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 "autism" ...
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Broken Shield: Police force fails to protect state’s most vulnerable residents
Decades ago, California created a special police force to investigate crimes and unexplained injuries inflicted upon some of society’s most vulnerable citizens – men and women with severe autism and cerebral palsy living in taxpayer-funded institutions. This police force, the Office of Protective Services, works exclusively at state developmental centers that have been the scene of horrific abuses. We sought to bring this story to readers in many forms, from working on all platforms, distributing condensed versions and delivering broadcast video stories to our partners, to creating a graphic novel video on one particularly human story -- a woman who was raped, apparently by a janitor. We also created an ebook of the series of stories and an interactive tracker that detailed key milestones of legislation drafted and signed into law. Producing this work on every platform helped to maximize audience reach and heighten the impact.
Tags: Autism; cerebral palsy; taxes; taxpayers; Office of Protective Services; abuse
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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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Special Care, Unknown Costs
The series took gave readers a look inside New Jersey's special education system. It's findings show how there is no one held accountable when students in the system fall through the cracks.
Tags: Special Education; bureaucracy; autism; accountability; disabilities
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Dubious Medicine
Alternative treatments have become very popular among autism patients and their families. Furthermore, physicians are promoting and using these treatments. This investigation reveals that these treatments are unproven and very risky to the children receiving the treatments. Also, in the investigation, they found a number of disappointing results from the few clinical trials, even though many families believe their children have benefited.
Tags: Autism; Alternative treatments; Physicians; Medicine; Children; Clinical trials; Disorder; Health
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Combating Autism From Within
This series shows both sides of the vaccine debate concerning mercury's possible role in causing autism. Also, the stories touch on conflicts of interest with drug companies paying and conducting studies with government support, which may prevent users from knowing the truth.
Tags: autism; vaccine; mercury; drug companies; government support;
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Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic -- A Medical Controversy
Kirby investigates whether the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, which was used in an increasing number of childhood vaccines in the 1990s, led to the large number of cases of autism, ADD, ADHD and other childhood disorders that were reported in the United States during the same period.
Tags: public health; pharmaceutical; Thimerosal; FDA; vaccine; autism; ADD; ADHD; CDC; medical; neurological; mercury; Homeland Security; neurotoxin
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Vaccines
This three-part investigation focuses on an additive in vaccines called Thimerosal. The investigation reported that Thimerosal contains about 50 percent mercury and was first created and sold by Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company. Thimerosal has been used for over 70 years even though research has indicated that mercury is harmful to humans. The report also investigates a possible link between vaccines, Thimerosal and the rise of autism rates in children over the past decade.
Tags: None
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Stonewall
This story addresses clause in Ohio's Bioterrorism Bill, which allows it to hide information gathered during public health investigations. The reporter discovered that hiding this information was more of a pattern than an exception. She found examples of the Department's efforts to bury information, stonewall citizens, and downplay health risks. For example...in one community, data was skewed to show no link between toxins in the soil and local leukemia cases. Not only does the Health Department hide this information, they make it nearly impossible to retrieve, by ignoring information requests...even the State Attorney General couldn't get answers to its health-related inquiry.
Tags: Ohio Department of Health; Bioterrorism Bill; Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Ohio Attorney General; EPA; health assessment; public health; stonewall; health risks; public health information; Ohio Attorney General; Centers for Disease Control; Waste Technologies Industries; hazardous waste; cancer rates; air pollution; pollution testing; leukemia; autism; neurological disorders; multiple sclerosis; well water; health hazard; toxic chemicals; Trichlorethylene (TCE); anthrax; e.coli; Greenpeace
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Trust Betrayed
The Herald-Tribune reports on abuse and rip-offs in group homes for disabled. The series follows the coverage an accident in which a fire killed two developmentally disabled men. The investigation finds that state inspectors have "ignored repeated complaints" that the residents have been mistreated, sexually assaulted and deprived of their money and belongings. The stories shed light on how Vicky and Bob Swan, a family with history of fraud and bad debts, have received more than $1 million from the state to operate group homes. The Swans hired "felons, misfits and drug addicts to care for men and women who needed help eating, bathing and getting dressed," the newspaper reports. The follow-up stores examine the poor decision-making by state regulators and the devastating impact of state budget cuts on proposed fixes for the system.
Tags: group homes; Florida Department of Children and Families; mental retardation; Down syndrome; autism; mental health; fire
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Unlicensed Doctor Resigns
Two days after reporting that an unlicensed doctor was preparing to administer to autistic children medicine that had yet to be approved for that purpose by the FDA , Dr. Thomas Uhrin, a graduate of a Central American medical school, resigned, and state authorities began an inquiry into his unlawful practice.
Tags: Family Resource Center Inc. Medical Licensing Board; neuropharmacology autism Secretin Dr. Timothy Bridges