Investigations that exposed failures of government regulation, abuse of military personnel and failures of the criminal justice system are among the work honored in the 2009 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards. This year there were two recipients of the top prize, the IRE Medal.  The New York Times’ Charles Duhigg and a team of database experts and multimedia specialists exposed failings in the government’s efforts to protect the nation’s water supply in the series "Toxic Waters." Mark Greenblatt, David Raziq, Keith Tomshe, Chris Henao, Robyn Hughes and Keith Connors of KHOU-Houston also received the IRE Medal for “Under ... Read more ...

IRE members have access to a Web-based data exploration application to quickly and easily analyze demographic data while on deadline. ESRI and IRE made a special agreement to offer ESRI data to IRE members at no cost. This program will save journalists time and money by making ESRI data available in an easy-to-view format. A complimentary Business Analyst Online (BAO) Basic subscription through Dec. 31, 2010 is available to all IRE members. BAO combines GIS software technology with extensive demographic data for the United States in the form of reports and maps. Reporters can use BAO to investigate demographic patterns ... Read more ...

There are several options for keeping up with the latest at the CAR conference. To keep track on Twitter, look for either #nicar or #nicar2010 and follow IRE/NICAR on Twitter @ire_nicar Several members of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism are attending the conference and keeping a running blog passing along some of the tips and ideas they're getting during sessions. Follow their blog here.

On-site registrations will be accepted for the upcoming Computer-Assisted Reporting conference beginning Thursday, March 11 at the Sheraton Downtown Phoenix.   For details on where to go for registration, parking and other key conference information, visit http://data.nicar.org/node/3912.  See this year’s schedule at http://data.nicar.org/conference/schedule/7.  You don’t want to miss this conference!