The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Blog
Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Paige St. John spent the past year investigating Florida’s property insurance crisis. Her work exposed companies that continued to sell policies when they had no way to pay claims and revealed company owners who demanded rate hikes while secretly siphoning profits from their struggling businesses. The series also revealed how insurers and…
Read MoreThe Washington Post‘s yearlong investigation documenting the way guns move through American society continues with an examination of the role U.S. gun dealers play in supplying Mexican drug cartels. The Post cracked the secrecy of the federal government’s gun-trace database and obtained the names of the top U.S. stores with the most guns traced back…
Read MoreAn investigation by Ellen Gabler of the Chicago Tribune has prompted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to review the safety of crib bumpers, which are popular baby products sold in stores throughout the country. The Tribune found that while the safety commission acknowledged it has gotten more than two dozen reports of infant deaths…
Read MoreMichael Berens, of The Seattle Times, uncovered the hidden cost of elder placement agencies that promise to match seniors to long-term care facilities – for free. Elder placement is a national multi-million dollar industry with no rules and zero oversight. Seniors are steered only to facilities that agree to pay hefty commissions. Most placement companies…
Read MoreA a four-part investigation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNSF) by the Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.) with ProPublica reveals a troubled railroad company. “Over the past decade, court records show, judges around the country have disciplined BNSF after finding that the company or its lawyers broke rules aimed at ensuring fair legal proceedings…
Read MoreBy Derek Willis IRE Member Hey there, journalism student! A bunch of your colleagues are having a get-together in February, and you should come. Actually, you need to be there. I’m talking about Investigative Reporters and Editors’ annual Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference, held in Raleigh, North Carolina. Several days of panels, hands-on training and talks with journalists from all kinds…
Read MoreInvestigative Reporters and Editors has joined the Society of Professional Journalists and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in asking administrators at Tarleton State University to stop barring instructors from assigning journalism students to request public records from the school. The University, part of the Texas A&M System, is enforcing a policy that…
Read MoreOver the past year, severe weather in the Washington D.C. area has led to frequent power outages, and called attention to the service of utility provider Pepco. “One of Pepco’s standard explanations for the frequency and duration of its outages — dense tree cover — does not hold up under scrutiny, a three-month Washington Post…
Read MoreA six-month Associated Press investigation uncovered massive problems with a popular State Department program designed to foster cultural understanding. Reporters Bert Mohr, Mitch Weiss and Mike Baker found that foreign students pay recruiters thousands to help find employment, then don’t get work or wind up making little or no money at menial jobs. Labor recruiters…
Read MoreReuters correspondent Scot Paltrow reports on Lender Processing Services, a Florida company that handles half of all foreclosures in the United States. A Reuters investigation shows the company’s legal woes are more serious than previously disclosed. “Public records reveal that the company’s LPS Default Solutions unit produced documents of dubious authenticity in far larger quantities…
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