The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Blog
At the New Haven, Conn., Better Watchdog Workshop, Maurice Tamman of The Wall Street Journal shared his thoughts on why skills in computer-assisted reporting can help strengthen and legitimize a story. At the IRE workshop, which provides journalists with instruction on the tools needed to be better watchdog journalists, Tamman provided participants with an introduction…
Read MoreWorking off a report from Zillow.com stating that 29 percent of homes in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area sold at a loss during the final months of 2008, Karen Gaudette and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times extended the analysis and traced the depreciation trend back to 2005. They also compiled lists of the cities in Snohomish…
Read MoreNina Bernstein of The New York Times reports that, despite the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s January 2004 statement that its officers would focus their efforts on detaining illegal immigrants with criminal records, the agency changed its quotas to facilitate the capture of non-criminal illegal immigrants as well. By 2006, only 9 percent of those detained…
Read MoreAn investigation by The San Diego Union-Tribune has found that Elite Racing, a marathon promotion company, has received subsidies from the city of San Diego. According to the article, “The subsidies stem from a nonprofit charity that San Diego-based Elite Racing created that co-hosts the event. It allows the company to cash in on a…
Read MoreThe Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that ships carrying hundreds of millions of pounds of Chinese-manufactured drywall — enough to potentially construct more than 60,000 homes — unloaded their cargo at two dozen U.S. ports across the country since 2006. Some Chinese drywall, used to make interior walls, has now been linked to the near-complete corrosion of…
Read More“A Hearst Newspapers investigation has found dozens of cases over the past 20 years of local Boy Scout councils logging or selling prime woodlands to big timber interests, developers or others, turning quick money and often doing so instead of seeking ways to preserve such lands.” Since 1990, scouting councils have logged over 34,000 acres,…
Read MoreJuliet Eilperin of The Washington Post obtained memos from the Interior Department suggesting officials may have ignored the environmental risks of a plan to reduce water flow through the Grand Canyon at night when there is low demand for hydroelectric power. The department proceeded with the plan despite warnings that it would harm endangered species…
Read MoreAn investigation by Jake Bernstein and A.C. Thompson of ProPublica explores how small community banks around the country are failing after years of profiting off commercial real estate and development loans. Silver State Bank of Nevada was closed by the FDIC in September. “The bank made its biggest bets not on home mortgages, but on…
Read MoreAccording to a report in the Houston Chronicle, lobbyists spent more than $12 million in the last four years wining and dining Texas lawmakers and other state workers, including trips to pricey resorts across the country. Using lobby disclosure data, reporter Matt Stiles found that state senators and representatives had accepted at least $3.5 million…
Read MoreIn a two-part series, Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found a trail of phony businesses and child-care providers who were tapping into taxpayer subsidies for child care in Wisconsin. Rutledge reviewed thousands of pages of documents, and also obtained records from whistle-blowers that the county and state refused to release. Her findings revealed…
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