Blog
“A months-long investigation by KIRO-TV in Seattle (CBS/Cox Media Group) found that many local police departments are helping the NFL’s cause, by either failing to create crime reports or underreporting incidents that occur in the stands and nearby parking lots during football games.” “In an effort to independently compile fan-related crime statistics, KIRO 7 contacted…
Read More“Denver’s 911 emergency-communications operators and police dispatchers made mistakes that resulted in a failure rating in one of every five of their calls reviewed over the past two years, city performance audits show,” The Denver Post reports.
Read More“Whether they are in the hands of young men entangled in gang warfare, drug dealers looking for their next hookup or homeowners intent on staving off intruders, guns are part of everyday life in west Lemon Hill,” The Sacramento Bee reports.
Read MoreThe Sacramento BeeGuns rule street in west Lemon Hill neighborhood“Between January 2007 and November 2012, no other similarly sized area in Sacramento County had more reports of two categories of gun crimes: assault with a firearm and shooting into an occupied dwelling or vehicle.” The Denver PostDenver’s 911 call review shows a pattern of problemsIn…
Read MoreA year or two ago, thanks to Hacks/Hackers, IRE and the University of Missouri, I became really interested in how I can use data and technology to make me a better reporter. I’ve made some progress since then, but at the end of the day, I’m still a beginning reporter who is looking for tools I…
Read MoreIRE is pleased to announce that eight newsrooms will be awarded grants thanks to the $50,000 donation from Google Ideas. The grants will support data-driven investigations by providing journalists with access to data, new tools and necessary training. The fund’s two broad priorities were to support specific investigative projects and to better equip news organizations…
Read MoreUniversity of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics threw away 355,000 servings of food worth $181,600 last year, according to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The hospital prepared roughly 3 million total servings of food in 2012, not counting patient meals. The Gazette found that the hospital’s dining room serving doctors and nurses from operating rooms threw away…
Read MoreIn an attempt to bust criminal operations in Milwaukee by purchasing drugs and guns from felons the ATF set up a storefront sting. However, “the effort to date has not snared any major dealers or taken down a gang. Instead, it resulted in a string of mistakes and failures, including an ATF military-style machine gun…
Read MoreIn December, Tim Steller, a reporter and now columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, reported on the increasing number of shootings occurring between Border Patrol and illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. The victims in some cases appear to have been unarmed. This fact and the lack of transparency in the investigations has cast doubt…
Read MoreOn Monday Congress approved $51 billion in disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy, three months after the storm that killed more than 130 people and caused billions in damage to the Atlantic coast. Follow the money with IRE’s coverage page, Hurricane Sandy: Covering the Aftermath The spending was heavily debated and at a time sparked bipartisan…
Read More