Alena Rehberger, Author at Investigative Reporters and Editors

Investigate small business loans in your community

January 18, 2016

Which businesses in your area are receiving loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)? What financial institutions are making those loans? How many businesses receiving loans in the past 10 years have stayed open? These are questions you can answer with the SBA’s 7a loan data, now available at NICAR. This update database…

Tell us which hands-on classes you don’t want to miss at NICAR16

January 12, 2016

At our annual CAR Conference, we have more than 100 hands-on classes in topics ranging from introductory tutorials in data analysis to advanced sessions on programming. Most of these classes are first come, first served and tend to fill up quickly. We try to offer repeats of the most popular topics, and we’d like to…

Subscribe to NICAR-Learn, our gallery of on-demand training videos

January 11, 2016

In November, we announced the creation of NICAR-Learn, a new hub for on-demand training videos. We launched the site with a handful of free videos, and now we’re excited to let you know that the full site is up and running. Here’s how it works: For a small fee ($25/year for IRE members; $40/year for non-members),…

Sign up for mentoring at the CAR Conference in Denver

January 6, 2016

Mc Nelly Torres (left) and her mentee Taylor Bembery (right) at a conference in 2015. This program is currently full. Please sign up for the waiting list. Find your mentor for the CAR Conference in Denver and take advantage of IRE’s network of journalists, one of the largest in the country. Many experienced reporters, editors and developers are…

IRE Radio Podcast | BONUS: Spotlight

January 4, 2016

If you attended an IRE Conference in the early 2000s, the plot of the movie “Spotlight” might have sounded familiar. That’s because the Hollywood depiction of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the clergy sex abuse scandal stayed surprisingly true to the real behind-the-scenes story. How do we know? A few of the journalists depicted in…

IRE Office Closed for the Holidays

December 23, 2015

In celebration of the coming holidays, the IRE and NICAR offices will close Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 23 through Friday, Jan. 1. While staff will be checking in periodically, coverage will be sporadic. We appreciate your patience and will see you in the new year.

Funding, support available for freelance investigative journalists

December 21, 2015

Are you an independent journalist looking for support and funding for a new project? Consider applying for the Freelance Investigative Reporters and Editors (FIRE) Pilot Project and IRE’s Freelance Fellowship. Resources and support FIRE is a one-year pilot program from Project Word that provides freelance investigative journalists with reporting tools and resources. IRE is collaborating…

Scrutinizing what you scrape: How The New York Times investigated arbitration

December 16, 2015

A graphic from The New York Times’ arbitration series Court records have long been a vital tool for journalists looking to hold powerful corporations accountable. But what happens when disputes between companies and consumers move out of open court and into private meeting rooms? What happens when class action lawsuits – and the wealth of…

How to examine fatal car crashes involving drunken drivers

December 15, 2015

Police typically conduct sober checkpoints around the holidays, especially New Year’s Eve. Add context to your stories about holiday safety and travel by looking to look at trends in fatal crashes where drugs and alcohol were noted as a factor. We’ll walk you through how to quickly gather statistics and come up with story ideas…

Several IRE members win 2016 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards