Center for Investigative Reporting

March 20th, 2013

Google employees face health risks from Superfund site’s toxic vapors

Employees at satellite campus exposed to elevated levels of chemical linked to cancer, birth defects:

The main threat from TCE is posed by vapors from the contaminated groundwater seeping into buildings and accumulating in interior spaces.

The new Google campus features four two-story office buildings linked by steel-reinforced fences that require a key card to enter. Inside is a stretch of grass and food carts, giving the area the feel of a college campus.

On a recent afternoon, young women, pregnant women and visitors with young children could be seen relaxing in the courtyard. One Google employee who was visibly pregnant was asked if she was aware of risks associated with TCE exposure.

“We’re really not allowed to talk about it,” she said. “Sorry.”

March 13th, 2013

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!

December 26th, 2012

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/

June 13th, 2012

As its farmers get too old to till the soil, Japan grapples with a question that many industrialized nations now face: Who will grow our food in the future? Our new Food for 9 Billion segment done in collaboration with PBS NewsHour, American Public Media’s Marketplace and Homelands Productions.

May 25th, 2012

Coral-killing seaweed has medicinal benefits, researchers say

California researchers have discovered that there may be a silver lining to an invasive and toxic seaweed that is killing some of Hawaii’s coral reefs: It seems the seaweed contains compounds that could treat human diseases.

“I think this finding is a nice illustration of how we need to look more deeply in our environment, because even nuisance pests, as it turns out, are not just pests,” said William Gerwick, a researcher at UC San Diego and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “It’s a long road to go from this early-stage discovery to application in the clinic, but it’s the only road if we want new and more efficacious medicines.”

The study appears in today’s issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology.

The seaweed, a tiny photosynthetic organism known as a cyanobacterium, was identified in 2008 on coral reefs near the Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, off Hawaii’s Kona coast.

Photo credit: Jennifer Smith/Scripps Institution of Oceanography

April 2nd, 2012

37 million

The number of bacteria you release into the air every hour you remain in a room. At least, that’s what researchers at UC Berkeley and Yale University have discovered about the presence of a person in a room. Read more.

March 27th, 2012

We don’t want to buy pink slime.

Dennis Barrett, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s director of food services.

Schools across the country have been quick to distance themselves from the cotton candy-colored controversy after revelations that the U.S. Department of Agriculture buys the product, commonly used in ground beef, for its national school lunch program.

(via californiawatch)

Reblogged from California Watch

March 13th, 2012

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californiawatch:

Nearly 10 percent of the 2.6 million people living in the Tulare Lake Basin and Salinas Valley might be drinking nitrate-contaminated water, according to a new study out today from researchers at UC Davis. If nothing is done to stem the problem, the report warns, those at risk for health and financial problems may number nearly 80 percent by 2050. Read the full story.

Photo by Paolo Vescia/FERNnews

Reblogged from California Watch

March 12th, 2012

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More from our “‘Himalayan Viagra’ stirs danger, violence in Nepal” report:
Yarsagumba is the result of a bizarre parasitic relationship between fungus and insect. Spores of the Cordyceps mushroom invade and consume the larvae of the Himalayan bat moth, which live underground at altitudes of 10,000 to 16,000 feet for as long as five years, feeding on roots before they commence their metamorphosis into moths.
After the fungal spores have killed and mummified the larvae, they send up a spindly brown stem, a tiny knob-headed mushroom – and then they are very likely to be picked.
There have been many attempts to farm yarsagumba, but none has ever succeeded. The only way the precious fungus can grow is by the fortuitous concurrence of spore and larva in alpine atmospheric conditions – and brave collectors must be willing to risk their lives to collect it.

Yarsagumba is the result of a bizarre parasitic relationship between fungus and insect. Spores of the Cordyceps mushroom invade and consume the larvae of the Himalayan bat moth, which live underground at altitudes of 10,000 to 16,000 feet for as long as five years, feeding on roots before they commence their metamorphosis into moths.

After the fungal spores have killed and mummified the larvae, they send up a spindly brown stem, a tiny knob-headed mushroom – and then they are very likely to be picked.

There have been many attempts to farm yarsagumba, but none has ever succeeded. The only way the precious fungus can grow is by the fortuitous concurrence of spore and larva in alpine atmospheric conditions – and brave collectors must be willing to risk their lives to collect it.

March 12th, 2012

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There’s a gold rush in the Himalayas. Fortunes are being made – and lives are being ruined – not over gleaming metal nuggets, but in the reckless pursuit of yarsagumba. A rare hybrid of caterpillar and mushroom that grows only in the high alpine meadows of Tibet, Nepal and India. It has been prescribed by traditional healers in Asia for centuries to treat lung and kidney diseases, build up bone marrow and stop hemorrhaging, but it is prized above all for its reputation as a powerful aphrodisiac, earning it the nickname “Himalayan Viagra.”

The explosive growth in the yarsagumba market beggars the most extravagant superlatives: In 1992, a pound of the stuff sold for $3; today, the same quantity retails for around $9,400. Read more.

Photo by Thomas L. Kelly, visit www.thomaslkellyphotos.com

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At The Center for Investigative Reporting, we believe journalism that moves citizens to action is an essential pillar of democracy. Since 1977, CIR has relentlessly pursued and uncovered injustices that otherwise would be hidden from the public eye. Today, we are upholding this legacy and looking forward, working at the forefront of journalistic innovation to produce important stories that make a difference and engage our audiences across the aisle, coast to coast, and worldwide. What drives our work isn't profit – it's impact. Learn more at http://cironline.org/

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Coral-killing seaweed has medicinal benefits, researchers say

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