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 "Lam" ...
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Broken Shield
Decades ago, California created a special police force to patrol exclusively at its five state developmental centers – taxpayer-funded institutions where patients with severe autism and cerebral palsy have been beaten, tortured and raped by staff members. But California Watch found that this state force, the Office of Protective Services, does an abysmal job bringing perpetrators to justice. Reporter Ryan Gabrielson, a Pulitzer Prize winner, exposed the depths of the abuse inside these developmental centers while showing how sworn officers and detectives wait too long to start investigations, fail to collect evidence and ignore key witnesses – leading to an alarming inability to solve crimes inflicted upon some of society’s most vulnerable citizens. Dozens of women were sexually assaulted inside state centers, but police investigators didn’t order “rape kits” to collect evidence, a standard law enforcement tool. Police waited so long to investigate one sexual assault that the staff janitor accused of rape fled the country, leaving behind a pregnant patient incapable of caring for a child. The police force’s inaction also allowed abusive caregivers to continue molesting patients – even after the department had evidence that could have stopped future assaults. Many of the victims chronicled by California Watch are so disabled they cannot utter a word. Gabrielson gave them a resounding voice. Our Broken Shield series prompted far-reaching change, including a criminal investigation, staff retraining and new laws – all intended to bring greater safeguards and accountability.
Tags: California; police; autism; cerebral palsy; abuse; children
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Questionable Advisors, ethical gaps dog Detroit's public pensions
The investigation “focused on the advisers to Detroit’s public pension plans and their investments.” The findings revealed: advisers failed to display the problems with the businessmen who pitched investments, trustees didn’t follow their rules and had zero travel policies, and the fund invested a large amount of money in real estate.
Tags: Advisers; Public pension; Investments; Economy; General Retirement System; Trustees; Stock Market; Ethics
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Nuclear Underground
The four part series investigated the thriving trade in dual-use technology, those products that can be used for civilian purposes as well as in nuclear applications. The research goes into the booming black market in nuclear materials out of post-apartheid South Africa.
Tags: black market; nuclear materials; rogue nations; dual use technology; nuclear applications
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Damaged Lives: Lead's Toxic Toll; Children poisoned as lead cleanups fail; Data pinpoint poisoned blocks
A Detroit Free Press series on children and lead poisoning. It looks at how lead cleanups are failing and the effects of lead poisoning on children. "A Free Press investigation has found that the toll is needlessly high--the result of a national lead strategy that is disjointed, bureaucratically tangled and not nearly expansive enough to solve a problem that has led to the poisoning of 2. 5 million Americans in the last decade." It also reports that "currently, an estimated 300,000 U.S. children--including 22,000 in Michigan--face lives of reduced intelligence and diminished futures because of lead." A follow up of the original series found that government funding is not targeting areas where kids most in need live.
Tags: lead poisoning; children; public health; lead; poor children; lead hazards; national lead strategy; lead cleanup; lead paint
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Tracking the E-Waste Trail
Radio Television Hong Kong reports that western companies are dumping computer wastes on China and other less developed countries, despite their governments' crackdowns. The broadcast profiles the computer recycling industry of Guiyu, a small village in the Guangdong Province of China, where "workers burn computers' original components to extract valuable metals from them. The useless parts are then casually discarded, releasing toxic materials, polluting the surrounding environment. "
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; environment; Silicon Valley; toxic waste; environmental protection; high-tech; smuggling; international law; international trade
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Hiding in Plain View
The Detroit News series looks at "how the failures of Wayne County law enforcement agencies allowed more than 26,000 fugitives to roam the streets of Detroit with little fear of apprehension. It also showed that many of these fugitives continued lives of crime while on the lam."
Tags: crime; fugitives; Wayne County; Michigan; Detroit; police
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A Story of Refugee Success Ended Tragically in Riots
The Times profiles the life and murder of Malaysian refugee Thanh Lam, who was killed in 1992 during the Los Angeles Riots.
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Escapee Left Free Until 2 Die
Connecticut Dept. of Corrections yields hundreds of "escapes" from the halfway houses where many prisoners are transferred to near the end of their prison sentences. Escaping is little more than walking away; There are more escapees from halfway houses or on home release than legitmate participants in the program. Story uncovered after Adrian Peeler, 9 months on the lam, murders two.
Tags: prisons; halfway houses; correctional dept.; law enforcement; escapes; CAR
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A Story of Refugee Success Ended Tragically in Riots
The Los Angeles Times reports that "Thanh Lam was slain at a stoplight. As his family grieves, many are trying to find his killers...Lam lived through war, survived a perilous sea journey to freedom and endured a year's stay in a Malaysian refugee camp before coming to America. And then, (in June), the 25-year-old man was shot dead, sitting in his pickup truck waiting for a traffic light to change at a corner in Compton..."
Tags: Minority; LA riots; Rodney King
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Evil
Texas Monthly reports how "A minister and his wife brutally murdered. A serial killer on the lam. A small town that has never before known fear. It's like a Texas version of In Cold Blood - and as the people of Weimar know too well, the final chapter hasn't been written." This is the story of how serial killer Rafael Resendez-Ramierez allegedly bludgeoned to death Skip Sirnic and his wife Karen, a church minister in Weimar, Texas, and his wife, and the effect the crime has had on the community.
Tags: Crime; serial killer; Resendez-Ramierez