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 "cafeteria" ...
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Trouble on the Tray
This series found problems in the federal, state, and local programs that supplied food to the nation’s schoolchildren. Some of the major findings: beef supplied for school lunches wouldn’t pass at national fast-food restaurants, chicken found at schools is only quality enough for pet food, supplied recalled beef to schools, failed to inform schools of bad tortillas, and many schools lacked the two inspections per year.
Tags: Food safety; Schoolchildren; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Schools; Cafeteria; Government; Lunch; Beef; Children; Food; Bad food; E. coli
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Kids at Peril: Dangerous School Food
A look into the school cafeterias of the Houston Independent School District and poor conditions which the food is being stored. The 400,000 kids in the district are at risk for food-borne-illness or, in some cases, death. Kitchens did not keep track of the temperature of the food to prevent illness, but instead would not let food sit out for more than a four hour period.
Tags: cafeteria; school kitchen; illness; food poisoning; Houston Independent School District; HISD; health code; inspector
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Incident No. 1113
This in-depth investigation of a high school shooting finds that it was more than just a 'violent outburst' between rival gangs. Interviews and research revealed that the school had serious issues concerning violent incidents before the shooting. The school also failed to issue class schedules to their students for nearly two weeks, leaving them in the cafeteria all day. The student who shot his classmate to death was one of the students without a schedule.
Tags: school shooting; violence; gangs; teenagers; teens; guns
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"One Jury's Journey"
Curriden attended jury selection and all sessions of a 2000 Dallas trial. After the verdict was handed down, he contacted all the jurors and secured permission to interview them. The story is "one jury's journey" through the process of serving, from summons to verdict. He reconstructed events and conversations in the deliberation room, courthouse cafeteria and elsewhere.
Tags: jury; juror; trial; jury duty; lawyer; prosecutor; judge
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School Food Safety; School Lunches: Illness On Menu
The Tribune reports on school food illness outbreaks across the United States. The series finds that "dangerous practices exist in the factories where school food is made and in the kitchens and cafeterias where it is warmed and served." The government inspection system for monitoring the $5-billion-per-year school-food business is flawed. It is often difficult to trace spoiled food because subcontractors' identities are rarely disclosed to school officials. The reporter looks at a notorious case in which 1,200 children in North Dakota were sickened by contaminated tortillas.
Tags: schools; education; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); FOIA requests; lead-based paint; lead poisoning; health violations; bacteria; CAR; meat industry; food safety; FDA; CDC
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Tainted meal, tainted system
The Star-Tribune found after 18 Minneapolis grade children became sick that their school was never inspected by the state, county or city sanitarians. In addition, "cafeterias in more than 300 other schools in the state had never been inspected", and numerous other schools had only begun implementing sanitation standards in recent months. The parents of children who could have eaten contaminated food were never notified by their schools."The state and federal systems designed to find the source of contaminated food didn't work and the USDA gave conflicting accounts about whether the meat was contaminated at all." This story lead to Minnesota legislators forming a Children's Environmental Health Issues committee to implement that all school cafeterias are inspected for sanitation.
Tags: United States Department of Agriculture; Food safety; E.Coli
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Reading, Writing and Roaches
The New York Post's computer analysis of health inspection records revealed that a third of New York City public schools maintained filthy, vermin-infested cafeterias, putting some 1.1 million school children at risk. "... (It) also exposed toothless health regulations: Although the city Department of Health routinely inspects school kitchens and cafeterias, an unwritten policy ensures the Board of Education is never cited for violations."
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Bad Apples
The American Prospect reports how "Everyone has had a 'bad' teacher. Incompetent, unfeeling, or maybe just aggressively uninspiring, the occasional bad teacher is as much a fixture in America's schools as lousy cafeteria food and detention hall. Critics regard the presence of bad teachers as confirmation of their worst fears about public education - namely, that some combination of union contracts, tenure, civil service protections, litigation-wary administrators, and general institutional inertia are getting in the way of child's learning. (Some examples) have now become part of a considerable arsenal of anecdotal evidence that suggests even flagrant incompetents are hard to fire. (But other examples) suggest a more complex story... Is it a cautionary tale about how the 'age of accountability' in education reform has made all teachers -- even inspired ones -- vulnerable and gun-shy, serving as scapegoats for our collective discontent about the state of public education?"
Tags: Teachers; educational system; public schools; bureaucracy
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In Harm's Way, But In the Dark: Workers Exposed to Plutonium at U.S. Plant
The Washington Post reports that "Thousands of uranium workers were unwittingly exposed to plutonium and other highly radioactive metals (in Paducah, KY) at a federally owned plant where contamination spread through work areas, locker rooms and even cafeterias....Today, the Department of Energy contends that worker exposure was minimal and that contamination is being cleaned up. A lawsuit filed under seal in June by three current plant employees alleges that radiation exposure was a problem at Paducah well into the 1990s...."
Tags: hazardous working conditions; whistleblower; business; legal; radiation; cancer; workers compensation; health issues; cold war; weapons; nuclear energy; plutonium
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Illegal in Iowa
When the Immigration and Naturalization Service raided the Iowa Beef Processors plan in Storm Lake, Iowa, they escorted 78 illegal immigrants outside of the company's cafeteria and sent them home to Mexico. It was a raid townsfolk in Iowa -- who couldn't get used to the foreigners -- had been waiting for since the tiny town of 8,700 had been transformed by the steady influx of immigrants from Mexico. These workers -- who work long hours at low wages -- did much of the killing, cutting and packaging of up to 13,000 hogs a day. With the new residents, crime is up, the number of arrests more than doubling over the past decade. Storm Lake's public schools have had to provide an expensive English as a Second Language program for more than a fifth of its 1,800 students. But the influx of immigrants is no accident. It is a promoted policy in the meatpacking industry. According to federal investigators, company-paid agents and workers themselves, meatpacking industries search aggresively for employees in southern border states and hire recruiters who find workers in Mexico. Why? No one else wants the dangerous, low-paying jobs.
Tags: Immigrant labor; illegal immigrants; meatpacking; Iowa Beef Processors