Mississippi town could make text messages readily available

A town in Mississippi could soon become the first in the state to archive and make available the text messages of public officials, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. The pending policy comes in response to a Mississippi Ethic Commission ruling against Tupelo, after the city had denied the Daily Journal text messages between the mayor and another city official.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History laws already require that cities hold on to text messages. As local government records, the texts should be open to the public. But state officials have openly stated that municipalities don’t follow the rules, according to the Daily Journal.

For the full Daily Journal story, click here.

New to data reporting? Anthony Cormier, Sarasota Herald-Tribune; Jaeah Lee, Mother Jones; Rob O’Dell, The Arizona Republic; and Shawn McIntosh, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution walked journalists through their tips at the 2014 IRE Conference.

Make it your job to develop good reporting habits. Keep track of data in relation to your reporting, like bankruptcy filings for business reporters or communication logs from cop cars if you cover crime. Cormier explains:

Instead of only being familiar with open-records laws, also check out the rules that regulate what you’re reporting on, Cormier said. With banks, that could be financial regulation laws. When requesting data, talk to IT people; they tend to be more knowledgeable about the types of formats you need.

When budgeting your time, O’Dell suggests overestimating the time it will take to finish your project by at least 30 percent. Then stick to the plan.

It’s also beneficial to run an initial analysis on your data to make sure it’s going to tell the story you expect. And when the story’s finally ready to go, keep blowback to a minimum by giving a conservative estimate of your data.

McIntosh recommends showing progress to your editors on a regular basis. However, be careful not to share outliers until they’ve been verified. It’s also important for reporters and editors to keep a timeline. Some news organizations will have advertisements and promotions scheduled around your plans.

A U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a Freedom of Information Act request denial to grant photos and other materials showing Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani to the Center for Constitutional Rights. Al-Qahtani is the alleged would-be 20th hijacker on 9/11 and one of the highest profile U.S. detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The panel ruled that "the federal government sufficiently made its case that the videos and photographs of al-Qahtani should be kept secret under Exemption 1 to FOIA, which provides for the withholding of materials in the interest of ‘national defense or foreign policy,’” according to the New York Law Journal. The requested items included FBI video of al-Qahtani in his cell, video showing “forced cell extractions,” debriefing video and mugshots, according to the article.

To read the full article from the New York Law Journal, click here.

NPR has released analyzed data that shows every military item shipped to local, state and federal agencies from 2006 through April 23, 2014, as a part of the 1033 program. The items from the Pentagon’s Law Enforcement Support Office include mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs) and assault rifles, among other things. NPR’s analysis also identifies the items by their cost to the Department of Defense.

Since unrest erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, following the killing of teenager Michael Brown, opposition has grown against a trend known as "police militarization," which critics say is fueled by programs that put items formerly used by the U.S. military into the hands of local law enforcement agencies. President Barack Obama ordered a review of such programs late last month.

Local and national media have covered police militarization at length since the Ferguson protests began.

IRE is saddened to hear about the passing of Sarmad Qaseera, a photojournalist to whom we’d awarded an IRE Medal for his 2012 work in Benghazi. The 42-year-old was a longtime member of CNN’s Baghdad bureau.

Qaseera was hired by CNN to cover the war in his home country of Iraq in 2003, and in doing so risked his life, according to CNN’s story on his passing. He remained in Iraq until a “very specific death threat” forced him out in 2006. He fled to the U.S. to continue his work for CNN, based in Atlanta. When he died, he was weeks away from U.S. citizenship.

In 2012, Qaseera traveled to Benghazi with CNN correspondent Arwa Damon and helped provide clarity in the midst of initial contradictory reports. The IRE Medal, awarded to the two in 2013, is the highest honor we bestow for investigative reporting.

Here, we’ve embedded video of Qaseera discussing his approach in Benghazi.

By Karl Idsvoog, Kent State University

How do you get into college if you can only read at a grade-school level? Last January, CNN’s Sara Ganim answered that question in a powerful piece of reporting. In a few short sentences Sara personalized the reality of college athletics at the University of North Carolina as she told the story of learning specialist Mary Willingham. Sara writes: 

"Early in her career as a learning specialist, Mary Willingham was in her office when a basketball player at the University of North Carolina walked in looking for help with his classwork. He couldn't read or write."

As Sara Ganim reports, the problem of college athletes lacking basic reading skills wasn’t isolated to a single player or to a single university.  

