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 "Southern California" ...
-
Hung Out to Dry
FEMA is currently in the “final stages of revisiting all of the flood maps throughout the country”. The investigation revealed major problems in the mapping and these mistakes could be costly to the residents in these areas. These residents living in the “flood zones” must pay flood insurance or risk losing their homes. Many of the residents believe they should be excluded from the flood area and come together to prove FEMA wrong.
Tags: Federal Emergency Management Agency; South Central Los Angeles; Oxford; Southern California; disaster; relief; help; flood base level
-
Homicide in LA
This series is a story about a serial killer on the loose in South Los Angeles. The story broke after a lead from the one and only surviving victim, who agreed to meet only with LA Weekly. LA Weekly kept the story alive by helping detectives by writing stories and keeping the existence of the serial killer alive. Though, after the story had gone away, 20 years later it has reappeared as the serial killer struck again.
Tags: murders; LAPD; police; mystery; Grim Sleeper; Southern California; court; law enforcement; detectives
-
Asset Forfeiture Collection
This series examines the use and abuses of criminal and civil asset forfeiture that includes articles on Southern California motor cycle gangs, St. Louis policemen and pimps.
Tags: gangs; Hell's Angels; Mongols Motorcycle Club; property; Metropolitan Police Department
-
PharmaWater
"The year-month long project by the AP National Investigative Team found that drugs- mostly the residue of medications taken by people, excreted and flushed down the toilet- have gotten into the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans in at least 24 major metropolitan areas, from Southern California to Norther New Jersey." A follow-up was written after the original series.
Tags: health; pollution; medicine; water; drinking water; urban; city; sewer system; waste management; pharmaceuticals; wildlife; fertility; birth control; estrogen
-
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;
-
Juice vs Justice
According to the Los Angeles Times, Las Vegas Justices rule on matters in cases where they have received donations from lawyers or defendants, without disclosing their financial interests or relationships, and without withdrawing when a conflict of interest exists. The Los Angeles Times reports "A common perception among a dozen out-of-state lawyers interviewed about their experiences in Nevada courtrooms is that justice in Las Vegas is just another form of legalized gambling." The Times reported this series because more than a quarter of all visits to Las VEgas are made by Southern Californians, and over a third of alll business relocating to Nevada come from California.
Tags: Blackstone; judicial corruption; good-old-boy culture; Las Vegas; Nevada Supreme Court; political fundraising; financial contributions; juice; disclosure; campaign funds; endorsements; pay-to-play
-
Toxic Cargo; Crowded Inland Rails at Risk for Dangerous Chemical Spills
The investigation showed that Inland Southern California faces increasing risk of toxic spills from freight trains carrying chlorine, anhydrous ammonia and other deadly chemicals. The authors found a public unaware of the risk, local authorities unprepared and an industry with a questionable safety record.
Tags: chemical transportation; chemical spills; rail transportation; California; freight trains; public safety; FOIA
-
Air safety issues
Air Safety Issues is a six-part series that covers everything from a tragic crash caused by air controller error to outsourcing issues regarding maintenance of commercial aircraft.
Tags: Air safety; air traffic controller; controller error; flight records; flight path; Lindberg field; Controller shortages; maintenance; FOIA; Southern California airspace
-
Wal-Mart Heiress; Term Papers
ABC News 20/20 investigates academic cheating and plagiarism in colleges across the campus. The story also focuses on one of the most famous cases in which, Paige Laurie, the great-granddaughter of a Wal-Mart co-founder, paid her former roommate to do all of her papers and assignments while attending the University of Southern California. Reporters also look at why and how students cheat, from text messaging test answers to one another, to Internet "paper mills" which provide students with papers for a fee.
Tags: academic cheating; Internet; "paper mills; " plagiarism; Edith Martinez; Paige Laurie; turnitin.com
-
Ex Cathedra: The Orange Dioscese Sex-Abuse Scandal
The Orange County Weekly investigates sexual abuse by catholic priests in the southern California region. This series that ran over a period of more than a year showed that the diocesan officials covered pedophilia by the priest and paid off some of the victims. After this spate of investigations, one Orange County dioscese fearing a public trial agreed to release personnel files on some of the priests accused of sexual misconduct as part of a $ 100 million settlement to the victims.
Tags: sexual abuse; Orange County dioscese; parish; Catholoc church; priests and sexual abuse; pedophilia; sexual abuse of children; child molestation; OC Weekly