IRE Conference Blog
Investigating tax credits, subsidies and incentives
By Zachary Matson Each year local and state governments provide private companies with billions of dollars of tax credits, subsidies and other forms of incentives to mover or open new facilities in their communities. These deals are shrouded behind layers of quasi-public agencies, weak disclosure rules and secretive businesses, but rarely the economic benefits turn…
Read MoreThe 2013 IRE keynote speech: ‘Don’t abandon us’
Marcela Turati delivers IRE’s keynote address as board members David Cay Johnston and Andrew Donahue look on. Photo by Travis Hartman. As Mexican journalists become war reporters in their own country, Mexican journalist Marcela Turati of Proceso makes a plea to the investigative reporting community. Regions of Mexico are zones of silence. Citizens die every…
Read MoreESPN enterprise team leads sports investigation discussion at IRE 2013
T.J. Quinn leads discussion on “Performance Enhancing Drugs” as Michael Fish looks on. Photo: Travis Hartman. T.J. Quinn, Michael Fish, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steven Fainaru of ESPN’s enterprise team led panels at the IRE Conference on investigating crucial sports issues such as concussions and performance-enhancing drugs. ESPN’s Front Row section has a writeup on the conference, including thoughts on…
Read MoreToronto Star blogs at the 2013 IRE Conference
IRE board member and Toronto Star investigative reporter Robert Cribb blogged for The Star throughout the 2013 IRE Conference, covering a wide range of topics from panels on international investigations and the state of journalism overseas to helpful mobile phone applications. You can check out his blogs at The Star’s “The World Daily” section: When…
Read MoreGannett creates Tumblr for coverage of the IRE Conference
Gannett sent a stable of journalists to the IRE Conference last week in San Antonio and put many of them to work blogging about reporting tips, tools and ongoing issues in investigative reporting like the situation for journalists in Mexico. Gannett reporters posted writeups about sessions, links to helpful tools and and documents and data…
Read MoreInvestigating breaking news with records, data and compassion
By Zachary Matson and Gwen Girsdansky Some reporters love the opportunity to spend months or even years working on a story, taking the time to develop a stable of sources and marinate in thousands of pages of documents. Sometimes the news is not so cooperative. By its nature, breaking news is fraught with chaos and…
Read MoreA conversation with Lawrence Wright
// Texas-based author Lawrence Wright. Photo: Travis Hartman. Listen to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright discuss turning characters into donkeys, choosing his next project and working at his custom-built desk with his one-of-a-kind index card reporting system. Wright is a staff writer for the New Yorker and the Austin-Texas based author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda…
Read MoreDay three of the IRE Conference, in pictures
Day three of the IRE Conference was jam-packed with the IRE Awards Luncheon, a full slate of sessions, the IRE membership meeting and Board of Director elections. Six members were elected to the board. During the IRE Awards luncheon, IRE member Andy Hall detailed the situation in Wisconsin, in which the state government attempted to kick…
Read MoreGetting Past “No” when government pushes back
By Kathryn Sharkey “How many people in here have filed federal information requests … and how many of you have been told no?” The room, during the panel “Getting past ‘No’ when government pushes back” on Friday of the IRE Conference, was filled with raised hands and chuckles as Jack Gillum from the Associated Press…
Read MoreDay two of the IRE Conference, in pictures
Day two of the IRE Conference in San Antonio featured the event’s showcase panel, “The Government’s War on Leaks”. IRE board member Leonard Downie Jr. moderated a panel featuring Michael Oreskes of the Associated Press, Lucy Dalglish of the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, author James Bamford, and independent journalist Quinn Norton. The panelists discussed NSA…
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