Dear Friends and Members of IRE:
This has been a remarkable year for IRE. Our two annual conferences were among the largest we’ve held, our trainers worked with journalists in 23 states and in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, and membership is at its highest point in many years.
Our reach has grown, strengthening IRE’s 38-year commitment to teaching journalists ways to uncover facts that make a difference. We stretch each dollar we receive to strengthen the investigative reporting skills of journalists in every medium.
More than ever, IRE has been there for you ...

ENTER YOUR BEST INVESTIGATIVE WORK INTO THE 2013 IRE AWARDS.

It’s that time of year again – time to consider entering your best work into the IRE Awards. Among the most prestigious in journalism, the IRE Awards recognize outstanding investigative reporting across all media. Eligible entries must have been published or aired between January 1 and December 31, 2013. The deadline for submissions is January 10, 2014.

For details on how to enter, go here. To view past winners, go here.

We've got a great opportunity on the IRE staff for someone who's ready to take the lead on running our website.

We're looking for candidates with a passion for investigative and watchdog journalism, who are interested in developing online training sessions and playing a leading role in keeping our site innovative. Our site features coverage of investigative stories, industry news, data journalism, open government issues and much more. You'll work with some of the best journalists in the world and contribute to the industry every day while expanding your tech skills and knowledge of investigative techniques ...

Nancy Stancill, an IRE member for 25 years and a former board member, has pledged royalties from her debut suspense novel Saving Texas, to the IRE endowment. 

Stancill, of Charlotte, N.C., has pledged the royalties from the first thousand books she sells to support the Godfrey Wells Stancill Small Newspaper Fellowship. The fellowship, established in 2006 in memory of her father, so far has paid expenses for six journalists from small dailies to get training at IRE's national conference. Stancill's father was a longtime editor and publisher in Virginia. 

Nancy Stancill's novel, published by Black Rose ...

The Knight Foundation has published a new book titled "Searchlights and Sunglasses: Field Notes from the Digital Age of Journalism," which looks at the challenges facing journalism and includes essays on investigative reporting.

Written by Eric Newton of the Knight Foundation, the text is intended to double as a tool for journalism educators, with more than 1,000 lesson plans and resources.

The text is available at searchlightsandsunglasses.org. You can read more about the project on the Knight Blog or follow the conversation on social media with #edshift.

Join IRE on a Google+ Hangout for a discussion on investigating local sports, Wednesday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

• Kevin Blackistone, University of Maryland professor and frequent ESPN panelist, will moderate a discussion including:
• Eric Prisbell, National College Basketball Writer at USA Today
• Amy Shipley, Reporter at the South Florida Sun Sentinel
• Scott Reid, Reporter at The Orange County Register

Drawing on the issues presented in the latest IRE Journal, the discussion will focus on the need for investigative reporting in local sports, techniques for finding stories and balancing investigative work with beat reporting.

Tune in here at 10 ...

We reported yesterday that many government agencies had shut off access to their online data services, and that the NICAR database library was a good source for finding government data during the shutdown.

Poynter today has an interesting post on the challenges the shutdown has caused for data journalists. If you want more background, the Sunlight Foundation explained what happens to a .gov site during a shutdown. The Donald W. Reynolds Business Journalism center has a list of some sources that are available, including linkbacks to NICAR data.

But some agencies have closed and others haven't. What's available ...

Four IRE members were among journalists honored in the seventh annual Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism, announced today by the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business Journalism.

The awards are named for the investigative team of Don Barlett and James Steele, they are funded by the Reynolds Center and celebrate the  best in investigative business journalism. This year's winners:

Gold

• America’s Worst Charities, by IRE members Kris Hundley and Kendall Taggart in a joint project  of the Tampa Bay Times and The Center for Investigative Reporting, received the top gold award of $5,000. Reporters identified ...

If you asked me how I first got started in investigative journalism, I’d find it hard to answer, since it’s all kinda fuzzy. It could have been the CAR class I took, or the Hacks/Hackers meeting I went to for its cool name, then stayed for its cool mission. But if there’s one experience that was a nonstop catalyst, it was the Campus Coverage Project in 2012. Fifty journo kids and I received what was basically a mini IRE conference plus two years of free membership in IRE.

There’s so much that students don’t ...

ProPrublica and the Center for Investigative Reporting are holding a discussion today at 11 a.m. PT/ 2 p.m. ET on the state of elder care in America. Both news organizations have recently published projects on the topic. Read the investigations here:

• Center for Investigative Reporting: Quick dismissal of caregiver abuse cases puts Calif. patients at risk
• ProPublica and Frontline: Life and Death in Assisted Living

Reporters Ryan Gabrielson of the Center for Investigative Reporting and A.C. Thompson of ProPublica will be answering questions about how to improve regulation and better protect America's elderly.

Click here to ...