The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Blog
The U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., has asked the Justice Department to appoint a special attorney to review convictions in the firefighters explosion case. The move was prompted by an investigation published in The Kansas City Star on Sunday in which witnesses said a federal investigator pressured them to lie and a new witness…
Read MoreNew Yorker’s Seymour Hersh reports that Congress agreed late last year to President Bush’s request to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran. Quoting current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources, Hersh said the funding is designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. He also quotes fired Admiral William Fallon, former head…
Read MoreTroy Anderson of the Los Angeles Daily News investigates widespread problems in California’s system of testing pregnant women for drug use. The drug screenings used in California’s hospitals are likely to return false positives. The poor implementation of the testing, originally designed to help crack babies and drug-dependent mothers, has resulted in families being torn…
Read MoreFifteen witnesses in a trial that led to the conviction of five people in the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters told The Kansas City Star that a federal investigator in the firefighters’ explosion case had pressured them to lie. Star projects reporter Mike McGraw conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed 30,000 pages of court…
Read MoreAdam Liptak of The New York Times reports that the “millionaire’s amendment” was struck down by the Supreme Court in a 5-to-4 decision on Thursday. “The law at issue in Thursday’s decision imposed special rules in races with candidates who finance their own campaigns. Those candidates are required to disclose more information, and their opponents…
Read MoreTipsheet and audio CDs from the 2008 IRE Annual Conference in Miami (June 5-8) are now available from the IRE Resource Center. Orders can be placed online or by contacting the Resource Center (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org). 2008 IRE Tipsheet Collection – $15, plus $5 shipping 2008 IRE Conference Audio (mp3 format) – $20, plus $5…
Read MoreIn a joint effort by NPR and the Center for Investigative Reporting, Peter Overby and Will Evans report on the efforts of nonprofits to influence the 2008 elections. “One network of liberal activist groups, Progress Now and its eight affiliates, is trying to shape the debate with a streamlined operation of small staff, low budgets…
Read MoreThrough Freedom of Information legislation, The Vancouver Sun obtained inspection data for more than 3,000 daycares, long-term care facilities and group homes for the disabled. They made the data — which had never been public before — available on the web through a series of searchable online databases. Analysis of the data revealed almost one…
Read MoreMackenzie Ryan, of the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times, recently looked into state salary earnings and found a state university contract incentive that pays professors for teaching online classes. Pay for these courses, taught in addition to their normal work load, is based on a on a per-student, per-credit bases which pushes some professors to earn…
Read MoreJohn O’Brien of The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) investigated a fatal friendly fire shooting by state police. For more than a year, top officials kept a lid on details about the killing of Trooper David Brinkerhoff. They avoided a grand jury and kept the trooper’s widow in the dark. The story reveals for the first time…
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