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 "Adoption" ...
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Failure to Protect
The two-day series “A Failure to Protect” examined what went wrong in the case of a Central Minnesota family that grew to 26 through a mix of biological, adopted and foster children, but eventually was torn apart by sexual abuse charges. Reporters David Unze and Kirsti Marohn uncovered how Minnesota’s child protection system allows either counties or nonprofits to license foster homes with little oversight.
Tags: Adoption; foster home; sexual abuse
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I-Team: Highway Robbery
WCPO's investigative unit exposed widespread theft of traffic fines by court clerks in a local community notorious as a speed trap -- Arlington Heights, Ohio. Bigger than the thefts by a pair of court clerks was the government cover up that persisted for at least a decade. We obtained documents showing two successive police chiefs had warned the mayor and fiscal officer of Arlington Heights that a substantial amount of cash was missing as far back as 2002. Rather than heeding those warnings, the elected leaders of Arlington Heights marginalized both police chiefs, who eventually resigned. Our ongoing investigation has directly resulted in: · Multiple felony indictments against two government employees for theft in office. · Passage and subsequent repeal of an illegal ban on television cameras in public council meetings. · The complete and permanent shut-down of the speed trap on I-75 through Arlington Heights, Ohio. · A call from the county prosecutor for the village to be dissolved and annexed into a neighboring city. · Committee passage of Ohio House Bill 523, eliminating mayors' courts in communities with fewer than 1,000 residents. · The adoption of a new public records policy for the Village of Arlington Heights, conforming with Ohio public records and open meetings laws. Chief Investigative Reporter Brendan Keefe successfully fought against a wall of resistance to obtain public documents and gain access to illegally-closed council meetings.
Tags: Theft; traffic fines; police chiefs; mayor; fiscal officer;
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Scapegoat: The Chino Hills Murders and the Framing of Kevin Cooper
Scapegoat is the true story of the horrific Chino Hills murders -- the highest profile crime in San Bernardino County history. It shows how law enforcement ignored eyewitness information implicating three white men as the perpetrators in order to pin the crime on Kevin Cooper, a recently escaped black prisoner from the nearby prison in Chino, California. It shows how his public defender lost the case before the trial even began and how the justice system has failed Cooper at almost every turn. It also shows the heroic work of an international law firm headquartered in San Francisco that adopted Cooper's case pro bono just three months before his scheduled execution in 2004 and won him a stay and how lawyers from this firm continue to appeal his wrongful conviction.
Tags: Murders; crime; law enforcement; police; prison; justice system; wrongful conviction
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Platts: Russian Gas Giant Mines U.S. Energy Data
Russia’s state-owned natural gas company says the U.S. shale-gas boom is economically unsustainable — and it’s buttressing its claim with financial data collected by an American consulting firm located less than 20 miles from the White House. Moscow-based Gazprom, the world’s largest gas company, is working with Pace Global Energy Services, a consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia, to analyze how much money U.S. gas companies are spending on hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Gazprom, citing the Virginia company’s data, says the true costs of U.S. shale-gas production are upwards of 150% higher than the revenues its practitioners have been reaping in the last few years. Gazprom says this will ultimately lead to the demise of fracking-based shale-gas drilling in the US and other countries that are considering adopting it. But Gazprom’s critics say the company and its unlikely Washington-area ally are spreading “myths and misconceptions” about the U.S.-led shale-gas gas boom so that European and Asian countries will not develop their own shale plays, and will instead continue to buy conventional Russian gas.
Tags: Oil; gas; natural resources; fraud; oil wells
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Glamour Beasts: The dark side of elephant captivity
The zoo industry claims that elephants are thriving inside U.S. zoos. But that’s not true. It never has been. The Times found that elephants are dying out inside zoos. For every elephant born, on average two others die. Just 288 elephants are left inside 78 accredited U.S. zoos. Captive elephants may be demographically extinct within 50 years – there won’t be enough females left to breed. The Times conducted a first-of-its-kind analysis of 390 elephant fatalities for the past 50 years. In a desperate race to make more baby elephants, Seattle’s Woodland Park has tried to artificially inseminate their Asian elephant, Chai, at least 112 times, sometimes adopting crude and reckless procedures. As nearly two dozen zoos have shutdown or plan to close elephant exhibits, nonprofit sanctuaries with thousands of acres represent one option for retired or unwanted elephants. But a zoo industry trade group is fighting a bitter battle to thwart sanctuaries and punish zoos that give up their elephants.
Tags: zoo; elephants; zoo industry
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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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To Adopt A Child
The story looks at the murky world of international adoption. The United States has long been one of the biggest participants in overseas adoptions. But over the last few years, as cases of fraud and corruption have surfaced around the world, the U.S. has clamped down on questionable adoptions. Since 2004, the annual number of visas the U.S. issues for international adoption has dropped by 50 percent.
Tags: adoption; international; nepal; united states; corruption; fraud
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Kansas City Adoption Scam
The CBS News investigation uncovered an adoption con artist who scammed more than 40 families out of tens of thousands of dollars and made extra efforts to emotionally scar her victims.
Tags: adoption; scam; con artist;
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Neglected to Death
Florida was among the first to regulate assisted living and to adopt a Bill of Rights for patients. The investigation found that regulators are failing to protect some residents and uncovered dozens of questionable deaths.
Tags: assisted living; negligence; patients
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Ethiopian Adoption Scans
The number of adoptions of orphans from Ethiopia to the US more than tripled from 2006 to 2009. CBS found that at least one US adoption agency in Ethiopia was involved in fraud and child trafficking while agency managers in the US were looking the other way.
Tags: adoption; Ethiopia; child trafficking;