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Students in a state-funded program that sends them from the city to suburban high schools are far less likely to attend top-tier colleges than are the suburban residents of the schools they attend, a study by The Boston Globe has found. Almost 90 percent of the students enrolled in the program go to college. But…
Read MoreA report by Steve Eder of The Toledo Blade shows the federal and state governments spend more than $800 million each year in Lucas County, Ohio, on programs for low-income residents. Even with the large infusions of cash, people working with the poor say they have grave concerns about the county’s readiness for aiding the…
Read MoreAs part of the Los Angeles Times’ continued coverage of the drug war in Mexico, Andrew Becker and Patrick J. McDonnell report on a new class of refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Law enforcement officers, business owners and journalists are increasingly trying to escape the violence and danger linked to Mexico’s drug war.…
Read MoreDozens of public and private schools opened in recent years in areas where government records show students could be exposed to air tainted by high levels of industrial pollution. While environmental regulations typically require builders to examine the effect that a structure might have on the surrounding ecosystem, in most states, school officials are not…
Read MoreThe success of a bilingual Better Watchdog Workshop in El Paso, Texas, may lead to additional workshops in Spanish later this year or in 2010. Highlights from the El Paso workshop are available on the IRE On the Road blog. If you have ideas about content, trainers or venues for additional bilingual workshops, please e-mail…
Read MoreVoice of San Diego reports that lawyers from a firm that has received millions of dollars in business from a public agency have, at least twice, helped the agency screen potential employees who later oversaw outside attorneys’ work.
Read MoreMore than 70 people gathered in the desert – presenters, students, border journalists of all ages and experiences — at the University of Texas El Paso for IRE’s first bilingual version of our Watchdog Workshop. The event included hands-on CAR training and lectures on topics including immigration, storytelling and organized crime by mostly bilingual presenters…
Read MoreA Chicago Tribune investigation raises serious questions about the rigor of safety standards for infant car seats. Thirty one such seats either flew off their bases or exceeded injury limits in a series of frontal crashes conducted by federal researchers using 2008 model year vehicles. The test results were never publicized. Car seat manufacturers question…
Read MorePresident Barack Obama’s former nominee to become commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, steered taxpayer money to his home state’s redevelopment of a former Air Force base even as he and his brother engaged in real estate deals there, an Associated Press investigation found. Gregg has collected at least $240,017 to $651,801 from his investments there,…
Read MoreJournalists who attended IRE and NICAR’s Mapping Boot Camp in January have wasted little time in putting their new skills to work. In early February, after a 3.0-magnitude earthquake rattled northern New Jersey, Bob Rebach of The Record in Bergen County, N.J., used GIS to map the locations of the region’s earthquakes since 1990. Rebach,…
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