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 "fights" ...
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World’s Untold Stories: Secrets of the Belfast Project
Forty years ago, during the height of Northern Ireland’s sectarian violence known as "The Troubles," a widowed mother with 10 children disappeared. Today, the answers to what happened could be found in audio recordings locked away in a U.S. college archive. But some don’t want the truth to come out. The audio recordings were collected for the Boston College Oral History Archives, from members of groups on both sides of the fighting. But this history project may contain evidence, that could threaten a delicate peace agreement – and the man credited with helping bring that peace to Northern Ireland, Gerry Adams. Adams, a prominent Irish politician and alleged former head of the Irish Republican Army, has vigorously denied the allegations. But many think the tapes could hold the key to solving the widowed mother’s murder – and more. In this episode of CNN’s documentary series “World’s Untold Stories”, Nic Robertson examines the risks and the benefits of exposing what truths may be on the tapes – and explains the ongoing battle between families, politicians, the courts, and academia, who are either seeking the truth, or seeking to protect it.
Tags: Northern Ireland; Boston College; Gerry Adams; politicians; courts; academia
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Louisiana Horror Movie
“Louisiana’s Horror Movie” grew out of our 2011 IRE award winning investigation “Hiding Behind the Badge”. That series ended with the guilty pleas of former Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jiff Hingle and businessman Aaron Bennett. Through investigative determination, “Louisana’s Horror Movie” uncovered possible public corruption by a former FBI agent and looked at his questionable relationship with the Hingle. What led us to this discovery was a piece of “Hiding Behind the Badge” we felt had not been fully explored: the money Hingle made from the B.P. oil spill. Even after the initial stories were reported, we felt there was more there. So we kept digging. It wasn’t February of 2012 that we uncovered Hingle's ties to former FBI agent, Robert Isakson. We requested emails, looking for more information to connect the dots. We had to fight the current sheriff’s office for the emails and eventually got them. The emails helped us show an improper relationship between the Hingle and Isakson – now a businessman getting contracts from Plaquemines Parish. This series eventually launched another FBI investigation, this time with Isakson in the crosshairs.
Tags: FBI; FBI agents; corruption; broadcast
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MKE Journal Sentinel: Police Problems
In Milwaukee, there may be no institution more powerful, more troubled and more determined to fight public scrutiny than the police department. It is a dangerous combination. In 2012 alone, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposed how two officers ignored a handcuffed prisoner’s gasps and pleas for help, refused to call an ambulance in violation of department policy, and then were cleared of responsibility despite indications they played a role in the man’s death. We revealed deep flaws with the city’s crime numbers and showed how the chief, instead of fixing them, misled the public about its safety while boosting his resume. All the while, the department has worked to stymie scrutiny, from charging unpermitted fees for access to public records to dropping daily media briefings in favor of news dispensed via Twitter and a flashy new website ironically dubbed “The Source.”
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Seattle Police:Vanishing Videos
This story began as a relatively simple venture; how to get copies of police dashboard camera videos to provide watchdog oversight of a police department facing growing criticism. It grew into a major expose of questionable police tactics and a battle for public access to critical public records that is currently before the state Supreme Court. Over the course of a year and a half, KOMO TV’s fight for videos and the video database became a game of strategy and attrition as the Seattle Police Department denied us access to public records at every opportunity. We tried every means at our disposal to get these records including direct appeals to elected officials. Finally, with no other recourse, KOMO TV sued the SPD and the city of Seattle. Only then did we make our fight for these records public. What followed in 2012 was a cascade of stories; people coming forward alleging police misconduct and an attempt to hide the videos that would tell the truth. In addition to KOMO TV’s public records lawsuit, our investigation has prompted state legislators and other open records advocates to pursue changes in state law to ensure these records can no longer stay hidden.
Tags: police; camera videos; SPD; Seattle Police Department; public records
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Mauritania: Slavery's Last Stronghold
Two CNN Digital reporters traveled to Mauritania -- a West African nation that became the last country in the world to abolish slavery – to document a practice the Mauritanian government denies still exists. Spending nearly a year to gain entry into the country and conducting many of their interviews at night and in covert locations, John Sutter and Edythe McNamee went to great lengths to uncover the tragedy of multigenerational servitude in Mauritania. They met people who’ve never known freedom; people who escaped slavery to find their lives hadn't changed; and abolitionists who have been fighting against slavery for years with minimal results. It was only five years ago -- in 2007 -- that the country finally passed a law that making slavery a crime. So far, only one slave owner has been convicted. The United Nations estimates 10% to 20% of Mauritanians live in slavery today. But the country continues to deny slavery’s existence and attempted to subvert Sutter’s and McNamee’s reporting by assigning to them a government “minder.” Nonetheless, the two succeeded at putting a face on a shocking practice that is similar to slavery in America before the Civil War, in which people are born into slavery and rarely escape. Their report – “Slavery’s Last Stronghold” -- featured a variety of mediums, including personal video accounts and written stories featuring firsthand accounts from freed slaves and one man’s transformative journey from slave owner to abolitionist. It also included related stories – such as the story of escaped Mauritanian slaves now living in Ohio. In response to the initiative, CNN iReport, the network’s global participatory news community, gathered messages of hope and support to be shared at a school for escaped slaves in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
Tags: slavery; Mauritania; Africa; freedom
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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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The Great Mortgage Cover-Up
These stories reveal one of the hidden causes of the financial crisis- how corporate codes of silence helped lenders to flood the nation with toxic mortgages. They document evidence that major banks and lenders systematically muzzled whistle blowers who tried to fight against forged documents, falsified appraisals, and other frauds in the mortgage industry.
Tags: financial crisis; mortgages; forged documents; crisis
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Shattered Bakeware
Consumer Reports conducted a year-long fight to win three Freedom of Information requests and uncover product safety information about a common kitchen item, glass bakeware, which had been reported to shatter violently in consumers' kitchens. As a result of the story, we unearthed information, which companies fought fiercely to keep secret, that showed there was real cause for concern. We also did real-life testing in our labs. And now the CPSC is investigating.
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Waging important legal fights
This is a collection of a work related to important legal fights waged by The Arizona Republic , both alone and with its newsroom partner, 12News, to obtain public documents and records that were vital to telling several stories, including the Jan. 8, 2011, mass shootings in Tucson that resulted in the wounding of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
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Under Suspician at the Mall of America
The story lifts the veil for the first time on one of the nation's leading programs for fighting terrorism: federal officials have been spurring private businesses to report potential terrorists to law enforcement agencies. The investigation focuses on a program that's been cited by the press and members of Congress as a model -- the private counter-terrorism unit at the Mall of America near Minneapolis, one of the biggest malls in the U.S.
Tags: FBI; Mall of America; terrorism; law enforcement