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 "profiling" ...
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Cyber Espionage: The Chinese Threat
It’s the biggest threat facing American business today but the least talked about by corporate executives. Experts at the highest levels of government agree, cyber espionage is threatening to steal American wealth, American jobs and ultimately America’s economic security and the biggest aggressor is China. Due to the nature of the crime, the cost to American businesses is nearly impossible to pinpoint. Experts say Chinese hackers are constantly probing corporate networks, sifting through endless amounts of data to decipher what is valuable intellectual property, chemical formulas or proprietary technology. One conservative estimate from the National Counter Intelligence Executive puts the cost of economic espionage at up to $400B annually, but the report states such estimates vary “so widely as to be meaningless,” reflecting the scarcity of data available. CNBC’s David Faber and the Investigations Inc. team spoke with many corporate executives about China’s aggressive effort to target American businesses and their most valuable assets, but many refused to comment on camera for our report, citing becoming more vulnerable to attack by speaking publicly about the issue. However, not one executive denied their company is at risk of cyber-attack on a daily basis or the possibility of losing valuable intellectual property to cyber spies. Government and industry experts we spoke with on-camera have witnessed such costly cyber-attacks during their careers and attest to the fact there are only two companies left in America today: Those who know they’ve been hacked and those who don’t. From a whistleblower claiming telecommunications giant Nortel was one of the first casualties of this all-out cyber war, to high profile and public attacks on Google and RSA, its clear defending against cyber espionage is the new normal for American business.
Tags: Chinese hackers; American businesses; cyber attacks; cyber espionage
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Scapegoat: The Chino Hills Murders and the Framing of Kevin Cooper
Scapegoat is the true story of the horrific Chino Hills murders -- the highest profile crime in San Bernardino County history. It shows how law enforcement ignored eyewitness information implicating three white men as the perpetrators in order to pin the crime on Kevin Cooper, a recently escaped black prisoner from the nearby prison in Chino, California. It shows how his public defender lost the case before the trial even began and how the justice system has failed Cooper at almost every turn. It also shows the heroic work of an international law firm headquartered in San Francisco that adopted Cooper's case pro bono just three months before his scheduled execution in 2004 and won him a stay and how lawyers from this firm continue to appeal his wrongful conviction.
Tags: Murders; crime; law enforcement; police; prison; justice system; wrongful conviction
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Who Can Vote? Comprehensive Database of U.S. Voter Fraud Uncovers No Evidence That Photo ID Is Needed
“Who Can Vote?” is the 2012 project of News21, a multimedia investigative reporting initiative funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Twenty-four students from 11 universities across the country worked on the project under the direction of journalism professionals. The project, launched just before the 2012 political conventions, consists of more than 20 in-depth reports and rich multimedia content that includes interactive databases and data visualizations, video profiles and photo galleries. Student reporters conducted an exhaustive public records search and built a comprehensive data base of voter fraud cases that revealed: • Since 2000, while fraud has occurred, the number of cases is infinitesimal. • In-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tough voter ID laws, is virtually non-existent. Only 10 such cases over more than a decade were reported. • There is more fraud in absentee ballots and voter registration than any other category. The analysis shows 329 cases of absentee ballot fraud and 364 cases of registration fraud. A required photo ID at the polls would not have prevented these cases. • Voters make a lot of mistakes, from people accidentally voting twice to voting in the wrong precinct. However, few cases reveal a coordinated effort to change election results. • Election officials make a lot of mistakes, giving voters ballots when they’ve already voted, for instance. Election workers are often confused about voters’ eligibility requirements.
Tags: elections; fraud; public records; voters; ballot
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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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Terrorists in Love
The book profiles six radical Muslim men from Pakistan, Afhganistan and Saudi Arabia and reveals their mystical dreams and visions, sexual repression and crumbling family structures.
Tags: terrorism; Islam; Pakistan; Afghanistan; Saudi Arabia
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The Henry Louis Gates Jr. Case: Racial Profiling or Stifling Free Speech
When police arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct in his own home, Gates claimed he was a victim of racial profiling. NECIR analyzed five years of arrest records from the Cambridge Police Department for disorderly conduct which did not seem to indicate a pattern of racial profiling. The results showed that more white people than black people had been arrested for disorderly conduct by the department.
Tags: racial profiling; disorderly conduct, police; Henry Gates; Henry Louis Gates Jr.; Cambridge Police Department
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Una Realidad Embarazosa: A Shameful Reality
The story addresses the realities of teenage pregnancies in Colombia. The reporters examine the failures of sex education in schools and the lack of effective campaigns by the government. The story includes the profile of one young woman who, like many, chooses to get pregnant in order to escape domestic violence and poverty.
Tags: teen pregnancy; sex education; abstinence; birth control
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Durham insider loans pile up
Tim Durham “is one of Indiana’s highest-profile businesspeople” and appeared to be rising to the top of the super rich. But behind his image, a story of deception and lies is revealed. After an investigation of his company, Fair Finance Co., revealed this deception and he was accused of securities fraud. Also, he was alleged to be using a Ponzi scheme, “using money from new investors to pay off previous purchasers of investment certificates”. Now, Durham and his company face a number of lawsuits.
Tags: financial; finances; economy; Ohio; securities regulators; business; wealth; investors
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Shaping the Message
The Pentagon contracted a public relations firm to profile embedded journalists reporting on missions in Afghanistan. The profiling program was meant to drive journalists to report positively and deny embed requests from those who tended to report negatively on the conflict. Within six days of public exposure to this information, the Pentagon canceled the contract.
Tags: Pentagon; contract; journalists; embedded; profiling; stars and stripes; reporting; reporters; Rendon;
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Justice Unserved: The Scott Saloman Investigation
"Scott Salomon was a criminal lawyer who sought out high-profile clients and loved media attention. But I found more than 70 clients across the country who felt he took large, upfront retainers and then did little or nothing for them. Salomon caused many of them to face ruinous results - from loss of child visitations to loss of homes. Salomon would even try to leverage their dire circumstances to get even more money out of his clients.
Tags: criminal law; Salomon; fraud; Florida; indictments; federal grand jury;