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13 IRE members honored with Polk awards

By Alena Rehberger | February 18, 2014

The winners of the 2103 George Polk Awards in Journalism, announced Sunday by Long Island University, included 13 IRE members. The awards honor special achievement in journalism, particularly in the areas of investigative and enterprise reporting. The following IRE members were among this year’s 30 recipients of awards given in 13 categories: Glenn Greenwald (The…

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Using new nonprofit law center, Hawaii’s Civil Beat wins access to police misconduct records

By Alena Rehberger | February 18, 2014

In the flood of paperwork that made its way each year to the Hawaii legislature, a shocking statistic slipped under the radar: About once a week the Honolulu Police Department was suspending or firing an officer for misconduct. Often the offenses were serious – abusing suspects, lying to federal investigators, tipping off drug dealers. And…

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Functional and financial concerns for proposed radio communications network in Monroe County

By Alena Rehberger | February 17, 2014

It’s a firefighter’s worst nightmare: Trapped inside a smoke-filled basement, he radios for help. But he can’t get a signal. He speaks, but his colleagues and dispatchers hear nothing. Monroe County leaders and fire district officials agree that no firefighter should ever wind up in such a desperate position. But they are still working out…

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Altercations, assaults costly problems for teachers, tax payers

By Alena Rehberger | February 17, 2014

Jones is one of hundreds of city educators whose violent and traumatic encounters with students have led them to seek — and often receive — compensation for mental and physical injuries, a Baltimore Sun investigation of workers’ compensation claims has found. Those claims provide a behind-the-scenes look at violence that is rarely documented in school…

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Virginia Beach Public Works Director keeps job while on military leave

By Alena Rehberger | February 17, 2014

The head of Virginia Beach’s second-largest department hasn’t been to work in nearly three years and keeps volunteering for military service instead of returning to his $150,000-a-year job. Since deploying in June 2011 – days after a city auditor’s report recommended that he be fired – Public Works Director Jason Cosby has become vested in…

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Mentally ill California prison inmate dies after being pepper sprayed

By Alena Rehberger | February 17, 2014

As California prison officials began looking into the September death of a breathing-impaired inmate who had been pepper-sprayed by a guard, they found themselves facing unusual interference and oversight from above, according to documents from an internal corrections investigation obtained by The Sacramento Bee. A corrections psychologist whose duties included a review of the Sept.…

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California probation officers overwhelmed with GPS monitoring alerts

By Alena Rehberger | February 17, 2014

Electronic monitoring was supposed to help Los Angeles County deal with the influx of thousands of felons moved out of California’s prison system to ease overcrowding. The nation’s largest probation department strapped GPS ankle monitors on the highest-risk of those convicts, expecting the satellite receivers to keep tabs on where they spent their days and…

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Last day to apply for free IRE, SPJ, NECIR training in Philadelphia

By Alena Rehberger | February 17, 2014

Do you have reporters or editors on your staff who would benefit from training to help them produce enterprise and investigative stories? Thanks to a grant from Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) is working with Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) to offer a two-day Watchdog Reporting Workshop for…

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NYPD denies FOIA request for department FOIA guide

By Alena Rehberger | February 14, 2014

The New York Police Department’s Freedom of Information Law Unit is refusing to release its FOIL guide. Yes, you read that right. Public records request service MuckRock asked for the document in late December. Last week a lieutenant in the department’s records unit denied the request, calling the guide “privileged as an attorney-client communication.” You…

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Behind the Story: The Boston Globe’s 4-year battle for secret settlement records

By Alena Rehberger | February 13, 2014

Boston Globe reporter Todd Wallack thought it would be a simple, short-term project to look into settlements made between the state of Massachusetts and some of its employees. After all, he’d done the same thing in California, uncovering an agreement between UC Davis and one of its administrators to avert a nasty lawsuit. But the…

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