The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
Yet another university community has been accused of denying justice to a female sexual assault victim in order to protect a star male athlete. The New York Times today chronicled the shortcomings of an investigation by Tallahassee police into a reported sexual assault in which Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston was the alleged assailant. Police failed…
Read MoreThe city of Tupelo, Miss. violated open-records laws by not providing the Daily Journal with text messages it requested last year. The paper had requested the texts from the mayor’s personal cell phone over the course of three days last October, when a city official resigned, the Journal wrote. The Mississippi Ethics Commission all agreed…
Read MoreRyan Sabalow It’s like a gold rush. There’s money to be made, but the cost of those riches is a host of harmful, unintended consequences. A recent Indianapolis Star investigation uncovered evidence linking lucrative deer farming operations to the spread of invasive lice and diseases such as bovine tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease in wild…
Read MoreUnited States Senate candidate and state senator Joni Ernst has cited her National Guard duty to rebuff criticism for missing more than half of the votes in the Iowa Senate this year. In a WHO-TV interview posted on April 7, the Red Oak Republican acknowledged that National Guard service wasn’t the only reason she’s missed…
Read MoreTasked with reporting on mental health? Take a few minutes to listen to tips from Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Kissinger attended a recent Watchdog Workshop to talk about her series of award-winning stories investigating caregivers. “We found people living in squalor,” Kissinger said. “It really upset people.” So how did she find…
Read MoreIRE traveled to Los Angeles, Tucson and Laramie last weekend for a trio of Watchdog Workshops. Attendees shared their tips and ideas on Twitter. Our Los Angeles workshop at USC featured IRE trainer Jaimi Dowdell, independent journalist Ronald Campbell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter/assistant editor Ellen Gabler, NBC Bay Area reporter Jenna Susko, and Los Angeles Times legal counsel Jeff Glasser. —…
Read MoreA CBS 7 investigation into how speeding tickets for CDL drivers are handled in Loving County has uncovered even bigger problems. CBS 7 was first to report Thursday that the county judge and county legal advisor have been writing off speeding tickets as parking violations. However, we found more than just speeding tickets are being…
Read MoreNewly released Memphis police records show detectives secured DNA testing within weeks of the 2003 home-invasion rape of a girl, then 12, now suing the city over its massive backlog of untested rape kits. In a story last month exploring early missed opportunities to stop serial rapist Anthony Alliano, The Commercial Appeal reported 12-year-old Madison…
Read MoreA year after the raids, the investigation at Pilot Flying J is far from over, as federal authorities continue to examine the company in the methodical, painstaking approach that is typical of how the U.S. Justice Department handles complex, white-collar crime cases.
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