Memorizing test questions and passing them on to future test takers is considered cheating by most people. However, for many radiologists, attempting to become board certified, it is simply a technique used to study. CNN's "Exclusive: Doctors cheated on exams" takes a close look:

"From my understanding, I would say nationwide from my friends across the country who are all in the same stages of training throughout the years, everyone gets a group. People decided beforehand what sections I will focus on, in terms of trying to recall those questions and answers," said Dr. John Yoo, a practicing radiologist ...

In "Problems plague cleanup at Hanford nuclear waste site," USA Today’s Peter Eisler takes on 56 million gallons of radioactive waste and finds he isn’t the only one who has a few things to learn. After 10 years of developing the “first-of-its-kind” nuclear waste treatment plant, the Department of Energy and its contractors still don’t know how to build it.

Project costs tripled to $12.3 billion and the start-up date was moved to 2019 from 2011, Eisler reported.

By using in-depth interviews and federal employees' documented concerns over "technical problems," Eisler was able to relay to ...

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 ...

By Doug Haddix
IRE Training Director 

Full immersion in local immigrant communities produces the most compelling stories, according to Kirk Semple, an immigration reporter for The New York Times. “It helps to be curious. It helps to be voracious,” Semple told participants at an IRE Better Watchdog Workshop this week in Orlando.

The full-day workshop was held in conjunction with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ annual convention. Other speakers included Manny Garcia, executive editor of El Nuevo Herald in Miami, who recently was elected as the first Latino president of the IRE board of directors. Also speaking was Mc ...

By Mark Horvit, IRE Executive Director

Nigel Jaquiss has  a strong but simple message for those who cover local government: "Do not be a stenographer." Jaquiss, a Pultizer Prize and IRE Award winning reporter for the Willamette Week in Portland, offered a series of recommendations to help those who cover local government do more than simply record the business of government. He spoke to more than 80 journalists and journalism students gathered for a recent Watchdog Workshop in Eugene, Ore. Jaquiss noted that government involves allocating three things: money, power and permission. Key things to track include:

• Who are the ...

By Doug Haddix, IRE training director

Reporters should make one to three calls a day to sources whom they don’t need for a deadline story. That’s the most effective way to develop sources who’ll come through for you later with ideas and help, according to Ryan Gabrielson of California Watch. Gabrielson spoke during an IRE Better Watchdog Workshop last weekend at San Francisco State University. He covers public safety issues at California Watch, a project of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. While working at the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz., he and reporting partner Paul ...

By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director

A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching at a computer-assisted reporting boot camp in San Diego. The class had been through spreadsheets and databases, and I was finally demonstrating how to deal with pdf's. After showing some online options, I walked the class through my old stand-by: XPDF.

If you've used it before, you know that once you get the hang of it, it's quite simple. But learning it for the first time can be a bit daunting, as it uses the command line. That's right, I said: The ...

By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director

If you've ever been involved in an investigative story or in-depth project, you understand how important chronology can be. I’ve often sketched timelines on notebooks, napkins or white boards. For trickier tasks or more data, I've turned to Excel, but I've never been completely satisfied with how it works.

TimeFlow, released last week, just might change all that. Funded by Duke University, the minds behind this project include IRE Board member Sarah Cohen, Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg. It’s free and open source; you can find it here. To ...

By Doug Haddix, IRE training director

Time management can be a reporter’s biggest challenge when it comes to watchdog stories. During a recent Better Watchdog Workshop in Denver, two seasoned investigative journalists shared tips and tricks they’ve learned to make time for the big story. Advice and tips came from Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Laura Frank of the I-News Network based in Denver. Rutledge drew examples from her “Cashing in on Kids” series about fraud in tax-subsidized day care – winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Frank recalled lessons learned from her ...

By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director

While oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the government is pouring resources into the cleanup effort. Track how much is being spent, which agencies are awarding it, and where it's going with data from the Federal Procurement Data System. The FPDS's Gulf Oil Spill Report, updated regularly, is downloadable in spreadsheet format. It contains contract information the FPDS has received. (The FPDS warns that there can be a lag in some reporting: "We believe it represents a portion of the work that has been awarded to date.")

Use this data ...