Trying to get your boss to send you to the upcoming CAR Conference in Baltimore? Try these suggestions, courtesty of your colleagues on the NICAR listserv. “Our competitors will have people there, and they will ultimately use the skills they learn to publish stories we wish we had.” – Matthew Doig, Newsday “If your bosses have ever…
Read MoreIt took the Honolulu-based Civil Beat almost one year and $935 to get access to files on three discharged police officers. The records, which were heavily redacted, provide new insight into the case of an officer accused of raping a woman on the hood of his patrol car. The officer’s case “illustrates how difficult it…
Read MoreAttorneys for an inmate accused of murdering a federal correctional officer cited a Citizens’ Voice investigation into the case as they laid the groundwork Wednesday to spare him from the death penalty. For a December story the paper obtained closely guarded prison documents that showed a stark shift in the way the inmate Jessie Con-ui was disciplined. Treatement ranged from…
Read MoreBy Ron Campbell The NICAR conference is like the NICAR list on steroids. If you don’t get that reference, let me explain. I’m on the West Coast. I have posted a highly technical question on the NICAR list at 6 p.m. on a Friday and received a detailed, precise, accurate answer from a colleague on the East Coast — remember, this…
Read MoreWNYC today compiled a clever list of “18 ways Christie and his officials have blocked access to information.” The release of the subpoenaed documents “exposed the Christie Administration’s involvement in Bridgegate show how the Governor’s Office has been keeping its decisions and expenditures quiet despite laws that require official business to be made public.” The…
Read MoreIRE is looking to you for input on sessions for the upcoming IRE Conference, June 26-29, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. Proposals for sessions will be accepted from Jan. 27-Feb. 21, 2014. It will not be possible to include every panel submitted in the program. If your panel is selected, you will be notified no later than mid-April.…
Read MoreDo you have reporters or editors on your staff who would benefit from training to help them produce enterprise and investigative stories? Thanks to a grant from Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) is working with Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) to offer…
Read MoreAccording to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, South Carolina “ranks among the worst in the nation as to how quickly hospitals send babies’ blood samples to state labs for testing of rare but deadly genetic disorders.” “Federally backed guidelines recommend blood samples take no more than three days to arrive at labs for testing, as children…
Read MoreA federal appeals court has ruled that Argus Leader Media can seek government data on how much businesses take in from the food stamp program, the Sioux Falls, S.D. paper reported. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a district court ruling and determined that a federal statute that created the food stamp program does not…
Read MoreFor years, the state has used confidential settlement and severance deals to make embarrassing problems go away, often requiring workers to promise to keep the payments secret and avoid saying anything critical about the agencies. When the Globe first asked for copies of all the pacts worth at least $10,000 statewide, it took a four-year…
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