The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
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IRE will present two regional workshops this fall to help you get ready for Census 2010 data and learn how to use annual census surveys to produce compelling enterprise stories. The full-day workshops will be held Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C (full details and registration here) and Nov. 13 in Cincinnati, Ohio (full details and registration…
Read MoreA five-day series by The Columbus Dispatch explored the dangers of youth sports. “Little Leagues, Big Costs” found that youth sports are fraught with dangers because they lack uniform standards and oversight. Children are more susceptible than ever to injury, families spend thousands of dollars chasing elusive scholarships, and adults sometimes mar the experience with…
Read MoreAlison Young of USA Today reports that food safety watchdogs are critical of the U.S Department of Agriculture staff on site at the two Iowa egg processors linked to the recent egg recall. They “question whether USDA egg graders should have noticed the vermin problems cited by the FDA, potentially preventing the recall of a…
Read MorePolish your skills in computer-assisted reporting (CAR) and learn how to hold local businesses accountable with this free workshop in Atlanta, Oct. 11, co-presented by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). Even if you’ve never touched an Excel spreadsheet before, you will leave this hands-on workshop with the skills you…
Read MoreBy Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching at a computer-assisted reporting boot camp in San Diego. The class had been through spreadsheets and databases, and I was finally demonstrating how to deal with pdf’s. After showing some online options, I walked the class through my old stand-by: XPDF. If…
Read MoreA report by ProPublica’s Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger “shows for the first time the extent to which banks — primarily Merrill Lynch, but also Citigroup, UBS and others — bought their own products and cranked up an assembly line that otherwise should have flagged.” These banks dealt in collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs. A…
Read MoreReturn to your newsroom ready to craft statistics into stories that count! This workshop is aimed at strengthening the skills of reporters who already are familiar with basic computer-assisted reporting and want to add statistical analysis to their toolkits. Stats camp introduces attendees to SPSS, one of the most commonly used statistical analysis programs. Taught…
Read MoreAn investigation by The Palm Beach Post found that operators of nightclubs linked to sex trafficking by the FBI not only still are in business in Palm Beach County — they are expanding. The Post also found one of the clubs was issued a Florida liquor license only because regulators failed to identify its operator…
Read MoreA report in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reveals that the iconic stainless steel Gateway Arch is corroding. Reporter Nick Pistor reviewed engineering documents, which indicated corrosion, some of it feared aggressive, and severe discoloration of the stainless steel skin have long been present. The National Park Service allowed the newspaper to inspect a corrosion investigative…
Read MoreAudio from the 2010 IRE Conference (Las Vegas, Nev.) is now available for members to stream online. A DVD of the audio is available to order from the Resource Center. Conference attendees can obtain a copy for $5 (to cover shipping/handling). Additional copies can be ordered for $20 each. Members who did not attend the…
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