The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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Despite donations, charities spend little on vets
Matthew Kauffman of The Hartford Courant conducted a computer-assisted analysis of federal financial records for nearly 300 veterans’ charities across the country to show that veterans’ charities, whose donations have increased since the start of the Iraqi War, lag well behind other charities when it comes to the percentage of money that goes directly to…
Read MoreConvicts on St. Louis official’s payroll
Jake Wagman, with contributions from Steve Bolhafner, Mark Learman and Matthew Fernandes, of St. Louis Post-Dispatch examined St. Louis City Treasurer Larry Williams’ hiring practices to show that his payroll includes employees with criminal records, political connections and, sometimes, both. " Of about 200 employees in the treasurer’s office, at least five have been convicted…
Read MoreLack of standards plagues drug industry testing
David Evans, Michael Smith and Liz Willen of Bloomberg Markets report on the lack of strong regulation and standards that is plaguing the pharmaceutical industry in the testing of experimental substances on humans, resulting in the death and injury of scores of people. The world’s largest drugmakers spend $14 billion each year to test experimental…
Read MoreStudents investigate 23-year-old murder case
Students from the Missouri School of Journalism led by Steve Weinberg, a former director of IRE, spent months researching DNA testing, digging up court testimony and interviewing witnesses to report on a St. Louis case which had been controversially re-opened in 2003. The report is a detailed account of the 1982 murder of JoAnn Clenney…
Read MoreMajor cleanup planned in New Orleans
Randy Lee Loftis of The Dallas Morning News reviewed government test results to show that the Army Corps of Engineers is planning one of the biggest environmental clean ups ever attempted in New Orleans. According to the report, part of an extensive look at the rebuilding of New Orleans, the clean up would involve scraping…
Read MoreDecades of dumping of weapons pose threat
John M.R. Bull of the Daily Press examined Army records to show that the previously classified weapons-dumping program was far more extensive than ever suspected and that chemical weapons that the Army dumped at sea decades ago are ending up on shore in the United States. The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64…
Read MoreCampaign contributions may bolster charges against Delay
Jonathan Salant of Bloomberg Markets analyzed Federal Election Commission records to find the Republican Party’s $190,000 in donations to seven Texas politicians in 2002 is five times more than any of the other contributions the national party made to state legislative races that year. “The charges may bolster a prosecutor’s accusations that Tom DeLay, who…
Read MorePrice of gold too high for the environment
Lowell Bergman, Jane Perlez, Kirk Johnson with other contributing reporters of the FRONTLINE/World and The New York Times examined the growing conflict between the local people and the Yanacocha Mine in Peru along with tours of gold mines in the American West, Latin America, Africa and Europe to provide a rare look inside an insular…
Read MoreChild abuse fatalities went unreported
Tim Evans of The Indianapolis Star used state records to find that "the deaths of 10 Indiana children from abuse or neglect were not reported in the state’s 2004 child fatality report. If included, they would have brought the number to 66, making it the deadliest year on record". The paper compared the state records…
Read MoreCamera system ineffective in reducing accidents
Matthew Benson of the Fort Collins Coloradoan analyzed a decade of accident data to show the ineffectiveness of the camera system at reducing red-light running and preventing collisions. The number of accidents and accident rates, at a certain intersection in Fort Collins, Colo., have steadily increased in the years since the city installed a system…
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