool: Covering nonprofits through back doors
"Nonprofits are a great unexplored area of coverage at most media operations. They also are a great resource for teaching student reporters the basics of using financial records and governmental documents to pierce the veil of secrecy that private groups work behind. Unlike private businesses, nonprofits do have to file a public income tax return and this can be a great starting point in the teaching process."
Tags: nonprofits; investigative reporting; educator; teaching; form 990s; covering nonprofits
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Writing about economic development in low-income areas
Nancy Stancill from The Charlotte Observer gives tips on reporting on the economic problems of people in the lower income groups.
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The Income Ladder
David Cay Johnston provides an excerpt from his book, "Perfectly Legal." The excerpt is a ladder chart that gives details about the average income of American taxpayers.
Tags: Income; Taxpayers; American household
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Using Census data to go beyond Census stories
You don't have to do Census stories to use Census data. Paul Overberg offers six story ideas that use Census data to answer complex questions but are not strictly Census stories. The tipsheet includes links to the data, examples of other work done in the areas in question, and hints on how to look it at all.
Tags: segregation; diversity; income inequality; income disparity; employment discrimination; health care planning; school districts; data; city-suburb profiles