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 "babies" ...
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Glamour Beasts: The dark side of elephant captivity
The zoo industry claims that elephants are thriving inside U.S. zoos. But that’s not true. It never has been. The Times found that elephants are dying out inside zoos. For every elephant born, on average two others die. Just 288 elephants are left inside 78 accredited U.S. zoos. Captive elephants may be demographically extinct within 50 years – there won’t be enough females left to breed. The Times conducted a first-of-its-kind analysis of 390 elephant fatalities for the past 50 years. In a desperate race to make more baby elephants, Seattle’s Woodland Park has tried to artificially inseminate their Asian elephant, Chai, at least 112 times, sometimes adopting crude and reckless procedures. As nearly two dozen zoos have shutdown or plan to close elephant exhibits, nonprofit sanctuaries with thousands of acres represent one option for retired or unwanted elephants. But a zoo industry trade group is fighting a bitter battle to thwart sanctuaries and punish zoos that give up their elephants.
Tags: zoo; elephants; zoo industry
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Finding Fernanda
The book sheds a light on the extremely politicized landscape of Guatemala's adoption industry, a multi-million dollar trade that was highly profitable and barely regulated. In this corrupt system, children have been stolen, sold, and placed as orphans in well-intentioned Western families since international adoption began there in the 1980s. Yet the governments of Guatemala and the US proved to be unwilling to regulate the illegal baby trade.
Tags: adoption; Guatemala; baby trade
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Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity
"Scoreboard, Baby" chronicles the 2000 University of Washington football team, the last squad from the school to go the Rose Bowl. Based on exhaustive reporting, the book shows how a community's blind embrace of a football team compromised judges, prosecutors, police agencies, a proud university and the media.
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When Immunity Fails: Whooping Cough Epidemic
KPBS and the Watchdog Institute investigated the whooping cough outbreak of 2010 that sickened thousands of people across the country and killed 23. This investigation contributed to the launch of new studies on the disease.
Tags: whooping cough; immunization; sickness; babies; vaccination; pertussis
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"Missoula shaken baby conviction relied on science, expert"
Three-month old Gabriel sustained and eventually died from severe neurological injuries from what investigators determined was "shaken baby syndrome." Gabriel's father, Robert J. Wilkes, was not the initial suspect. However, through the testimony of a child abuse expert from Minnesota and convincing circumstantial evidence, he was eventually found guilty.
Tags: child abuse; shaken baby; pediatrics; Rick Kaplan; National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse; American Academy of Pediatrics
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Cradle of Secrets
The cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which claims the lives of about 100 babies per year in North Carolina, is unknown. Doctors consider it unpreventable and completely natural. However, the investigation finds that about two-thirds of SIDS babies were sleeping in risky situations that may have caused suffocation.
Tags: SIDS; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; suffocation; infant death; baby
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The Lie We Love
"This year-long investigation found that there are simply not enough healthy, adoptable infants to meet Western demand - and there's too much Western money in search of children. Healthy babies are rarely orphans; orphans are rarely either babies or healthy."
Tags: orphans; adoption; international adoption;
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To Catch a Baby Broker
The 18-month investigation looked into complaints about international adoption and the people who take advantage of unsuspecting, emotional adoptive parents. It focused on Guatemala's then-private adoption system, which was compared to a baby farm with allegations of fraud, extortion and baby selling.
Tags: adoption; Guatemala; baby; undercover; abduction; children; fraud; extortion
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Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Jails series
The series examined individuals who have died suspiciously while in the custody of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who proclaims himself to be "America's Toughest Sheriff." Specifically, the stories examined the death of an inmate, Juan Mendoza Farias, who entered the county jail in good health and arrived at the county morgue two days later--covered with bruises and lacerations. The series also covered ongoing federal class-action lawsuit brought by the ACLU against Arpaio. During the process of that lawsuit, Arpaio lost his federal jail accreditation, which is require by Arizona law. Dickerson has been covering the lawsuit since 2007 and broke the story that the county's top lawman was himself breaking a state law by losing the accreditation of his jails. The series also investigated the care of pregnant inmates and their babies in the jail, finding that many women are malnourished and miscarry as a result of the jail conditions and food.
Tags: police misconduct; sheriff's office; pregnant inmates; prisoner abuse; Arizona
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Baby-Faced Butchers
Realtor Michael McMorrow was murdered on May 23, 1997 in Central Park after being stabbed 34 times, disemboweled and thrown into the lake. The two killers were teenagers: a spoiled rich girl, Daphne Abdela and her working class boyfriend Christopher Vasquez.