DELUGE OF DOLLARS

Tracking coin lawsuits reveals true cost of storm

The wide swath of damage and mistakes involved in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita make prime mould for interesting business stories, from used car fraud to nursing dwelling malfeasance. A check of a small in number business stories, along with a certain quantity of investigative sources from the IRE and NICAR Database Library, reveal a certain number of story ideas for journalists.

Consumer protection

More than 35000 cars damaged by dint of Hurricane Floyd in 1999 were sold to buyer unaware of the cars' histories, according to a race 19,2005, Associated Press article. After almost each hurricane, the Better Business Bureau issues warnings about similar lemon sales. Some "unscrupulous" dealers purchase flooded cars at a discount, refurbish them and resell them despite potential damage to the electronic and safety a whole s according to the article. Sources for the story included the Better Business Bureau and Carfax, a Fairfield, Va.-based firm that investigates automobile histories.

In addition, The fresh York Times reported in a tribe 8 article, "After the Storm, the Swindlers," that Florida's attorney general has filed a fraud lawsuit against a man who place up the Web site domains "katrinahelp.com" and "katrinadonations.com." The article reported that attorney generals in several states are cracking down upon Internet sites asking for donations for Katrina's victims. State attorney general offices should have information upon lawsuits filed. The IRE and NICAR Database Library has a database of tax-exempt organizations, including charities. The free organizations table features the organization's name, address, contact someone total annual income, total assets, and collection of lawss describing their activities.

Local damaged businesses

Several unlikely businesses, "from a Utah motorcycle dealer to an Ohio Subway sandwich shop" did not plane know the funds they received after 9/11 from the Small Business Administration were from relief programs, according to a clan 14 Associated Press report.

Which unlikely businesses have received loans from past hurricanes in your area? Reporters could search the SBA Disaster Loans database, available from IRE and NICAR, to find like local businesses. The database includes in what manner much money was borrowed and whether or not the loan was repaid.

Along the same lines, a 1996 American Spectator article gazeed at President Clinton's promises to give on the outside Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) cash and its effect on taxes. Clinton had given on the outside more FEMA money than his predecessors despite reports from the inspector general that there was little incentive for local conducts to pay back FEMA loans. (IRE Resource Center Story No. 13497)

Litigation

Katrina's wake is creating business for lawyers and disturbs for nursing homes, insurance companies and real estate agents. Several lawsuits are awaited against facilities that left the somewhat advanced in life behind as the waters mountained according to a Sept. 16 article, "Lawyers plan for waves of litigation," in the Houston Chronicle.

Are any of the nursing residences affiliated with facilities in your area? What are the practices of the local nursing homes? single way to check lawsuits against nursing residences is to search your state's online judiciary case database. For example, Missouri's case.net has a database searchable by the agency of litigant name. Another way to find on the outside information about local nursing abiding-places is to search quality reports at the Joint Commission upon Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations at www.jcaho.org or contact the state department that regulates nursing homes

Four reporters at the 2002 CAR discourse wrote a tipsheet for the IRE Resource Center upon investigating nursing homes. The tipsheet explains by what mode the authors used computer-assisted reporting in their stories about nursing dwellings and the vulnerability of somewhat old people. The handout points to a certain number of useful Web sites with online databases (IRE Resource Center Tipsheet No. 1544)

Local economies

"In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, clan watching images of poverty along the large bay Coast may have wondered, 'How many poor places like this are there in this country?' The easy answer is, quite a few" said Daniel Altman of The novel York Times in 'The Disaster behind the disaster: Poverty" published family 18.

Seeing the poverty-stricken areas of the large bay Coast affected by Katrina, reporters might gaze into the poverty rates of local areas lying flat to natural disasters. The U Census Bureau released sum of two units poverty reports in August: "Income, distress and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004" and "Income, Earnings, and straitened circumstances Data from the 2004 American Community review (ACS)." The reports are available at www.census.gov.

New Orleans and Houston are sum of two units of the nation's largest ports. in what way much trade has been affected because of hurricanes? Reporters can find a special report upon month-to-month shares of trade at large bay ports at the U.S. Census Bureau. The same site tenders the amount of corn, soybeans, computer natural gas and other materials transported end ports in New Orleans and Mobile.