Posts by hdcoadmin
After spending millions on a publicly funded power plant, company has little to show
In a two-part series, the Duluth News Tribune found that despite receiving $42 million in state and federal funding over 10 years, a proposed “clean coal” plant has yet to move a shovelful of dirt. And despite receiving all of its backing from the public trough, the company’s spending records, including its officers’ paychecks, were…
Read MoreKBR’s umbrella contract with the government raises questions
As U.S. troops moved into Afghanistan in the months following 9/11, there were few facilities in place that would offer them support. As Sharon Weinberger of The Center for Public Integrity reports, “the military needed someone to do everything from housing troops to rebuilding airfields. The solution was a contract called the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LOGCAP,…
Read MoreJournalism students report on the Haitian population in the Dominican Republic
Seventeen students from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University traveled “to the Dominican Republic to investigate how immigration and border policies are affecting the country’s large Haitian population.” The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting recently published several reports on what the students found: “Whitney Phillips examined how the Dominican…
Read MoreWinners of CAR Conference drawing announced
Thank you to the dozens of members who submitted more than 40 panel ideas for the 2012 CAR Conference in St. Louis. IRE’s staff, and the local organizing committee for the conference, is reviewing submissions and beginning to piece together the schedule for the four-day conference Feb. 23-26, 2012. Continue to check IRE.org for updates about the conference…
Read MoreDeath penalty in Military polluted with racial disparities
Melissa Taylor, McClatchy, reports on the findings of a disturbing academic research study. “A group of law and statistics professors found that minorities in the military were twice as likely to be sentenced to death as their white counterparts, a statistic higher than is known to exist in most civilian court systems.” However, the authors of…
Read MoreU.S. Navy struggling to maintain ships
Michael Fabey, from Aviation Week, reports on the deteriorating health of some our Navy’s ships, mostly due to budget cut backs tied with our involvement overseas. “As conflicts were heating up in the latter years of the previous decade, the Navy shifted its funding focus from ship repair to buying items like helicopter components or…
Read MoreCovering Hurricane Irene: The next few days and beyond
By Kyle DeasGraduate student, University of Missouri It’s looking increasingly likely that Hurricane Irene will wreak havoc up and down the Eastern seaboard this weekend. As the storm gathers strength and speed, you may be wondering how to cover its landing and the aftermath. This past week, after an earthquake hit Virginia, we published a blog post called “Breaking…
Read MoreTowing Services Division continues to rack up high overtime payouts
Since 2007, the city of St. Louis has worked to cut overtime costs. Many departments have been successful, though one stands out as continuing to rack up high overtime payouts: the Towing Services Division. Reporter David Hunn of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, writes that the foremen “in the towing division serve as examples of how the…
Read MoreWilkes-Barre mayor used used summer jobs program to hire family, friends
Citizens Voice reporter, Andrew Staub, uses DocumentCloud to publish documents showing Mayor Tom Leighton has been hiring his kids and relatives for summer jobs. Over the past 8 years, Leighton hired his children for over a dozen different positions. However, it’s not just his children he’s hiring, but also affluent children from his neighborhood. “The hires have clouded…
Read MoreBreaking News Tips: Resources to cover earthquakes, other natural disasters
IRE is collecting resources for journalist who are covering today’s earthquake, which affected large portions of the Eastern Seaboard. Share ideas with us at tips@ire.org or send us a note on Twitter or Facebook. Story suggestions: Request your community’s emergency/disaster plans. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many areas beefed up their disaster response plans. Were those procedures followed?…
Read More