“The American military faces a growing threat of potentially fatal equipment failure—and even foreign espionage—because of counterfeit computer components used in warplanes, ships, and communication networks,” according to a report by Brian Grow, Chi-Chu Tschang, Cliff Edwards and Brian Burnsed of BusinessWeek. The business of salvaging microchips from computer refuse is booming in China. Old…
Read MoreIn Kansas, reporters often must wait for public records to be extracted from a salt mine. After a few years, records required to be retained are stored deep underground at a giant salt mine complex in Hutchinson. That’s one of the many tidbits we learned last weekend during a Watchdog Workshop at Wichita State University.…
Read MoreThe Washington Post‘s Carol D. Leonnig gives readers a glimpse into the power and influence Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg wielded as the CEO of the AIG financial firm. Under Greenberg’s leadership, AIG employees donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican and Democratic candidates who held key financial regulation positions. Additionally, Greenberg’s charisma and donations…
Read More2009 CAR Conference This year’s Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) conference is being held March 19-22, 2009, in Indianapolis, Ind., at the Sheraton Indianapolis City Centre. Registration and hotel information is available at www.ire.org/training/conference/indy09/. The conference will offer everything from cutting-edge technology to the basics on using spreadsheets, databases and online mapping. Learn from the best in…
Read MoreA series by Brad Branan of The Fresno Bee looks at problems with how the city of Fresno, Calif. regulates development. Despite a plan to curb urban sprawl, it continues to plague the area leading to some of the country’s worst air quality and the most concentrated poverty in the nation. Lawsuits filed under the…
Read MorePAC to the Future, the political action committee of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, funneled almost $100,000 over the past nine years to her husband’s real estate and investment firm for rent and utility payments, according to a report by Jennifer Haberkorn of The Washington Times. FEC records indicate that the payments quadrupled when Paul Pelosi…
Read MoreRobert Pear of The New York Times reports that 94 percent of nursing homes in the United States violated federal health and safety standards in 2007 according to a recently released federal study. Although only 17 percent of nursing homes had violations that threatened the lives of residents, many were cited for abuse, neglect, confusing…
Read MoreThe free two-week preview of Uplink, our computer-assisted reporting newsletter, begins today at data.nicar.org/uplink.
Read MoreThe deadline for IRE’s Knight Foundation matching grant is today – Tuesday, Sept. 30th. If you’ve already sent in a pledge or donation — whether it was part of the $25 Club effort or at another time — our sincere thanks. If you know someone, perhaps a relative or friend who supports investigative journalism but…
Read MoreA special report by the Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) looks at Beargrass Creek, a polluted waterway that runs through Louisville, Kentucky, and finds that an $800 million sewage cleanup plan won’t be enough to solve its many problems. The report used computer-assisted techniques and multi-media presentations to help document and tell the story of this troubled, urban…
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