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 "trading information" ...
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The Deadliest Place in Mexico
The Juarez Valley, a narrow corridor of green farmland carved from the Chihuahuan desert along the Rio Grande, was once known for its cotton, which rivaled Egypt’s. But that was before the Juarez cartel moved in to set up a lucrative drug smuggling trade. “The Deadliest Place in Mexico” explores untold aspects of Mexico’s drug war as it has played out in the small farming communities of this valley. The violence began in 2008, when the Sinaloa cartel moved in to take over the Juarez cartel’s turf. The Mexican government sent in the military to quell the violence — but instead the murder rate exploded. While the bloodshed in the nearby City of Juarez attracted widespread media attention, the violence spilling into the rural Juarez Valley received far less, eve as the killings began to escalate in brutal ways. Community advocates, elected officials, even police officers were shot down in the streets. Several residents were stabbed in the face with ice picks. By 2009, the valley, with a population of 20,000, had a murder rate six times higher than Juarez itself. Newspapers began to call the rural farming region the “Valley of Death.” This investigation uses extensive Freedom of Information Act requests, court documents, and difficult-to-obtain interviews in Spanish and English with current and former Juarez Valley residents, Mexican officials, narcotraffickers and U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials, to reveal that many of these shocking deaths were perpetrated with the participation of Mexican authorities. It shows scenes of devastation — households where six members of a single family were killed, without a single police investigation. It uncovers targeted killings by masked gunmen of community activists and innocent residents for speaking out against violence and repression facilitated by corrupt military and government officials. And it gathers multiple witnesses who describe soldiers themselves, working in league with the Sinaloa cartel, perpetrating violence against civilians. "The cemeteries are all full. There isn't anywhere left to bury the bodies," one former resident said. "You'll find nothing there but ghost towns and soldiers."
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Rápido y Furioso (Fast & Furious)
In this special edition of the newsmagazine program “Aqui y Ahora” (“Here and Now”), Univision news reports on the drug trade’s violent impact in Mexico, an aspect of the story that is often lost. We are submitting this report for your consideration in the FOI category. Although the hundreds of classified us and Mexican government documents weren’t obtained through a FOI request, we believe our process of gathering and comparing comprehensive information from two different governments, resulted in a story that did “open records and open government” in a unique and revealing way that could not be achieved by simply filing a FOI request.
Tags: gun; border; Mexico; U.S. border patrol
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"Widening Web"
Wall Street Journal staff revealed how the Galleon Group aggressively pushed its traders for stock tips and how those who couldn't supply the information were often "pushed out." Galleon co-founder Raj Rajaratnam was eventually charged with "fraud" and "conspiracy."
Tags: Galleon Group; Raj Rajaratnam; insider-trading; Wall Street; hedge-fund
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Iraq -- The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War
The project, the product of two and half years of reporting and research, produced a 380,000-word database that juxtaposes what President Bush and seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (such as major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews. An interactive timeline shows the examination of the records. All 935 records highlighted false statements and hundreds of secondary accounts that illuminate the discrepancies between what was being said against what was known privately, for a two-year time span.
Tags: September 11 attacks; 9/11; World Trade Center attacks; Bush administration; George W. Bush; Richard Cheney; Condoleeza Rice; Donald Rumsfeld; Colin Powell; Paul Wolfowitz; Ari Fleisher; Scott McClellan
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Holding GSEs to Accounting Standards
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the nation's fourth and fifth largest financial services companies. They hold a combined $1.5 trillion in loans and mortgage-backed securities on their books and guarantee payment on another combined $2.4 trillion in MBS held by other investors. Both the Federal Reserve and Bush Administration think the companies have grown too big, too fast and worry that they could upend the broader markets if their interest-rate hedges are wrong and there's a sudden and unexpected rate shift in the opposite direction. Kopecki broke the news that Fannie's accounting woes stretched far beyond those the government-sponsored enterprise previously disclosed. Kopecki also chronicled the problems with two Federal Home Loan Bank System board members suspected with using non-public information to sell large stakes of the Bank's stock.
Tags: GSE; government-sponsored enterprises; financial services companies; insider trading; loans; mortage-backed securities; accounting
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The cell game: Sam Waksal's fast money and false promises -- and the fate of ImClone's cancer drug
This book is a behind-the-scenes look at ImClone and the biotech company's CEO, Sam Waksal. ImClone's drug Erbitux promised a revolutionary way to treat cancer. Bristol-Myers Squibb signed an unprecedented $2 billion deal to market the drug. Waksal lived a life of luxury. But by late December 2001 the FDA rejected Erbitux because ImClone's science was "sloppy" and "incomplete." Waksal tried to cash in before his stock plummeted on the news. He forged signatures and traded his family's shares on inside information, an unfolding scandal that also ensnared Martha Stewart, a friend of Waksal. He is now in jail.
Tags: BOOK; ImClone; Erbitux; Waksal; cancer drug; insider trading; FDA; SEC; DOJ
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The Body Market
"The tissue banking trade has become a lucrative industry that operates with virtually no regulation or enforceable industry standards. Tissue banks approach families with heart-wrenching stories about how their donations will save lives. Grief-stricken family members who agree to donation for altruistic reasons are given little or no information about how bodies, or body parts, will be used. They also are typically not told that their loved ones will be parceled out and sold in parts to a mix of for-profit and nonprofit companies. When things go wrong, families are stunned to learn that they have almost no recourse."
Tags: tissue donation; transplants; research; federal law; disease transmission; Guidestar; 990s
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Insider Trading at City Hall?
This 11-month investigation linked the mayor, Rick Filippi, to a series of deals for land near the International Paper Co. that was lying vacant. Filippi, along with a few associates, used information from the mayor's office to personally profit from the deals and in one instance offered inside information to a longtime friend and campaign financier, Rolf Patberg.
Tags: Rick Filippi; International Paper Co.; land deals; state-owned land; Rolf Patberg; property records; indictment of mayor; trading information; FBI
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Unnecessary epidemic
This extensive investigation showed that Congress and the Drug Enforcement Administration could have stopped methamphetamine growth across the West during the 1990s and still can. The newspaper explained how the drug is able to be controlled because it relies on chemical ingredients produced by only a handful of factories worldwide. Two clampdowns on the legal trade of the chemicals caused meth shortages, prompting users to quit and meth-related property crime to fall. But the drug trade survived because of loopholes and lax enforcement. The scope of this story includes examinations of DEA drug seizures, DEA-registered sellers of the drug, ephedrine drug shipments, ephedrine seizures, congressional records, the federal budget, federal audits, property tax records, patents, academic studies and public policy.
Tags: drugs; meth; methamphetamine; Drug Enforcement Agency; DEA; drug control policy
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Open Secrets Series
This series is a year long investigation than led to a dozen harmful activities on Wall Street. Among other stories, there is a secret investment pool for the rich, providing them with coveted inside information on stocks. Another story disclosed the way brokerage firms routinely pass market information to favored clients who pay high commissions.
Tags: Wall Street investigations; Wall Street Journal; investments; stocks; brokerage firms; market information; trade; corporate boards; investors; mutual-funds