Pennsylvania has more amusement park rides than any other state, and its governer has stated its rides are unmatched in safety because of the state’s rigorous inspection program. But an investigation by PublicSource shows that the state agency that oversees amusement parks does not track the safety inspection reports that parks are required to file…
Read MoreIn 1999, Nora Paul organized a gathering at The Poynter Institute of a group of journalists who were on the cutting edge of computer-assisted reporting at the time. The result was a short book titled “When Nerds and Words Collide,” featuring chapters from many leaders in data-driven journalism. It also details the beginning of what…
Read MoreWatch now: Spycraft for Journalists Keep your sources and your secrets safe from prying eyes. In IRE’s latest webinar, Steve Doig, Knight Chair in Journalism at Arizona State University, explains spycraft for journalists. This webinar covers the use of cryptography, spoofing caller ID, anonymous email, throwaway phones, steganography and other covert techniques for communicating with…
Read MoreThe New York Times Magazine this week profiles documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and her role in helping National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leak thousands of classified documents regarding government surveillance programs. From the magazine: Poitras possesses a new skill set that is particularly vital — and far from the journalistic norm — in an…
Read MoreMuckRock, a public records service that files and tracks requests on behalf of journalists, researchers, activists and historians, recently analyzed 907 requests completed by its users. The analysis found about 42 percent of federal Freedom of Information Act requests were completed on time, and 27 percent of those 907 requests are still without a response after…
Read MoreAfter finding out that the Cleveland Police Department had no idea how many rape kits were in their evidence room, Plain Dealer reporters Rachel Dissell and Leila Atassi started digging into how sexual assault cases were handled in their city. Finally, “unsolved crimes by the dozens are returning to Cleveland with DNA matches and the…
Read MoreFor community service and corrective classes, San Diego law enforcement has sent defendants to organizations like the Corrective Behavior Institute for community service. In doing so, it has “sent people who haven’t followed the rules to a nonprofit that hasn’t followed them either,” according to an investigation by the Voice of San Diego, which found shoddy…
Read MoreKUOW in Seattle reports that about 30 times per year, a sponge or surgical instrument is left inside a patient at a hospital in Washington state. Foreign ojects left behind are among the state’s most common medical mistakes. Medical experts told KUOW such an event should never happen, at that the system in place to…
Read MoreReporter Steven Hsieh was never informed about a dangerous landfill in his hometown of West County in St. Louis until one day while watching cable news. Hsieh, one-year out of school at the Missouri School of Journalism, stumbled upon a broadcast of a roundtable discussion in which Diane Schanzenbach, associate professor in the School of…
Read MoreTableau Software is announcing that Tableau Public now has expanded capabilities, including handling spreadsheets that that contain up to 1million rows of data. Tableau Public’s storage space has also increased from 50 megabytes to 1 gigabyte. Tableau stated the changes were made after noticing many public datasets number more than the previous limit of 100,00…
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