Resource Center

Stories

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 "caliber" ...

  • Unfair Game

    Texas high school athletics rules prohibit students from transferring from district to district for athletic purposes, but that hasn’t stopped coaches and administrators from openly flouting the rules to assemble state championship-caliber teams as part of an underground recruiting system that puts athletics over academics. WFAA investigative reporter Brett Shipp's reports showed how improper recruiting helped Dallas' Kimball Knights build back-to-back state champ basketball teams, and how former Dallas Cowboy Deion Sanders' new school, Prime Prep Academy, also drew in blue-chip players against the rules.

    Tags: High school athletics; sports; coach; recruiting system; state champion team

    By Brett Shipp, investigative reporter; Billy Bryant, photographer and video editor; Jason Trahan, producer

    WFAA-TV (Dallas)

    2012

  • Education in Crossfire

    It was found that 160 gun crimes had been committed on Memphis public school campuses over the last five years.

    Tags: gun control; juvenile; weapons; Melrose High; caliber; handgun;

    By Marc Perrusquia; Kristina Goetz

    Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)

    2009

  • Prison Medicine: Costly Decisions, Dire Consequences

    The Dispatch follows the lead from the death of a 19-year old inmate Sean Schwamberger from an undetected drug-resistant staph infection, in order to carry out a detailed investigation of healthcare in prisons. The revelations are startling. While some critically ill inmates died after waiting an hour for ambulances, some went without surgery for 16 months during which time their ailments worsened. It was also found that the track record of some physicians who treated the inmates, included felony. And amid complaints of the low caliber and poor performance of contractor-provided physicians, the taxpayer pays more than $1 million in bills to pay wrongful death and medical negligence claims filed by inmates and their families.

    Tags: Gov. Bob Taft; Pickaway Correctional Institution; Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction; Dr. Bruce Martin

    By Randy Ludlow;Eve Mueller

    Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)

    2003

  • The Big Gun: Fifty-caliber sniper rifles can shoot through bullet-proof glass and cinderblock walls and hit targets a mile away -- and they're perfectly legal.

    This article talks about the dangers of fifty-caliber sniper rifles. According to the author, "The rifles...are the biggest firearms you can buy without a special dispensation from the government. Fifty-caliber rifles shoot ammunition designed to chew up armored vehicles, and they're accurate, in the right hands, at a mile or more. They can shoot through bulletproof glass, armored limousines, cinder-block walls...from as far away as the Washington Monument through the forehead of someone standing on the steps of the Capitol. And any eighteen-year-old can buy one with no more paperwork than it takes to buy a .22 at Wal-Mart."

    Tags: guns; violence; fifty-caliber rifles; .50 rifles; rifles; ammunition; long-range guns; bulletproof

    By Dan Baum

    Rolling Stone

    2001

  • The .50 Caliber Militia

    BNNtv investigates the militia movement in America. Contrary to ideas that the militia movement is declining BNNtv found it thriving. BNNtv traces an underground network of traffickers in the extremely lethal .50-caliber sniper rifle. The story reveals that the State Commander of the infamous Michigan Militia was almost caught in an ATF raid at the home of a convicted felon and gun dealer in Arizona.

    Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; militias; Michigan Militia; ATF

    By Steven Rosenbaum;Pamela Yoder;Bruce Kennedy;Dodge Billingsley;Kate Jarvis

    None

    2001

  • High-caliber carnaval

    U.S.-backed arms exhibits are numerous these days, with the U.S. contributing nearly 55% of arms foreign arms sales. Zeroes in on the Latin America Defentech show in Brazil in April 1999. Critics are upset because they feel the shows waste taxpayers' money and "don't serve the national interest."

    Tags: Latin America; Weaponry; Arms sales; Cold War; Middle East

    By Ken Silverstein

    Mother Jones

    1999

  • The life of a gun

    This Seattle Times story explores how and why illegal guns find their way onto the streets. But instead of looking at guns in general, it focuses on one gun. The gun is followed from manufacturer to nine years leater when sued as evidence in the courtroom.

    Tags: gun control; .22 caliber pistols; gun violence; Bureau of Alcohol; Tobacco and Firearms

    By Arthur Santana

    Seattle Times

    1998

  • American University in Bulgaria

    The American University in Bulgaria was established in 1991 a joint venture between the University of Maine, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Soros Foundation and the Bulgarian government. The school, the only American university in Eastern Europe, was meant to be a bastion of western thought and values in the former Communist bloc. Although the school has been open for six years, no one had really looked into whether the American university was living up to its mission as a democratizing force in Eastern Europe. What was found was both heartening and disappointing. For example, the students are highly motivated, but they are sometimes hindered by a faculty and administration that is not of the highest caliber. Faculty turnover is astoundingly high so the university has been unable to build a base of experienced teachers and administrators. In addition, the university faces massive financial problems that would daunt any school administrator.

    Tags: None

    By Susan Young

    Daily News (Bangor, Maine)

    1997

  • The Killer's Trial

    The shocking Mob-style execution of fashion designer Gianni Versace appears to have been the crescendo of a cross-country murder spree that landed 27-year-old Andrew Cunanan on the F.B.I.'s Ten Most Wanted list. From the truth about Cunanan's childhood, through his free-spending days at the heart of San Diego's gay society, to the bloody crime scenes he left behind in Minneapolis, Chicago, New Jersey and Miami, Maureen Orth follows the twisted psychological path that ended only when Cunanan turned the .40-caliber murder weapon on himself.

    Tags: murder; homicide; fashion designer; sadomasochistic pornography; Jeffrey Trial; David Madson; Lee Miglin; William Reese; homosexuality

    By Maureen Orth

    Vanity Fair Magazine

    1997

  • No title (id: 120)

    Dallas Morning News finds Texas National Guard has problems with theft, fraud, and low-caliber members, 1981.

    Tags: None

    By None

    Dallas Morning News

    1981