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 "Tobacco" ...
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Trail of the Gun
After a wave of gun violence in Seattle, KING 5 examined some of the most basic techniques that police use to solve gun crimes. By analyzing documents received through public records requests the television station learned that most large police departments in Washington state are not conducting routine ballistics tests on the so-called “crime guns” they seize from suspects and crime scenes. This means that guns, that could hold clues to unsolved crimes, are sitting right under investigators’ noses in their own evidence rooms. The investigative series "Trail of the Gun" also unearthed the results of federal firearms “traces”, which police use to determine how a gun ended up in the hands of a criminal. These trace results revealed that a large number of Seattle’s crime guns came from an unexpected place. After the stories aired, several large police departments pledged to begin ballistics testing programs for their crime guns. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms offered to assist local police agencies to test every gun in their evidence rooms. And, the feds unveiled a warrant targeting one of the gun dealers identified in the series.
Tags: Guns; gun crimes; police
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Fast and Furious: Arizona Crime Ties
When a Border Patrol agent was shot to death near the Arizona/Mexico border in Dec 2010, KNXV-TV quickly learned that guns found at the murder scene were linked to a controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives case called Fast and Furious.
Tags: Border Patrol; Alcohol; Tobacco; Firearms; Fast and Furious; Arizona; Mexico
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Fast and Furious: Arizona Crime Ties
When Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot to death near the Arizona/Mexico border in December 2010, we quickly learned the guns found at the murder scene were linked to a controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives case called Fast and Furious. Phoenix ATF agents testified in front of Congressional leaders about the flawed gun case and the strategy in which they knowingly allowed criminals to obtain deadly assault weapons. The agents admitted to watching straw buyers purchase weapons on behalf of criminals. The agents said they did nothing to stop the purchases or to track the guns in a meaningful way after they were purchased. As a result of the Fast and Furious case, approximately two thousand weapons went missing. They are presumed to be on the streets somewhere in the United States, near the border, or in Mexico. The agents' testimonies sparked a slew of Congressional hearings and a major shuffle within the leadership ranks of the ATF and other areas of the Department of Justice.
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The Five Percent Rule
The investigation uncovers the U.S. military's failure to comply with its own tobacco pricing restriction, selling millions of dollars of tobacco products for well beneath legal limits.
Tags: cigarrettes; Department of Defense; Marlboro; soldiers; smoking
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ATF Under Fire
Managers at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives retaliate against employees who file complaints, according to documents and interviews with dozens of employees.
Tags: employers; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; complaints
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Fire Mark: Did prosecutors wrongfully convict a 17-year-old of triple homicide in the 1995 blaze that killed three firefighters?
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University looked into the conviction of Greg Brown who was charged with arson in a fire that lead to the death of three firefighters. Through their reporting efforts, the Innocence Institute the fire was not started by Brown - it was cause by a natural gas leak, not arson. And that some of the main witnesses had been paid as much as $10,000 to testify.
Tags: wrongful conviction; arson; crime; Innocence Project; FOIA; ATF; Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
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The Hidden Life of Guns
The investigation details the way guns move through society, from retail sales to street crimes. The Post set out to break the secrecy imposed by Congress and an examination of how gunes are used in crimes. Their investigation included creating a database of more than 35,000 guns traced to crimes; a comprehensive database of 511 police officers killed by firearms; lists from confidential sources of the top 12 gun dealers who have sold the most weapons trace from Mexican crime scenes over the past two years.
Tags: guns; gun laws; crime; gun dealer; illegal gun trade; Mexico; criminal statistics; Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; National Shooting Sports Foundation; Tiahrt Amendment;
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Tobacco Underground: The Booming Global Trade in Smuggled Cigarettes
"Tobacco Underground" is groundbreaking series on the global trade in smuggled cigarettes, produced by a team of 14 journalists based in 10 countries. The illicit trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business today, fueling organized crime and corruption, robbing governments of needed tax money, and spurring addiction to a deadly product. So profitable is the trade that tobacco is the world's most widely smuggled legal substance. In an interactive, multimedia Web site, ICIJ published a series of nine stories, integrated with undercover footage; audio and video interviews with experts, smugglers and undercover agents; maps and charts; and extensive links to resources ranging from tobacco control groups to repositories of tobacco industry documents.
Tags: tobacco; smuggling; new media; international journalism; cigarette; tobacco
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farmsubsidy.org
Farmsubsidy.org reports on what happens to the billions spent by the European Union on Common Agricultural Policy. These articles discuss where the subsidies go, and how much money is spent on unhealthy products like alcohol, tobacco, sugar and animal fat.
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A Question of Oversight
Public agency First 5 Kern contracted with the Applied Research Center at California State University, Bakersfield to evaluate First 5's effectiveness in the community. During the research, money from First 5, which is a company that "doles out money from a state tobacco tax" to recipients like schools, was used to pay for items including trips and cars. Some of these gifts went to the researchers, who concluded that "First 5 Kern is making a substantive and significant difference" in people's lives.
Tags: First 5 Kern; California State University, Bakersfield; tobacco tax; distribution of tobacco tax money; illicit gifts