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 "CHIP" ...
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Unfair Game
Texas high school athletics rules prohibit students from transferring from district to district for athletic purposes, but that hasn’t stopped coaches and administrators from openly flouting the rules to assemble state championship-caliber teams as part of an underground recruiting system that puts athletics over academics. WFAA investigative reporter Brett Shipp's reports showed how improper recruiting helped Dallas' Kimball Knights build back-to-back state champ basketball teams, and how former Dallas Cowboy Deion Sanders' new school, Prime Prep Academy, also drew in blue-chip players against the rules.
Tags: High school athletics; sports; coach; recruiting system; state champion team
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Young Kids, Hard Time
A documentary on the lives of convicted juveniles - some as young as 12 - serving decades in the adult correctional system.
Tags: juvenile; crime; adult; correctional; system; sentencing; prison
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Hospital Regulations Let Formula Vie with Breast Milk
A new federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report says nearly 80 percent of U.S. hospitals give newborns formula when not medically necessary. The investigation compares how Chicago-area hospitals approach breast feeding and finds that some hospitals are not strongly encouraging it.
Tags: CDC; hospitals; breast milk; breast feeding; pregnancy
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"Who Is Testing Your DNA?"; "Could Your DNA Betray You?"; "How My Genome Was Hacked"
In this series, reporters take a look at how the DNA left behind by humans can be gathered and studied by regular, everyday people. The reporters also explain how the industry of underground DNA testing can pose a serious threat to one's privacy and health.
Tags: DNA; genetic testing; DNA chips; genome; paternity testing; infidelity
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Genetic Modified Food
In a two-part series, senior investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian examined the business of genetic engineering and the growing impact it is having on the way we grow food, and what we eat. Part one take a look at the business practices of Mondsanto, a major bio-tech seed maker, which patents its genetically modified seeds. Monsanto sells the seed to farmers but prohibits them from replanting their seeds after harvest, a practice known to farmers for 11,000 years. In the story, the team found that Monsanto has been coming after small farmers for seed piracy, suing them when Monsanto suspects farmers of planting its patented seeds "illegally" even when those farmers have never purchased or planted and Monsanto products. Part two examines the secret changes to our foods and asks, why don't we, in the U.S., label genetically modified ingredients when it is done with regular practice in Europe, Japan, Australia and our trading partners? Whether we realize it or not, we probably ate something for dinner last night that had a DNA-altered ingredient in it, but the FDA says that these ingredients do not have to be labeled and therefore no one knows when they are eating genetically modified foods.
Tags: Monsanto; genetically modified food; soybeans; farming; agriculture; seed cleaning; food
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Game of Control
While some agencies have chipped away at corruption in football, their efforts have stopped at their national borders. Criminals have observed no boundaries. Reporters for the Organize Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of investigative reporters, took a months-long look at the business of football in the southeast Europe and the former Soviet Union. They found networks of agents and power stakeholders quietly skimming transfer fees and working through tax havens and companies with shell proxies to avoid taxes. In post-transition Bulgaria some 200 killings have been linked to football. Among the dead are 15 club leaders who attained their posts through questionable means.
Tags: football; soccer; corruption; murder; athletes; organized crime; Eastern Europe
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Infant Mortality in the South
In 2005 Mississippi infant mortality has "shot up" by 18 percent. Despite the large increase, "the only substantial change that affected public health in Mississippi in 2005 was Governor Haley Barbour cutting the Medicaid roles by 19 percent when he implemented restrictive eligibility guidelines."
Tags: Medicaid; infant mortality; Mississippi; Katrina; health care
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911 Test
What's unique about the 911 emergency system in Rhode Island is that it allows operators to trace a persons location using a GPS system. As this story explains, this system can be useful only if the cell phones have a GPS chip in it, which is present only in newer models.
Tags: 911; emergency calls; GPS technology; cell phones; mobile phones; GPS mapping
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"Clean Rooms"
This investigative report looks at several medical abnormalities affecting "chip-makers" and "drive-makers" working in IBM "clean rooms." In IBM labs across the country, workers were unknowingly being exposed to carcinogens such as KTI 820, Methylene Chloride, and glycol ethers. As a result many workers later discovered that they had a range of different types of cancer- breast cancer, brain cancer, and testicular cancer. In one case of one 10-person work group, eight people were diagnosed with cancer- six died. The workers were unaware that the chemicals they were using were known to cause different types of cancer and even birth defects. One woman was specifically told that she could work in the "clean room" while pregnant. Her child was born with rare disease called Retinoblastoma, which is a rare eye cancer found in only 1 of 15,000 children. IBM refused to comment on the situation, and responded to one worker's complaint, "regrettably, cancer is one of the most common causes of death in American adults."
Tags: IBM chip-makers; birth defects; drive-makers; clean rooms; KTI 820; carcinogens; Methylene Chloride; glycol ethers
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Telling Tales Out of School
"Educators are duping parents, lying to them, and experimenting on their children. That's what legislators nationwide are hearing as they ponder laws that would codify parent rights. The question is: What do these tales, so full of sound and fury, really signify?" Education Week then examines recent political movements and law suits, and attempts to answer that question.
Tags: education; lawsuit; legislation; parents; civil court; representative; rights; politics; sex education; condoms; birth control; supreme court; constitution; federalism; Chip Angell; counselor; parental rights and responsibilities act