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 "Office for Children" ...
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Locked Away
"Locked Away" exposed a troubling fact: Some Ohio children with disabilities are isolated from their peers inside the so-called seclusion rooms – small cells, closets or old offices – as punishment when they misbehave or don’t follow teachers’ directions. But the state has no idea how often vulnerable children are sent to the rooms, nor could state officials say which schools used seclusion for their disabled students. Until reporters began work on “Locked Away,” no one had ever asked. The project, a joint effort by The Columbus Dispatch and StateImpact Ohio, has led to a statewide policy and rules to keep schools from misusing seclusion rooms.
Tags: Education; children; disability; seclusion rooms
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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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Dr. Brain DDS
"For decades low-income children complained to police that a local dentist criminally assaulted them...The State of Washington paid the dentist millions of tax-dollars, while encouraging families on welfare to visit his office. KIRO Team 7 Investigators not only uncovered never-before released court files, but also exposed a system that rewards disciplined dentists."
Tags: dentist; health care; assault; children; state government; low income; court cases; police;
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Shriners Hospitals for Children Investigation Series
Freelance reporter Sandy Frost investigated a tip from Shriner Vernon Hill that there were irregularities in the way the fraternal Shriners organization and the charitable Shriners organizations were handling their money and not complying with Standards For Charitable Accountability.
Tags: Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine AKA Shriners; Standards for Charity Accountability; 2001 Criminal Tax Manual; Hershel Gober; Philanthropic Research, Inc. AKA Guidestar.org; Second Avenue Partners; Mike Slade; Aquantive; Nick Hanauer; Shriners; Masons; Knights Templar; Royal Order of Jesters; National Sojourners Order of Quetzacoatl; Mike Severe, Imperial Officer, Shrine of America; compensation; real estate transactions; excessive benefit transactions; charitable donation fraud; HIPPA; Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; Vernon Hill; Suite101.com; Paul Dolnier; 501c10 non profit fraternal corporation; 501c3 non profit charity; Better Business Bureau; Charity Watch Center; Pennsylvania's Charitable Special Investigation Unit; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; good old boy system; U.S. Senate Committee on Finance; whistleblower retaliation; Charles G. Cumpstone Jr., Potentate Stewart W. Lewis; Charities Review Council of Minnesota; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; GAAP; Independent Sector; SLAPP: strategic lawsuits against public participation; Cabiri Royal Order of Scotland; International Order of Demolay
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Teens and Strangers
Children are taught to avoid strangers and dangerous situations, and should have these lessons ingrained by the time they are teenagers. The Early Show drove around in a van, attempting to lure teenagers - including students at Princeton University- into the car to find out just how well those lessons are learned, and how easy or difficult it would be to get a teenager to exhibit poor judgment. Using cover stories including being a film crew seeking young people for a commercial, and posing as a police officer, the show lured people into the van.
Tags: abduction; kidnapping; strangers; lure; The Early Show
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Brian Ross Investigates: Conduct Unbecoming
"In a year-long series of stories for World News and Nightline, ABC News' chief investigative correspondent and his team reported on a pattern of unbecoming and unethical behavior in offficial Washington that culminated in the revelation's of Congreeman Mark Foley's sexually-explicit internet messages with high school students who served as Congressional pages." Stories in the series also examine some of the consequences from the lack of an ethics code for the Supreme Court and a probe of unethical behavior of a retired U.S. General.
Tags: broadcast; financial disclosure forms; lobbyist Jack Abramoff; Congressman Tom Delay; Congressman Mark Foley; instant messaging; Congressional Pages; House Ethics Committee; Kyle "Dusty" Foggo; CIA; Air Force; Department of Defense Inspector General's Office; Federal Election Commission; Political Money Line; Federalist Sociey; legal ethics; Supreme Court; Congress; Pentagon; influence peddling; FBI; IRS; Brent Wilkes; Taxpayers for Common Sense; Keith Ashdown; Porter Goss; Thunderbirds; General T. Michael Mosely; Senator Tom Coburn; General Hal Hornburg; Project on Government Oversight; Danielle Brian; U.S. Trademark Office; General John Jumper; Blue Angels; midterm elections; access; Campaign Legal Center; Gerry Hebert; pay to play; House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children; sexually explicit messages; sexual exploitation; graphic language; solicitation; Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert; Internet sex; FBI investigation; Congressman Tom Reynolds
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Baltimore Crime Series
Baltimore Sun reporter Julie Bykowicz examines crime in Baltimore for the calendar year 2006. Through a series of stories - including two co-written by other Sun reporters - issues such as Baltimore's flex squad - a group of officers free to chase down suspected criminals in violent neighborhoods; the exploitation of children; endangered witnesses testifying in trials and the overturning of a nearly 40-year-old life sentence.
