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 "ICE" ...
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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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Fishy Business
Boston Globe reporters Jenn Abelson and Beth Daley captured the attention of consumers across the nation with their 2011 “Fishy Business” series, which revealed widespread mislabeling of seafood at restaurants. DNA testing commissioned by the Globe showed diners frequently – and unwittingly -- overpaid for less desirable species. In 2012, the Globe produced two more “Fishy Business” installments to expand and follow up on the initial investigation. First, Abelson spent several months examining how fish processors add water to seafood to increase profits. The Globe hired an independent lab to conduct an analysis of 43 fish samples collected from supermarkets across Massachusetts. The results, presented in a multimedia package in September 2012, showed consumers often pay for excess water when they buy scallops and frozen fish. About 1 in 5 of the samples weighed less than what was stated on packages. The testing also showed 66 percent of the fish from one supplier had too much ice. The Globe also wanted to verify restaurants and wholesalers had changed their ways following the newspaper’s 2011 investigation and resulting calls for reform. Daley and Abelson returned to 58 restaurants that served the wrong fish in 2011 to collect new samples. DNA tests showed 76 percent did not match what restaurants advertised on their menus. The resulting third installment of “Fishy Business,” published in December 2012, detailed these findings. In addition, Abelson and Daley explained how accountability is lost in the fish supply chain by investigating a major wholesaler that provided mislabeled fish to some of the region’s best-known restaurants.
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HBO Real Sports: Hockey's Darkest Day
In 2011 a plane carrying a Russian hockey team crashed shortly after takeoff--the deadliest accident in the history of professional sports. A five-month Real Sports investigation uncovered massive safety problems in the Russian hockey league. The league spent millions on player salaries but "a few bucks" on everything else--including travel. The plane that crashed was operated by a cheap, third-rate company that had been banned from flying to Europe because they had been cited so many times for major safety violations. The crew of the plane hadn't even completed their training. Our investigation showed that the lack of safety in the world’s second best hockey league—called the KHL—often extends to the ice where KHL team doctors use IV’s and drugs to get their players to perform better on the ice. One young star died after receiving an injection of banned drugs from team doctors. When it came to travel, the lack of safe conditions was nearly universal. Practically every team flew on a Soviet-era jet—jets that make up 3% of the world’s fleet but account for 42% of the world’s accidents. These jets are in such poor condition that most Russian airlines wont use them. Yet even after the crash the KHL continued to use these planes, a fact they initially denied. Shortly after we interviewed the KHL Vice President, the league changed its rules. Now teams fly strictly on modern equipment.
Tags: Russia; Russian hockey team; plane crash; the KHL;
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Lost In Detention
The film takes a look at the Obama administration's expanded immigration net, investigating the controversial Secure Communities enforcement program and going inside the hidden world of immigration detention.
Tags: immigration detention; immigration; immigrants; obama; ICE; FBI; DHS, homeland; securituy; mexico;
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Record Document ICE Cover-Up
The story documents how Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials attempted to cover-up a wave of immigration court cases dismissals in Houston in the fall of 2010.
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The Mysterious Case of Kevin Ku
The story reports on Kevin Xu -- a Chinese national who was cuaght trying to sell fake drugs to undercover immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and FDA agents in 2007.
Tags: Intellgectual Property Rights Coordination Center; IPRCC; Kevin Xu; FDA; ICE; Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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"Confidential Informants"
NPR investigates the world of confidential informants and the partnership that forms between them and the U.S. government. This specific case involves an informant who was moving up in the ranks of a notorious Mexican drug cartel. At the same time the informant was getting paid to provide crucial information to the U.S., he was also helping capture, torment and kill drug rivals. The U.S. was aware of his actions and did nothing.
Tags: Mexico; drug cartel; FOI; U.S. Immigration; ICE
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ICE quietly relaxes ban on using stun gun on jailed detainees
MPR "brought to light the troubling story of an immigrant detainee shot in the testicle with a Taser gun while in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a Minnesota jail. They further revealed ICE retroactively changed its ban on jails using stung guns against ICE detainees due to pressure from local law enforcement. ICE continued to send hundreds of detainees to jails rated "deficient" and quietly reversed the failing grades."
Tags: Immigration and Customs Enforcement; ICE; immigrants; detainees; stun gun; Taser; Minnesota Department of Corrections
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"Meltdown"
After the Eureka Ice and Cold Storage company suddenly closed its doors in 2008, businesses were left scrambling to find a new way to get their ice. The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services that ordered the company shut its doors, would not discuss the case. HSU journalism students eventually found that before the company closed it had several citations and violations of "public health and safety laws" going back for years.
Tags: Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services; Eureka Ice and Cold Storage; Dennis Hunter; Humboldt Maritime Museum; Cutten Realty
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Ice Rink Pollution - Danger in the Air
The machines that resurface the ice of many U.S. ice skating rinks, have been found to emit the potentially harmful pollutants, Carbon Monoxide and Nitrogen Dioxide. E:60 tested 34 rinks throughout the U.S. and found that almost one-third had "dangerous levels" of the pollutants that are released from the machine's exhaust pipes. Also released onto the ice are tiny "Ultrafine Particles," which, when ingested over a long period of time, can cause long-term lung damage.
Tags: Ice hockey; USA Hockey; emissions; ice resurfacing; Carbon Monoxide emissions; Ultrafine Particles; Ken Rundell