The early bird deadline for 
It's time for the NICAR 2026 T-shirt contest!
“A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal,” reports The New York Times. The documents were released online by WikiLeaks.org, but The New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and…
Read MoreIn Florida, convicted scammers and thieves are among workers selling unproven fixes and dubious diagnoses in the completely unregulated Chinese drywall “remediation” and inspection industry, a Palm Beach Post investigation found. A lack of state oversight makes dealing in drywall remedies a free-for-all for even the least qualified entrepreneurs, who are capitalizing on homeowner’s fears…
Read MoreIn a federal crackdown on the Latin Kings, a notorious street gang in Milwaukee, federal authorities had a chance to arrest a key gang leader wanted in connection with a homicide when he appeared at the county courthouse on a different case. But an investigation by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich revealed a startling…
Read MoreWhen it comes to using water, in Milwaukee the largest users do not have the largest homes or properties, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis by Ben Poston revealed. It’s the opposite: The biggest users are in the poorest census tracts in the city and are disproportionately minorities. Why? Those homes are more likely to have…
Read MoreCitations for safety and health violations by operators of underground coal mines have increased by nearly a third since 2006, with federal mine inspectors focusing about equally on three main types of mining hazards. An NPR analysis of nearly 80,000 citations written last year found that an accumulation of combustible coal dust was the most…
Read MoreDetroit Free Press investigative reporter Jennifer Dixon uncovered government documents showing that top executives at Synagro Technologies knew of questionable spending by underlings who paid bribes to win a $1.2-billion city contract in Detroit. The report noted that federal authorities prosecuted the two underlings, who now are in federal prison; but no executives with the…
Read MoreInstitutions for developmentally disabled New Yorkers have taken a new approach to care: locked units for people who officials say have had a brush with the law, according to an investigation by Mary Beth Pfeiffer of the Poughkeepsie Journal. In Part 2 of the ongoing series, “Money Pit/Money Makers” the newspaper revealed that the state…
Read MoreThe Washington Post’s “Top Secret America” series investigates the U.S. national security and intelligence system that is “so big, so complex and so hard to manage, no one really knows if it’s fulfilling its most important purpose: keeping its citizens safe.” The project, nearly two years in the making, includes detailed interactive graphics and maps.
Read MoreTake your CAR skills to the next level by learning how to uncover the “where” in your data, and receive a great deal on ArcView geographic system information system (GIS) software in this Aug. 13-15 bootcamp. Instructors Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica and David Herzog of NICAR will lead this intensive three-day session in Columbia, MO. …
Read MoreBy Doug Haddix, IRE training director Attorney Herschel Fink brandished a copy of a $400,000 check from the city of Detroit – payable to the Detroit Free Press for legal fees in a public records battle involving former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. While large, the payment didn’t cover the newspaper’s full costs in its aggressive investigation,…
Read More