The early bird deadline for 
It's time for the NICAR 2026 T-shirt contest!
“Students in the region’s poorest neighborhoods are nearly twice as likely to have a new or second-year teacher as those in the wealthiest, a Washington Post analysis has found. The pattern means some of the neediest students attend schools that double as teacher training grounds.” University of Virginia economist James Wyckoff described this trend as…
Read MoreWendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker of the Philadelphia Daily News report that, “Again and again, supervisors in the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Field Unit signed off on cookie-cutter applications for search warrants, which are now the subject of an expanding FBI and police Internal Affairs Bureau investigation.” The article is part of “Tainted Justice,” a series…
Read MoreThe IRE Conference is quickly approaching! This year’s program offers essential tips, advice and strategies for investigating the biggest stories of the day, and we want as many people as possible to be able to attend. The conference hotel is the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, and it’s a great place to stay because you are able…
Read MoreTony Kennedy and Paul McEnroe of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis wrote a four-part narrative investigation, “The Informant,” to chronicle a public corruption probe of Minneapolis police. Federal agents and the Minneapolis Police Department launched the investigation in late 2006 after an informant’s tip alleging that police officers were providing gang leaders with confidential police…
Read MoreAbigail Goldman of the Las Vegas Sun explored the prevalence of direct-mail contests and sweepstakes that make big claims but use small type to disclose the odds of winning. According to the article, “These halfhearted disclosures make the contests perfectly legal and perfectly manipulative, at least according to consumer advocates, who argue that the schemes…
Read More“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants states to assess their own inspection programs, even after Georgia’s failed to prevent a salmonella outbreak traced to a Blakely peanut plant, exposing broad gaps in the nation’s food safety system,” according to an article by Alan Judd of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Food safety experts question the efficacy…
Read MoreJeff Donn, Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard of The Associated Press report that, “U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked.” The scant tracking by the federal government of pharmaceuticals released into waterways…
Read MoreEditor’s note: Brandon Stahl of the Duluth News-Tribune attended an IRE Regional Boot Camp at the University of Minnesota Oct. 6-10, 2008. He recently published his first CAR-driven story, which was about home assessments. Read below to find out how he got the story. (IRE and the City University of New York will be hosting…
Read MoreA Center for Public Integrity investigation found that for years lenders have pressured appraisers to inflate home values to obtain higher mortgages. The article by Joe Eaton states, “In addition, the Center has obtained copies of lenders’ ‘blacklists’ containing the names of thousands of appraisers; some appraisers say lenders used those lists to exclude those…
Read MoreThe Washington Post‘s Cheryl Thompson investigated one of the most controversial police shootings Washington, D.C., has had in decades. A chain of police missteps and oversights invite questions about the killing of 14-year-old DeOnté Rawlings. Thompson ultimately found a more ambiguous picture than the police, who cleared the two off-duty officers of any wrongdoing.
Read More