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 "Los Angeles County" ...
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"Faces of a Health Crisis: L.A. County's Swine Flu Victims"
The Neon Tommy team takes a look at the people directly affected by the H1N1 virus in L.A. County to find out exactly who was dying from the virus and why. In a review of 44 death certificates, the team found that 22 of the deceased had no "preexisting conditions" before contracting the H1N1 virus. They also found that the majority of those who died from H1N1 were women.
Tags: H1N1; Swine Flu; Los Angeles County; Annenberg Digital News; USC; pre-existing conditions
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"Innocents Betrayed"
More than 250 children under the watch of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services died during the span of 19 months. The Times found that most of the deaths spurred little investigation even though many "involved faulty case management."
Tags: Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services; child services; child abuse
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The Station Fire
Los Angeles County's largest fire in history, the Station fire, was made worse by the U.S. Forest Service's attempt to minimize costs and scale back measures to fight it.
Tags: fire; conflagration; Los Angeles County; U.S. Forest Service; blaze; fight; death; miscalculation; internal review;
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Contaminated
"This series of undercover reports exposes dangerous health and food safety problems at a major facility that distributes food to thousands of restaurants and stores in Southern California and wester U.S. We revealed how food from L.A.'s huge 7th Street Wholesale Produce Market... is getting contaminated before it even gets to the restaurants." They also found that the Los Angeles County Health officials knew about this and had done nothing about it.
Tags: health; food; wholesaler; undercover; safety; Los Angeles county Health Department; restaurants;
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The Town the Law Forgot
LA Weekly chronicled "the intersection of organized crime and public corruption in the Hispanic suburbs of Los Angeles County and in revitalized downtown Los Angeles. ... The overarching conclusion is that local law enforcement's piecemeal approach to gang and drug-related crime is not sophisticated enough to make a dent."
Tags: crime; drug; urban; elected officials; attorneys; political operatives; lobbyist; corruption; police department; city
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The Final Hours of Miguel Contreras
Labor leader and Los Angeles power-broker Miguel Contreras was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Los Angeles, the week before the 2005 mayoral election. No autopsy was performed, and doctors were pressured to sign a death certificate. The article outlines political power bases in Los Angeles, and speculates how various issues would have had different results if Contreras had lived.
Tags: organ harvesting; autopsy; botanica; 911 tape; labor leader; coroner; Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; LAPD; United Farmworkers; UFW; Centinela Freeman Memorial Hospital; Daniel Freeman Hospital
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Broken Bridges: Did City Hall's plan to fight gangs bankroll a gangster?
Ex-gang member and alleged Mexico Mafia member Hector Marroquin, Sr. founded a gang-prevention program in Los Angeles in 1997 that was supported by nearly $1.5 million from the City COuncil. Using FOIA requests and over 50 interviews, L.A. Weekly reporters Jeffrey Anderson and Christine Pelisek point out that the program had no oversight, no means of measuring its success in keeping children out of gangs. They also uncovered nepotism, and evidence suggesting Marroquin was a member of the Mexican Mafia while he ran the anti-gang program.
Tags: L.A. Bridges; gang intervention programs; Hector Marroquin; Networks Organizing for Gang Unity and Neighborhood Safety; N.O. G.U.N.S; L.A. County Probation Department; Mexican Mafia; drug trade; FOIA; Community Development Department; DEA; Drug Enforcement Administration; L.A. Sherriff's Department; Diversified Strategies for Organizing; People Works, Inc.; Central Recovery Development Project; Toberman Settlement House;
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The Troubles at King/ Drew
The reporters began with a basic analysis of all the hospitals in the Los Angeles County public hospital system. They found that the most severe problems and violations were happening at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, formed after the 1965 Watts riots to serve the poor of southern Los Angeles. The problems ranged from underfunding to staff misdiagnoses, accidental patient deaths, and racist politics on the hospital's Board of Supervisors. The reporters also interviewed healthcare experts and published six detailed possible solutions to the problems facing the hospital.
Tags: healthcare; doctors; pathologist; Medical Board of California; American Medical Association; medical malpractice; civil rights
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Crimewise, OC ranks as peaceful area
Statistically, speaking, from a crime standpoint, Orange County is a tide pool in a turbulent ocean. None of the county's large cities ranks among the most crime-ridden communities in California. And crime rates elsewhere in the nation dwarf those in the county according to a Register analysis of the FBI's Uniform Crime Report.
Tags: crime rate; Stanton; Santa ana; Orange County; homicide; arson; Costa Mesa; FBI uniform crime report; statistics; Los Angeles; Inglewood; San Bernadino; Oakland; assault; gang shootings; break-ins
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Fostering Failure
This three-month investigation employed hidden cameras, undercover aids, extensive reporting and interviews to expose a network of "special schools" that thousands of foster children are sent to in California every year. Many of these so-called schools are set up in converted motels and run down strip malls. There are seldom any credentialed teachers in the classrooms; few textbooks and the students are basically warehoused without receiving an education. At the same time, theses schools receive $25,000 to $45,000 per year per student from the state. Compare this to the $6,500 that public schools receive for the each kid. Thousands of foster children graduate without ever having written a book report, term paper or even read a book. Many experts the news team consulted believe this is a big reason one out of every four of the homeless in California are former foster children.
Tags: TAPE; foster children; foster kids; special school; homeless; public school; credentialed teachers; school inspection report; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors; curriculum; California; converted motels; run down strip malls; education; inspector