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 "Toms River" ...
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"Barnegat Bay Under Stress"
This series of stories investigates the gradual demise of Barnegat Bay, the "largest coastal estuary" in New Jersey. Reporters found that thousands of pounds of fertilizer and other "land-borne pollution" is flowing into the bay. The investigative series resulted in Gov. Chris Christie shutting down a nearby nuclear power plant and earmarking millions of dollars for "special environmental control funding."
Tags: Gov. Chris Christie; pollution; wildlife; stormwater; Oyster Creek; nuclear power plant; estuary; fertilizer; jellyfish; Ocean Gate; Toms River; EPA
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The Wasteland
CBS News found that when well-meaning American consumers give their electronics to so-called recyclers, the waste is often smuggled to China and other parts of the Third World, where it is broken down or melted for the precious metals inside. They investigated a major electronic waste recycler in the Denver area, Executive Recycling, and tracked a container that had been filled with cathode ray tubes at the company's loading docks. They followed this container from Denver, to the port of Tacoma, to Hong Kong, which is the main entryway to the part of southern China where electronic waste is broken down in the worst conditions. There, seven out of ten kids have dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Pregnancies are six times more likely to end in miscarriage. The reporters also went to China and found that wasteland, where workers were cooking circuit boards over open flames and separating the gold from other metals in acid baths on the edge of a river. While filming, the crew was attacked by a gang that protects this gray market enterprise. Back in Denver, CBS News confronted the CEO of Executive Recycling. He denied that his company had sent the CRTs overseas, but the evidence was all but irrefutable.
Tags: recycling; gray market; electronics; China; worker safety; pollution;
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Seeds of Doubt
These two stories deal with some dubious aspects of genetically modified foods; how their developers sometimes fail to deliver on the promise to relieve hunger in poverty-stricken parts of the world; and how the connections between universities that do the research and the companies that market the products are not always beneficial to the people whose lives depend on a cheap supply of food.
Tags: GM foods; patenting genetic material; Monsanto; Pioneer; cloning; Mali wild rice; Niger River; Africa; world hunger; university-industrial complex
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Russian River Flooding
The Press Democrat found that "$6 million dollars in federal grants intended to protect homes along the Russian River from flooding has been spent, in large part, on houses least in danger of flooding and on property owners least in need of money."
Tags: flooding; Russian River; grants; tax money; federal flood grants
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Trapped at Thirtymile
The Yakima Herald-Republic investigates the death of four U.S. Forest Service firefighters on July 10 in the Chewuch River Canyon, revealing "serious safety problems within the agency." The newspaper found that "commanders at the scene broke Forest Service rules in fighting the fire and followed a pattern of safety violations going back to the 1994 Storm King fire in Colorado that killed 14."
Tags: fire departments; U.S. Forest Service; deaths; Chewuch River Canyon; Washington; safety problems; neglect; Storm King Fire; wildfire
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No title (id: 8524)
Asbury Park Press looks at the demise of the First National Bank of Toms River; finds that the directors and officers are largely to blame because of reckless lending practices, many times to the directors themselves, Dec.1-6, 1991.
Tags: None