"A CNN investigation found public universities across the country where many students in the basketball and football programs could read only up to an eighth- grade level. The data obtained through open records requests also showed a staggering achievement gap between college athletes and their peers at the same institution."

Following Sara Ganim’s report, the NCAA did not criticize universities for recruiting students who can’t read at college level. It issued a press release criticizing the CNN report and emphasizing that “Academic success of student athletes is a core priority for the NCAA and its member institutions.”

That statement became the operating hypothesis for a reporting project for the Computer Assisted Reporting Class at Kent State University. I told the students, “we are going to assume that what the NCAA states, that academic success is a core priority, is true.”

From a reporting standpoint, how do you go about testing the hypothesis?  For the students, it required asking a simple logical question. If academic success is a core priority, what checks would the athletic department be making? What public records should be available to examine that would verify what the athletic department is doing? Is the Athletic Department doing what it should be doing if it’s truly concerned with academic success?

College classes (real ones, not fake ones) are intense. The worst thing a student can do is to miss class. So if the NCAA’s statement is true, that academic success is a core priority, athletic departments would certainly be monitoring whether its athletes go to class. Keep in mind, when it comes to attending class athletics pose an immediate conflict.

The game schedule requires student athletes to miss class. What impact does that have on academic success?

Injuries can cause student athletes to miss more classes. What impact does that have on academic success?

Student athletes suffering concussions encounter a truly challenging problem. They can’t even study. With a concussion, the brain needs rest. The student athlete shouldn’t read a book or look at a computer screen.

How are athletic departments assessing what impact missing class is having on what the NCAA says is the core priority for its member institutions, academic success? 

Each student was assigned a specific university, and each submitted a public records request for the athletic department’s most recent analysis of classes missed.     

Despite all the medical evidence now coming forth on the devastating consequences concussions can have, Kent State student reporters discovered not a single university in the Mid-American Conference does any analysis of classes and study days missed due to concussion. 

How come?

Each student also requested an interview with the university’s athletic director. To see what they had to say, watch this piece produced by Kent State student journalist Jason Kostura. Jason now works for ESPN; he started just days after last spring’s graduation.

By Jennifer Johnson, The Grand Forks Herald

Spreadsheet programs like Excel have always intimidated me. Sure, I dabbled in them a few times. I pulled up pre-formatted sheets and leafed through them. I used basic formulas and figured out percentages. And I also attended a two-day IRE training with fellow reporters at the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, where I'm the education reporter.

Anyone with experience will tell you that the only way to learn a program is by consistent use. Our newsroom had the training in February and by the time I started the project in earnest last month, I'd forgotten plenty.

For the project, the idea was simple. Our superintendent had claimed a few times that teachers earned more here than the rest of the state. This fact, he said, put our district at a disadvantage with per-pupil funding.

The formula that calculated how much districts received was based partly on average salaries, and those averages were considerably lower than what our district paid, he said.

So, my quest was based on a simple question: What were teachers and administrators actually paid here? And how did it compare to the biggest districts in the state?

For the next month, I sent FOIA requests to nine districts in the state, including ours. What I found won't surprise reporters: Contrary to our superintendent's claim, the median base salary of teachers here was among the lowest in the state, even in districts notably smaller than ours. Administrators, however, were nearly paid the highest. With help from IRE trainer Megan Luther I was able to accurately reach this conclusion and boost my standing beyond an Excel beginner.

Here’s what helped me survive my first CAR story:

Know exactly what data you're asking for. Although this is true for any story with sensitive information, and I knew I needed to be as specific as possible, I still fumbled. I didn't know how districts collected it, if they used a specific program to do it, etc. Naturally, they gave me the exact information I requested, but I wanted more. Luckily, one business manager provided a spreadsheet he sends to the state each year that broke down base salaries, extra pay for additional duties, retirement contributions, the works. Organization was key for this story, and I would have benefited from creating a detailed checklist of the information I needed and had yet to receive.

Try to gauge the scope of the project – expect delays and plan for them. Not surprisingly, some districts were reluctant to release salary information. One flat-out refused and relented only after a threat that we'd get the Attorney General involved. But dirty data turned out to be the factor that slowed us down the most. One district turned in a spreadsheet that lacked health benefits for 65 employees. Another gave me all of the numbers I requested for its 1,001 employees, but what I really needed - employee titles to differentiate who was an administrator and who was a teacher - were provided on a separate 345-page PDF, requiring us to merge sheets. In other cases, names were misspelled, employees were listed more than once and titles were outdated. (I looked up employees that lacked titles online, and ended up fact-checking with the district anyway.)