Tags: crime; Johns Hopkins University; flex squad; overturned prison sentences; child exploitation; child witnesses; auto accidents
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A Failure to Protect: Maryland's Troubled Group Homes
About 2,700 youths live in 330 privately-run group homes in Maryland. Although the state licenses, funds and supposedly regulates the homes, it fails to adequately protect the interests of children or of the taxpayers who are paying for their care. Children suffer abuse and neglect in the absence of strong state oversight. Regulators often license unqualified operators and then rely largely on them to police themselves. Some owners collect high salaries, enjoy expensive perks and reward friends and relatives with lucrative jobs or contracts, all paid for by the state.
Tags: group homes; Department of Human Resources; Evershine Residential Services; Social Services; bureaucracy; Office for Children; Youth and Families; children
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Show and Tell Tape #1
2004 IRE National Conference (Atlanta) Show and Tell Tape #1 features the following stories: 1)Phil Williams (WTVF-Nashville) A hidden camera investigation proves that special interest lobbyists are buying Tennessee lawmakers. 2)Stephen Stock (WESH-Orlando) An investigation into new home inspections found inspectors conducting too many inspections daily with a passing rate as high as 99 percent in one county. 3)Anna Werner and David Raziq (KHOU-Houston) Children as young as 11-years-old were being physically abused at the juvenile probation department in Harris County, Texas. 4)Tony Pipitone (WKMG-Orlando)The Brevard School District in Orlando requested additional funding from the federal government for poorer schools but put that money toward helping the district as a whole. 5)Brian Collister (WOAI-San Antonio) A national report claimed that San Antonio police were among the best in the country for not targeting minority motorists, but an investigation proved police officers skewed the data. 6) Jacqueline McLean (KGMB-Honolulu) A cemetery that hasn't been licensed in nine years makes room for more bodies by removing old ones. 7) Chris Halsne (KIRO-Seattle) Mapping software found 605 sex offenders living near day cares statewide. None of the day cares were ever notified. 8) Bog Segall (WITI-Milwaukee) Many inmates use their phone privileges to call their victims, intimidating them in the hopes they won't show up at trial. 9)Larry Posner (Inside Edition) An investigation into Pitts, one of the largest door-to-door magazine sellers in the country, found the company charging high rates, abusing employees and hiring felons. 10)Randy Travis (WAGA-Atlanta) This undercover investigation found a state court judge having 19 drinks and then getting in his car to drive. 11)Jim Strickland (WSB-Atlanta) This investigation exposed forgery and fraud by an Atlanta Booting company. 12)Bebe Emerman (KIRO-Seattle) A problem with the powercord of one brand of oscillating fans was linked to 20 house fires. 13)Elisabeth Leamy (WTTG) This story discusses the lives of those held in concentration camps and the Nazi tattoos they received.
Tags: tape; show and tell; investigative; Atlanta; no transcripts; IRE
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Investigating Sierra Leone
Last summer, the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone indicted Charles Taylor, then president of Liberiann fir crimes allegedly committed during the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. It was only the second time a head of state had been indicted for international war crimes while in office. Prosecutors alleged Taylor was a central figure in a global criminal network that controlled rebels in Sierra Leone who committed murder, enslavement, rape and forced children into combat. American Radio Works journalists Deborah George and Michael Montgomery closely follow the work of investigators and prosecutors as they developed the cases against Taylor and other warlords. The Special Court was established last year in a treat between the UN and the Sierra Leone government and uses a mix of national and international law.
Tags: war; sierra leone; charles taylor; All Things Considered; radio; broadcast; CD; tape