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 "silicon valley" ...
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Mercury News: Loss of Trust
The San Jose Mercury News IRE contest entry "Loss of Trust" consists of an original two-part series published July 1 and July 2, 2012, and the series' remarkable aftermath. The series exposed the eye-popping fees charged by private professionals working as court-appointed conservators and trustees for dependent adults in Silicon Valley - exorbitant rates that together with attorneys' fees threaten to force their vulnerable clients onto government assistance to survive. Within days of publication, the Santa Clara County Superior Court launched an overhaul of its local rules, and state legislation was pledged for the coming year to rein in the abuses.
Tags: Conservators; Trustees; attorneys; overcharged fees
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The Great Spam Slam
In Nov. 2007, washingtonpost.com ran a series of stories and blog posts Mr. Krebs wrote about the Russian Business network (RBN) led to the company being effectively cut off from the Web. He pursuer a similar strategy in July 2008, when investigating the Silicon Valley-based hosting provider McColo. At the time, Krebs was chronicling the cyber crime activity of Atrivo, another Northern California hosting company. Due to Krebs' reporting, Atrivo's hosting companies cut off connectivity to it, effectively knocking Atrivo offline.
Tags: spam e-mail; Silicon Valley; internet service providers; e-mail scams; cyber crime
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Suspicions and Spies in Silicon Valley
This investigation details the Hewlett-Packard spying scandal. It discusses how the obsession of HP chairman Patricia Dunn to root out the source of press leaks from the boardroom led to covert tracking of directors' phone records. That surveillance eventually led to Dunn's resignation and indictment by the state of California.
Tags: technology; computers; corporate intelligence; business; corporate ethics; SEC; FCC; FTC; Justice Department
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All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster
This book details the history of Napster, Inc, the fastest growing business of all time and one of the most controversial. The book accounts for issues of copyright law, the modern music industry and the Silicon Valley attitude as it chronicles the success and failure of Napster.
Tags: BOOK
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New ethics or no ethics?
This multi-piece report analyzes the ethical transgressions that some Internet entrepeneurs have performed as Internet-based companies have become more valuable in the stock market during the last part of the 1990's and the beginning of the 2000 decade. The reporters tell the story of several CEO's who made millions of dollars by selling stock of companies they were running and which seemed robust, but were extremely volatile.
Tags: Internet; Internet entrepeneurs; venture capitalists; Wall Street; Silicon Valley; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); Financial Accounting Standards Board; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Investor Responsibility Research Center
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Tracking the E-Waste Trail
Radio Television Hong Kong reports that western companies are dumping computer wastes on China and other less developed countries, despite their governments' crackdowns. The broadcast profiles the computer recycling industry of Guiyu, a small village in the Guangdong Province of China, where "workers burn computers' original components to extract valuable metals from them. The useless parts are then casually discarded, releasing toxic materials, polluting the surrounding environment. "
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; environment; Silicon Valley; toxic waste; environmental protection; high-tech; smuggling; international law; international trade
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Silicon Valley's Dark Side
In this series, The San Jose Mercury News questioned the electronics industry about its "corporate responsibility by examining labor and environmental practices common in the global production and disposal of desktop PCs. Primarily reported in southern China, the series documented the life-cycle of the PC: from components assembled by young migrant women at contractor factories, where many work excessive overtime hours in violation of China's labor law, to unregulated computer recycling centers, where unprotected workers salvage hazardous electronic waste imported from the United States and other developing countries."
Tags: computers; China; corporate responsibility; PC; personal computer; components; migrant workers; labor law; environment
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FutureNet
An account of how the Internet has evolved and continues to grow. Richards also introduces the visionaries who have shaped the networked world and addresses new trends, concepts and business issues arising from the Internet's evolution.
Tags: BOOK; Internet; Transcontinental Railroad; Leland Stanford; Silicon Valley; World Wide Web; ARPANET; TCP/IPs; Digital Millennium Copyright Act; copyright issues; encryption; BOOK PAGES-274
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Does Crime Pay?
"For years, the hard-charging executive had run Avant! more like a sole proprietorship than a publicly traded company. His hand-picked board, which included a retired Park Ranger who is friends with his sister and a host of insiders with business deals with Avant!, okayed huge pay packages for Hsu and CEO-like salaries for a son with limited business experience and a former stewardess who was his top lieutenant. The story spelled out suspicious Avant! investments into entities win which Hsu holds a personal stake, the legal stalling tactics employed by Avant! to buy time of for the company, and a PR campaign to raise its image that included the creation of a foundation that has spent twice as much on advertising its good works as it has on actual charity." - excerpt from IRE contest entry form
Tags: business; computers; software; Silicon Valley; Avant!
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Power Play
USA Weekend reports on the energy crisis in California. The article predicts that the ominous blackout scenes there are "merely the opening acts of a drama coming soon to an energy plant near you." The reporter examines the technology industry's concerns about the severity of the crisis, and looks at the role of California's Independent System Operator in overseeing the state electrical grid.
Tags: energy; California; power; consumers; NaviSite; Silicon Valley; politics; electricity; blackouts