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An investigation by Christina Jewett and Agustin Armendariz of California Watch shows that 232 nursing homes in California “either cut staff, paid lower wages or let caregiver levels slip below a state-mandated minimum” despite collecting about $236 million in additional funding intended to hire more caregivers and increase wages. “Many nursing homes appeared to use…
Read MoreThrough analysis of Clean Air Act data kept by the Environmental Protection agency, The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Ind.) found government regulators have a list of more than 200 facilities in Indiana they say have broken air pollution laws in the past three years, yet little or nothing has been done to stop them. The…
Read MoreBy Doug Haddix, IRE Training Director When she gets e-mails and calls about controversial stories, Claudia Núñez of La Opinion in Los Angeles says some readers ask if she is working against Latinos, even though she herself is a Latina. Her curt reply: “No, I’m not. I’m a journalist.”[/caption] Often, immigrants expect ethnic media journalists to…
Read MoreLearn from many of the best journalists in the business at the IRE conference, June 10-13. The growing list of speakers includes, James Risen and Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times, Brian Ross of ABC News, Byron Pitts and Ira Rosen of 60 Minutes, Leonard Downie Jr. of The Washington Post and many more.…
Read MoreA report by Joshua Kors in The Nation explores the Army’s fraudulent use of personality disorder diagnoses to discharge soldiers, thus stripping them of their disability benefits and long term medical care. The article details the case of Chuck Luther who suffered a concussion during a mortar attack in May 2007. After reporting his symptoms,…
Read MoreAn investigation by Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein of ProPublica reveals how “the hedge fund Magnetar helped create mortgage-based securities, pushed for risky things to go inside them and then bet against the investments, resulting in billions in losses for investors and ultimately making the financial crisis worse.” The story can also be heard on…
Read MoreA collaboration by the five McClatchy newspapers in California examines how pension obligations are hurting local governments at a time of diminished resources throughout the state. “The initial logic of increasing retirement benefits to retain quality employees has been turned on its head: Paying for those benefits is forcing local governments to lay off employees…
Read MoreCongratulations to several IRE members who won Pulitzer Prizes today. Daniel Gilbert, who won the Public Service Pulitzer, also won an IRE Award this year. The Pulitzer committee wrote that Gilbert’s work illuminated “the murky mismanagement of natural-gas royalties owed to thousands of land owners in southwest Virginia, spurring remedial action by state lawmakers.” Gilbert,…
Read MoreHunter L. Gorinson, of The Hill Rag (Washington, D.C.), exposed how Sinclair Skinner, a politically connected subcontractor, bilked the city out hundreds of thousands of dollars in overcharges for contract work as a surveyor for a D.C. park renovation project. Skinner’s company, Liberty Engineering & Design (LEAD), is not even licensed to survey in the…
Read MoreRick Moriarty of The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) reports on abuses of loopholes in the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, a law meant to encourage development on contaminated property through tax credits for environmental cleanup. The developer of Destiny USA, a stalled shopping mall expansion project, could collect up to $54 million in tax breaks despite insignificant…
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