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 "precipitation" ...
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What Killed Arafat?
This 50-minute film was the result of a nine month long cold case investigation into the suspicious death of Yasser Arafat, Palestine's iconic, revolutionary leader. After obtaining Arafat's entire original medical files, Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit, led by producer and reporter Clayton Swisher, crossed continents to track down and interview the French, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian doctors who had worked to save Arafat's life. Part I of "What Killed Arafat?" was able to easily shatter popular myths about what caused Arafat's precipitous decline from the onset of his illness on October 12, 2004 until his death on November 11th. Testimony from Arafat's doctors conclusively ruled out liver cirrhosis, cancer, even rumors of HIV. The scientific, evidence-based discoveries made in the Part II result from the work performed by a team of forensic pathologists, toxicologists, and radiation physicists from the University Center for Legal Medicine and Institute for Radiation Physics in Lausanne, Switzerland. Working without payment, they agreed to run a battery of sophisticated tests on a large gym bag containing Arafat’s last personal effects. The scientists discovered significant levels of reactor-made Polonium 210 contaminating areas of Arafat's personal effects that came into contact with his biological fluids. When the final results came back in late June, Al Jazeera hosted Mrs. Arafat in Doha to watch the Swiss explain the results on set. Upon witnessing their testimony, Ms. Arafat made a resolute, unanticipated surprise announcement, calling on the Palestinian Authority to exhume her husband's body for testing. Yasser Arafat’s body was exhumed on November 27, 2012 so that the final samples could be retrieved. Whether the causes of Arafat's death are determined to be natural, inconclusive—or even murder—suffice it to say that Al Jazeera’s "What Killed Arafat?" and the resulting investigations and exhumation will have inched the world closer to understanding what did not, and possibly for the first time, what did claim the life of this historic and controversial personality.
Tags: Science; death; biology; investigation; exhumation; testing
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A Rapid Rise
This investigation examined dozens of unusual real estate deals in working-class neighborhoods in which buyers made low-ball offers to desperate sellers. The recorded sales prices, however, were tens of thousands of dollars more. These deals happened during a precipitous decline in Florida’s housing boom. In each transaction, the buyers borrowed close to the full amount from lenders. The investigations showed that the money between the price paid to the sellers and the recorded sales prices was paid to a third party. This was not always disclosed to the lenders, which is against state and federal law. All the deals involved the same real estate agent, the same title company and the same group of buyers. The same appraiser was used in many of the cases, and the appraisals reflected the higher price. As a result of the inflated prices, property values were artificially raised for the rest of the neighborhoods, resulting in higher taxes.
Tags: real estate; property; taxes; public property;
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Rivers down to barest of levels
"A USA Today analysis found that scores of the nation's rivers fell to historic low levels during the past four months."
Tags: drought; water; rivers; weather; precipitation; flooding
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Forecast: Hazy
Discover reports on the difficulties that modern meteorologists still face in predicting the weather. The story points to several examples of deadly storms in the recent decade, which have not been predicted until few minutes before they hit. The article reveals that weather service boasts with using "numerical weather modeling," said to be the best scientific achievement of the 20th century, but doesn't event track the accuracy of three-day forecasts.
Tags: tornados; winds; precipitation; storms; snow; blizzards; atmospheric conditions; National Weather Service Storm Prediction; National Hurricane Center; National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; National Severe Storm Laboratory
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Bad Advice: As their firms chase investment banking deals, Wall Street analysts are ignoring red flags and touting stocks that are poised for a fall
"Many investors these days complain that stocks they own fall precipitously without warning from the analysts who persuaded them to buy the shares in the first place," Keenan reports. "Why didn't Wall Street pros issue warnings before the routs? Well, why would they? Analysts are more rainmakers than researchers these days. They're paid to be positive. " Of 28,000 analyst recommendations on 6,700 companies in the U.S. and Canada, less than 1 percent are sells or strong sells ... By contrast, one-third of the ratings are strong buys, another third are buys, and all the rest are holds." That ratio hasn't changed much over the past five years, "and it's not likely to change as long as analysts pay -- $2 million to $3 million annually for top-ranked names and as much as $15 million for the superstars -- is linked to how much business they bring to their firms."
Tags: Mary Meeker; Jack Grubman
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The Road to Racak
CBC Radio News investigated the "January 15, 1999 massacre of Kosovar Albanians in the village of Racak. the discovery of dozens of bodies lying slaughtered in a village ravine was widely viewed as 'The Event' which triggered NATO's intervention in Kosovo. The documentary aimed to investigate the many suspicious questions surrounding the massacre, reconstruct the events leading up to it and assess the extent to which the massacre was 'orchestrated' as a means of precipitating NATO's intervention."
Tags: CASSETTE TAPE; Kosovo; Racak; NATO
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Park it where the sun don't shine
KOMU found that the odds of getting a parking ticket in Columbia on a day with even the slightest amount of precipitation (.01 inches or more) are about half what they are on a perfectly sunny day, and the odds plummet as the weather worsens.
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No title (id: 12884)
The Union-Tribune explores the use of so-called reliable informants by law enforcement, showing how in many instances they are unreliable thugs with good reasons to lie. The centerpiece of the series was an in-depth look at a raid on the home of an innocent man, precipitated by an informant that federal agents should well have known was a liar. (May 28 - 30, 1995)
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No title (id: 10877)
In late August we published a cover stroy on Borden Inc., a once proud member of America's corporate elite. This was the first story to delve below the surface and really detail how badly poor Elsie the Cow was being treated by it's handlers. Forbes detailed its dire condition and the gross mismanagement at Borden, and played a role in precipitating the coercive, fire sale takeover that Borden entered into with leveraged buyout firm kohlberg Kravis Roverts. Forbes was also the first to uncover the takeover artist, Paul Kazarian was interested in buying Borden and turning it around.
Tags: Schifrin
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No title (id: 10752)
The Chronicle investigated a network of abductors for hire who prey on the desperation of parents unable to control their troubled teenagers. The stories precipitated an outcry by parents, lawyers and youth advocates against abductors for hire, calls for legislation to stop them and an investigation in New Mexico of one of the wilderness camps described in the stories. Legislation is being drafted and the investigation is still open, June 22 - 24 and Oct. 25, 1994.