The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Posts by hdcoadmin
Conflict brewing over Montana’s liquor system
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports on a growing conflict between Montana’s bar owners and craft brewers: “The draft bill is currently sitting in a pile of papers on a legislative staff attorney’s desk in Helena, but the rough outline has caused some upheaval among Montana’s craft brewing industry. It would combine two bills previously lobbied…
Read MoreApply now for agribusiness reporting workshop
Navajo boys plow a corn field on the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico, date unknown. Photo from the National Archives and Records Administration. IRE and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting are seeking applicants for an all-expenses paid workshop on how to cover agribusiness in the Midwest. The workshop, held from May 30 to June…
Read MoreMinnesota public schools struggle with staggering costs of special education
According to a report from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a sharp rise in students diagnosed with major disabilities is forcing many Minnesota schools to take difficult and at times divisive new steps to tailor classrooms to the disabled students’ needs, no matter how expensive that gets. Even as overall school enrollment declined over the past…
Read MorePost-CAR Conference sale in NICAR data library
Fresh out of CAR 2013 and itching for data to work with? The NICAR database libarary is offering discounts on popular federal databases to help you get started. The data library updates databases on a variety of topics. You can explore our data by searching for a specific database, or looking for data by topic…
Read MoreDozens of internet sweepstakes cafes operated by those unfit for casinos
Dozens of Internet sweepstakes cafes are owned and operated by people who are in so much financial hot water that they couldn’t land a job at an Ohio casino. The pseudo gambling parlors have flouted a decades-old state law that requires businesses to register with the secretary of state. And most cafe owners snubbed an…
Read MorePANDA: Make the robots work for you
As expected, there was no shortage of swag at “Make the robots work for you,” a panel on implementing PANDA, data store of the gods, brought down the mountain to a newsroom near you. (In the interest of full disclosure, the integrity of your reviewer was compromised by a free T-shirt.) For those of you…
Read MoreData journalism around the globe
Need a vacation but can’t imagine the outer darkness that is you without your work? Why not take it with you to exotic northern Europe. In “Data Journalism Around the Globe” panelists trotted out some of the best data projects coming from our cousins on the continent in the German, Danish and Scandinavian press. Many…
Read MoreInvestigating income inequality with the Gini coefficient and other data
Paul Overberg, of USA TODAY, points to a graph of the Gini Index, which is a measure of income inequality. The diagonal line is perfect distribution of income and the curved line is a representation of actual distribution income. Overberg is interested in the space between them and what it describes. Photo by Travis Hartman.…
Read More2012: The Year in CAR
IRE executive director Mark Horvit and training director Megan Luther presented the Year in Car yesterday, highlighting data-driven journalism from across the country in 2012 and what can be learne from them. Here’s their list: California Watch: Broken Shield FINDINGS: Exposed flaws in the way a special state police force handles crimes against the developmentally…
Read MoreInvestigating the Workforce
Unions and pensions may sound like daunting subjects to cover, but Tom McGinty of The Wall Street Journal and MaryJo Webster of the St. Paul Pioneer Press lay out compelling reasons to get past that impression, and helpful tools to get you there. McGinty (who stresses he is not a labor reporter, but learned a…
Read More