The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories 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. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "1980s" ...
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Decades of Dishonor
When the Boy Scout "perversion files" were released in October, we began reporting on a local sex offender accused of abuse in the 1980s. But it was just the tip of the iceberg, as we learned the man was a former teacher who had been dogged by abuse allegations for decades.
Tags: Boy Scout; sex offender; sexual abuse; teacher
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Finding Fernanda
The book sheds a light on the extremely politicized landscape of Guatemala's adoption industry, a multi-million dollar trade that was highly profitable and barely regulated. In this corrupt system, children have been stolen, sold, and placed as orphans in well-intentioned Western families since international adoption began there in the 1980s. Yet the governments of Guatemala and the US proved to be unwilling to regulate the illegal baby trade.
Tags: adoption; Guatemala; baby trade
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"Tainted Water"
For more than 20 years, the harmful chemical perchlorate has seeped into San Bernardino County's groundwater. The seep is thought to have started at a local dump site; however, records about the site were lost in the late 1980s by "two state regulatory agencies." The problem wasn't reported again until 1997, but warnings were "dismissed" by the county. The site was "rediscovered" in 2001, but it wasn't until 2009 that the county got serious about stopping the chemical seep. It is estimated that the cleanup operation will be completed by 2013.
Tags: Perchlorate; Broco facility; Department of Toxic Substances Control; Butch Ariza; Water Board; Barry Groveman
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The Truth About Donor 1084
Using the story of mothers who used "Donor 1084" from a cryobank in Virginia, SELF magazine examines the problems that occur when a sperm donor is not completely honest about his medical condition, and passes on poor health to his children. Four mothers who had children using Donor 1084 not only found that his information was false, but that their children were suffering from diseases such as eczema. They contacted the sperm back, Fairfax Cryobank in Fairfax, Virginia, to report problems, but the cryobank did not take Donor 1084 off the market. There is also the story of a young law clerk who made 320 donations to California cryobank in the late 1980s, leading into the tragedy of one of his recipients. Brittany Johnson is a 17-year-old who "inherited a life-threatening kidney disease from Donor 276."
Tags: cryobank; sperm bak; Fairfax Cryobank; California Cryobank; eczema; kidney disease; falsification of health records
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De Kooning's Hidden Legacy
Willem de Kooning was an artist who succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease in the late 1980s. Yet, he continued to paint until 1990, and his daughter and only child Lisa de Kooning and John Eastman, his longtime lawyer's son, were appointed conservators of de Kooning's works and estate. They faced a challenge in trying to get fans to accept his later paintings not as the work of a man afflicted with Alzheimer's, but as worthy additions to his large catalog. Eastman and de Kooning liquidated Willem de Kooning's art holdings and attempted to create a market for his work, with the paintings "being placed in prestigious public and private collections."
Tags: Art; Alzheimer's Disease; Willem de Kooning; paintings
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Return of the Godfathers
The Mafia is the topic as Leo Sisti tells the story of the relationship between the Sicilian and U.S. branches of Cosa Nostra. Following a war won by the "Corleonesi" side, the business relationship between the two had come to a halt. Two Inzerillos brothers (Francisco and Rosario), lost a power struggle and were forced to leave their native Sicily in the early 1980s, "exiled" to the U.S. Almost 20 years later, they returned to Sicily to avenge their murdered family members, attempt to regain power and try to resume the old business relationship with the American mob.
Tags: Mafia; Cosa Nostra; Corleonesi; Sicily; Palermo; Inzernillos
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The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences
Layoffs have become a fact of American life. When faced with financial issues, companies simply cut workforce, to the tune of at least 30 million adult, full-time workers having been laid off since the early 1980s. But what is the psychological effect, not only of periods of unemployment, but also of the layoff itself? Author Louis Uchitelle examines the damage to self esteem and mental health such situations cause to their victims.
Tags: Layoffs; corporate downsizing; mental health, unemployment; low self-esteem
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Jim West: A Spokesman-Review Investigative Report
From his days as a Boy Scout leader to sheriff's deputy in the 1970s, through his career in the Washington legislature in the 1980s and 1990s, until becoming mayor of Spokane in January 2004, Jim West abused his positions of trust. The investigation showed that West had sexually molested boys as a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scouts leader, that as a secretly gay Republican state legislator he pushed anti-gay legislation and that as mayor of Spokane he offered City Hall jobs and appointments to teenagers and young men he met on a gay web site.
Tags: FOIA; sexual molestation; sexual abuse; Spokane; City Hall; Jim West; Boy Scouts of America; Washington State Legislature; homosexual; Spokane County Sheriff's Department
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Marc Schaffel Profile
Court TV did an exploration of the biography and character of Michael Jackson's unindicted co-conspirator, Marc Schaffel. Schaffel has been a producer of gay porn films since the 1980s. He was known for recruiting young men who looked younger than they were. And he stage-managed the filming of the Jackson "rebuttal tape," telling Debbie Rowe what to say and how to say it.
Tags: Michael Jackson; gay pornography film industry; Marc Schaffel
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Report Lists State's Toxic - Waste Figures
According to the Toxic - Release Inventory, Ohio is the fifth most polluted state in America. Toxic pollution levels actually went up in some counties from 1989 to 1990. In some cases, residents say the pollution is so bad they sometimes don't leave their houses. Other residents blame the pollution for the higher rate of respiratory problems and illness in their children. But in Marysville, where the pollution is at its worst, people don't often complain about it. The reporters speculate that this is because the pollution is caused by Honda of America, which brought thousands of jobs to central Ohio in the early 1980s.
Tags: industrial pollution; chemicals; Toxic Release Inventory; Clean Air Act; EPA. BP Chemicals America