Know your strengths and resources before you start. It's worth it to spend time at the outset studying your sheets, and gauging your own skill level and what you might not know. If you have a data expert in the newsroom, that's great. If you don't, try to ask for more time. It makes the difference between a good story and an outstanding one.

Jennifer Johnson is the K12 reporter at the Grand Forks Herald in Grand Forks, N.D. She's had short stints as a copy editor here and abroad, briefly freelanced for a special section in the Washington Post and spent several years reporting at a small paper in southeast North Dakota.

The IRE Chicago Meetup crew is partnering with the Chicago Headline Club for its next happy hour. The Chicago Headline Club holds Burger Nights every month, and the next one is Sept. 12 at The Billy Goat (430 N. Michigan Ave). So, bring a colleague to introduce to the Investigative Reporters and Editors community and come down for some burgers, investigative reporting and meeting other reporters. 

Please join the Chicago IRE Meetup group if you haven’t already. No need to RSVP beyond the meetup website.

According to WNYC, "New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration — which the governor pledged would be the most transparent in state history — has quietly adopted policies that allow it to purge the emails of tens of thousands of state employees, cutting off a key avenue for understanding and investigating state government."

"Last year, the state started deleting any emails more than 90 days old that users hadn’t specifically saved — a much more aggressive stance than many other states. The policy shift was first reported by the Albany Times Union."

By Shazia Sarwar

A series of investigative reports by Verdens Gang (VG) in 2013 exposed that principals at all primary and secondary schools in Oslo, Norway’s capital, were given personal incentives and salary benefits in secret working contracts and on the basis of student results on national tests.

The investigation found a significant correlation between the number of students exempt from tests and the average scores. An associate professor at the University of Oslo reviewed the data and found that the more students exempt, the better a school’s score. Minority students and children with other special needs are eligible to be exempt after an individual evaluation.

For several years there has been a fierce national debate over the use of the results generated from national tests mandatory for primary and secondary schools in Norway. The results have been used to rank good and bad schools, especially in the multiethnic capital of Norway. There has been a significant amount of pressure on principals and teachers to produce good results. There have been a number of articles in Norway on the possibility of teachers and principals tampering with exemption rules in order to influence scores. Prior to the VG investigation, no one had been able to show a correlation and a clear motive to tamper with scores.

The VG exposé documented both a correlation and a motivation to cheat.

The investigation started with an observation – two identical schools, both with about 95 percent minority students, had different percentages of exempt students and different average scores. The school with 22 percent of its students exempt from the test had a significantly better average than the school that only excluded 7 percent of its students.

A correlation analysis was conducted between “rate of exemption” and “average score.” It showed a significant connection. The more students exempt, the better the average score. This information led to our first articles. In this initial series we also introduced a secret report sent to the education department. The document included worries about exemption practices on national tests and mentioned the possibility of cheating and manipulation. Several sources came forward and talked about how much time and effort was spent seeking loopholes to meet the score demands from the Oslo education department. The first articles lead to a national debate in several newspapers and on TV.

In the wake of the exposé a question arose: why would teachers and principals cheat? Is there a personal gain?

Another lengthy investigation disclosed that Oslo principals have secret employment contracts with previously unknown evaluation criteria. In Norway all executives in the public sector are normally required to disclose their employment contracts. The pay and benefits for every CEO in Norway is public information.

Norway has liberal transparency rules, but during our investigation the Oslo council was not willing to disclose the contracts. They wouldn’t even release a blank form. Then several national politicians demanded to see the contracts. After a six-month-long tug of war, county commissioners ruled in favor of VG. The newspaper got contracts for all 105 Oslo principals (censored for name and information of personal nature).

Several analyses were done. Among the findings: each principal’s contract was reviewed each year and leaders got marks (86 in all) mostly on how well his or her students performed on tests. The Oslo education minister confirmed that results depicted through the 86 parameters had a direct impact on yearly salary and benefits negotiations.

A number of calculations and a new correlation analysis, done on the many parameters disclosed, showed that the main score of each principal was the same as the average score on student test results. Bad student scores resulted in a bad score for the principal. A bad or good score had a direct effect on the principal’s position when going into yearly salary negotiations.  

Shazia Sarwar is a reporter and commentator at the news section in Verdens Gang (VG) in Oslo, Norway. She has done investigative reporting in education, child abuse, assault rapes and violence against women. Sarwar specializes in data-driven journalism, business-journalism, cancer and minority communities.