Candidates for Election
By Gwen Girsdansky Investigating a nonprofit often boils down to checking whether it is keeping its promises. What was the original mission statement when the nonprofit submitted its required tax form (known as the 990) to the Internal Revenue Service? Kendall Taggart from The Center for Investigative Reporting and Kris Hundley from the Tampa Bay…
Read MoreBy Kolten Parker Manny Garcia, of El Nuevo Herald, speaks during a panel entitled Investigating political shenanigans. Photo: Travis Hartman Journalists eager to scoop political scandals should get out of the office and state house and into the bar. A panel of three reporters with experience exposing political shenanigans shared advice and downplayed the notion…
Read MoreBy Jordan Gass-Poore’ Investigative journalists shared their under-the-gun experiences with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Thursday during the panel “Criminal justice: Guns” at this year’s IRE Conference in San Antonio. Ted Crest with the nonprofit organization Criminal Justice Journalists moderated the panel and provided national-level story ideas that reporters might…
Read MoreDay one of the IRE Conference featured the best apps for mobile reporting, the year overview in computer-assited reporting, updates on multiple Knight Foundation funded projects including CensusReporter, everyday databases, a series of training sessions by the Investigative News Network and much more. The Board of Directors held a meeting and attendees gathered at an…
Read MoreBy Perla Arellano There are many stories behind prison bars. Prison gangs, medical care, autopsy records, and flawed prison programs are just a few of the ideas offered at a panel sponsored by Criminal Justice Journalists. But getting access to the information inside prisons to build the story at some times may seem impossible. …
Read MoreBy Gwen Girsdansky IRE Board President David Cay Johnston and Paul Overberg from USA Today spoke about how to investigate income inequality on Friday at the IRE Conference. When researching trends, the speakers recommended looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, bank deposits (which are available for every bank branch in the United States), the…
Read MoreBy Gwen Girsdansky Reporters and editors from The Oklahoman, Newsday, CBS News and WFAA shared their secrets for covering disasters Friday at the 2013 IRE Conference. Paul Monies of The Oklahoman recommended having a “go bag” ready before a disaster strikes. Fill it with items like a full change of clothes for after a night…
Read More** 2018 update: Please read this blog post on additional free Tableau benefits for current IRE members ** Today IRE is announcing a partnership with Tableau Software, maker of Tableau Public, to provide Tableau Desktop free to IRE Members. This should provide tremendous value for IRE members, who can use Tableau Desktop to develop stories…
Read MoreBy Gwen Girsdansky Jeff Donn, from the Associated Press, speaks during a panel on investigating health care with data. Photo: Travis Hartman. A member of a national investigative team and a data editor shared how they negotiate health care coverage on Thursday. Jeff Donn of The Associated Press discussed his investigation into the abuse of the…
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