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 "General Tires" ...
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Blowout. How the tire problem turned into a crisis for Firestone and Ford. Lack of a database masked the pattern that led to yesterday's big recall. The heat and the pressure.
According to the article, "Yesterday, ine the face of a federal investigation into 46 deaths and more than 300 incidents involving Firestone tires that allegedly shredded on the highway, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. said it would recall more than 6.5 million tires, the majority of them mounted as original equipment on Ford Motor Co. Explorers and other Ford light trucks. The Firestone brands affected are certain 15-inch Radial ATX and Radial ATX II tires produced in North America and certain Wilderness AT tires with product code P235/75R15 that were manufactured at Firestone's Decatur, Ill. plant."
Tags: Firestone; Ford; tires; blowouts; Ford Motor Company; Ford Explorers; Decatur; IL; deaths; danger; recall
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Motel Children: A community of children lives behind the tired faces of Orange County's aging residential motels. This is the story of their troubled world.
This story details and explains the stories of little children living in motels. The story includes multiple pictures and interviews with children. The story is told through the children's eyes.
Tags: children; motel; poor; needy; kids; residential motels
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Opening Lines: Tired of Costs, Delays of Railroads, Firms Lay Their Own Tracks
"Around the country, small, quasi-railroads are being built by companies tired of slipping rail service and high freight rates."
Tags: railroads; rail service; freight rates
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The trouble with trocars
A Smart Money investigation examines the risks to patients operated with trocar, "a razor-sharp instrument used in millions of laparoscopic surgeries each year, including hysteroctomies and gall bladder operations." The device is described as a metal spike the doctor forces into the abdomen into the beginning of the surgery, stabbing blindly for a few moments, before a camera can be inserted. The story reveals that many doctors are "alarmed at the numbers of serious injuries and deaths they say are linked to this device." The reporter points to statistics, showing more than 40,000 trocar-related injuries in the last ten years, and reveals an FDA admittance that many injuries go underreported. The force for change now comes from malpractice insurers tired of paying out claims, the magazine finds.
Tags: FDA; medicine; gynecology; malpractice; insurance; health; doctors; surgeons; blood vessels; arteries; Physicians Insurers Association of America; laparoscopy
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Some Korean Women Go To Great Lengths To Show a Little Leg
The Wall Street Journal looks at the controversies that result from some regularly performed extreme operations in "cosmetic-surgery-crazed" South Korea. The reporter describes how women "tired of their thick calves ... find surgical solution" kill nerves or cut muscle." The main finding is that even though some doctors claim that leg operations are safe, others admit the possibility for "too much bleeding" and "suspect results."
Tags: doctors; plastic and reconstructive surgery; orthopedic surgery; Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital; Kim Ing Gon; Kim Yong Oock
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Further Problems of Safety Found For Light Trucks, Documents on Design of Explorer Reveal a Series of Compromises
Half of all cars purchased in the U.S. are in the light truck category, which include SUVs. "Ford designed its Explorer on a shoestring budget in the late 1980's, bolting a roomy car-like passenger cabin on top of the underbody of a Ranger pickup truck. The high-riding design made the vehicle more prone to rolling over... Sport utility vehicles, which many American busy partly because they seem safer than cars in collisions between the two, roll over so often that their occupants are just as likely to die in an accident as car occupants..."
Tags: Ford; SUV; sport utility vehicle; rollover rate; tire; Firestone; auto safety; consumer image; SUV drivers; mass production; design changes and flaws; payload; rear suspension; frame rails; track width; sides and roof alterations
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The Crusader
Bruce Kaster had been saying for fifteen years that a layer of nylon pasted over the steel belts in tires would decrease the chance of the tread peeling off on the highway, but no one listened. But more accidents occurred with Firestone tires and by the fall of 2000, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration "had officially blamed Firestone tires for 148 fatalities." Now the tire litigator's theories have finally become known. 'It's just kind of rewarding to find out that everything I was saying fifteen years ago-and it's just common sense-was right." Esquire Magazine profiles the fight Kaster is putting up against tire manufacturing companies and the kind of justice he wants to be upheld.
Tags: automobiles; Firestone tires; Ford Explorer; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; highways; car accidents
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Blowout
The National Journal examines how the Ford - Bridgestone/Firestone tire safety incident was a "case study in how corporations handle a Washington crisis." When the situation began in May of 2000, Ford was able to take immediate steps at diffusing the situation because of the large crisis response team it already had in place. Ford had a well-established Washington D.C. office for its lobbyists and legal teams to work out of as well as a PR firm to handle consumer issues. Conversely, Bridgestone/Firestone was left with no response team, and managed to take the majority of the flak for the recall. Bridgestone/Firestone went through several PR agency and legal firms during the course of the recall and subsequent Congressional hearings. As a result of the tire crisis Congress passed the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act, and Bridgestone/Firestone set up its first Washington office.
Tags: Transportation; automobile safety; tires; Bridgestone/Firestone; Ford
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Roll Over Newton
A Discover investigation reveals that SUVs are less safe than passenger cars, according to road safety statistics. The story examines rollovers as a leading cause of auto=related deaths, and finds that "SUVs are three times as likely to roll over as other cars." The analysis focuses on the connection between the center of gravity and stability of cars. The report finds that "simple physics works against SUV owners."
Tags: safety; trucks; auto manufacturers; tires; Ford; NHTSA
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Asleep at the Wheel: The Government Auto Safety Breakdown
In a series of news and investigative stories the Los Angeles Times "focused on how the deceptions by auto and tire companies coupled with the ineffectiveness of the nation's auto safety regulators..." Some of the major findings included that "State Farm insurance company had notified federal regulators about problems with Firestone tires as far back as 1998, but got no response" and that "Ford Motor C. was aware of instability problems with its Explorer SUV...but twice had declined to make design changes...". Reporters found out that " tires made by Goodyear had been experiencing similar problems to the Firestones and had been linked to several fatal crashes". Some of the stories questioned the companies' practice to keep "knowledge of unsafe products out of public eye". The series raised questions about the efficiency of federal government on safety issues. It pointed out that "the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had been thwarted for over two decades from setting or updating auto safety standards because of industry pressure and lack of funding and political support from Congress."
Tags: Firestone; automobiles; highways; tires. lawsuits; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; accidents; fatalities; Ford; Goodyear; State Farm Insurance; Continental General Tire Inc.; General Motors; Suzuki; Venezuela; Saudi Arabia; FARS; NHTSA