Researching: Where can I get the right info?
Some general sites:
- For general info, Google: http://www.google.com or Dogpile: http://www.dogpile.com
- Google Finance: For publicly traded companies, a finance portal containing company profiles, historical stock quotes, institutional ownership, financial data. http://www.finance.google.com
- Wikipedia: Living Internet Encyclopedia, http://www.wikipedia.com
- Executive Paywatch: From the AFL-CIO to investigate the compensation packages of America's top executives, http://www.aflcio.org/paywatch
- Newspapers: Links to local and national newspapers around the country, www.newspapers.com
- Guidestar: Financial profiles of nonprofit and charity organizations including access to IRS 990 Forms; a description of the organization, the IRS employer identification number (EIN), financial information and the board, http://guidestar.org
- Lexis-Nexis: The gold standard of corporate research, a searchable archive of content from newspapers, magazines, legal documents and other printed sources. This is a pay service which runs approximately $450.00 per month, http://www.nexis.com
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: All the information you want on labor statistics, http://www.bls.gov
- Free ERISA: Find out if a company has a pension plan, http://www.freeerisa.com
- Federal Debarred Website: Find out what companies are barred from doing federal work, http://www.epls.gov
- National Association of Counties: County info from across the US, http://naco.org
- Farm Subsidy Database: Look up who is getting Farm Subsidies, http://ewg.org/farm
- NNDB Profiles: "NNDB is an intelligence aggregator that tracks the activities of people we have determined to be noteworthy, both living and dead, http://www.nndb.com
- FBI State Sex Offender Registry Websites: state by state list of sexual predators and where they live, http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/states.htm
- FBI Inmate Locator: Federal Inmate Locator, http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp
- National Personnel Records Center: The first place to start for military records, http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/index.html
- National Center For Health Statistics: This is the first place I would start when searching for birth, death, marriage, or divorce information, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/index.htm
- Legacy.com: Search obituaries and Guest Books from Legacy.com-affiliated newspapers as well as records from the Social Security Death Index, http://www.legacy.com/NS/
- Social Security Death Index: Type in as much info as you know for better results, http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
- Online Searchable Death Indexes: This is a state by state website for online searchable death indexes, http://www.deathindexes.com/
- Free Public Records Directory: Very large public records directory. Can also view by State, https://www.virtualgumshoe.com/resources/
- Demographics Database By Zip Code: Find out the demographics of an area by zip code search, http://www.zipskinny.com
- BRB's Free Resource Center: Locate resources for civil records, criminal records, driving records, real estate records, licensing boards, public record vendors, record retrievers, legislation and much more, http://www.brbpub.com/freeresources/pubrecsites.aspx
Research website compilations:
Some general sites: regulatory
- National Association of Secretaries of State: Check a company’s business registration on the web page. http://www.nass.org/busreg/busreg.html
- Securities and Exchange Commission: Search EDGAR documents (e.g., 10-Ks, proxy statements) and non-EDGAR documents (e.g., no action letters, rulemaking). These filings tell a lot, http://www.sec.gov/
o SEC Enforcement Division Actions: includes administrative proceedings, commission opinions, investor alerts, and releases describing civil and selected criminal proceedings, http://www.sec.gov/enforce.htm
- OSHA: Search OSHA inspection data and citations by establishment. Allows sorting by date of inspection, firm name, or state. The citation records reveal whether or not the establishment is unionized, http://www.osha.gov/cgi-bin/est/est1
- EPA: The Envirofacts Warehouse allows the user to search either particular databases (e.g., Superfund Data, Hazardous Waste Data, Toxic Release Inventory, Water Discharge Permits, and AIRS Facility Subsystem) or all simultaneously through the general query screen.
- EPA’s Envirofacts Warehouse, http://www.epa.gov/enviro/
o Civil Enforcement, http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/decrees/civil/index.html
o EPA Integrated Data for Enforcement Analysis (IDEA), http://es.epa.gov/oeca/idea/
o Environmental Protection Agency: Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), http://www.epa.gov/echo/compliance_report.html
- Center for Responsive Politics: Includes campaign finance databases for hard, soft and PAC contributions for Federal elections as well as links to state campaign financing databases. http://www.opensecrets.org
- National Labor Relations Board: The NLRB makes its rulings available online from 1984-to date, http://www.nlrb.gov
- Center for Immigration Studies: This conservative organization provides a fully searchable database of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service employer sanctions, http://www.cis.org/sanctions/
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Search for significant EEOC settlements monthly, http://www.eeoc.gov/litigation/settlements/index.html
- Courtlink: Online access to federal, state, and local court records. Most comprehensive online source of court docket sheets, http://www.courtlink.com/
- Government Public Info Resources: Many states have begun provide registration, incorporation and other public information available for free on the Internet. Check this index of those resources, http://www.brbpub.com/pubrecsites.asp
- Better Business Bureau: The BBB has integrated the business reports from its regional branches into one searchable Internet database, http://search.bbb.org/
- Follow the Money: This is another campaign finance database, http://www.followthemoney.org
Some construction sites:
- Contractor licensing: Check to see a state’s license requirements or find out if a contractor is licensed in that state, http://www.contractors-license.org/
- Dodge Reports: The largest provider of project news, plans, specifications, forecasts and trends in commercial construction, http://lecet.cn.construction.com
- DOL Apprenticeship programs: Provides information about apprenticeship and training programs nationwide, http://bat.doleta.gov/bat.cfm
- Davis Bacon wage determinations: Use to get Davis-Bacon Act wage determinations, http://www.wdol.gov
- McGraw-Hill construction: One of the biggest sources for general construction news, http://www.construction.com
- Builderonline.com: A good industry source for residential construction news, http://www.builderonline.com
- The Blue Book: Publishes regional construction directories. This is a good set of links to other construction websites, http://www.thebluebook.com/links.html
- Bid Clerk: is a National database service similar to Dodge which picks up alot of Light Commercial, Retail, and Large Scale Residential which sometimes doesn’t make it on Dodge. This is a pay service which runs approximately $383.50 /yr subscription without jurisdictional limits. http://www.bidclerk.com
