The early bird deadline for 
It's time for the NICAR 2026 T-shirt contest!
“The water supply of more than two million Californians has been exposed to harmful levels of nitrates over the past 15 years,” according to a report by California Watch. Nitrates are the most common groundwater contaminant, and are a problem in both rural and city water systems. In 1980, nine wells in California exceeded accepted…
Read MoreEarly-bird registration has been extended until Tuesday, May 25 at 5p.m. (CT). Don’t delay, register today! To register visit the conference registration page. To find out the scoop on panels, speakers and special events, visit our conference page. Dozens of panels offering tips and techniques from reporters, producers, editors and news directors will be presented…
Read MoreIan Urbina, of The New York Times, reports that the “federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the…
Read MoreThis WXYZ-Detroit report exposed the tactics employed by officials in Wayne County, Michigan’s largest county to avoid releasing public information. The story featured a 20-year Wayne County official whose own requests for routine salary information were stonewalled, as well as unions whose requests were simply ignored, causing them to file suit. Legal fees for these requests are…
Read MoreJuliet Fletcher of the Press of Atlantic City (N.J.) reports that the number of reported stimulus-funded jobs have dropped in the state of New Jersey since they have stopped using estimates and are only reporting “jobs based on the actual employee hours paid for with recovery funds during each quarter.“
Read MoreBy Doug Haddix, IRE training director Every trainer will tell you that one of the joys of the job is learning from people you’re training. During recent custom training for The Associated Press in San Francisco, the group was talking about ways to avoid high copying fees for paper documents. After I suggested using a…
Read MoreBy Reyna Gobel and Margaret Engel Here’s a reminder to those attending this year’s IRE convention — don’t forget to sign up to be a mentor or a mentee. We did and lives changed as a result. Three years ago, we were matched by IRE and had breakfast in Phoenix during the annual conference. The…
Read MoreAccording to counter-terrorism officials, the “CIA received secret permission to attack a wider range of targets, including suspected militants whose names are not known, as part of a dramatic expansion of its campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan’s border region,” reports David S. Cloud of the Los Angeles Times. A vast majority of the over…
Read MoreBy Aron Pilhofer, The New York Times Our first go-around with lightning talks was so successful at NICAR that we’re bringing them to Vegas. The app is up, so go to it: http://ire.aronpilhofer.com What are lightning talks? For those unfamiliar, lightning talks are 5-minute presentations suggested by you, chosen by you, delivered by you. The…
Read MoreDuring the past three years, Maricopa County has paid more than $1.2 million to two private companies that shuttle county employees from parking lots to their office buildings in luxury buses, according to a three-month investigation by KNXV-Phoenix. Four 80-passenger tour buses run their routes every 15 minutes for 8 hours a day. “A review…
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