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 "environmental justice" ...
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Toxic Towns, USA
The story follows a woman and her fight for environmental justice in Mossville, a once-rural African-American community now surrounded by chemical plants.
Tags: Mossville; environmental justice; Dorothy Felix; cancer-causing chemical
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Inhumanity Has a Price
This story examined the human and financial costs of jail conditions in the fourth largest U.S. country. It quantified the costs of those conditions by comparing statistical data about the jail to statistics from similar-sized jails in the country. The story found that the custodian of this jail has been sued thousands of times more than the custodian of larger jails, that the combined cost to defend, settle and insure against these lawsuits was $41.4 million, that the country has not implemented changes recommended by national experts, and that the county's Environmental Services inspectors have documented environmental health concerns in the jails.
Tags: jail costs; county jail; corruption; justice system; health concerns; prison conditions
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Toxic Avengers
The Bay Guardian reports how the Laotian community's political battles are being fought by young women that want environmental justice. The girls fight "to shut down Richmond's poison-spewing Chevron incinerator."
Tags: Laotian; poverty; California; Asian Youth Advocates; Chevron
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What's wrong with EPA
Sanjour, former manager of the hazardous-waste office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), tells the story of the regulators' "cynicism and contempt for the public interest." EPA disdains environmentalist, and is soft on polluters, the author reveals. He finds that many poor and often minority communities have become sceptical of the agency's ability and desire to help them. The story looks at some groups that have turned into more militant and structured grass-root organizations in order to contest the handling of their concerns.
Tags: community; regulation; hazardous waste; minorities; environmental justice; toxic dumps; Superfund program; Clean Air Act; ombudsmen
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Secret Justice
ABA Journal investigates how undisclosed settlements to lawsuits and closed-door proceedings shut out public scrutiny. The article finds that this practice reduces accountability and eliminates precedents. The author points to several examples of sealed court files, some of which involving giant corporations and movie stars. The major example is about a reporter, Kristen Mitchell with the Wilmington, N.C., Morning Star, who was fined for obtaining a sealed file inadvertently handed her by a court clerk. The file contained information on a secret settlement of an environmental lawsuit between Conoco Inc. and residents of a mobile home park. The newspaper, also, was ordered to pay Conoco $500,000, the journal reports.
Tags: media rights; legislation; Merrill Lynch; First Amendment; freedom of the press; judges; lawyers; settlement agreements; Sondra Locke; Clint Eastwood; 3M; jurors; business
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Against the Workers; Privatization Tidal Wave; Dubious Development; The Power of Protest
The Multinational Monitor examines how poor nations are forced to bear "the burden of the IMF and World Bank." The story package looks at different aspects of the interactions between the international financial institutions and the developing countries governments. The articles give voice to critics who find that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policies undermine labor power and rights; that the two institutions' common requirement for increasing electricity and water tariffs in loan-receiving countries makes the poor pay the price; that the International Financial Corporation (IFC) "prioritizes the pursuit of profit over economic justice, social or environmental concerns."
Tags: economics; IMF; World Bank; IFC; globalization; economic crisis; privatization; government-owned enterprises; layoffs; unemployment; wages; pensions; utilities; democracy
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Unwelcome Neighbors: How the Poor Bear the Burdens of America's Pollution
The Times-Picayune investigates the environmental justice movement, which has some roots in the New Orleans area. Members of the environmental justice movement question why minorities and the poor traditionally live closer to industrial areas with large amounts of pollution. "Unwelcome Neighbors" takes a look at both the movement in general and how it has affected the New Orleans area.
Tags: pollution; environmental justice; New Orleans; poverty; minorities; civil rights; politics; policy; society; culture
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Race and the Law
ABA Journal and the National Bar Association Magazine collaborated on a special report on race and the legal system. Articles describe how views of the legal system are influenced by lawyers' race, discriminatory race-based profiling by the U. S. Customs Service, environmental justice, racially skewed juries, and the struggles of minorities in the legal profession. ABA Journal's series of articles focuses primarily on the experiences of African Americans.
Tags: Civil Rights; Courts; Criminal Justice System; Environment; Discrimination; Minorities
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No title (id: 8742)
In These Times reports on the trial of the ``Arizona Five,'' Earth First! founder Dave Foreman and four other environmental activists on charges of an alleged conspiracy to sabotage nuclear facilities in three western states; looks at the tactics of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice and their questionable efforts and tactics to build a case against the activists and then prosecute them; compares the government's tactics to the FBI of J. Edgar Hoover, Sept. 18, 1991.
Tags: None
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"Caught In a Web of Politics, Power"
This report chronicles the ordeal of top Justice Department lawyer Theodore Olson, who was involved in a dispute with Congress in 1983 over Environmental Protection Agency documents. After a three-year investigation into whether he lied when testifying before a House Judiciary Subcommittee, Olson was cleared of wrongdoing by a special prosecutor.
Tags: EPA; independent counsel law; Supreme Court; courts