The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Blog
Food safety is a global issue. I was reminded of that with the news that more than 20 children in India died after consuming school lunches provided by a government-run program. Some children remain ill and authorities are trying to pinpoint the source – possibly a chemical found in pesticides that somehow made it into the…
Read MoreBy Dalton Barker Researching the connection between copyright lawsuits and a porn company can be tricky — especially while at work. Claire Suddath, a Bloomberg reporter based in New York City, navigated the murky waters before she published her recent investigative piece: Prenda Law, the Porn Copyright Trolls. Suddath discovered that Chicago-based Prenda Law had…
Read MoreBy the time I sat down to write the 6,000 word article I’d been reporting for the past several months, I was ready to quit. I had over 50 interviews, thousands of pages of documents and reports, contact information and source names all stored across my phone, random word documents, email drafts, and actual paper…
Read MoreThe ProPublica News Apps team on Tuesday released Transcribable, an open source version of its Free the Files project, a web application that enabled the team to crowdsource a massive cache of campaign advertising spending documents. The open source version allows anyone with a DocumentCloud account to create their own application and start crowdsourcing their…
Read MoreIn March, LaCrosse Tribune reporter Chris Hubbuch attended an IRE training event in Wisconsin, where introductions to Excel and data-driven journalism were on the agenda. Since then, he’s produced data-driven stories on foreclosures, property values, crime and waste. He even revelaed that the LaCrosse mayor’s pet license was out of date. Using federal data, the…
Read MoreThe Dallas Morning News investigation shows how Dr. Tariq Mahmood operated a chain of dangerous small-town Texas hospitals for more than four years until regulators finally started to crack down. Before they acted, repeated warnings about grave risks to patients and potential fraud reached multiple agencies. At least four patients died. The project details how federal…
Read MoreArea housing authorities are supposed to be there to help low-income families that can barely get by: single parents, the elderly and people with disabilities, News Channel 11 reports. However after several public records requests, they found out the people who need the help the most are on lengthy waiting lists, while those who’ve conquered poverty…
Read MoreBy Brad Weisenstein, The Belleville News-Democrat The News-Democrat found the newly legal video gaming in Southwestern Illinois grew rapidly, with gamblers in April losing $1.06 million – nearly triple what they lost at the end of 2012. The growth of machines worries video gambling opponents and those who work with gambling addicts. Locally, the machines…
Read MoreBy Daniel Kelley, The Belleville News Democrat A review of the salaries and benefits of public employees and elected officials at St. Clair County found the county spent more than $1 million on such benefits for 86 part-time employees and politicians. County officials say the benefits are necessary as an incentive to draw better employees…
Read MoreBy Ryan McGeeney, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Only one fertilizer manufacturer in Arkansas currently reports storing both anhydrous ammonia and ammonium nitrate, the two chemical compounds thought to be responsible for the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, on April 17. Full story: http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=899415213 This story was published with help from IRE’s Total Newsroom Training
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