The early bird deadline for 
Posts by Alena Rehberger
IRE to train student winners of Dow Jones News Fund data journalism internship
We’re excited to announce that IRE is part of a new data journalism internship program being offered by the Dow Jones News Fund. Dow Jones News Fund has a long history of placing students in internships, through its prestigious News Copy Editing Program and other programs. In this new internship, students who are selected to…
Read MoreCall for entries: 2015 Philip Meyer Award
It’s once again time to enter the Philip Meyer Journalism Award contest. Entries are now being accepted online, through Nov. 20. Established in 2005, the award was created to honor Philip Meyer’s pioneering efforts to utilize social science research methods to foster better journalism. The contest recognizes stories that incorporate survey research, probabilities and other social…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How a reporter peered inside one of the world’s most powerful chemical companies
Mariah Blake A single email from a governor, agency head or low-level bureaucrat can crack open a story, thanks to freedom of information laws. But if a reporter knows where to look, she can also find a trove of internal documents from some of the world’s biggest corporations, including emails, memos, meeting minutes and even…
Read MoreIRE announces partnership with SmartProcure
Today IRE is announcing a partnership with SmartProcure to provide IRE members discounted access to the largest government purchasing database. This database contains more than 237.79 million purchase orders from more than 10,000 local, state and federal government agencies in the U.S. This partnership means IRE members can receive a subscription to SmartProcure for $39…
Read MoreCover critical infrastructure in your area using data on the nation’s dams
The NICAR Data Library has updated the National Inventory of Dams (NID), a database kept by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on dams in all 50 states with details that include structure type, purpose, owner, most recent inspection date and inspection frequency. The data also include latitude and longitude. You can use these records to zero in…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | The Bite Ratio
You don’t want to have a run-in with a police dog in North Port, Florida. A year-long investigation by Michael Davidson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune found that North Port’s canines have been biting people at an alarming rate. And the dogs aren’t just drawing a little blood. Many of suspects on the receiving end of…
Read MoreHow to get interviews while staying human
At the 2015 IRE Conference in Philadelphia, Scott Friedman, Keli Rabon, and Scott Zamost gave their best tips for convincing unsure or powerful sources to sit down for television interviews. Here are excerpts from the panel that outline their best pieces of advice. Scott Friedman, a Senior Investigative Reporter at NBC5/Dallas-Fort Worth, spells out his…
Read MoreNICAR will release data on U.S. dams after a decade-long hiatus
Next week the NICAR database library will release the National Inventory of Dams (NID), a database that has been inaccessible for over a decade. For years the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied its release (citing “national security” reasons) until recently when it was posted online in a publicly available searchable (but not downloadable) table. IRE…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | ICE’s Secret List
What happens to immigrants convicted of sex crimes? The answer, Maria Sacchetti found out, is often unsettling. Her investigation for the Boston Globe revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was quietly releasing violent offenders back into the U.S. when their home countries wouldn’t take them. On this episode, Sacchetti talks about the reporting process…
Read MoreHBCU students can apply to attend IRE, CAR Conferences as Knight Scholars
Knight Scholars attend a welcome lunch at the 2015 CAR Conference in Atlanta. College students at several historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are invited to apply for the Knight Scholarship to attend IRE’s data journalism and annual investigative reporting conferences. Scholarships will cover travel and registration for selected students. They also will receive mentorship…
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