The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
It’s once again time to enter the Philip Meyer Journalism Award contest. Entries are now being accepted online, through Nov. 20. Established in 2005, the award was created to honor Philip Meyer’s pioneering efforts to utilize social science research methods to foster better journalism. The contest recognizes stories that incorporate survey research, probabilities and other social…
Read MoreToday IRE is announcing a partnership with SmartProcure to provide IRE members discounted access to the largest government purchasing database. This database contains more than 237.79 million purchase orders from more than 10,000 local, state and federal government agencies in the U.S. This partnership means IRE members can receive a subscription to SmartProcure for $39…
Read MoreThe NICAR Data Library has updated the National Inventory of Dams (NID), a database kept by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on dams in all 50 states with details that include structure type, purpose, owner, most recent inspection date and inspection frequency. The data also include latitude and longitude. You can use these records to zero in…
Read MoreYou don’t want to have a run-in with a police dog in North Port, Florida. A year-long investigation by Michael Davidson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune found that North Port’s canines have been biting people at an alarming rate. And the dogs aren’t just drawing a little blood. Many of suspects on the receiving end of…
Read MoreAt the 2015 IRE Conference in Philadelphia, Scott Friedman, Keli Rabon, and Scott Zamost gave their best tips for convincing unsure or powerful sources to sit down for television interviews. Here are excerpts from the panel that outline their best pieces of advice. Scott Friedman, a Senior Investigative Reporter at NBC5/Dallas-Fort Worth, spells out his…
Read MoreNext week the NICAR database library will release the National Inventory of Dams (NID), a database that has been inaccessible for over a decade. For years the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied its release (citing “national security” reasons) until recently when it was posted online in a publicly available searchable (but not downloadable) table. IRE…
Read MoreWhat happens to immigrants convicted of sex crimes? The answer, Maria Sacchetti found out, is often unsettling. Her investigation for the Boston Globe revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was quietly releasing violent offenders back into the U.S. when their home countries wouldn’t take them. On this episode, Sacchetti talks about the reporting process…
Read MoreKnight Scholars attend a welcome lunch at the 2015 CAR Conference in Atlanta. College students at several historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are invited to apply for the Knight Scholarship to attend IRE’s data journalism and annual investigative reporting conferences. Scholarships will cover travel and registration for selected students. They also will receive mentorship…
Read MoreToday investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison in the country of Azerbaijan. According to one of Ismayilova’s employers, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Ismayilova was found guilty of embezzlement, tax evasion, abuse of power and running an illegal business. OCCRP reports that human rights groups believe Ismayilova’s conviction is…
Read MoreWith students across the country heading back to campus, we thought it was time to take a behind-the-scenes look at a student investigation. This week we’re talking to Megan Jula, a journalism student at Indiana University, about her reporting on the school’s mental health care services. Megan found that Indiana (and many other large public…
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