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 "drowning" ...
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Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit
The book examines the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig accident and puts it in context of BP's failures and maintenance lapses. It reveals how BP's culture of cutting corners led to the disaster.
Tags: BP; Deepwater Horizon; offshore rig; oil spill
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Drowning in Neglect
KHOU-TV discovers 1300 public swimming pools in Houston were getting a free pass for not meeting safety standards. City health inspectors failed to give violations for substandard drain covers, missing life preservers and emergency phones, and even a lack of chlorine. Health experts claim the condition of many of these pools invites the spread of disease and should warrant closure of the pool.
Tags: pools; safety; health inspection; chlorine; swimming
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Camp Drowning
In this investigation, it looks at the standards and regulations of U.S. summer camps. “Only 25 percent of camps in this country are accredited, meaning they meet 300 health and safety standards”. Many parents send their children to these camps believing their children are safe, but when accidents happen it is too late to do anything.
Tags: kids; Gottesman family; life guards; counselors; license; federal; American Camp Association; state; local
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System Error
The Sun used a FOIA request to obtain a declassified version of a 2003 NSA report on Trailblazer, the program designed to "fix the holes" in NSA's information filter. In the report the agency's inspector general found "'inadequate management and oversight' of private contractors and overpayment for the work done." A govenment official told The Sun, "The government has been standing by while the agency has been gradually 'going deaf' as unimportant communications drown out key pieces of information."
Tags: National Security Agency; NSA; Lt. General Keith B. Alexander; Trailblazer; 9/11; post-9/11 investigations; Science Applications International Corporation; SAIC; Freedom of Information Act; FOIA; Fort Meade; Threat Operations Center; Jared Adams; General Michael V. Hayden; FBI's Virtual Case File program; TASC
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The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is the topic in this book by noted historian Douglas Brinkley. He finds out how and why the evacuation was botched, relief efforts were delayed, and also "incidents of racism and brutality on the part of local police." He also examines how the Coast Guard and local citizens banded together to save people from the flood. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin denied much of the charges in the book, but later acknowledged the truth of them publicly.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina; disaster; flood; racism; national guard; Mayor Ray Nagin; New Orleans; Gretna Bridge Incident; Danny Brumfield; levees; drowning; crisis
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The Yates Odyssey
When Andrea Yeates drowned her five children in the bathtub, the country was shocked at what she had done. Time uncovered how this could happen and who is responsible for missing the warning signs.
Tags: murder; crime; child killing; psychosis; psychiatry; psychiatric; mental hospital; therapy; insanity
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Dying in darkness, Ugly Results of State Care Revealed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on mental retardation deaths in Georgia. The series documents 163 deaths since late 1997 "when Georgia aggressively transferred people from state institutions to community settings." Many deaths in these privately managed group homes resulted from abuse and neglect. Mentally retarded victims suffocated, choked, drowned in bathtubs, or were dehydrated and malnourished. Deaths were usually reported late, and bodies were rarely autopsied. The stories find that the state has been "ill-equipped to protect the people it moved into these privately-run homes." The findings are based on database analysis of records of people with mental retardation in Georgia, and death certificates.
Tags: Georgia's Open Records Act; FOI requests; wrongful death lawsuits; health care; aspiration pneumonia; mental health
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Fatal Errors, Secret Deaths
The Hartford Courant investigates covered-up deaths resulting from neglect and staff errors in Connecticut's group homes for mentally retarded. Patients often fell victim to suffocation, drowning, choking, burns and potentially treatable infections. Other findings include that the state secretive system conceals suspicious deaths and their causes not only from the general public, but even from next of kin; that the death rate in group homes has tripled from 1990 to 2000; and that the State Department of Mental Retardation is ineffective in investigating and taking actions against faulty group home operators. The group home system costs Connecticut taxpayers $260 million a year, the Courant reports.
Tags: mental health; FOI requests; development disabilities; state government; health care
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Camp offenses spoil fun
"Each summer, 350,000 youngsters attend 380 sleep-over camps across Michigan. The vast majority have a safe, fun time. But records show that state regulators have cited dozens of camps during the past three years for problems ranging from fire hazards and unsafe drinking water to exposed raw sewage and food-safety problems. Counselors have been cited for abusing children and for lax supervision."
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Caught Off Guard
A Boston Magazine investigation examines the Coast Guard' vanishing ability to rescue mariners. The free-lance author "explores what happened when three fishermen, trapped inside their overturned boat, drowned while waiting for the Coast Guard to rescue them." The story details several other marine tragedies. The investigation reveals that the agency's staff has become "overworked and underqualified," as its budget has been cut and its mission has "expanded exponentially in such areas as drug enforcement, refugee interception and pollution control." The story's "sobering lesson" is: "Don't expect the Coast Guard to save you. The agency has neither the legal obligation nor the top notch ability to rescue every mariner who calls for help."
Tags: diskette; FOIA; Coast Guard; negligence; courts