The Investigative News Network (INN) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) have teamed up to offer dedicated data-analysis services to INN's membership of more than 80 nonprofit investigative news organizations.

Denise Malan, formerly investigative/data editor at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, will join INN/IRE next week in the new director of data services position at the IRE Data Library. She will be formally introduced to INN and IRE members at IRE’s annual conference in San Antonio on June 20.

Malan will focus primarily on obtaining and analyzing data sets that can be used by INN members; the ...

A chemical plant explosion in Geismar, La. has injured more than 30 people and killed at least one, according to Louisiana State Police. It's the first major explosion since the fertilizer plant in West, Texas, killed 15 people. When a major plant explosion happens, how do you figure out what went wrong? Journalists have been asking that question and getting answers in Texas, some of which might be helpful for reporters starting to gather the facts in Louisiana. IRE compiled some of those stories, some IRE resources and some helpful databases for investigating after an industrial explosion.

Learning from ...

A joint investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting, the Tampa Bay Times and CNN identified America's 50 worst charities -- organizations that plead for financial support and lie to donors about where their money goes, taking multiple salaries and secretly paying themselves or their friends through consulting fees and fundraising contracts.

Reporters Kris Hundley and Kendall Taggart spent more than a year reviewing documents and building a one-of-a-kind database of the country's worst charitable organizations.

Find out more about what they found and how they found it as they join IRE in a live Google Hangout tomorrow. Tune ...

Eight news organizations have been chosen for IRE’s Total Newsroom Training.

TNT is a new program that provides intense, in-house training for newsrooms dedicated to watchdog journalism.

More than 50 applications were submitted. Training is customized and includes sessions ranging from public records battles to hands-on data analysis.

"We are thrilled with the large number of strong applications we received for this first-time program," IRE Executive Director Mark Horvit said. "The selection process was very difficult, which is a testament to the quality of work being done in newsrooms across the country."

Congratulations to the following newsrooms:

• Belleville News-Democrat ...

An Oregon program designed to help those with mental health histories restore gun ownership rights currently operates with a $576,000 budget and has restored those rights to just three people, according to an investigation by The Oregonian. The program comes from federal money -- the result of lobbying efforts by the National Rifle Association -- but funds are expected to dry up and the state legislature has a pending bill that would shift the cost to the state's taxpayers.

The revelation last month that the Department of Justice seized phone records from the Associated Press turned out to be just the begining of major disclosures about government surveillance, which according to recent reports includes mass collection of phone and internet server data by the National Security Agency.

But the Department of Justice surveillance targeting news organizations carries dangerous consequences for journalists, according to the president of IRE.

“This is what police states do, not governments of the people,” IRE Board President David Cay Johnston said at the time of the Associated Press reports. “Journalists have a duty to watchdog ...

Bloomberg News reports that India accounts for 37 percent of the world's female sterilizations. Last year, 4.6 million women were sterilized, a number reach in large part because of govenrment quotas and incentives for doctors. Women are supposed to receive counseling before they give consent for the operations, which doesn't always happen. Sterilizations are sometimes happening in unsanitary conditions with bloody sheets and rusty scalpels.