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 "Amazon" ...
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Inside Amazon's Warehouse
The article investigates the working conditions of Amazon warehouses, in which workers are forced to endure inhumane treatment while facing the risk of getting fired if complaining. It exposes how a company like Amazon can wield their significant leverage over workers in bleak job market.
Tags: amazon; warehouse; pennsylvania; work; conditions;
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"Amazon Crude"
More than 15 years ago, Ecuadorean residents sued Texaco for contaminating the Amazon Rain Forest with crude oil. The "oil waste pits" built by Texaco, now owned by Chevron, continue to leak toxins into the "region's waterways." According to an agreement between the company and the Ecuadorean government, Chevron is to cleanup 40 percent of the mess; however, the company "admitted" there is no record of all the contaminated sites.
Tags: Ecuador; Chevron; Texaco; Amazon; oil spill; toxic waste; rainforest; environmental; Petroecuador
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Plundering the Amazon
In "Plundering the Amazon," the reporters expose illegal land destruction of the Brazilian rain forest by well-known companies such as Alcoa and Cargill. These companies are destroying land without federal permits and in "violation of Brazilian law."
Tags: Alcoa; Cargill; rain forest; rainforest; Brazil; Brazilian; JBS SA; global warming; environmental; jungle
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Biggest Nonprofit Fraud of our Time
Sandy Frost uncovers a network of prostitution, human trafficking and child sex tourism in the secret Masonic subgroup, the Royal Order of Jesters (ROJ). Frost found that Jester groups paid for prostitution rooms and the society was linked to Richard Schair, a former fishing tour operator who brought North American into the Amazon for sex with minor, Indigenous girls.
Tags: Richard Schair; Royal Order of Jesters; Jesters; Mason; Sandy Frost; prostitution; child abuse; human trafficking; sex;
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Slaves in Amazon Forced to Make Material Used in Cars
In Brazil, Peru and Bolivia hundreds of thousands of unemployed men and women are being recruited for slavery. The workers for the slave-camps make charcoal, while being forced to live without housing, electricity or plumbing, and without pay.
Tags: slave labor; Amazon; South America; labor camps; malaria; tuberculosis; Whirlpool; Nucor; Latin America; Ford; General Motors; Nissan; Toyota; car companies
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State of Denial
This story looked at the conflict between Californians' consumption of resources and their environmental protection tendencies. The reporters tracked down some of the top exporters of California-bound products-oil, lumber, fish-and followed those products to their sources. They found there was environmental destruction on a scale that would never be allowed in the state of California. In two of the three cases, native indigenous people were those being harmed the most.
Tags: California Building Industry; environmental destruction; oil; lumber; fish; environmental protection; SUV; conservation; preservation; waste; gasoline; wood; paper; forest; Amazon rain forest; Ecuador; rainwater; oil companies; pollution; pipeline; environmental law; Canadian Boreal Trust; Canada's boreal forest; Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources; trees; California's Integrated Waste Management Board; newspaper recycling; California Air Resources board; Canada's rockfish; trawling net; Trout Unlimited; trawl quota
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The Jungle
The story finds that with "all the dazzling new-economy rhetoric notwithstanding, it turns out workers sometimes still need protection." The author supports the notion by focusing on recent Amazon layoffs in Seattle, and questions the perception of the company as "a worker's paradise." The investigation sheds light on Amazon's anti-union campaign. One of the main conclusions is that "Amazon's workers could have used a lot of the same protections as old economy workers, because ... they were a lot like old-economy workers." The analyses finds that "many new-economy jobs still revolve around basic service and support work."
Tags: Internet; dot-coms; information age; workforce; jobs; labor laws; Amazon
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Beneath Native Land: Occidental Petroleum in South America
Much of the oil sought by Occidental Petroleum is under Indian land. In the Peruvian Amazon, OXY "polluted principal water sources used by several groups of Indians in the Peruvian Amazon. It did so for close to 30 years, at a time when the region lacked the protection of environmental laws. People in the region say they're still living with this legacy. The second half of the story takes place in Ecuador [where] ... the company uses more modern technology and is notably cleaner. But as the indigenous movement has strengthened and sometimes hampered oil drilling, Occidental has used coercive methods to gain approval for exploration."
Tags: CASSETTE; TRANSCRIPT; DISK; oil; pollution; natives; third world development; Colombia; water tests; flora; fauna; U'Wa tribe. Quiche Indians; Secoya; petroleum; Rio Tigre
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Same Place Different World
Fast Company profiles the town of Campbellsville Kentucky which was the home of a Fruit of the Loom factory until 1997. Now, Amazon.com has moved into the town and brought with it a number of changes.
Tags: industry; Amazon.com; Fruit of the Loom; Campbellsville
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Texaco on Trial
Thirty years ago, Texaco began pumping oil out of the Ecuadorean Amazon. In the time since, the region has been plagued by pollution and disease attributable to Texaco's unsafe practices. Now, a class-action lawsuit is being decided in the United States that will determine whether Texaco is liable for its actions.
Tags: Human rights; environment; pollution