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 "noise" ...
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Crunch Time: The relationship between the police departments and black communities in Champaign and Urbana
This project looked at the relationship between the black communities and police departments in Champaign and Urbana, Illinois. Specifically, we used five years of arrest data to found major disparities in the percentage of black residents in both communities and the number of black people arrested each year from 2007 to 2011. These disparities were event greater for crimes like noise violations and jaywalking. Although Champaign had been the site of high-profile incidents, including the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy in 2009, the disparities had become even greater in Urbana. After our analysis we went into the community and talked with black residents. They described a charged relationship in which they reported feeling highly scrutinized by, and afraid of, the police. We also found that the police had made some efforts to deal with the situation.
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Boxcar Battle: Railroads See Promise In a Freight Revival That Many Towns Fear
The Journal reports that "after a decade of sweeping mergers and hostile takeovers, the railroad industry is on the verge of its largest remapping in history -- a 25,000-mile rejiggering of tracks that will straighten out routes, speed up shipments and make railroads a better competitor against trucks. But the plans also put the industry on a collision course with residential America. Many of these new routes would cut through the heart of hundreds of cities and towns, subjecting them to long, lumbering freight trains."
Tags: business; corporate interests; transportation; Union Pacific; noise pollution; litigation; Burlington Northern Santa Fe
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Noise Busters
This story examines the issue of noise pollution and noise research.
Tags: noise; noise pollution; decibel levels; noise research
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Railroaded
The American Press sheds light on how railroads in Southwest Louisiana have become a threat to public safety, and have raised concerns about devaluation of local residents' properties. Union Pacific has planned on building a storage-in-transit station in spite of the objections of the homeowners in the vicinity. "Public officials on the state and local level ... have battled for years to toughen regulations governing the rail industry," the Press reports.
Tags: Federal Railroad Administration; zoning; hazardous waste; roads; transportation; highways; Southern Pacific Railroad; traffic; legislation; FOI request; noise pollution
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Ground Zero
The New Times reports on a Phoenix neighborhood attempting to hold itself together in the face of gangs, poverty, noise, pollution and decay. Community leaders have organized a Fight Back program they hope will slowly help them reclaim their streets.
Tags: gangs; immigrants; inverse condemnation; poverty; development; HUD
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Ground zero
Amicus examines how drilling and other activities of oil companies in Alaska have disturbed the people Nuiqsut, an Inupiat Eskimo village an Alaska's North Slope. "Big oil offered a village of Inupiat Eskimos jobs and economic boom. All it asked for in return was their way of life," the magazine reports. The story reveals that the environmental problems in Alaska include water quality changes, air pollution, land use conflicts, oil spills, increased traffic and noise, and disturbance to fish and wildlife species. The latter has forced Eskimos to give up some of their traditional food. For example, a huge arctic caribou's herd has moved away from the oil development area, and a bottom fish - an Eskimos' delicacy - now has elevated levels of toxics.
Tags: Alaska Wilderness League; Arctic Refuge; Trustees for Alaska; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Alaska Whaling Commission; drilling; politics; President Bush
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Sound and Fury
A Harper's magazine essay looks at noise as a phenomenon and an indispensable trait of human society. The story reveals that "a poorer life is frequently a noisier one," as " those with lower incomes are more likely to work next to the motor and live next to the airport." It also poses the question, "might some of the noise assailing us be a protest against cultural or economic extinction?" The essay finds that the "story of noise" contains a self-contradiction - that Americans want to have the best of "the worlds of noise and quiet." In the author's words, "we want to practice Zen but mainly in the art of motorcycle maintenance."
Tags: mobility; anti-noise campaigns; decibels; human ear; stress
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Child of a Lesser God
Texas Monthly reports on the life of a little girl hidden away in a rat-infested, dilapidated house for most of her life. When the authorities took her away from her mother and grandmother, the nine-year old could not walk steadily or speak . She could only make squeaking noises.
Tags: child abuse; children shelter; retarded; child protective services
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Children of a Lesser God
"It was a modern day horror story: a little girl hidden away in rat-infested squalor for most of her life. When the authorities' took her away from her mother and grandmother, the nine-year-old had never been to school or played outside and could only make squeaking noises. Now dedicated social wokers, academics, and foster parents are trying to undo years of unimaginable neglect.
Tags: child abuse; foster care; social work; neglect; Child Protective Services (CPS); Austin's Children's Center; Kristene Blackstone; Rosedale; mainstreaming; mute; speech pathology
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Surround Sound
Noise is one of the biggest polllutants affecting us -- and we don't even know it. More than 20 million people in the United States are exposed to enough environmental noise to damage their hearing.
Tags: Noise pollution