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The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients

Louisiana failed to turn over key public records about execution drugs

By Alena Rehberger | May 9, 2014

Documents entered into court record in the lawsuit of one prisoner on death row show that the Louisiana Department of Corrections had documents that would have fulfilled a records request made by The Lens in 2013. The Lens, a non-profit newsroom in New Orleans, had previously requested records pertaining to the purchase and inventory of the state’s…

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IRE Preview: New nine-session track focuses on the art of storytelling

By Alena Rehberger | May 8, 2014

A special track of nine IRE Conference panels this year will focus on elevating our writing. It will include a series of “master classes” led by Pulitzer winning journalists Louise Kiernan, Walt Bogdanich and Sam Roe who each will dissect one of their classic prize-winning investigations with an emphasis on the writing choices. We’ll also…

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Billions unaccounted for in Venezuela’s communal giveaway program

By Alena Rehberger | May 7, 2014

The unsupervised spending in El Chaparral is symptomatic of a vast community aid effort with lax financial controls. A network of more than 70,000 community groups has received the equivalent of at least $7.9 billion since 2006 from the federal agency that provides much of the financing for the program, Reuters calculates, based on official…

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New webinar focuses on data journalism for broadcasters

By Alena Rehberger | May 7, 2014

KTVB-Boise investigative reporter Jamie Grey explains how to get started on data projects, offering story ideas and tips for visualizing data on air. She walks through several examples including: Finding stories in airport and flight data Analyzing interstate crash data using basic Excel techniques Charting population change using driver’s license data Using county jail data…

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NICAR releases updated Death Master File, for cheap

By Alena Rehberger | May 6, 2014

The NICAR Database Library has just updated the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File (DMF), which is now current as of Nov. 30, 2013. We purchased the last full copy of the data available before the Social Security Administration changed the rule around access, limiting the most recent three years of data (and most likely…

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IRE Preview: Sign up for INN Day

By Alena Rehberger | May 6, 2014

For the past four years, INN and IRE have worked together to create a conference program specifically tailored to the needs and issues facing nonprofit investigative newsrooms. This year, on Thursday, June 26th in San Francisco, we will offer a day filled with opportunities, workshops and idea sharing designed to provide the maximum value to nonprofit news organizations…

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Extra Extra Monday: Student housing deaths, phantom workers, treatment of the terminally ill

By Alena Rehberger | May 5, 2014

Shadow Campus:  A house jammed with students, a life of promise lost | The Boston Globe Boston, defined in large measure by the students who flock to it, allows these eager newcomers to be put at risk in overcrowded houses that serve as shoddy substitutes for modern dorms. Such illegal overcrowding is rampant in student…

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Cuomo administration maintains secrecy, uses private email for official business

By Alena Rehberger | May 5, 2014

Some New York state officials are using private email accounts to conduct official business. One reporter at ProPublica received an email from Howard Glaser, director of state operations and a top adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, regarding an open records request. This email was sent from Glaser’s personal email account. But later, when the…

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College sports revenue goes up despite recession

By Alena Rehberger | May 2, 2014

Despite the economic downturn, which saw a 1.3 percent decrease in the median salary of American households, sports revenue at public colleges and universities increased by 32 percent between 2008 and 2013. Spending on coaches salaries increased by 45 percent.  ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” took a look at the numbers and broke them down in a…

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IRE Preview: Learn to detect corporate fraud with tips from a crook and a sleuth

By Alena Rehberger | May 2, 2014

Leading up the IRE Conference, the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism will offer a free pre-conference workshop from 1:30-5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25. Attendees will learn the fundamental methods for inspecting public filings for corporate fraud. The information gained in this session will allow reporters to spot red flags in corporate disclosures and…

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