Feb. 27, 2009

CAR hotel discount extended

Register by March 6 to save $25

The Sheraton Indianapolis City Centre has extended our discounted room rate of $139 through March 6 or until our block is full. Don’t delay in making your reservation because once the block is full, the rate will go up. Staying at the conference hotel not only keeps you close to the sessions but it allows you the opportunity to network at the end of the day with your journalism colleagues and friends. There are two ways to make a reservation: To make a reservation online, visit the hotel Web site by clicking here. To make your reservation by phone, please call 1-888-627-8186 and ask to make a reservation in the "2009 CAR Conference" room block. If you are interested in finding a roommate to share hotel expenses, please check our roommate forum.

Early bird registration ends March 6, which is only a week away. Click here for more information on registration.

The updated conference schedule, including speakers and panel descriptions, is online.

Other opportunities:

• Space is still available in the CAR mini-boot camp. There are 36 seats available on a first-come, first-served basis. Don’t forget to sign up for the Mini Boot Camp when completing your conference registration.
• Caspio is offering free hands-on training on Thursday and Sunday at the CAR conference. See details on this training.
• Amtrak offers a 10% discount off the lowest available rail fare to Indianapolis, Ind., between March 16-25, 2009. To book your reservation call Amtrak at 1-800-872-7245 or contact your local travel agent. Reservations cannot be booked via the Internet. Please be sure to refer to Convention Fare code X60V-954 when making your reservation.

For more conference news and information, visit our Web site.

It’s back: FAA enforcement actions database updated

After several years of negotiations, the NICAR Database Library has updated its copy of the FAA Enforcement Information System. This useful database documents cases where airlines, airports and pilots are accused of breaking FAA regulations — examples include drug-test failures and alcohol abuse on the job.

Only two months into 2009, there have already been two major airplane crashes that have attracted heavy media attention. When covering such events, reporters have the opportunity to get at the "how" and "why" of the story by using some of the Federal Aviation Administration’s public databases. While many of these databases are freely available on the World Wide Web, the Database Library has recently updated a key dataset that, quite frankly, was very difficult to get. The FAA’s Web site — normally a good source of government information — does not serve the enforcement database.

It’s important to note that the newest copy of this dataset has plenty of information redacted — almost six in 10 records have the accused individual's name expunged. However, most of the records contain information about the airline involved, the location of the incident, what rule was allegedly broken and what the FAA ultimately did with the case.

Despite the data's limitations, this is the sort of thing that makes the Database Library a useful resource for IRE members. Independently seeking this database through the Freedom of Information Act, and cleaning it up so it can be used in a modern database manager, would take up an enormous amount of time. We are proud to be able to serve our members by making data much, much easier to obtain.

— Jeremy Milarsky, Database Library Director

Armando Rodriguez remembered in El Paso

More than 70 people gathered in the desert — presenters, students, border journalists of all ages and experiences — at the University of Texas El Paso for IRE’s first bilingual version of our Watchdog Workshop.

The event included hands-on CAR training and lectures on topics including immigration, storytelling and organized crime by mostly bilingual presenters and IRE members who came in from Texas, Florida, New Mexico and Mexico. On Friday, IRE, with sponsorship support from Hearst newspapers, offered a dinner to 50 border editors and reporters in honor of Armando Rodriguez, the El Diario reporter killed last year. We presented a Hearst gift to Rodriguez’ wife and his children and announced that a Juarez journalist would be brought to IRE’s Baltimore conference on a scholarship established for 2009 in his name.

The gathering came during a tumultuous week in Juarez, where the police chief was forced to resign after a series of cartel executions of officers, but both the dinner and workshop brought together people covering those difficult stories and allowed them to exchange valuable information that will help them to do an even better job reporting on myriad issues along the U.S.-Mexico border region. We hope to bring offer additional bilingual workshops in 2009 and 2010. Email the IRE International Task Force or Executive Director Mark Horvit if you have ideas about content, trainers or venues.

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Member Updates

Membership help for troubled times

In these difficult times, IRE is making a special offer to our members: If your membership renewal has come due and you are out of work, we will provide you with a complimentary one-year renewal so that you can continue to use IRE's resources and services. This offer is retroactive for all of those who were not able to renew their membership in the past year for that reason.

All you need to do is contact IRE membership coordinator John Green at jgreen@ire.org or 573-882-2772.

Additionally, several members have encouraged IRE to offer a way that they can help out-of-work colleagues maintain their memberships in these tough times. For anyone who would like to do so, you can fund a year's membership for an out-of-work journalist, a $60 contribution. Please contact John Green if you are interested.

— Mark Horvit, IRE Executive Director