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Hundreds of Georgia schools are under investigation for cheating on state standardized tests. This week’s release of a state probe of erasure marks followed more than a year of stories by Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Heather Vogell and data analyst John Perry about suspect test scores.
Read MoreMoney from the 2009 stimulus bill to help support the renewable energy industry continues to flow overseas, despite Congressional criticism and calls for change, according to a new analysis of the program by the Investigative Reporting Workshop. The Workshop was the first to report last October that more than 80 percent of the first $1…
Read MoreMSNBC.com investigative reporter Bill Dedman revealed the influence of Todd Palin, the husband of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, during Palin’s time as governor. MSNBC.com staff combed through nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails to show Todd Palin involved in a judicial appointment, monitoring contract negotiations with a public employee union and passing “financial information marked…
Read More“Seniors for Sale“, a Seattle Times investigation, found that inside the state’s 2,843 adult family homes, thousands of vulnerable adults have been exploited by profiteers or harmed by amateur caregivers. With videos and searchable database, the three-day series by reporter Michael J. Berens also reveals how Washington has pushed out the poor from nursing homes…
Read MoreIn a pair of reports, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Mark Johnson and Meg Kissinger examined the overblown medical claims and misleading marketing strategies of China-based Beike Biotechnology, one of many overseas operations marketing experimental stem cell treatments to desperate American families. The two interviewed dozens of the top doctors and scientists in their respective fields…
Read MoreBy Mark Horvit IRE Executive Director IRE brought the Watchdog Workshop series to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in late January. A great mix of journalists from throughout the region gathered to discuss … well, rather than tell you about it, we’ll let some of the students who traveled to Birmingham for the workshops…
Read MoreWrestlers and real estate: Student investigation leads to probe of sales involving coaches, athletes
By Chris Ison University of Minnesota Even to seasoned reporters, long-term investigative projects look like mountains. The long climb will bring breaking news stories and beat duties that distract them, impatient editors who divert them, and months of digging that might turn up little to justify the time and expense. Combined, an exciting idea can…
Read MoreA joint investigation by the Chicago Tribune and journalism students at Columbia College Chicago casts doubts on a 2004 Chicago police shooting in which the officers were cleared just 10 hours after seriously wounding a man and a 13-year-old girl. Students dissected the crime scene and discovered that one of the shooters couldn’t have possibly…
Read MoreWith tight newsroom budgets, open-source software comes at the right price: free. This year’s Computer-Assisted Reporting conference March 11-14 in Phoenix offers several new hands-on classes: CrimeStat. Analyze crime incident locations with a free spatial statistics program. Flex free visualization software. Build Web applications with open-source software that works like Flash. Free mapping software. Can’t…
Read MoreAn investigation by Scripps Howard News Service sports editor John Lindsay found the National Football League has ramped up its campaign contributions and lobbying efforts, mainly trying to affect legislation on broadcasting rights and trying to preempt any move by Congress to intervene in a potential player lockout in 2011. The $3.148 million in lobbying…
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