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 "symbols" ...
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One Nation, One Language?
U.S. News & World Report asks, "Would making English the nation's official language unite the country or divide it?...As immigration, both legal and illegal, brings a new flood of foreign speech into the United States, a campaign to make English the nation's official language is gathering strength. According to a new U.S. News poll, 73 percent of Americans think English should be the official language of government... Like flag burning and the Pledge of Allegiance, the issue is largely symbolic.... But many Americans are feeling threatened by a triple whammy of growing economic uncertainty, some of it caused by foreign competition...."
Tags: language; American English; discrimination; minorities; bilingual; education; nationalism; protectionism
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Hospitals Cornered
A generation ago, they were robust symbols of America's faith in science. Now their role in medicine is shrinking, as George Washington University and other local operators are discovering. Area health care consumers face an era of rapid change.
Tags: Privatization
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Captivating a Nation
When Joseph Roger O'Dell was convicted of Helen Schartner's murder in 1986, he was sentenced to death in the electric chair. But a few years later a wealthy socialite divorcee named Lori Urs fell in love with him, and his fortunes changed. Urs campaigned nationally for his release, and when that didn't produce results, she went oversees -- the Roman Catholic country of Italy. There, O'Dell became a "hit" -- a symbol against the death penalty. Italian parliamentarians even passed measures denouncing the act. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed his execution on December 1996. This article discusses the facts, fables and implications of this trial on the eve of O'Dell's argument before the Supreme Court.
Tags: Crime; Capital Punishment; Roger O'Dell
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The Death of Jane Roe
The Village Voice investigates Norma McCovey, the original Jane Roe of the landmark abortion case, Roe v. Wade. McCovey once served as a symbol for the pro-choice movement, but now denounces abortion and works for Operation Rescue. The story paints McCovey as a troubled woman, plagued by alcohol and drug abuse, used by pro-choice activists in need of a test case for abortion rights, and later slighted by feminist activists who considered McCovey too uneducated for them to showcase at the forefront of the pro-choice movement.
Tags: Children; Women's rights
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No title (id: 13087)
This Patriot-News article looks at Mumia Abu-Jamal, a convicted cop-killer on Death Row who has collected support from an odd mix of radicals, politicos, academics and celebrities while coming to symbolize all that seems wrong with the death penalty. From direct mail to the Internet, Berlin to Beverly Hills, Abu-Jamal is billed as America's political prisoner. (Aug. 20, 1995)
Tags: Bell Mumia; Inc. Courts NAACP Police Charities Black United Fund Murder 4 pgs.
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No title (id: 9461)
Newsday reports on the empire built by the Suffolk (New York) School District superintendent, where he was paid over $200,000 while the district was cutting back on services; many regard the administrator as an outstanding educator, while others portray him as a living symbol of what has gone wrong with the U.S. public school system, March 7, 1993. # NY Kasindorf
Tags: None
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No title (id: 8305)
Village Voice (New York) investigates the failure of Harlem's Freedom National Bank, a national symbol of African-American pride and economic power; finds that the bank, which was intended to be run by and for the Harlem community, became controlled by a small group of powerbrokers whose excessive risk-taking and incessant infighting eventually drove the bank into insolvency, April 30 & May 7, 1991.
Tags: None
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A Symbol-Minded Solution
Tropic, Miami Herald Magazine looks at the controversial flag-desecration decision of the U.S. Supreme Court and the ramafications in its wake.
Tags: flag desecration