Developers will demo a beta version of the newsroom appliance at the 2012 CAR Conference.

Tucked away on reporters' computers are dozens of details that could benefit news coverage, if only other journalists knew where to look.

Newsrooms are swimming in data. Journalistic organizations big and small continue to collect data from local, state and federal governments, and dozens of other places. As the collection grows, making sense of that information can become more difficult.

That's what the PANDA project, a 2011 Knight News Challenge winner, wants to solve — make data analysis easier for journalists and make sharing ...

It was an unbelievable record for anyone, let alone a public employee. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that one Opa-Locka, Fla., officer had been:

“Fired five times and arrested three, he was charged with stealing a car, trying to board an airplane with a loaded gun and driving with a suspended license.…(He) split a man's lip with a head butt. He opened another man's head with a leg sweep and takedown. He spit in the face of a drunken, stumbling arrestee. One time, he smacked a juvenile so hard the boy's face was red and swollen the ...

Covering religious organizations can be difficult, because it can be tough to get public documents. Kansas City Star reporter Judy Thomas, spoke at an IRE training session for McClatchy journalists and offers the following tips:

• Get to know your subjects inside out. Subscribe to newsletters, magazines and other publications of the organizations you cover. Get a flow chart of the organization, learn the chain of command, become familiar with the acronyms.


• While churches typically don't have to file IRS 990 forms, it's worth checking because some do so voluntarily. (www.guidestar.org is a good place to check ...

Jill Abramson, who took over as executive editor of The New York Times in September, will deliver the keynote address at the 2012 IRE Conference in Boston. She is the first woman to hold that position in the newspaper's more than 160-year history. 

More than 800 journalists and journalism educators are expected to attend the four-day conference that focuses on accountability reporting techniques and trends. Abramson will deliver the keynote speech during annual IRE Awards luncheon on Saturday, June 16, 2012. She follows CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager, who was the keynote speaker at the 2011 IRE Conference. 

"Jill ...

Avoiding landmines when dealing with confidential sources was the focus of one of the panels highlighting a joint workshop held last week by IRE and the Canadian Association of Journalists.

More than 90 journalists gathered at the Ryerson University School of Journalism to learn more about key issues facing journalists on both sides of the border, from the environment and terrorism to using open records laws and finding relevant data online.

The confidential sources panel, featuring three journalists and a media lawyer, provided practical advice in how to deal fairly with sources who request confidentiality while not getting into legal ...

Mark your calendars: Charles Lewis, executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication, will chat live at the Reynolds Center’s BusinessJournalism.org at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) on Sept. 27.

This hour-long conversation will cover investigative journalism and how to turn reporting into a book project.

Lewis was the founder of the Center for Public Integrity. He also helped create theInvestigative News Network in 2009. The network has grown to a 60 member nonprofit news organizations.

Here’s more information on Lewis and the free chat.

By Kyle Deas
Graduate student, University of Missouri

It’s that time of year again: the school supply aisles at your local stores are crammed with people; the summer heat is giving its last dying gasps; and education beat reporters across the country are being asked, for the second or fifth or fifteenth time, to write a back-to-school story.

By Kyle Deas
Graduate student, University of Missouri

It’s looking increasingly likely that Hurricane Irene will wreak havoc up and down the Eastern seaboard this weekend. As the storm gathers strength and speed, you may be wondering how to cover its landing and the aftermath.

This past week, after an earthquake hit Virginia, we published a blog post called “Breaking New Tips: Resources to cover earthquakes, other natural disasters.” Some of the resources listed in that post were specific to earthquakes, but many also apply to covering hurricanes, including:

• “Be Prepared, Before the Storm hits” (Tipsheet)
• Investigating After a ...