Center for Investigative Reporting

Imagine you’re a pot reporter. Pot as in weed, marijuana, bud. What could possibly go wrong when you cover a drug that is legally contentious but widely tolerated? Center for Investigative Reporting reporter Michael Montgomery finds out the hard way. Watch our new animated video to find out more …

Who owns the fish in the sea?

Any commercial fisherman used to be able to fish in U.S. oceans. Not anymore.

Today, the right to fish belongs to a number of private individuals who have traded, bought and sold these rights in unregulated markets. This system, called “catch shares,” favors large fishing fleets and has cut out thousands of smaller-scale fishermen. How did this happen?

Watch our animated short to find out!

We’re posting some of our best investigative reporting from 2012 - in this story from August, we looked at Suburban Junkies in Southern California.

In Orange County, some young prescription drug addicts are turning to heroin for a cheaper high. This growing problem appears to hit hardest in affluent communities around the state.

Watch the video to learn more and see more of our best of 2012 reporting on our website: http://cironline.org/

With news of the assassination of the second female minister in Afghanistan this week, we look at the oppression and intimidation of Afghan women and the implications for their security as the U.S. withdraws its troops.

We went inside women’s prisons in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif to provide a rare glimpse of a shocking aspect of Afghan society little known to the outside world. The majority of Afghan women in prison have committed no other crime than being in love with the wrong man — or running away from abusive husbands who were selected by their fathers.

In August 2006, caregivers at the Sonoma Developmental Center in California found dark blue bruises shaped like handprints covering the breasts of a patient named Jennifer. She accused a staff member of molestation, court records show. Jennifer’s injuries appeared to be evidence of sexual abuse, indicating that someone had violently grabbed her.

The Office of Protective Services opened an investigation. But detectives took no action because the case relied heavily on the word of a woman with severe intellectual disabilities. A few months later, court records show, officials at the center had indisputable evidence that a crime had occurred. She was pregnant.

Watch our graphic novel video about Jennifer (not her real name) - and read our entire new investigation about how police mishandled reported sex assaults of disabled.

A must watch new video we just produced for the new YouTube channel The I Files (which we curate to feature the best investigative video out there. Definitely give a follow if you love good video).

The video details how records show that the man who armed Black Panthers was actually a FBI informant. Watch and then find more details here. 

theifiles:

FBI files, uncovered by journalist Seth Rosenfeld, reveal that a prominent radical activist in the 1960s was the first to supply the Black Panthers with guns and weapons training. Who was this mysterious man and what was his story? Watch this exclusive I Files video, produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting, to find out.

Prescription painkiller addiction kills 40 people each day in the United States. In California’s Orange County, some prescription drug addicts are turning to heroin for a cheaper high. This growing problem appears to be hitting hardest in affluent communities around the state. Get more information in California Watch’s powerful new video.

Another powerful new video out today - An exclusive interview with the woman whose anonymous court testimony exposed and brought down Yusef Bey, the founder of a self-styled black Muslim group in Oakland responsible for the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey. She goes on camera for the first time with us to tell her story and reveal her identity.