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“In June, more than 30 Bloomberg reporters filed Freedom of Information Act requests with 57 agencies for the travel records of top administrators and cabinet secretaries. Three months later, only about 30 percent of the cabinet-level agencies had gotten back to the reporters with documents, and only one cabinet-level agency responded within the legal 20-day…
Read MoreThis is the first post under Transparency Watch, an occasional series from IRE tracking the fight for open records. If you have a story about a quest for public records you’d like to share, email us at web@ire.org. By Laura Bischoff, The Dayton Daily News The Dayton Daily News published a hard hitting Sunday story on…
Read More“The New Jersey State Police are one of only two statewide law enforcement agencies in the country to rely almost entirely on the opinion of supervisors for promotions, a practice most discarded years ago in favor of more objective written and verbal exams.” “A Star-Ledger survey found that the Rhode Island State Police, with a…
Read MoreFor more than a year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been investigating prescription drugs and the dangerous side effects of using opioids ot treat chronic pain. The latest installment of the series tracks the lives of chronic pain sufferers who praised the drug in a 1998 promotional video. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters John Fauber and…
Read MoreIn a joint investigation, The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh found that large nonprofit hospitals in North Carolina are dramatically inflating prices on chemotherapy drugs at a time when they are cornering more of the market on cancer care. The newspapers found hospitals are routinely marking up prices on cancer drugs…
Read MoreMother Jones magazine shook up the presidential campaign on Monday when it released a video it obtained of Republican candidate Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundraiser. The video included the following comment from Romney, which many have taken issue with: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no…
Read MoreWorking on a project about health care systems? About to start one? Here are some resources to help: The Association of Health Care Journalists is offering Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance, a yearlong program that funds reporting on health care systems in the United States. The program is designed for mid-career journalists, who continue their…
Read MoreThe Des Moines Register and eight other newspapers joined forces to gather and analyze TV political advertising spending data statewide in the 2012 presidential race. The effort revealed an unprecedented $30 million TV ad blitz that began last spring, continued through August and will pick up momentum heading into the final weeks of the race.…
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