Investigative Reporters and Editors is pleased to announce the next phase in our ongoing Census project, designed to make it easier and faster for journalists to work with 2010 Census data. The new online interactive tool has been developed to crunch and download data from the next series of census data releases this summer. The project is the result of work by journalists from the The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, the Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, funded through generous support from the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of ... Read more ...

Investigative Reporters and Editors has produced, gathered and organized a wealth of resources for mining census data. New Census 2010 data will be released on a rolling basis through the summer. American Community Survey census data comes out every year now, down to the tract level. Here’s a sample of the tools to help IRE members with background, story ideas, data and more: Census panels at the CAR Conference Join us Feb. 24-27 in Raleigh, N.C., for the annual Computer-Assisting Reporting Conference. This year, we’re offering a variety of census training. Get story ideas to cover the ... Read more ...

As journalists gear up for the second release of data from the 2010 Census, members of Investigative Reporters and Editors will be able to download data ready for analysis thanks to USA TODAY. The upcoming  wave of Census 2010 data, coming state-by-state in February and March, will contain the basic counts of population by race for every state, county and place in America, all the way down to the smallest geographies, called blocks. This data, known as “Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171) summary files,” will be used to redraw the boundaries of legislative, electoral and other districts in states. USA ... Read more ...

IRE will present two regional workshops this fall to help you get ready for Census 2010 data and learn how to use annual census surveys to produce compelling enterprise stories. The full-day workshops will be held Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C (full details and registration here) and Nov. 13 in Cincinnati, Ohio (full details and registration here). Print, broadcast and online journalists can use census data for quick-hit, enterprise and investigative stories on nearly any beat. Each full-day workshop will offer nitty-gritty details of the 2010 Census and the annual American Community Survey (ACS), as well as plenty of ... Read more ...