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According to federal data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal, federal authorities had made no surprise inspections of deepwater oil rigs in the Gulf since 2004. Without surprise inspections, the chances of finding individual safety violations is greatly reduced. “In 2000, about one in nine inspections of deepwater facilities were unannounced, according to the Journal’s…
Read MoreAn analysis by Journal Sentinel reporters Meg Kissinger, Steve Schultze and Ben Poston has found two medical directors in charge of care at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex collected overtime totaling more than $300,000 at a time when federal inspectors twice declared patients there were unsafe. Overtime for Behavioral Health Division employees rose 42%…
Read MoreToxic air and school children. Deadly infections in hospitals. Dangerous care in nursing homes. Journalists tackled each of these issues last year with work that won the Philip Meyer Journalism Award. The award recognizes stories that incorporate survey research, probabilities and other social science tools in creative ways that lead to journalism vital to the…
Read MoreThere are new training videos are available on the IRE website, including free CAR training videos for IRE members. If you missed Tisha Thompson’s recent webinar that highlighted documents and data that will help you juice up your stories, it is available now. It’s only $5 for members ($10 for nonmembers). And IRE members have…
Read MoreAn investigation by The Dallas Morning News found that more than $16 million from a state fund to help high tech start-up firms has been awarded to companies that have investors or officers who are large campaign donors to Gov. Rick Perry. The News reviewed thousands of pages of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents,…
Read MoreDozens of publicly traded companies in Massachusetts misreported how much they paid their top executives to shareholders and regulators, the Boston Globe found in a review of company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 34 companies made 55 errors ranging from $20 to more than a half a million dollars. The Globe discovered the…
Read MoreAn investigation into the child porn industry by Isaac Wolf of Scripps Howard News Service has led to hundreds of American convictions, and those running the ring are now in jails in Eastern Europe. Wolf had unprecedented access to the backers of these porn sites. The investigation identified 30,000 customers of these sites in over…
Read MoreA program created by the federal government four decades ago to settle native land claims in Alaska has failed deliver on its promise to lift impoverished native Alaskans out of poverty. Though special privileges granted by Congress have launched Alaska native corporations into one of the great contracting booms in American history, a Washington Post…
Read MoreA two-part series by the Detroit Free Press found that “despite hundreds of oil and natural-gas pipeline accidents in the last decade, there are no federal regulations governing how far major pipelines should be from homes, or schools or businesses.” An interactive graphic show where oil and gas pipelines run through the state of…
Read MoreBy Doug Haddix, IRE training director Reporters should make one to three calls a day to sources whom they don’t need for a deadline story. That’s the most effective way to develop sources who’ll come through for you later with ideas and help, according to Ryan Gabrielson of California Watch. Gabrielson spoke during an IRE…
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